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- The big thing this week in WWE was the Superstar Shake-Up. If you want some somewhat comprehensive coverage of it, I did a write up which you can find here.
- Finn Balor got concussed on RAW after Jinder hindered him with a big ol' elbow. Don't think WWE have said anything so it probably isn't too bad.
- Roman Reigns looks like he's gonna be off-TV for a while having suffered a 'separated shoulder' according to WWE.com, but fear not Reigns fans, this is in the kay-of-fabe.
- With more injury talk now, Katsuyori Shibata got seriously fucked up in his match with Okada, suffering some sort of brain/head damage. I'm no doctor so I won't pretend I know what it is, but it sounds serious. Bit of back and forth over the legitimacy, either way, Godspeed to you Katsuyori.
And now for the garlic in this any-Italian-dish-ever, it's the matches!
Monday Night RAW
Best Match on RAW (10/4/17): The New Day (Xavier Woods & Big E) vs The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson)
SAY YEAH!
After making their debut last week, The Revival are up against The New Day once again after they took Kofi the fuck out.
Xavier and Big E teaming is probably my favourite pairing of the New Day, mainly because Woods is awesome, plus he can play off the contrast with Big E. Woods' selling is amazing and his moveset too stands out. While he may have spent most of the match getting meticulously Dash'd and Dawson'd, he got in his cool forearm shots and his sweet ass rope walk elbow drop.
The Revival continue to impress with just how slick and well timed their movements and positioning is. Whenever the next tag or interference play was set into action, each of them hit their mark bang on with a non-existent margin for error. Need Dawson here? Here's there. Need Dash here in exactly 3 seconds? Here's there in 3.000 seconds. Just incredible, separated at birth these two.
Last week saw Xavier eat one hell of a Shatter Machine, falling into it from his rolling clothesline thing, and that was fucking ridiculous. Dash and Dawson made that look like child's play this week, nailing Woods once again, but taking the destruction of his face to the next level entirely;
Lord E. Lordy that was awesome.
This was a great match, continuing to establish The Revival as being a force to be reckoned with, and made for a nice send off for New Day on RAW. Can't wait for Revival to start mixing it up with The Hardys, The Club and Sheamus & Cesaro.
SmackDown! LIVE
Best Match on SD! (11/4/17): Sami Zayn vs Baron Corbin vs AJ Styles - No.1 Contender's Match for the WWE United States Championship
Taking us to SmackDown! LIVE now and we have a triple threat to decide who will face the United States Champion at Backlash. We have a new addition to Team Blue in Sami Zayn taking on Baron Corbin and the face of the show, AJ Styles.
This match was great, simple as. I can't remember if Sami and AJ have squared off on TV before the draft last summer, or even if they'd wrestled in their pre-WWE days. Whatever the trivia, I need more of these two together, I don't care what capacity that is (hell I'd pay to see a Sami/AJ tag team - 'AZayn Samyles' is the best I've got), gimme it right in my face. The way AJ took Sami's Blue Thunder Bomb was pure class;
Not discounting Corbin here at all, I feel like having him in triple threats and fatal four ways is his best spotlight. He can make a real impact and impression just by stepping in and shutting down whoever has the upper hand. With that in mind, this match had a good formula to it, having a healthy dose of time with it being two of the competitors taking it to each other and with sequences involving all three of them. The prettiest sequence of all was when we saw all three go corner to corner in a cataclysm of strikes;
Masterful. Each of the three had great performances in this and after a big time Phenomenal Forearm, we've got Backlash set as Styles challenging the winner of Jericho/Owens at Payback (which I would bet being Owens). Can't wait.
Really solid showing by RAW and SmackDown! on the match front this week on the blog - SmackDown! also had another great clash between The Usos and American Alpha which is worth checking out too.
205 Live
Best Match on 205 (11/4/17): Jack Gallagher vs TJ Perkins
Taking a dip below the weight limit, we have 205 Live and the best match we had this week was the contest between Jack Gallagher and the newly dark side turning TJ Perkins.
The early goings had a fair bit of out-wrestling each other, both of them being well-versed in mat technicalities, and both showing their flair. Perkins had more of a showing off attitude in this match, growing ever more heelish as time went on, until he became fully turned by the end of the match (though he did attack Aries on RAW, so you could say it was then). I felt that somewhere around the middle it started to drag a bit, though the last little section of the match had some exclamation points;
The chants there bring up my last point about it lulling, with the battling 'This-is-bor-ing'/'No-it's-not', with the latter having more oomph to it. Still, it shows what the attitudes to this match were.
Overall, I thought this was definitely a good match, but it's length and how it went about using that time in the middle made it a bit of a task to watch it in it's entirety. If you're up for it though, it's not a bad watch.
NXT
Best Match on NXT (12/4/17): Oney Lorcan vs Drew McIntyre
We're on NXT now, with a WrestleMania crowd (taped on the Wednesday after 'Mania) for the next few weeks, and it's looking like we have stepped into a new era for the promotion with new graphics, arena design and a new cool as fuck intro;
That theme is now one of my new pump up songs, love it.
Anyway, we had a bloody good match between Oney Lorcan and the returning Drew McIntyre. It did not take long at all for this match to get to business. They took a minute to establish that McIntyre is some pretty hot shit coming back with a bit of grappling. Then, it fucking zoomed off from their opening pace into getting into some proper rough stuff;
It didn't stray too much from that level action; same level of stiffness and brutality throughout. Every time I see Lorcan I fall in love with him even more, seeing him slapping the shit out of Drew was just so damn cool. Though this was for sure a showcase for McIntyre, familiarising the NXT audience with what to expect from this reinvented Scotsman, Oney shone in this too. He didn't get squashed or taken lightly, he put up a hell of a fight, and Drew acted accordingly.
We would see Drew coming out the winner on the other end, not much a surprise there though. I thought this match was awesome. Bell-to-bell I was thoroughly sports entertained, I just wish that it could have gone longer.
Ring of Honour
Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 290): The Kingdom (Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia) & Silas Young vs The Briscoes (Mark & Jay Briscoe) & Bully Ray - ROH Six-Man Tag Championship Match
We're on Ring of Honour TV now and we've got The Kingdom defending their ROH Six-Man Tag Championship against The Briscoes and Bully Ray. With TK O'Ryan out with injury (with that probably prompting the dropping of the titles), they've got 'Professional Wrestling's Last Real Man', Silas Young.
ROH TV has hit a bit of a slump lately I feel, but their PPV's continue to knock it out of the park. This wasn't a bad match, it was fine really. TKO being out made it difficult for The Kingdom to have a real presence, feeling much like an incomplete match. Saying that, Silas bickering with his partners are some of the more memorable bits of the match, plus Marseglia's weirdness is making me grow ever fonder of him, he does spruce it up some.
As far as The Briscoes go, bit more of the same, I much prefer them in normal 2-on-2 tags I have to say. I'm not sure how I feel about their pairing with Bully Ray. I suppose I'd rather have Ray in a team rather than in singles competition, though I feel he might be more suited to being paired with Silas Young and Beer City Bruiser.
As always you can watch ROH TV for FREE on either www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app.
NJPW: Sakura Genesis
Best Match on NJPW: SG: Kazuchika Okada vs Katsuyori Shibata - IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match
We're off to Japan now to NJPW's Sakura Genesis, with the main event taking the top spot, with Kazuchika Okada defending his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against the winner of the New Japan Cup, Katsuyori Shibata.
This was a hell of a match. It told a great story of Okada trying to find a way to best Shibata, with technical work and striking both being in Shibata's favour. For a good long while in the first part, it was all Shibata, knocking tonnes of shit out of Okada, with the champion fighting from below, much like his clash with Suzuki at The New Beginning. At times, they even had Shibata wrestling with a definite air of confidence, such as mocking The Rainmaker;
Things would even up as things went on, then for me the match started to become more like Okada's clash with Omega at WrestleKingdom, getting into some more balanced back and forth with both men bent on destruction.
Now, the most memorable and standout moment from this bout was the headbutt for sure. Since hearing of Shibata's brain injury and all that, looking back this spot feels tough to watch, though at the time it still was a nasty scene. I'm in two minds about it, makes it all the more badass, but can't help but feel it was a little unnecessary;
All things considered, this match was still amazing, another instalment of Okada being a fucking fantastic match machine and one of the best in the world. Hats off to Shibata too, I hope this doesn't turn out to be his last match, but the wrestling gods can be cruel. Here's hoping for the best.
The Verdict
Best Match of the Week: Kazuchika Okada vs Katsuyori Shibata - IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match - NJPW: Sakura Genesis
Yes, despite the irks I have with the headbutt, this match is still a great one. The story it told was another compelling one, Okada creating himself a legacy of being one of the best of the past few years. Also, shout outs to the SmackDown! triple threat and Drew's return on NXT because they were some really good watches too. Seek them out.
With all that said, here's what the leaderboard looks like nowadays, with New Japan filling up this season's archive.
Finishing up this week, we have 'The Best Promo of the Week', once again coming from Talking Smack where arguably SmackDown!'s biggest transfer, Kevin Owens, took the microphone and talked about his feelings towards his new show.
That's all from me for this time readers. Hope you enjoyed your stay, and if there's anything I could have done to make this a more homely setting for you, please, do tell. Until next time, I hope your week is filled with good news, good laughs and great memories. Seeya!
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