Casual...Wednesday?

 It’s Wednesday and I’m feeling … casual? No, I’m being weird because it’s the day before a flight, and I’m trying to get packed and receive a bunch of deliveries for basement stuff, as well as run to the laundromat and pick up a prescription and some groceries. SO, I figured I’d write about wrestling today and we’ll pick back up again next Tuesday with a review of tonight’s Rampage, and all the wrestling I’ll be catching up on on Monday (unless I can figure out how to download this stuff to my phone, because my laptop is just a bit too big to travel comfortably with me for this trip. 

I know, it’s a lot you didn’t ask for when you clicked on a pro wrestling blog. So we’ll try that new format of just talking about the shows, starting with Raw and working back. 

Let’s talk about Monday Night Raw…

I don’t know if I just wasn’t in the mood for it but Raw really felt like a nothing show this week. They made official additions to the SummerSlam card, but for the most part they were announcements that we have known were coming for so long that I was surprised when commentary told us these were new additions! 

The show started with Titus welcoming us to Raw by way of telling us that WWE is great and honest and good and just here to put a smile on our collective faces. You know, the kind of promo you’d expect when more and more details from that New York Times story about what a vile piece of trash Vince McMahon is. So we started off feeling kinda gross!

Bianca Belair versus Becky Lynch seemed like a given since Money in the Bank (and, if we’re being honest, since Wrestlemania). They made it official for SummerSlam after a lengthy segment were Lynch compared herself to a train, after which Belair appeared and argued that SummerSlam is her story (Becky replying, “No it isn’t” was perfection) and then Carmella arrived for a championship match that Belair could lose by countout for some reason. The bad guys beat Bianca up, Bianca recovered and won, so we’re a go for SummerSlam.

Talking segments from The Usos, Street Profits, MVP and Olmos set up a match for later, and the return of Kevin Owens followed. He did his talk show with Riddle, which was pretty funny and ended with Riddle getting mad at Owens for insulting the honor of Randy Orton. That led to a run in by Rollins to set up a match for SummerSlam. Later, Rollins and Ezekiel had a decent match to verify that Seth can still get a win once in a while.

Rey Mysterio had a match with Damian Priest, but that ended with the Judgment Day murdering Rey with chairs after Priest won. Dominik offered to join the Judgment Day if they would only spare his papa, but Priest told us that wasn’t how it worked and whacked Dom with a chair as well.

After the aforementioned Zeke match (which was actually really good, the best thing about the whole show to be honest), we teased Omos versus Angelo Dawkins but a quick interference DQ led to a tag match being booked by GM Adam Pearce. That ALSO ended in a DQ as the Usos, who were scouting from ringside, attacked the Profits. 

Theory had a promo and the crowd decided to “WHAT” the hell out of it. Theory tried to play into it but it just kept going, to the point where I was just annoyed with the crowd. AJ Styles joined Theory in the ring, and the two had a pretty good match. Dolph Ziggler joined to watch from ringside, and he delivered a superkick to Theory while the referee was distracted, leading to an easy win for AJ here. AJ delivered a Styles Clash after the match because, well, he’s the face in this rivalry and Theory is annoying.

A really well made video for Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch followed, this one focused less on train puns and more on music puns. There was a women’s six way tag match that existed only to do some 24/7 title shenanigans and at this point I was just kinda checked out. The time remaining told me that the main event was just going to be Miz and Logan Paul talking and I just … I don’t like that guy. 

And that’s it! The matches between Ezekiel and Seth Rollins and AJ Styles and Theory were high points of the show, but overall it just wasn’t a good watch start to finish. 

But what about Rampage or SmackDown, you ask? Anything good on those shows?

Yeah! Rampage, as always, was a quick watch that went down easy. House of Black had a fun match against Dark Order, even though the finish was never in doubt. Sting and Darby Allin came out afterward to stare down the Kings of the Black Throne.

Jonathan Gresham successfully defended his Ring of Honor championship against Lee Moriarty, getting a submission by Octopus and bragging about his dominant championship run after the match. That summoned Claudio Castignoli to challenge Gresham at Death before Dishonor and that card is really shaping up to be something special! I’ll be out of town but hopefully I’ll get a chance to watch it on the flight home.

Athena and Kris Statlander won a squash only to be beaten up by the Baddies afterward, and the Gunn Club tried to explain turning on the Acclaimed but got beat up for their troubles. And in the main event, Private Party lost to the Lucha Bros in a fun match between teams that are kinda between rivalries right now, at least until Rush and Andrade El Idolo clear their schedules elsewhere.

On SmackDown, Liv Morgan defeated Natalya in a continuation of this long running rivalry, Drew McIntyre defeated Ridge Holland as he works his way through Sheamus’s gang of toughs, Theory lost to Madcap Moss by DQ after he bonked Moss with his Money in the Bank briefcase, and Angelo Dawkins defeated Jimmy Uso despite Jimmy’s shoulder not being down, because that’s what this feud is about now. 

WWE also announced Jeff Jarrett as the special guest referee for the Tag Championship Match at SummerSlam, and he’ll be running straight out of the building to get to his match teaming with Jay Lethal against Ric Flair and Andrade El Idolo later that same night!

There! All caught up? I’ve been a little down on WWE programming because it feels like we’re just spinning our wheels until SummerSlam, but I am genuinely looking forward to a lot of the matches on the card. AEW’s Fyter Fest continues to be fun, and there’s some good stuff to look forward to tonight as well. The Ring of Honor show this weekend will be awesome, but I’m not familiar enough with the product to justify a preview blog. If I do end up watching it, I’ll write about it too!

One last thing - when I get back next week, I will be doing a trial article for a legit wrestling website, and if they decide to accept my work I’ll be sure to tweet about it at the usual place. 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’ve been studying style guides and other forms they sent over, and hopefully my work is good enough to get on their site. I guess we’ll see!

Enjoy your weekend! 

Casual Friday, 7/15/2022

 Hey, it’s Friday afternoon and I’m feelin’ CASUAL! After taking the pug to the vet to make sure her brain isn’t melting (not yet!) and getting the laundry done, it’s time to sit down and talk about some wrestling…

But we just spoke yesterday! And Friday has TWO significant shows on it, AEW Rampage (AKA Fyter Fest Night Two) and WWE SmackDown! But there’s a reason here, boys and girls. I’m going to be switching to a weekly Casual Friday format for the blog for a while, as I attempt to teach myself about things like SEO and blogging and also maybe submitting blogs to sites for, like, money! I know, it’s a reach! But because of that, this will be the last casual Friday of the old era, the Attitude Era if you will. We’re moving into being Ruthlessly Aggressive about doing this as a legit gig, so buckle up and let’s get to it.

Some Stuff To Talk About This Week!

Man, that first night of Fyter Fest was amazing! 

I think we have three more shows coming up over the next week or so, and there are some great looking matches on there. Jericho versus Kingston in whatever a “Barbed Wire Everywhere” match is. Darby Allin versus Brody King. The criminally underrated Private Party versus the perfectly highly rated Lucha Bros tonight on Rampage. And a lot more TBD, I’m sure.

Back to Wednesday, though. Orange Cassidy versus Wardlow was a fantastic matchup, one that I didn’t immediately understand on paper. In practice, it would easily have been the match of the night on any other card. Wardlow proved his ability to be a straight man in a comedy atmosphere, and Cassidy once again showed his speed and technical prowess. 

Moxley versus Takeshita was a brutal back and forth, perfectly paced and designed to make Moxley retain his aura of menace while also allowing Takeshita to look like a badass.

The main event was also something special. The way the Young Bucks, Swerve In Our Glory, and Hobbs and Starks were able to all mesh together and keep the frenetic pacing of that match going the entire time was something else. There were so many good spots, even my glowing review wasn’t enough to highlight every single great idea these six guys put out there. In the end, even after Swerve teased a heel turn, Strickland and Lee emerged as our new AEW Tag Team Champions. I’m very interested to see where all this is going. Remember when the Hardy Boys were all but guaranteed to win the tag belts a few weeks ago? Simpler times…

Raw certainly was a wrestling show! 

The build to SummerSlam continues as we got an appearance from the Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar. He spoke a bit to the audience, Paul Heyman, and MitB holder Theory before murdering Chad Gable and Otis. That’s why he gets the big bucks, folks!

Rey Mysterio and Finn Balor had a really good match, which I guess is expected when you say those names but it doesn’t diminish that at all. I’m hoping for a Dominik’s Soul on a Pole Match at SummerSlam between the Judgment Day guys and Edge and Rey, but I won’t hold my breath. Still, my inner fantasy booker has been hoping for a Dom heel turn since…well, since I booked that in my Journey of Wrestling game last year.

Carmella and Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch continued building what I think might be a triple threat at SummerSlam, as Mella beat Bianca via Becky distraction and countout. I guess Carmella is what passes for a WWE World Championship contender these days.

Ciampa and Miz continued to build towards their match against, I believe, Logan Paul (playing a good guy because WWE) and AJ Styles. In a tag match featuring AJ and Ezekiel versus Miz and Ciampa, Ciampa lost by way of beating AJ up too much and getting disqualified, our second non-finish of the night.

Alexa Bliss and Asuka won in a really short tag match, and Dawkins ate a pin from Olmos in a match that went from being Jimmy Uso versus Angelo Dawkins to being the Street Profits with R-Truth versus the Usos and Olmos. It was fine, although I don’t understand having Dawk eat another pin when you have Truth RIGHT THERE.

A tag match main event featured Lashley and Riddle against Seth Rollins and Theory, and ended in…Riddle getting a clean (-ish) win over Theory after a returning (?) Dolph Ziggler superkicked Theory and helped Riddle get out of a leveraged pin. It seems a little close to SummerSlam to introduce new players in the game, especially since Theory versus Bobby Lashley is one of the few matches that’s actually been announced for the PLE, but I’m curious to see where this goes. I like the theory (no pun intended) of Dolph deciding to manage Theory, because he had a great cash-in once and wants to see that legacy continue.

Last week’s Rampage had some action!

We saw Konosuke Takeshita take on Eddie Kingston in a match that would set Takeshita up well as a challenger for Jon Moxley. He looked great against Kingston, with a lot of hope spots and some tough looking strikes taken and delivered by both guys. 

Jonathan Gresham turned on his partner and future opponent Lee Moriarty in their match against Tully Blanchard’s newest proteges, the Gates of Agony. Two big dudes who were there to beat up Moriarty while Gresham walked out, the Gates guys played their part well enough and we got a Ring of Honor heel champion to face Moriarty on Dynamite (and, if Dave Meltzer is to be believed, to face Claudio Castignoli at the PPV as well!)

Mercedes Martinez and Serena Deeb won an extended squash that mostly served to show that these two CANNOT COEXIST (™) as a team. 

And, in the main event, Orange Cassidy beat Tony Nese to save Swerve Strickland’s position as an AEW wrestler. A good match, if a little long, and probably the best thing of the night.

Last Week’s SmackDown was also a wrestling show I watched!

After a solid half hour of Roman Reigns talking with Paul Heyman, and a Theory appearance that led to nothing despite Michael Cole nearly talking himself into an aneurysm about the threat of Theory (who Roman no-sold perfectly), we got into a rare double squash from the Viking Raiders, who defeated Jinder Mahal and Shanky before the New Day appeared to challenge them and also get beaten up.

Gunter decided the IC championship will no longer have open challenges, so Shinsuke Nakamura earned a shot by beating his sidekick. For being a short match, that was actually fun! And I look forward to Shinsuke and Gunther at SummerSlam.

A talky segment between Liv Morgan, Ronda Rousey, and Natalya led to a very quick Rousey submission victory over Nattie, paving the way to a SummerSlam rematch between Liv and Ronda, and hopefully the excision of Natalya from this feud.

Max Dupree and his Maximum Male Models, Mansoor and Mace, modeled their new tennis wear in what is fast becoming the best thing about SmackDown. I don’t know if these guys are gonna wrestle and I don’t care.

Lacey Evans established that she’s going full heel by scolding the fans and punching her tag team partner, Aaliyah. The Usos also won a quick squash over Los Lotharios. 

Drew McIntyre defeated Butch, who replaced Sheamus in their scheduled match because Sheamus might have the ‘rona. Drew then threatened to murder both Sheamus and Butch with a sword, and destroyed the ring.

There we go, all caught up! The MATCH OF THE WEEK was definitely the AEW Tag Team Championship triple threat on AEW Dynamite. It is, without a doubt, must -see TV. I’ve already watched it twice and I might try to squeeze in a third before the wife gets home from work!

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’ll be back next week, on location in Newport, Tennessee where I’ll be visiting my dad and sisters!

Have a good weekend!

Dynamite Details from 7/13/22

 It’s Thursday, and boy have I been slacking! I did watch Raw, and Rampage, and even most of SmackDown, but the house has kept me from writing because of my basement needing paint on the walls. Now that it’s been applied, we wait for flooring delivery and that will be wave two of “stuff we foolishly volunteered to do to save some money”. Wave three is tile around the tub, and wave four is baseboards and door casings - the contractor is being pretty cool about giving us an apprentice for a day at an hourly rate to install our doors and bathroom fixtures for us.

But that’s not why you’re here, dear reader! You’re here to talk about Fyter Fest, really the best episode of televised wrestling in a couple weeks. I thought the show was great from top to bottom, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Let’s crack in!

Image from Swerve Strickland’s Twitter

Opening contest: Orange Cassidy versus Wardlow © for the TNT Championship

I don’t know if this should factor into the rating, but I literally laughed myself to tears during this match. Orange Cassidy was flanked by his Best Friends on the way to the ring, and a little video played where Chuck Taylor and Trent Baretta told OC that Wardlow was bigger and stronger, but their lawyer Danhausen got them manager’s licenses and they're gonna cheat! A lot!

The first half of the match was straight up hilarious. Orange started by going for the hands-in-pockets powerup, but Wardlow pulled his hands out and then tore the pockets themselves out! He then pulled his singlet straps down and flexed, and Cassidy responded by going face to face with the monster and just…pulling those straps back up. Some great evasion by both men followed, including Wardlow cartwheeling out of a DDT attempt. Orange got something in his eye, distracting the ref while Trent undid a turnbuckle pad and Chuck grabbed a FRICKIN CHAINSAW from under the ring. Turns out that wasn’t subtle, as the referee saw both actions and the Best Friends were tossed. Orange tried to bait Wardlow into chasing him outside the ring, but Wardlow realized what was happening and discovered Danhausen hiding under the ring! A curse was threatened, but Danhausen thought better of it and Wardlow just smiled and let the weird demon go. That did distract Wardlow long enough to give Orange an opening for an Orange Punch that really rocked Wardlow, who stumbled back into the ring. Wardlow countered a second punch with a capture German suplex and tossed Cassidy around during a break.

The second half of the match was a straight up match, with Orange getting a number of surprising counters and kickouts from Wardlow’s array of power moves. Cassidy even kicked out of an F-10, the first time that’s been done in AEW per the announcers. Cassidy mounted a solid comeback with two Orange Punches and a Beach Break, but got caught going for a third punch and the powerbomb killed him dead. Wardlow picked Cassidy up and gave him a respectful fist bump after the match.

Four stars! A great combination of a comedy match and a really good wrestling match between a speedy underdog and a world class powerhouse. Wardlow really sold Cassidy’s offense, and he was great as the straight man in the comedy portions of the show as well. 

You know, my hope was to streamline match descriptions going forward, and that last match really didn’t do me any favors because there were so many good spots! I’ll keep working on that though.

A video of PAC’s first defense of the AEW All Atlantic Championship followed, as he defeated Shota Umino on Tuesday night’s episode of DARK that appeared to have been taped at RevPro? I’ll look into it. Looks like it was a good one!

Chris Jericho got some time in the ring to talk about what a bad friend Eddie Kingston is, running down the list of Eddie’s acquaintances that have been beaten on his watch: Ortiz, Danielson, Soho, Santana. Jericho was in the first Canadian barbed wire match ever (it’s true, I checked!) and he’s bringing the Painmaker to his Barbed Wire Everywhere match with Kingston next week.

Eddie got a short backstage segment to respond to Jericho. He was flanked by Ruby and Ortiz, and said Jericho is going to pay for what he did to Kingston’s friends.

Match #2: Konosuke Takeshita versus Jon Moxley ©, AEW Championship Eliminator Match

A solid, brutal tough guy brawl that brought out a harder side of Takeshita than we’ve seen so far. Konosuke had a cut open up on his forehead during the first break but when we came back he had some great hope spots after a Helluva kick, sheer drop brainbuster, and frog splash. I never realized how much of Sami Zayn’s moveset Takeshita emulates until I noted the Helluva and a later Blue Thunder Bomb by the young DDT star. 

Takeshita hit a great looking German suplex for a near fall, as Excalibur told us about Takeshita actually writing his graduate thesis on the German suplex, which is just fascinating.

Moxley persevered despite eating a lot of offense from Takeshita, and got the submission victory after hitting Death Rider and a series of trapped elbows. 

Four stars! Really good stuff, and a fine sendoff for the young Takeshita as commentary told us he’s headed back to Japan and DDT. Moxley did a lot to put him over while still looking strong in victory. I have really fallen for Konosuke since he’s been showcased on AEW programming and I hope he comes back soon!

House of Black video showed Darby Allin getting attacked by Brody King (at Joe Bob’s Jamboree this past weekend!) as they discussed venom and how it gets into your system.

Match (?) #3: Luchasaurus versus Griff Garrison

Christian Cage accompanied Luchasaurus to the ring for a match against Griff Garrison, but first had a vicious promo against both Pillman’s dad and haircut. He then told Luchasaurus that Garrison looks a lot like Jungle Boy, and that motivated Luchasaurus to absolutely demolish Garrison. He won with the Tar Pit, a variation of Jungle Boy’s Snare Trap submission, and then slammed Pillman onto a table and choke slammed Garrison on top of him TWICE to ensure the table broke. 

That was a squash, and we don’t rate squashes here! I mean, it was a good squash, if that means anything.

The Jericho Appreciation Society had a quick backstage interview with Tony Schiavone next. Tony asked them about their upcoming shark cage visit during Jericho and Kingston’s Barbed Wire Everywhere match. Angelo Parker and Matt Menard asked a lot of cage related questions but didn’t get any answers before they stormed off. Daniel Garcia then challenged Wheeler Yuta to a match for Yuta’s Ring of Honor Pure title at Death before Dishonor.

Hangman Adam Page had an interview with Schiavone after a break, and was quickly interrupted by his buddies from Dark Order. John Silver and Alex Reynolds challenged “those creepy perverts” from the House of Black to a match on Rampage.

Jim Ross was introduced to a cheering crowd as he joined commentary.

Match #4: Claudio Castignoli versus Jake Hager

Some good MEDIUM MEATY MEN MASHIN’ MEAT (™) action between these two former WWE Superstars. Claudio went for a quick victory but Hager wriggled out of both a Ricola bomb and a Giant Swing. Back and forth action, but Hager took us to a break with a nice looking Hager bomb and controlled the action in the tiny screen.

A Scorpion Death Lock by Castignoli led to Hager calling for the JAS to make a save, and their distracting presence got Hager a Uranage for two. He followed with an Angle Lock, but Claudio turned that into another Death Lock. Another JAS distraction, but this one didn’t take and Castignoli was able to connect with a pop up European uppercut and the Ricola bomb for the 1-2-3.

Three stars! Some solid back and forth and a good showcase for Claudio in his first Dynamite singles match. Hager was a good opponent for him given their familiarity, and both guys hit a lot of solid offense and looked great. Maybe one too many distractions by Menard and Parker, but maybe that will play into a later matchup. WHO’S TO SAY?

HOOK had a very short, very non-responsive interview with Lexi Nair, who asked if HOOK had a title shot in his future.

Video of Thunder Rosa’s Eliminator Match loss to Miyu Yamashita in Japan; she’ll be coming to challenge for the AEW Women’s Championship. Thunder Rosa and Toni Storm were then interviewed by Tony Schiavone, but were interrupted by Britt Baker and Jamie Hayter. Baker put herself over as the only good thing in the women’s division and gave Schiavone a sandbag, a reference to some earlier Twitter drama between Rosa, Baker, and Marina Shafir. “You try carrying her for a month”. Oof! Sick burn.

Match #5: Anna Jay versus Serena Deeb

A counter heavy match that Deeb mostly controlled. It took a while but the crowd did end up getting into this one, as Deeb busted out some creative submissions and counters. Anna Jay held her own, getting some solid offense and a nice Flatliner, but that was reversed into Deeb’s Serenity Lock and Jay had to submit. She didn’t break the hold, and Mercedes Martinez came to her rescue. 

Three stars! A solid effort by both women, Deeb did a lot to make Anna Jay look good while still putting her submission expertise on display. 

Schiavone was again backstage, this time with Jade Cargill, Stokely Hathaway, Kiera Hogan, and interim baddie Leyla Grey. Jade isn’t worried about challengers, and Stokely assured Cargill and Hogan that “Stokely Hathaway is for the baddies the same way Wu-Tang is for the children.”

After Excalibur did his trademark super fast rundown of the next week of programming, Jay Lethal and his associates went to the announcer’s table to demand JR say mean things about Samoa Joe.

Tay Conti approached Anna Jay in the trainer’s room, and told Jay she needs to make better choices for her career. That valet shouldn’t tell that wrestler what to do!

Main Event: Rickey Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs versus Swerve In Our Glory versus Young Bucks © for the AEW Tag Team Championships

This was just amazing. Controlled chaos throughout, and a pleasure to watch. A great thing about a triple threat tag match is the amount of creativity it can bring out, as well as the fact that everybody gets a chance to catch their breath and stay relatively fresh when they’re not directly involved in the action. 

We had so much going on in this match, and I just gotta tell you to go out of your way to see it if you can. From the opening sequence where Keith Lee missed a flying spin kick and Matt just sold terror and noped the hell out of the ring, everybody looked so good, and had at least a few great spots that made everything feel important and meaningful. Swerve probably ate more offense than anyone, but those extended beatings led to great crowd reactions when Swerve was able to tag Keith Lee in for the hot tag. 

Powerhouse Hobbs and Lee had some great matchups when they were in the ring together, including a fantastic sequence where they both were on the top of the turnbuckle. Hobbs was able to punch Lee off and launch himself for an insanely far frog splash. Later, Hobbs hit Lee with a sidewalk slam and followed up by slamming literally every other opponent onto Lee.

Before that, though, a ref bump led to the belt getting involved, but Starks kicked Matt before he could attack with it. Swerve got the belt and teased attacking Lee, but he was hit by Matt who then cleaned house with the belt before the ref came to. 

Somehow, Lee recovered and, after beating the Bucks with a lost shoe, a HUGE tope by Lee out of the ring led to Swerve getting a stomp and the pinfall victory!

Four stars! I didn’t love the Swerve heel tease in a match where they would go on to win the championships, but other than that minor quibble this was a fantastic match. I will give booking the benefit of the doubt and hope that Swerve in my Glory isn’t just a team put together because they are killing time until a Swerve / Lee feud. This was great tag team wrestling and I can’t say enough good things about it.

And that’s it! A fantastic show from the opening contest to the main event, Five Good Things are easy to highlight:

1- Orange Cassidy versus Wardlow was a great opener, getting the crowd hyped with two good guys who are extremely over right now. Wardlow was surprisingly competent with the comedy parts, and Cassidy more than held his own in with the wrestling components.

2- Moxley and Takeshita had a great send off match for Takeshita, and both guys looked really good in a fun brawl.

3- Claudio Castignoli and Jake Hager had another good brawl with a bunch of good highlights as we start Castignoli on his AEW journey.

4- The ThunderStorm promo with Britt Baker was short and vicious!

5- That main event, tho… It was just SO, SO GOOD. Watch it! Do it!

I’ll be back to wrap everything up tomorrow, but I’ve also got the electrician and the pug has a vet appointment so I’ll do my best to knock things out early. What do you think about changing show recaps into just one weekly deal? I hate to take recaps away if anyone is actually reading them, but they’re a little time consuming. Maybe we move to two blogs a week, more of a Casual Friday format but on like Mondays and Thursdays? Then we can lump all the weekend shows onto Monday and Dynamite and Raw onto Thursday? We’ll need new alliterative names, of course, but let me know what’s best for you, dear reader. I’m off to read an AP style guide and see if I can’t get something PUBLISHED! (ERMAHGERD)

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. 

Have a good one!

Casual Friday, 7/8/2022

 Hey, happy Friday! Feelin’ casual? Baby Kitten and I sure are.

Yes, that is my freshly washed laundry she’s chosen to lie upon and also shed all over. What’s your point? A lot of stuff happened this last week - hell, a lot of stuff happened TODAY - so let’s dive right in with…

SOME STUFF TO TALK ABOUT!

You may have heard that the Wall Street Journal published an article today about WWE’s Vince McMahon paying a LOT of “hush money” to several women he used to employ. The actual article is behind a paywall but 411mania has a good summary of the story. This whole thing has been a result of an anonymous email that led to the WWE board investigating McMahon paying off a former employee to sign a nondisclosure agreement and, basically, to go away. 

There’s nothing good, or funny, or cool about this stuff. It’s gross to discuss and not related to the fun stuff we enjoy about wrestling. But real life often does its best to get in the way of a good time, and I’m going to find it a lot harder to enjoy WWE programming if Vince is kept around on or off screen. The audacity he’s shown since that initial report is kind of disgusting, putting himself on camera every chance he gets and even introducing John Cena just to get some of that adulation. It’s a bad look!

I don’t know enough about corporate stuff to really try to dive into what can or will be done to Vince with this new information being released. It seems like the board would do whatever they could to distance themselves from Vince as soon as possible, and since SmackDown is only an hour away from when I’m writing this I’ll definitely watch to see what (if anything) goes down.

In our preferred version of news, kayfabe news, Money in the Bank was this past Saturday! I wrote about it a bit, but it’s worth diving into some more. Aside from the two winners of the briefcases, the big news was Theory dropping the United States Championship to (seemingly) move on to bigger and better things with the Money in the Bank briefcase. But then Raw happened, and it looks like he still hasn’t had enough of Lashley. So we’ve got Bob and Theory at SummerSlam, as well as the looming threat of Theory cashing in his title shot during that show. 

I gotta tell you, I’m not a big fan of Theory. I know folks say he was great in the indies and on Evolve, but I don’t see anything special about him on WWE programming. He’s fine. His moveset is unmemorable and I honestly don’t know anything more about A-Town Down than the name. WWE seems to be hitching their horse to the Theory wagon though, and I fear we will have another Cena / Roman style face-shoving on our hands. 

I was happy for Liv Morgan but I don’t think it has anything to do with how she’s been booked. She seems like a lovely person but in kayfabe she took advantage of a hurt opponent and has lost every title opportunity she’s had in the last year or so. Her character these days is “you guys fired my friends, feel bad” and while I do feel bad, that’s not really a personality to build off of. Come to think of it, Alexa Bliss version X.0 has been very similar. Just kind of a pretty face but not a whole lot behind it.

It will be interesting to see where they go with Theory, and how crowds react to being told he’s the new face of WWE. To be fair, John Cena and Roman Reigns got booed plenty, and they both seem to have done well enough since.

AEW has A LOT going on, with Forbidden Door and Blood and Guts out of the way. They have Fyter Fest, one of their annual regular TV events, coming up next week. Dynamite very much felt like a show sandwiched between events. A lot of talky segments to set up future matches or re-establish old rivalries and quite a few nothing matches. AEW has been kinda up and down lately with their TV product, so I hope getting past all those big pay per view matches will let their writers settle down and put together some good stories. I’d feel a lot better if some regular ass matches had clean finishes and started new feuds, starting tonight!

Despite all the drama, we also had some fun wrestling this week. Let’s get to it with…

THE BEST MATCHES I WATCHED THIS WEEK!

1- Last week’s Rampage featured the very first Royal Rampage, kind of a two ring Royal Rumble. There are some kinks to work out in the presentation of this match, but I had a blast watching and thought it was a creative way to get some more use out of the two ring setup. Brody King was a surprising choice to win, and the choke he put on Darby Allin was brutal looking. I didn’t feel like the Moxley / Brody match was an all-timer but it was tough looking.

2- The women’s Money in the Bank match was the stronger of the two, and I suggest checking that out for a fun time with a bunch of dangerous looking ladder spots!

3- The Street Profits and Usos put on a hell of a match at Money in the Bank as well, and despite my complaints about their continuous presence, they showed that they still pair up well and can show out when they are given the stage and the time to do so. I look forward to their inevitable rematch at SummerSlam!

4- Lashley and the Profits versus the Usos and Theory on Raw was a lot of fun too! I’ve said it before but I love how much fun Lashley projects when he’s in the ring these days. It’s infectious, but in a good way. Unlike this rash…

5- Penta Oscuro versus Rush on Dynamite was a great showing with a new face in Rush. I’m a little over the mask removal gimmick, but I hope they are using that to build to something, whether it be a hair versus mask match or the implementation of a rule to disqualify villains who try to remove the lucha mask. It was hard hitting, fast paced, and made me really look forward to more matches between these factions.

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’ll watch SmackDown tonight while I’m working on painting my basement, and will write about that and Rampage after I watch the latter tomorrow morning. Until then, have a great weekend!

AEW Dynamite Details from 7/7/2022

 AEW Dynamite aired yesterday! Was there fallout from Blood and Guts? Did we get any new champs? Read on and find out!

Opening Contest: Wardlow versus Scorpio Sky ©, Street Fight for the TNT Championship

Dan Lambert, Ethan Page, and several MMA guys (my MMA-knower pal didn’t recognize them so don’t worry about it) accompanied Sky to the ring. Sky started out using his speed and striking. While Wardlow did have some offense early, it was mostly Sky on top throughout the first half of the match. After a commercial break, Wardlow came out with a HUGE moonsault and went for the powerbomb concerto before he was attacked by the ATT goon squad. Wardlow cleared the ring just in time to be bonked by Scorpio with the TNT belt, but that only got him a two count and an angry Wardlow. Lambert attempted a distraction, Wardlow shoved Sky into Lambert and 3 powerbombs later, we had a new TNT champ!

Three stars! Short, definitive, and with the end result most of us were hoping for here. Sky is a great wrestler, but after the abysmal booking of the TNT championship lately the move was definitely to just get the belt onto the lava-hot Wardlow and let him build that title back up. I would hesitate to call Wardlow an underdog in any match, but they stacked the odds against him in this one so he could look even better. Well done!

Jon Moxley cut a backstage promo down the camera lens, acknowledging Brody King as a monster but also reminding us that Mox is one too.

“Smart” Mark Sterling and Tony Nese were elsewhere backstage, asking Keith Lee to sign a petition to have Isaiah Strickland fired because he’s mean. In a very verbose fashion, as is his wont, Mister Lee declined.

Christian Cage and Luchasaurus headed to the ring next, but were quickly interrupted by Matt Hardy. Jeff Hardy was brought up A LOT in this exchange, as Matt admitted that he used people during the HFO days and he sees Cage doing the same thing to Luchasaurus. Cage said Matt uses people, going so far as to use his own brother to have one last successful tag team run. Luchasaurus then headbutted Hardy, tossed him into the steel ring steps, and put Matt through a table to end the conversation.

A recap of Blood and Guts segued into an interview between Claudio Castignoli and Jake Hager, who will have a match next week for Fyter Fest.

Match #2, Butcher and the Blade (w/ The Bunny) versus Swerve in our Glory (Strickland and Lee)

Lee and Blade started things, but Swerve tagged in quickly. A little miscommunication led to some sloppy ring rope spots, but these things happen and fortunately nobody got hurt. The bad guys took control early and maintained through the commercial break. When we got back to the action, Butcher and Swerve were on a turnbuckle and Swerve took to biting the Butcher’s hand to get him off the post. A sweet diving European Uppercut by Swerve got the opening he needed to tag Keith Lee in, who proceeded to toss the Blade at Butcher. Butcher managed to pull Swerve in front of a charging Lee, and Swerve took some double team offense from the bad guys afterward. Lee stopped a pinfall and, after a fist bump to confirm they’re still pals, the good guys hit the combination Cave-In / Powerbomb to get the victory.

During Strickland and Lee’s celebration, Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs came out to repeat the same points they’ve been making for weeks - they are better than Swerve in our Glory, they are tired of being disrespected, they are the best tag team. But if you say you’re the best tag team in this company, it ALWAYS summons someone else, in this case the Young Bucks. The tag champs are proud of the whole tag division, but while everyone is eating well they should remember who set the table in the first place. Both these teams are good, but they lost to Jurassic Express, and the Bucks beat JX right afterward to win the AEW Tag Team Championships. The Young Bucks, fighting champs, challenged Team Tazz and Swerve in our Glory to a three way match for the titles at Fyter Fest.

A spooky video of Malakai Black played afterward, in which he said he envies Jon Moxley for being able to choose violence, a choice he and Brody King were never afforded.

A really short interview in the ring came next, as Eddie Kingston met Tony Schiavone and was in high spirits. He congratulated Wardlow and then congratulated all his teammates in the Blood and Guts match - even longtime nemesis Claudio Castignoli “See, I’m growing, I’m maturing!”. We then cut to a camera backstage where Jericho and his pals smashed Ruby Soho’s hand (arm?) in a car door because she interfered with Tay Conti interfering in the Blood and Guts match. FALLOUT!

The remaining six members of Dark Order made their way to the ring in Rochester, home of Brodie Lee. Evil Uno thanked us for our support, and announced that Dark Order is here to stay. “Dark Order is forever!” That statement brought QT Marshall out to challenge -1, Brodie Lee Jr., to a match. He started towards the ring when “Hangman” Adam Page’s theme hit and QT was beat down by basically everyone. -1 grabbed a mic to say he COULD pin QT tonight, but he’ll wait til he’s nineteen. Playing the long game, as Excalibur said. A nice tribute to the hometown hero.

Jim Ross joined the commentary table for the back half of the show. 

Match #3: Penta Oscuro (w/ Alex Abrahantes and Rey Fenix) versus Rush (w/ Jose the Assistant and Andrade El Idolo)

This was Rush’s debut singles match, and it was a good one. Rush was mostly focused on removing Penta’s mask, something he started going after right from the start. After a Penta tope to Rush outside the ring, Abrahantes and Jose started a brawl and were tossed from ringside as we went to commercial. Rush was still focused on that mask throughout the break, and we had a painful looking headbutt fight when we came back to full screen. A nasty chop fight in a corner followed and Penta took control. A gorgeous sequence featuring a rolling stunner, a superkick, and Fear Factor only got a two count because Andrade put Rush’s foot on the nearby rope. Andrade continued to provide a distraction, letting Rush hit a dickpunch and steal Penta’s mask, leading to an easy pinfall victory.

Four stars! Even though it wasn’t the best match these guys are capable of, it was fun and had a lot of the painful looking spots Penta Oscuro is known for. I think they are saving a big, blowout match for further down the line; the rivalry is just getting started, and from what I’ve heard of Rush he’s a very talented in-ring worker. Penta is, well, Penta, so he will hold his own as this feud gets nastier. Given the mask focus, maybe we’ll even get a mask versus hair match down the line? Or Andrade will start wearing his mask in the ring just to risk it later on. WHO’S TO SAY?

Samoa Joe will face Jay Lethal for the Ring of Honor TV Title at the RoH Death Before Dishonor pay per premium live event. Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, and Satnam Singh had a short video talking up the match.

Sterling and Tony Nese continued their quest for petition signatures. They found Orange Cassidy and his Best Friends modeling their new tie dyed matching jumpsuits, and demanded they sign the sheet. Cassidy said he never signs anything without his lawyer, summoning Danhausen, who will be playing the role of legal representation. Nese threatened Cassidy for not signing the petition, and both Sterling and Danhausen suggested there was money to be made in a Cassidy / Nese match on Rampage. Orange and Danhausen then traded legal terms to end the segment. I freakin loved it. Also I need to get them jumpsuits for me and the missus.

Match #4: The Gunn Club and The Acclaimed versus Ruffin It and Fuego del Sol.

A glorified squash that was there to move the Ass Boys’ and Acclaimed storyline forward. There were still some fun spots during the short match, and the Bear half of Bear Country looked noticeably more fit than he did the last time I saw these guys in action. The Gunns tagged themselves in on several occasions, including after the Acclaimed hit their finisher for the win. Squash, and we don’t rate squashes round here. The teams argued afterward, leading to Billy Gunn yelling at his kids before clotheslining Max Caster. A wounded Anthony Bowens offered up the scissors to his daddy, but was only given a FameAsser. The Gunns hugged, but Billy did look conflicted.

A video of Miro in darkness played next, as he challenged Malakai and the House of Black.

Match #5: ThunderStorm versus Nyla Rose and Marina Shafir

Nyla and Marina brought umbrellas to the ring, the best way to counter a ThunderStorm. Clever! The bad guys attacked to start, but once things settled down Rosa and Shafir had a cool sequence of reversals and counters. An umbrella shot to the back put MariNyla in control during the break. Nyla overwhelmed Storm with power stuff during the break, but Rosa was able to start a rally for the heroes. A couple shotgun dropkicks from Rosa to Nyla proved effective, but she went to the well one too many times and Rose countered Rosa with a chokeslam. Shafir followed with a pumphandle slam, but Toni was able to help out and a hip attack led to an assisted spike piledriver for the 1-2-3 for ThunderStorm.

Three stars! I thought Thunder Rosa and Marina Shafir looked far better than they did previously whenever they shared the ring during this decent tag team match. I know there were rumors of discontent between them, and I hope they were able to get together and squash that stuff because they really did well tonight. Toni and Nyla played their parts well too, leading to a fun and well balanced matchup for tonight’s women’s segment.

Backstage, Tony Schiavone interviewed (held a microphone for) Stokely Hathaway as he introduced Keira Hogan and Jade Cargill to the new interim baddie, Leila Grey. She offered a handshake again, but Jade has her doubts.

A passionate promo by Daniel Garcia followed, hyping his upcoming Pure rules match with champ Wheeler Yuta at the RoH PPPLE.

And FTR followed with a challenge to the Briscoes at the Ring of Honor show as well!

Main Event: Brody King versus Jon Moxley © for the Interim AEW Championship

A fun, easy to watch brawl between two tough guys, this was a “BIG MEATY MEN SLAPPIN’ MEAT” match with less big men. King’s power advantage led to some cool spots, as he tried to replicate his hanging choke win over Darby Allin on Mox off a turnbuckle. Mox has heart, and lungs, so he was able to survive that. 

Moxley did a lot of submission work tonight, going for a figure four off a dragon screw early. After a superplex, he locked in a bulldog before the hanging spot I mentioned. A Paradigm Shift and hammering elbows combo led to another bulldog, but King was able to drop on his back to break the hold. Mox just clamped the bulldog back on to choke out the powerhouse and that was the end of the match and the show!

Three stars! A good match between two tough dudes, but not the bloodbath or violence fest that some were anticipating. I enjoyed it though, and I don’t think Mox needs to bleed every time he’s on camera. King looked great when he was in control, but also sold well and looked desperate before he broke Moxley’s submission attempts. I hope they meet again, but even if they don't, this match was nothing to be ashamed of!

And that’s it! A show that built off the last couple big event shows (Forbidden Door and Blood and Guts) but also one that built up next week’s big event show, Fyter Fest. As such, nothing felt super important but everything did feel like it was leading to something more. A fun watch and, as usual, the two hours flew by. But what were Five Good Things about the show, you ask? I got you!

1- Wardlow won the TNT Championship! A match suited to Wardlow’s strengths, and one that everyone played their role in perfectly. Sky tried some unsavory tactics, the Top Team guys jumped the incredibly large underdog, and the hero emerged victorious. Good stuff!

2- In a promo and video heavy show, the Dark Order’s segment was nice. A great way to pay homage to the late Brodie Lee in his hometown, and a segment that even featured Lee’s son in a highlight package with his greatest hits. The kid is beloved and I might be tearing up typing this, shut up. I’m glad we’re not seeing the last of the Dark Order anytime soon.

3- Penta Oscuro and Rush had a good match to build this rivalry between the Lucha Bros. and El Faccion Ingobernable. Not their best, but definitely something to grow a whole thing out of!

4- The women’s tag match was a great debut for Toni Storm and Thunder Rosa, and it let Marina Shafir and Rosa show that they can do some good work together. 

5- The main event, a MEDIUM MEATY MEN MAULIN’ MEAT (™) match, was a fun watch and a good way to close the show. Mox was able to overcome the bigger guy, but neither man looked weak and they matched up well for Mox’s first interim title defense.

That wraps things up for today! I’ll be back tomorrow with Casual Friday, where we will recap some news and matches from the last week of professional wrestling. Until then, you can find me here on Twitter: Oso (of Let's Watch Some Wrestling!) (@ElOsoPequeno) / Twitter . See you tomorrow, and have a good one!