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| Since Ellsworth's betrayal, Dean has found a much cuter companion |
- HOLY SHIT WHAT!? WWE have announced the United Kingdom Championship! January (fuckin' January!) will see a two day tournament to crown the first ever champion. Not only that, it appears there will be a new weekly show, and Nigel McGuinness will be on commentary! GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH (I'm doing a special on this so stay tuned!)
- Chris Hero is reportedly coming back to WWE, but there is some debate over he will be known as that or his previous NXT name, 'Kassius Ohno'. What with Kevin Owens being known as 'KO' now, I think there's a strong case for keeping the Hero name
- Booker T is running for Mayor of Houston, Texas. I wonder if they can dig it.
- 2016 decided to claim one more victim as Zack Ryder got injured on SmackDown! You bastards!
- Its being reported the new TNA owners have reached out to Jeff Jarrett to come in and help out. I dunno how much truth there is to it, but supposedly there might be some sort of re-branding with Global Force Wrestling. Fucking hell guys, GFW ain't worth it at this point.
Monday Night RAW
Best Match on RAW (12/12/16): The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) vs The Club (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson) vs Sheamus & Cesaro
Honourable Mention: The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) vs Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens vs Roman Reigns & Rollins
We begin this week with Monday Night RAW centring its focus on the New Day and their quest to etch their names into the history books as the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions in history, topping that of Ax & Smash, Demolition, a duo with one of the best entrance themes ever.
This was New Day’s night. Whilst their title run may feel a little stagnant, there’s no denying that they deliver some awesome matches. Pitted against The Club and Sheamus & Cesaro, this too fell under that bracket. We started off with Kofi and Cesaro, showcasing some nice, fluid action to kick start this match. Cesaro was a goddamn machine in this contest, destroying so many things so very well;
Just noticed the last couple times seeing this, Cesaro hooks the leg as he lands with the crossbody; fuckin' slick mate.
I also felt that Gallows and Anderson had a particularly good showing in this contest, getting some big shots in and coming very close to winning the titles, landing double-team manoeuvre after double team manoeuvre.
In the end however, Sheasaro were inches away from claiming the gold, well bronze, but the power of positivity came knocking and took them back.
New Day also had another great match in the main event versus two thirds of The Shield, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, and the turbulent team of Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens. This episode of RAW certainly reminded me that, New---Day Rocks.
SmackDown! LIVE
Best Match on SD! (13/12/16): Dean Ambrose vs Luke Harper vs The Miz vs Dolph Ziggler - No.1 Contender's Match for the WWE World Championship
Looking to SmackDown! now, and the show stealer here was the elimination fatal-four-way to decide the next challenger for AJ Styles's WWE World Championship. Ambrose. Harper. Miz. Ziggler.
Harper was hands down the MVP of this match. As soon as the bell rang, his tirade of destruction and head rocking began. Superkicks, lariats, suicide dives, the works. Out of all of this, I think my favourite was his 'Get Fucked' boot.
That's not to say that everyone else under-performed, the other three had their moments and added something to the match. Dean threw in some roughness, Dolph some explosive sequences and Miz some heelish antics.
Overall, I really liked this match. Well paced, everyone looked good in it, no-one was wasted. With Harper's dominance, it's given him a new flavour of danger he's been lacking for a while, glad to see him properly being used. Good stuff.
205 Live
Best Match on 205 Live (13/12/16): Rich Swann vs TJ Perkins
Non-title match headlining 205 Live here, with Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann facing TJ Perkins.
I can't remember a whole lot about this match, so please forgive me, but that can be seen as telling of the quality of this match. It wasn't bad per se, just not massively memorable. We had their fairly standard quick grappling with a few high spots dashed in every now and then.
I hate to say it, but it was a bit of a 'more of the same' type match, what you might expect of these two on an episode of 205 Live. Hopefully the title match at Roadblock will give some zest to the title picture.
WWE Tribute to the Troops
Best Match on TttT: Dolph Ziggler & American Alpha (Jason Jordan & Chad Gable) vs The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper & Randy Orton)
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
What with me being British I suppose this show isn't directed at me, but I love wrestling, and big ups to the armed forces.
Anywho, here we are with a nice six-man tag of The Wyatt Family taking on American Alpha and Dolph Ziggler.
I'm really digging Orton in tag team matches, him being in the ring with these guys is very beneficial. With Orton being a big money player, them looking like a threat and doing legitimate damage on him only elevates the teams he's against.
All of the Wyatts in a match at once is awesome in my opinion, the dynamics are great, the Harper/Bray following, the Orton/Bray growing teamwork and the slight Harper/Orton animosity.
Alpha are always cool to watch, and I think they've added some new tandem offence to their repertoire. I thought Ziggler meshed quite well with these two, making a nice little team for this one-off match-up.
When it came to the climax, we got to see the super cool Sister Abigail throw into the RKO, and Gable sold it like a motherfucker;
Just noticed how annoyed the ref is in the start of that gif, giggles were made. Taking everything into account, nice match.
NXT
Best Match on NXT (14/12/16): Bobby Roode vs Oney Lorcan
We're trucking down to Florida now, taking in the sights at Full Sail for this episode of NXT. This episode did feature the Nakamura/Joe steel cage match from the Australia live event, but it really didn't do anything for me. What I was really entertained by though was the match between the glorious Bobby Roode and Oney Lorcan.
Not a massive match, but I really liked it. We had Roode playing his role of big-shot dick really well, slapping the head of Lorcan, taunting him throughout. I'm glad to see Lorcan being used more regularly, and as a bigger contender. Just being put into this match and having a chance at NXT Championship elevates him.
I tell ya, Lorcan kicked some shit out of Roode in this one, working pretty stiff with his chops and uppercuts. He looked like a real threat taking it to Roode in a pretty major way.
Whilst Roode was on the back foot for what seemed to be the majority of the contest, her sure did make his shots count. There are few things in this world prettier than a Bobby Roode spinebuster;
Ring of Honour
Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 273): Candice LeRae vs Deonna Purazzo
It's a special episode of ROH TV this week, dedicated to the Women of Honour. If I had my way I'd just have the women alongside the rest of the roster on the regular TV show, but hey, I ain't booking.
But anyway, here we are with a good match between Candice LeRae and Deonna Purazzo (yeah, that one who has been on NXT a few times). Quite a mat-based match here, slow and methodical. Deonna focused on the left arm of Candice, weakening it for her Fujiwara armbar. LeRae did have some flurries, landing a pretty sweet looking suicide dive amongst other things.
It was a good match, but I feel the rest of the episode wasn't that great, which is a shame considering how little the Women of Honour get this spotlight.
As always, you can watch ROH TV for FREE (zero dimes!) at www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app.
Lucha Underground
Best Match on LU (S3E15): Jack Evans vs PJ Black vs Son of Havoc vs Angelico
This week had more action from the Battle of the Bulls to decide the next challenger to the Lucha Underground Championship. We had Mariposa, Jeremiah Crane, Killshot and Dante Fox doing battle in a great match, but I felt this was beaten in quality by the fatal-four-way between PJ Black, Jack Evans, Angelico and Son of Havoc.
Incredibly fast paced this one, no two ways about it. There was bound to be something awesome going on no matter what point of the match you look at. It's been a while since I've seen Angelico in action, possibly since last year's Battle of Los Angeles tournament, and he's not lost a step.
I'm loving Son of Havoc more and more as I watch him, he's a very entertaining guy. He works best when he's against people like himself in these three competitors, super agile and lucha heavy.
EVOVLE 74
Best Match on EVOLVE 74: Catch Point (Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi) vs Ricochet & Peter Kaasa - EVOLVE Tag Team Championship Match
Honourable Mention: Chris Hero vs Dick Togo
It's another EVOLVE weekend here on the blog, this first night taking place in New York City. The tag titles are on the line as we see Catch Point representatives Fred Yehi and 'Hot Sauce' Tracy Williams taking on the team of Ricochet and Peter Kaasa.
It's my first time seeing Kaasa, and he looks like 1980s Scott Steiner; long dark hair, singlet, jacked, plus he's on the flippier side of things. He had a springboard corkscrew moonsault that was a thing of beauty. Ricochet however was king of the high flying in this match though, not sure what else to expect.
I fucking love Catch Point, I think both Yehi and Williams are criminally underrated. Yehi has a great style with his stomps and targeting of hands and feet, and Williams has an awesome ground and pound moveset.
I was pretty impressed by Kaasa, though I felt sometimes he felt a bit out of place, not as fluid moving as Ricochet or his opponents, but he made up for that with some feats of strength and some pretty moves.
I thought this match was awesome, with nice sequences between competitors and there were some great 2-on-1 moments, with momentum swinging both ways. I'd definitely check this one out.
EVOLVE 75
Best Match on EVOLVE 75: Drew Gulak vs Tracy Williams
Second night of the weekend and we are greeted by the main event of Drew Gulak taking on his protege, 'Hot Sauce' Tracy Williams, whose praises were written above.
These guys went fucking hard in this one, nasty strikes with extra mustard and some downright horrifying submissions taking place. Drew pulled Tracy's leg behind his head and sweet Nelly I feel tingly just thinking about it. Gulak manipulated those joints pretty damn brutally, I know it made me wince as I watched.
As a fan of both of these men, so I was a bit back and forth with who I was rooting for, but I think I marginally leaned towards my boy Gulak. This made the tension a lot greater, as does any match where you have a steak in who you want to win, making all the submission attempts even more fist clenching and exciting.
This match seemed to go on for fucking ages. Whilst at times it did feel like it was dragging and was maybe too much, there was a feeling of 'how much longer can these guys go?' and I was amazed with their endurance. You sure as shit had a pair of red, sweaty men at the end of this and you can hardly blame them, they left everything in that ring with that massive battle.
Best Match of the Week: Drew Gulak vs Tracy Williams - EVOLVE 75
Like I said, this match was great. Edge of your seat stuff with the way these guys were going, and I think I preferred this over the tag match from the night before because this had a lot more psychology and story-telling to it, with Williams trying to prove he was no longer in Gulak's shadow, and Gulak on the reverse of the coin aiming to prove himself as being better.
The RAW tag match was also really great and is worth checking out. as well as New Day's second match that night. With Sheamus and Cesaro winning the opportunity to face them at Roadblock on the Tribute to the Troops show, it gives me something to be pretty excited about on this sorta-okay-ish built Pay-Per-View.
And with that week collected and catalogued, here is how the leaderboard shapes up nowadays. One last thing, it's time for 'The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week', this time in video format!
That's all I've got for this week folks, I hope you enjoy the continuing wind down to the holidays and that Roadblock isn't shit. Stay tuned for a BWOTW Special on the UK tournament, but make sure you have a good time whatever you do. Seeya!
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