WWE SUMMERSLAM

Minneapolis

Night 1 (Saturday):

LIV MORGAN vs. IYO SKY (13:35): The big problem with the WWE is the same problem that any company has when they get sold to a big corporation: they lose their soul. The WWE just feels like a glossy, safe, commercialized "product" now instead of something with drama, intensity, excitement, and freshness. The WWE with Vince in charge before the sale to TKO wasn't exactly fantastic, though, so it's not like the WWE is worse than it was. It just doesn't have that edge to it. It feels too manufactured and produced. It's stale and mostly dull. TKO only cares about making money so last year they decided to turn Summerslam into two nights. That didn't work, as a few weeks ago I heard they only sold 20,000 tickets each night for a show at a 60,000+ football stadium. I'm guessing they cut prices and gave out free tickets to fill some of the seats, though one side of the stadium was empty (they tried to not show it on TV) and the stage was set up around the 40 yard line, so they didn't even sell seats to probably 40% of the stadium. Why even do it in a football stadium then? Lesson learned? What did they think exactly? Minneapolis isn't a big market. They really thought they could sell out two nights in a football stadium in Minneapolis? Even if you combine the population of Minneapolis and St. Paul, they don't crack the top 10 of the highest populated U.S. cities. If they keep trying to do two nights of Wrestlemania and Summerslam at football stadiums every year, I think they're going to run out of cities to run where they could legitimately sell well. Next year's Wrestlemania is in Saudi Arabia, so I guess that's already happening. As for this show, Night 1, it was okay. There were no great matches. There actually weren't any good matches. Nothing was awful. The matches all pretty much felt like typical TV matches except for the Punk/Cody match not because that was good but because it was long. Liv Morgan retained her women's title in this opening match. It was okay, nothing special. They really didn't do anything noteworthy or memorable. The crowd seemed to like Iyo Sky. Maybe she should've won? Didn't they literally just do this match at the last PPV? **

LA KNIGHT, ROYCE KEYS & SOLO SIKOA vs. THE BLOODLINE (JACOB FATU & THE USO'S) (11:00): A 6 man tag! What is this? Smackdown? It seems like they're turning Solo Sikoa babyface because he was dancing around and doing Jey Uso's "Yeet" gimmick and the crowd was eating it up. He's supposed to be a dastardly heel, right? I also feel like they should finally give LA Knight the championship. This company needs something fresh. They had it with Sammy as champ and that lasted a week. With 6 guys in there, at least this was all action. I still can't believe how dumb the name Royce Keys is. Powerhouse Hobbs wasn't an awesome name or anything, but it was a hell of a lot better than Royce Keys. **1/2

GUNTHER vs. NICK ALDIS (11:40): Aldis never wrestled in the WWE. I only remember he was the NWA champ when Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins brought the NWA back and they had a weekly one-hour show and some PPV's years ago. He also wrestled in TNA a long time ago. Well, this was a one-off, as he went back to being the Smackdown GM on Night 2 of Summerslam. After Aldis lost, he brought in his wife, Mickie James, and his son to the ring. I guess he was retiring? I don't really know what the point of this match and feud was. Did anyone care that Aldis was going to wrestle all of a sudden? The match was fine. Aldis looked to be in great shape. Maybe he shouldn't retire from wrestling. Gunther hasn't been in a great match in forever. He needs to start eating more because he's so skinny he looks malnourished and sickly and he should go to AEW or Japan so he can actually be in good matches and use his skill set. *1/2

FATAL INFLUENCE (FALLON HENLEY, JACY JAYNE & LAINEY REID) vs. THE BELLA TWINS (BRIE BELLA & NIKKI BELLA) & PAIGE (7:30): The Bella's turned on Paige after Paige got pinned and they lost. Hmmm. Does anyone want to see Paige vs. Nikki or Paige vs. Brie? Unless that was just a way to actually fire Paige in real life. The crowd wasn't really into this match. Most of these new NXT wrestlers are young and good looking but not good wrestlers. That's a problem. If you only care about looks and not in-ring ability you can always go watch porn or Love Island or something else. When we're watching wrestling, we want to see good wrestling. *

CM PUNK vs. CODY RHODES (29:45): Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer noted that these two were trying to do an 80's match when Bryan Alvarez mentioned that this was sloppy and slow. They weren't trying to do an 80's match...this is how these two wrestle! You're not going to see dynamic moves like in a Takeshita/Fletcher/Ospreay match from Cody or Punk ever. The big deal about this match was that ref got knocked out and Randy Orton ran in to give Cody an RKO which led to him losing. The crowd loved seeing Orton show up. The match was slow. Punk attempted the worst moonsault you'll ever see. Punk tried a top rope elbow drop to the announce table but Cody moved. This wasn't bad or anything, but it never turned into anything exciting or dramatic. One problem with the two men's championship title matches was the fact that there was no story involved. Cody walked out on TV one night and told Punk he wanted a title match. Seth Rollins walked out on TV one night and told Roman Reigns he wanted a title match. Summerslam is supposed to be one of the bigger shows of the year. Why not, like, build up the championship matches a little bit? **

OBA FEMI vs. BROCK LESNAR "HELL IN A CELL" (11:30): The WWE championship match wasn't the main event. That kind of makes your title look lame. And no, this wasn't "hell." They barely used the cage. Oba threw Brock into a table leaning against the cage. They used a chair and the ring steps. Brock did pull back to mat to give Oba a Tombstone Pile Driver on the wood floor. Oba won of course. After the match, Brock took the mic and told the crowd that he was the past and Oba was the future. If you're going to do a supposed "hardcore" match...maybe make it a bit more hardcore? Maybe one more table break? Singapore Canes? A chain? I guess these two muscle heads can't climb the cage but jeez, there wasn't much to this. I can't really say that Night 1 was a disappointment because this is what the WWE is these days: a glossy, commercialized, safe, stale, predictable, mildly entertaining product. *1/2

AEW REDEMPTION

 

Montreal

THE CONGLOMERATION (ORANGE CASSIDY, RODERICK STRONG & KYLE O'REILLY) vs. THE LETHAL TWIST (BLAKE CHRISTIAN, JAY LETHAL & LEE JOHNSON) (11:54): This was a B-show if there ever was one. Originally, Kenny Omega was supposed to beat MJF in the main event on this show and win the title, hence the "redemption" title and also why it was in Montreal (Omega is from Canada). Omega lost to MJF at Dynasty in the main event and this would be his redemption. Well...they didn't do that. They decided to have Omega win the title on the Beach Break episode of Dynamite a few weeks ago (which was outside in Florida). Some reports online mentioned that MJF asked for the match to be earlier so he could heal from his injuries in time for All In at the end of August. Either way, they really sacrificed this PPV for that decision. They'll definitely have a low buy rate for this show, and the show didn't get good reviews. The first three matches of the PPV were great and then the rest was average stuff. The show was also really long for a B-show, almost going 5 hours (Tony Khan apparently heard the criticism for these PPV's going late and instead of just shortening them he made this a 7 PM earlier start). They did only have on pre-show match, this Trios championship match. It was entertaining. I was thinking while watching this that they should really be doing something more with Orange Cassidy besides having him in these random trios matches. I guess they figured this out as well, since The Conglomeration lost the Trios championship to Ricochet and his boys on Dynamite after this show. **1/2

MIKE BAILEY vs. EL CLON vs. JACK PERRY vs. KOMANDER vs. NICK WAYNE vs. THE BEAST MORTOS "LADDER MATCH" (20:02): This match was fantastic. The Beast Mortos hasn't been on Dynamite or Collision for months because he can't get a Visa to enter the U.S. but I guess he doesn't have a problem getting into Canada. I'm so glad that Nick Wayne is back from injury because he's looked great so far and really adds a youthful energy to AEW. Mike Bailey and Jack Perry both did moonsaults off of a ladder by the stage. Kommander did his rope walk dive through someone on a table at ringside. Bailey, who's from Canada, won the contract to get an International title shot. The crowd was hot for this and roared when Bailey won. ***1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. WILL OSPREAY & JON MOXLEY (19:36): Good match. Instead of just doing a total spot fest, they came up with a creative storyline. Early on, Ospreay and Nick Jackson bumped heads. I totally fell for it at first and thought it was by accident. The story was that this head bump caused Nick to be concussed and out of it and thus laying at ringside out of the match. By the end, Moxley was giving Nick brutal DDT's and head shots and Ospreay wasn't into this because Ospreay is supposed to be a good guy. When Moxley grabbed a chair to use on Nick, Ospreay had enough and knocked Moxley down. Besides the storyline, they all did their high flying, fast paced moves and big moves that got the crowd pumped up. Early on, with Nick out of it, the match was slow and more a beat down...so the whole thing wasn't excellent. By the end, though, this turned into a great, dramatic match. ***1/2

KYLE FLETCHER vs. BANDIDO (26:14): Another really good match. Fletcher was the best wrestler of 2025 in my opinion. He was out of action for awhile with an injury this year and hasn't had as many big, great matches. The year is halfway over and he still might be the best wrestler of 2026 so far. I'm not sure who else there is? The crowd got really into this by the end with both men delivering big, devastating moves. The gimmick in this was that Bandido kept kicking out of everything and the crowd was shocked. Eventually, Fletcher gave Bandido a top rope, falling DDT on the ring post to win and keep the International title. ***1/2

THE DOGS (CLARK CONNORS & DAVID FINLAY) vs. BANG BANG GANG (JAY WHITE & JUICE ROBINSON) "DOUBLE CHAIN MATCH" (17:35): This was when the wheels fell off the PPV. Nobody cared about this match and it wasn't any good. FTR and The Briscoe's had a good double chain match a few years ago. Obviously, it can be done. These two teams aren't FTR and The Briscoe's, though. The dead, silent crowd didn't help but who can blame them? It was boring. They whipped each other with the chains, clotheslined each other with the chains, and got tangled up in the chains and the ropes. Eh. Connors and Finlay have so far been duds in AEW. *

MAYA WORLD vs. HIKARU SHIDA (16:37): Maya World, who got a push because her brother died, won the TBS title here. The crowd wasn't really into this match. The big problem with this PPV was that a lot of these matches were just matches we'd see on Dynamite. And if this was on Dynamite I would've fast-forwarded it. This never turned into anything noteworthy, though it was fine. *1/2 

ADAM COPELAND & CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI & PAC (18:36): Edge & Christian retained the tag team titles. At least the crowd was into this because Cage & Cope are from Canada. The match was fine, though having a tag title match with a team that isn't even a tag team (Claudio & PAC) on a PPV is kind of lame. It was fairly entertaining. Cage & Cope are wrestling The Young Bucks at Wembley next month for the titles. Have they never really wrestled before? That's kind of crazy. **1/2

THE PAIN MAKER (JERICHO) vs. TOMMASO CIAMPA (21:52): At least when AEW does a hardcore match it's actually a hardcore match, unlike the WWE. The WWE is having a Hell in a Cell match at Summerslam next week with Brock vs. Oba Femi. I doubt that will be hell. This was hell. They used two windows, a barbed wire bat, a barbed wire table, and hockey pucks with thumbtacks attached to them, among other things. The ending had Jericho, who was doing his Pain Maker gimmick (he did it once before in NJPW), use an electric drill to drill Ciampa's skull. The ref stopped the match before Ciampa could, like, die...or, you know, actually drill his head. Ciampa was a bloody mess. The crowd popped for the gruesome spots. I thought the best spot was when Ciampa put on a Boston hockey jersey and then started beating up the Montreal Canadiens mascot doll then tried to pin it (the ref started counting for some reason). That was amusing. I give Jericho credit: he's still going all out at his age. I mean...he doesn't have to be going through barbed wire tables or being slammed off the top rope through a windowpane. **1/2

ANDRADE EL IDOLO vs. MARK DAVIS (16:13): Andrade won the National title. Andrade was never this over during his first run in AEW. He looks like he's having a blast now that the fans are cheering him and chanting his new catchphrase ("How you know?"). Good for him. This match didn't exactly belong on a PPV, though. This is something suitable for Dynamite or Collision. The match was fine but nothing special. **

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. THEKLA (15:58): I'm glad Thekla lost the women's championship here because she's never been in a great match as champ. She's good as a heel and on the mic but not particularly entertaining in the ring. This match never really heated up into much of anything. It was fine, forgettable save for the title change. Willow will now face Mercedes at Wembley. Mercedes has never been the AEW women's champion yet? I'm surprised at that. And where's Toni Storm? Injured I guess? She's been gone for months without a peep. *1/2

KENNY OMEGA vs. KEVIN KNIGHT (24:59): The big problem with this match was that the main event of Wembley was already announced (Ospreay vs. Omega) so nobody thought Kevin was winning the title. I figured that it didn't matter that much because Kevin Knight is exciting and does a lot of big dives and high spots and this should be good. It turned out to be just an okay match. Knight did do a cool bell-to-bell drop kick. Omega gave Knight a snap suplex on the announce table. There was no drama in this, though. Omega seemed fired up and looked better, faster, and crisper than usual...but this just never turned into the high stakes, dramatic, exciting main event you want to see. I figured that they'd do a bunch of interference from the Don Callis family but they didn't even do that. Knight did do a belt shot when the ref wasn't looking. After the match, The Death Riders beat up Kenny and Ospreay made the save. Moxley wanted Ospreay to choke out Omega with a plastic bag but Ospreay wouldn't do it and clocked Moxley. After all this, Omega gave Ospreay a One-Winged Angel. I guess they did this because at Wembley they want Ospreay to be the total babyface and Omega to be kind-of sort-of the heel. On to Grand Slam Mexico (Fletcher/Bailey) and then Wembley. Yeah, there's Summerslam before that but I'm not too excited about that one. **1/2

AEW + CMLL + NJPW + STARDOM FORBIDDEN DOOR

San Jose, California

DRILLA MALONEY vs. DANIEL GARCIA (10:26): This was a good show but not a show of the year or anything. One problem was that the show was too long at 6 hours (it ended at 1 AM Eastern time on a work night). The other problem was the crowd wasn't the greatest (they did get fired up for the "big" matches). This opened the pre-show. Drilla Maloney used to be in The War Dogs faction in New Japan, but Clark Connors and David Finlay left for AEW. So Drilla is a babyface now and seems to be pretty popular in Japan (he was cheered at Dominion, anyway). Drilla isn't the greatest wrestler, though. Daniel Garcia seemed fired up and hell bent on making this a great, slugfest match. It was average stuff at best. **

MAIKA vs. SKYE BLUE (9:18): Maika is from Stardom. Skye Blue came out later after the Thekla match wearing these thigh high, leather platform boots. They looked awesome. This match wasn't awesome. It was fine. This pre-show was pretty underwhelming. Tony Khan did announce after this show that the next PPV would start an hour earlier because everyone complains these shows end too late. *1/2

DIVINE DOMINION vs. OLYMPIA & THUNDER ROSA (10:48): Olympia is from CMLL. The crowd popped for a lot of what Thunder Rosa and Olympia did. This was more back-and-forth than a beatdown, which was good. Divine Dominion retained the tag team titles. **

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. EL SKY TEAM (MASCARA DORADA & MISTICO) vs. UNBOUND CO. (SHINGO TAKAGI & TITAN) (17:53): This was the PPV opener. It was also the best match on the show. This was just non-stop action, high flying moves, and a super boisterous crowd. Fantastic and super fun. I haven't watched a lot of New Japan lately so I haven't seen Shingo in awhile. I really want to see another Shingo/Ospreay match. For my money, that feud was better than Omega/Okada. ***1/2

KENNY OMEGA vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (26:25): Speaking of Omega...everyone seems to think that he's winning the title at the next PPV because it's in Montreal and it's called Redemption. Omega just lost to MJF in the main event of April's PPV. I mean...if they wanted the main event of All In to be Ospreay/Omega for the title...why didn't Omega just win the title in April? This match was good but it was pretty slow. Omega does pretty much everything he's always done but he's older now so nothing is as exciting as it once was. ***

JON MOXLEY vs. BANDIDO (18:07): This was a good match. The story was that Moxley ripped open Bandido's mask (that got a gasp from the crowd when you could see part of Bandido's face) and Bandido was bleeding. Every match Bandido is in is good. He has a knack for getting the crowd into his matches. Moxley retained the Continental title. ***

SHOTA UMINO vs. PAC (18:11): Shota retained the NJPW Global Heavyweight title. I kind of feel like Shota should leave New Japan and go to NOAH or something, because the crowds just consider him a Nepo baby (his dad is Red Shoes, the referee) and will never seemingly embrace him. This match was pretty good but the crowd didn't much care about it and it never turned into anything fantastic. There was a great spot when Pac did the Mike Awesome move and gave him a Razor's Edge over the top rope onto a table. **1/2

THEKLA vs. STARLIGHT KID (18:42): Starlight Kid looked pretty good here. I never watch Stardom so I've never seen her before. The story here was that Thekla was fired from Stardom so he wanted revenge on the promotion. She beat up their president and spit on the Stardom logo on previous shows. Thekla is a good talker and has a good heel persona but her matches are never exceptional. After Thekla won she took off Starlight Kid's mask and then went over to the front row and hit Stardom's president with the mask until he lay cowering on the floor. I guess the feud isn't over. **1/2

ADAM COPELAND & CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. THE DOGS (CLARK CONNORS & DAVID FINLAY) (16:45): Did anyone think The Dogs were winning the tag team titles here? No. This felt more like a TV match. I think the only reason they did this was to have the surprise return of Jay White (The Bang Bang Gang had been feuding with The Dogs). Jay White's been out so long I can't even remember what he was doing when he got injured. Edge & Christian are always entertaining, so it was at least watchable. **1/2

MERCEDES MONE vs. MAYA WORLD (24:51): This was pretty dull for about 15 minutes or so and the crowd was quiet and sitting down. By the end, the crowd was on their feet. Maybe the WWE should watch this match and learn from it because they have so many short PPV matches and don't realize that time can build drama and momentum. These women completely had the crowd in the palm of their hands by the end, so much so that they probably should have called an audible and had Maya World win. This was the final of the Owen Hart Cup and the winner gets a title shot at All In. Right now that would mean Thekla vs. Mercedes. I suppose that's a big match. The only reason Maya got this far in the tournament seems to be because her brother died in a car accident (he was hit by a car on the side of the road when his car broke down and he got out). I'm thinking Tony and the people in charge felt bad for her and thought it'd be a good move to give her a push. It turned into a good underdog story for the Owen even though she tapped out. ***

DARBY ALLIN, KONOSUKE TAKESHITA & THE CONGLOMERATION (KYLE O'REILLY, MARK BRISCOE, ORANGE CASSIDY & RODERICK STRONG) vs. DON CALLIS FAMILY (ANDRADE EL IDOLO, JAKE DOYLE, KAZUCHIKA OKADA, KEVIN KNIGHT) & MJF "STEEL CAGE MATCH" (31:45): This was a round cage that went around the ring and the outside of the ring. This was a lot of fun. Kyle O'Reilly introduced a Nintendo game console to hit people with (he even blew into a cartridge before inserting it). Orange Cassidy brought out a bag of oranges and squeezed the juice onto Fletcher's bloody forehead. Darby got tossed face first onto thumbtacks and they got stuck in his nose and face. There was a strange spot where Kevin Knight climbed up onto the cage and grabbed a bag that Darby had placed up there. The bag exploded and Knight fell down onto four stacked tables. Why would anyone grab a mystery bag? There was another bag that Lio Rush was in. Lio Rush is now doing a Gollum gimmick for whatever reason. So they had Lio entranced by MJF's ring. Yes, this match was creative. The big deal was that Andrade turned on the Don Callis family to cause Mark Briscoe pinning Jake Doyle to win the match. There was just too much in this crazy match to even mention. Briscoe put a ladder on his head and swung it around. Takeshita gave Fletcher a Blue Thunder Bomb through a table. Very entertaining. ***

WILL OSPREAY vs. SWERVE STRICKLAND (35:06): This was the final of the Owen Cup. This was also the same main event from Forbidden Door 2024. I think that match was better. This match had double juice. It was slow in spots but had some incredible back-and-forth action spots. The crowd was really hot for this even though it was so late. Swerve was bleeding so much it was leaving pools of blood all over the ringside area, announce table, and ring. The Death Riders all came out at the end to cheer on Ospreay. Both men kicked out of everything, but Ospreay won with a Tiger Driver. This was bloody, dramatic stuff. Ospreay will now wrestle for the tile at All In. MJF is facing Briscoe this week on Dynamite for the title. There's also next month's Redemption PPV and Grand Slam Mexico in August. I think the champion will be either MJF or Omega at All In. We already saw MJF vs. Ospreay at Wembley (in 2024, Ospreay beat him). I want to see Omega/Ospreay 3 for the title. I think that's the match that more people would want to see. ***

WWE NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

OBA FEMI vs. JEY USO (7:56): This was the final in the King of the Ring tournament. The winner gets a title shot at Summerslam. In typical WWE fashion, Oba Femi wins but isn't getting a title shot at Summerslam. On RAW after this show, Oba Femi decided to give up his title shot so he can face Brock Lesnar in a Hell in a Cell match instead. So...was this a late decision? Because why didn't they have someone else win this tournament? It made the entire tournament pointless. Also, winning the title in pro-wrestling is supposed to be everyone's paramount objective. The title is supposed to be meaningful. Oba Femi simply giving up his title shot to wrestle someone else makes no fucking sense. This means that Oba Femi doesn't care about the title. So then why should the fans? I kind of thought that after Vince left in disgrace that the writing would be a little more logical and coherent. I guess Vince wasn't the entire problem. As for this actual match: it was all action and back and forth, so that was good. Having an 8 minute match as your tournament final is kind of lame, though. Shouldn't this be a long, dramatic, fighting tooth and nail for victory match? Not some short, superfluous thing? Eh. The WWE hasn't been good in a long time so I'm not exactly shocked at anything about this product anymore. The match in a vacuum was pretty good, though. There's that. **1/2 

IYO SKY vs. LIV MORGAN (14:56): This was the final of the Queen of the Ring tournament. Liv is the champion...so Iyo Sky winning just gets a title shot against...Liv. Who is the other champion? Rhea Ripley? She wasn't on this show for whatever reason. There was one moment when Iyo Sky was high fiving children at ringside and I was, like, maybe don't do this? I don't think boys are allowed to touch women in Saudi Arabia. Might get your hand cut off. Iyo did a bunch of high flying maneuvers. Those were exciting. The match wasn't anything special, though. **

SETH ROLLINS vs. BRON BREAKKER "STEEL CAGE MATCH" (19:04): Good match. They used a table and chairs in the cage. Seth gave Bron a superplex from the top rope through a table. Bron was bleeding from a cut on his eye. The one massive problem I have with this match is that Bron Breakker lost to Seth. He just lost to Seth on RAW a few weeks ago, too. Does the WWE not want to make new stars or something? I thought they were building Bron up to be a big, main event champion? You can't do that if he keeps losing! Baffling! ***

TRICK WILLIAMS vs. RICKY SAINTS (10:43): Unfortunately for Ricky, he's in the same position he was in AEW. I always thought in AEW that he was a good talker and good in the ring and had the potential to be a main event star. AEW never fully pushed him to that level. He was always just a mid-card guy (he did have one main event AEW championship title match on Dynamite that he lost). Considering he's losing to Trick Williams here, it looks like he's going to be a mid-card guy in the WWE forever. This match lacked excitement and drama. Nothing they did was exceptional. It just felt like a random TV match. Trick retained the U.S. title. 1/2

TIFFANY STRATTON vs. JADE CARGILL (7:40): Stratton retained the women's U.S. title here. This company is turning into AEW in that they have too many titles. The women have 2 championship titles, the Intercontinental title, the U.S. title, and the tag team title. Stratton is gorgeous, a real life Barbie doll. So I suppose just watching her should be enough. Sadly, it's not. *

SAMI ZAYN vs. CODY RHODES vs. GUNTHER (18:38): Heh. They finally gave Sami Zayn the title, two years too late. Way to go. Pat on the back. It might've been nice to have given him the title when he was a babyface and popular. That might have made sense, right? Sami Zayn is popular in Saudi Arabia because he's a Muslim. That's why they did it on this show. They even fucked the crowd pop, though, by having Sami Zayn pin Cody on a quick rollup. That meant half the crowd didn't know what happened for a few moments and that instant surge of crowd approval didn't happen at once. They had a perfect way to end this match and didn't do it. Sami gave Gunther an Exploder Suplex and a Helluva Kick and a but Gunther kicked out at 2. Jesus Christ. That was the perfect ending to the match! Have him win there! How is this company so full of morons? The rest of the match was good but not great. Sami is a heel now in the states, so he'll be booed as champion everywhere. It could have all been different. It could have been something special...once. Oh, well. **1/2

WWE CLASH IN ITALY

 

Turin, Italy

CODY RHODES vs. GUNTHER (11:35): The critics all hated this show. Honestly, it just felt like a typical WWE show. I'm not sure what anyone watching this show was expecting. The WWE hasn't been good in years. This first match kind of makes the case for why the WWE isn't good. This was for one of the championship belts. You would think a championship match would be the main event or the co-main event and be around 25 minutes long. You would be sorely mistaken! This goes on first and is a mere 11 minutes long. That's not the only problem. Don't you think that the guy they picked to beat and retire John Cena would...I don't know...get a push? Otherwise, what the fuck was the point of having John Cena lose on his retirement show and have everyone watching be sad? Well, Gunther retires Goldberg, Cena, and AJ Styles...and now he's losing his title match to Cody. Gunther did have his foot under the ropes during some of the count, which Michael Cole and Corey Graves mentioned. The match was at least all action. Cody somehow got out of the sleeper hold, which made no sense. This was a good match that could've used more time and perhaps a different finish. **1/2

RHEA RIPLEY vs. JADE CARGILL (16:57): This wasn't very good. I kind of zoned out watching this match because how monotonous it was. The crowd here in Italy was pretty loud for the men's matches but not for either of the women's matches. The ending of this was lame. Charlotte Flair came out and put Rhea's foot on the ropes at one point to save her. This came after Jade's goons ran out to attempt to put Jade's foot on the ropes to save her. *

BROCK LESNAR vs. OBA FEMI (6:21): This was the best match on the show because it was all action and the crowd was super into it. The glaring problem is that Oba beat Brock and Brock retired...then came back. Oba was the big, new, unbeatable star on the main roster now...so why the heck did they beat him already? And why have Brock be the one to beat him? Brock is, apparently, still going to retire sometime this year. Why not have Oba be undefeated for a year and then have a new star born by beating him? I don't know...the writers in the WWE are fucking morons a lot of the time. This match was exciting, though. It could've still been exciting if Oba won. **1/2

SOL RUCA vs. BECKY LYNCH (14:02): Sol Ruca won the Intercontinental title. You might be asking: why does Becky Lynch, one of the company's biggest stars, have the Intercontinental title? And I would not have an answer. It used to be that the Intercontinental title was for the up-and-coming stars on their way to the main title and main event platform. Eh, this match was sloppy. Sol Ruca does a lot of high flying but all her matches are kind of a sloppy mess. This never heated up into anything worthwhile. *1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. JACOB FATU "TRIBAL COMBAT MATCH" (27:02) I think one reason everyone online hated this show was because this main event was a dull slog. I often harp about how short most WWE PPV matches are...and now I'm complaining that this match was too long. I mean...there is a sweet spot, somewhere. This was a weapons and no DQ match, so they brawled in the stands, broke a table, fell through the barricade at ringside. This match made no sense, since their previous match had a stipulation that if Jacob lost he would have to acknowledge Roman. He didn't! So he lost again and now has to acknowledge him...again! After this match, the other Bloodline showed up to stare at Jacob (some of them were fired, but Solo Sikoa and one of the Tongans is left). That means...they're still doing the Bloodline feud! Jesus Christ! *1/2

AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING

Louis Armstrong Stadium, Queens, New York

DIVINE DOMINION (LENA KROSS & MEGAN BAYNE) vs. VIVA VAN & ZAYDA (4:45): Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer said that this was the best AEW PPV ever. Well...of course he thought that because he never watches the pre-show matches on these PPV's. The big deal on the pre-show was that Mick Foley was one of the co-hosts and it was his first time in AEW. This first match was mostly a squash. The Divine Dominion are the women's tag team champions. It seems like since that tournament to crown brand new women's tag team champs finished, there haven't been many women's tag teams around lately. The only intriguing aspect of this match was that Christopher Daniels was the manager of this unknown tag team that lost. That baffled me. 1/2*

DEATH RIDERS (CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI, DANIEL GARCIA & WHEELER YUTA) vs. THE OPPS (ANTHONY BOWENS, HOOK & KATSUYORI SHIBATA) (10:32): I'm over the Death Riders. I feel like that group has passed its' prime. It also doesn't seem to have helped either Claudio, Garcia or Wheeler in terms of getting pushed or adding popularity, at least lately. The Opps is another story: why is Bowens in this evil heel group? That's defying logic. And what happened to his partner? He disappeared. The match was fine but nothing special. **

BOOM & DOOM (BIG BOOM AJ & QT MARSHALL) & THE CONGLOMERATION (MARK BRISCOE, ORANGE CASSIDY & RODERICK STRONG) vs. SHANE TAYLOR PROMOTIONS (ANTHONY OGOGO, CARLIE BRAVO, LEE MORIARTY, SHANE TAYLOR & SHAWN DEAN) (6:31): Are these Costco guys still a thing online? I know those stars on Youtube don't last forever, right? Or do they? Well, they were back in a match on a pre-show again. The only memorable part of this match was that QT slipped off the ropes and fell to the floor and had to be helped to the back. **

ADAM COPELAND & CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. FTR (CASH WHEELER & DAX HARWOOD) "I QUIT MATCH" (19:34): This was the PPV opener and it had a flaming table spot. Good luck following that, rest of the show! The funniest thing about that flaming table spot was that the NYC commission didn't let AEW do blood or brawling in the crowd...but they were allowed to light a table on fire and have Cash tackle Stokely through it from the ring (he was trying to tackle Beth Phoenix, but she moved). There was also barbed wire, Edge's 2x4 with nails, and a pair of plyers used. They got Dax to quit by using the 2x4 with nails on his head while he was in a sharpshooter. Edge & Christian won the tag titles for the first time in AEW. I'm thinking they're going to do a ladder match for the title at Wembley against The Young Bucks. Great match. This match, and this show, was helped by the fantastic live crowd. The building, which is the 2nd biggest stadium at the U.S. Open tournament, also looked great on TV. I was in this stadium once, but it was before they remodeled it and added a roof. The only reason they didn't have this show at the bigger tennis stadium was because they're doing work on it (and they've done a few Grand Slam Dynamite shows at Arthur Ashe Stadium before). This was an excellent match to open the PPV. It had a hot crowd, violence, Beth Phoenix showing up, & a title change. Good stuff. ***

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (19:01): This was the best match on the show. The reason: this was the Okada of old. We haven't really seen a great Okada match in AEW. I figured it's because he's old, the glory days are gone. Well, Okada pulled a rabbit out of a hat because this felt like a classic, Okada NJPW match of old. There was the drama, the near-falls, the crowd on their feet going nuts. This was great. Takeshita won the International Title, or whatever the hell it's called (AEW has too many belts). After the match, Kyle Fletcher returned from injury only to turn on Takeshita and beat him up. Takeshita is out of the Don Callis family. ***1/2

ATHENA vs. MINA SHIRAKAWA (10:46): This was probably the only match that the crowd didn't really get into. That's not a shocker, as Athena is a ROH champ and barely ever on Dynamite or Collision. Mina just loses all the time. This was the first round of the Owen Hart tournament. Match was pretty dull. *

JON MOXLEY vs. KYLE O'REILLY (18:44): These two had a 20 minute draw on Dynamite...so I wasn't exactly clamoring to see it again. Kyle made a big stink about this match not having a time limit and then they ended it under 20 minutes anyway. Match was decent, though I don't think it was anything particularly fantastic or anything. Moxley retained the Continental Classic title or whatever the hell it's called. Kyle tapped out. **1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. SAMOA JOE (13:52): This was the first round of the Owen Hart tournament. Everyone expects Ospreay to win this tournament and then win the title at Wembley. This match was good and hard hitting. It was short, though. The crowd was into both guys even though Joe is supposed to be the dastardly heel. ***

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. BANDIDO (15:15): Really good match. This was super creative. They did a bunch of interesting spots in this. Strickland jumped onto Bandido's shoulders to give him a kick to the head. Bandido did a reverse Hurricanrana on Swerve to the floor from the ring apron. The hot Queens crowd was going nuts for some of these unique maneuvers and reversals. This was also the first round of the Owen Hart tournament. ***1/2

THEKLA vs. HIKARU SHIDA vs. JAMIE HAYTER vs. KRIS STATLANDER (13:59): There haven't been too many great women's title matches in AEW history. This one was helped by it being a 4 way, meaning it was mostly all action. Thekla retained her title. The two biggest names in the division, Mercedes Mone and Toni Storm, haven't been around lately for some reason (injury?). That kind of leaves the Owen Hart winner and the champ going into Wembley wide open. **1/2

JACK PERRY, JERICHO, THE ELITE (KENNY OMEGA & THE YOUNG BUCKS) & THE HURT SYNDICATE (BOBBY LASHLEY & SHELTON BENJAMIN) vs. THE DON CALLIS FAMILY (ANDRADE EL IDOLO & MARK DAVIS), THE DEMAND (BISHOP KAUN, RICOCHET & TOA LIONA) & THE DOGS (CLARK CONNORS & DAVID FINLAY) "STADIUM STAMPEDE" (31:10): This was a typical Stampede match even though they weren't allowed to have blood or brawl in the crowd. They did brawl backstage and outside the stadium. At one point, Jack Perry drove his bus into a golf cart that Mark Davis had been in before running out of the way. They brawled backstage in the cafeteria where Satnam Singh got involved. Lio Rush helped Bobby Lashley backstage (Lio Rush was Bobby's manager in WWE for a bit). They broke a bunch of tables at ringside. The most amusing part was when Andrade went ringside to take a picture with some pretty girls (this is his new gimmick), Luchasaurus was there in a blonde wig. The only thing lacking here was they didn't leave a song playing during the match which they did last year. This was very entertaining as these always are. ***

MJF vs. DARBY ALLIN (24:01): Darby beat MJF to win the title on the Dynamite right after Dynasty. Darby then defended the title every single week on Dynamite and Collision, beating PAC, Sammy Guevara, Kevin Knight, Speedball, Takeshita, Ciampa, and Brody King. Every one of those matches was great. The PAC match was great because it took place at the indoor golf course arena, so they were throwing each other into the sand traps. That match also had Darby being thrown off the balcony through four stacked tables. The Sammy Guevara match was great because Sammy did a Swanton Bomb off the top of a ladder onto Darby through a table, plus Sammy did a flip off the top rope through a table. This match's highlight had Darby climbing the scaffolding by the entrance to do a Coffin Drop down onto MJF on a table. Darby hit the back of his head on the table and was bleeding (so much for no blood on the show). The stip in this match was that MJF would be shaved bald if he lost. MJF ended up winning the title. Darby's 39 day reign was not the shortest men's title reign. Moxley had an 11 day reign and CM Punk had a 3 day reign. This match was good. It was pretty much just the same as all of the other Darby matches. I do think his title run was unique and made the TV shows this last month very exciting. I think his reign will be one that's talked about forever, actually. Was it a fitting end? Eh. MJF just had the title. This show was excellent, though. It was a typical, long AEW show (5 hours and 9 minutes if you include the pre-show) but didn't drag like most of the others do. It just felt like banger after banger and this hot crowd was one of the best ever. The building had a great look to it as well. Just an all-around great show. ***

WWE BACKLASH

Tampa, Florida

BRON BREAKKER vs. SETH ROLLINS (21:26): The big story in the WWE is that all of the executives are making record amounts of money, so they decided to fire a bunch of wrestlers because...fuck them, right? The New Day (Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston), The Motor City Machine Guns, the entire Wyatt Family, Jeff Cobb, and Aleister Black and his wife were the big names fired, though they fired a bunch of developmental people, too. It's just weird to fire a ton of people at once when the company is selling out everywhere and making a ton of money thanks to Netflix, Saudi Arabia, and ESPN. And, really, it's the WWE's fault that guys like Jeff Cobb never "got over" because they never even did anything with him. Turning The New Day heel was a dumb idea, too, so was it any surprise that nobody cared about them lately? The one thing I really hate about the WWE since TKO took over is these monotonously bland PPV's with only a few matches, a ton of commercials and breaks between matches, and half the roster mysteriously not on the show. CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, the entire Judgment Day, Becky Lynch, The Uso's, Oba Femi, LA Knight, Drew McIntyre, Gunther, Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair, Randy Orton, Stephanie Vaquer, Penta, Dragon Lee, Rey Mysterio and Jade Cargill were not on this show. I did the math, and there was around 80 minutes of actual wrestling and 70 minutes of everything else (entrances, commercials, video packages and John Cena's talking segment) on this show. None of the matches on this show were bad or anything, but none of them were great. This opener was probably the best match. Breakker won, mostly because Rollins was a bit distracted dealing with Logan Paul and Austin Theory at ringside. It seemed like they were pushing Breakker to be a big star and main event draw and champ...but then he didn't beat CM Punk on the first RAW of the year in that title match, and then he got hurt. He does some exciting things in the ring. He did a Jeff Cobb standing moonsault. The match was fast paced. The crowd in Tampa was really hot for this show which helped. **1/2

TRICK WILLIAMS vs. SAMI ZAYN (12:56): One of the more amusing things on WWE TV lately was Sami Zayn dressing up as a gingerbread man and beating up Trick Williams. Then Sami beat up the gingerbread man costume a week later and they had a funeral for him. Before, Backlash usually had rematches from Wrestlemania. This was the only one...and that's too bad, because this was the one Wrestlemania match that no one was dying for a rematch of. The big problem with Trick is that his entrance is everything. Once his entrance is done, his matches are fairly dull. Trick came to the ring with his friend, the rapper Li'l Yachty. Sami eventually used the gingerbread man's candy cane to beat Li'l Yachty with it. No, I don't understand what a gingerbread man has to do with anything. *1/2

DANHAUSEN & MINIHAUSEN vs. KIT WILSON & THE MIZ (11:38): Danhausen seems to be pretty popular with the WWE fans. He was pretty popular in AEW, too. I don't know why Tony stopped using him. Tony seems very vindictive because there's always AEW wrestlers that just disappear still under contract and I'm sure they did something to upset Tony. Danhausen probably did something. Or maybe Tony was just bored of him. I think his comedy skits are fairly entertaining, but I don't exactly want to see him wrestling in a match unless it's a multi-man tag team or something and he's barely in it. Danhausen's mystery partner for this match was a little person that came out of a cloning machine. Eventually, for no good reason, Kit put the little Danhausen back in the cloning machine and out came more little people. Yeah. That happened. What I'm really surprised about is that Kit Wilson wasn't one of the wrestlers fired. The Miz also ended up spraying himself and Kit with a fire extinguisher. *

IYO SKY vs. ASUKA (18:07): This match was supposed to be at Wrestlemania. A lot of fans were glad it wasn't, as at least on this show they would get more time (most of the 'Mania matches were super short). They got more time, but this wasn't anything special. Asuka sprayed mist at Iyo but Iyo grabbed Wade Barrett's notebook to block the mist (this happened on the announce table). That spot was unique. The match never really heated up into anything dramatic or super exciting, though. It was fine. **

JOHN CENA SEGMENT: Remember last year during Cena's retirement tour, they kept saying, 'This is the last time Cena will be in' whatever city RAW or Smackdown was in that day. What a crock of shit. He was in Vegas for 'Mania and he was here, in Tampa, for Backlash. And he came out tonight to announce a new PPV, which will be NXT wrestlers vs. main roster WWE wrestlers. I'm assuming Cena will be at that show, too. While in theory that seems like a good idea to give NXT wrestlers more exposure...I couldn't give two shits about that show. They did that same thing on Cena's lame retirement show and I didn't watch any of those other matches then, either.

ROMAN REIGNS vs. JACOB FATU (17:50): This match made zero sense because after the match they set up THE EXACT MATCH THAT JUST HAPPENED! No, it makes no sense. The match was fine, though nothing great. Is it me, or does Fatu look like he got a lot fatter and out of shape since his debut? And did Michael Cole say that Fatu has 7 kids? Roman won basically by cheating. He tore the pad off the turnbuckle and slammed Fatu into it and the ref saw this. Roman then won with a spear. But after the match, Fatu beat up Roman and all the WWE execs had to run out to stop Fatu. So they're setting up a rematch to a match we just watched. Lame. I guess they have to do that because their next PPV, Clash in Italy, is in three weeks, and God forbid they set up some new feuds/matches in three weeks for that show. I don't know...the WWE just feels really stale and safe these days. It feels like they're not even trying or attempting to have great matches. You can tell because when they do, like with Roman and Punk at 'Mania, it makes people talk about it like it's Ospreay/Takagi or something. & it's not even close. **