- The G1 Climax is done and dusted, and the winner of the series was none other than Tetsuya Naito! He's on his way to WrestleKingdom 12, now its just a matter of who it is he'll be facing...
- Championship news now as we have a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion in the form of Akira Tozawa! The rematch is set for SummerSlam however, and it looks like Neville is desperate to reclaim his title. Also, The Young Bucks have lost thier IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag titles to the team of Ryusuke Taguchi and Ricochet!
- In what could have been championship news, Baron Corbin cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on SmackDown!, but it would result in failure after some distraction from John Cene lead to Jinder Mahal being able to roll Corbin up and retain. I can't help but feel sad for Big Banter Baron.
- It has been reported this week that not only has Adam Cole (baybay) now officially joined NXT, but also FUCKING FINALLY SHELTON BENJAMIN HAS SIGNED WITH THE WWE! Ain't no stoppin' him, just a few year+ delays.
- Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins have reunited, and are challenging for the RAW Tag Team Championships at SummerSlam. God I hope we get to hear the 'Sierra, Hotel, India, Echo, Lima, Delta' intro.
- Southpaw Regional Wrestling is back with a second season, and they've got even more characters and even more merch! Be sure to check it out.
Also, before we get going, I want to send my best of wishes to 'The Nature Boy' Ric Flair, we're all pulling for you, champ!
And now for the frosting on this wrestling blog of a wedding cake, it's the matches!
Monday Night RAW
Best Match on RAW (14/8//17): Neville vs Akira Tozawa - WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match
Starting off the week we're on Monday Night RAW with Neville defending his WWE Cruiserweight Champion against Titus Worldwide representative, Akira Tozawa.
These guys put on a great show here on RAW, with both guys having great performances and telling a lovely story. The shoulder injury of Tozawa still lingered and was the main target for Neville, with arm wringers and just all levels of nastiness to deliver as much pain as possible. The Rings of Saturn was attempted in the hopes of tearing the shoulder up to the point of submission, but Tozawa managed to wriggle out of it.
Tozawa attempting the diving senton was another layer in this match, with him attempting it a couple of times unsuccessfully, with Neville interrupting him on the top and later Tozawa missing it all together. The third would be the clincher though, after Neville resorted to going back to his flashy way in going for the Red Arrow, only for it to backfire spectacularly.
And so, the lengthy reign of Neville as Cruiserweight Champion is over. Tozawa probably was the best option to go with dethroning Neville. Another thing I wanted to write about this match was how good Titus O'Neill is at ringside. I much prefer him shouting and hollering on the outside rather than on commentary, helps liven up the crowd for the cruiserweight division they usually aren't massively interested in. Whilst this was a good match, I'd say that Neville's battles with Austin Aries over the title were better. However, this is probably the best we've gotten from Tozawa since the Cruiserweight Classic last summer, but, now that he has the
SmackDown! LIVE
Best Match on SD! (15/8/17): The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) vs The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso)
Ahead of their match at SummerSlam, we have The New Day, represented by Kofi and Xavier tonight taking on the down since day one-ish brother of The Usos.
Things started off hot, with Woods and Kingston unleashing a flurry of double teams onto their opponent, letting out the anger they didn't get chance to last week;
The rest of the match did see a fair few New Day doubles, but their hot streaks were routinely cut down by The Usos, a nice touch with them dismantling Woods' attempt at his rope walk elbow, the move that beat them at Money in the Bank and took away their titles.
The Brothers Uce would dip into the playbook of taking down Kingston by the knee, enabling them to channel their inner Jacksons and deliver a double superkick to his jaw and secured the pin.
A nice fun match here on SmackDown!, with some good stuff in the time they were given. With how much I liked their match at MitB, and the placement of them on the preshow possibly allowing them a fair chunk of time (what the fuck else are they gonna do with those two hours), they're my dark horse to steal the show.
205 Live
Best Match on 205 (15/8/17): Cedric Alexander & Gran Metalik vs Tony Nese & Drew Gulak
We're on 205 Live now and bloody hell they've got Gran Metalik on TV two weeks in a row! He's got his old mask back (yay!) but no more tassles (fuck), and here he is teaming with Cedric Alexander going up against the sort of only tag team the cruiserweight division has, Tony Nese and Drew Gulak.
Once again, Metalik is doing insane shit that really should grant him a better place on the card. I mean, just look at it!;
I could train for 12 years to just do that one move exclusively, and I still wouldn't be able to do it. Give this man a push, WWE.
Everyone else was their usual good selves; Cedric was slick as all hell, Tony's getting better and better at his cocky heel side, and Gulak persisting with the 'No Fly Zone' thing he's got going. Fuck it, put him and Metalik in a feud for a month and watch some magic be made.
So yeah, fun bouncy match this one. Nothing too spectacular, with the main focusing point of this episode being on Neville/Tozawa fallout, so no real main event on the show. Oh, and how cool is new psycho brawler Jack Gallagher?
NXT
Best Match on NXT (16/8/17): Roderick Strong vs Drew McIntyre
Honourable Mention(s): Billie Kay vs Ruby Riot
We're on the path to TakeOver: Brooklyn III and this week we have a real good episode of NXT, main evented by Roderick Strong going up against Drew McIntyre, with the agreement being he would get to challenge Bobby Roode again sometime after Brooklyn.
An interesting set-up to this match that played out here. Going into TakeOver, we've had McIntyre parading around as the 'for the people' babyface, but here in this match, he played much more of the dominant, big bastard Strong had to overcome. Strong showed some great fire in the match, really taking it to Drew and mustering up several horses worth of power to muscle him up and break his back. He got to do his awesome catch out of the corner one, as well as dropping the fucker right on the apron.
As I said, Drew was the intimidating hoss of the match, delivering some powerful blows to Strong and rocking him. I've always thought McIntyre is better as a heel, but I'm willing to see where they go with him at the minute.
The match would culminate to a dirty finish with Roode storming the ring and picking off both of the weakened men, getting some momentum as he looks to defend in Brooklyn. This was a good match, and whilst the ending did prevent it from being better, everything leading up to it was great and should be recognised as so. I'd definitely recommend it.
Ring of Honour
Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 307): KUSHIDA & Kenny King vs The Bullet Club (Marty Scurll & Hangman Page)
An impromptu match here on Ring of Honour; after the Television Title match between KUSHIDA and Kenny King (which was also rather good) was thrown out following run-ins from 'The Villain' Marty Scurll and Hangman Page.
Kenny King as a singles competitor like this probably doing the best out of everyone that was in The Rebellion, though I suppose Rhet's only had one match so far (on this episode against CHEESEBURGER) and Shane Taylor just attack Josh Woods a couple weeks ago, but I would definitely say that King has the most promise, especially if he keeps these sort of performances up.
I'm a big fan of Scurll and Page, with the latter's appearances on ROH TV being something I look forward too. Page is criminally underrated, and he had a great performance this week, having more ring time than Scurll I think, and getting his coolest shit in. Every time he does that Shooting Star shoulder block its a thing of beauty, as well as the Buckshot Lariat.
KUSHIDA continues to be awesome at damn near everything, and with the G1 now over, we'll hopefully get to see him defend his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship some more.
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 (S3E31): Fenix vs Prince Puma
It's the semi-final round of the Cuerto Cup this week and as well as Pentagon Dark versus Mil Muertes, we have this awesome clash between Fenix and Prince Puma.
Flippery-fuckedy-doos here in this match. The opening couple of minutes had a deeper feeling out process than I was expecting, with the two luchadores going hold for hold, but still busting out some agile escapes to keep it exciting. However, it would not be long at all before things started to heat up, with a deadly superkick from Fenix setting the tone for the action there on. It was very back and forth, both Puma and Fenix wowing the crowd, me included, with their insane high flying capabilities.
Some muddying of the match happened when Marty 'The Moth' Martinez came to be a creep towards ring announcer, Melissa Santos, distracting Fenix who did a scary Asai moonsault that nearly spiked himself on the apron. That then allowed Puma to take advantage and proceed to the finals against Pentagon Dark.
This was a great match with high octane action, making it another one I recommend checking out from this week.
NJPW: G1 Climax
Finals
Best Match on G1Finals: Tetsuya Naito vs Kenny Omega
Honourable Mention(s): Rysuke Taguchi & Ricochet vs The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson), The Bullet Club (Hangman Page & Cody Rhodes) vs War Machine (Hanson & Raymond Rowe)
Holy fuck.
Holy fuckeroo.
Holy fuckerooni patooti.
Crikey O'Riley this was a belter of a match, I think I even liked this better than Omega/Okada III. There was just tonnes of stuff happening in this match, I have a load of gifs and clips here for you to try and illustrate it but I doubt it'll be able to do this match justice.
piledriver, ring post, powerbomb drop, super steiner, tons of triggers, tranquilo fake out, croyts wrath, spinny destino,
Since watching Naito lately, it gave me the idea of 'hey, people must assume by now he's gonna fake out on the suicide dive, so why not hit one and surprise them?'. Little did I know that Naito's tranquilo powers gives him telepathy.
Outside the ring saw arguably this matches nastiest spot, with a piledriver to the outside off of a table - not through a table, off of it. Omega caught the top of his head on the edge of an adjacent table that put the fear of God in me, and this marked the first in a series of blows he'd take in this match, with Destinos and frankensteiners from various heights landing on the bulls-eye of Omega's head. Having the top of the head as a worked target is not something I've seen before, and I can see why because it all looked fucking brutal. The other pants shitting spot saw both men perched on the top rope and Kenny essentially DDT-ing Naito right onto the post. I believe these were intentional moves, but Christ it certainly didn't feel like it watching it.
Talking about nasty blows, the number of V-Triggers Omega landed in this match was crazy, and all of them were harsh. Like proper, full on, thunder clapping hits. How Naito's head remained on his shoulders, I have no idea, and how he managed not to die is another miracle.
With this match and Okada/Omega the night before, I am pretty sure that Omega's 'Croyt's Wrath' has become my new favourite move in all of professional wrestling, hands down.
These guys threw everything at each other, and as we've seen, some unexpected and heart stopping spots that made me shift in my seat from the thrill of it all and out of shock that they were willing to put themselves through that sort of punishment. The end would come about from Naito finally landing a full and proper Destino after this ultra-cool spinning one;
What a fucking match readers, bell-to-bell awesomeness, and in case you haven't figured out what wins this week...
The Verdict
Best Match of the Week: Tetsuya Naito vs Kenny Omega - G1 Climax Finals
This is a match of the year candidate, be sure to check it out and I guarantee you it will be on your list come December as well. After being booed when he won in the G1 in 2013 when he was a babyface, this rebirth from the Los Ingobernables de Japon journey looks like it's about to come full circle. Shoutouts to Strong/McIntyre and Fenix/Puma, but they didn't have a chance against this.
With another MOTY contender under his best, Omega continues to dominate the leaderboard, but with the G1 finished and New Japan's presence on the blog taking a bit of a break, can someone rise through the ranks and take him down?
All that's left now is to give out 'The Best Promo of the Week' which goes to arguably WWE's best talker (outside of Southpaw Regional Wrestling), Neville in his dishevelled, demented state on 205 Live;
Welp, that does it from me for this week folks. I hope everyone enjoys SummerSlam weekend, as well as the rest of your time in the space between we speak again. Be good to yourself as well as each other out there, I'll catch you ass down the road.
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