Late Night Saturday Catch Up Blog, 8/20/2022

 

What a strange week. I finished up my second feature for the wrestling site I am now employed by, and did the research for my third, and got paid (!) for the first one. They aren't publishing anything just yet so I'll let you know We're also still working on our basement, and the contractor installed the doors and stuff so all that's left on their end is some electrical. For us there is one room of floor, some baseboards,  and the bathroom tile which hopefully arrives later today (spoiler - it did not arrive).

It does mean I've been lax on the blog again, which sucks. I assure you, that primer I threatened to write is still on the back burner, it’s just that between the paid gigs and the work in the basement I’m a little overwhelmed. I'm literally writing this on my phone while the pug naps on my lap, but I really wanted to say hi to you guys! 

Anyways, some cool stuff has happened in the ever expanding telenovela that is pro wrestling! Let's get into it!

On Dynamite, Kenny Omega returned from months of surgery, rehab, and recovery to join the Young Bucks in the AEW Trios tournament. CM Punk said some very mean things about several people in Dynamite, including Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, and Hangman Adam Page. Things the internet says maybe weren't all just tv talk. Like maybe Punk has already soured on AEW?! I'll believe it when I see it though.

Bryan Danielson and Daniel Garcia had a Two out of Three Falls match with some of the best technical wrestling I've seen in some time - I actually watched that one twice!

Rampage was mostly predictable, but still fun! The FTW and tag titles were defended by HOOK and Swerve in our Glory, the Best Friends moved on in the trios tournament, and Athena picked up a win and a beating from rival Jade and her baddies..

What about in the land of Triple H and pals? Monday Night Raw started off with The Judgment Day talkin smack and beating up a vengeful Rey Mysterio. Asuka and Alexa Bliss moved on in the women’s tag team tournament, beating the team of Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H. 

Theory and possible mentor/current rival Dolph Ziggler had an extended fight backstage, starting with an argument and a nasty headbutt by Ziggler. Miz and Ciampa picked up a win over the new teamup of Mustafa Ali and Cedric Alexander, a fun team that I hope sticks together a while and gets some wins. The Owens vs Ezekiel/Elias feud seems to continue, as we were treated to a photo of Elias’s extended family surrounding his bed and promising vengeance. 

Drew McIntyre showed up on his day off to talk about Roman Reigns, a guy who doesn’t show up much at all these days. Drew was confronted by Kevin Owens and, surprisingly, they just decided it was a good time for a match. And they had one! And it was good! Great, even! I mean, yeah, the Usos showed up and made it a DQ finish but still. The match itself was awesome and the fact that they just talked a bit and decided they’re, as Drew said, “...wrestlers in a wrestling ring - let’s freakin’ wrestle!”.

A Veer Squash and a Dakota Kai squash sandwiched a really good US Title Match between AJ Styles and Bobby Lashley. Ciampa interfered but it didn’t matter in the end, as Bob continues to be a dominant babyface on a show where those are few and far between!

This may be a HAWT TAEK, but i thought the main event wasn’t super great but was very good, and I really don’t like Theory. But! Theory and Ziggler had a fine match fueled by their earlier fight. 

Smackdown featured the debut of the longtime  NXT women's tag team Toxic Attraction, replacing injured Zoe Stark and Nikkita Lyons in the WWE women's tag tourney. They (somewhat surprisingly) won over notorious gatekeeper Natalya and Sonya Deville. Sheamus won a really good four way over Ricochet, Moss, and Sami Zayn for the right to face Gunther for the Intercontinental title, and we had a whole lot of good storytelling as well, with Roman Reigns giving Zayn a little approval and, later, facing of with Drew McIntyre before their clash at the castle at the upcoming UK pay per premium live event.

To sum up, all the wrestling this week that I watched was pretty dang good! I hope you got a chance to watch some of this stuff, or some other stuff like the New Japan G1 Tournament or some Impact or GCW. If you look around, you’re bound to find something in line with your tastes. Heck, one of the best live shows I’ve ever attended featured wrestlers in kaiju costumes fighting in a ring full of little cardboard buildings. Kaiju Big Battel is BONKERS, y'all.

Again, I’ll work on that primer. I hope to at least get something out before Raw but, again, real life and the paid work comes first. I’ll let you know when my stuff starts getting published, but I guess I can tell you that I’m officially a Features Writer over at Wrestling Inc. It’s a pretty established and well known wrestling news site, and they’re just launching a features section so there’s a lot of sending things in and waiting to see what happens next. Still, I’ve only been doing this a few months and we’re already to the point where somebody thinks I'm good enough at it to pay me for my stuff! That’s pretty dope, and I appreciate you all for supporting me on my lil journey. It’s all pretty exciting, right?

We’ll see you soon, and I’ll keep you up on further developments as they come up via the Tweets and Facebook. Be good, have a great weekend, and I super promise I’ll work on that primer tomorrow morning. Writing a lot is shockingly bad on the eyes, I had no idea!