Casual Friday, 6/17/2022

 It’s Casual Friday here at the Let’s Watch Some Wrestling Blog! The day we look back and reflect upon the week that was, and the friends we made along the way.

Turns out we made no friends. But there was a LOT of wrestling news and shows to talk about, so let’s get to the good stuff.

But first, you deserve a pic of CM Pug. I hear her snoring, as I’m starting this late Thursday night…oh, there she is:

Look, she had a busy day. Barking at stuff, napping. It’s a whole thing.

Enough of that! Let’s get to the Stuff Worth Talking About For The Week Of 6/10-16

Vince McMahon has stepped down as CEO and Chairman of WWE, but will remain in control of creative. A Wall Street Journal article (paywalled) about Vince McMahon paying a former employee that he ALLEGEDLY had an affair with $3 million was published this week. That revelation led to other non-disclosure agreements and payments on behalf of McMahon and head of talent relations John Laurinitis being unearthed, implying that other people have been paid off to keep quiet. Since WWE is a publicly owned company these days, members of their board of directors are investigating the matter, since the whole thing stemmed from an anonymous email they received directly from a friend of the woman who was paid to keep quiet.

ALLEGEDLY.

Sasha Banks may have been granted her release from WWE. Oh, you’re not into the tawdry details of a septuagenarian's love life? Well, a reporter for Wrestling, Inc. tweeted that Sasha Banks has been granted her release from WWE. Just dropping one of their most popular women seems like a rough decision, but we also have yet to hear a definitive account of Sasha’s side of the story.

But it’s insane! This is a woman who is part of a quartet that raised the level of women’s wrestling not just in WWE, but worldwide! She’s talented in the ring and she was in The Mandalorian, no small feat. You would think WWE would bend over backwards to accommodate her, especially given how thin their roster is feeling lately. But no, they have apparently given up on any chance of repairing those bridges.

Jeff Hardy was suspended without pay from AEW, resulting in the Hardys being removed from the Tag Team Championship match at Road Rager on Wednesday. If you follow wrestling, you know that Jeff has had his problems with substance abuse for years and years. AEW issued a statement saying that they have spoken with Jeff and will support him as he heads into a rehab situation, which is absolutely the right thing to do.

But was putting a guy with that history into stunt match after stunt match from the day he was signed a good call? It seems like Jeff is the kind of person who needs to be told that self-preservation is not an instinct to be ignored. I had hoped that he would have had a support system in place in AEW with his brother Matt, but that either wasn’t the case or it wasn’t enough. He was arrested and charged with a DUI among other things. I gotta say, I really don’t enjoy watching the Hardys wrestle anymore; it’s generally through closed eyes and gritted teeth. Just retire and sit on a couch, my man. Make music. Do anything that makes you happy! Just don’t end up dead trying to outdo yourself from twenty years ago.

Forbidden Door is going to have a lot of good stuff! After Dynamite, the card features Moxley vs Hiroshi Tanahashi for the Interim AEW Championship. Thunder Rosa vs Toni Storm for the AEW Women’s Championship was added after Storm defeated Britt Baker and Rosa chased off Jamie Hayter for interfering in that match. A face off between Mox and Tanahashi was interrupted by Chris Jericho, leading to the booking of a six man tag match between Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and Minoru Suzuki versus Shota Umino, Wheeler Yuta, and Eddie Kingston. Will Ospreay and Orange Cassidy faced off after the show stealing match between Dax Harwood and Ospreay, so they will also be added to the show. Jay White may also defend his IWGP Championship against Adam Cole, Hangman Page, or a combination of the two. And there’s the four way final for the newly minted All Atlantic Championship!

I would guess at least four more matches will be added on top of those, so a ten to twelve match card doesn’t seem too far out of the realm of possibility. It should be a good time!

See, lots of good fodder this week, and I’m sure more to come after Rampage and SmackDown later tonight. But for now, let’s roll into the weekend with the Five Best Matches I Watched This Week!

Kris Statlander versus Red Velvet from last week’s Rampage was amazing, and probably the best match of Red Velvet’s career. She really leaned into her heel work and played off the fans magnificently, while Statlander was able to display her power advantage and get the victory.

SmackDown from last Friday had a great Intercontinental Championship match between Gunther and Ricochet, and even though my guy Ricochet lost he looked good for a guy getting demolished. Here’s hoping the cursed IC title will not affect Gunther, and Ricochet can move on to some beefier rivalries.

From Monday Night Raw, AJ Styles versus Seth Rollins was another masterpiece between these two superstars, and a pleasure to watch. Seth needed a victory and AJ is basically bulletproof, but they did their best to put on a great contest regardless.

Dynamite featured Will Ospreay versus Dax Harwood in a straight singles match that was, without question, our MATCH OF THE WEEK! The counters these two had for each other, the impeccable ring work, the passion and intensity that mounted more as the match progressed…it was all deserving of the first five star match in Let’s Watch Some Wrestling history!

The Tag Team Championship Ladder Match on Dynamite between the Young Bucks and Jurassic Express was everything I could have hoped for in a ladder match. The creativity both these teams showed in a brutal and violent spectacle would have been a show stealer on any other show that didn’t feature Ospreay versus Harwood. A fast paced, amazing thing of beauty.

And that’s it! I’ll watch SmackDown and Rampage tomorrow morning, as it’s another Last Drive-In night tonight on Shudder. Then Sunday we will have our annual Mrs. Pequeño water balloon fight and birthday party extravaganza! It should be a blast, and we’re dinosaur themed this year. Wooo!

I appreciate you stopping by, and would love it if you drop your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also follow me on Twitter @ElOsoPequeno, where I try to remember to post whenever I update the blog. I write a Raw Recap on Tuesdays, Dynamite Details on Thursdays, and the Rampage report with a Side of SmackDown highlights on Saturdays. I also plan to write about any other wrestling that I happen to watch. There’s also a weekly wrap up on Fridays, and I’ll do predictions before any big AEW or WWE pay per premium live events. 

Have a good weekend!