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| I am somewhere in this picture |
But before we get neckdeep in the goodies, let's have a quick look at the past week's news;
- It is being reported that Io Shirai has accepted a deal with WWE to join NXT (I guess). I would imagine she's going to be apart of this Women's Tournament and will probably reach some of the final brackets.
- After joining the Bullet Club in one of the hottest ROH angles in a long time, Marty Scurll dropped his Ring of Honour World Television Championship to KUSHIDA at the recent tapings. I was debating whether to include this as it could be considered a spoiler, but KUSHIDA walked out in NJPW with the belt so fuck it.
- Also in ROH news, Chuck Taylor appeared at the latest tapings to aid his 'Best Friends' partner, Trent Barreta. Hopefully this is the start of something wonderful.
- Cyoar ROH has a lot this week. Remember Flip Gordon from the other week who I spooged over because of his 'Kinder Surprise' move? He has signed an exclusive offer with ROH. Nice to see them looking to bring more talent in seeing as they've lost some stellar prospects. Let's hope they don't fuck this one up too.
- Braun Strowman is injured, with a reported shattered elbow. Whilst WWE have said he'll be out up to 6 months, Meltzer's saying that's inflated so that we might get a surprise sometime.
Monday Night RAW
Best Match on RAW (15/5/17): Finn Balor vs Roman Reigns
Get things started this time around it is two of the competitors in the No.1 Contender's Match for the Universal Championship at Extreme Rules, it's Finn Balor taking on Roman Reigns.
RAW took things up a notch this week, because this match was actually pretty damn good. I was on a bit of a Finn high, having watched his WWE 24 episode beforehand, so this is the perfect thing to follow it with. Roman was selling a shoulder injury throughout this match, with it giving Finn something to work on and something to keep Roman down a bit. I don't know whether he intended to do it as hard as he did, but Reigns freakin' nailed himself on the ring post when he missed Finn in the corner. Also, this was followed by a pretty damn sweet double foot stomp;
Finn seemed to be a bit of a hotstreak here, being on the upper hand for quite some time if memory serves me right, and with it looking very much like we'd see Balor pin Reigns once again. However, the power of the OOOAAAAHHH was too much, with things winding down to a spear ending the match.
Overall, this was real good. Finn has an ever exciting moveset that keeps things moving along nicely, and it felt like these guys were afforded more variation and leeway than a typical Monday Night RAW match would. Good stuff.
SmackDown! LIVE
Best Match on SD! (16/5/17): AJ Styles vs Jinder Mahal
It's the Backlash go-home show this week, and we have the two singles titles contenders going head to head, with 'The Phenomenal One' AJ Styles taking on Jinder Mahal.
I felt that it was very much AJ's presence and participation on this match that kept me invested. His offence is such that is always fun to watch, and his selling is so good that it's also great to see him get his ass kicked. In regards to Jinder, I think he did fine, but I can't really think of much more to add to that. I have to say, Jinder's moveset is quite basic and unexciting. Like, the highest points of his time in charge was maybe a Triple H like knee lift, and a sort of shitty superkick. If anything, it's made me a bit more worried about his match with Orton, with neither of them being massively entertaining in-ring for me.
The end saw Kevin Owens get involved and cost Styles the match, allowing Jinder to hit his Cobra Clutch Slam finisher. In all, this was a perfectly fine match. If it wasn't for AJ I probably wouldn't have bothered watching, but there wasn't too much else going on on the card - Baron Corbin versus Randy Orton? Ugghgh
205 Live
Best Match on 205 (16/5/17): Noam Dar vs Gran Metalik
Change those ropes and ring skirt because it's 205 Live time, featuring this cool match between Noam Dar and 'El Rey de las Cuerdas', Gran Metalik.
Fuck me, where has Metalik been? Main Event? Cryin' shame. I get that the language barrier is a bit of a blockade in getting the man over with the audience, but bloody hell just let him wrestle like he does and hit those ropes like he does and he'll get the crowd going. This sequence alone got the temperature rising, he messed up the headscissors a little, but other than that, amazing athleticism;
That top rope Asai moonsault is insane.
I would like to add that this was the best match I've seen Noam have in quite a while. He went along with all of the lucha libre antics, and his working of Metalik's leg was very well done. In a time where we had Rollins knee worked on ad infinitum and Aries' knee worked on later in the show (which was quite good anyway), the simplicity and restraint here was great. Like, things would get going, Metalik would be building speed and Dar would kick out the shin or something, snapping back the memory of the injury and taking control. He took out the leg when the luchador was balanced on the middle rope and it was great, giving him quite the tumble.
In the end, Dar wins with his big running knee, kick....thing. This match was great, better than RAW and SmackDown! I'd say. Please WWE, use Metalik more. I cans stand to see a slip here and there, and I am fine not hearing him speak English, he can do cool flips'n'shit.
NXT
Best Match on NXT (17/5/17): Kassius Ohno vs Andrade 'Cien' Almas
Not only was it a go home for Backlash, but also NXT is gearing up for TakeOver: Chicago, and decided to put on this proper nice match between Kassius Ohno and Andrade 'Cien' Almas.
It looks like these two wont be on the Takeover card, so its's nice to get another dose of them beforehand, can't remember the last time we saw Ohno and I am on a Almas high right now and can't get enough.
We started off a bit technical, but with all of Andrade's antagonising 'tranquilo' actions, this did devolve into a slugfest pretty snappily. Now, whatever the weather, it is bad to get into a striking contest with Ohno, so I'm sure you can figure out who got the best of that one. Ohno's chops were much more of the thudding, axe on a tree style in this one, with Almas looking like he'd been shot with a bean-bag gun after each one.
Y'know how you make Ohno's hits even cooler? Throw a flip in;
Kicked him so hard he had to readjust his hair.
So, I know that Ohno is an agile cat, I've seen him do that handstand thing before, not that it takes away from its awesomeness by any means. However, that wasn't all the limber movements we'd see from the big man. I love moonsaults, I love big lads doing moonsaults, this match made me happy.
He did do a Kurt Angle Special in missing it, but it was still pretty damn cool. Well, to me at least.
I thought this match was very good, the sort of thing I want more of from NXT. They've got this fantastic roster, and it feels like some of their TVs rely too much on squashes and mismatched line-ups and we don't get to see these match-ups that often. I get that we don't want to burn through the roster and potential match ups on TV, but it'd be nice if we could have a few more of these competitive contests.
United Kingdom Championship Special
Best Match on UKCS: Tyler Bate vs Mark Andrews - WWE United Kingdom Championship Match
Honourable Mention(s): Pete Dunne vs Trent Seven - No.1 Contender's Match
Here's a heads up on how I felt about this match, coming from my 'Noah Goes To' write up on seeing it live;
"I had an amazing time and you can darn tootin' believe that when this gets put on the Network it's gonna be hard for anything to beat Bate/Andrews for match of the week, whenever it may be shown."So yeah, I loved this match. It had it all; the mesmerising British technicalities, high spots, a striking game, false finishes and wonderful sequences. In regards of how to set a tone for a match, it doesn't get too much better than this sort of thing;
Marvellous.
Like I mentioned, there were some incredible high spots in this match that put some exclamation points amidst this poetry; the frankensteiners, the dives, the big counters, they all made me lose my shit sitting in attendance, and hearing everyone around me reacting in the same manner just heightened it all.
This match would not have looked out of place on a pay-per-view, on a PROGRESS show, a PWG show, or even WrestleMania, it was that good. Whilst I am sure that Bate/Dunne II is bound to be awesome at TakeOver: Chicago, I'd encourage any and everyone to watch this as well. A truly incredible match, ranking up there in what has been done under the WWE banner so far this year.
Ring of Honour
Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 295): Bobby Fish vs Silas Young
Ring of Honour picks up with another real good match this time around, with this growing feud between 'Professional Wrestling's Last Real Man' Silas Young, and Bobby Fish.
We started off hot with the two men going straight at each other, which just serves to heat this rivalry up. One thing I picked up in this one, whilst overall I think Silas Young is criminally underrated, his dropkick is a thing of beauty. I thought Silas and Bobby played of each other greatly, with snappy sequences - like the apron/corner spot that was really great - plus, their battles with words is a slick pairing too. In all, though I can't think of much else to say other than that this was a real solid match that is the sort of thing that makes ROH fun to watch.
As always, you can watch ROH TV for FREE on www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current, on the Fite TV app and it turns out that you can actually watch Fite on browser, which I have to say is much higher quality than ROH's website.
So, remember how I said it'd be hard for anything to beat Bate/Andrews whenever it would be, there was something on the calendar I hadn't anticipated a clash for....
NJPW: Best of the Super Juniors
Day 1
Best Match on BOSJ D1: Marty Scurll vs Will Ospreay
Honourable Mention(s): Dragon Lee vs Hiromu Takahashi
Fuckin' Jesus we've got some class action here. First night we had the New Japan Pro Wrestling debut of the Bullet Club's newest acquisition, Marty Scurll taking on his oldest and most storied rival, Will Ospreay.
Good lord above this was great. These guys worked an amazing match, and you as with all their matches, you can clearly see how well these guys know each other and how to put on an awesome match with one another. The Japanese crowd were big into Scurll's whole digit manipulation and finger snapping routine, and we saw that played up a fair bit in the match. Like I said in his recent battle with Jay White, Ospreay really has developed as a wrestler, with his all round in ring game really picking up.
I was very happy to see how well received Marty was, with lots of 'Woop-woop!'s even when they were just reading out the card at the start of the show. The hard camera position doesn't do much justice in showing how big Karouken Hall is, and getting the whip around shot of Scurll's entrance when he took his mask off let us see the size of the place.
I want to make a promise to you, readers, that I, Noah, will never ever get tired of seeing Scurll catch Ospreay off of the springboard into a chickenwing. Out of every time I've seen it happen, this may have been the best one.
Amazing match here, and a great introduction of Marty to the Japanese crowd. Pair him up with his classic rival, and let them go at it. I also want to say that Dragon Lee/Hiromu Takahashi, another continuation of a storied feud, was also awesome and you should check it out too.
Day 2
Best Match on BOSJ D2: Will Ospreay vs Ricochet
Honourable Mention(s): Marty Scurll vs Dragon Lee, Jushin 'Thunder' Liger vs Hiromu Takahashi
Will is back and he is against another of his long standing rivals, arguably one more significant in his career that Scurll, 'The Future of Flight', Ricochet.
This time last year, we were all buzzing about these two causing an industry wide wave over debate on the nature and form of pro wrestling. I thought that that match was very, very good, and agree with the stance that wrestling is an art form, as preached by both Ospreay and Ricochet. So, when I saw this in the listings, I figured we might have something similar.
Again, Will's development is visible here, with his more basic striking and grappling game more prevalent and in essence, better. Ricochet is also much more than flip-dee-doos, so he could lovingly compliment that.
Now, don't get me wrong, there was a fucking fuck load of bejeezusing spots and high flying that was a spectacle. The sequences that had the likes of Vader pissing and moaning last year were back with more flair and working parts. There were just some nasty looking spots, with Ricochet landing a freakin' brainbuster on the apron.
For me, dragonrana's have been a fabled move in my wrestling watching time, it was like the only place you'd see them were either old Rey Mysterio Jr. matches in WCW with his purple body suit or Create-A-Wrestlers in WWE games. But, good lord above would you get a look at this;
Utter wizardry.
What a way to close out the start of the BOSJ tournament. How did it compare to last year? I thought that there was definitely more to this one. There was more variety, with the aforementioned grappling and striking stuff coming into play. I've seen that Meltzer has said that although these two are doing stuff no-one else can, they're doing too much of it. I think I'd agree with that, but only in retrospect. Sat there watching it, I loved every moment of it, no worries of complaints, no detraction from my enjoyment at all.
The Verdict
Best Match of the Week: Tyler Bate vs Mark Andrews - WWE United Kingdom Championship Match
Holy motherfucking god this was the tightest of decision between Bate/Andrews, Ospreay/Scurll and Ospreay/Ricochet. Hell, I am typing this sentence yet to decide it, and I'm gonna have to think some more an fill in the answer in a sec. Watch them all, you won't regret it. Also, props to Dar/Metalik, what a great match that was.
Fuck it, Bate/Andrews wins. Those three matches are just incredible, and I may have some slight leniency towards it due to being there live, but fuck it all, I think it was the best. Sorted.
After that splitting of hairs, here is what the leaderboard looks like now.
And now for the final thing, 'The Best Promo of the Week', and it was a bit of a toss up between the winner, Fashion Files III and Ospreay's Day 2 post match promo, but in the end, I picked the one that impressed me the most, and that was this hella creepy promo done by Erick Rowan on Talking Smack;
That's gonna do it from me for this week folks. Thank you for joining me, and in a week packed with quality all round, I'd love to hear what you thought this week's best was. Until next week, I hope you all have a lovely time in your corner of the world, wherever it may be, and if you ever feel like discussing wrestling in any capacity, hit me up. I'll catch your ass down the road.
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