ROH DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR

 

Trenton, NJ

JOSH WOODS vs. TRACY WILLIAMS (8:40): This was a fantastic show. That's kind of a surprise, because the men's title match had 2 days build and I barely knew anything about the rest of the card. Maybe if you watch the Ring of Honor show on Honor Club you would've known more about this show...but does anyone watch Ring of Honor on Honor Club? It's $9.99 a month for a weekly TV show. No thanks. At least give us the PPV's as part of the subscription. Also, with AEW adding 2 more hours of TV on TNT, Ring of Honor has kind of, sort of been forgotten. I don't think they even promoted this show on AEW these last few weeks. One big reason this show was so great was the awesome Trenton crowd. They were loud for four straight hours tonight. This opener on the pre-show was a match with Pure rules. Don't ask. Besides the only-3-rope-breaks rule, I have no idea what the other rules are and am not entirely sure what the point of these Pure matches are. Either way, this was a good match. It was very stiff with a bunch of power slams and hard hitting. **1/2

ACTION ANDRETTI & DARIUS MARTIN vs. THE WORKHORSEMEN (ANTHONY HENRY & JD DRAKE) (7:22): This match was great. Andretti and Darius were flying all over the place. Even the fat man, JD Drake, did a top rope moonsault. I kind of feel bad for Top Flight. Darius was hurt for awhile which broke up the team...now Dante Martin is hurt. They put Darius and Andretti together because they're both high flyers so it works. Fun match. ***

LEYLA HIRSCH vs. TRISH ADORA (9:13): Leyla Hirsch is still with the company? I haven't seen her in seemingly years. Trish Adora has a move called the Larriot Tubman. That amused me. This was pretty forgettable. *

AR FOX vs. SHANE TAYLOR (10:21): Good match. AR Fox was jumping and flipping all over the place like he always does. Shane Taylor looked good as usual as the big, powerful, monster type. ***

GRAVITY vs. KOMANDER (10:05): And I thought Theory was the dumbest wrestling name these days. Granted, they gave Theory his first name back. But...Gravity? So stupid. It's a shame because he's a pretty exciting luchador. Supposedly these two used to be a tag team somewhere. This was just a classic luchador match and the crowd loved it. Good stuff. ***

SOMOA JOE vs. DALTON CASTLE (14:12): Dalton Castle has to be one of the most entertaining wrestlers outside of actual wrestling. His intro is great and he's a fucking character. But he's never exactly set the world on fire in the wrestling ring beyond his quirky gimmickry. This was kind of slow and the finish was pretty lame. Stokely Hathaway got The Boys banned from ringside and this caught Dalton off guard and Somoa Joe choked him out to retain the TV title. It was at least entertaining for most of the match. **1/2

AUSSIE OPEN vs. BEST FRIENDS vs. THE KINGDOM vs. THE LUCHA BROTHERS (17:01): This match was awesome. I thought it was a great idea to give The Lucha Brothers the tag titles because then you're going to get them in a match on every ROH PPV. So of course Aussie Open won the tag titles here. Aussie Open is great so I guess that's not the worst idea. This was just total action and total mayhem. Best Friends did a lot of comedy. Lucha Brothers did a lot of crazy moves. Matt Taven did some cool over-the-top-rope leaps. Aussie Open did a lot of brutal, fast paced maneuvers. This was just fantastic from start to finish. ***1/2

THE MOGUL EMBASSY (BISHOP KAUN, BRIAN CAGE & TOA LIONA) vs. LEON RUFFIN & SIX OR NINE (MASTER WATO & RUYSUKE TAGUCHI) (12:20): I was so surprised when Taguchi walked out for this match followed by Master Wato. What? These two flew from Japan to Trenton just for this match? Supposedly they're a tag team, as they have a name. I guess those two have to do something since they're not in the G1 this year. This wasn't fantastic or anything but it was a fun match. Leon Ruffin is a small, skinny dude but he did a lot of exciting moves. Taguchi got the crowd into it with his antics. It was entertaining. **1/2

KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. DANIEL GARCIA (14:36): This started slow but by the end it got pretty good. Daniel Garcia's new gimmick is his Magic Mike style dance moves. I kind of feel bad for him for that because he might end up like Fandango instead of being a serious, title contender. Shibata retained the Pure title here by choking out Garcia. It got very hard hitting by the end with some good, back and forth action. It wasn't great, but it was yet another entertaining match on this great show. **1/2

THE DARK ORDER (ALEX REYNOLDS, JOHN SILVER & EVIL UNO) vs. STU GRAYSON & THE RIGHTEOUS (VINCENT & DUTCH) "FIGHT WITHOUT HONOR MATCH" (15:42): This match was insane. It was basically a hardcore match. Stu Grayson joined the Charles Manson-esque cult, The Righteous, so Evil Uno wanted to beat him up for doing that. I was kind of wondering why you would break up one of the best tag teams in wrestling, The Super Smash Brothers. But at least we got this awesome match out of it. So there was a 2x4 with barbed wire. Dutch got thrown onto a barbed wire table. Evil Uno tipped Stu Grayson off a ladder through two tables at ringside. There were thumbtacks and legos strewn about in the ring that everyone got tossed into. Uno and Dutch were bleeding. Vincent did a Swanton Bomb off the top rope onto a table that didn't break so Stu Grayson did a frog splash right after that to break the table. This was a crazy, wild, super entertaining brawl. ***1/2

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. PAC (18:36): Eddie Kingston was supposed to face Claudio for the title on this show. He decided to do the G1 instead. Then Mark Briscoe was going to face Claudio but he got injured. On Wednesday, two days before this show, AEW Dynamite had their annual Blood & Guts War Games match. Claudio and PAC were on the same team but started pushing each other around and then PAC quit the match and walked off. That set this match up. Considering there was pretty much no build for this, it turned out okay. The big spot had Claudio press slamming PAC over the top rope and through a table. PAC looked awesome as always and Claudio is great, so this was a decent match. It never really got to that high drama level you want, but it was pretty good. **1/2

ATHENA vs. WILLOW (20:31): I'm not sure why they put this match on last. I guess they wanted to throw the women a bone. That, or maybe because the men's title match was thrown together late. Bryan Alvarez also bad mouthed AEW the other night because the only woman on Dynamite was Britt Baker and she was in a 1 minute squash. Bryan noted that if Tony Khan is going to say that he wants to push the women and all that then he should prove it. Maybe Tony was listening and that's why this was the main event. Who knows? I thought maybe Willow was winning the women's title here and that's why it went on last. Nope. Athena retained. It was a good match, not great or anything. The crowd certainly helped, as usually they're silent during women's matches. This was such a fun, entertaining show. It seemed to come out of the blue but I'm glad it did. **1/2

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK

 

02 Arena, London

DAMIAN PRIEST vs. BUTCH vs. LA KNIGHT vs. LOGAN PAUL vs. RICOCHET vs. SANTOS ESCOBAR vs. SHINSUKE NAKAMURA "MITB LADDER MATCH" (20:27): This is my favorite WWE PPV every year. We used to get two men's ladder matches and two men's championship matches. Those days are long gone, sadly. Roman Reigns wasn't even on last year's MITB show and this year didn't even defend his title. This show turned out okay. The super hot London crowd definitely helped the show, although they were only super hot for the ladder matches. They didn't seem too into the actual wrestling in the non-ladder matches. This match was by far the best match on the show. Richochet did the move of the match by leaping through a ladder to the floor. That move was so spectacular they didn't even bother to show a replay. The one surprise was how much the crowd cheered for LA Knight. I don't watch Smackdown too often, but I do know that they turned him into a good guy for some reason. I thought he was great as a heel. Either way, he's pretty boring and not exactly great in the ring, so I'm baffled why anyone would cheer him for anything. The big spot of the match was botched, which was a shame. Logan Paul and Richochet were supposed to fall off a ladder and land on the ropes where Richochet was going to give Logan Paul a Spanish Fly from the top rope down onto two tables at ringside. Why they even attempted to do this is beyond me. Can anyone pull that off ever? Logan Paul slipped on the ropes twice but Richochet just did the move anyway and they both looked like they landed on their heads on the table. Damian Priest won, which I (and probably everyone on Earth) predicted. ***

LIV MORGAN & RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ vs. RONDA ROUSEY & SHAYNA BASZLER (9:02): This was for the women's tag team titles, titles I vaguely remembered existed. I wondered why Rousey wasn't the big star in any big programs lately, but I found out she was filming a reality show called Stars on Mars where a group of celebrities go to Australia and vote each other off the show. I'm not entirely sure why it's called Mars. Does the Australian Outback look like Mars? Maybe I should watch it. Are there, like, extras dressed up like aliens? And a UFO in the background on the set? Sounds like a new low for TV. It's probably more entertaining than this match, though. Shayna turned on Rousey during the match, causing them to lose the tag titles. Huh? Why not have them lose the tag titles and then Shayna is frustrated with the loss and turns on Rousey. You know, actually have a reason for the turn. Plus it makes Liv and Raquel look like non-champions because they didn't really win, they just lucked out. I thought the WWE would get a lot better with HHH in charge but it hasn't and I'm baffled at people that think it has. 1/2*

GUNTHER vs. MATT RIDDLE (7:44): Case in point: this match. Matt Riddle is perhaps WWE's best wrestler. You wouldn't fucking know it from watching most of his matches, though. Why? Because they gave him 7 minutes to get squashed by Gunther. What was the point of this? I was expecting a hard hitting, exciting, 20 minute, dramatic match. We didn't get that. Why did they do that with Shaemus & Gunther but not with Riddle & Gunther? I can't figure out why they haven't pushed Riddle to the main event picture. He was recently in rehab, but that's not the reason. Previously they had him in a comedy tag team with Randy Orton. Riddle should really go to AEW or New Japan. He's being wasted here. Drew McIntyre came out after the match to beat up Gunther to set up a match. Gunther is still great and all, just not as great as when he wasn't stick-thin. *1/2

CODY RHODES vs. DOMINIK MYSTERIO (8:38): Who ever is in charge of writing for this company needs to be fired. Brock Lesnar broke Cody Rhodes' arm last month yet somehow he's wrestling a few weeks later. Makes sense. Dominik on the mic is hilarious but nobody wants to actually see him wrestle a singles match. And the big problem with Rhea Ripley is they keep having her get in the men's faces as if the WWE would actually do a man vs. woman match. They do it in Japan so I still can't figure out why they don't do it here. 1/2*

JOHN CENA SEGMENT: Cena came out to tell the crowd that Wrestlemania should be in London. Okay. Are they jealous of AEW selling 60,000 tickets to All In at Wembley? This show supposedly had 18,000. Grayson Waller came out and Cena beat him up. Cena's a great talker and all but I don't know what the point of this was. Wrestlemania is in Philly next year by the way, not London. Will Roman Reigns finally lose his title then? 

IYO SKY vs. BAYLEY vs. BECKY LYNCH vs. TRISH STRATUS vs. ZELINA VEGA vs. ZOEY STARK "MITB LADDER MATCH" (18:04): This match wasn't fantastic or anything, but at least it was entertaining. They really shouldn't have put Trish Stratus in this match. She is too old to be doing this, but also she hasn't been an active wrestler in years. It was sad watching the other women trying to sell Trish's moves like they weren't terrible. The big spot was Zelina doing a Sunset Flip to Zoey off the top of the ladder onto a ladder bridge. They mentioned that The Amazing Red made this move famous and that he's Zelina's cousin. What? Really? I saw him wrestle in CZW at the ECW Arena like twenty years ago. He was awesome. Zelina is not awesome. I can't even picture her standing next to her husband, Malaki Black, because he's like four feet taller than her. Iyo Sky probably saved this match, as every jump she does looks flawless. She won, which is good, but I really doubt they'd give her the title. The finish was kind of clever, so maybe the writers shouldn't be fired. Iyo Sky handcuffed Becky Lynch to Bayley (Bayley turned on Iyo Sky earlier) on the ladder then climbed up to grab the briefcase. **1/2 

SETH ROLLINS vs. FINN BALOR (12:31): I can picture an epic, 30 minute, high intensity match with some great near falls by the end with these two. Sadly, those type of matches don't occur in the WWE. What we got was a 12 minute bore. It's hard to even care about this new championship title when we've been battered over the head by Roman Reigns' long title reign proclaiming him the top dog. That means that this title is basically the 2nd tier belt. And nobody thought Finn was winning, especially since Seth just won it a month ago. This wasn't terrible or anything but it could've should've been much, much better. *1/2

THE USO'S vs. ROMAN REIGNS & SOLO SIKOA (32:05): This was yawn inducingly terrible. The final five minutes or so were pretty entertaining, but that was after 25 minutes of nothingness. After Sami Zayn didn't beat Roman for the title (which would've been the perfect ending to The Bloodline storyline), then Cody didn't beat Roman for the title, I'm completely checked out of this Bloodline storyline. It's going to keep going forever, though, because it's the reason the ratings are up in the last year. We still have to get Solo turning on Roman and eventually Paul Heyman turning on Roman. I'm fucking done! The Uso's have always been a heel tag team, right? And now we're supposed to cheer for them? That's hard to do. This match wasn't even for a title or anything. By the end we got the ref bump and the announce table break. Roman got pinned and lost which I thought was kind of a surprise. Do we really need a 32 minute tag team match? I mean, c'mon. *

AEW/NJPW FORBIDDEN DOOR

 

Toronto

THE MOGUL EMBASSY (BISHOP KAUN, BRIAN CAGE, SWERVE STRICKLAND & TOA LIONA) vs. BEST FRIENDS (CHUCK TAYLOR & TRENT BERETTA), ROCKY ROMERO & EL DESPERADO (12:23): At 5 hours long, this show was too long. It didn't bother me because it took me 3 days to watch it. It was a great show. The only glaring problem was the crowd was spent after the Omega/Ospreay match and thus the last two matches weren't as good as they probably would've been with a hot crowd. The pre-show, free on Youtube, had four matches, none particularly great, though this was a fun opener. The building was maybe half full for this match, which probably didn't help, as I recall last year's Forbidden Door pre-show matches in Chicago featured a gigantic amount of crowd noise. Remember they were popping for Goto and Yoshi-Hashi like they were Hulk Hogan and The Rock? So the Toronto crowd is not as loud as Chicago, and doesn't show up on time. **1/2 

ATHENA vs. BILLIE STARKZ (7:49): The announcers noted that Athena hasn't lost a match since last September's Grand Slam event. I was wondering why I haven't seen her in a while, and it's because she's the ROH women's champ and thus probably only on the ROH shows that nobody watches (they're only on the Honor Club service which costs $9.99 a month and doesn't even give you the ROH PPV's). This was forgettable. *

EL PHANTASMO vs. STU GRAYSON (7:14): Stu Grayson is now affiliated with that Manson cult ROH group led by Vincent. Huh? Maybe he just didn't want to wrestle a full schedule or something. Why the Super Smash Brothers are not still a tag team is baffling to me, as they were one of the best tag teams in wrestling. It also makes little sense to me why NJPW made El Phantasmo a babyface. He was a perfect heel! Decent match, though, for the short time they got. **1/2

LOS IGNOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI, HIROMU TAKAHASHI & SHINGO TAKAGI) vs. UNITED EMPIRE (TJP, KYLE FLETCHER & JEFF COBB) (7:30): Would it kill them to put Shingo Takagi, one of the best wrestlers in the world, a singles match on Forbidden Door? They didn't last year, either, although at least he got put in a prominent multi-man match with Sting. They also threw Hiromu into this pre-show match. They should have put Hiromu in a singles match with one of AEW's high flyers. Oh, well. This had some good action while it lasted. **1/2

MJF vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (15:46): I don't think anyone thought Tanahashi was going to win the AEW title here. That was also the problem with the Sanada match. Maybe they shouldn't even defend the big titles on Forbidden Door. Tanahashi actually wrestled the night before this against Swerve Strickland on Collision. That match was better. Considering Tanahashi is a hobbling, shell of his former self, why is even still wrestling? Maybe put him on a tag team or something to hide his glaring flaws. It's really sad to watch him wrestle these days. They even put him in the G1 again. Jesus. The guy can barely walk around. Even MJF made fun of how he walks. Match was just okay. **

CM PUNK vs. SATOSHI KOJIMA (13:40): This was CM Punk's first singles match since he won the title from Moxley at last year's All Out. He wrestled twice in multi-man matches on Collision. The most intriguing aspect of this match was the fact that he got booed and Kojima got cheered. I guess this stems from the fact that everyone outside of Chicago backs The Elite in the infamous locker room brawl. Punk looked good here but Kojima looked incredible. Kojima looked so much better than Tanahashi, which is surprising since Kojima is older and has wrestled longer. This was the first round of the Owen Hart Tournament, which Punk will presumably win. The winner gets...nothing! So what the fuck is the point? **1/2

ORANGE CASSIDY vs. DANIEL GARCIA vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (11:15): This was the 2nd best match on the show. This match was super entertaining and so much fun to watch. I loved this. Shibata and Zack Sabre were slapping each other and kept pushing Garcia out of the way but he kept trying to do his stupid, gyrating dance. It had comedy and was hard hitting and the crowd loved it. Fantastic match. Orange Cassidy retained his International Title. ***1/2

SANADA vs. 'JUNGLE BOY' JACK PERRY (10:49): I thought this match would be better because Jungle Boy is one of AEW's best wrestlers. Sanada on the other hand is mostly a bore. He also looked like he didn't want to be there and was going through the motions (granted, he looks like that in every match). The huge problem with this match was the fact that Jungle Boy was not going to win the IWGP title and everyone knew that. After the match, Jungle Boy turned heel by knocking down Hook, who had previously been his best friend and sometimes tag partner. They have been teasing a heel turn for Jungle Boy but I'm not so sure it's the right decision. I guess after the whole Christian feud, they didn't know what else to do with him. I guess we'll see if it turns into anything worthwhile. I could care less about a Hook vs. Jack Perry match, though. **

THE ELITE (THE YOUNG BUCKS & 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE), EDDIE KINGSTON & TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB (JON MOXLEY, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & WHEELER YUTA), KONOSUKE TAKESHITA & SHOTA UMINO (21:29): This match was entertaining but the problem was that The Young Bucks didn't get tagged in until late, so we didn't get too much of a great, crazy Young Bucks match. Takeshita and Ishii were both in the match the longest, so this was more a hard striking match than a high flying one, although Page and the Bucks all did top rope spots and the Bucks did a zillion super kicks. Good match but I thought this could've been better. **1/2

TONI STORM vs. WILLOW NIGHTINGALE (10:27): This wasn't very good. Willow is the NJPW women's champ, so maybe they should've had her defend that title and win instead of lose here. Toni retained the AEW title. There wasn't much to this. Willow did a top rope moonsault that was impressive. *1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. KENNY OMEGA (39:50): What can I say about this match? It's hard to even put into words how impressive these two wrestlers are. I didn't think they could top their match from January, and they didn't, but this was still one of the best matches you'll ever see and perhaps just as good as their Tokyo Dome match. I'd probably actually have to watch their January match again to see which one was better. The only negative I'll say was when Don Callis came back after being kicked out to hand Ospreay a screwdriver when the ref was distracted. The match was so great and we didn't want to see outside interference ruin it. Thankfully that wasn't how the match ended. The story of the first match was that Omega busted open Ospreay on a DDT from the top rope down onto the exposed turnbuckle. In this match, both men got busted open. Omega got busted open when Ospreay bashed his head onto the announce table multiple times. Ospreay got busted open when Omega slammed his head onto the ring steps multiple times then did a DDT on Ospreay atop the ring steps that were turned sideways. This match was so engrossing. By the end it was just pure brutality. I can't even fathom all of the punishment these two went through and still kept going. Ospreay was bleeding like a stuck pig all over the ring at one point. Ospreay gave Omega a Tiger Driver that put Omega right on his head. I can't believe he didn't break his neck on that. After the screwdriver spot, Omega put his foot on the ropes to avoid a 3 count. Ospreay did a One Winged Angel and Omega kicked out at 1. Eventually Ospreay won with the Hidden Blade and then the Stormbreaker. This was dramatic as anything you'll ever see, two wrestlers going all out for 40 minutes. I can see why they didn't put this on last, but in hindsight they obviously should have. Nothing could go on after this. This was pure spectacle and one of the best matches you will ever see in your entire life. Ospreay won the U.S. title. I was kind of hoping that Omega would win here and Ospreay would finally get his win at the big show at Wembley in August. After watching the horror show these two put each other through, though, I'm not sure I want to see them do this again. What more could they possible accomplish? This was just incredible and a high water mark few can ever hope to achieve. ****

DARBY ALLIN, STING & TETSUYA NAITO vs. MINORU SUZUKI & THE JERICHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY (CHRIS JERICHO & SAMMY GUEVARA) (15:09): So nothing could follow the Omega/Ospreay match. With a hot crowd, this match might've been excellent. The crowd was half into it. Even the showdown with Jericho and Sting (who, apparently, have never wrestled before) got barely a response. The big spot was Sammy doing a 630 splash from the top rope onto Sting on a table. That was fucking insane. Too bad the crowd was spent. Naito wrestled in a t-shirt, which usually means you don't consider this a big match. Match was entertaining but the dead crowd hurt it. **

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (27:47): This match also probably would have been a lot better with a hot crowd. After 4 and a half hours of wrestling (there was also Tom Lawler dark match before the pre-show...he was supposed to wrestle Adam Cole on the show but Cole was sick) plus following one of the greatest matches of all time, I can't really blame the crowd for being pretty quiet for this dream match. The one good thing about this year's Forbidden Door was that we actually got some dream matches. Last year, CM Punk, Danielson, and Omega were all injured and not on Forbidden Door. This year we got Okada/Danielson and Omega/Ospreay. So there's that. While this match was pretty good, it was also way too slow. Okada is not the great Okada of five years ago. He's too methodical now. I can't even remember the last great match he's been in. It also didn't help that Danielson fractured his arm at the 17 minute mark. In the press conference after the match, he mentioned possibly being out 6 to 8 weeks, which might hurt his chances of wrestling at the big Wembley show. If he didn't injure his arm would this match have been better? Who knows? The ending was also flat. Danielson kicked out after a Rainmaker. But then Danielson submitted Okada and Okada tapped out. That was kind of anti-climactic. I'd have rather seen him win with a flying knee or something more dramatic and exciting. Match was pretty good but the quiet, tired crowd and the injury kind of ruined it. Good show over all, though. AEW really pulls out all the stops on their PPV's. And you can definitely say you got your money's worth. Now bring on Wembley! **1/2

NJPW DOMINION

 

Osaka, Japan

WILL OSPREAY vs. LANCE ARCHER (8:01): Thank God this show started with a real match and not the usual, lame series of multi-man matches that everyone can't wait to be over so they can get to the meat of the show. Unfortunately, this was not a great Will Ospreay match like we're used to. It was too short to be much of anything, and Lance Archer didn't do much of interest. Archer is signed to AEW but I think he's only been on an AEW show once all year. Even Tony Khan is baffled what to do with him. Ospreay won this U.S. title tournament and will face Kenny Omega at Forbidden Door. Considering Omega and Ospreay's first match this year was one of the greatest matches in history, they have a pretty high bar for the rematch. Ospreay's been injured for awhile but he's back and beat up. Maybe he should do what Omega did and take a year off and go get some surgery. **1/2

LOS IGNOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI, SHINGO TAKAGI, TITAN & TETSUYA NAITO) vs. JUST 5 GUYS (DOUKI, TAKA MICHINOKU, TAICHI & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU) (9:24): Do you think anyone in this company knows there's a hamburger chain in America called Five Guys? I always bash the fact that Bullet Club is still around because that was cool ten years ago but at least Bullet Club is a decent name. Just 5 Guys? It doesn't help that it's stacked with losers. This match at least had so many people in it a lot was happening so it wasn't boring. **1/2

CATCH 22 (FRANCESCO AKIRA & TJP) vs. INTERGALACTIC JET SETTERS (KUSHIDA & KEVIN KNIGHT) (10:38): Good match. Catch 22 won the Jr. tag titles. I didn't even know Kushida and some guy I never heard of had the Jr. tag titles. Wasn't Kushida out of action since last year because of foot and mouth disease? How did he have a title? Kushida looked good here, which kind of surprised me because he's aging fast. Kevin Knight was a bit green and sloppy. Akira and TJP are a lot of fun. ***

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. JEFF COBB (8:46): Zack retained the TV title. This company has too many titles. This title has a 15 minute time limit because I guess there's commercials after 15 minutes on TV? Match was okay. **

BISHAMON (HIROOKI GOTO & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI) vs. UNITED EMPIRE (GREAT O'KHAN & AARON HENARE) (13:46): Good match. Aussie Open won the tag titles but then one of them got hurt so they forfeited them. Goto and Yoshi-Hashi won the tag titles here. House of Torture of course interfered throughout the match. Evil even knocked the announcer over again like he always does. There was a lot of action and a lot going on and it was a wild melee and the good guys won. Good stuff. ***

DAVID FINLAY vs. EL PHANTASMO (18:51): The one true dud on this show. Finlay retained the NEVER title. Finlay is the new leader of Bullet Club. Bullet Club is stocked with all of these new American wrestlers that I don't know. I feel bad for Finlay, because the leader of Bullet Club always gets beat up and kicked out of the company. Or maybe that's a good thing, since Prince Devitt and AJ Styles went to WWE and Omega and Jay White went to AEW after they all led Bullet Club. El Phantasmo was great as a heel so I have no idea why he's a babyface now. This was just dull. 1/2*

HIROMU TAKAHASHI vs MASTER WATO (19:50): Wato won the Super Jr. tournament by beating Titan in an awesome match last week. Wato lost here, though, so his push is moot. I do recall him being the Jr. title champ awhile back, though, right? Or was that not a thing? The last five minutes of this match were awesome. Before that it was hit-or-miss. Hiromu isn't as great as he once was, but they both delivered with some high drama and great near-falls at the end. The crowd was super into the final few minutes of this match. ***

KAZUCHIKA OKADA, HIROSHI TANAHASHI & TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. JON MOXLEY, CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & SHOTA UMINO (20:38): This was a good match. Supposedly Claudio didn't make it to the building until 25 minutes before this match because of Visa issues. You wouldn't know it, though, as everything looked seamless. The big spot was when Ishii delivered a lunging head butt to Moxley that busted him open. That looked brutal and probably was a botch. This was very entertaining although Shota Umino didn't really look all that great to be honest. ***

SANADA vs. YOTA TSUJI (17:01): Dominion is the 2nd biggest show of the year for New Japan. I remember loving this show in the glory days. They had some awesome matches on this show. AJ vs. Okada for the title. Omega vs. Elgin in a ladder match. The Omega/Okada 60 minute draw. Omega winning the title from Okada in a 2 out of 3, 65 minute match. I was thinking of all these great matches when they announced that the main event for this show was going to be Sanada defending the title against a guy I never heard of. What? This is the main event of your 2nd biggest show of the year? Really? Yota Tsuji was a young lion and wrestled in RevPro and CMLL previously. I guess they wanted to make his main roster debut a big deal. Everyone raved about his performance here, so I guess it paid off. Tsuji is a big dude and does some high flying and big moves. He's still a bit green and figuring it out, though, but he will probably be a big star in the company moving forward. Sadly, this match wasn't very good. Sanada is boring. The crowd really wanted Tsuji to win but, c'mon, Sanada just won the title, he wasn't losing this early. There were some good matches on this show but this wasn't one of them and was too short to be a main event. **

AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING

 

Las Vegas

THE HARDY'S & HOOK vs. ETHAN PAGE & THE GUNNS (15:10): This was the pre-show match. This went way too long. This was also the first match Jeff Hardy has been in since his return. He looked like he twisted his ankle at one point, because he hurt it then stupidly tried to climb up on the top rope to do a move and he awkwardly slipped off and almost landed on his head. That was scary. He did finish the match but didn't do his Swanton Bomb finisher. Hook got the win with a tap out. Remember when Hook was super over and super popular? Well they haven't really done much with him since then. He should, like, evolve, right? I really hope The Hardy's retire soon, because watching them wrestle these days is just sad. *

BLACKJACK BATTLE ROYAL (ORANGE CASSIDY) (22:25): There were like a hundred wrestlers in this match. It was for the International Title, which used to be called the All Atlantic title. I have no idea why they changed it. Cassidy retained. Kommander did his awesome rope walk into a flip dive to the floor. Considering you lose when you fall to the floor...does this make sense? They said he didn't "enter" the match yet but isn't being on the top rope entering the match? The Lucha Brothers got a lot of spots in this match. Ricky Starks, Juice Robinson, and Jay White were also beating each other up and eliminating each other. Big Bill got pushed big for unknown reasons. The final had Swerve Strickland and Orange Cassidy left and those two tore the house down. The final few minutes with those two were awesome. **1/2

ADAM COLE vs. CHRIS JERICHO "UNSANCTIONED MATCH" (17:00): This was a dud. Not a surprise, since Jericho is too old and slow to be in singles matches anymore. Basically this was a no rules match. Jericho was hitting Cole with a Singapore cane when Britt Baker came out and started hitting Jericho with a Singapore cane of her own. That got a huge pop. Cole and Jericho sprayed each other with a fire extinguisher. The end had Jericho bring a chain into the match and Cole ended up hitting him in the head with the chain. Eventually, Cole kept punching Jericho in the head so the ref stopped it. Kind of a lame ending. This was just boring. *

FTR vs. JEFF JARRETT & JAY LETHAL (20:00): You can tell that Sonjay Dutt is one of AEW's writers, because the matches he's involved in always have way too much going on in them. In this one, we had Mark Briscoe, who was the special referee, get inadvertently hit with a guitar. Aubrey, the new ref, ran down to the ring but was hit with a guitar over the head by Karen Jarrett. This all felt like it was written by Vince Russo. Although, if it was it probably would have been a Guitar on a Pole match. FTR retained the tag titles. If this had been just a standard wrestling match it probably would have been kind of dull, so at least all the craziness and House of Torture-esque interference made it entertaining. **1/2

WARDLOW vs. CHRISTIAN CAGE "LADDER MATCH" (17:10): I'm not sure why they didn't just have Luchasaurus face Wardlow for the title here. I guess because Christian is famous for being in ladder matches and hasn't been in one in AEW yet. The big spot was when Wardlow put Luchasaurus on two tables and then did a Swanton Bomb off a Big Dog ladder onto him. That was insane. Jeff Hardy made that move famous twenty years plus years ago and it's wild to see a big dude like Wardlow do it. The other memorable moment came when Wardlow tried to jump from the top rope onto the ladder and climb it but he's too fucking big and the ladder cracked and him and Christian fell awkwardly off it. The big spot made the match. And is Luchasaurus never going to wrestle again? He hasn't wrestled a match since he lost to Jungle Boy in that cage match in March. **1/2

TONI STORM vs. JAMIE HAYTER (3:05): Jamie Hayter must be injured. How else to explain her losing the title in 3 minutes? The Outcasts constantly interfered in his match, even beating up Hayter before she even came out of the curtain. They sprayed her in the face with paint when the ref wasn't looking. Britt Baker did come out to help to no avail. Hayter beat Storm for the title last November. Kind of weird to go back to Storm as champ so soon unless Hayter really is injured. I was also thinking this could be a way for Britt to beat Storm for the title at the big Wembley show in August considering Britt should be in a big match on that show. Either way, this wasn't really much of a match. *1/2

THE HOUSE OF BLACK vs. THE ACCLAIMED & BILLY GUNN (15:30): This was an unannounced match. You know there's trouble in the booking department when that happens. I think this will be happening a lot more now that AEW has a new, 2 hour, weekly show debuting in a few weeks. CM Punk is going to be the star of that show as well, although he hasn't been announced yet. Tony Khan apparently is the head booker and is now going to have to book 5 hours of weekly wrestling plus his PPV's and Ring of Honor shows. So expect more of these unannounced, out of the blue matches. The crowds still love The Acclaimed. I enjoy Max Castor's raps, but in the ring they're kind of mediocre. The House of Black usually works better with high flying or hard hitting wrestlers, not wrestlers like The Acclaimed. This wasn't terrible, but there were long stretches where Bowens was just getting beaten down and waiting and waiting and waiting to give a hot tag. Billy Gunn obviously got pinned. **

JADE CARGILL vs. TAYA VALKYRIE (8:50)/ KRIS STATLANDER vs. JADE CARGILL (0:48): The crowd was sitting on their hands and waiting for this to be over when finally they popped when Taya delivered her finisher and got a 2.5 count. They both have the same finisher. That's strange. Jade eventually won in a sloppy, awful match. Jade had a cool entrance where she did some dance moves with a few dancers and a female rapper sang. Jade definitely looks impressive but she's terrible in the ring and hasn't improved a lick. After Jade won, Mark Sterling, her manager, announced an open challenge and anyone from the back could come out for a match. I was thinking of who would be a big surprise and could only think of Mercedes Mone, but she's injured. Statlander came out. She got a big pop. She's been injured forever and won the TBS title by giving Jade her first loss. That was cool. They even shot confetti into the ring. Jade sucks in the ring, so I'm glad she lost the title. Neither match was great but Statlander winning was awesome. **

MJF vs. SAMMY GUEVARA vs. DARBY ALLIN vs. 'JUNGLE BOY' JACK PERRY (27:50): This was definitely the best match on the show. This show wasn't one of AEW's best shows, but it was typical in that it was very entertaining. There wasn't one match-of-the-year, great match on this show, though this came close. The problem was that this had no drama or emotion, it was just a 30 minute spot fest. After the 20th Canadian Destroyer, I was kind of wondering if they knew how to do anything else. The big spot was when Sammy grabbed Darby and did a Spanish Fly from the top rope down onto MJF and Jack Perry on the floor. That was insane. They all did a bunch of crazy moves except for MJF, who doesn't fly. The end had Darby giving a Coffin Drop onto Sammy but MJF laid his belt on Sammy and Darby landed on the belt. Then MJF did a head lock takeover on Darby and pinned him. This echoes how MJF beat Darby at Double or Nothing 2020. This was a wild match and pretty similar to that PAC vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Omega title match a few years ago. Those three are obvious better, all around wrestlers than these 4, though. This was fun and creative, but I think these young guys still need to focus more on the drama and emotion that an epic, title match deserves instead of just delivering crazy high spots that get old after you keep doing them non stop. ***

THE BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB vs. THE ELITE "ANARCHY IN THE ARENA" (27:00): This was a good match and pretty much the same as last year's Anarcy in the Arena match. The two best spots featured Matt Jackson. Claudio had given him a pile driver in the bed of a pickup truck outside the building. Eventually Matt made his return to the arena and came into the ring and kicked Jon Moxley in the head but Matt had an exploding charge on his sneaker and it exploded on Moxley's face. That was cool, and had me thinking of Onita. After Moxley put thumbtacks onto the ring, TBCC took off Matt's sneaker and sock and dropped him feet first onto the thumbtacks. That was a crazy spot. They also put thumbtacks in Nick's mouth then Claudio gave him an uppercut. They also all brawled around the building. Claudio did a Giant Swing on Nick out on the concourse then threw him head first into a trash can. Moxley and Omega both slammed each other onto barbed wire on a big poker chip by the entrance. There weren't a lot of moves or wrestling in this match, which is kind of a shame since Omega and The Young Bucks are three of the most exciting wrestlers in the business. The one disappointment of this show and AEW in general lately is that Omega has been tied into these multi-man matches and hasn't been in a lot of singles matches. The last AEW PPV Omega singles match was when he lost the title to 'Hangman' and that was two and a half years ago. The ending came when a masked man came into the ring to help TBCC. It turned out to be Takeshita, who I guess is a heel now. Yuta pinned Omega, which was kind of a shock. This presumably sets up The Elite & somebody (hopefully Kota Ibushi) vs. Takeshita and TBCC in a Blood & Guts match. That would be the greatest match in the history of the world, right? And we never got that Blood & Guts match with The Elite. It was set up. It was supposed to take place in March of 2020 in Newark. And we all know what happened in March of 2020. So we'll hopefully finally get that match, 3 years too late. The pandemic is finally over! ***

WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS

 

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

SETH ROLLINS vs. AJ STYLES (20:40): This show was just okay, although the super hot and boisterous crowd certainly was a big plus. AEW's Double or Nothing crowd was a little tepid, and they only sold half of the seats in the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas. That show was better than this, but the WWE is hot these days for whatever reason. I guess The Bloodline storyline has resonated. That seems to be the reason everyone says that the WWE is hot. The big problem with the WWE is that everything feels sterile whereas AEW feels kinetic, wild, and alive. Oh, well. This first match was for the new World Heavyweight championship. If you remember, they unified the two titles at last year's Wrestlemania and now they've un-unified them. It lasted a little more than a year, so that's longer than I would have figured. I both like and don't like having two main titles. On one hand, you get more championship matches on the PPV's so that's usually a plus. On the other hand, it kind of dilutes both champions. Seth was the obvious favorite and won. If this match had occurred five or so years ago it probably would have been better. AJ is obviously not as great as he once was, so I'm not sure why he was even in this match (they did a tournament on RAW and Smackdown and this was the final). I thought this would be better. **

TRISH STRATUS vs. BECKY LYNCH (14:50): How old is Trish Stratus? And what has she been doing since she left the WWE? Did she make enough money back in the day or did she have to get a real job since then? Who knows? Okay, she's 47. It's weird that they had so many women's matches on this show considering Saudi Arabia treats women like cattle. The women all have to wrestle in full body suits because they can't show skin except for their heads and hands. It's just sad. None of the women's matches were any good. And considering Trish is 47 and hasn't wrestled in years, why did they make this a 15 minute match? Jesus! Too long. I suppose this feud will continue since Trish won thanks to interference by Tony Stark. Is that her name? Who is Tony Stark? I give up. 1/2*

ASUKA vs. BIANCA BELAIR (15:00): Last month, in Puerto Rico, the fans booed Bianca out of the building for unknown reasons but she still beat Asuka and retained her title. They probably should have done the title switch then, but I believe they wanted Bianca to get to some dumb, days-as-champ milestone. Asuka won the title here. This match was not good at all. I kind of thought Bianca and Asuka were, like, good wrestlers. This was a bore. 1/2*

RHEA RIPLEY vs. NATALYA (1:10): I feel bad for Natalya. She had to fly all the way to Saudi Arabia just to lose in a 1 minute squash. What was the point of this? I'm baffled. -No Stars-

BROCK LESNAR vs. CODY RHODES (9:40): I was suprised Cody lost here. I guess they didn't want to have Brock lose to Cody twice in a row. That, and they'll probably do another match soon. I think this is only the second time Cody lost since coming back to the WWE. I'd say they were pushing him but he lost at Wrestlemania and now here so who the fuck knows? The story was that Brock beat up Cody on RAW last week and injured his arm. So Cody had a cast on his arm and played up like he was some sort of superhero impervious to pain. This was akin to his match last year against Seth Rollins when Cody had a torn bicep. Cody won that match, though. This match was pretty good because Cody got a lot of offense in. I don't know...I'm kind of tired of Brock Lesnar. **1/2

SAMI ZAYN & KEVIN OWENS vs. ROMAN REIGNS & SOLO SIKOA (26:25): This match wasn't that great or anything but the crowd was going ape shit for Sami. Sami was banned from Saudi Arabia for every previous show there because he's part Syrian and Saudi Arabia used to hate Syria. Now they don't so Sami is back. Sami posted pictures online where he visited Mecca this week. Is he a Muslim? I didn't know that. He spoke Arabic to the crowd before the match. Does he speak Arabic or did he memorize that? It sounded like he can speak Arabic. I know he speaks French. Does he really speak three languages? Oh, there was also a match. It was for the tag team titles. The big story was that the ref got knocked out and The Uso's came in. They inadvertantly super kicked Solo and Reigns got mad. Then Jimmy Uso super kicked Reigns twice. The Bloodline storyline keeps going and going and going and going. Jesus Christ. They're really milking this fucking thing, aren't they? I'd heard that eventually they're doing Solo vs. Roman. Does that mean we'll get a Solo turn in six months and this storyline is like The Never Ending Story? What was that giant, flying white dog's name? The crowd during this match was epic but the match itself was just a typical TV match. Just imagine if Sami was champ and had a title match here. But they didn't want to pull the trigger and have Sami win the title. Those fucking idiots. **1/2

WWE BACKLASH

 

San Juan, Puerto Rico

BIANCA BELAIR vs. IYO SKY (18:01): Puerto Rico paid the WWE to do this show there. I hope this doesn't mean the WWE never goes back, because this was one of the hottest wrestling crowds I've ever seen. You would have thought that this match was Omega/Okada or Steamboat/Flair or something considering how crazy the crowd was going during it. It felt like this crowd had never seen wrestling before or something and couldn't fathom how amazing it was. I was thinking this was probably a similar reaction to when movies were first invented and the audience saw a train pulling into a station on screen and went insane (that happened in 1895 by the way, and no, the audience probably didn't go insane). This match was good and all, but it wasn't that good. And there is wrestling in Puerto Rico. It's just that the WWE hasn't been there in years. Bianca retained her title but Iyo Sky was the star even though she's supposed to be a heel. **1/2

SETH ROLLINS vs. OMOS (10:31): You can tell Vince is back in charge because Omos is getting pushed. He faced Lesnar at 'Mania and now he's facing another huge star. Omos never wins against these big stars, though, so this "push" is moot. Sure, Omos is a tall dude, but can't Vince see that he fucking sucks? Granted, Vince also put Giant Gonzalez on TV and pushed Andre when Andre was past his prime. Vince loves big dudes. That'll never change. On another note...why is Vince not in jail? It came out that he paid a woman in his company 7 million dollars in a sexual harassment suit to get her to be quiet about it. And yet he's back, pushing tall wrestlers that can't wrestle. I hope Seth goes to AEW someday, because he's a great wrestler and this weird, dancing, Joker-esque gimmick is just fucking baffling to me. *

AUSTIN THEORY vs. BOBBY LASHLEY vs. BRONSON REED (6:51): Bronson Reed beat Okada last year in New Japan. Now he's getting pinned by Austin Theory. Did he make the right decision to return to the company that fired him? Maybe he didn't like living in Japan. Who knows? They were sort of pushing Theory's U.S. title as being the 2nd biggest belt...but now they're having a new RAW world title. Maybe they'll give it to Theory. What ever happened to the Intercontinental title? That seemed to have disappeared. This match was short and pretty forgettable. *1/2

RHEA RIPLEY vs. ZELINA VEGA (7:11): I guess Zelina is from Puerto Rico? The crowd was into this because of that. Besides the hot crowd, this show was fairly mediocre. Where's Charlotte and Becky Lynch and Rhonda Rousey, anyway? They used to be the big stars in this division. *1/2

BAD BUNNY vs. DAMIAN PRIEST "SAN JUAN STREET FIGHT" (25:03): They probably should have made this the main event since Bad Bunny is from Puerto Rico and everyone came to this show to see him. Originally it was supposed to be Bad Bunny & Myserio vs. Damian Priest & Dominic. I think that match would've been better...especially because both Dominic and Rey showed up in this match. Carlito showed up and got the biggest pop of the night. I remember him in WWE but he didn't last too long. Silvio Vega also showed up but I don't remember him in WWF. This was a hardcore match so they used Singapore Canes, a trash can, a chain, and chairs. They did a big spot out in the crowd where Damian Priest slammed Bunny down onto two tables from a sound rig set up. Bad Bunny is a popular musician these days, filling Yankee Stadium, rumored to be dating Kendall Jenner. So I guess it's unique seeing him leaping from the top rope and hitting people with steel chairs. He's not really mainstream popular, though, but if you have kids they probably know who he is. I downloaded his album last year and didn't really like it. Maybe I'm just too old to be cool (it's all in Spanish, too, so there's that). This match was entertaining at least. And at least they learned their lesson from Cardiff and had Bad Bunny win his match in his hometown. **1/2

THE BLOODLINE (THE USO'S & SOLO SIKOA) vs. KEVIN OWENS, SAMI ZAYN & MATT RIDDLE (22:05): I was kind of bored watching this. The Bloodline storyline was the hottest thing the WWE has done in years...but that was a few months ago. Now it feels stale. They really missed the peak by not having Sami or Cody beat Reigns for the title. Because the story of Sami possibly turning on The Bloodline being so white hot, they've recreated that but with The Uso's and Solo Sikoa. They teased Solo turning on The Uso's in this match. Ugh. You know...it worked with Sami. It doesn't mean you just do it again with someone else and it'll work. I'm still bitter about how they botched the pinnacle of The Bloodline storyline. It'll go down in infamy as one of the worst decisions in wrestling. Matt Riddle ended up getting pinned. He's back from rehab and I guess this was his punishment. **

CODY RHODES vs. BROCK LESNAR (9:43): Brock Lesnar was a bloody mess in this match after he rammed his head into the exposed steel turnbuckle. I'm guessing they did this obvious set up for blood because at 'Mania in the Hell in a Cell match they stopped the match to tend to Finn's bloody wound and got a lot of flak for it. The WWE hasn't done blood in years because of advertisers. I guess they could do it here because this show was on Peacock (which does have commercials)? Who knows? Maybe they were jealous of AEW because AEW always does bloodbaths and the crowds love them. Either way, the match was pretty good but short. They started with Cody beating up Brock before the bell and hitting him with the ring steps. Then we got the Brock suplexing and destroying Cody for a while. Then Cody was in the kumura submission hold but flipped it over and pinned Lesnar. This match would've been a lot better if Cody was champ and it was for the title. Roman, the champ, wasn't on the show. I'm pretty flummoxed as to the WWE's popularity and high ratings and big crowds these days because the product has been falling apart ever since Sami lost in February. **1/2