BWOTW: 3/7/17 - 8/7/17

Hi there folks and welcome to this newest edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'New New Faces of America'

But before we delve into the week, I wanted to give my condolences to an inspiration of mine, Dave Meltzer on the loss of his father.

And now, here's the top headlines we got this week;

1. New Japan hosted their G1 Special and crowned Kenny Omega as the inaugural IWGP United States Champion! Also on the show, War Machine reclaimed the IWGP Tag belts too.
2. Another championship embodiment of Old Glory got a new owner this week as AJ Styles defeated Kevin Owens at the house show at Madison Square Garden! I guess its up in the air as to what's happening at Battleground...
3. Surprisingly, Austin Aries has been released from WWE. Per Meltzer, it appears that Aries wasn't very popular with the writing staff and that this wasn't a requested release. More might come out with time so who knows what it is.
4. Just a quick little tidbit, but something that got me excited, it was announced on RAW that the Hardys/Sheamus & Cesaro match at Great Balls of Fire will be a 30-minute Iron Man match. Coooooooooooool!

And now for the flake in this 99 ice cream, it's the matches!

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (3/7/17): Finn Balor vs Cesaro
Honourable Mention(s): Braun Strowman vs Apollo Crews

Starting off this week, it's the go-home show for Great Balls of Fire with Finn Balor taking on Cesaro. So, here we have two of the best in-ring performers RAW has to offer, and understandably, they put on a hell of a match.

Cesaro spent quite a bit of this match brutalising Balor quite a fair bit, using his renowned raw power to deliver the brunt of the destruction;

Finn would have some offence peppered in throughout, but again, this was Cesaro's match to dominate;

We did get some fuckery with Elias Samson causing a distraction, as well as Sheamus and the Hardy Boyz getting involved too, but amidst all this we did get to see my favourite move in Cesaro's playbook, Swiss Death;

Jesus Matt's creepy at the end of that clip. In all, this match was a nice treat between two world class competitors, and whilst it wasn't totally clean what with everyone at ringside, it was a good watch, it may not be on this week's 'Must See' list, but it is a pretty cool addition to Monday Night RAW.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (4/7/17): AJ Styles vs Chad Gable

Chad Gable's got another one-on-one match here on SmackDown! LIVE, facing off against AJ Styles for a spot in the battle royal later on in the night.

This match was slick as all hell and a pure joy to watch. Contained within the relatively few minutes these two had to perform, they filled it with awesome, flowing sequences and a great deal of ring psychology to add to it all. 

I went back and forth on whether to include this following clip seeing as it is around a minute long, but said minute is some of the most fluid wrestling I've seen lately and it goes to show how able Chad Gable is, and the ability that Styles has to be amazing in any and every circumstance;

Though not very long at all, I felt satisfied with the match after AJ gained the pin off of a Phenomenal Forearm. Condensed and action packed, this match was simply great and I hope we get more of Gable/American Alpha on my screens.

205 Live

Best Match on 205 (4/7/17): Rich Swann vs TJP

Going into this, I was ready to watch with a huff in my breath, seeing as this is a match-up that feels like it has been done to absolute death. However, once things got rolling, this match turned out to definitely be one of the better ones between Swann and Perkins, as well as on 205 Live as a whole.

A strong focus on chain wrestling and a mat based game with flairs of high-flying interspersed amongst it. All the holds and their transitions flowed really well, making for a nice watch in the end. 

It looks like TJ is becoming a face again, which is alright I suppose, no strong feelings one way or the other really.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (5/7/17): Bobby Roode vs Roderick Strong - NXT Championship Match

Main eventing this episode of NXT, with a good half hour dedicated to it all as Bobby Roode defends his NXT Championship against Roderick Strong.

This was a damn good match, through and through, with this being arguably both of these wrestler's best match in NXT to date. Roderick lived up to his 'Messiah of the Backbreaker' moniker as he utilised a variety of brutal looking backbreakers to ware down the spine of Roode, a body part that would be a continued focus and hindrance to Roode throughout the match.

As we're talking about worked body parts, I want to personally thank Bobby Roode for his work in this match. I have been tempted to dedicate a whole 'BWOTW Special' on this, but I figure I have the chance to write about it here. In the past few months, there seems to have been a sudden surge of matches featuring the 'he tweaked the knee' angle in both weekly and pay-per-view matches across several promotions, but I feel WWE is the worst perpetrator. Most weeks, hell even most episodes of RAW, you couldn't go without someone having a bit of a funny landing and inserting a hurt knee theme into their match, or it was Rollins having his knee destroyed every second since his return after his injury in the lead to 'Mania.
Bobby Roode did start to focus on the knee, but thank the Lord he did it differently, and much better, than what we've been seeing. The trigger of catching Roddy's knee in the steps was unique, then going on to use a more varied and interesting approach to working the knee as opposed to the typical stomps and the odd figure-four leglock. Thank you, Bobby Roode, for restoring my sanity.

So, this match came down to a false finish that led to the match restarting and Roode taking advantage of a distracted Roddy in the interim. Roode is an incredible heel and plays his role to a tee in every match and every promo. What a talent.

This match was ridiculously good for its placement on weekly TV and would not be out of place on a TakeOver card, and I would not at all mind for a rematch at Brooklyn III. Awesome match this, I definitely recommend seeking it out if you haven't already.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 302): The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) vs Coast 2 Coast (Shaheem Ali & Leon St. Giovanni) vs The Tempura Boys (Sho & Yo) - ROH Tag Team Championship Match

Originally advertised as just Coast 2 Coast versus The Tempura Boys, I was ready to have a fun match regardless, but the self-insertion of The Young Bucks putting the belts on the line was a very welcome addition indeed.

This wasn't a massively long match, but what they did in the time was really great. The Young Bucks always add their own special blend of excitement into their matches which is especially welcome in multi-side matches such as this. I am enjoying Coast 2 Coast and, to a lesser extent, The Tempura Boys more every time I see them, showing some real promise. Plus, on top of that, I feel this match did some work to elevate them a bit, getting a shot at the tag belts.

Like I said, by no means an epic, but certainly an unexpectedly enjoyable match here on ROH TV

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.

SUPERKICK COUNTER: 12

Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E25): Dante Fox vs Dragon Azteca Jr.

In the final bracket of the Cuerto Cup, we have Dante Fox taking on Dragon Azteca Jr - accompanied by Rey Mysterio.

I can't recall any real specifics of this match, though it was the sort of lucha libre, fast paced action we've all come to know, love and expect of Lucha Underground, packing in the spots and keeping excitement at a high.

Mysterio's presence at ringside would get the Worldwide Underground involved in this match. Made this match feel a bit more of a background to the Mysterio/Mundo storyline going on, rather than it being the focus of the last act of this episode of Lucha Underground. But, in all, this was a fun match with cool shit.  

NJPW: G1 Special

Night 1

Best Match on G1S N1: Michael Elgin vs Kenny Omega

Here we go with this past week's big boy event, it's New Japan's venture to the US with this G1 Special. Stealing the show on the first night was definitely this clash between Canadian brethren and former IWGP Intercontinental Champions, Michael Elgin and Kenny Omega. 

These guys beat the ever-loving shit out of each other. Elgin used his power to deliver a chorus of stiff lariats and clubs as well as throwing Kenny about ring shaking slams, notably a big time German Suplex right onto the apron.

Omega dealt his fair share of damage to Elgin, firing a fuselage of V-Trigger knees from beginning to end in his battle to cut down the mass that Big Mike is. It's mind-boggling how these guys survive contests like these, with each of those V-Triggers looking like attempted murder in every instance. 

The ending sequence included a fair few of these lethal strikes, with Elgin showing some awe-inspiring endurance in the wake of Kenny's advancement of the bracket.

Elgin screaming at Omega to do it is hands down the most badass thing I saw this week, in and out of wrestling. Just listen to the sounds of those knees, I don't care if it's a thigh slap or what, I will forever wince at that wet-smack noise.

Truly awesome match, and I had this pencilled in as being the week's best until....

Night 2

Best Match on G1S N2: Kenny Omega vs Tomohiro Ishii - IWGP United States Championship Match
Honourable Mention(s): Zack Sabre Jr vs Tomohiro Ishii

Rounding off the tournament and the entire weekend, the final clash to determine the IWGP United States Champion featured 'The Cleaner' Kenny Omega taking on 'The Stone Pitbull' Tomohiro Ishii.

This match was just like their prior matches in the New Japan Cup and at Wrestling Dontaku, but this ramped it up to 11. The beatings they delivered to each other were incredible, both of these guys' toughness being an admirable feature of this match. There were a couple points in this match where I thought they couldn't go much longer, and I would have been totally content with the match ending there, but they got up and kept going.

One of those moments in particular was the sick Dragon Suplex off of the apron through (just) a table. For those who thought the top rope version from Omega/Okada at WrestleKingdom 11 was a bit much, look away now/don't watch the clip;

Christ.

Like I said, they just kept going, hitting some big-money manoeuvres that would have been perfectly acceptable endings, but they just kept building and building on top of them, such as the finisher stealing seen below;



In the end, Omega would finally land a One Winged Angel and earn the right to call himself the first IWGP United States Champion.

What a match, I cannot recommend it enough. 

PWG: Head Like a Cole

Best Match on PWG: HLaC: reDRagon (Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish) vs The Chosen Bros (Jeff Cobb & Matt Riddle)

Taking us down to Reseda, CA now as we get a tag match between the momentum building team of The Chosen Bros. against the returning to PWG, reDRagon.

We started off with some nice grappling from all four men, each one of them well-versed in various forms of mat wrestling, with Cobb an Olympic wrestler and Riddle, Fish and O'Reilly experienced in various martial arts. That took up a fair bit of the match, and it was really cool. Then as things evolve into the more pro wrestling style, we had the nice dynamic of reDRagon facing off against the huge power of Cobb especially, but with Riddle also throwing his size around. 

It would go back and forth, with tense moments with tapouts feeling imminent, several hold attempts being used to heighten the drama until the Chosen Bros would eventually pick up the win. Really good match here, and I think it's about time we had another DDT4, ammiright?

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Kenny Omega vs Tomohiro Ishii - IWGP United States Championship Match - NJPW: G1 Special Night 2

Like I said, this match took these two's past week winning bouts and furthered it, adding in more brutal elements and building the drama with the stakes that high. The whole tournament in general was full of great matches that do deserve a look. Plus, a big shout-out to Roode/Strong because that was fucking awesome too.

And with all that in the books, here's how the leaderboard shapes up nowadays, with Kenny Omega now reigning over all with a 4 point lead on AJ Styles.

All that's left now is to award 'The Best Promo of the Week', this time around coming from the impassioned Enzo Amore in the fallout of another attack from Cass last week and looking forward to their match at Great Balls of Fire.

So, thank you all for reading, still getting back into the scheduling groove, with this especially big week not being a help to the cause. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed not only reading, but also the wrestling you watched this week, whether current or past. I also hope that the upcoming week is packed full of joy and smiles. I'll catch you all in the next one!