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| Tex Ferguson: The King of Southpaw Regional Wrestling |
- It may not be the most important, but by god its my favourite. Southpaw Regional Wrestling is now online on WWE's YouTube channel, and it is perhaps my most favouritest thing on the web ever. You can find the full playlist with all 4 episodes here. Chet Cetterson is by far my favourite.
- Hideo Itami has returned at an NXT live event. At this point, I think it'll probably be best to get him straight onto the main roster, or use him more sparingly. Either way, nice to see him back.
- Cedric Alexander has been injured, with an expected 5 months recovery period. I'm not sure if last year was cursed or perhaps things are just going to be this way forever. Hopefully he comes back with some proper steam behind him.
- Jack Swagger has now been officially released from WWE. I'm glad that they finally got round to it and let him have it, good luck you to Swagger, damn your theme was awesome.
- John Cena has been confirmed to induct Kurt Angle into the WWE Hall of Fame. Okay, yeah, sure. Also, Teddy Long is being inducted by the APA, speech should be good but cyoar I'm looking forward to hearing that theme.
NB: I just wanted to say before I get chance to disappoint, I've haven't been able to get a hold of all of the New Japan cup shows, and I don't really like only including pieces of such events so I figured it'd be best to leave them out. Apologies to anyone hoping for their appearance.
Monday Night RAW
Best Match on RAW (13/3/17): Austin Aries vs Ariya Daivari
Taking the spot of best match on RAW was this cruiserweight competition between 'The Greatest Man That Ever Lived' Austin Aries and Ariya Daivari. Like last 205 Live's match against Tony Nese, this was very much another showcase match for Aries. He was in control more so than his clash with Nese, with Daivari giving up some offence on him. Definitely some more flashy stuff from Austin this time around, or at least they were strung together more than last time. Aries added a little something I'm not sure I remember him doing back in NXT, a lovely shinbreaker into a suplex;
Nasty landing for Daivari there, but it did make the move look extra brutal. Aries then connected with his Rolling Elbow, enabling the pinfall and winning the match. Decent match here, though it was pretty slim pickings on RAW, felt like pretty much every other match had a screwy finish. I was looking forward to Zayn & Jericho versus Joe & Owens but that got thrown out pretty quickly. Shame that.
SmackDown! LIVE
Best Match on SD! (14/3/17): American Alpha (Chad Gable & Jason Jordan) vs The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso)
We're on SmackDown! now and in the main event we have the show's tag team champions, American Alpha, taking on The Usos. Now, whilst this was the main event, it really didn't feel it. I cannot remember there being a match up screen for this all night, no real mention of it until it happened, and throughout it they kept cutting to footage of Shane McMahon and talking about him and AJ Styles. Whilst I appreciate that building to that match is more of a priority, I feel they didn't have to do it as much as they did. I didn't need to see 3 different occasions of Shane walking down corridors all beat up and being told to rest. One was plenty, and it didn't really need to take up the whole screen during this match either.
All gripes aside, this match did well with what it was given. We had The Usos looking good against the champions and showing some more their bad guy treachery. Its a crying shame the tag division hasn't been televised much lately, there are some really great teams that could really shine, and I think this new version of The Usos is one of them.
Alpha too, they always find something to liven up a match with their smooth wrestling ability. The high point in this match was probably Gable's hot tag where suplexes were in high supply, but I'm not too sure on The Usos' demand for them;
Evidence there for the McMahon/Styles angle taking the priority, God bless Tom Phillips for shifting focus back on the match. The Usos would come out on top after some misdirection led to them connecting with a Superkick on Jordan and pinning him there and then. If I was a betting man I see this leading to Alpha/Usos at 'Mania, and sadly this might be put on the pre-show. Nonetheless, nice match, just a shame about some of the interfering storylines.
205 Live
Best Match on 205 (14/3/17): Austin Aries vs Akira Tozawa vs TJ Perkins vs Tony Nese vs The Brian Kendrick - Elimination No.1 Contender's Match for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Following straight on from SmackDown! we've got 205 Live, headlined this week by an elimination Fatal-5-Way to determine the Number 1 Contender to face Neville at WrestleMania for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship.
We went quite a while before anyone got eliminated in this one, which is always nice I think. When the numbers were high it did have a bit of the 'one in, one out' syndrome, with multi person moments only really coming when there was conveniently more than one person at a side of the ring to be dived on.
Nese had quite a good showing in this one, with commentary putting him over as a top player in the cruiserweight division pretty damn well. He knocked a fair amount of shit out of everybody in this, as well as being involved in the attempted murder of Austin Aries;
He was eliminated first however, rolled up by Tozawa if I remember correctly. Though its not always good to be eliminated first, he had a pretty sizeable presence throughout the match, so I wouldn't say it was necessarily harmful.
We had a Tower of Doom spot as well, though that's pretty much expected in any WWE match that has 3 people on different sides nowadays, but they did mix it up a bit. Kendrick was on the highest point of the tower performing his Sliced Bread #2, with Perkins in the middle having no offensive manoeuvring in it whatsoever.
It dwindled down to Aries and Kendrick in the end, with the Captain's Hook applied pretty damn heavily to A-Double. But, he wriggled his way out, and hit his Rolling Elbow, but doing so with my favourite variation of meeting Kendrick in the middle;
He did tease the brainbuster at one point, so I'm still holding out hope we get that sometime soon. Overall, real good match I thought, nice showing from everyone, though maybe Tozawa probably could've had some more to do. Aries/Neville confirmed for 'Mania, exciting times.
NXT
Best Match on NXT (15/3/17): Bobby Roode vs Kassius Ohno - NXT Championship Match
It's NXT now, and we have Kassius Ohno's first in-ring appearance since returning the other week, and doing so by challenging for Bobby Roode's NXT Championship. Let me just get it out the way now, Ohno's gear was quite terrible. The design was nice, I liked that, but it wasn't very flattering. The whole tight vest thing probably should've been tossed, he looks much better in just trunks with the body he has. However, he has been slimming down judging from photos taken since the taping, so here's hoping his aesthetics are on the way up.
For the match itself, I can't help but feel a little let down by it. Of course it wasn't going to be the melee's of Ohno's days as Chris Hero in PWG or the like, now having to wrestle the WWE developmental style, and whilst what he did do was good, I feel like there could have been more. If you've seen any Chris Hero matches, you know the sorts of barn-burners he can pull out, and it feels a little frustrating when he's subdued in this.
Roode was on top for what felt like a good long time, and Ohno had a couple flurries here and there before his comeback in the latter minutes, only to be cut down by Roode over and over. Then when his big comeback did fuel the fires, we had some underhanded tactics by Roode, using the rope to damage the throat of Ohno before capitalising and hitting the Glorious DDT for the win. The match was fine, but that's all I feel I can really say about it.
Ring of Honour
Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 287): Jonathan Gresham vs Dalton Castle
Technical match here on ROH TV, with Jonathan Gresham taking on Dalton Castle. This match felt too short, I really wish this would have gone on longer. Both these guys are great in-ring competitors and given a decent amount of time we could have had a classic on out hands. Gresham is one of the guys ROH really need to get behind and do something with, he's too damn good to let slip away like they have done with so many as of late.
Some great technical work from both these lads, plus we had a whole little story going on with Gresham offering the wrist to Castle, with the two really trying to out-wrestle each other in a near-even struggle. Back and forth pretty much all the way through this one, right up until Castle caught Gresham out of the sky and into a Bangarang for the finish. Really nice match, just wish they had more time.
As always you can watch ROH TV for FREE on either www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app.
NJPW: New Japan Cup
Day 1
Best Match on NJCD1: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs EVIL
New Japan Cup now on the blog, with the first round match of Hiroshi Tanahashi against EVIL taking the cake on this first day.
Nice stuff here between these two, though I can't really think of a whole lot that really stood out to me. Outside action took quite a chunk of time in this one in the early goings, with EVIL using some chairs in a way I'm not sure I've seen before. Positioning a chair around the neck of a dazed Tanahashi, he gave it a big bastard whack with another one. Nasty.
The stuff in the ring was all solid, but like I said, can't really think of anything that massively left an impression on li'l ol' me. It was the sort of thing you'd expect from a heavyweight bout, some big lads hitting each other pretty hard. EVIL came out on top in this one, using the poison mist a la Tajiri to blind Hiroshi, and nailing him with his finish to proceed to the next round. Cool.
Day 2
Best Match on NJCD2: Tomohiro Ishii vs Kenny Omega
Honourable Mention(s): Minoru Suzuki vs Katsuyori Shibata
Day 2 was by far better than Day 1, with a couple of awesome matches in the shape of Minoru Suzuki and Katsuyori Shibata beating the ever-loving piss out of one another, and the one that rose above the rest; Tomohiro Ishii versus Kenny Omega.
Post-WrestleKingdom 11 Kenny Omega is something else. He starts off this match with a cocky swagger, almost a belief that this will be a cake-walk for the man who won last year's G1 Climax and headlined the Tokyo Dome show. Then as we get further and further into the bout, we start to see a more desperate and challenged Omega, seen through his reactions to Ishii's offence and his multiple failed attempts at hitting the One-Winged Angel. Ishii was having none of it though, with the best of his counters being this one into a stunner;
Going into this, I felt that it was highly likely that we were going to see Omega coming out on top and going into the next round. This was far from the truth though, as we would see Ishii lay out The Cleaner, and pick up the pinfall for himself. The crowd went bananas, and rightfully so.
I thought this match was awesome. Some great spots with the two going hell for leather, taking some brutal shots and some big time impacts all in the name of the New Japan Cup. Definitely see if you can check this one out.
The Verdict
Best Match of the Week: Tomohiro Ishii vs Kenny Omega - New Japan Cup Day 2
Like I said, this match was hella good. We've got Omega gunning to cement himself as the top guy of New Japan Pro Wrestling versus the ever stoic and near immovable Tomohiro Ishii. If you're looking for something a bit more WWE-flavoured, I'd recommend the 205 Live Fatal-5-Way as that too was very entertaining.
With another set of shows in the books, the leaderboard now shakes up to looking like this. That can only mean one thing, that it is time for 'The Best Promo of the Week', coming to you from SmackDown! LIVE, where Bray Wyatt was one creepy motherfucker, coating himself in the ashes of Sister Abigail. Its not the whole thing but its got the main bit, thanks WWE's YouTube;
That just about does it from me for this week, all that's left to say is I wish you all a pleasant and lovely 7 days, and I'll see you all at Lethal Leap Year!
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