WWE BASH IN BERLIN

Berlin, Germany

CODY RHODES vs. KEVIN OWENS (26:10): The WWE's been having a lot of international shows lately, right? Do they make more money doing those or something? I'd think just flying everyone there would cost a lot. In May they had PPV's in France and Saudi Arabia. Then their June PPV was in Scotland. Now they're in Germany. Maybe this has something to do with pushing their RAW to Netflix deal, which starts in January. Who knows? The crowd in Germany was good but nothing like that raucous Lyon, France crowd. It didn't help that this felt like a forgettable house show. The WWE PPV's have not been that great this year, although the big ones like 'Mania and Summerslam were pretty good. This first match was kind of pointless because who the hell thought Kevin Owens, who's a babyface, anyway, had a chance to win the title? Granted, AEW is having Bryan Danielson defend the title against Jack Perry next week at All Out, and that match seems just as pointless. The work in this match was fine. It was decent. The story had Kevin Owens refusing to “go for the kill” and thus ending up losing. So they made him look pathetic. I'm guessing this means he will turn heel, otherwise, what's the point of making him look like a pathetic loser who doesn't want to win? **

BIANCA BeLAIR & JADE CARGILL vs. THE UNHOLY UNION (ALBA FYRE & ISLA DAWN) (12:02): Bianca and Jade won the tag titles in this match. Bianca used to be a big, main event star, so I'm not entirely sure why she's now suddenly slumming it in the tag team division. Jade doesn't seem to have become the big WWE star they thought she would, although that's kind of their fault for not giving her anything to do and putting her in a tag team. The crowd was mostly silent for this. *1/2

CM PUNK vs. DREW McINTYRE “STRAP MATCH” (19:15): Punk was bleeding a little bit and they still decided to shoehorn the friendship bracelet story into this match. To win you had to touch each corner and they had a confusing red and green light on each corner. Eventually I figured out that the green light was for Punk and Drew's was red. Match was good but nothing spectacular. They really built this feud up into being this blood feud for the ages and then delivered two average matches. **1/2

THE TERROR TWINS (RHEA RIPLEY & DAMIAN PRIEST) vs. THE JUDGMENT DAY (DOMINIK MYSTERIO & LIV MORGAN) (14:20): They probably should have had the heels win, otherwise the feud is kind of over, right? Nope! They did have Liv attack Rhea on RAW and Rhea was on crutches by the end of the show. The fans really loved the whole Dominik/Rhea dynamic, so I think that was stupid to break them up. This match would have really been better if the men and women could wrestle each other. They did do some of the women doing moves on the men, but God forbid a man hit a woman even though they've done men vs. women in some Japan promotions like DDT and in U.S. indie companies like GCW and PWG. I don't get why they won't do that, as Dominik vs. Rhea would be fucking huge. Match was entertaining. The other Judgment Day members interfered. It was fine. **1/2

GUNTHER vs. RANDY ORTON (34:28): Jesus. 34 minutes? What is this? Pro Wrestling Noah? Because of that epic length, this match was pretty boring. I don't even think Orton delivered an RKO. Orton did put Gunther through the announce table, but did it in the dumbest way possible. He put the stairs next to the table then climbed up and dropped Gunther onto the table. Gunther choked out Orton. The crowd was hot early but got bored. Roman Reigns and the whole Bloodline gang weren't on this show for some reason. Considering that's been the hot angle on TV, it made this show feel kind of weak without them. *

AEW ALL IN

Wembley Stadium, London

ACTION ANDRETTI, KIP SABIAN, KYLE FLETCHER, LIO RUSH, ROCKY ROMERO, TOMMY BILLINGTON & TOP FLIGHT vs. ANTHONY AGOGO, ARIYA DAIVARI, JAY LETHAL, PRIVATE PARTY, SATNAM SINGH & DARK ORDER (11:34): How is AEW making any money paying all these wrestlers? There were over 70 wrestlers on this show. And some of the big AEW stars weren't even there, like Moxley, Takeshita, and Adam Cole. Anyway, this was a great show with a great main event and a lot of big moments. The 50,000+ crowd was awesome. You definitely got your money's worth if you paid to watch it. The only thing fantastic on this pre-show was the return of Jamie Hayter. She was out with an injury at last year's All In, too. What possible injury did she have to be out more than a year? She didn't break her neck or anything. As for this match...it was entertaining though pretty much just a match to get as many wrestlers as possible on the show. Are the Dark Order guys heels? They were on the heel team. AEW hasn't been using them on TV lately for whatever reason. Top Flight and Private Party used to be bigger stars in AEW, now they seem to only be booked on forgettable Rampage matches. The one big star they have been pushing this summer is Kyle Fletcher. He's awesome so it's too bad he got stuck in this. **

TOMOHIRO ISHII & WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. KRIS STATLANDER & STOKELY HATHAWAY (8:14): The shocking thing about this match was that Stokely actually looked good when he was wrestling. Ishii pinned him so Willow gets to pick the stipulation for the Statlander/Willow match at All Out in two weeks (they decided not to do a Labor Day weekend PPV this year and moved it back a week). Willow is probably the most over AEW women's wrestler. Maybe they should start giving her bigger matches than this. **

DUSTIN RHODES, KATSUYORI SHIBATA, SAMMY GUEVARA & THE VON ERICHS vs. CAGE OF AGONY & THE UNDISPUTED KINGDOM (13:08): Sammy was suspended after doing a Shooting Star Press and landing on Jeff Hardy's face. That happened so long ago because Jeff Hardy is in TNA now. You could tell Sammy is trying to get back in Tony Khan's good graces because he was doing top rope flips and dives non-stop, probably trying to look as exciting as possible. Match was fun. **

SARAYA/JAMIE HAYTER: Saraya came out with her family to berate the crowd, saying she won the title here last year and wasn't even booked on the show this year. Jamie Hayter returned to a gigantic pop and laid everyone out. Kind of weird having Hayter's big return be on the pre-show instead of somewhere more prominent on the card, but it was at least in front of her hometown crowd.

BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (PAC, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & WHEELER YUTA) vs. THE PATRIARCHY (CHRISTIAN CAGE, KILLSWITCH & NICK WAYNE) vs. HOUSE OF BLACK (BRODY KING, MALAKAI BLACK & BUDDY MATTHEWS) vs. BANG BANG GANG (THE GUNN'S & JUICE ROBINSON) (18:58): This was the PPV opener. Great match. Another typical, crazy, wildly entertaining AEW ladder, tables, and chairs match. Originally, Death Triangle was supposed to be in this match but The Lucha Brothers decided to go to WWE. That meant they had to insert PAC into the BCC for no real reason. I still have no idea why Moxley wasn't on this show. He was last seen in AEW losing the IWGP title to Naito at Forbidden Door. I don't think he's hurt. Maybe Tony Khan just decided to give him July and August off because Moxley had been traveling to Japan a few times in the Spring and was probably burned out. Christian started the match running away and leaving. He returned when everyone was down to attempt to climb a ladder and win. Nick Wayne's mom tried to climb the ladder at one point. Nick Wayne did a running, over the top rope into a Canadian Destroyer onto Malakai through a ringside table. That was a wild spot. Just a bunch of craziness. Really entertaining. The odd team of Claudio, PAC, and Wheeler Yuta are now the Trios champs. PAC is from England and got a big pop when he grabbed the title, so that's the reason they won. ***

MARIAH MAY vs. TONI STORM (15:14): Good match. Mariah, being an evil heel, walked over to her mother at ringside and slapped her. That was kind of a weird spot. I mean...now her mom had to sit there looking forlorn and holding her cheek the whole match. Toni then ran over and hugged Mariah's mom. The crowd was super into Toni Storm. Mariah is from England...so you'd think they could have tried to switch the roles so Mariah would be cheered in her hometown. I guess they realized the fans were never going to boo Toni Storm because, if you remember, her 'Timeless' gimmick started as a heel gimmick but everyone loved it. Toni gave Mariah a piledriver on the stairs and Mariah was bleeding. This was better than the 'bigger' women's match, Britt/Mone. Mariah is now the women's champ. ***

HOOK vs. CHRIS JERICHO (10:14): They had Dyanmite in Cardiff, Wales on Wednesday and also taped Collision after that. On Collision, Hook wrestled Big Bill. I don't know why, but Big Bill got cheered voraciously in that match. It was the funniest thing ever (he's supposed to be a heel...plus nobody in the states cares about him). And I'm not talking just cheered, they were going ape shit for him. So that continued here, with them cheering when Big Bill was beating up Hook (this was an FTW rules match...meaning no rules) and booing when Hook was beating up Big Bill. Eventually, Big Bill got pushed off the apron onto a table with a barbed wire board on top. There were some “please retire” chants for Jericho. He came out singing with his band Fozzy. All of the guys in Fozzy are, like, thirty years younger than Jericho. It's kind of weird. This was probably the weakest match on the show. They brought out a bag of cricket balls and a cricket mallet and used that stuff. Hook wins the FTW title. I would not be surprised if Jericho heads back to WWE. If you remember, Cody left as soon as he started getting booed and now people chant for Jericho to retire. He'd definitely be cheered in WWE. **

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. THE ACCLAIMED vs. FTR (13:32): This was entertaining, though nothing particularly special nor on the level of the FTR/Bucks matches from the past. They probably should have just had The Acclaimed vs. The Bucks because they had been pushing that story all summer long. The Bucks looked great. The Acclaimed are probably turning heel...maybe. At one point, Max joined in to do an EVP trigger. The Bucks retain the tag titles. After the match, The Grizzled Young Veterans, who used to be in NXT, came out. They beat up FTR. The GYV actually wrestled on Collision awhile back, so this wasn't, like, a big debut or anything. **1/2

CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. JEFF JARRETT vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. KYLE O'REILLY vs. LUCHASAURUS vs. MARK BRISCOE vs. NIGEL McGUINNESS vs. ORANGE CASSIDY vs. RICOCHET vs. RODERICK STRONG vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. “CASINO GAUNTLET MATCH” (25:57): This was a hell of a lot of fun. The rules for this are that anyone can pin anyone at any time, even before all the wrestlers get in the ring. It started off with Orange Cassidy and Okada. Okada may be a heel, but the crowd here adored him (kind of a running problem with AEW heels, right?). Nigel McGuinness was a surprise entrant, considering he's long retired and is just an announcer these days. The fans loved everything he did and he looked great considering he hasn't wrestled in years. Zack Sabre was another surprise. And Ricochet was the big debut of the night. He did all his top rope flips and looked like a superstar (something he definitely wasn't in WWE). Christian Cage eventually won and gets a title shot. I love Christian but I doubt they'd ever put the title on him. Super entertaining match. ***1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. MJF (25:57): This was excellent...but it wasn't as good as their 59 minute match on Dynamite last month. The ending was a classic, though. The story started in the Ospreay/Danielson match all the way back in April. Will fake injured Danielson with the Tiger Driver and vowed never to do it again. So of course he did it here on MJF and won. The final five minutes or so was as good as pro-wrestling gets. High drama, back and forth kickouts, a hot crowd. Ospreay wins back the International title. I will say, though, when they announced they signed Will Ospreay I figured that he should be in the main event of this show winning the title. Maybe they thought it was too soon, or maybe they figured Danielson might not be around the next time they have a big stadium show and wanted to give him a big title win on a grand stage (they announced tonight that they're doing a stadium show in Brisbane in February and Forbidden Door next August in London...they previously announced All In will be at the Texas Rangers' baseball stadium next July). ***1/2

MERCEDES MONE vs. BRITT BAKER (17:19): Britt Baker is rarely if ever in good matches, so it wasn't a big surprise that this was just okay. Mercedes hasn't been in any really good matches, either, since coming to AEW. They did have a good build for this match as they do both present themselves as big time stars. The match just wasn't all that exciting. Mercedes retained the TBS title. **

JACK PERRY vs. DARBY ALLIN “COFFIN MATCH” (10:37): This was watchable but too short to amount to much. Darby came out with thumbtacks glued to his face. Jack Perry brought out a bag of glass and poured it in the ring, causing some “CM Punk” chants. Perry got slammed on the glass. Darby did a running dive and missed Perry and hit the coffin. Perry taped Darby's hands together and tied his feet with a belt and tossed him off the stage on a table. Then he put him in a body bag and dragged him to the coffin, put him in, and won. I was, like, that's it? Well...no. The Young Bucks came out with a can of gasoline and were going to set the coffin with Darby in it on fire. Sting then came out and the place went nuts. The Bucks hit Sting with a chair and he no sold it, then gave The Bucks a double Scorpion Death Drop. That was great stuff. The actual match was just okay. **1/2

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. SWERVE STRICKLAND (25:59): Towards the end of this match, they did the story where Danielson was done, he was beaten, and Swerve was just toying with him. Then Swerve would deliver a big move or a finisher and Bryan would miraculously kick out. When these kickouts happened, the stadium popped so loud it brought tears to my eyes. This was high-level, emotional, dramatic stuff. The gimmick was that Bryan would retire if he lost. Nobody believed it. But they had Bryan's wife and kids and ringside, and the story had Bryan fighting to win for his family. They did do a spot that didn't sit well with me, though, which was kind of the point. Bryan was a bloody mess, and so Swerve dragged him over to show his kids their father was bleeding and beaten. The kids were fucking crying! Jesus Christ. And his kids are too young to comprehend that this is, like, fake. I mean...I'm sure they told the kids it's fake, but their brains aren't fully developed. This spot did work, though, because when Bryan started to comeback, you could see his daughter standing up and cheering in the front row. It doesn't get much more emotional than that. 'Hangman' Adam Page ran out during the match but was quickly chased off by security. This caused Swerve to be distracted and Bryan him him with a knee but only got a 2 count. Eventually, finally, Bryan submitted Swerve and won the title. Bryan's family came in the ring (his wife is ex-WWE's Brie Bella, if you, like, don't know) and celebrated. That was just an awesome end to this show. The match itself was good but it was the family drama that really made this a high water mark in wrestling for the year. AEW really delivered, again. And this company is #2 behind WWE? I'm just fucking baffled. ****

WWE SUMMERSLAM

Cleveland

LIV MORGAN vs. RHEA RIPLEY (15:53): This was at the Cleveland Browns football stadium, so it was cool seeing over 50,000 people there. It made the show look like a big deal. They did have the same problem that they had on Night 1 of Wrestlemania though. As soon as it got dark, it looked like they were wrestling in a cave. Is TKO that cheap to not, like, put some lights in the crowd? This show definitely had a lot, if that was your thing. A lot of interference, run-ins, title changes, and storylines. If you wanted great wrestling matches then go watch an AEW show. This was more about everything besides in-ring wrestling, although the LA Knight/Logan Paul and Gunther/Damian Priest had some good wrestling. It was an entertaining show, though, and maybe the best WWE PPV of the year. Not that that's saying much, as I haven't exactly loved any WWE PPV this year. This opener was all about Dominik Mysterio, who wasn't even in the match. Liv Morgan has been after Dominik all summer because Rhea Ripley has been out with an injury. Dominik distracted the ref late in the match to let Liv use a chair in the ring to defeat Rhea and retain her title. After the match, Dominik kissed Liv and they walked out of the arena together. I'm guessing they did this because they want to turn Rhea into a babyface. I think Dominik and Rhea were great together, though, and they'll never have Dominik vs. Rhea because the WWE doesn't do men vs. women (Japan does it, though). The storyline in this was amusing, but the actual wrestling was just okay. **

BRON BREAKER vs. SAMI ZAYN (5:42): These two wrestled at the last PPV, Money in the Bank, and Sami won. That meant it was fairly obvious that Bron was winning the IC title here, otherwise why the hell would they do the match again? This was also a big thing on this PPV: everything that happened was obvious. While usually the obvious ending or idea is the right ending/idea, you do like to see some shocks and surprises. Dominik turning, Finn Balor turning, Roman returning, Gunther winning, Bron winning...everything was obvious and not a surprise to anyone. The other bad part about this match was that it was only 5 minutes long. That was probably to mask Bron's deficiencies. But you can't have a great 5 minute match even though Sami did look great in this and was on fire from the opening bell. It was one of the show's weaker matches. **

LA KNIGHT vs. LOGAN PAUL (12:04): This was probably the best match of the night. Logan is entertaining and does a lot of big moves, including a top rope moonsault to the floor that looked very precarious. LA Knight gave Logan a top rope suplex that was more like a top rope brain buster. It was mostly all action and the crowd was into it. Logan had a bunch of friends at ringside and one of them gave him brass knuckles. They didn't help, as LA Knight won the U.S. title. The WWE loves having wrestlers lose in their hometowns. They did this with Drew McIntyre in Scotland in June. Logan is from Ohio. He is a heel, but still. Entertaining match. ***

NIA JAX vs. BAYLEY (12:33): This was an okay match. They had Tiffany Stratton run down to the ring in the middle of the match to cash in her Money in the Bank briefcase. Bayley ran over and knocked her off the apron to stop the cash in. This caused Bayley to be distracted and then get destroyed by Nia, who did her middle rope sit down finisher to win the title. Remember the WWE fired Nia Jax a few years ago? Now she's the champ? Makes sense. *1/2

DREW McINTYRE vs. CM PUNK (16:58): If you love storylines and chaos, this was one for you. They were having a fairly decent, pedestrian match. This was CM Punk's first televised singles match in WWE since he returned last November. He had a house show match against Dominik and was in the Royal Rumble, but that's it. Punk looked fine. He did all of his patented spots. The storyline here actually involved a friendship bracelet. Maybe they should have done a Friendship Bracelet on a Pole match. Drew had beaten up CM Punk months ago in Chicago and stolen his friendship bracelet. CM Punk took it off Drew during the match and it fell to the mat. Seth Rollins, the special referee, took the bracelet and put it on, apparently to keep it safe. CM Punk saw that Seth had the friendship bracelet on. Jesus Christ, I can't believe I'm even typing this. This is so fucking stupid! Anyway, CM Punk gave Seth a GTS because Seth had the friendship bracelet on. When Seth woke up, he didn't call for a DQ for some reason even though a wrestler in the match gave him a finishing maneuver. While Seth was knocked out, CM Punk had the match won. Eventually Drew gave CM Punk a Claymore Kick and won the match. I mean...the story of the bracelet was perhaps the stupidest thing ever concocted, especially because this is supposed to be a vicious blood feud between two tough guys that hate eachother. But the match was entertaining at least. CM Punk loses his first singles match. I'm not sure that was the right call. It was after CM Punk screwing Drew out of the title over and over again, but in the big picture, you don't want your big star losing his first singles match in the WWE in, what, 11 years? C'mon! **1/2

GUNTHER vs. DAMIAN PRIEST (16:38): This was so hard hitting that I thought I had inadvertently switched to watching the G1 tournament. Gunther's chest was bleeding from Damian's chops and kicks. It would have been nice if that was all there was to this match; a hard hitting, tough, brutal match where the best man wins. Nope! Finn Balor came out of nowhere halfway through this match to start loudly and exuberantly cheering for Damian. That made it fairly obvious he was going to turn on Damian and he did, putting Gunther's foot on the ropes during a pinfall when the ref wasn't looking. Damian saw this on the replay on the big screen, and this caused him to be distracted, leading to Gunther eventually putting him in the sleeper and winning the WWE championship. Damian Priest looked really good in this match. At one point, they were hitting eachother so hard I thought that maybe they were actually mad at eachother. Finn turning seemed kind of ridiculous because we already had another Judgment Day member, Dominik, turn against his own group. They could have, like, done these turns on different shows to make them more impactful. One is a big deal, two is kind of like...well, we already saw it. *** 

CODY RHODES vs. SOLO SIKOA (29:13): The WWE must've been patting themselves on the back for the reaction they got with the Cody/Roman Wrestlemania match these last few months, because this match had basically the same playbook. The Bloodline interferes but out comes another WWE star to save the day! Kevin Owens and Randy Orton came out to help when The Guerrillas of Destiny came into the ring to beat up Cody. This was a no DQ, Bloodline rules match. Jacob Fatu came out and immediately did a top rope, flip dive onto Cody. Jacob also did a top rope slam onto Cody on the announce table. I think Jacob hurt his knee on that move because he sat down and didn't get back up. Finally Roman Reigns' music hit and he came out. He gave Solo a Superman Punch and then a spear and left but stared at Cody in the ring. Cody won with a Crossroads on Solo to retain the title. Roman has been out since Wrestlemania, which is ridiculous. I know his contract is a limited date contract, but he's been out for 4 months. What they should have done is have Roman vs. Cody on this show since they can't really do it again now that Roman is a babyface. Let's face it: nobody on Earth thought Solo was winning the title, but some people might have thought Roman would beat Cody for the title. The match was pretty average for the first half because everyone was just waiting for the interference to start and thus the "real" match to start. All of the interference at least made this watchable. Considering how exciting Jacob Fatu is, I wish they'd put him in a singles match. Solo is a fucking bore. This match and this show delivering pretty much exactly what you expected. So if that's your thing, you were in heaven. **1/2