BWOTW: 28/11/16 - 3/12/16

Hello there and welcome to yet another instalment of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Shinsuke Not-not-champion-any-mura'

Real American Dollars (RUSD) - Useful for buying vitamins and also to use in my Geography schoolwork

But first, let us look now, you and I, at what news stories popped up this week;

1. Titles galore! Nakamura is NXT Champion again, Kyle O'Reilly is the new ROH World Champion, The Kingdom are the inaugural ROH Six-Man Champions, and Sasha Banks is your new RAW Women's Champion, a sentence I've written three times on this blog. Interpet that as you wish.
2. It is reported that The Young Bucks have been accepted big multi-year deal with Ring of Honour. With a fair few contracts up at year's end, its now up in the air who might go elsewhere and who stays on.
3. Apparently, Vince McMahon wants to start putting indy wrestling on the WWE Network. Dunno who they've got their eyes on, with quite a few having their own streaming services, as well as the alliances that have popped up in the past few years, like RevPro teaming with New Japan. I would imagine they might not consistently put all shows up, but maybe a PROGRESS chapter or something like that every now and then could work.
4. Mustafa Ali has signed with WWE, and appeared on 205 Live to stand on the stage for a bit. Groovy times.
5. BROKEN Matt and Brother Nero are coming to ROH!

And now for the sprinkles on this wrestling blog doughnut, it's the matches!

Monday Night RAW

Can you tell Bayley has a new shirt for sale?

Best Match on RAW (28/11/16): Charlotte vs Sasha Banks - RAW Women's Championship Match - Falls Count Anywhere

Weird booking aside (apparently Sasha can only win title matches on RAW), this was a damn good match. 

The 'Fuck Off' Boot

It wasn't long before the two women took full advantage of the Falls Count Anywhere stipulation, taking it to ringside pretty quickly. Usually, when people go to the outside you might get a couple of tosses into the barricade, into the side of the ring maybe, but these two were doing suplexes and slams all on the floor with some slapping thuds. 

My favourite part of the match was when Sasha found herself a cane and went full Sandman on Charlotte, whacking the ever-loving shit out of her over and over. Canes, in my opinion, are probably the nastiest of all foreign objects in wrestling, always making me wince whenever anyone is subjected to them.

Charlotte also continued her tradition of never missing a moonsault ever (or The Anti-Kurt Angle Rule), with this one of the announce table;

The pair brawled all the way back to the ring and then some, taking it into the stands in what would become the site of the finish. Sasha applied the gnarliest Banks Statement I've seen, implementing the handrail, using it to contort the spine of Charlotte.

Say what you will about this feud, because it is a bit shit, but when these two are told to put on a main event standard match, they deliver. This was a balls out fight between these two, started with a bit of wrestling then a pure slug-fest made of hate and anger. Really liked this one, one of the better matches of their feud.

Also on RAW, Cesaro and Sheamus straight up assaulted a bunch of people in public and caused quite a considerable amount of property damage. Wrestling - where real world laws don't apply.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (29/11/16):  American Alpha (Chad Gable & Jason Jordan) vs The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton)

Looking at Tuesday now, we had this No.1 Contender's Match to determine who will face the SmackDown! Tag Team Champions, Heath Slater and Rhyno, at TLC this Sunday (Sunday! Sunday!).

Alpha looked real good in this one. I just thought it was cool you had Gable and Jordan really taking it to Orton and Wyatt who are held in pretty high regard, especially when Jordan's tossing 'em over his head. 

Orton and Wyatt don't have a whole lot of tandem offence, but we had a bit of Orton saving Bray every now and then and taking bullets for him. Alpha as always had a ton of double moves and sequences, which are always great to watch.

Had a bit of a screwy finish with Luke Harper popping up and some distractioning happening, but otherwise it was a pretty good match.

205 Live

Best Match on 205 Live (29/11/16): Brian Kendrick vs Rich Swann - WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match

Now, this first episode had some problems, but one thing it did do well was give Rich Swann a proper introduction in a great video package;

Should've done that from the start, WWE.

Anywho, lets get down to the brass tacks. Kendrick was the beater-downer, consistently breaking down the momentum that Swann would build. It was pretty quick going to start us off, but after a lethal neckbreaker using the turnbuckle, Kendrick's domain took more power.

Swann is perfect for the underdog building up offense in matches, his style is great for sudden bursts and flurries, whether it be in the form of manouevering out of holds or just straight up kicking Brian in the face. Kendrick had Swann in Tha Captain's Hook chokehold like three times in this, each one looking more painful and viscious than the last, and honestly I was waiting for Swann to tap, but it didn't happen.

If that wasn't enough to surprise me, Swann also fell victim to a super-finisher, getting nailed with a Sliced Bread #2 from the top rope, The Full Sandwich (patent pending)

Swann fought to the end, and in a satisfying and surprising turn of events, won the goddamn belt. Three Rich Kicks did the job, caving in the jaw of Kendrick and putting the man on the mat for the the pin. 

Immediately after the match, Swann had a little bit of a promo. After that video they playedd before hand, I defintely got a tad teary when he talked about his mother. Wrestling tears are the best tears.

Great match here, definitely saved the show. Personally, I wouldn't have put it on after SmackDown!, crowd wasn't as into it, some even left, crying shame. Hopefully now people are gonna pay attention to these cruiserweights and hopefully they get the proper spotlight they deserve.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (30/12/16): Tye Dillinger vs Samoa Joe

We're at the tapings done at the SmackDown! in Canada, and the crowd....were there. Not the most active of audiences in this episode I must say.

Nevertheless, we had a nice main event between 'The Perfect 10' Tye Dillinger and the new NXT champion, Samoa Joe.

The leg of Dillinger was a target for Joe, in my personal highlight of this match, Joe performed a sit-out kneebreaker, something I don't think I've ever seen before.

To be honest, it was kinda slow at times, bit draining. Whilst it sort of worked with the story of it, just Joe kicking the shit out of Tye for a while to assert dominance, wasn't the most thrilling. 

Tye had a couple of comebacks in the latter half, getting in a few sequences and attempted finishers, but not much came of anything. The closest Tye came to getting a 3 count was following a superkick to the chest that sounded like a pancake hitting a tree.

However, in the end, Joe gave Tye a hefty dose of death and choked him out for a victory. Slow, methodical match here, not terribly exciting but it had substance and told a pretty good story. 

Could this be Tye's last match in NXT? If so, I would've preferred it to have been TakeOver, but hey ho, not a big deal I suppose.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 271): Lio Rush vs Jonathan Gresham

My God what a match this was.

These two meshed so well and had a super quick, super crisp and super entertaining. These guys were snapping off arm-drags and hip tosses, with ducks and dodges and counters and lordy it was nonstop. The first few minutes of this were just godly. 

I can't praise Rush enough on this blog, he's just mind blowing and he's been wrestling for only about 2 years. Oh shit he did this springboard to the outside that was like a Phoenix Splash, springing off the bottom rope to the floor. Fucking awesome. 

The ending was a big sequence with counters and kickouts and big shocks. Gresham kicked out of Rush's Spanish Fly, only later to be hit with 3 more consecutive ones and then a sick frog splash to put the man away.

This match was ridiculously good, and I implore everyone here to try and get a hold of this if you've got the time spare. As always, you can find ROH TV for FREE at www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app.

ROH: Final Battle

Best Match on Final Battle: Marty Scurll vs Dragon Lee vs Will Ospreay - ROH Television Championship Match
Honourable Mention(s): The Young Bucks vs The Briscoe Brothers (Mark & Jay Briscoe) - ROH Tag Team Championship Match
Adam Cole vs Kyle O'Reilly - ROH World Championship Match

It's that time of year; Final Battle.

Top to bottom this was one hell of a show, every match delivered, and some went above and beyond. However, the match that I thought was the best was the triple threat between CMLL's Dragon Lee, and two of UK's finest; Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll. Bobby Fish was scheduled to appear in the match too, but we understand that his mother passed away reacently. Our thoughts go out to him and his family at this hard time.

Back to the match now; there was so much good stuff in this one, everyone got time to shine. Ospreay and Scurll have had countless matches over the years so their interactions with each other were crisp and just lovely. Throwing Dragon Lee into mix added an ability to match Ospreay's agility and and ground game to take on Scurll. 

Some great spots and sequences in this one, both one-on-one and involving all three. When Ospreay gets going he really cranks it up, his sprinboard Shooting Star Press to the outside was a thing of pure beauty, plus all the other times he went to the skies. I was expecting Ospreay to get a good reaction, and I'm Marty did too. Although he's growing in exposure in America, what with PWG and winning BOLA, but he's not quite the international star Ospreau is.

Marty retained! After slapping on a Crossface Chicken Wing to force a submission and pick up the 'W'. Awesome match.

As for the honourable mentions, they, too, were great. The tag title match had some amazing moments and great spots. My Superkick counter was nearly broken by this match, and here's an infinite loop as to why;



The main event was just crazy. The fucking blood was intense, maybe a touch too much for my liking. Thumbtacks were used to a devastating effect, with a goddamn brainbuster onto them, and Kyle's match-winning armbar taking place ontop of them, exaserbating the pain. As much as I love Cole, it was nice to see Kyle win the belt. Though I've cooled down on him a bit in the past year, I can see him having a lengthy run with some great matches, I hope.

Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E13): Pentagon Dark vs Hitokiri

Pentagon had 3 full matches on this episode of Lucha Underground, and a sorta fourth one, facing off against The Black Lotus Triad and Black Lotus herself in a gauntlet match. My favourite of these was the third, him vs Hitokiri AKA Io Shirai. 

Hitokiri certainly got the match off to a big start.

That wouldn't keep up though, because Pentagon, for the majority, beat the shit of her. Nasty kicks to the back of the leg, superkicks, tossed her into the rows of chairs, choked her with electrical cables, just a whole array of violence. Pentagon's relaxed attitude to the ordeal was a nice touch added to the match, portraying the ease of his brutality and decision making when it comes to inflicting pain.

Hitokiri would turn the tables towards the end, planting Pentagon's face into a steel chair gave her enough time to climb the Temple steps and do some coooooool shiiiiit.

The end was near after this. Soon enough, Hitokiri countered an attempted Package Piledriver into a piledriver of her own, one of the front flip variety, and Hitokiri scored the pinfall.

What a badass match this was. Awesome spots, all of them increasing in insanity as the match went on. Definitely see if you can check this out.

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Marty Scurll vs Dragon Lee vs Will Ospreay - ROH Television Championship Match

Fucking awesome match this, stole the show for me. Though, if you're gonna watch one show from this week, make it Final Battle. Stacked card, great matches, hot crowd, and the Hammerstein Ballroom decked out with wrestling is a beautiful sight. ROH TV was also grand this week, so was LU, plus Sasha/Charlotte and Swann/Kendrick were also pretty damn awesome too.

Welp, after that massive week, clicking this link here will take you to a spreadsheet that has assumed the role of the BWOTW leaderboard, gaze upon it and witness the standings.

Just time for one last thing, and that is 'The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week'. I've mentioned it, it's up above on this post, and it destroyed me on my tired Wednesday afternoon; 

'This one was for you, Mom' - Rich Swann

That's all from me for this one peeps, what a massive week that was, and with TLC on Sunday, looks like this year ain't slowing down yet. Peace.