AEW WORLDS END

Uniondale, New York (Long Island)

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. KRIS STATLANDER (13:29): This was a good show. Most of the matches were at least entertaining, though the show probably suffered because the crowd wasn't that great plus there weren't any match-of-the-year contenders. It also didn't have any members of The Elite (Omega, The Bucks, and 'Hangman') on the show, which was a huge negative since almost every great match in AEW history has had one of them in it. This show got ripped apart by a lot of people online for whatever reason, but I enjoyed most of it. This pre-show match wasn't particular great, though. Willow tried to pick up Statlander and couldn't do it and dropped her. Finally she sort of got her up to slam her. So it was too sloppy, plus the sold out crowd was still filing in the building so the place was half empty. *1/2

BATTLE ROYALE (KILLSWITCH) (13:51): A lot of wrestlers weren't on this show for whatever reason. The Elite, Orange Cassidy, Penta, Brian Cage, Malakai Black, The Acclaimed, and FTR. You figured that, maybe, some of them would be in this Battle Royale for a TNT title shot. Nope. This was mostly the Rampage crew (Action Andretti, Lance Archer, Danhausen, Dalton Castle, etc.). It was entertaining, though nothing special. It did tie in to a match later on the show, though, which was good. Luchasaurus is now called Killswitch. I guess to get him away from the Jurassic Express thing? Jungle Boy is also just Jack Perry now, though who the hell knows what's going on with him since he hasn't been seen since he was suspended for getting in a fight with CM Punk at All In. Well Killswitch won and gets a TNT title shot whenever he wants...which would be later, sort of. **1/2

HOOK vs. WHEELER YUTA (10:18): This was for the FTW title, which means Fuck the World, though the announcers never say that. They used trash cans and a hockey stick in this match. It was entertaining. Hook is still doing the same thing he did two years ago but these days he's not as over as he was. Maybe, like, give him something more to do? 

BRYAN DANIELSON, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI, DANIEL GARCIA & MARK BRISCOE vs. BRODY KING, JAY LETHAL, JAY WHITE & RUSH (17:16): This was the first match on the regular show. All of these guys were in the Continental Classic tournament but didn't make the finals. The CC was a G1 type of tournament that was a big success. The only problem with the tournament was that a lot of big names weren't in it like MJF, Jericho, Somoa Joe, 'Hangman', Orange Cassidy, and 'Hangman.' The reason the G1 is so great is because all of the big stars are in it, even the champion. Plus, the winner of the CC doesn't get a title shot, which makes it fairly superfluous. This match was fun, but more just a typical Dynamite match. Matt Menard was on commentary and they had Brody King get in his face and then clock him. Now that's a match we all want to see! Menard vs. Brody King! Sigh. **1/2

MIRO vs. ANDRADE EL IDOLO (15:12): This was Andrade's last match in AEW, which we only learned afterwards. His contract is up and he's probably going to WWE. AEW never really pushed him for whatever reason. The only memorable thing he ever did in AEW was that flaming table spot on Dynamite with Cody. He's a great wrestler but he seemingly always wanted to leave and so they never pushed him. Miro will probably be gone soon, too, as he's also unhappy for whatever reason and is never pushed. The big deal in this match was that CJ Parker, Miro's wife, was Andrade's manager but turned on Andrade in this match. Shocking! Match was mostly a bore and pointless. *1/2

'TIMELESS' TONI STORM vs. RIHO (11:45): This Long Island crowd was pretty quiet for most of the night (they loved the Edge/Christian match, though) but they did pop for the entrances and for the big spots. Toni Storm always gets a big pop now that she has this weird, 'timeless' gimmick. I don't really get it, either. It's kind of amusing...but she's a good wrestler and when she wrestles now she does the gimmick instead. Riho, on the other hand, was obvious losing this match because she disappears from AEW for chunks at a time for unknown reasons. She was last in AEW in the Spring and I don't think she was hurt. Does she live in Japan? I give up. Match was okay. The women's division is kind of a mess these days. Storm retained the title. They actually did the TBS women's title match later...which makes no sense. I guess because they know the crowd gets tired late and they wanted this match to be hotter since it was for the more prestigious women's title? Who knows? **

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. DUSTIN RHODES (9:28): Keith Lee wasn't cleared to wrestle so for unknown reasons they put Dustin Rhodes in his spot. Hmmm. They seem to be pushing Swerve for a title shot so maybe they just wanted to give him a spot on the show regardless and a win to boot. Before the bell rang, Prince Nana put Dustin's leg on a cinderblock and Swerve jumped off the apron onto Dustin's leg and broke the cinderblock. That meant that Dustin was maimed and had to have a miraculous comeback in the match to survive. Considering his leg was apparently shattered, how did he still wrestle for ten minutes? The Keith Lee/Swerve match was supposed to happen in the Fall...of 2022! And they still can't get it done! 1/2*

CHRIS JERICHO, DARBY ALLIN, SAMMY GUEVARA & STING vs. BIG BILL, RICKY STARKS, KONOSUKE TAKESHITA & POWERHOUSE HOBBS (15:42): They were supposed to have a tag team title match between Omega & Jericho vs. Big Bill & Ricky Starks but Omega got diverticulitis (which killed boxing trainer Emanuel Stewart, so it's no joke). Instead they did this multi-man match. At least this got Sting and Darby on the show. Sting looked bad so it's good he's retiring. I thought Darby was climbing Mt. Everest? What happened? And Takeshita's push has seemingly evaporated. He beat Omega twice in one week and never got a title shot or big push out of that? Odd. Match was fun and action packed. The crowd loved every move Sting made. **1/2

JULIA HART vs. ABADON (11:57): Abadon is like a Halloween ghoul. It's a dumb gimmick. Nobody thought she'd win. She's not even a good wrestler. Julia Hart kind of botched her moonsault finish but landing on her feet. Skye Blue tried to interfere but was thwarted. Hart retained the TBS title. Hart has gotten better but she probably needs more ring work and a better opponent. 1/2*

ADAM COPELAND vs. CHRISTIAN CAGE "NO DQ MATCH"/ KILLSWITCH vs. ADAM COPELAND (25:00): This was the best match of the night. The crowd was super hot for pretty much every second of this. They chanted, "We want tables!" and then, "We want fire!" Funny, because they got fire. They did a flaming table spot that was kind of botched. Copeland lit a table at ringside on fire and power bombed Nick Wayne on it but Wayne kind of only hit the edge of it and the table flipped over instead of breaking. Still, I love a flaming table spot. They also battled in the crowd and Copeland jumped off a balcony. They also used chairs and a ladder. Christian did a Sunset Flip power bomb on Copeland off of the ladder. After Copeland won the TNT title, Killswitch came out to use his TNT title shot contract that he won earlier by winning the Battle Royal. Christian forced Killswitch to give him the title shot and ended up pinning Copeland to get the TNT title back. Entertaining, wild match. I thought the title switch was pretty creative to continue the feud. ***

EDDE KINGSTON vs. JON MOXLEY (17:16): Everyone online loved this match. I thought it was boring. Oh, well. This was the finals of the Continental Classic tournament. The winner got the ROH title, the NJPW Strong title, and the Continental title. The problem is that Kingston was already the ROH champ and the NJPW Strong champ. He relinquished those titles just to win a tournament and win them back. At least give the winner an AEW championship title match. Otherwise, what's the point of this tournament? *1/2

SOMOA JOE vs. MJF (17:52): I think one reason a lot of people didn't like this show was because the ending of the show was a total downer. MJF not only lost the title in his hometown, but Adam Cole, his best friend, turned on him and is a heel now. Happy New Year! MJF had his shoulder in a sling so the match was all about Joe destroying his shoulder. Somoa Joe did a sidewalk slam on the apron on MJF that looked brutal. Eventually, MJF tapped when he was in a submission. That ending was totally flat. At least do a pin when you change the title. This match was nowhere near as good as their match at Arthur Ashe stadium. It was decent, though nothing spectacular. Adam Cole was at ringside and on crutches. Once the ref got bumped and was out, MJF asked Cole for his ring to use to knock out Joe. Cole took too long fishing it out of his pocket and Joe grabbed Cole before he could use it. After MJF lost, the masked Demon thugs came in the ring. They grabbed Cole and MJF and were going to hit one of them with a chair. Both Cole and MJF screamed, "Hit me!" because they're friends and wanted to take the blow themselves and save their friend. The lights went out. When the lights came back on, Cole was sitting in a chair with the masked men standing behind him. Cole took the devil mask out of his coat. The masked men took off their masks to reveal The Kingdom, Roderick Strong, and Wardlow. They beat up MJF and Wardlow gave MJF a power bomb and the show ended. In the last few months, a mystery man with a devil mask was wreaking havoc and the big mystery was who is it? Everyone said it was Adam Cole. A few other guesses were Jack Perry, Britt Baker, or perhaps MJF. I thought it'd be Britt Baker because she's been gone for awhile and that'd be cool. The big problem was that usually a mystery is something the fans get invested in and it's a big deal and everyone can't wait for the reveal. After this show, everyone was like, "Well I'm glad that's over with and we can now move on." So nobody really cared too much about it. Plus, Adam Cole was everyone's choice so it wasn't really a shock or anything. The other problem with this is that Adam Cole is injured. He had surgery on his foot. He's in a cast. They won't be able to do Adam Cole vs. MJF until probably Double or Nothing at the earliest. MJF is also probably going to take time off to heal from his shoulder injury. So they set up a big feud that won't happen any time soon. With all that said, I did like the way they did the reveal. And at least the PPV ended with a status quo change and something fresh. And a heel Cole vs. a baby face MJF should be a really big match whenever it happens. So that's good. Maybe MJF will turn more of a heel as well since he'll be pissed off...because MJF was always better and more entertaining as a bad guy. We'll see. Next up is Revolution with Sting's retirement and presumably Swerve vs. Somoa Joe for the title. I'm really curious what they're going to do for Sting's last match. Just please don't make it a singles match. **1/2

ROH FINAL BATTLE

Garland, Texas

TAYA VALKYRIE vs. JAZMIN ALLURE (4:30): This was a 5 hour and 7 minute long show. Yikes! I suppose if you paid for it you got your money's worth. The show had some good matches but overall it wasn't anything special or anything. The very small crowd was at least pretty enthusiastic and loud for most of the matches, which helped. I guess only the super hardcore wrestling fans would even go to something like this, hence why they made a lot of noise and were into a lot the show. Ring of Honor does have a few wrestlers that are, supposedly, strictly ROH wrestlers. A lot of the others were just here to boost the superstar factor (Jon Moxley, Brian Danielson) and a lot of others seem to be in the AEW graveyard. Taya Valkyrie, Nyla Rose, and Keith Lee haven't been on AEW TV lately so they've seemingly been pushed into ROH because Tony and the writers don't know what else to do with them right now. Taya was brought in to be a big time opponent for Jade Cargill, who recently left for the WWE. Taya is now doing squash matches on the pre-show of a ROH PPV. Oh, well. There literally wasn't anything to this. 1/2*

THE VON ERICHS vs. THE OUTRUNNERS (6:10): The Von Erichs are the sons of one of the famous Von Erich wrestlers. The one who is still alive. The Von Erich's were famous wrestlers but I never saw them because as far as I can tell they were never in WWE or WCW and I doubt any Texas wrestling was on TV in Pennsylvania when I was a kid watching wrestling. There's a new movie coming out called The Iron Claw about the Von Erich's. I guess that's why they were on this show and on Rampage (which aired at the same time as this show). This was another forgettable match. No one looked particularly good. 1/2*

BRYAN KEITH vs. JACK CARTWHEEL (7:14): Jack Cartwheel is awesome. He's pretty much just a modern RVD. Too bad his name is horrendous, albeit apt. I always wonder about when someone picks a name, like say a band picks a name. Don't you want to envision that name being the headliner at a big stadium? There's so many stupid band names and you have to wonder if they thought about, well, what if we get famous and have this stupid name? What if Jack Cartwheel headlined Wrestlemania? No one can imagine the main event of Wrestlemania being so-and-so vs. Jack Cartwheel because it's a stupid, comedy name. Change it to Jack C. or J.C. or something. It's probably why AEW or any big company hasn't signed him. Too bad, because he's super athletic and super exciting. He also lost here, which made no sense, as the winner got to be in the Survival of the Fittest match later on. ***

DANIEL GARCIA vs. BLAKE CHRISTIAN (12:16): This was a fun, exciting match. The fans really like Garcia and he's a good wrestler. Will he ever be pushed to a bigger stage, though? Probably not, which is a shame. **1/2

EL HIJO DEL VIKINGO vs. BLACK TAURUS (16:29): Black Taurus has one of the coolest looks in wrestling. He wears a Minotaur mask with the ringed nose and horns. He looks menacing as hell, and is a big, thick dude who does a bunch of power moves plus some high flying. Both of these guys are in AAA, although you wouldn't know that since Vikingo is on Rampage every week. While this was a really good match with a lot of big moves...the problem was that Taurus beat the living shit out of Vikingo non-stop. It was kind of ridiculous. **1/2

THE MOGUL EMBASSY vs. TMDK (12:03): The Gates of Agony, the tag team, were just in New Japan's tag team tournament. I didn't watch any of those shows so I have no idea how they did. Brian Cage was probably the star in this anyway. He's another guy that's kind of been sent to the purgatory of ROH for no apparent reason. I remember a few year's ago his wife bitched online that he wasn't being pushed. That made me think he would quit...but he's still here, being used sparingly, I guess just happy he's getting paid for not wrestling a lot. TMDK is Zack Sabre, Jr.'s stable. Without Zack, though, they're mostly a bunch of scrubs. The match was entertaining at least. **1/2

ETHAN PAGE vs. TONY NEESE "I QUIT MATCH" (20:05): Mark Sterling, Neese's manager, had to be handcuffed to the post for this match for unknown reasons. Of course he got out anyway after a while. Page did a cool Diamond Cutter off the apron through two tables at ringside. Page ended up handcuffed at one point. They used a 45 pound weight and steel chairs to hit each other. Neese quit when Page was choking him with the handcuffs. Pretty entertaining match. **1/2

NYLA ROSE vs. VERTIVIXEN (2:41): This was a squash. Nothing to see here. -No Stars-

KYLE FLETCHER vs. BRYAN KEITH vs. DALTON CASTLE vs. KOMMANDER vs. LEE JOHNSON vs. LEE MORIARTY "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST MATCH" (25:54) This was an elimination match for the TV title. Somoa Joe relinquished the title for no reason. By the end of this match, when Fletcher and Kommander were trading devastating, wild moves to each other, the place was going ape shit. The crowd also loved everything Dalton Castle did. Castle was being tossed out of the ring by everyone constantly so when he finally reversed Fletcher and tossed him out the place went crazy and Castle walked around like he won the title. That was funny. Kommander did all of his insane high flying, rope walk stuff which was great as usual. This was the best match on the show. Very entertaining. ***

WHEELER YUTA vs. TOM LAWLOR (13:11): Yawn. These Pure matches without Shibata are always dull. And the ending was kind of anti-climatic and came out of nowhere. Yuta retained the Pure title. 1/2*

KEITH LEE vs. SHANE TAYLOR (14:40): I thought this would be better, as Shane Taylor is actually, usually in pretty good matches. They did some big, surprising, devastating moves which were cool, though, including a top rope flip into a Canadian Destroyer that was wild. Maybe because they're both big and slow it didn't work, as having one small, fast guy against a big, slow guy would work better. It was decent but I just expected something better. **

BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB vs. FTR & MARK BRISCOE (29:37): These guys wrestled for 18 minutes and were brawling by the stage when they were all counted out. Mark Briscoe took the mic and said that he wanted to continue because this match was in honor of his late brother. They continued the match as a hardcore, no rules match. Mark Briscoe was tossed off the top rope onto a barbed wire ladder. Dax gave Moxley a pile driver through a thumbtack covered table. And Moxley used a fork to get everyone to bleed. I figured with all these big names this would have been the main event. Maybe it should have been. It was entertaining but probably too long. They should have just started with the hardcore stuff. ***

EDDIE KINGSTON vs. ANTHONY HENRY (5:45): Kingston was the ROH champ...but for no good reason they let the winner of AEW's Continental Classic tournament be the ROH champ. No, I don't understand that, either. Henry is in The Workhorsemen tag team. No, I don't know why this match was on this show. It wasn't even good. 1/2*

ATHENA vs. BILLIE STARKZ (28:30): Starkz is 19 but looks 30. She's decent though obviously a little green. Athena retained the title. This is the 2nd straight ROH PPV with an Athena main event for the title. The last one was better. This started kind of slow and was boring in parts. The crowd was into this match which was shocking considering the show was 5 hours long. By the end with the near falls and the ref bump and everything it was fairly dramatic and exciting. The next ROH PPV should be in Philly because Wrestlemania is there in April. I'm wondering if they'll do it at the Liacouras Center or maybe the ECW Arena. Maybe I'd actually go...though I doubt I could talk anyone into going to a 5 hour wrestling show. **1/2

WWE SURVIVOR SERIES

 

Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois

BECKY LYNCH, CHARLOTTE FLAIR, BIANCA BELAIR & SHOTZI vs. DAMAGE CTRL (ASUKA, BAYLEY, IYO SKY & KAIRI SANE) "WAR GAMES MATCH" (33:36): The big news coming out of this show was the return of CM Punk. Since this show was in Chicago (I guess Rosemont is a suburb or something), that makes sense to debut him here. It was a surprise that his return wasn't leaked. The big surprise, at least to me, is that the WWE even brought him back. In AEW, he was in two backstage fights in less than a year. He was suspended for the first fight and fired for the second one. Why would a wrestling company hire a guy who was just reprimanded for being in two fights backstage with other wrestlers in another wrestling company? CM Punk is a big star, so you could get bigger ratings, more merchandise sales, and higher attendance from bringing him in...but the WWE is already "hot" and making tons of money, so they don't really need any of those things right now. Is bringing in a problem wrestler worth that? The other surprise is that CM Punk quit the company because he disliked working there. Later on, the WWE sued him when he went on Colt Cabana's podcast and disparaged a WWE doctor. Supposedly, the WWE sent him the paper work about suing him on his wedding day. So it's a little strange that he would even want to come back. I guess with Vince McMahon mostly out of the picture, plus them probably giving him a huge contract, he felt it was okay to return. There was also probably him wanting to get revenge on AEW because they fired him. Going to a rival company was perhaps his way to stick it to AEW. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how this all works out...as he seemingly made enemies in AEW with a ton of people for, honestly, no good reason. CM Punk seems to be just a bitter old asshole these days, unable to work with people that don't see his way and try to work with people instead of against them. The other thing is...he had two major injuries in AEW that sidelined him for long periods of time. Will his brittle body even stand up for a long run? They're probably paying him a ton of money...what happens when he gets injured and is gone for Wrestlemania or whatever big program they've got planned? It certainly makes things interesting...which I guess is why they made the gamble to bring him in. As for this show and this match? Wait, there was a show and matches? The show was mostly entertaining, though nothing special. That seems to be the norm these days with the WWE, which is why I'm totally baffled as to why it's so "hot" and so popular now. I mean...when was the last time they put on a match as good as 'Hangman' Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland from last weekend? It's been a while. Are their storylines any good? The Bloodline storyline seems to have grown stale and run its course. These WWE crowds love mediocrity, though. Case in point: the fans feverishly chanting for The Miz when he was getting near falls against Gunther. Why, God, why? At least it's pretty hard to mess up a War Games match. I kind of wish they had separated War Games and Survivor Series. Calling the PPV both names makes no sense. Survivor Series kind of fell apart anyway, and became more just a name of a show more than anything. The 4 on 4 elimination matches have been totally forgotten. When done well, those usually work. For a while they were doing Smackdown vs. RAW matches, which was never a good idea, especially because the wrestlers all wore those stupid blue and red t-shirts. Plus...who the fuck cares about RAW vs. Smackdown? It's the same company. This show also didn't feature either championship on the show, nor was Roman Reigns there. I actually probably enjoyed this women's War Games match better than the men's. One reason is that the spot of the night was Iyo Skye putting a trash can on her head and jumping from the top rope down onto everybody. The other reason is that one War Games match is enough. There's really nothing more to see after you've already watched one. This match was sloppy in spots, plus the babyface team made no logical sense in terms of cohesion. Aren't Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair rivals? Usually, War Games is 5 on 5. This was 4 on 4 even though Damage CTRL's Dakota Kai was at ringside. They couldn't have just thrown another babyface in the match and have it 5 on 5? The one thing good about this show, at least early on, was the super hot crowd. Chicago is always an awesome wrestling PPV crowd. They chanted like this was the match of the century. They also booed when wrestlers were pulling Singapore canes and chairs from under the ring instead of tables. This was an entertaining match. **1/2

GUNTHER vs. THE MIZ (12:20): This was an entertaining match because it was back and forth instead of a beat down. Granted, it should have been a beat down, though. Why is The Miz going toe to toe with the monster? That makes no sense. And why is The Miz a good guy now? He's been a prick for years...why are they cheering him? Is the WWE audience that dumb? I mean...they cheer for LA Knight, too, so there's your answer. And why wasn't he on this show? Isn't he their big star these days? The Miz kicked Gunther in the balls at one point when the ref wasn't looking. The Miz got a near fall after that which got the crowd in a frenzy. The crowd was so hot for this match it definitely made this better. Gunther is also one of, if not the, best wrestlers in the WWE, so that helped. They do have to get someone to beat him for the IC title eventually. You would think they would do that by getting a new guy to beat him to make him a star. Someone like...Dragon Lee. Wait...he lost the next match. **1/2

SANTOS ESCOBAR vs. DRAGON LEE (8:20): Carlito was supposed to be in this match. Dragon Lee replaced him for no apparent reason. Supposedly, Dragon Lee had an awesome match on Smackdown last week. They said that the WWE actually let him be, shock, Dragon Lee, and because of that the match was awesome. Well way to go with his push, as he lost fairly quickly and easily here. Dragon Lee did get to do his famous Hurricanrana to Santos off the apron to the floor. He definitely is a watered down version of the Dragon Lee we all used to love, though. And why wasn't Ricochet in the War Games match? Hell, why wasn't Dragon Lee? You should put your best high fliers in that match. Santos is a heel now and set up to feud with Mysterio, so that's why he had to win. Oh, well. **

RHEA RIPLEY vs. ZOEY STARK (9:15): This was the one complete dud on the show. Even the super hot crowd went silent for this bore. They did a top rope arm drag spot that looked botched. After that, Zoey looked woozy and looked like she injured her arm. Rhea has been the champ since 'Mania. Has she even had one good feud or one good match during her reign? Give her something besides babysitting Dominik. -No Stars-

CODY RHODES, JEY USO, RANDY ORTON, SAMI ZAYN & SETH ROLLINS vs. DREW McINTYRE & THE JUDGMENT DAY (DOMINIK MYSTERIO, FINN BALOR, DAMIAN PRIEST & JD McDONAGH) "WAR GAMES MATCH" (34:22): They're still playing up the fact that Jey Uso was a heel forever. That's why Drew McIntyre joined the heel team, to get revenge on Jey who cost him the title in...wait for it...August 2022. And when Randy Orton entered the match he was about to go after Jey when Jey super kicked someone about to attack Orton. Orton has been injured for over a year. They set it up where he didn't show up for the match until a few minutes after he would be the last man to enter the cage. Before Orton returned, Rhea Ripley ran out with the MITB contract case. Apparently, Damian Priest was going to use it to beat Seth Rollins for the title. This was after the heels put Rollins through a table. Orton's music hit and the MITB contract wasn't used. As for the rest of this match...it was a typical War Games match. They didn't do anything new or unique...unlike AEW, which this year used a bed of nails in their Blood & Guts match (which is, technically, a real War Games match because there's a roof to the cage). Granted, the WWE isn't allowed to do any kind of blood or real violence, so they're stuck with using canes and chairs and trash cans, which can get old and has. Cody Rhodes pulled out a bull rope, which I guess was something new, though not particularly something exciting. Nobody jumped off the cage, though they did throw JD McDonagh off the top of the cage and down in front of Randy Orton who gave him a mid-air RKO. The crowd loved that spot. Sami was very over in the match, which just made me sad considering they didn't give him the title earlier this year when it made all the sense in the world. The good guys won this match then CM Punk's music hit. CM Punk didn't do anything but stand there for a while until the show ended. That was kind of odd. I guess they just want to save his first mic work for RAW. I would say it'd be funny if he ends up getting some boo's when he's not in Chicago...but these WWE crowds haven't really done that sort of thing lately. They're safe, contained. And that's how the WWE feels these days. That edge is missing, that hint of danger, of excitement. Now it just feels like a corporate shell, which it is. Will adding the semi-crazy, backstage brawling, wildcard CM Punk change that? I hope so. Maybe I'll actually start loving this product again. **1/2

AEW FULL GEAR

Kia Forum in Los Angeles

EDDIE KINGSTON vs. JAY LETHAL (10:53): Since AEW added the new 2-hour weekly TV show, Collision, AEW TV has gotten watered down. Instead of having a great weekly show with Dynamite, now they have two just-okay TV shows. It was kind of obvious that would happen, as you can't possibly put on 5 hours of awesome wrestling TV every week. This happened with the WWE as well...so much so I barely watch any of it anymore because it's mostly just filler. The one thing that hasn't suffered so far is the great AEW PPV's. This will unfortunately probably change, too, as now they're putting on more PPV's every year. This year they'll be doing 8 when the last few years they had 4. So far it hasn't happened, but this show was not as good as the last 3 PPV's they had. While this was a good, entertaining show, the big problem was that the main event wasn't any good. That wasn't really a shock, though, as Jay White is always in boring matches. The pre-show started with an ROH title match in an arena that was still filling up with fans. This probably tells you something about the ROH title. I do kind of wonder who the hell actually subscribes to the ROH streaming service. Probably no one, as they announced that subscribers will now get the next ROH PPV as part of their $9.99 subscription when before they weren't. They didn't say if every PPV going forward will be part of the service, though. Mostly because this match was in front of an audience still filing into the building, it wasn't very impressive. It was okay. *1/2

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. BUDDY MATTHEWS (10:28): I remember Buddy Matthews on 205Live looking so awesome I kept wondering when someone would push him. Sadly, AEW hasn't really pushed him either. Mostly he's been in tag team matches as part of The House of Black. When he does have a singles match like this one, he looks good but not as great as I thought he might turn out to be. Was I wrong about him? Maybe. Match was decent but nothing special. **

MJF & SOMOA JOE vs. THE GUNNS (9:26): If you're the tag team champs you can just, like, substitute wrestlers? Aren't there, like, rules? Adam Cole and MJF are still the ROH tag team champs...but for some reason they just let Somoa Joe take Cole's place here because Cole is injured. The catch was that if MJF agreed to have Somoa Joe be his partner in this match then MJF would have to give Joe a title shot in the future. Because of that stipulation, it kind of made it obvious that Jay White wasn't winning the title (not that anyone on Earth thought Jay White was winning the title). The crowd was really into everything Somoa Joe did in this match. Maybe they should give Joe the title. They might...as MJF beat Joe in a title match at Grand Slam in September. Why else would they do a re-match again months later? There wasn't much to this but it was a lot of fun. **1/2

ADAM COPELAND, STING & DARBY ALLIN vs. CHRISTIAN CAGE, LUCHASAURUS & NICK WAYNE (15:10): I was kind of surprised this went on first after the pre-show because it seemed like such a big match would go on later. Ric Flair came out because he's apparently going to attend every Sting match until Sting's retirement in March. This was kind of just a basic Dynamite match. Darby took some brutal moves, though, including being choke slammed from the ring onto the apron by Luchasaurus. Ric Flair did end up involved when he punched and chopped Christian and then Christian gave him a low blow. Adam Copeland got some big pops when he did a few moves like the spear. The crowd seemed to be mostly into Adam Copeland vs. Christian, which they teased but never really delivered much of. Entertaining match. **1/2

ORANGE CASSIDY vs. JON MOXLEY (12:04): This was not as good as their All In match. That was a PPV main event, though, so of course it wasn't. Moxley doesn't lose clean very often but he did here after a bunch of Orange punches. When Moxley lost the International title to Rey Fenix, it was only because Moxley got a concussion and they changed the finish. I guess they also changed future plans, as Moxley's reign didn't last long and ended up staying that way. This was very hard hitting and, of course, Moxley was bleeding. **1/2

TONI STORM vs. HIKARU SHIDA (10:25): The crowd popped big when 'Timeless' Toni Storm came out. Her new character is being a silent movie star from Hollywood. Don't ask. It's super cheesy and super stupid but I guess people enjoy the camp nature of it. The announcer, Nigel McGuinness, noted that Toni Storm tried to get him to buy war bonds. That was funny. As much as the crowds like her new gimmick, it doesn't mean they want to watch her wrestling. The crowd was pretty quiet during the actual wrestling part, which was mediocre. They popped when Shida used a Singapore Cane to hit Toni's manager at ringside. Toni Storm put a metal plate in her trunks and hit Shida in the corner with a hip attack. It was so obvious she had a metal plate in her ass that it was laughable that the ref didn't say something. Toni won the women's title here. *

BIG BILL & RICKY STARKS vs. FTR vs. BRODY KING & MALAKAI BLACK vs. DRALISTICO & RUSH "LADDER MATCH" (20:09): This was pretty crazy and wild and very entertaining. The big move in this was Brody King giving Dralistico a Gonza Bomb onto a ladder bridge. That's basically a slam into a pile driver. That looked sick. Cash Wheeler then jumped off the top rope onto one of his opponent's onto the same ladder bridge. Those were the two big spots. They all did pretty much everything else you can think of in a ladder match. Dax Harwood suplexed Ricky Starks from the top rope down onto everyone at ring side. Dax put his head in the ladder and spun it around, hitting everyone. Big Bill and Starks retained the tag team titles. Why they're the tag team champs when they're not even really a tag team is beyond me. This was a good match and the second best on the show. I really do hope they start putting Malaki Black in main event singles match soon, though. Not that he looked great in this match or anything, but just because he seems kind of lost in the AEW shuffle. ***

JULIA HART vs. KRIS STATLANDER vs. SKYE BLUE (11:22): Julia Hart won the TBS title here. They've been pushing her lately so that's not a surprise. It's not a surprise that the crowds like her, either, as she's a 21 year old blonde cheerleader. Or...was a cheerleader. I think she was a college gymnist, too. She's definitely improved in the ring, although Statlander is one of the more accomplished women's wrestlers in AEW. Skye Blue is a better wrestler than Hart, too. This was decent, though nothing special. The crowd popped for a few moves here and there like Skye Blue's flip power bomb and Hart's moonsault. Hart kind of stole the win by tossing Statlander off Blue when she was about to pin her and pinning Blue herself. **

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE "TEXAS DEATH MATCH" (29:46): Now this was something. This was the kind of match that you have your eyes glued to the TV for 30 minutes. You gasp, you laugh at the insanity, you're completely transfixed and compelled. The only thing they did new in this was use a staple gun. Everything else they've done before; a cinderblock, glass, barbed wire, a barbed wire chair, and a barbed wire table were used. While the glass and barbed wire were fake, this was still brutal as hell and a complete bloodbath. It was hard to watch in spots. Every few minutes these two did something that was just bonkers that got the crowd to gasp in horror. Page ran out before his music even hit to beat up Strickland and give him a Buckshot Lariat. Page pulled out a staple gun and started to staple Strickland's chest and arms...at one point stapling Page's child's drawing on a piece of a paper to Strickland's cheek. This was because on Dynamite recently, Swerve had went to Page's house and filmed himself looking at Page's kid in a crib and ripping up his kid's drawing that was on the fridge. The most unique scene was when Strickland was busted open and Page leaned down and opened his mouth and drank Strickland's blood that was pouring down into Page's open mouth. That was so grotesque and the crowd went ape shit for that. I would probably go all night just writing about the various, sadistic things they did. At one point, Page was sitting on the top rope and Swerve hit Page in the back with a barbed wire wrapped chair and one barbed wire strand got loose and got stuck across Page's face. Swerve gave Page a slam onto a concrete block on the apron, then later smashed a concrete black against the back of his head at ringside. Page gave Prince Nana (who is now so famous because of his hilarious dance that Swerve's entrance featured dancing girls doing the Nana dance) a Dead Eye from the apron through a table. Page gave Strickland a top rope flip slam through a barbed wire table set up on two chairs. Swerve, at one point, stapled his own chest with the stape gun while grinning in his crimson mask. Swerve gave Page a pile driver while both were standing on the ringside barrier between the crowd and ring. Both men ended up wrapping themselves in barbed wire at one point. Even Brian Cage came down to interfere and Page wrapped him in barbed wire and gave him a Buckshot Lariot. Swerve took out a bag of glass and poured it onto Page's back then did a 450 from the top rope down onto Page. This was just a crazy, chaotic, wild, eyes-glued-to-the-TV, edge-of-your-seat, supremely entertaining match. The entire mat was covered with blood. The announcers were yelling that blood was splattering them. Swerve ended up choking out and hanging Page with a chain to win. This was the same way that Page beat Moxley in their Texas Death match earlier this year. Fuck...this was a memorable match. One of the best of the year for sure, and definitely a match you won't forget. ****

KENNY OMEGA & CHRIS JERICHO vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (20:52): Jesus...good luck following that. After ten minutes or so these four finally got the audience back and the audience chanted, "This is awesome!" This was, in the end, a very entertaining match. The story is that the Bucks have gone heel. On Dynamite they faced Penta and Kommander and used a low blow to start their heel turn. Here they played up being heels. Does this mean that Adam Cole will also turn heel and finally join them? If you remember, the Bucks, Omega, and Cole were all in a heel group in NJPW. Everyone kind of figures Cole will turn heel to win the title from MJF. And the storyline of the masked devil seems to lead to Britt Baker being behind the mask, since she's been off TV for no good reason lately. By the end of this match, when everyone was delivering big moves and the Bucks were doing high dives and super kicks non stop, this was fantastic. Omega and Jericho win, which means they don't have to break up as a tag team and they get the tag team title match that the Bucks had previously won at Wrestledream. ***

MJF vs. JAY WHITE (29:44): After MJF and Somoa Joe retained the ROH tag titles on the pre-show, The Guns beat up MJF and used a chair to damage MJF's knee. MJF was stretchered out and left in an ambulance. Adam Cole, on crutches, took MJF's place in this match. Then we heard an ambulance siren and backstage, MJF was driving the ambulance back into the building. I'm not entirely sure why they did this injury angle. I think it was because no one actually thought Jay White was winning the title so they did something to kind of give people some doubt. The problem with this storyline is that you had an injured, hobbling MJF work a 30 minute match. That might've worked if it was, say, 15 minutes. But the entire match had MJF crippled and yelling in pain and miraculously doing savior moves. That gets old after a while. At one point, MJF was supposed to do a top rope elbow drop onto Jay White on the announce table. That would've been cool...except the table broke when he put Jay White on the table. He did the move anyway, doing a top rope elbow drop down onto Jay White who was laying on the ground. Adam Cole tried to hit Jay White with the ROH tag title but Jay White grabbed the title and hit MJF with it when the ref wasn't looking. That got a near fall. Jay White put MJF in a leg lock submission and Cole was holding a towel ready to throw it into the ring but MJF reversed it. There was a ref bump. Cole tried to give MJF a ring to punch Jay White but White grabbed the ring. Eventually MJF got the ring and punched Jay White and the ref woke up and MJF won. While they over booked the fuck out of this main event, none of that was a problem for me. The ref bump and interference and Cole being there was all entertaining. The actual wrestling was boring. The match was mostly dull. If they had just done a regular match with MJF not being injured...would this have been better? Probably not, as Jay White is consistently in boring matches. He's in so many boring matches that I literally can remember every time he was in a good match. That Juice Robinson match in Long Beach. That short Okada Tokyo Dome match. That 45 minute Ibushi Tokyo Dome main event. And that 58 minute tag team match on Collision earlier this year. Usually he's in dreadfully dull matches. This was a good PPV with a dull main event. Oh, well. You kind of don't want to end the show that way...but at least Jay White isn't the champion. *1/2

WWE CROWN JEWEL

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

SAMI ZAYN vs. JD McDONAGH (9:40): Another show in a country that bans homosexuality, alcohol, porn, and women's bodies. Nice! How are we living in a world this far into human civilization where a rotten, horrible, prison-like place exists? You got me. And yet...money talks, so everyone goes there. Tyson Fury, the heavyweight boxing champ, just had a PPV in Saudi Arabia last week. Logan Paul had a boxing PPV there a few weeks ago. They're also getting the soccer World Cup in the future. I give up. So there was a wrestling show! I suppose I could protest and not watch this show. I certainly didn't pay for it, though I do pay for Comcast, which showed it on Peacock. It makes me sad that we live in a world where sex and nudity is still taboo, quasi-criminal, abhorent, only to live behind closed doors in dark shadows. How did we get to this point? It kind of makes me angry. Porn is a billion dollar business. Everyone thinks about sex all day long all the time. Why is still this weird, not talked about thing on the margins? Saudi Arabia makes women cover up their bodies in public so the women wrestler's had to all wrestle in full body suits. At least they let Sami Zayn into the country. He was previously banned because his family is from Syria. This was the pre-show match. The crowd loved Sami...which makes me wonder why he was ever banned in the first place. I only saw two females in the crowd, and both were younger girls wearing those hijabs on their head and the one covered her face with her phone when the camera was on her. I'm surprised they let women have phones. There wasn't much to this match. JD McDonagh is in a storyline where he's a sort-of member of The Judgment Day. Was he ever even a good wrestler, though? He's as dry as white toast. 1/2*

SETH ROLLINS vs. DREW McINTYRE (18:20): This was by far the best match on the show. It had good, back and forth action, a ton of near-falls at the end, and a super hot crowd. You can't really ask for anything more than that. I'd really love to see Seth Rollins in AEW where he could actually spread his wings a bit because he's a phenomenal wrestler and he's kind of handcuffed a bit in WWE. Rollins retained his title, which is a pretty meaningless title considering the other title holder, Roman Reigns, has been champ for over 3 years and is the king of WWE. ***

RHEA RIPLEY vs. NIA JAX vs. RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ vs. SHAYNA BASZLER vs. ZOEY STARK (11:05): This was mostly a sloppy mess. Rhea Ripley retained her title. Finn Balor and Dominick came out to interfere and the babyface Uso stopped them. I'm such a fan of the WWE that I don't even know who the good Uso is or the bad Uso is. Jey or Jimmy? I could look it up. I won't. And where were the WWE's two most popular women's wrestlers? Charlotte and Becky? They weren't even on this show. *

SOLO SIKOA vs. JOHN CENA (16:10): The announcers noted here and on RAW last week that Cena hasn't won a singles match since 2018 when he beat HHH in Saudi Arabia. He lost here and got destroyed at the end with multiple thumb spikes to the throat. I'm guessing this is going to lead to some sort of retirement match at Wrestlemania where Cena has to win or quit. Why else bring up that he keeps losing? While the crowd was into Cena...this wasn't very good. Cena is old and not exactly exciting anymore. Solo is a slow bore in the ring. Eh. *

LOGAN PAUL vs. REY MYSTERIO (17:55): Rey Mysterio is also old...which is why this probably wasn't as good as most Logan Paul matches. It got fairly exciting by the end, but wasn't great or anything. Logan is a great wrestler, though, and he always does a lot of fun stuff and big moves in the ring. Logan won the U.S. title...which I guess means he'll be around more often than once in a blue moon. **1/2

IYO SKY vs. BIANCA BELAIR (16:35): This was boring. They probably shouldn't have given Iyo Sky the title. The big surprise in this match was Kairi Sane returning to help Iyo retain the title. Kairi Sane left for Stardom, but I guess she wanted more money or something so she's back. Bayley also interfered but was caught off guard with Kairi Sane's return. So much drama! Who writes this shit? The WWE needs new writers. What was the last good storyline they had? Probably the Sami Zayn one, but they failed to deliver a quality climax to that one. Iyo retained the title. *

CODY RHODES vs. DAMIAN PRIEST (11:05): This was another mostly boring match. I figure Cody is beating Roman for the title next year at Wrestlemania, which begs the question: why didn't he just win it this year at 'Mania? This company baffles me sometimes. Damian attempted to cash in his MITB contract on Rollins earlier after the McIntyre match but Sami Zayn ran out to stop him. So Priest failed at that and then lost this match. What a loser! Probably not a good idea to bury the MITB contract holder, considering he's probably going to cash it in and win the title eventually, right? Then it'll be like, this loser is the champ? Dumb. Cody was super over. Do these fans actually watch WWE on TV? Since sex and nudity is forbidden in Saudi Arabia on TV...what the fuck is on their TV? Nature shows? Soccer? Do you need to, like, use a VPN to watch porn? Or do they go old school like we did back in the day and pass around used VHS porn tapes? *1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. LA KNIGHT (20:05): LA Knight is the latest super popular, super over wrestler that WWE has crushed and destroyed. Why even put him in this match if he's just going to lose and look like an idiot? What they should have done is had this match at Wrestlemania and have LA Knight win the title. Why not? Dude is super over with the fans. The only reason is, apparently, because the crowds like yelling his catchphrase. His catchphrase is, "Yeah!" I guess that's a take on the "yes" chants. Kind of makes the crowds seem like idiots. That's why they like him? He's not exactly great in the ring or anything, just a pedestrian Cena type that does basic moves. But having a super over and super popular guy lose makes no sense. The whole point of building up Roman is to have a new star beat him to get even more over...right? I don't think the WWE agrees. Roman hasn't even wrestled since Summerslam...and he's not on Survivor Series. I guess it doesn't matter, as all his matches are pretty much the same these days. The bad Uso interferes and costs him the title. Usually there's the announcer's table being broken and a ref bump. We didn't get a ref bump here. So Roman won thanks to interference. I'm fucking bored with this. **

NJPW POWER STRUGGLE

 

Osaka, Japan

OLEG BOLTIN, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & THE DKC vs. MOCHIZUKI, JR. & STRONG MACHINE J & YOSHIKI KATO (6:40): This show was 5 hours and 22 minutes long. After this pre-show match they did have a 15 minute or so break, though, but c'mon! That's way too long. They even had the balls to have a 40 minute main event after the fans were sitting down for over 4 plus hours. And considering how often they used the chairs in the arena as weapons, I got great views of the seats and they looked uncomfortable as hell. The big problem was that the show wasn't very good. It was adequate. The main event was really the only match worth watching. This pre-show match featured a team of Dragon Gate wrestlers. While they seemed to be decent wrestlers, their outfits looked like they picked them up at a thrift store. This was forgettable. 1/2*

UNITED EMPRE (JEFF COBB & CALLUM NEWMAN) vs. OSKAR LEUBE & YUTO NAKASHIMA (4:41): Two of these guys, Callum and Oskar, are tall white, Young Lions. It's funny that they make the Young Lions wrestle in black underwear. Those two definitely wrestled like they needed a job, though, which was good. Oksar is very tall and Callum was hitting very hard. I might never see those two again but who knows? They might be stars someday somewhere. I'd be curious to hear their stories of what it's like being a white guy living and working in Japan. That'd be more interesting than this match. **

EL DESPERADO & MASTER WATO vs. BULLET CLUB WAR DOGS (CLARK CONNORS & DRILLA MALONEY) vs. TMDK (KOSEI FUJITA & ROBBIE EAGLES) vs. MUSASHI & YOH (5:36): The finals of the Super Jr. tag team tournament were on this show. I guess these teams were all the other teams in that tournament, a tournament I didn't even know was going on. I'm guessing if there were any great matches in the tournament I would have heard about them. This was too short to amount to much, though Eagles looked good and seemed to do most of the work in the match. Clark Connors cracks me up because his gimmick is basically Matthew McConaughey. **

INTERGALACTIC JET SETTERS (KUSHIDA & KEVIN KNIGHT) & TAMA TONGA vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI, SHINGO TAKAGI & TITAN) (10:55): It's always sad to see Shingo, probably the 2nd best New Japan wrestler behind Ospreay, stuck in some meaningless, multi-man tag match. Do they remember they put the title on him in 2021? Maybe they forget. Titan from CMLL flew all the way to Japan to do a 10 minute match. Hope the payday was worth it. Nothing really noteworthy happened in this, but it's always nice to see Kushida wrestling. *1/2

LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (TETSUYA NATIO & YOTA TSUJI) vs. JUST 5 GUYS (SANADA & YUYA UEMURA) (11:10): Sanada and Naito are wrestling for the title in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom. That has to be one of the worst main events in the history of that show. Does anyone actually want to see that match? I assume Naito is winning, since Sanada's title reign has been a dud. Those two didn't do much in this match. Yuya Uemura (what a name) and Tsuji did most of the wrestling in this one. Tsuji is a bonafide star. Uemura, not so much. This was another mostly boring match. *

DAVID FINLAY vs. TANGA LOA (12:33): Finlay is the new Jay White. Gedo is his manager. He's a heel and the leader of Bullet Club. Unlike Jay White, though, Finlay is a terrible wrestler in the ring. He's just too dull and plain. This was not good at all. 1/2*

JON MOXLEY vs. GREAT O'KHAN "FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH" (15:17): These two started the match brawling in the crowd. They got immediately counted out and then Moxley took the mic and said he wanted a Falls Count Anywhere match, so they re-started the match. They brawled the entire time out in the crowd, mostly throwing each other into chairs and hitting each other with guardrails. Moxley was bleeding and ended up choking out Great O'Khan. While they didn't do anything spectacularly exciting, it was at least engrossing. **

CHAOS (KAZUCHIKA OKADA, HIROSHI TANAHASHI & TOMOHIRO ISHII) vs. TMDK (MIKEY NICHOLLS, SHANE HASTE & ZACK SABRE, JR.) (16:15): When Ishii and Zack were wrestling each other, this match was awesome. The rest of it was average, basic stuff. Chaos retained the 6 man titles. The big story was after the match, Bryan Danielson did a video promo calling out Okada for Wrestle Kingdom. Hopefully that'll be better than their last match. **1/2

CATCH 22 (FRANCESCO AKIRA & TJP) vs. HOUSE OF TORTURE (SHO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU) (16:40): This was the finals of the Super Jr. tag team tournament. Catch 22 won and gets a shot at Clark Connors and Drilla Maloney's titles at Wrestle Kingdom. Because this was a House of Torture match, we got a ton of interference from them. At one point, Kanemaru came into the ring with a whiskey bottle and Sho was holding a wrench. What is this...a Three Stooges short? As if the Pandemic wasn't bad enough, it also birthed House of Torture. The match was just okay. **

HIROMU TAKAHASHI vs. TAIJI ISHIMORI (20:38): In the past, these two have had some great matches. This was not one of them. It probably went too long, as these two are better off having a fast, short match. There was too much dead time in this. The other problem is that Hiromu seems mired in mud lately. It seems like he's been either the Jr. champ or battling for the title for a decade now. Can't they give him something fresh and new to do? When he was super popular years ago it was rumored that he would move up to the main title picture and possibly be in the G1. That never happened. I'd say maybe he should go join another company but of course look what happened to Kushida. El Desperado came out after the match to challenge Hirumo for the title at Wrestle Kingdom. Hopefully that match will be better than this. **

WILL OSPREAY vs. SHOTA UMINO (40:16): This was quite the epic. It was also too long...so maybe they shouldn't have made it an epic. The first 15 minutes or so were so slow and boring I actually left to wash the dishes. It was pretty obvious this was going long when they were both just doing holds and mat wrestling for the first 10 minutes. The last 15 or so minutes were excellent, though, filled with high drama and big moves. Ospreay gave Umino a Tiger Driver off the apron through two tables. Other than that, they both pretty much beat the shit out of each other, including a gruesome head butting battle. Red Shoes was the ref and is Shota's dad. Isn't that, like, unfair? Maybe they don't want the audience to know this fact. While this was supposed to be Shota Umino's big coming out party, I thought the Will Ospreay vs. Yota Tsuji main event match awhile back was better than this. Shota is good but I think he's going to get better. He still needs a bit of fine tuning to be on the level of an Okada or Tanahashi main event performance from the heyday. If this match was shorter it might have been better, as it didn't start to get good until halfway through. Moxley came out near the end to cheer on Shota. After Will won and retained the U.S./UK title, David Finlay came out and knocked out Moxley and Ospreay with his stick. So it'll be Ospreay vs. Moxley vs. Finlay at Wrestle Kingdom, presumably for the new Intercontinental title since Finlay used a big mallet to destroy the U.S. and UK titles in the ring after the match. Pretty good main event to an average at best show. ***

WWE FASTLANE

Indianapolis

CODY RHODES & JEY USO vs. THE JUDGMENT DAY (DAMIAN PRIEST & FINN BALOR) (20:43): You can tell how much I love WWE in the fact that this PPV was on Saturday, October 7th, and I didn't end up watching it until Sunday, October 15th. The champ, Roman Reigns, wasn't on this show, which made it a B-show. They also promoted the Tuesday, October 10th episode of NXT a lot more than this show, because they were going against AEW's Dynamite because of the MLB playoffs being on Wednesday on TBS. NXT had The Undertaker choke slamming Bron Breaker for no apparent reason, as well as having Cody Rhodes and Cena on the show. This show did have the debut of AEW's Jade Cargill, albeit in a pre-show spot where she arrived in a limo and then wasn't on the main show. The main event of this show was fairly entertaining, but everything else was pretty forgettable. The crowd didn't help, although it was sold out and they did pop big for a few things (Pat McAfee asking them if they want Wrestlemania...which, after John Cena did that in London and got a huge pop, probably everyone will do it in every city now...and LA Knight and the table spots in the main event got big crowd reactions). In this opener, Cody and Jey won the tag team titles. I kind of hate when non-tag teams win the tag team titles, although AEW just did it when Big Bill and Ricky Starks beat FTR for the belts. This match was at least back and forth, unlike the bore fest that was the Cena tag match. I'm not even sure what other tag teams there are now. The Street Profits are one. They sent Kevin Owens to Smackdown so Sami Zayn and him are solo guys now. The Uso's are broken up. That Latino World Order group is I guess a tag team, though there's 3 members. Eh. This match was okay. **

CARLITO, REY MYSTERIO, JR. & SANTOS ESCOBAR vs. BOBBY LASHLEY & THE STREET PROFITS (ANGELO DAWKINS & MONTEZ FORD) (10:02): Why is Bobby Lashley teaming with The Street Profits? And aren't The Street Profits good guys? Lashley was out for awhile, right? Remember two years ago he was in all the title main events? I guess he's cooled off. Carlito was the big surprise here and he didn't come out until the end of the match for no good reason. Why did they get rid of Carlito years ago? I remember he would always eat an apple and spit it at people. That was when the WWE was at it's lowest point. Maybe they just fired him. He looked good here, though he's old and looks like he's been juicing for a few years. Mysterio and The Street Profits didn't seem as dynamic or as exciting as usual. This was another okay match not particularly good enough to be on a PPV. **

IYO SKY vs. ASUKA vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR (17:15): Iyo Sky retained the women's title. This match was kind of boring. Asuka spit mist into Charlotte's face to start the match. Later on, Nakamura spit mist into Seth's face. Are they running out of ideas? Or maybe they had a lot of mist backstage and didn't want to waste it. When Iyo Sky and Asuka were wrestling each other in the ring it was really good but the crowd was silent. That probably tells you something about these WWE fans. Charlotte did a top rope moonsault that got the crowd to their feet. These fans loved big spots and entrances...not actual wrestling. **

JOHN CENA & LA KNIGHT vs. THE BLOODLINE (JIMMY USO & SOLO SIKOA) (17:21): Cena got beat down for like fifteen minutes of this match. It was the most boring thing on Earth, yet the WWE does this a lot. Sure, the hot tag gets a big pop, but nobody wants to see fifteen minutes of a beat down. Do they, like, not understand that? LA Knight is super over and getting a title shot against Roman Reigns in Saudi Arabia. They probably shouldn't do that, because remember the last time a guy was super over (Sami Zayn) and then they had him lose to Roman? Hell, they did it to Matt Riddle, too, and the WWE just fired him. I hope Riddle goes to Japan because he's an awesome wrestler and the WWE kind of wasted him with all the comedy hijinks. As for this seemingly decades long Bloodline feud...I've been over this since Sami lost to Roman. Now Solo and Jimmy don't like each other. Maybe I'll become more of a WWE fan once Roman finally loses the title. Eventually, LA Knight got the hot tag and did some pedestrian slams and it was pretty much over. Cena also really needs to do something with his glaring bald spot. *

SETH ROLLINS vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA "LAST MAN STANDING MATCH" (28:25): This was by far the best match on this show. They broke a bunch of tables and did two spots in the crowd where Rollins fell off a ledge onto a mat and then Rollins gave Nakamura a Falcon Arrow through a table. Nakamura also sprayed mist into Seth's eyes and pushed him off a ladder through the announce table. Nakamura also did a running knee first jump onto Seth on a ringside table. They also used Singapore canes and Nakamura slammed Seth onto a chair. The end came when Nakamura couldn't rise to his feet after the Falcon Arrow through a table in the crowd. This wasn't particularly awesome or anything, but it at least held my interest. I don't think Nakamura has ever been champion, has he? Maybe they should have given him the title. I still can't believe he's in main events in the WWE. I thought he'd never make it after leaving NJPW. He looked good here and better than he usually does in the WWE. This was a pretty weak show, though. ***

AEW WRESTLEDREAM

Seattle

ATHENA, BILLIE STARKZ, KEITH LEE & SATOSHI KOJIMA vs. DIAMANTE, MERCEDES MARTINEZ, LEE MORIARTY & SHANE TAYLOR (5:42): This was the best show of the year. A bunch of great matches and a hell of a way to end the show. It was supposed to an Antonio Inoki tribute show, since he died this time last year. Tony Khan came out with Anoki's grandsons and Rocky Romero to pay tribute. What this show has to do with Inoki is beyond me, though (Inoki was a wrestler in the 70's and started New Japan). And then we got this pre-show, which was pretty forgettable. Kojima flew from Japan to be in a five minute match? Maybe he's desperate to be on TV somewhere, anywhere, since New Japan rarely uses him. Kojima, of course, was the highlight of this match, although the crowd loved the few things Keith Lee did. Who even came up with this match? Four women and four men in some weird, random, tag match? I don't know...but the crowd loved Kojima, as did I. **

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. JOSH BARNETT (8:23): Barnett does a Bloodsport show on Wrestlemania weekends every year. Other than that...I think he used to be an MMA guy? So this was kind of a boring grappling match. 1/2*

LUCHASAURUS vs. NICK WAYNE (4:55): Wayne is from Washington state...so I kind of figured that, hell, maybe they'd give him a win or something. Nope. It turns out, though, that they saved his big coming out party for the main event, so this match ended up being superfluous. They did give Wayne a few spots, but this was mostly a beat down. *1/2

BILLY GUNN & THE ACCLAIMED vs. TMDK (BAD DUDE TITO, MIKEY NICHOLS & SHANE HASTE) (9:22): The Acclaimed must've cooled off since they've been banished to the pre-show. The crowd still pops big for them...so who knows? TMDK is a New Japan group. It stands for "the mighty don't kneel." Okay. None of those TMDK guys looked any good, but this was a short match mostly just to showcase The Acclaimed. *1/2

MJF vs. THE RIGHTEOUS (DUTCH & VINCENT) (9:35): Adam Cole was supposed to be in this match since it was for the ROH tag titles that he and MJF hold. At Grand Slam, Cole ran out during MJF's match to give support and jumped off the stage to get to the side of the ring and broke his ankle. He'll probably out until next year so they decided to make this a handicap match. Considering MJF retained the titles here in a pure comedy match...is MJF just going to keep doing handicap matches for the titles or will they just never do ROH tag title matches until next year? That's a great question. They probably should've just had The Righteous win. I do feel kind of bad for The Righteous. On one hand, they've never been on an AEW PPV before so they're probably happy about that. On the other hand, they had to be completely humiliated and lose. MJF said that he was going to grab Vincent's dreadlocks and shove his head up Dutch's ass...so of course there was the spot where MJF threw Vincent head first into Dutch's ass in the corner. Is that kind of humiliation worth it? They're pro-wrestlers livin' the dream! Vince McMahon would've cackled at that spot. **1/2

EDDIE KINGSTON vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA (10:58): I was kind of bored with this match. Eddie hasn't been in a great match in forever, although his G1 match against Ishii was pretty good (granted, it's difficult to have a bad match against Ishii in Korakuen Hall). Shibata is awesome but I don't think these two gelled together very well. Shibata is lightning fast and works better with someone lighter and faster like him. It was decent...I just thought it might be better. ** 

KRIS STATLANDER vs. JULIA HART (8:56): This was the one shocker of the night. It was actually good! The last time AEW had a good women's match was probably in the Spring when Jamie Hayter was around. The crowd really wanted Hart to win so they were kind of into this. Hart did a moonsault off the top rope. It was fast paced. It worked. Statlander retained the TBS title. **1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. THE GUNNS vs. HOOK & ORANGE CASSIDY vs. THE LUCHA BROTHERS (12:13): This was very entertaining. Fenix left the match early, presumably because he has a TNT title match this week on Dynamite and is banged up so needed rest. Everyone looked good here, even The Gunns, who aren't good wrestlers, but at least know how to piss off the crowd. It had a ton of action and near falls. Good match. The Bucks won so get a tag team title shot. I guess we'll be seeing FTR vs. The Bucks 4 even though their All In match was supposed to be the end of the feud. ***

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE (20:12): Good match. I've been waiting forever for Swerve to finally have a good singles match. It probably helped that he's from Seattle and so the crowd cheered him and booed Page. Swerve ended up cheating to win, but he is a heel. They did a lot of brutal looking moves, including a bunch of top rope stomps from Swerve and a sick looking Swerve kick to Page's forearm that sounded like it broke it. Good drama, hot crowd. This was really good. ***

RICKY STARKS vs. WHEELER YUTA (9:53): Starks oozes charisma...and is pretty great in-ring. They should really push him and make him champion...although I've said that about most of the AEW young guys over the years, especially Jungle Boy, who I think they should've made champion years ago. This was wrestled at a frenetic pace, probably because they knew the crowd was spent after the last match. They beat the shit out of each other early on and it was kind of sloppy. Since the crowd didn't really care too much about this, it didn't entirely work. **

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (23:12): This match was fantastic. The crowd tonight was kind of a classic WWE crowd in that they weren't that into the actual wrestling but liked the high spots and wrestler's entrances. Because of that, half of the crowd was really into this match but the crowd wasn't that loud for most of it. They popped big for the WWE-style spots like Bryan's running knee and "Yes!" kicks but weren't that invested in a lot of the grappling and holds. With that said, the match was awesome and it didn't matter that the crowd wasn't on fire. It was two masters of technical wrestling working a back and forth technician's dream. It was also totally engrossing. ***1/2

THE DON CALLIS FAMILY (WILL OSPREAY, KONOSUKE TAKESHITA & SAMMY GUEVERA) vs. CHRIS JERICHO & THE GOLDEN LOVERS (KENNY OMEGA & KOTA IBUSHI) (22:10): The crowd loved most of this match. It was highly entertaining. This was probably the one match that the crowd was the loudest for. It certainly helped that the crowd loved Jericho and Omega and popped big when Ibushi finally got tagged in like halfway through the damn thing. Ibushi also looked the best he's looked all year, which helped. It was all over the place, all over the map, everyone doing everything, chaos, excitement, big moves. Very fun match even though the heels won. Guevera looked a little sloppy on two big moves, a Shooting Star Press to the floor and a top rope cutter...but other than that, it was great. ***1/2

FTR vs. AUSSIE OPEN (20:26): The crowd was a little tired after the last match, so early on this was kind of stale with everyone quiet. It picked up by the end and turned into a pretty entertaining match. FTR retained the tag titles. The second half was all action and big moves and it was fun. **1/2

CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. DARBY ALLIN "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS" (25:17): This match started kind of slow and bare bones. But man, it turned out fucking insane. After this match and show ended you had to just exhale and take a breath. Wow. What an ending. This was something. Darby pulled Christian's turtleneck over his head and got a quick pin. Eventually, Christian positioned the steel stairs right by the apron and tossed Darby twice onto the stairs from the apron. At first it looked like Christian was supposed to suplex Darby from the apron onto the stairs but decided that, dude, that's too sadistic. Eventually he kind of did it anyway by just picking him up and tossing him onto them. That was gruesome to watch, as Darby hit the stairs and not, like, the flat top of the stairs. Darby got counted out for the 2nd fall. The medics came out and put Darby on a stretcher. While this was happening, Christian was walking around cutting the ring mat and exposing the wooden boards. Christian then went up on the top rope and did a Frog Splash onto Darby on the stretcher. That made me laugh out loud and how ridiculous it was. And it got crazier! Sonjay Dutt must have wrote this match, as his matches with Jeff Jarrett and that group are always ridiculous and over the top and Dutt is apparently one of AEW's writers. Christian gets Darby into the ring and they do a bunch of slams on the exposed wooden floor in the ring. Christian goes for a spear but hits the ref and he gets knocked out. Christian gives Darby a low blow. Nick Wayne runs out (Nick Wayne's mom was at ringside...and earlier threw a cup of water in Christian's face) to save Darby. Luchasaurus comes out. Nick Wayne grabs the TNT title and turns heel and hits Darby with it. The place is shocked! Nick Wayne, who is from Seattle, has joined the evil Christian! That spot was great. But it's not over! Sting comes out to save Darby. Christian, Wayne, and Luchasaurus beat up Sting and are going to give him a Conchairto. At this point...I figured someone would come out to save the day, presumably a new hire. Edge is a free agent. Would Edge show up? Edge showed up. The lights went out. A video of someone getting in a car and driving to the arena was up on the screen then Edge's WWE music hit and he came out to save the day. Edge teased joining Christian but then hit them all with a chair and speared Wayne and Luchasaurus. Edge then shook Sting and Darby's hands. Whew. What a fucking ending! Hell of a show. ***1/2

AEW ALL OUT

 

Chicago

OVER BUDGET CHARITY BATTLE ROYAL ('HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE) (13:18): CM Punk was fired by AEW. That was a bigger story then anything on this show. Punk got into a backstage fight with Jack Perry last week at All In and also supposedly "lunged" at Tony Khan and, in the process, knocked over a TV monitor onto Khan while yelling, "I'm quitting AEW!" or something. So Punk's gone and they had to do two shows in Chicago with the fans knowing this. Collision on Saturday started with Tony Khan saying that he fired Punk. One fan on this show in the front row had a sign that said, "Tony Khan Cured Cancer" or something, meaning Punk was a cancer in the company. Considering Punk got into two backstage fights in a year, he sounds like a bitter old man at this point. Some speculated that he just wanted out of AEW, maybe because they just re-signed Adam Page, the Bucks, and Omega, four guys he had a beef with. Oh, well. As for this show...it definitely was weird doing a PPV a week after their biggest PPV and show of all time. Considering they're doing this again next year, Khan doesn't seem to think it's a problem. I don't know, though. They were asking $50 for this show and it didn't have a championship title match, a tag team title match, or a women's title match. It did have all the secondary titles on the line, and most of the big stars were in matches, but still...the main event was for the International title. Okay. The show turned out really good, but most AEW shows are, so that wasn't a surprise. This first match was a pointless battle royal. Page won and got to donate $50,000 to the charity of his choice. He chose some Chicago school charity. On Being the Elite, Page joked that he won all this money and had to give it to some stupid kids. That made me laugh. Considering Page was once the AEW champ...maybe do something more with him then put him in a forgettable Battle Royal. **

HIKARU SHIDA, SKY BLUE & WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. ATHENA, DIAMANTE & MERCEDES MARTINEZ (8:28): Sky Blue got the win, which was good, considering a ton of heels got wins tonight plus Skye is from Chicago. Mercedes Martinez did a top rope, sitting suplex on someone that put them right on their head. That looked gruesome. Match was okay. *1/2

BILLY GUNN & THE ACCLAIMED vs. JAY LETHAL, JEFF JARRETT & SATNAM SINGH (5:57): Dennis Rodman came out with The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn. Eventually he hit Jarrett over the head with a guitar. This show was in the United Center where the Bulls play, so I guess that's why Rodman was there. I wonder if he still talks to Kim Jong Un. Match was fun and short. **

BETTER THAN YOU BAY BAY (ADAM COLE & MJF) vs. THE DARK ORDER (ALEX REYNOLDS & JOHN SILVER) (14:08): This match baffled everyone. I guess The Dark Oder hasn't been wrestling much lately so Khan threw him a bone. Otherwise, I have no idea the purpose of this match. Cole and MJF retained the ROH tag titles. The crowd loved the Double Clothesline and the Kangaroo Kick. It was fun but nothing spectacular. Supposedly the Collision that featured Cole & MJF wrestling FTR for the tag titles got big ratings. Other than that, Dynamite always beats Collision in the ratings. So CM Punk wasn't a giant ratings draw for Collision, probably one reason they were okay with firing him. **1/2

SOMOA JOE vs. SHANE TAYLOR (6:23): MJF was walking to the back after his match and Somoa Joe came out for this match and nudged MJF with his shoulder. This caused MJF to run into the ring and start brawling with Joe until security came out. Then this match happened, which was good not great. Joe retained the ROH TV title. Shane Taylor looked good as usual. It was two big guys doing big power moves. **1/2

LUCHASAURUS vs. DARBY ALLIN (12:14): Considering this was the only match on the show that was announced a full month early, I figured it was because Darby was going to win the TNT title. He didn't. It was mostly a beat down. Darby was bloody. Darby did a top rope flip onto Luchasaurus on a chair. Nick Wayne came out because he's feuding with Christian for some reason. Match was good but nothing special. They probably should re-unite Jurassic Express, because both Jack Perry and Luchasaurus aren't as exciting anymore nor are even used much anymore. **1/2

MIRO vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS (15:34): The crowd really got into this match. Miro wasn't doing anything in AEW for practically a year. He bitched about it on Twitter and then Khan noted that Miro had turned down some idea he had and that's why he was on the sidelines. Well the crowd in Chicago loved Miro and loved this match. It was kind of like a WWE match in that nobody did any wild, crazy moves. It was all just power slams and holds and stuff. Match was pretty good mostly thanks to the crowd. Miro's wife, Lana, came out at the end but Miro saw her and left the ring. I don't know what that was all about. **1/2

KRIS STATLANDER vs. RUBY SOHO (12:20): Toni Storm took the spray paint out of Ruby's hand at the end which caused Ruby to lose. I think The Outcasts group as been pretty entertaining, so I'm not so sure about breaking them up, but whatever. Match was kind of boring. Statlander retained the TBS title. Whatever happened to the last TBS champ, the woman that was undefeated forever? I even forget her name, that's how long she's been gone for. *

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. RICKY STARKS "STRAP MATCH" (16:39): Good match, and a surprise match as Danielson made his return the night before on Collision. These guys beat the shit out of each other and were both bloody messes. At one point, the announcer noted that, "This is hard to watch." Usually in a strap match they will whip the other guy's back or stomach or something. In this one, they were whipping each other in the face and on the head. That was hard to watch. Very brutal but very compelling. ***

BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & WHEELER YUTA) vs. EDDIE KINGSTON & KATSUYORI SHIBATA (15:50): I guess with Shibata in this it was a bit more than just a random Dynamite match. Supposedly Shibata doesn't work for NJPW anymore. I guess this is all he does? Wrestle for AEW on occasion? Match was entertaining but pretty standard. Kingston got pinned, which I guess is a surprise since he was the crowd favorite. They keep building another Kingston vs. Claudio match, so that was mostly the focus in this. **1/2

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. KENNY OMEGA (22:21): Considering Omega is usually in awesome singles matches (this year alone he had fantastic matches against Ospreay, Moxley in a cage, and Vikingo), I kind of thought this would be better. One reason is that crowd was a little bit quiet and seemingly not that into this. Maybe they don't see Takeshita as a big star. It's probably good then that they had Takeshita win, since they should start elevating all these non-main event guys they have. Match was good, though, it just never hit that high level we've seen in previous Omega matches. Takeshita had an awesome Dynamite match against Adam Page this year...so maybe I figured Takeshita could translate some of his shorter, awesome matches into an awesome, longer match. I was wrong. There was one particular move that reminded me of those sadistic Naito/Ibushi matches. Takeshita did a suplex type slam on Omega that put him right on his head. Takeshita also gave Omega a Blue Thunder Bomb from the top rope. Omega pretty much lost clean here, which was a bit surprising. Good match but, alas, not great. ***

BULLET CLUB GOLD (JAY WHITE, JUICE ROBINSON & THE GUNN'S) vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS & FTR (21:41): This was a fun match, although basically just a Dynamite main event. I thought maybe the reason they even did this match was because The Young Bucks would join Bullet Club and turn on FTR. They didn't...even though the Bucks were in Bullet Club long before Jay White, Juice, and The Gunn's were. They do seem to be setting up another FTR/Bucks match...which doesn't really make sense considering their All In match was billed as the "who's the greatest tag team" and "final in the trilogy" match. The Bucks got booed early but actually got cheered a lot when they were doing all of their awesome, fast paced, high flying and super kick stuff. There was a lot of action at the end which made this a lot of fun. **1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (19:43): Good main event. One of the highlights of AEW this year has been Orange Cassidy's International title reign. The announcers mentioned he defended it 31 times. Well it's over, as Moxley won. Since this is the International title...why don't they give it to someone from another country? PAC had it earlier this year. What about Penta? Fenix? Takeshita? Anyway, Orange was busted open and bleeding all over the place. The crowd got super into this by the end and was totally with Orange's every move. Good way to end a good show. Now onto Arthur Ashe. ***

WWE PAYBACK

Pittsburgh

BECKY LYNCH vs. TRISH STRATUS "CAGE MATCH" (20:02): This show really only had one match that was any good, and this wasn't it. While this match generally got favorable reviews, I think the only reason was because Trish didn't look as sloppy or botch anything like she did in the MITB ladder match two months ago. This match was set up a long time ago and was supposed to be a big, Summerslam match. Why it ended up as the opener on this B show is beyond me. The big problem I had with this match is that the whole point of a steel cage match is so that there is no outside interference, yet Shayna Baszler was in the ring and beating up Becky during the match. Ugh. Remember when Becky Lynch was the biggest star in the WWE? Why don't they, like, give her something better to do than feud with old, has-been legends? **

LA KNIGHT vs. THE MIZ (15:46): John Cena came out before this match to announce that he would be the special guest referee. There wasn't really a point to that, but I guess they just thought having Cena on the show would make it more PPV caliber. The match was dull, though the sold out Pittsburgh crowd loved LA Knight. I'm still baffled at this, as I somehow missed how he turned from a heel on NXT to a Smackdown crowd favorite. What did he do to earn the crowd's approval, anyway? It's not like he's a good wrestler. He's okay on the mic. I give up. *1/2

REY MYSTERIO vs. AUSTIN THEORY (9:49): I suppose Austin Theory's push is over. Mysterio won the U.S. title from him somewhere and retained it here. Where's Bobby Lashley, anyway? He hasn't been around. And Braun Strowman? I haven't really watched much of Smackdown or RAW lately, though I did notice that Roman Reigns wasn't on this show, hence why this was a forgotten show. That, and it happened on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, when most people watching TV were focused on college football (this game went against Penn State vs. West Virginia, which I watched live instead of this) or down the beach having fun. This was overall a basic, standard match. *

THE JUDGMENT DAY (DAMIAN PRIEST & FINN BALOR) vs. SAMI ZAYN & KEVIN OWENS "STEEL CITY STREET FIGHT" (20:44): This was by far the most entertaining match on the show. The brawled around the arena. At one point, Zayn and Owens were tossed into the hockey penalty box and came out dressed as Pittsburgh Penguin hockey players holding hockey sticks. As stupid as that was, the crowd seemed to like it. Owens was also busted open at that point and a bloody mess. They cleaned him up off camera pretty quickly after that, though. The big spot was Owens doing a moonsault off a guardrail in the crown down onto Dominick Mysterio on a table. No, Dominick wasn't in this match. Rhea Ripley wasn't either, but she still speared Owens through the crowd barrier by the announce table (a spot that the WWE does way too much). The Judgment Day ended up winning the tag titles here. So what are Zayn and Owens going to do now? I'd rather see Owens do singles matches, actually, as he's one of the WWE's better wrestlers in big matches. At this point, considering LA Knight is so popular, it wouldn't shock me to see him beat Roman for the title eventually. Can you believe they'd do that, though, when they wouldn't do it with Sami? I actually kind of hate this company lately. ***

RHEA RIPLEY vs. RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ (17:22): This match was boring. Rhea retained her women's title. The other women's champ, Iyo Skye, wasn't on the show. Has she even defended the title yet since winning it at Summerslam? I wonder. Dominick interfered in this match and got slammed by Raquel. At 17 minutes, this was too long. 1/2*

SETH ROLLINS vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (25:57): The major problem with caring about Seth Rollin's new WWE championship is the fact that Roman Reigns has had his title for 3 years and has beaten everybody. So Seth's title feels secondary and weak in comparison. And did anyone really think Nakamura was winning the title here? No. I haven't seen Nakamura wrestle in awhile in a singles match. I guess they're pushing him these days. He used to be in that comedy tag team with Rick Boogs, who disappeared. Is Boogs hurt? Was he fired? I don't know. Bray Wyatt died. Did I mention that? & Terry Funk as well, in the same week. Wyatt apparently got Covid and got really sick from it and was then getting better and possibly going to return when he had a heart attack and died. I wonder if it was from steroid or drug use...or if it was health issues as he was always a big guy. They did do a tribute type show for Funk and Wyatt on Smackdown the week before this show. The one thing I was thinking about during this match was how great New Japan was when Nakamura was there...and how it's sad now that those great wrestlers are slowly fading away in terms of in-ring prowress, ability, and excitement. Tanahashi is a shell of his former self, pathetically hobbling around the ring. Okada is still fairly good, though slower. & Nakamura has never been as great in the WWE. His only good match in the WWE was his first one, the NXT match against Zayn in Dallas. It's sad watching Nakamura in a boring match. Remember his AJ Styles match? His awesome G1 semi-final vs. Okada? I remember seeing him at the ECW Arena for a ROH show. He was signing autographs before the show and I remember how big a star he was back then. I guess it's cool he's still main eventing things. Too bad the match and this show weren't very good. *1/2