Ahoy-hoy clickers of my links and readers of my ramblings, and welcome to yet another part to this continuing adventure of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Welcome to
I've spared no expense...
But before we dive deep into the what this past week has to offer, let's turn our attention towards the news...
- Big Steph announced that RAW will now have the 'WWE Universal Championship' ('cause fuck you and your 'world' title SmackDown!). To crown the champion, Finn Balor won a Fatal-4-Way and then beat Roman Reigns clean (which should get its own news entry on its own) to face Seth Rollins for it at SummerSlam. Talk about starting things off with a bang eh?
- Sasha is now WWE Women's Champion, having beaten Charlotte for it on RAW. It was a truly great moment (and I talk more on it below)
- We're getting Dean Ambrose vs Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam for the big one. Bloody hell this is a big change from facing Corbin on PPV for Ziggler, good for him.
- Rhyno popped up on SmackDown! and murdered Heath Slater
- Apparently, as per Pro Wrestling Sheet, more of the Cruiserweight Classic entrants have been approached to sign with WWE, namely TJ Perkins, Akira Tozawa, Noam Dar and Cedric Alexander. Sabre Jr was too but couldn't sign due to personal reasons, but could come to a deal in the next year. Super hyped for the guys that have been signed, and by God I hope Zack does too. What a time to be alive.
- WWE made $199,000,000 this business quarter, the highest in company history, also achieving new highs on Network subscriber numbers. I firmly believe that we are experiencing another golden era in professional wrestling and I'm glad the numbers reflect that.
- SHELTOOOOOOOON BEEEENNJAMIIIIIIIIIN
WWE Battleground
Best Match on Battleground: Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn
This was special. Just fucking ridiculously good.
Going into this, we're bringing years of story (adding pre-WWE stuff) and they struck the perfect balance of some great wrestling and story-telling. The first few minutes was based around Kevin manhandling, dominating and berating Sami. Later, it shifted to Sami mounting a comeback, and this is where I shat myself.
Sami went for his springboard moonsault to the outside. I don't know what happened, but he came crashing down and landed on his shoulder on the apron. This made me yelp "Oouphguh" and made my heart sink. After having lost him to injury not too long ago, I was panicking that the same would happen now. However, Kev knew exactly what to do and immediately starting working on his arm, smashing it against the post. Genius, hides the fuck up and makes him seem more ruthless.
Even with a fucked arm, Sami soldiered on and made this a fucking barn-burner of a match. After months of teasing his Generico BrainbustAAAAAHHHH, Zayn gave us a treat and landed a variation on the apron in a fucking brutal highlight.
It became just a goddamn massacre from then on in, absolutely destroying each other. Oh God and Kev's "Stay down!" moment made such an impact. It shows Sami's undying resilience, and giving us insight into Kevin's mind, the way he said it was as if he's seen how far Sami is willing to go, and doesn't want to punish him anymore. Great storytelling.
Then the ending, sweet Jesus. Sami gets the Helluva, and then holds Owens up and looks at him. His facial expressions here speak wonders, you see the pain of the everything up until now, and he goes into the other corner, he pauses, he shuts his eyes, and pelts him with another Helluva Kick. 1-2-3.
Fuck me. I'm calling it now, I write this blog as the week progresses, this is the first match on this blog, and I bet this is the best match of the week. It's a contender for Match of the Year, and it may have become my new favourite match ever. I was just gripped throughout the entire thing. Watch this. Watch it now. I beg you.
Monday Night RAW
Best Match on RAW (25/7/16): Sasha Banks vs Charlotte - WWE Women's Championship Match
Here we go, the start of a new era in WWE. I'm already pretty hyped and it helped that RAW was pretty damn great this week. New set, new commentary team, new theme (fucking killer by the way, I've been listening to it loads this week - Enemies by Shinedown) and a new championship. And the ropes are red again.
It was an overall great show, and it featured an awesome match for the WWE Women's Championship between Charlotte and the challenging Sasha Banks.
We started off with a long lasting elbow-collar tie up, really putting across the idea of them being evenly matched. It was fairly even in the early goings, and included some Dana interference. Sasha combated this with some Viva La Raza, using good ol' Eddie's playbook, having Dana catch the title and then getting the ref's attention, leading to her expulsion.
Then things just built and built and built. These two women went all out on this one, we got high spots with the outside dives, we got the close-falls, the tense submissions all the goodies we could ask for. Then, we got the crowning moment. Sasha locks in the second Banks Statement in a row and makes Charlotte tap. Ring-a-ding-ding, new champion.
That building blew up. I was really happy when it happened, I didn't expect it, plus I like Sasha a lot. All throughout the match commentary were saying how this was her dream, then with the Eddie spot, and then you just see her face as she holds it up, and then that's when I got a little choked up. All the WWE 24s and the Breaking Grounds of showing how she wanted this, and it all just hit me. Fuck sake, wrestling, you did it again, you made me cry. Even Charlotte was happy to see it.
Just fucking awesome.
SmackDown! LIVE
Best Match on SD! (26/7/16): Dolph Ziggler vs Bray Wyatt vs Apollo Crews vs John Cena vs AJ Styles vs Baron Corbin - No.1 Contender's Match for WWE World Championship
It's the money show, SmackDown! LIVE! And just like RAW, they've fitted themselves with a new stage set, new commentary team, new cameras and the ropes are blue! Plus, a new theme, but in my mind, it's kinda lackluster compared to RAW's new one, it is a CFO$ song though.
To be honest, this wasn't the best of shows, I expected...more? Just, not what I was given. The matches weren't anything to write home about, RAW was definitely better this week.
Anywho, this match was the best on the show, determining who oh who would face Ambrose for the title at SummerSlam. It started off just everywhere, breaking off into brawling pairs. We did see Wyatt and AJ have their own sort of teamwork similar to KO and Rusev on RAW, but shorter. Mainly, we got a lot of one-in/one-out in this one, and this was the most prevalent when Cena went on an Attitude Adjustment rampage (I reckon he was taunting the whole time whilst on the outside to store so many finishers). Everyone got to have their moments, culminating with Ziggler hitting a superkick on Styles and scoring the pinfall.
I'm interested to see where they go from here. With Dean and Dolph both faces at the minute, I could see them turning Dolph into something we were starting to see towards the back end of his Corbin feud, cocky pissed off collegiate wrestler man, something like that perhaps. Who knows? Jordan and Gable are on next week so we have that to look forward to.
NXT
Best Match on NXT (27/7/16): Kota Ibushi vs Buddy Murphy
We're now at the episodes that were taped whilst I was there! I can be seen at moments, I'm the fucking nerd in the 'I'm a Hugger' shirt opposite the stage and towards the right.
The camera angles didn't do Ibushi's entrance quite the justice it deserved. It focused on Buddy, but what we saw was 'KOTA IBUSHI' light up on the screen and the crowd lost it, with me bursting out with an 'Oh shit!' as it happened.
This wasn't as one-sided as I would have thought it'd be, with Murphy actually getting quite a decent amount of damage on Ibushi. But, it was pretty clear that this match's primary job was to show off Kota. He landed some sick shots on Buddy that everyone could feel, including this bad boy;
He teased doing a phoenix splash, a move I flip shit out at every time I see it. So far, I've seen Ibushi, Ospreay, Neville and Rollins pull it off from what I remember, so please lads, bust one out sometime soon.
Ibushi finished the Aussie off with a big ol' powerbomb and claimed a 1-2-3. I no longer have any idea what's going on with Kota and his status with WWE, reports saying he's signed, he says he hasn't, fuck knows. Welp, even if nothing comes of it, at least we got to see him on NXT.
Cruiserweight Classic
Best match on CWC (Episode 3): Brian Kendrick vs Raul Mendoza
We had another great episode of the Cruiserweight Classic, featuring some great competitors, but the best of this group of matches was the facing off of Brian Kendrick and Raul Mendoza.
Kendrick's a lot different from how I remember, mainly slowing down quite a bit in his older age. But, Mendoza sure as shit more than enough speed for both of them. The match had kind of a less action packed start, with a lot more mat work and holds, with glimpses of Mendoza's capabilities but Kendrick managing to get out of the way. We did get to see Mendoza pull off a combination between a Texas Cloverleaf and a Cesaro swing, which I thought was super cool, a really unique way to work the legs.
I think Kendrick is really the first person in this tournament to properly work a match as a heel. He got particularly brutal when he made Raul bite down on the middle rope so he could kick it. Something I hadn't seen before and was damn cool in the grand scheme of things. This caused Raul to start bleeding from the mouth, which made the match look even more like a legit combat competition. From then on was when Mendoza really got to shine, he pulled out a Shane-O-Mac coast-to-coast, beautiful stuff.
Alas, Raul was outwitted by the veteran Kendrick, who picked up the win through nefarious tactics.
This was awesome, especially on Mendoza's part and I hope that he is next to be reported as signing on the dotted line for the big ol' WWE.
Ring of Honour
Best Match on ROH TV: Kyle O'Reilly vs Jay Lethal - ROH World Championship Match
This match was very interestingly done.
So, here's the context needed for this match; originally, the episode was advertised as being devoted to this one match with a 'how long will they go?' sort of build. Start of the show, Bullet Club attack and injure the arm of O'Reilly after his entrance, match is called off. Throughout the hour we get 'updates' on his condition and a backstage segment of him saying he's okay. So, the title match goes on.
Lethal was great in this match, not only with his wrestling ability but his character and story telling. Before the bell, he sincerely offered Kyle a match sometime in the future, but was rejected. The theme of this match was that the two would exchange, more often than not with Lethal coming out on top with Kyle clutching his arm and wailing on the mat. Lethal would beg the ref to end the match, and would shake his head in frustration and annoyance with the Bullet Club. It looks like we're getting a new side of Lethal, seemingly becoming a full-fledged face lately. There were some parts where he was more of a heel, one time just saying 'fuck it' and giving Kyle three tombstone shoulder-breakers in a row, and also general targeting of the arm throughout the match.
Hendrix didn't accompany Lethal to the ring which was interesting. With all her Women of Honour work having her being the top heel, it could be another indication of a face Lethal in the future.
Topping it off we had a reluctant Lethal Injection and a very disgruntled retaining champion who didn't even celebrate.
This was a story heavy match with less focus on the in-ring action, but it was bloody good. As always, you can watch ROH TV for free on www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or download the Fite TV app and watch on there, also with no charge (which I do, the quality is a lot better than the player on their website).
The Verdict
Best Match of the Week: Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens - WWE Battleground
Look guys, I said it earlier. This is one of my Match of the Year candidates (oh you bet your ass I'm doing an end of year special) and could very well be the newest entrant into the list of my favourite matches of all the times. Everything in this match had a purpose and everything worked, even with Sami slipping on the moonsault. Absolutely wonderful, I implore you to watch this, please. It goes to show how professional wrestling is a great medium to tell stories.
That's all from me for this one, and with these matches written up, the leaderboard now bares an uncanny resemblance to this.
Have a good one guys, and enjoy your wrestling.
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