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| Fuckin' coooooooooooooooooooool |
As customary on this weekly write-y thing, let's first dive into the past 7 days in the form of news...
- Title changes galore! Samoa Joe is the new NXT Champion (UNBEATABLE POWER OF THE DICK KICK), #DIY are the new NXT Tag Team Champions, Will Ospreay was the new ROH TV Champion, but then Marty Scurll beat him to be the new ROH TV Champion. Looks like the value of gold must've gone up.
- Expanding on that last one, at Final Battle we are getting Scurll vs Ospreay vs Dragon Lee vs Bobby Fish for the ROH TV Title. Goddamn what a match that should be.
- Goldberg
murdereddefeated Lesnar in 1min 26sec. Fucking hell, what a turn of events that was, and I loved it. Not only that, but he announced on RAW that he will be in the Royal Rumble! - James Ellsworth is now officially a SmackDown! superstar! What a beautiful journey it has been for this man.
- Randy Orton has welcomed his new baby girl into the world. The Wyatt Family continues to grow!
- Meltzer has confirmed that we are getting TakeOver: San Antonio the night before the Royal Rumble. Part of me thinks that might be a bit too soon, though I suppose this isn't the first time we've had this short a gap between TakeOvers ([R]Evolution in November and Rival in January)
NXT TakeOver: Toronto
Best Match on TakeOver Toronto: The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson) vs #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) - NXT Tag Team Championship Match - 2 Out of 3 Falls
Honourable Mention(s): The whole damn show
SAY YEAH!
These guys once again proved that ‘(Ciampa + Gargano) x The Revival = A Fucking Awesome Match’ and then multiplying that by ‘2 out of 3 falls’, you’ve got a Match of the Year candidate.
I loved this match. The spots in this one were perfectly timed, leaving enough time between to get in some lovely psychology and some old school tag wrestling. The first fall came about after one of the most brutal Shatter Machines I’ve ever witnessed. It was so compact and the angle of Gargano's descent was very steep, with the landing looking super nasty.
The continuation of the working on Gargano's leg was sweet, a lovely call back and made the story of this so much better, especially when we had him reach the ropes when last time he tapped. Beautiful.
My favourite spot was probably in the lead to the third fall when The Revival went to perform DIY's finisher, only to receive a taste of their own medicine;
There was a few pinfalls broken up by tag partners in this one, making it all incredibly tense. Many sighs of relief and frustration filled my living room as I reacted to the endless near-finishes.
I can't say enough good things about this match. I think it was better than their clash at TakeOver: Brooklyn II and is seriously in the running for 'Best Match of the Year' (make sure to stay posted for my end of year special). Every minute was spectacular, so much tension, the spots were awesome, great psychology with the leg targeting of Gargano and that double submission ending was masterful. I love it!
WWE Survivor Series
Best Match on SS: Team RAW (Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns & Braun Strowman) vs Team SmackDown! LIVE (AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton & Shane McMahon)
Honourable Mention(s): Cesaro & Sheamus vs The Usos - Final 2 in the Tag Team Survivors Match
For the past few years, Survivor Series Tag Matches more often than not are a bit thrown together with no proper development. This year I was a lot more invested in it, as well as the women's and tag division ones. I have made clear on here that I haven't really liked how all of Team RAW in each match were dysfunctional and having a lot of in-fighting, putting me firmly in support of Team SmackDown!
When it came down to it, the men's match was fucking awesome. Sure, some shenanigans, but most of the time it they were very entertaining. I would be remissed if I didn't mention that this match had a plethora of high spots that were insane. So, look forward to some gifs and clips of these coming up.
One thing that made this match much better than the other two was the first elimination. Dean Ambrose was the first to go after the better part of 20 minutes. He didn't feel wasted, didn't feel like he was a weak link, and had significance. I appreciate that with the women's and tag team match didn't have the same amount of overall time to work with, but I just felt that that wait until the first elimination made it much more impactful.
Braun was, as predicted by near-everyone, a fucking monster in this match. From his first time stepping into the match to even him leaving after being eliminated, his presence was definitely felt. For example, here he is committing manslaughter on the WWE World Champion, AJ Styles.
They also had him needing to be taken out by a whole host of big moves by multiple people. I've been kinda soured on Orton and the RKO after all the '#OUTTANOWHERE' and memes and stuff, but I have to admit, Orton hit some sick ones in this match, one of which being to the big man himself;
As usual with any match that has 'Shane McMahon' listed as a participant, Shane decided to make like a Voltorb and perform 'Self Destruct', sacrificing a whole lot to put down Strowman even more;
And then, not even that properly put Braun away. He lumbered his way to the ring, but was counted out thanks to good ol' James Ellsworth. I'm glad these two got to interact again, and their little segment backstage earlier on the show did make me chuckle. I feel like Strowman has some good comedy potential in him, luckily that hasn't been done to death yet.
Speaking of death, Shane McMahon again, dying;
That must've taken a hefty amount of wind outta Shane-O, seeing as how he was pinned (i.e. couldn't keep his shoulder down and having to be eliminated by referee's disgression). Say what you will about Shane McMahon but Jesus Hiratio Christ he goes all out every time he's in that ring.
Remember what I said about Randy's awesome RKOs? Number 2...
I really liked that Wyatt & Orton were the last ones for SmackDown!, this match made them look like a proper team, and it has considerably changed my view on this story with them. I figured Orton would sooner or later turn on Bray and the Wyatts, but looks like he's gonna be here a while.
This teamwork led to this finale of this spectacular match, with Orton sacrificing himself, and Bray capitalising with a Sister Abigail that looked like he damn near snapped Reigns's head off his shoulders.
Overall, this match was like 50 minutes long. Fair fucks to everyone inolved, especially those lasting right til the end, and those who took astounding bumps in the name of sports entertainment. I thought this was super good, probably my new favourite Traditional Survivor Series Match ever. Definitely look this one if you have the time.
As for the honourable mention, Sheasaro/Usos at the end of the tag match was great. Lovely teamwork on both sides, Sheasaro better be getting some titles soon, I'm beginning to really enjoy this pairing. I started off rooting for SmackDown!, ended up cheering on RAW from that part alone.
Monday Night RAW
Best Match on RAW (21/11/16): Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins - WWE Universal Championship Match - No Disqualification
Still in the Great White North, it's Monday Night RAW. Main eventing us this week, we've got Kevin Owens defending his big red belt against Seth Rollins in a No DQ match.
Spot heavy match for you here, with it not taking long at all for weapons to become involved. Seth gets table out, cheers. Owens puts it away, boos. Just a little touch there that I liked a lot. The first big thing I thought was cool was Owens doing his cannonball senton with a chair in front of Rollins. Can't recall him doing that before, and it looked damn sweet.
Owens was getting his ass kicked for a lot of the match, with him groggily stumbling about more than walking after the first few minutes. Poor Owens was just trying to superplex Seth when he got introduced to furniture.
The duo soon took full advantage of the new game mechanics added to 2K17 this year as they headed through the crowd. Rollins took it one step further though, adding some high risk offence to this match with a big ol' dive.
Once we got back to the ringside, we got a little bit of Jericho interference that led to Owens getting the pinfall victory. He also performed one of his coolest and most horrific moves in his repetoire, the apron powerbomb AKA The Zayn Killer.
Nice match here, a good chunk of weapon use and more extreme spots. Good if you're looking for a fast paced little something to fill the time.
SmackDown! LIVE
Best Match on SD! (22/11/16): The Miz vs Kalisto - WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
It's the Money Show now, $mackDown! LIVE.
The Miz is once again popping up on this li'l blog o' mine, defending his championship against Kalisto.
Kalisto took it right to Miz in this one, flurries of kicks and quick action kept the masked man on top for the majority. This wasn't a terribly long match, with Corbin interfering in it, attempting to attack Kalisto, only for him to counter but get given the Skull Crushing Finale by Miz to finish.
It's nice that Kalisto is getting back on track, receiving a spot on the Survivor Series card for the Cruiserweight Championship, and now getting show as a legitimate threat to the Intercontinental Championship. Hopefully we get going places soon.
Not a huge match here, but it was good for the time it had and did it's job well.
NXT
Best Match on NXT (23/11/16): Aliyah, Liv Morgan & Ember Moon vs Billie Kay, Peyton Royce & Daria Berenato
Just a little taping before TakeOver this week, headlined by the only proper women's storyline going at the minute, with Billie Kay and Peyton Royce finding a partner in Dario Berenato to take on the newfound alliance of Liv Morgan, Aliyah and Ember Moon.
We had Royce and Kay doing some solid double team work, which gives me hope that one day we'll get some Women's Tag Team Championships, but baby steps, seeing as they're the only proper team at the minute.
Ember did her always cool stuff, springboard, gymnastics, flips, the works. Whilst she hasn't had a whole lot by way of substantial match time, her showing off/time to shine is still very exciting to watch. We keep getting Otunga preaching that Naomi is the most athletic woman in WWE, but to me, Ember is.
There's one thing I love about Daria; her double leg takedown. It has a mix of power and strength as well as being quite funny to me. Double leg takedown is meant to be a lead into something else, but Daria doing it to straight up destroy someone is awesome.
Also on this episode of NXT, SAnitY wrecked shop and we got to see Eric Young's fucking deadly finisher;
Ring of Honour
Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 270): The Kingdom (Matt Taven, TK O'Ryan & Vinny Marseglia) vs Team CMLL (Hechicero, Okumura & Ultimo Guerrero) - ROH Six Man Tag Team Title Tournament
It's more action from the Six Man Tag tournament this week, featuring Team CMLL taking on the new and reformed Kingdom.
I dunno what to make of this new Kingdom so far, I always preferred Mike Bennett to Taven, and I haven't much an opinion on O'Ryan or Marseglia, other than that they're solid in the ring.
Team CMLL were my highlight of this match. Hechicero was pretty damn badass in this one, just through sheer dominance and his encouragement to be chopped, taking his straps from his gear down. Ultimo is also real cool, he has this awesome moveset and it gets the crowd very excitable and loud. I'm not massively liking Okumura, he just doesn't appear to do a whole lot, but overall I feel Team CMLL were better recieved and better acknowledging of the crowd this time around.
Solid match here which saw The Kingdom come out on top, meaning that the finals of this tournament will see them face ACH, KUSHIDA and Jay White for the titles at Final Battle on Friday 2nd December, finally back at the Hammerstein Ballroom. I am so excited to see that arena decked out with wrestling once more.
Lucha Underground
Best Match on LU (S3E12): Killshot vs Dante Fox
Holy shit we got some crazy stuff in this match. First the WMD match with Marty 'The Moth' Martinez, now this; Killshot is so good at matches for bitter rivalries.
This was super high paced, with both these men extremely gifted on the athletic side, flips, strikes and leaps aplenty, all the good things you can expect from Lucha Underground. There were a fair few high spots in this one, the most hard hitting of which was this Death Valley Driver off the top rope onto the apron.
Fox must've felt that one in the morning.
Another awesome moment saw Fox then afterwards kick out of Killshot's finisher, which surprised me as well as those in attendance at The Temple.
I really liked this match, its just that I'm not retainig much else writing this at the moment, so apologies to you dear reader, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Anyway...
EVOLVE 72
Best Match on EVOLVE 72: Chris Hero vs Tracy Williams
I finally caught a somewhat up to date EVOLVE show! With my return to EVOLVE saw the match of 'Hot Sauce' Tracy Williams (God I love that nickname) taking on Chris Hero.
We kicked things off straight away with a German suplex from Williams, which was damn awesome if I do say so. As with any Chris Hero match up, you can expect some nasty looking strikes. Tonight was no exception with him landing a plethora of thundering elbows, straights and kicks. However, Tracy also landed his own mean chops that were stiff as mahogany.
My favourite moment of this match saw Hero drop Williams directly on his head with a mean looking piledriver. However, the crowning moment of this was Williams kicking out after the ref had counted just a 1. I always pop for 1 counts, though I'm glad that they're as rare as they are, lest they be done to death.
The end too had quite a shock factor to it too. Tracy had Hero locked in the Crossface submission hold and made him tap! All of Hero's losses have a certain weight to them, which is a testament to how well he has been conveyed over the years, what with him being booked pretty damn strong, possessing an incredible intimidating form and his new schtick demanding to be introduced as 'The Greatest of All Time'. And we all know, Chris Hero ain't nothin' to fuck with.
EVOLVE 73
Best Match on EVOVLE 73: Chris Hero vs Matt Riddle (Hero/Riddle III)
Honourable Mention(s): Drew Gulak vs Zack Sabre Jr.
It's the end of this trilogy of Hero and Riddle, two men who are just ridiculously good. One thing I wanted to add, first time I've seen Riddle in black trunks, looks kinda strange I have to say seeing as he doesn't wear anything else other than his shorts.
Hero lands a Yakuza kick to get us underway, because the best tactics involve your boot in the face of your opponent. A lot more grappling and technical wrestling than Hero's match the night before with Williams, with Riddle's MMA coming into play here.
But, there was still a fuck tonne of booming hits. Hero hit one elbow so hard that it sent Riddle out of the ring and to the floor. Awesome. Responding to these strikes was a great moment for Riddle later on. He stood up to Hero, 'Bro-ing up' as I put it, shouting 'Bro!' as to urge Hero to keep hitting him and hitting him, countering finally with his own mad sequence of strikes. This defiance wasn't throughout though, with Riddle getting laid the fuck out when an elbow met his face off a springboard dive in my highlight of the match.
The ending was goddamn destructive. Hero, renowned for utilising the piledriver, delivered two in a row two put Riddle to bed and finish this awesome match. With each match, Riddle rises in the rankings of my favourites. Bro!
The honourable mention here was a great match too. Gulak faced Sabre in a mat classic, a pure technical wrestling spectacle, with these guys going a good half hour just wrestling. Beautiful stuff.
The Verdict
Best Match of the Week: The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson) vs #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa) - NXT Tag Team Championship Match
God what a fucking match this was. All out emotion and nerves overcame me watching this, haven't felt like that in a while now. One of the best tag matches I can remember, certainly of this year hands down. Revival, although I was desperate for you to lose the titles, there is no denying that you have made tag wrestling in NXT amazing to watch.
The Survivor Series match was also incredible, just not as much as the NXT match though. It surpassed all my expectations and was a very memorable match, one of the best main roster matches this year, and in Survivor Series history.
And with that, we can chalk up the leaderboard with these results so that in now looks like this here link.
Get ready for a double whammy now, it's 'The Best Wrestling Quote(s) of the Week'!;
Byron, why dont you take a bus to Alaska and stay there the rest of your life - JBL
Monkeys! MOOOONKEEEYS! - Kevin Owens
That just about does it from me for this span of time we call a week folks. Get ready for another big week next time, with Final Battle and the debut episode of 205 Live! Really looking forward to these, I cannae wait pal. Hope you all have a lovely time and treat yourself, try and make yourself one really good sandwich sometime, you deserve it.
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