Tozawa's fucking hyped for New Year |
- Cena's back - and he's sort of a dick! It appears his new direction is just taking opportunities 'because he's John Cena'. This could turn out to be very interesting indeed. Keep an eye on it guys.
- It has come to light that after WWE's UK Championship tournament, the signed talent will not be allowed to work WCPW shows despite WWE's promises of 'no restrictions'. I don't know who to trust anymore.
- Jay Lethal has signed with Ring of Honour for another 2 years. However, Adam Cole is yet to re-sign, with his contract expiring in April. It'll be interesting to see whether he does or not, and whether we should expect him anywhere in WWE in the coming year.
- American Alpha are your new SmackDown! Tag Team Champions! Here's hoping we get some awesome title matches in the coming months, and hopefully see them defend that
goldsilver at WrestleMania
Monday Night RAW
Best Match on RAW (26/12/16): Sheamus & Cesaro vs The New Day (Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston) - RAW Tag Team Championship Match
We're in Chicago, Illinois this week, and among all the 'CM Punk' chants, we had this great match between the defending champions, Sheamus and Cesaro, and the challenging New Day, this time with Xavier Woods in for Big E.
New Day were not messing around in this one, going about this through a whole lot of tandem offence thick and fast in the opening few minutes. Cesaro and Sheamus managed to overcome them in the one-on-one aspect most of the time, though the pair did utilise some double teams of their own.
Cesaro again continues to display incredible feats of strength, they fucked up a spot where he was gonna transition from a catch to a gorilla press, but with him dropping Kofi, he then straight up lifted him off the ground like a beast, then threw him out the ring. Madness.
The finish of this was awesome, whilst Sheamus had plenty of Brogue Kicks to spare, I'm pretty sure his fucks to distribute were running out.
This match certainly doesn't best their contest at Roadblock, but it was still good. Let's see where this Sheasaro train takes us next.
SmackDown! LIVE
Best Match on SD! (27/12/16): AJ Styles vs Baron Corbin vs Dolph Ziggler - WWE World Championship Match
It's the SmackDown! mini-PPV this week featuring 3, count 'em, 3 title matches! Out of the whole show, the best match was that consisting of AJ Styles defending his WWE World Championship against Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin.
Hot damn this was a great match! Even though I was sure Styles would be retaining, they did a great job of making it look as if any of them could snag a victory. They also did a great job of making Corbin look like a fucking monster. He wrecked house when he was on top, and it would either take something big or some 2-on-1 to cut him down.
Styles and Ziggler put him through the announce table somewhat awkwardly. They were perched on the barricade behind it, AJ did a legdrop, landing before Ziggler, so he kinda sat there for a split second before the table collapsed under Ziggler's added elbow drop weight.
However, the spot of the match was undeniably 2 finishers being hit at once;
How cool was that!?
The match ended through an amalgamation of a bit of a wonky End of Days, though it didn't dampen the finish much at all, and a top dollar Phenomenal Forearm. That Chicago crowd loved that springboard;
Great match here to close out SmackDown!'s 2016, and it does show off this new brand's image; the new stars at the forefront (Styles), with a rejuvenated challenger (Ziggler) and a guy who had been a bit mishandled before getting time to shine (Corbin). 2017 is your year SmackDown!, take it.
205 Live
Best Match on 205 Live (27/12/16): Rich Swann vs Neville
Did you enjoy Neville's shit-knocking last week? Well here's some more.
It's a non-title match here on 205 Live, with Neville continuing to dominate his matches, working the back of Swann over and over and over and over. Just nasty stuff. Not a whole lot of flashy flips with this new Neville, we had one dive to the outside and one standing Shooting Star Press. Might not be as exciting, but I like it, it fits this revamped version of his character.
That's not to say Swann was helpless, he got some licks in. One thing that's not so lovely is the fucking gob that falls from Neville's mouth after this kick. You've got to wrestle on that now, ewwwww.
Last week we saw Neville pull out the Red Arrow to end the match, this time, superplex. Not a usual match ender, so this was a pretty surprising spot to see. Kinda fits with Neville's new direction, almost as if to portray a sense of 'fuck you I don't even need a fancy move to finish you.' Also, you'll be glad to know the following gif has been cut to include a fan reaction WWE are adamant of showing after everything nowadays - stop it for chrissakes!
NXT
Best Match on NXT (28/12/16): #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs Akira Tozawa & Tajiri - NXT Tag Team Championship Match
It's a two hour special this week on NXT, showing more from the Osaka, Japan show, including Nakamura/Joe again. However, it was not that title match that stole the show, rather, the tag team championship match between #DIY and the team of 'we need more Japanese people on this show', Akira Tozawa and Tajiri. I don't mean to knock the booking too bad, because they were a great team.
It's been too long since I've had chance to see Tozawa - he's goddamn awesome, so vocal, so expressive, so athletic. What a guy. Tajiri too was impressive, showing that age is just a number, with a couple beautiful handsprings and a barrage of buzzsaw kicks that rocked #DIY's casbah. We did get to see some mist - it just wasn't used on anyone, more as a taunt I guess. The two also used a few double teams, they may have been pretty simple but they were damn effective.
This is #DIY's first televised defence of their belts, and they certainly showed off why they deserve them. Incredible teamwork on their part, with some lovely sequences and saves. I like that they have clear differences in the matches, Ciampa being used for more bruiser, heavier lifting spots and Gargano in for the more nimble, agile moments. I felt with Dash and Dawson they were pretty interchangeable with little consequence, but with #DIY you can see how who is in the ring affects how the match goes.
Tozawa had his beast moments in this one, none better than when he baked a fresh batch of German Suplexes to serve up to the defending champions.
#DIY would retain however following their tag finisher, 'Meeting in the Middle' - really don't know if that's what its called, but that's what Wikipedia calls it.
Awesome match here this week on NXT, tag team wrestling is on track to be a knockout in 2017, not just in NXT. We've got it picking up steam on the main roster for both brands, ROH has been having great tag matches for a long time and it's gaining traction in many more places.
Ring of Honour
Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 275): Will Ospreay vs Marty Scurll - ROH World Television Championship Match
Do you like Will Ospreay? Because he's in every match on this episode of ROH TV, which gives us a look at the recent 'Reach for the Sky' tour of the UK. The show also showed showed Ospreay/Fish with the former winning the TV Title, a Tag Title match of Ospreay and Marty Scurll versus The Young Bucks, and culminating with this match. We're at York Hall, familiar to these gentlemen and the British promotion of Revolution Pro.
This was a fantastic match, we started a little way into it, suppose to fit with TV time. I don't think it cut off too much though. We had Ospreay as ever been dazzling to watch, with the chemistry between these two making for some lovely sequences and manoeuvres. Marty was his devious self, with not one, but two finger snapping moments that cringe the shit out of me. Plus him fucking gagging afterwards and spewing out whatever ringside was just awfully good, he even sickens himself guys and gals.
No matter how many times I see it, Scurll catching Ospreay off a handspring with a Crossface Chickenwing is amazing, and what is even prettier was seeing Scurll lock it in flush to tap out the champ. Scurll got a booming pop with his victory, and I am so hyped to see where these two go from here in ROH.
Definitely see if you can catch this, because this whole episode was awesome. As always you can catch ROH TV for FREE at either www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app.
Lucha Underground
Best Match on LU (S3E17): Cage vs Texano - Best of Five Series Final
Jesus shit this was intense. To preface this, we had the fourth match of this series immediately before this, with Texano essentially squashing Cage and making him bleed. Then we had this massive battle afterwards.
The blood poured like the Nile in this match-up, getting everywhere. These guys brawled all over the Temple, up into the crowd and around the entrance ways. I know there was some cool moves and stuff, but still can't quite get over how much colour Cage got, proper 'crimson mask' type stuff.
Oh, and there was some brutal unprotected headshots with chairs. Wince-worthy stuff. Now, I don't really like these, and I didn't particularly in this match, but I suppose it lent to making this match more hellacious.
If you wanna watch an all out war, watch this.
The Verdict
Best Match of the Week: #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa) vs Akira Tozawa & Tajiri - NXT Tag Team Championship Match
Whilst the SmackDown! and ROH TV matches were awesome, and I definitely recommend them, but the NXT match took it this week. Great action throughout, lovely tag team wrestling and psychology. #DIY continue to improve as a tag team, and I look forward to seeing them expand and excel in 2017.
And with that now recorded, the leaderboard now looks like this link here click it! To close us out now, it's 'The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week'
That's all from me this week, this year in fact! But stay tuned loyal readers, as I have an end of year retrospective coming your way soon! I hope you enjoy your new year night and have a lovely next few days.
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