 |
| Tyler begins to doubt whether Jack is actually a certified DDP Yoga instructor |
- It has been revealed that July's RAW exclusive Pay-Per-View will be called, and I shit you not, 'Great Balls of Fire'. I'm hoping this is going to be like Hell in a Cell and TLC with the main event being a Great Balls of Fire match. No idea how it'd work, somebody book it
- A few name changes have become official. Having come to SmackDown!, Primo and Epico are now known as 'The Colons', and with their new allegiance with Jinder Mahal, The Bollywood Boyz have taken the monikers of Samir (Harv) and Sunil (Gurv) Singh per WWE.com
- Seth Rollins has a new finisher, a ripcord knee strike akin to that of Kenny Omega. It doesn't have a title yet but I imagine it will soon.
- Tamoaki Honma's is back on his feet after being paralysed for a while. Hope he gets to moving around even more freely soon. Lovely, lovely day!
- Rejoice Breezango fans as they are heading to Backlash, challenging The Usos for the SmackDown! Tag Team Championships! This is legitimately exciting. I feel The Usos are on the cusp of getting properly cemented as top heels, meaning Breezango are going to be working face. We know from NXT that Breeze is able for great matches and though he hasn't had much chance, I'm sure Fandango can do just as well. Really looking forward to it.
Monday Night RAW
Best Match on RAW (24/4/17): Matt Hardy vs Sheamus
We're building to this Sunday's Payback Pay-Per-View with a singles match between RAW Tag Team Champion, Matt Hardy and upcoming challenger Sheamus. Matt is in a strange amalgamation of being original Team Extreme, Version 1 and #BROKEN, with him switching between all of them within seconds. It's all very weird but also all very much fun to watch.
It was quite back and forth in the first half or so, ever switching offence. Having not been plugged into TNA to witness all of Matt's Broken Brilliance, so it has been quite a long time since I've seen him in one-on-one competition. You can't blame the man for slowing down a tad since his last WWE run, but his new style is by far nothing to complain about. However, tag team matches remains his thriving point.
They had some rough spots taking things to the outside, both men taking a hard landing, Sheamus on the apron and Matt directly onto the ringside floor. I thought two in one match was pretty surprising, especially for a RAW opener, so fair fucks to these guys for willing to throw some more caution to the wind for quality's benefit.
Bit of a screwy finish with Cesaro and Jeff Hardy leading to distractions and Matt ending up hitting a Twist of Fate and pinning Sheamus. So, heading into Payback the Hardys have beaten both Sheamus and Cesaro. It'll be interesting to see how things play out Sunday.
SmackDown! LIVE
Best Match on SD! (25/4/17): AJ Styles vs Baron Corbin
We seem to be treading water on SmackDown! a bit, its Styles/Corbin again! Although, saying that, they had a good match last week and I feel this was even better.
AJ is awesome at putting over Corbin as a serious threat and a great big man. He was ducking and weaving, trying quick kicks, and when things got to more chain wrestling his applications of holds made it seem like a tremendous challenge to do so. Another impressive feat that AJ pulled off was the Pele kick. Not too sure if he's hit Corbin with it before, but looking at that leap and realising Baron is a 6'8" human being, its fucking cool.
In my opinion, Baron has been getting a lot better lately and the addition of the chokeslam on the knee is just the sort of big badass power move he was in need of - aside from the Deep Six he doesn't really have a giant slam to devastate with, and now this fills that void!
Ultimately, the finish had a little bit of screwiness with Kevin Owens unsuccessfully distracting AJ Styles, but that hardly hampered the match as a whole. Real nice contest this.
205 Live
Best Match on 205 (25/4/17): Jack Gallagher vs Neville
We're capping the limit at 205 pounds now as we stick around after SmackDown! to have a gander at the cruiserweights of 205 Live. Main eventing this week's episode, we've got the division's champion, Neville, heading up against Jack Gallagher. EN-GUR-LUND!
Neville has yet to take a break from being the ultimate monster that he is, wonderfully enacting it onto Jack. Technical back and forth took up some of the opening minutes, and Neville's tenacity in his lock ups and holds makes them so much better, makes it look like he wants to rip Gallagher limb from limb.
Once things started getting hot and heavy, Neville battered the ever-loving fuck out of Jackie-boy, very much in control of the match. For whatever reason, Neville had a lot more unintelligible grunts in this match, having little semblance of any words, not sure why but I loved this. My favourite part of the match included a healthy dose of these non-words and also had Neville being a fucking beast, only to get his head rocked;
From there we started to head up to the climax of the match, building up to a pretty brutal end. Gallagher had Neville perched up on the turnbuckle, ready for a super back suplex, only to get thrown off, allowing Big Daddy Nev to go for the kill;
fvvfvvfssfvf
I liked the idea of the stomps in the corner, though I feel they could have been executed a bit better but I wouldn't know how to go about it safely. Nevertheless, that Rings of Saturn and the look on Neville's face made for that finish to be even more badass. Great match here on 205 Live, long live the king!
NXT
Best Match on NXT (26/4/17): Tyler Bate vs Jack Gallagher - WWE United Kingdom Championship Match
Tyler Bate's back to defend his WWE United Kingdom Championship for the second time, here on NXT against Jack Gallagher. There was some class wrestling throughout this match, opening with some splendid holds back and forth, and a later knuckle lock sequence that was pure bliss, a sensation to watch. It was incredible to see some of the counters these guys were pulling out, like breaking a grip using your head or putting pressure using body weight. It was awesome.
Tyler's raw power came into play in this one as well, using the base of his oxen-like legs to impose his will. A bop and a bang led to Bate connecting with a beautiful high angle German, the drop to his knees a nice little bit of flourish and finesse.
Tyler would find himself on quite the back foot for a sizeable portion of the match though, with Gallagher also getting some licks in on the champion. Jack's been able to start getting his headbutt over as a type of 'OUTTA NOWHERE' move, and furthered this as he jacked the jaw of Bate;
Tyler sold that like a goddamn artillery shell, crumpling like a house of cards, loved it. As we neared the end, things looked more and more dire fore ol' Tyler, but, it came around to him getting in a last ditch rolling kick and hulked up for the Tyler Driver '97.
A truly awesome match this. My tickets for next Sunday's set of tapings for the new UK division show came in the post the other day, I am so goddamn excited. With that, keep your eye out for another 'Noah Goes To' coming out soon for it.
 |
| Tyler Bate's face perfectly captures my feelings towards this new interview person |
Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 292): Marty Scurll vs Frankie Kazarian - ROH World Television Championship Match
Another title defence here on the blog as 'The Villain' Marty Scurll defends his ROH World Television title against 'The Heavy Metal Rebel', Frankie Kazarian.
This was probably one of the better of Kazarian singles matches I've seen in quite a while, which may be due to the quality of opponent. I don't know whether it was due to the match itself, the timing of me watching it or whatever, but there isn't too much I recall about this match other than some of the high spots.
From what I do recall, it felt like Kaz was in charge a lot of the match with Scurll weaselling in some offence throughout. One move in particular I recall is a big nasty brainbuster right on the top of Kaz's head. Brutal.
The end saw Scurll go old-school and pull out some powder to throw in the eyes of Frankie, only to miss and hit the ref. Hangman Page would interfere and it would see Scurll picking up the 'W'. I thought the powder was great, adding another weapon in The Villain's arsenal and a nice throwback.
It was a fine match, I remember enjoying it as I watched, its just a shame I haven't really retained much at all about it. As always, you can watch ROH TV for FREE on either www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app.
The Verdict
Best Match of the Week: Tyler Bate vs Jack Gallagher - WWE United Kingdom Championship Match - NXT
Like I said, this match was a joy to watch with so much going for it. Definitely seek this one out and you will not be disappointed. Also, Neville/Gallagher was a fun watch too if you're looking for something more to fill your time, and you can't go wrong with AJ/Corbin.
With that, here is what the leaderboard looks like after this week's wrestlering action, and my boy Jack's taken the top spot, and with a show for the UK Championship coming to the Network soon I imagined we'll be seeing some more British high rankers.
As for 'The Best Promo of the Week', it comes to us from Roppongi Vice after their match at one of New Japan's Road to Dontaku shows, letting it be known that they are coming for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championships. Can't figure out how to embed it so here's the link.
Well, that's all from me for this week friends, hope you all have a lovely few days and fill them full of merriment. I'll see you all down the road and we'll see who made the most out of Payback, Wrestling Toyonokuni and Wrestling Dontaku.
No comments:
Post a Comment