WWE SUMMERSLAM

Nissan Stadium, Nashville, Tennessee

BIANCA BELAIR vs. BECKY LYNCH (15:10): This show happened on Saturday, July 30th, and I watched it then went on a two week vacation. I suppose if I'm forgetting anything that happened, you can blame it on not being memorable or entertaining enough for me to remember it. The big story before this show happened, though, was Vince McMahon leaving the company. He apparently had an affair with a woman that worked in WWE and then paid her off to not talk about it. When that woman's friend found out about it she emailed the press and The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about it. The WWE board looked into this and found that Vince had paid other women that worked in WWE in the past to keep their affairs quiet. While Vince is the boss of WWE and technically couldn't be fired, it seems that some people pressured him to leave so that the stock price wouldn't fall and the company wouldn't look bad. He hung on for awhile, though, but eventually left. Supposedly HHH will be the new head of creative, which is fantastic considering he did the same job in NXT and that show was excellent when he was in charge. Hopefully the WWE gets better, because right now, AEW is on fire in terms of match quality, entertainment, and watchability. The WWE is still king in the production side of things, though. This show was at the outdoor, Tennessee Titans football stadium, which made it look pretty cool and "big." Only the main event was anything noteworthy, though. This opening match was fairly entertaining. Bianca Belair retained the women's title.  After the match, a new group consisting of Dakota Sky, Bailey, and Io Shirai showed up. Totally random pairing there, but I guess we'll see how that works out. **1/2

LOGAN PAUL vs. THE MIZ (14:15): Logan Paul did a lot of high flying, which was impressive. He's better as a heel, though, so I'm kind of baffled as why they're trying to make him a good guy. This was entertaining. Logan did the old Shane McMahon top rope elbow through the announce table spot which was awesome. AJ Styles ran out to help Logan Paul and beat up The Miz for some reason as well. **1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. THEORY (4:42): Vince was pushing Theory to the moon...so it'll be interesting if he gets the cool down treatment. He lost quickly here in a forgettable match. *

THE MYSTERIOS vs. THE JUDGMENT DAY (DAMIAN PRIEST & FINN BALOR) (11:08): Edge did a Brood entrance with the flames around a staircase midway through this match. That set up The Mysterio's winning. Without Edge, The Judgment Day group is kind of pointless now. So far this show seems to be more about surprise entrances than actual wrestling. Which is fine, considering the WWE rarely has great, in-ring matches. **

PAT McAFEE vs. HAPPY CORBIN (10:39): McAfee did some high flying stuff, which is impressive because he's a tall dude and also the announcer, not a wrestler. Hopefully with Vince gone they'll finally cast Baron Corbin aside to the rubbish bin. **

THE USO'S vs. THE STREET PROFITS (13:23): These two teams had a good match at the last PPV. Considering The Uso's won that match in a close contest, it was a little strange that The Uso's won more easily in this rematch. This wasn't very good at all, especially considering how good their last match was. *

LIV MORGAN vs. RONDA ROUSEY (4:34): They gave Liv Morgan the title...but apparently they don't think she's worthy of it. Rousey had Liv in an armbar submission and Rousey was on her back so the ref counted to 3 and Rousey lost. The problem? Liv tapped out right before the pinfall. This was kind of ridiculous. If you put the title on someone, at least make her look somewhat credible. *

ROMAN REIGNS vs. BROCK LESNAR "LAST MAN STANDING MATCH" (22:55): These two have seemingly wrestled each other forever at every big show...but the fans seem to not care about this. This was by far their best match...at least in recent memory. The reason was they did a unique spot during this match that will run as a highlight for years to come. Brock came out driving a tractor with a lift on it. He used this tractor multiple times during the match. The big spot had him lifting the ring with the tractor and Roman tumbled out of the ring. This was a crazy spot. I'm actually shocked Nashville let them do this, considering ringside fans could have been crushed to death if this went awry. Brock left the tractor holding up one corner of the ring so anyone sitting on that side of the ring paid all that money for good seats and couldn't see the finish. After that spot, The Uso's came down and beat up Brock and he suplexed them and Roman speared Lesnar a few times. Eventually they threw a bunch of chairs and the announce table on Lesnar and he got counted out. Good, crazy, main event. ***

ROH DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR

Lowell, Massachusetts

COLT CABANA vs. ANTHONY HENRY (10:00): This was a really good show. Tony Khan has certainly turned around Ring of Honor, as before he bought it, the last few years featured fairly dull shows with sparse crowds. This show wasn't sold out or anything, but they had a big crowd that was loud and hot for most of the night. What Khan is going to do with Ring of Honor is anyone's guess, though. They don't have a TV show and this was only the 2nd show since he bought it. Khan supposedly did give contracts to a few of the stars like The Briscoe Brothers and Jonathan Gresham (who already quit). Khan apparently bought the company simply because he's rich and a fan. I guess we'll see if putting a few PPV's on a year is going to work. This opener was fun, as the crowd was super into everything Colt Cabana did. The free, hour pre-show had four matches...so you definitely got your money's worth if you didn't want to pay $49 for the 3 hour PPV (I didn't). **1/2

THE TRUST BUSTERS vs. SHINOBI SHADOW SQUAD (5:30): Cheeseburger is still around, part of the Shinobi Shadow Squad. Does Cheeseburger have a real, 9-5 job? He has to, right? I don't even really remember this match and I literally watched it last night. *1/2

THE EMBASSY vs. ALEX ZAYNE, BLAKE CHRISTIAN & TONY DEPPEN (11:35): Brian Cage is in AEW. He mysteriously disappeared since last Fall but now he's in Ring of Honor in Tully Blanchard's stable, though Blanchard apparently quit because he wasn't on this show. Cage looked great. I remember him having a great match against Adam Page on an AEW PPV so I'm not entirely sure why he kind of disappeared off the face of the Earth in AEW. He was also in the cinematic match against Darby Allin and Sting years ago. This match got pretty exciting late, as Zayne and Deppen and Christian were all doing a bunch of fast, high flying, exciting moves against the three big monsters. Fun match. **1/2

WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. ALLYSIN KAY (7:50): This was pretty forgettable, although the crowd roared in approval for everything Willow did for some reason. Is she from Lowell, Mass or something? *1/2

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. JONATHAN GRESHAM (11:30): Gresham quit the company after this match. He mentioned that he felt disrespected because he didn't have much if any communication this week from Tony Khan. He also mentioned he was mad that this match, a ROH title match, went on first on the PPV and didn't get a lot of time. Let's face facts, though...he quit because he was mad he lost the title, a title he just won last December. Gresham is a short dude so WWE will never hire him, and if they did they wouldn't do anything with him. Quitting AEW will make him work indies for the rest of his life. That's what he has been doing lately, as he has his own company, Terminus, that runs shows here and there in Atlanta (they had a show last Thursday where he faced Takeshita in the main event). Gresham also wrestles a lot in Germany for WXW for some reason. So he won't not be working. But quitting ROH even though he just signed a contract seems like a mistake. Maybe he'll realize this and come back. Either way, I would have rather seen this as a longer, main event match. It was for the title, which Cesaro won. I understand that they wanted FTR/Briscoes on last, though. This was a good match but weird that it went on first and didn't go too long. I also think it was kind of obvious that Claudio was winning because as we saw with Adam Page vs. CM Punk...Tony Khan always goes with the more popular guy. Considering the WWE never gave Cesaro the title, and he never won the ROH title previously, it was kind of awesome seeing him in his 40's finally be a world champ. **1/2 

DALTON CASTLE & THE BOYS vs. THE RIGHTEOUS (9:40): I love Dalton Castle's entrance. I also think his gimmick is one of wrestling's best. The crowd loved him in this match, too. At one point he was tossing his boys left and right over the ropes onto his opponents. The Righteous is kind of a Charlie Manson gimmick. Vincent is a part of it. When Matt Taven and Vincent broke up I kind of thought I'd never see Vincent again. Taven is in Impact now, doing whatever the hell they do over there (I never watch that promotion). This was another fun match. Dalton and The Boys won the 6 man titles. **1/2

WHEELER YUTA vs. DANIEL GARCIA (15:55): This was the opposite of the typical AEW/crowd favorite type of matches. It was more ground and pound than spectacular high flying. While it was good it was also a little boring. Yuta retained the Pure title, a title with so many stipulations that it takes five minutes to explain it. No wonder ROH got rid of it for years. **1/2

RUSH vs. DRAGON LEE (15:50): This was fantastic. Dragon Lee was in it so of course it was. When ROH folded, the two best wrestlers in the company that became free agents were Bandido and Dragon Lee. Why Khan didn't fucking snap them up for AEW right away is baffling to me. But at least they're in ROH, though Bandido was missing tonight (he did look like he injured his neck last month at the AAA show when he landed on his head). It seemed to me that these two decided to just recreate the infamous Dragon Lee vs. Hiromu Takahashi match from CMLL years ago...because they did a lot of the same, spectacular spots. A few of the moves went off the rails but this was just as brutal and crazy as that one was. Dragon Lee of course broke Hiromu's neck at that New Japan California show years ago...so Hiromu isn't wrestling as crazy anymore. Dragon Lee still is, which is kind of shocking. Has he learned nothing? Lately he's been balancing his opponent on the guardrail and sailing through the ropes to torpedo them into the crowd. He tried this with Rush by sitting him on the announce table. His dive wasn't long enough, though, and he ended up smashing his head through the table. How he finished this match is beyond me. Also, these two are brothers in real life. And they beat the shit out of each other. What a glorious, insane match this was. ***

MERCEDES MARTINEZ vs. SERENA DEEB (17:20): Martinez did a sit up suplex on Deeb from the top rope that reminded me of that infamous, top rope Dragon suplex that Omega did to Okada. While this match wasn't particular good or anything, that move at least woke me up and take notice. Martinez retained the Women's title here. This was too slow and plodding in spots, but certainly brutal and hard hitting. **

SAMOA JOE vs. JAY LETHAL (12:20): The crowd was a frothing frenzy of wildness for the early part and the later part of this match. Great crowd tonight. I guess this was more an AEW crowd...since a ROH crowd doesn't really exist, anymore, plus half the wrestlers on this show were AEW wrestlers. For five minutes or so these two beat the shit out of each other outside the ring before the bell rang. Later on we got a ref bump and interference from Jay's cronies. Joe retained the TV title or whatever it's called. The early part and final few minutes of this were fantastic. The middle was kind of dull. **1/2

FTR vs. THE BRISCOE BROTHERS "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS" (43:25): This was a really intense, hard hitting, entertaining epic. Since it went so long, though, I think their first match back in April was better. This was so long it had the kitchen sink feel. They did everything and more. Cash Wheeler did a side suplex on one of the Briscoe's from the second rope down onto a table late in the match. They barely hit the table, though, and the Briscoe's head landed hard through the table. That was sickening. Also, Dax got so many chops on his chest that his chest started to bleed. Besides the table break, this felt like one of those exhausting, epic New Japan matches, which is a good thing. The Briscoe's won the first fall and FTR won the 2nd and 3rd fall. Really great match that truly had that epic, awesome, putting-everything-out-there feel that a main event title match should have. The final pin was pretty creative as well, as Dax gave one of the Briscoe's a second rope piledriver and both men fell over in exhaustion, but Dax laid his foot on the Briscoe's chest to score the win. Good end to a really good show. ***1/2

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK

 

Las Vegas

LIV MORGAN vs. ALEXA BLISS vs. ASUKA vs. BECKY LYNCH vs. LACEY EVANS vs. RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ vs. SHOTZI "MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH" (16:35): AEW just had an excellent PPV, Forbidden Door, and a wild "Blood & Guts" match on Dynamite. Your move, WWE. This show was probably supposed to be a much bigger deal when they first announced it. They were going to have the show at the football stadium in Vegas and even started selling tickets. Apparently the ticket sales weren't good so they moved the show to the MGM Grand Arena. And while Money in the Bank is my favorite WWE PPV of the year, the reason is because usually you not only get title matches but you also get two ladder matches. This year, though, there was no men's title match and the two women's titles matches were extremely weak for a PPV. The show entertained me but nothing was spectacular except for the last five minutes or so of the Uso's match. Thankfully the WWE didn't have pre-show matches so this wasn't a 5 hour show or anything ludicrous. The show went a little over 3 hours mostly because, thanks to Peacock, there's commercials between matches which stretches the show out. Watching this women's ladder match made me realize how fucking awesome and skilled The Young Bucks really are. They won the tag titles a few weeks ago on Dynamite in a ladder match against Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus. Everything the Bucks do with a ladder works and looks seamless. In this match it was the exact opposite. Raquel Rodriguez had a spot where she was supposed to pick up a ladder where two of the women were laying on. I guess they didn't practice it because she could only lift half of the ladder up and it made her look weak and pathetic. Shotzi tried to run up a ladder perched in the corner to give Raquel a DDT but Shotzi slipped the first time on the ladder then slipped again on the ropes trying to correct herself. Alexa Bliss fell on a wobbly ladder when it crashed onto the ropes when it wasn't supposed to. The whole match wasn't sloppy, but it just made you realize how great some wrestlers truly are in ladder matches, like The Hardy's, Edge & Christian, etc. I do remember one of the Young Bucks tripping on the ropes and crashing head first onto a ringside table in that crazy All Out ladder match against Penta and Fenix, so they're not perfect. But watching this match just made me scared to death one of these women were going to break their neck. The big ladder in the center of the ring was broken and couldn't stand still and it took them forever to finally move it and use another one. The big moment was Becky Lynch climbing a ladder at ringside to jump butt first onto Asuka who was laying on a ladder bridge. Unfortunately, that looked more painful than thrilling, unlike Matt Riddle's two awesome top of the ladder spots later in the evening. So this more entertaining than a typical WWE women's match...but not by much. Liv Morgan won and got a good pop, which is shocking, because they seem to have buried her six feet under with their booking the past year. **1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. THEORY (11:05): What a stupid fucking name. "Theory." Jesus Christ, who writes this shit? Vince and co. want their next big star to be named Theory? They have to realize how stupid that is, right? Is it too late to change it? While he's a better in ring wrestler than The Miz, Theory is basically The Miz because he's being pushed when no one in the audience wants him to and are baffled as to why it's happening. The Miz is good on the mic, so at least there's that. Theory is young and good looking. Not like there's a bunch of fat, old people running around the locker room, though. But that's the reason he's being pushed as a superstar. The only reason he lost the U.S. title here is because they're moving him to the main title picture. Which makes little sense because he got beat clean here. Match was decent and they seemed to work well together. **

BIANCA BELAIR vs. CARMELLA (7:10): Carmella is still around? I suppose Vince thinks she's pretty or something, because the fans don't like her, she's annoying, and she can't wrestle. This should not be a PPV title match. This is like a throwaway Smackdown match at best. Bianca won. Match sucked. Carmella beat up Belair after the match. 1/2*

THE USO'S vs. THE STREET PROFITS (23:00): This was the best match on the show, although it went too long. The last five minutes or so were great with some exciting near falls and the crowd in a frenzy. One of The Street Profits reminds me of the some of the AEW guys because he does a lot of high spots, including jumping over the ring corner onto The Uso's during this match and delivering a great, high Frog Splash that got a near fall. Fun match but there were like ten minutes in the middle where it was a boring beat down by The Uso's. ***

RONDA ROUSEY vs. NATALYA (12:30)/ LIV MORGAN vs. RONDA ROUSEY (0:35): This was another title match that had no business being on a PPV. Natalya? Really? Is she still even in WWE? And she's a heel now? What? Match sucked. It was boring. Ronda isn't typically in great matches, though, is she? At least since being back she seems to be kind of bland. Maybe that's why they decided to take the title off her when Liv cashed in her contract. Natalya had weakened Rousey's knees by doing the Sharpshooter and Rousey was selling her leg. Rousey put Liv in the Ankle Lock for a few seconds but Liv got out and did whatever her finishing move is and pinned her to win the title. A cash in is exciting and gets the crowd on their feet, but I think cashing it in so early kind of defeats the year long, suspenseful drama. Liv is cute and seems like she likes wrestling and it's her dream job and all that so her winning was cool, especially considering they've buried her endlessly. I think I'd rather have seen her win the title by actually winning for the first time in a long, hard fought match than just here in fluke like fashion. **

THEORY vs. DREW McINTYRE vs. MADCAP MOSS vs. OMOS vs. RIDDLE vs. SAMI ZAYN vs. SETH ROLLINS vs. SHEAMUS "MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH" (25:25): They announced that Theory was joining this match for no reason...which made it kind of obvious he was going to win. Riddle couldn't win because he lost a title match to Roman Reigns on Smackdown a few weeks ago with the stipulation that if he lost he could never face Reigns for the title again. After that match, Brock Lesnar came out, setting up a Brock vs. Roman match at Summerslam. Yes, they announced the Summerslam main event before this show. Kind of made this show pointless. I realize that Roman Reigns signed a new contract that gives him limited dates...but they really should have put the Riddle vs. Reigns title match on this show. Riddle is one of the most over wrestlers in WWE (Reigns and Orton are the other two). Why is his title match on a random Smackdown episode? And why are they pushing Theory more than Riddle? I'm not sure who the genius is coming up with wrestler's names...but they need to be fired. Matt Riddle is a good name. Riddle is not. Austin Theory is a good name. Theory is not. Madcap Moss is not a good name. They all sound like morons. As for this match...it was a pretty forgettable ladder match to be honest. Riddle did two awesome spots, though, which were the highlights. He actually stepped on the very top of the ladder to do a flip dive down onto all the wrestlers. And he did an RKO from the top of the ladder. Why Matt Riddle is not the champion of this company is beyond me. At one point they all threw ladders onto Omos at ringside to get him trapped. Then he appeared in the ring later without ever showing him escaping his predicament. Everyone also picked up Omos and put him through the announce table. That got a big pop. Sami Zayn took a sick bump on the back of his head being slammed on a ladder wedged on the ropes. It was entertaining, though with Theory winning at the end, you kind of went home depressed. Way to go, WWE! ***

AEW & NJPW FORBIDDEN DOOR

United Center, Chicago

HIROOKI GOTO & YASHI-HASHI vs. AARON SOLO & QT MARSHALL (8:55): What a fucking show. AEW really delivers the kitchen sink with their PPV's. 4 pre-show matches, 9 main card matches. Big debuts (Cesaro!). Shocking appearances (Shibata!). The pre-show was 1 hour, the main card went 3 hours and 45 minutes. So, yeah, it was a bit too long, but the first handful of matches on the main card had me thinking: is this going to be the greatest PPV of all time? The rowdy, raucous, deafening Chicago crowd certainly helped. And this was all for a show that didn't even have a dream matches. Omega was injured so we unfortunately didn't get to see an Omega/Ibushi match or an Okada/Omega match. Ibushi is out with an injury and feuding backstage with management so he was out. CM Punk and Bryan Danielson are injured. Hiromu Takahashi had a fever so he couldn't get on the plane. Ishii is injured so he was out. Jesus Christ, is there anyone left? There were a few names left off the card like Evil and Yano that, really, weren't missed. You could tell how great a crowd this was as Goto and Yashi-Hashi got roars of approval like they were Hulk Hogan. None of the pre-show matches were all that great but the crowd made them awesome. **1/2

LANCE ARCHER vs. NICK COMOROTO (6:10): Archer is the lone AEW star in the G1 this year. That might not last long, as he did a cannonball entering the ring and landed right on his head. Yikes. This was just too big guys doling it out. It was okay. *1/2

KEITH LEE & SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU (12:05): I'm not sold on Swerve Strickland yet. He has to have a really great singles match for me to see how great he is. The crowd adore Keith Lee, though. This was fun. **1/2

THE GUNN CLUB & MAX CASTER vs. YUYA UEMURA, ALEX COUGHLIN, THE DKC & KEVIN KNIGHT (5:35): Billy Gunn's sons left the ring to chase after Danhausen so they weren't even in this match. Billy Gunn got some big pops. It's so funny seeing how taller he is than everyone else when in the WWE you never noticed it. The opening rap that Caster does with the Gunn Club saying the wrong city they're in is always hilarious. I think putting The Acclaimed and The Gunn Club together was actually a great move. The crowd loved this. **1/2

MINORU SUZUKI, CHRIS JERICHO & SAMMY GUEVERA vs. EDDIE KINGSTON, SHOTA UMINO & WHEELER YUTA (19:00): This was a fantastic match. You couldn't get a better crowd. My God did they make these matches ten times better than they were. The one thing they did that I liked was they really pushed some of the new New Japan guys like Shota Umino. He became a fucking star because of this match. Umino is Red Shoe's son and they showed clips of Jericho putting him in The Walls of Jericho in Japan during a match. Later on during this show, Jericho threw a fireball into Umino's face backstage. This was just all action and was super entertaining. ***1/2

FTR vs. JEFF COBB & THE GREAT O'KHAN vs. ROPPONGI VICE (16:25): One member of FTR did the injury gimmick and came back out later taped up to get the crowd to pop. FTR ended up winning the IWGP tag titles here, which means they hold those, the AAA titles, and the ROH titles. I'm guessing they're going to do a 4 title unification match with the Bucks down the line. This had a lot of good action but, man, The Great O'Khan is so terrible it's not even funny. FTR is super over, though, so them winning was great. ***

PAC vs. CLARK CONNORS vs. MIRO vs. MALAKAI BLACK (15:05): Another great match. This string of good to great matches early on was really impeccable. Ishii beat Connors to be in this match but Ishii got injured so they put Connors in anyway. They really pushed him which helped. The ending to this match was genius, really. Malaki Black had Connors in a submission and they were crawling around and PAC got up on the top rope and did a 450 or whatever it's called to break it up. PAC won the new All Atlantic title, which is kind of superfluous since every title can be held by someone from any country. Everyone looked good in this match. ***1/2

DARBY ALLIN, STING & SHINGO TAKAGI vs. EL PHANTASMO & THE YOUNG BUCKS (13:00): This was a lot of fun but more a comedy, entertainment match than any kind of high drama thing. Sting started the match appearing above the entranceway and jumped down onto everyone. ELP and The Bucks did the stupid comedy back scratch spot which got a huge pop. This, like the 3 previous matches, had so many people doing dives and flips and moves non-stop that it was just super engaging. ELP did a top rope walk into a moonsault to the floor which was great. Hiromu was supposed to be in this match but was sick. Sure, it'd have been great if he was in it, but this match didn't suffer at all without him. This was a total blast. ***1/2

THUNDER ROSA vs. TONI STORM (10:40): New Japan doesn't have women's wrestlers so I guess they figured they needed women on this show so they put this title match on. Stardom is owned by the same company as New Japan but Stardom had a PPV on the same day, hence why Thunder Rosa wasn't defending against Karai Sane or someone. This was pretty mediocre to be honest. The AEW women's division has never been that good for one reason or another. *1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (16:45): This was the match of the night. Considering Will Ospreay is the best wrestler in the world, of course it was. Cassidy started with comedy bits but by the end they were trading big moves and excellent near-falls. Ospreay is the king of the near-fall, always kicking out at the last possible millisecond. Ospreay retained the U.S. title. After the match, Ospreay and Aussie Open started to beat up Cassidy so Shibata came out and beat up Ospreay. Are they really going to do it? Let Shibata have a real match again? They keep toying with it, giving us a grappling match against Zack Sabre, Jr. and having him do some bumps and wrestle a bit here. He looked great. Ospreay vs. Shibata at the Dome would be epic. ***1/2

CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (18:30): Bryan Danielson was supposed to be in this match but was injured so they had a surprise to replace him. It turned out to be Cesaro, using his old ROH name. The crowd of course went ape shit for him. The problem was we got a too long, Zack Sabre, Jr. match. I thought most of the match was boring. Great intro for Claudio, though. **

JAY WHITE vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. ADAM COLE vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (21:00): This was really good but the end was very anticlimactic. Cole got pinned by Jay White after White gave Okada a Blade Runner. Why he didn't pin Okada but went over to pin Cole is probably because Okada is too big a deal to be pinned. Cole looked like he got knocked out or had a concussion or something so maybe the ref called an audible and just ended the match shorter than planned. The one problem with this match was no one thought they'd give the IWGP title to Cole or Page. I could've seen Okada winning it, though, but they went with the boring choice and let Jay retain. Jay White was the weak link in this. While everything he does looks polished...he wrestles too methodically and slow and he's only in great matches once in a blue moon. Page and Cole looked great and Okada looked kind of slow but he is getting older. ***

JON MOXLEY vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (18:20): CM Punk was supposed to defend his title in this match but he got injured. Moxley ended up winning the interim AEW championship here. This match was actually better than I expected, although not a classic main event or anything. I always bash Tanahashi these days because he's old and slow and not as great but to his credit he did everything you'd want to see and hung in there for 18 minutes never looking tired or anything. Moxley wanted to bleed because he loves hardcore stuff so he bled like a stuck pig. The problem? He wasn't even hit in the head with anything. One moment he was just at ringside bleeding all over the place for no reason. After the match they did the Blood and Guts angle where Jericho's team ran out and Claudio and Wheeler Yuta and Eddie Kingston ran out and everyone brawled. I didn't really need to see more after a 5 hour show and the main event over but I guess they needed to push Wednesday's show. All in all this turned out to be a very entertaining, often great PPV. Considering it came about on short notice and most of the big names were injured, this was a total winner. ***

NJPW DOMINION

 

Osaka, Japan

AARON HENARE, TJP & FRANCESCO AKIRA vs. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, MASTER WATO & HIROYOSHI TENZAN (10:31): It's kind of sad that New Japan wasn't working with AEW when AEW first started. Supposedly New Japan's president at the time didn't want to do it. The new president does, and so we have AEW & NJPW's first PPV together happening later this month in Chicago. It's a shame that it's happening now and now 3 years ago because New Japan has lost a lot of it's luster lately and become somewhat of a dull, lame company. The Pandemic can be blamed, because fans in Japan are still sparse and still masked and still can't cheer or boo. But also the top stars; Tanahashi, Okada, and Naito, have gotten old. The PPV coming now isn't the greatest timing either, as Omega is out with injuries, CM Punk, who was supposed to main event against Tanahashi, got injured, and Ibushi is feuding behind the scenes with management and hasn't wrestled since his injury in the G1 final last October. Dominion is NJPW's 2nd biggest show of the year (3rd if you count Wrestle Kingdom being 2 shows). Considering this is supposed to be their 2nd biggest show of the year, the cracks in the foundation were obvious and glaring. They did have an IWGP title change...which was something big at least. The undercard was entirely forgettable except to see the best wrestler in the world, Ospreay, in action. It's sad seeing such a great company flounder. The glory days were never going to last, though, and we all knew it. This opener was a fun, short, all action match. A bunch of the young, new wrestlers in these first two matches were in the Super Jr.'s tournament that just ended with Hiromu winning. TJP I remember from Impact Wrestling years ago. He still looks the same which is shocking considering I use to watch his X-Division matches like ten years ago. Akira is a new guy they picked up and he's at least fairly exciting to watch. Tenzan got pinned of course. **1/2

TAIJI ISHIMORI, EL PHANTASMO & ACE AUSTIN vs. TETSUYA NAITO, BUSHI & HIROMU TAKAHASHI (8:04): Ishimori is the Jr. champ and he's facing Hiromu for the belt later this month at a random Korakuen Hall show. They used to have the Super Jr.'s winner face the Jr. champ at Dominion...but not this year. I'm guessing because they wanted to give the guy's some rest? Either way it made this card fairly weak without that match. This was more of a comedy match than anything. Ace Austin did a bit where he did some flips and then magically a cane appeared out of his wrist. I guess his gimmick is David Copperfield? Naito did have 2 unsuccessful main event title matches this year against Okada, so he is still being pushed, but why is one of their big stars in a superfluous, multi-man tag match early on this big show? This was at least amusing, and ELP always entertains. **1/2

TORU YANO vs. DOC GALLOWS (4:05): Sadly, this show featured Gallows & Anderson in singles matches. Ugh. As if their tag matches aren't enough of a chore to watch, we have to see two singles matches with them? Gallows flew all the way to Japan to lose to Yano. I hope he got a good paycheck for that humiliation. There wasn't much to this. Gallows isn't good with humor. 1/2*

EVIL, YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & SHO vs. ZACK SABRE, JR., EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU (9:25): The House of Torture retained the 6 man titles thanks to cheating. They do this in all of their matches and it got old the second The House of Torture was created. Zack looked good. Desperado was wasted in this. At least the intensity was there. **

GREAT O'KHAN & JEFF COBB vs. BAD LUCK FALE & CHASE OWENS (11:52): O'Khan and Cobb won the tag titles. It really says something about the tag division considering Fale and Chase Owens were the champions. Fale looked like he got really fat, although he never was skin and bones or anything. Maybe I just haven't seen him in awhile. Chase was the star of the match. He works hard but isn't spectacular or anything. Cobb won with the Tour of the Islands. I really can't stand O'Khan. He's just the worst of the worst. *1/2

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. HIROOKI GOTO (12:40): CM Punk won the AEW title last month at Double or Nothing. Then he broke something in his foot on Dynamite. He was supposed to defend the title against Tanahashi at Forbidden Door. So AEW did a Battle Royale which Kyle O'Reilly won. O'Reilly lost to Moxley and Moxley would face the winner of this match for the interim AEW title. Man, I really wanted to see a Goto vs. O'Reilly PPV main event. Can you fathom that? So, no, the outcome of this match wasn't up in the air. Moxley vs. Tanahashi is a big match on paper...but Tanahashi doesn't "brawl" and Tanahashi is old and limps around. I doubt that will be a very good match. Goto, shockingly, still looks more alive than Okada, Tanahashi, and Naito. I guess he wasn't in too many 30+ minute IWGP title matches over the years and thus is body is saved. He was in one once, though, in 2011 at Dominion he lost to the champ, Tanahashi. I'm guessing that that match was probably better than this, which was mediocre. **

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. TAICHI (10:00): Shingo and Ospreay are New Japan's best wrestlers...so why are they giving the title to Jay White? Baffling, really, although Shingo and Ospreay did get the title last year. Spreading the wealth? Gedo loves Jay White for some unknown reason. This match had a 10 minute clock and who ever got the most pinfalls won. So if you got a 1 count you got 1 point. Shingo won. I think it was 11-10 or something. Taichi got 3 counts at the end. This was hard hitting but would've been better in a real, longer match. Shingo retained the KOPW title. **1/2

KARL ANDERSON vs. TAMA TONGA (16:27): This was better than I expected. Maybe because they worked fast and hard unlike Okada's matches where he leisurely walks around the ring for most of the match. Anderson won the NEVER title. Is he not with Impact anymore? Does anyone care? This company has way too many titles. **

WILL OSPREAY vs. SANADA (12:48): Juice was the U.S. champ but supposedly had his appendix taken out and couldn't make the show. I don't think New Japan believed his excuse because they put out a statement saying he refused to come to the show and was stripped of the title. The last time Sanada and Ospreay wrestled, Ospreay landed feet first on Sanada's head in the New Japan Cup and broke his orbital bone. Maybe that's why they only went 12 minutes? Ospreay was also seriously ill recently, apparently close to dying from a kidney infection. Was it that bad, though, considering he's already back flying to Japan and wrestling? He also wrestled on AEW Rampage last week. He looked as great and incredible as he's ever looked in this match. Sanada didn't really attempt to make this a great match, so it was just okay. I really hope they put Ospreay in a singles match at Forbidden Door. I don't want to see him barely used in some dumb multi-man tag match. **1/2 

JAY WHITE vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (36:04): Jay White won the IWGP title. I guess that's not too big of a surprise...although on AEW Dynamite, Adam Page called out Okada and said he wanted the title. Nobody wants to see Page vs. Jay White. And considering the IWGP title is usually rarely defended from this show until Wrestle Kingdom...does that mean Jay White will be champ that long? I don't want to see that. I especially don't want to see Jay White in the main event of either night of WK. Granted, his last WK main event was awesome, that 45 minute epic against Ibushi. But Jay White is very rarely in great matches. There so few and far between that I remember them all. That great match in California against Juice Robinson. That short Okada match at WK. That ROH match against Ospreay in NYC from years and years ago. Those are great Jay White matches. This was not one of them. Okada does still have a little left in the tank. His matches aren't awful. He doesn't hobble around the ring like Tanahashi. Okada's match against Ospreay at WK this year was great. But usually, Okada matches are fucking boring. A lot of this match was Okada just walking around like he was on a Sunday stroll. Jay White isn't much better, either. So you had two slow guys doing some cool stuff here and there sparingly. The final flurry was good and the title change was at least something memorable. But...if you're going to give the title to someone besides Okada...don't give it to Jay White, give it to Ospreay. This isn't rocket science. **1/2

WWE HELL IN A CELL

Rosemont, Illinois

BIANCA BELAIR vs. ASUKA vs. BECKY LYNCH (18:56): Besides Cody's injury, this PPV was pretty forgettable. They probably should have just made this the main event and put it in the Hell in a Cell and cancelled the Cody vs. Seth match. This was a decent match. Belair retained the title. Charlotte Flair was off getting married to Andrade so she wasn't on the show. Sasha Banks and Naomi were suspended for no-showing RAW a few weeks ago so they were off the show (they disagreed with creative about them both losing to the women's champions on this PPV). There wasn't much to this match but the hot crowd was into it and it was perhaps the best match on the show. **1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. OMOS & MVP (8:25): It tells you a lot about the WWE that they push lumbering bores like Omos instead of, say, Ricochet or Ciampa. Lashley is a good guy now which kind of baffles me because he was a great heel not to long ago. This was forgettable trash. 1/2*

KEVIN OWENS vs. EZEKIEL (9:20): This was actually a pretty good match, although I do miss Elias' songs on RAW where he ripped the hometown. That was usually the highlight of RAW. I suppose they figured that schtick was getting old. Ezekiel is just a good guy version of Elias. Owens is always fantastic so this was entertaining. **1/2

EDGE, DAMIAN PRIEST & RHEA RIPLEY vs. AJ STYLES, FINN BALOR & LIV MORGAN (16:03): This was strange. On RAW, Finn Balor joined Edge's evil alliance...and then the 3 of them turned on Edge. Considering PPV's are supposed to be a bigger deal than RAW...why didn't they do the Finn Balor heel turn on this show? Edge literally just turned heel and now they've turned him into a babyface all of a sudden? WWE creative is totally baffling. Finn Balor is not a heel. I guess they just have no idea what to do with great wrestlers like Finn Balor. Remember when he was the Universal champion for a day? Someone got it right then. So they were correct for 24 hours. Sad. I honestly totally forget this match. That's how great it was! Liv Morgan is at least somewhat pushed and the crowds are kind of into her. And Edge is better as a good guy. Damian and Finn are better as good guys, though, too. AJ did look good in this match if I recall. And Finn is awesome as always. I just can't stand these weird mixed tag matches where the men and women aren't allowed to touch each other. **

MADCAP MOSS vs. HAPPY CORBIN "NO HOLDS BARRED" (12:05): This was a weapons match. I kind of forget what happened in this match as well. Can you tell how excellent this show was? I also watched the NXT PPV the night before this. That was probably even more forgettable. It's so sad what happened to NXT. *

THEORY vs. MUSTAFA ALI (10:25): The WWE wanted to be able to trademark all of their wrestler's names so they changed a bunch of them. Austin Theory's real first name was Austin so now he's just Theory. Seriously, that is the worst wrestling name in the history of wrestling. Theory? Do they know what Theory even means? Obviously not. They've been pushing him to the moon for no good reason and are just shooting themselves in the foot by pushing a guy with a stupid name. Ali attempted to quit the company but they wouldn't let him out of his contract so now they're kind of pushing him. I'm not sure why they wanted to keep him as it's not like he'd be a huge star in AEW or something. This was a basic, RAW type of match. Theory retained the IC title. *1/2

CODY RHODES vs. SETH ROLLINS "HELL IN A CELL" (24:21): Cody tore his pectoral muscle lifting weights and so he had this huge, horrible, black and blue bruise across his chest. It was grotesque, so much so that the arena was dead silent for the early part of this match. Why he still wrestled here makes zero sense. Why they let him wrestle makes even less sense. A lot of people were saying how brave and how heroic he was to wrestle and all of this bullshit. Nope, it was fucking stupidity. I guess he felt sorry because if he didn't wrestle the main event would be off. That's not his fault! It's the WWE's fault for unifying the titles and only having one champion, then letting that champion, Roman Reigns, sign a new contract that lets him only wrestle limited dates. Reigns isn't on the next PPV, Money in the Bank, either. If they didn't unify the titles they'd at least have another championship match on this show. Or, God forbid, don't give the title to a guy that isn't going to be two straight PPV's. As for this match...it was a basic Hell in a Cell match. They used a Singapore Cane, broke some tables, tied each other to a bull rope for no apparent reason (I guess Dusty Rhodes was in some bull rope matches?). I just had a really hard time watching this match considering Cody was injured and shouldn't be taking bumps. He had surgery this week and is out for 6 months. Considering he was the #1 top babyface...what the fuck are they going to do at all these stadium shows coming up? ** 

AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING

Las Vegas

HOOK & DANHAUSEN vs. TONY NEESE & MARK STERLING (5:20): The string of great, legendary AEW PPV's is over. This wasn't a bad show or anything, it just didn't reach the heights of the last PPV, Revolution, or last year's All Out. It wasn't even as good as last November's Full Gear, which I called, "great." Oh, well. There were a number of problems. The Young Bucks usually steal the show. They were put in a match with the old and broken Hardy Boys, which denied us a masterpiece. The main event was so-so. The TBS championship match was terrible. The two Owen Cup finals were dull. The show was fairly entertaining, though, albeit too long (4 and 1/2 hours plus a pre-show). The crowd stayed hot for the worthy stuff, which was good. I think the only other AEW show so far that had a bigger crowd was the U.S. Open tennis stadium show last year. The crowd loved this match, which was a short pre-show match. I'm kind of baffled why they love Danhausen and Hook. Danhausen was in Ring of Honor and nobody gave a fuck about him. Hook is a punk kid that only does squash matches. With the hot crowd at least this was fun. **1/2

WARDLOW vs. MJF (7:30): This was pretty much a squash. MJF got a little bit of offense early like poking Wardlow in the eyes. Then came the multiple suplexes. I'm really not sure where they can go with Wardlow now that his epic storyline is over. I don't really think anyone wants to see him in long matches and you can't do short squash matches forever. I guess we'll see. MJF lost clean and pretty much got destroyed so it's funny that they seem to be giving him the old CM Punk vs. WWE storyline which should, eventually, lead to him winning the title and "beating" AEW and Tony Khan in the process. Considering he just had a month's long feud with Punk, will they really do another one again so soon? **

THE HARDY'S vs. THE YOUNG BUCKS (19:15): The Hardy's still do all the classics...but they're both so old and beaten up now that they can't really be in a great match anymore. So this was okay but nothing special. The big spot was Jeff Hardy doing a Swanton Bomb off of the top rope and onto one of the Bucks laid on top of the ring steps on their side. That was cool. **1/2

JADE CARGILL vs. ANNA JAY (7:25): This was terrible and by far the worst AEW PPV match I can remember ever seeing. I really doubt I'll ever see Jade Cargill in a good match. Everything she does just looks awkward and rigid. Anna Jay looked like she never wrestled before. This was a sloppy mess. They knew this, too, as they did a bunch of interference and then after the match they debuted NXT's Ember Moon who is now Athena. -No Stars-

THE HOUSE OF BLACK vs. DEATH TRIANGLE (15:35): Considering how awesome all 6 of these guys are, I figured this would be the match of the night and it probably was. The Lucha Brothers are awesome and insane. Penta ran across the edge of the ring, jumped over Fenix and gave Buddy Murphy a Canadian Destroyer. He's done that before and it's still crazy. Buddy Murphy looked great, too, which is kind of a shame because he's never in singles matches. Brody King kind of botched his top rope dive by barely getting over it and landing half on the apron. The lights went out at the end and when they came back on, Julia Hart was in the ring and sprayed black mist into Pac's face, causing their team to lose. Julia Hart turning evil has been a long term storyline teased forever, but usually when the lights go out you expect a bigger surprise like, say, Johnny Gargano or Cesaro or someone. Great action throughout, though. ***

ADAM COLE vs. SAMOA JOE (12:30): This was kind of a forgettable TV match. I'm still kind of confused about this Owen Hart tournament. Only some people were in it for no reason. The winners get...nothing? Owen Hart's widow, Martha Hart, did give a heartfelt speech afterwards, though, which was the highlight. Considering Cole lost to Page twice for the title I suppose they had to throw him a bone, but I would have given Joe the win because he just showed up and hasn't lost yet and was built up as this big, unstoppable monster. **

BRITT BAKER vs. RUBY SOHO (13:20): I also would have given Soho the win here. Britt had the title for a year and beat Soho last year. Throw Soho a bone and make some new stars. This was another kind of forgettable TV type of a match. Britt will never be in a great match without hardcore gimmicks. That's been established. **

SCORPIO SKY, ETHAN PAGE & PAIGE VAN ZANT vs. FRANKIE KAZARIAN, SAMMY GUEVARA & TAY CONTI (12:30): One of the reasons that Cody quit AEW was because he made that stupid decision to lose a match to MJF and thus accept the stipulation that he can never vie for the championship. Dumb idea. So they do it again! Sammy Guevera's team lost so he can never wrestle for the TNT title again. This was also the wrestling debut of Paige Van Zant. I think she did MMA but I never knew her until she showed up in AEW. She looked okay but obviously green. The highlight was Sammy inadvertantly delivering a wicked superkick to his girlfriend, Tay Conti. That reminded me of the infamous thumbtack superkick that one of the Young Bucks gave Johnny Gargano's wife, Candice LeRae, in PWG many moons ago. This was entertaining but nothing spectacular. **1/2 

KYLE O'REILLY vs. DARBY ALLIN (9:50): This was announced on Friday's Rampage show. I'm not sure what the point of this was, as Darby, one of the company's biggest stars, lost. Kyle signed a 5 year contract so I guess they figured they should, like, push him. There was a lot of grappling in this. Darby did a Coffin Drop onto Kyle as he was hanging out of the ring. This was kind of just a regular TV match. **1/2

THUNDER ROSA vs. SERENA DEEB (16:55): The AEW women's division has never been that great. Thunder Rosa is a better in-ring wrestler than Britt Baker, but Serena Deeb is kind of dull since she does submissions and the fans don't care about her. I really think they should give the title to Jayme Hayter, as her and Riho are the two best women's wrestlers and Riho already had the title once. There wasn't really much to this match. *1/2

THE JERICHO APPRECIAN SOCIETY vs. THE BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB "ANARCHY IN THE ARENA" (22:45): This was a classic, ECW-style clusteruck match. It was basically "Stadium Stampede" except without the football field. They brawled all over the building. I think everyone was a bloody mess. Santana and Ortiz jumped off a big ladder and onto two of the JAS wrestlers on tables. Moxley set up a barbed wire board on a table and ended up getting tossed onto it but it didn't break so he slid off. Kingston and two of the JAS members beat each other up on the concourse and into a t-shirt stand. Kingston poured gasoline on Jericho and was going to set him on fire but Bryan stopped him and they started fighting each other. Bryan eventually got choked out with the top rope that was taken down and he tapped out. The one thing I have to say is that the camera work and camera cuts were fantastic to show all of the action considering there were like four things happening at once in different parts of the building. This was fantastic stuff. And you can probably tell how over the "other" members of the JAS are considering I don't even know their names. ***

JURASSIC EXPRESS vs. KEITH LEE & SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. POWERHOUSE HOBBS & RICKY STARKS (17:15): This was fun with a lot of action and some great, inventive high flying. I still think they probably should have given Jurassic Express a better opponent, though, like...FTR or The Young Bucks. This wasn't as good as Revolution's 3-way tag title match but it was still highly entertaining. I think Keith Lee was probably the most over in this...which is surprising because he's old and not as fast or good as he once was. ***

CM PUNK vs. ADAM PAGE (25:40): Unfortunately, AEW's running into the Jericho problem again. They gave him the title early because he's a big star but he's old and his PPV main events were boring. CM Punk is a big star but he's old and his main events will be boring. Oh, well. They're doing a PPV in June with New Japan and CM Punk is wrestling Hiroshi Tanahashi. I get it; Adam Page vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi is not a big marquee match. CM Punk vs. Tanahashi is. Plus...they were going to give Punk the title sooner than later anyway since he's old and not getting any younger. Twice in this match, Punk tried to do the Buckshot Lariot and both times he fell over. It was either because he's old or he was tired or he was injured. Considering he wrestling on Dynamite three days after this, it wasn't an injury. So this was a bit sloppy. Adam Page had consistently been in awesome matches during his reign so it's a little sad seeing him lose the title. I really think they should consider giving the title to some of these new, young guys like Jungle Boy, Darby Allin, or Sammy Guevera. Those 3 in main events would set the building on fire. CM Punk might be popular and getting a big paycheck, but I don't see him doing any 4 star matches in the future. CM Punk vs. Omega is a huge PPV main event. Hopefully they do that and then get the title off him and never put it back. The ending had a ref bump and Page grabbing his belt and contemplating turing heel and using the belt on Punk. He decided not to, went for the Buckshot Lariot but Punk grabbed him and put him to sleep. We already had a heavily plotted ending to Page/Omega last year. I don't want another one. I don't think that really worked here and this match wasn't all that great. **