BWOTW: 24/7/17 - 29/7/17

Hey there readers and welcome to this newest edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Kahli-l Me Please'

An Unholy Alliance

But before we jump in, lets have a quick mosey at the past week's news;

1. Title changes first, and Kevin Owens is now a 3-time WWE United States Champion, having beaten AJ Styles at Battleground. But, two days later on SmackDown!, Styles won it back. Why? Who knows. Also, The New Day have won the SmackDown! Tag Team Championships from the Usos!
2. It has been announced that Kenny Omega will defend his IWGP United States Championship at ROH: Global Wars in Chicago, IL on October 15th. Coooooooooooooooool.
3. WWE have confirmed that Hell in a Cell will be a SmackDown! exclusive pay-per-view later this year, which leads me to believe these gimmick shows (TLC, Elimination Chamber, any others?) will alternate brands each year, which is quite fancy.
4. There have been rumblings that WWE are apparently planning another Superstar Shake-Up following SummerSlam. Not too sure this is really needed, but perhaps a transfer window where the swaps are a bit more limited might be nice.

And now for the stuffing in this wrestling blog of a pillow, its the matches! More G1 so buckle in guys...

WWE Battleground

Best Match on Battleground: The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) vs The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) - SmackDown! Tag Team Championship Match

Coming out on top of this quite bad PPV is the opening contest which was actually really good, its the SmackDown! Tag Team Championships on the line as The Usos defend against The New Day. 

We've got the pairing of Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston representing The New Day this time around, and if you're a frequent reader of this here blog, you know how much I love Woods getting in the ring. He's slick, got a cool moveset, and is willing to die;

Fucking Christ that spot was the best thing to come out from that entire show. 

But yeah, Usos and New Day work incredibly well together, and are pretty much the pinnacle of the SmackDown! tag division at this point in time. There was a point somewhere in this where I realised that The Usos have gone from being the WWE's equivalent of The Young Bucks to being more like The Guerrillas of Destiny. Just a little titbit I thought I'd share. 

Eventually things would dwindle down to Woods getting back on the top rope after his near death experience and land that sweet elbow drop he has. The distance is just incredible and its a great, believable finisher;

And there you have it, New Day are 3-time champions! With a rematch clause somewhere in the mix, we could have a rematch at SummerSlam which I would be a fan of, but I'd also like to see a couple other teams thrown in for a multi-side match. I know a lot of people don't really like having multi-man matches at these pay-per-views for the sake of it, but I think they can be a happy medium if WWE don't have much story going for them.

So, I'd say watch this, it's a bouncy fun match, the women's match isn't too bad either but then stop the pay-per-view and run away. Or, watch SmackDown! instead this week. Seriously.

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (24/7/17): Bayley vs Sasha Banks - No.1 Contender's Match for RAW Women's Championship

Heading over to Monday Night RAW now and we have another real good match coming from the show. As we head towards SummerSlam, a challenger for Alexa Bliss' RAW Women's Championship, so here we have Bayley and Sasha Banks facing off for that opportunity.

We had the story of two good friends competing for singles success, and this was told well in this match. The early goings had quick pin attempts and low impact wrestling holds back and forth, but as the match drew on and tensions ran high, things boiled over when we saw heavy hands being thrown both ways reaching  the climax. Sasha was particularly rough with an arm wrench that sent Bayley face first into the middle turnbuckle with a big thud and then dropped the knees on her. Oh, and another thing, Sasha went for her diving meteora off the top, Bayley dodged and Sasha landed right on her poor fucking knees on the mat. I dropped to my knees from standing the other day and that was sore, I'd hate to do it from that height.

The climax saw Bayley sneak a pin from Sasha off of a frog splash, getting her a place on that valuable SummerSlam card;

Very nice match this, reminded me of Charlotte/Becky from last week's SmackDown!, though I think that was a bit better perhaps. 

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (25/7/17): Chris Jericho vs AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens - WWE United States Championship Match

Washing out the sour taste that was Battleground, its SmackDown! LIVE, this week main evented by Kevin Owens defending his newly won WWE United States Championship against AJ Styles and a returning Chris Jericho!

This was an awesome match, much better than Owens/Styles from the PPV which was mainly ruined by the finish, but it did feel pretty flat throughout. We got a bit more of the switching one-on-one confrontations opposed to having some more three-way action after the opening minutes, but that is far from a fault in this one. The Jericho/Owens dynamic received some prime time attention here on SmackDown!, getting into a standoff and devolving into a hockey brawl for a short while, as well as later brutality. 

AJ continues to shine in damn near every match he is in, with him not only pulling off an array of spectacular moves, but he helped to make what was my favourite spot of this bout;

What a bump. As given away in the opening news round-up, Styles would go on to win this match and take back the gold. After Owens had Jericho beat, AJ would slink in and steal the victory, which the led to a rematch between Styles and Owens next week on SmackDown! LIVE;

My one and only complaint about this match was that there may have been too many kickouts of finishers, it happened with the spingboard 450, the pop-up powerbomb and the Codebreaker. I feel like in a match of this make-up, you could have easily had the pins be broken up by the third man and protect the moves a bit more. But, other than that, great match here.

205 Live

Best Match on 205 (25/7/17): TJP & Tony Nese vs Rich Swann & Cedric Alexander

205 Live here now and literally the only thing I can remember about this match is that Rich Swann is now wrestling in some sort of baggy trousers. The signs of a pretty forgettable match I guess. These guys are all good, its just a case of WWE booking a tag match that doesn't have too much going for it. This TJP and Swann feud admittedly isn't doing much for me, which certainly didn't help things.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (26/7/17): Hideo Itami vs Kassius Ohno

Off to NXT now and here we have one of my most anticipated matches as of the past couple months, it's Hideo Itami heading up against Kassius Ohno. 

As expected, this was a slug fest. I'd say a good 95% of this match was all strikes, and I honestly wouldn't want it any other way. Boots, chops, kicks, forearms, elbows, name a body part and it was used to club the opponent. It did have a bit of a slower pace in paces, taking its time with the battle, but there were a few bursts of speed here and there. 

The match would come to a disqualification on the part of Hideo, ending up just kicking Ohno right in the dickhole. I assume this means we're getting Ohno/Itami one more time at TakeOver: Brooklyn III, and I suppose I'm just going to have to wait until we get a decisive, proper match between these two. Especially on a stage like TakeOver: Brooklyn III, it should be a fucking barn-burner. 

Good match here on NXT, a nice little something to extend this feud and bide us over until we get a proper bout between these two.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 305): KUSHIDA vs Jay White - ROH World Television Championship Match

Taking it to the indies now and we're here on Ring of Honour TV, with KUSHIDA defending his ROH World Television Championship against Jay White. 

At the time of writing, it has been quite a few days since I actually watched this one, and have seen a slew of other great matches in the mean time (more on those later). Whilst this match certainly was a good one, it has more than definitely been outshone by the others. I would like to say however that ROH TV as of late has been some of the most consistently good weekly wrestling product out there. I really feel like I've been underselling them on the blog a bit recently, but I very much recommend getting into it on a regular basis.

As always, you can catch ROH TV for FREE on either www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current, on the Fite TV app, or at www.fite.tv

Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E28): Drago vs Pentagon Dark
Honourable Mention(s): PJ Black vs Rey Mysterio Jr.

Luchador action coming your way now as we turn our attention to Lucha Underground. We're amidst the second round of the Cuerto Cup, and the brackets this week have given us the pairing of Drago taking on Pentagon Dark.

It feels like it has been far too long since I have seen Pentagon Dark. They started things off with some snappy chain wrestling, lots of transitions and rolls as they went through the feeling out process. Once things started getting hot and heavy, they busted out the fancier side of their respective movesets. I say it every time he appears on this here blog, but fuck me Pentagon's kicks are like thunder summoned by Thor to strike a satellite broadcasting reruns of WCW Thunder. 

The end would come in the form of Pentagon plucking a dazed Drago off of the turnbuckle, packaging him up and piledriving him on the Aztec seal that adorns the centre of the ring for the pin. Real nice match here on an episode of Lucha Underground I enjoyed a lot more than a fair few of the last ones.


Right, time to delve in to the majesty that is the G1 Climax

NJPW: G1 Climax

Day 6

Best Match on G1D6: SANADA vs Kazuchika Okada

We're on the first show of the blog now, Day 6, and taking the spot of best on the card is the contest between the reigning IWGP Heayweight Champion, Kazuchika Okada, taking on Los Ingobernables de Japon representative, SANADA.

I have quickly become a big fan of SANADA, so I was properly rooting for him in this one. 
The guy is just so crisp in the ring, plus he looks like a hundred thousand yen (approx. a million bucks). It also helps he has a killer theme.

I was going mental when he had the champion in his Dragon Sleeper, and good God they worked that hold for a long, long time. It sure paid off, the drama was high, and as it drew longer and longer I was near certain that Okada was going to tap, those long legs of Okada helped him reach the rope and brake it though. Bastard.

I can't comprehend how Okada is managing to have awesome match after awesome match at the rate he's going, and the punishment he's taking in each one, same goes for Omega as well. The champ would come out of this one on top once again, and securing another 2 points to his scorecard;

As I said, this was awesome. Check it out, especially if you have yet to be sold on SANADA.

Day 7

Best Match on G1D7: Kota Ibushi vs Togi Makabe

Kota Ibushi is in action again here as he faces off against "The Unchained Gorilla", Togi Makabe.

Togi Makabe is another of those who I have paid more attention to over the G1, and I have to say that I am warming up to him. His whole King Kong things is quite cool, and his knee drops are a thing of absolute destruction, it's just a shame that his theme gets muted on the broadcast.

Him and Kota beat the fuck out of each other in this one. Makabe sold Ibushi's kicks like they offended him personally, but the ferocity those kicks have behind them make me think its pretty easy to show how much they hurt. Makabe got more than enough of his own back, with lariats murdering the Golden Star, as well as bludgeoning him with his patella bone;

After both men suffered quite the beating, Makabe would be the one to come out the victor on the night, once again ascending to the top rope to cave Ibushi's skull in one more time;

I think this is definitely Makabe's best match in the G1 so far, and it's hard to say with Ibushi. As much as I enjoyed his match with Sabre Jr, it is very hard to compare the two as they are so different, so I suppose they're about level in my book.

Day 8

Best Match on G1D8: Michael Elgin vs Kenny Omega

Ho-ho daddy, in a rematch from the G1 Special, it's Michael Elgin taking on the IWGP United States Champion, Kenny Omega.

This was quite reminiscent of their clash in Long Beach, however I would say that this match was better. Again, Elgin would assert his power advantage over Omega, tossing him around like the average junior heavyweight, with those landings Kenny's taking looking proper sore;

Though he didn't land as many as their previous meeting, Kenny unleashed a fair few V-Triggers to the head of Elgin, shaking the big man to his core and evening the playing field some. It is important to remember that although Elgin is definitely the bigger of the two, Omega has his own blend of powerhousery, becoming a big hoss when need be, a fact he would showcase in busting out an uber-cool Tiger Driver on his fellow Canadian;

Talking about digging deep into the bag of tricks, Elgin would use an uncommon move himself to ultimately get the pin on Omega, a big ol' motherfucker of a Burning Hammer;

Elgin wins! As he said he set out to do at the G1 Conference, Elgin beat one of the champions of B-Block, lining him up to most probably get himself a title shot in the near future. That is a rematch I would welcome with very open arms. Awesome match here, another one to be on the hunt for, though you could say that about a lot of the G1 really.

Day 9

Best Match on G1D9: Tetsuya Naito vs Tomohiro Ishii

Day 9 now and it's the leader of LIJ, Testsuya Naito, squaring up against the man who looks like his chest has a gravitational pull that is dragging his other body parts closer together, Tomohiro Ishii.

More hard hitting action from both of these fellas in this one. With Naito's LIJ philosophy, he royally pissed Ishii off right from the off here, which did not make it easy for him. Although Naito got a fair chunk of offence, it is safe to say that Ishii battered the unholy shit out of him. I can't really remember many specifics about this one, just that the finish was ludicrously stiff, and here it is!

Ishii picks up the win and the corresponding 2 points, sitting him at a rosy 6 in A-Block, same as Natio (and 4 other wrestlers too).

Day 10

Best Match on G1D10: Juice Robinson vs Kazuchika Okada

It's Juice Robinson taking on Kazuchika Okada here on the 10th day of the G1. As a guy that wasn't massively into Juice when we started this league, the G1 has made me more and more fond of him, and this match here has been a big part in that. 

Juice is a great babyface. His efforts against Okada looked truly admirable, and with Okada deciding to play up some of his more cocky mannerisms, it helped to root for Juice even more. The crowning moment of when I decided I was behind Juice came when he was locked in the figure-four-leglock. Juice was crying in pain, veins popping out of his chest and neck, face all red, Christ you couldn't help but feel for the guy.

They did well to make Juice look like a top guy in this match, especially considering as he has lost the majority of his matches in the G1 so far, though I suppose they are building him to be an underdog. With this, they didn't half go overkill on the finish, with Juice taking 3 Rainmakers in the process;

And there it is, Okada wins and Juice has an admirable effort but continues his losing streak. I liked this match a lot and, like the SANADA match, I recommend it to anyone who still has doubts about Juice.

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Michael Elgin vs Kenny Omega - G1 Climax Day 8

This match was just ruthless start to finish, and was the most fun I had watching the G1 this week, as well as all of the wrestling product I do watch, a feat I'm surprising myself with I have to admit. I also suggest checking out Okada/Juice, Okada/SANADA, Ibushi/Makabe and Owens/Styles/Jericho.

With another win for Omega, he continues to stretch ahead on the leaderboard, with Ishii still working on closing the distance.

It's now time for 'The Best Promo of the Week' which is awarded this time around to Juice Robinson in a double whammy of promos in the fallout of his matches at Day 8 against Tama Tonga and then after his match with Okada on Day 10. Swearing ahead;

That does it from me for this week frienderinos, I hope you all had a wonderful time both reading and in watching the past few days' in-ring action. I also hope that the next of your days are filled with joy, and possibly me getting some of my work done. Best of wishes to you all, and I'll catch your ass down the road.