But first, let us have a quick look at what news we got this past week;
- Title changes at Dominion! Hiroshi Tanahashi is the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion, saving the belt from being retired by Naito as he said he threatened in victory. KUSHIDA is also the new IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, adding to his current ROH TV Title around his waist. Also, The Young Bucks continue to recollect those they had lost in winning back the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Titles.
- It's being reported that London is in consideration for a host of WrestleMania. Please, WWE, for the love of all that is holy, come to London, let me tick something off my bucket list.
- Dash Wilder of The Revival has been cleared for competition after suffering a broken jaw on his last NXT live event
- It looks like more Southpaw Pro Wrestling has been filmed recently! Can't wait for some more Tex Ferguson.
Monday Night RAW
Best Match on RAW (12/6/17): Sheamus & Cesaro vs The Hardy Boyz (Matt & Jeff Hardy) - RAW Tag Team Championship 2 out of 3 Falls Match
Kicking off the week we have Sheamus and Cesaro defending their RAW Tag Team Championships against Matt and Jeff Hardy in a 2 out of 3 falls match, closing the show on Monday Night RAW.
So, we got some more tag team goodies akin to that of their past clashes. Because of the stipulation, it felt like we had a much more fast paced match from these four guys, with them having to fit in three finishes in the same amount of time they'd likely get in a standard tag match; it is on TV, so y'know. It made things much more exciting to watch and they strayed away from someone being worked on for a while or slower segments.
The first fall came from a cool Brogue kick, but fuck me commentary ruined it for me;
So, calling it as a kick to the torso is perfectly fine on the first time. But, if even after Sheamus gets the pinfall just call it a Brogue. When they showed the replay, to me it looked like he'd got it on the face anyway, so just say he connected with it.
The second fall felt like it came pretty quickly after the second, the Hardys tying things up to 1 apiece. I think its as we were in sudden death that things started to get real heated, the fans in attendance really getting into it, big behind Matt and Jeff, but definitely some support for Sheamus and Cesaro. False finishes played into hyping up the crowd as we drew closer to the finish that ultimately was a bit of a letdown, but I can see why they went that way. So we got a double count out, throwing the match out and I guess setting up for another match between the two at Great Balls of Fire. Besides from the finish, good match here on RAW.
SmackDown! LIVE
Best Match on SD! (13/6/17): Breezango (Tyler Breeze & Fandango) & New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) vs The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) & The Colons (Epico & Primo Colon)
More tag team action here on SmackDown! as we have New Day and Breezango pairing up to take on The Usos and The Colons. Just a bit of a fast and snappy multi man match with people going in and out and all that jazz. Some fun to be had watching this. My main takeaway from this is that the New Day have a new finisher called ''Up Up, Down Down";
Nice. So yeah, nothing too substantial here, but it was a fun watch.
205 Live
Best Match on 205 (13/6/17): TJP vs Akira Tozawa
Taking us to 205 Live now and we have this main event scheduled by Titus O'Neill to sway Tozawa to #makeitawin and join the Titus Brand. Meanwhile, TJP's possibly coming back to be a face, but I couldn't really tell in the match itself.
I can't recall much at all from this match at all apart from Tozawa winning with his senton off the top. I think his snap German suplex is a baller finisher and much prefer it, the senton doesn't feel massively exciting as its not that advanced, plus it makes me a bit concerned the effects if he's gonna be doing it regularly. Granted, I have no idea if he used it much in Dragon Gate and elsewhere, but I fear for the man's pelvis when he comes down like that.
It was the general case of 205 Live here; two guys who have to potential and ability to put on a barn-burner, but because of the constraints applied on their style it doesn't reach that level, plus the fans aren't massively into it either.
NXT
Best Match on NXT (14/6/17): Asuka vs Nikki Cross vs Ruby Riot - NXT Women's Championship Elimination Match
We've got a championship match here on NXT (I wonder who wins) with Asuka defending her NXT Women's Title against her opponents at TakeOver: Chicago, but with an elimination stipulation added in; Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross.
The match in the lead to the first elimination (Riot) was good, but I feel things really got going once it was down to Asuka and Cross. We've never had much chance to see these two go at it one-on-one, so it was definitely cool when we finally were able to have it. For the second time this week on the blog we had things getting called off with no real finish, and both times looking as if to lead to a future title match. Asuka and Cross get into fisticuffs and wander outside the arena to fight.
Although it was a shame that the match didn't get a nice finish, their brawl was damn good. They went outside to the parking lot, into some sort of make-up department and Nikki straight up tried to drown Asuka in one of the many coolers dotted around Florida. They worked their way back inside and made it round to the equipment bit;
And the episode ends. Good match here, though knowing we would have heard about a title change took me out of it a bit, but after it was called off we had some exciting action. The NXT Women's division is back on the rise, and I look forward to Asuka/Cross in the future.
Ring of Honour
Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 299): The Bullet Club (Hangman Page & The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)) vs Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta) & Chuck Taylor
Looking over to Ring of Honour now and we've got an awesome 6-man tag opening the show, continuing a trend of ROH TV becoming better and better as of late. We have The Bullet Club being represented by Page and the Bucks taking on RPG Vice and a mystery partner....
In effect, this became more like The Bullet Club taking on the Best Friends plus Rocky, with the animosity between Chuckie T and Romero coming into play and giving this crazy match a nice story to it. As well as all that, this match was just a goddamn wall-to-wall spot fest which is no way meant to be a negative comment in any way - it was great. I got quite a PWG vibe from this one, especially with sequences like this;
Nick's swanton onto that pin looked deadly, and we would see it again at Dominion as well. Everyone was great in this. With his recent matches in PWG as well his work in Japan with Romero, I'm really starting to properly like Trent. Plus, watching the 'Best Friends' previews on YouTube certainly has made me find a new love for him.
Back to match, like I said, everyone was awesome. The Bucks were all out with their tag team goodness and Page continues to impress me. His match with Cole from last week that won 'Best Match of the Week' would have been a little before this on the tapings, and the crowd gave him a big cheer because of it in his entrance. The Hangman is in the IWGP US Championship tournament on the Long Beach shows, and I hope he gets a good showing.
Chuck had a great debut, having a really good showing through the match and then being the one to secure the pin for his team - on one of the ROH Tag Team Champions nonetheless.
Fun fact: I use that finisher for my Create-A-Wrestler in WWE 2K15. The end also saw Rocky and Chuckie embrace, bringing both of Trent's teams together. This was an awesome match through and through, definitely recommend checking this one out.
SUPERKICK COUNTER: 11 (Including sacrificial friendship superkicks)
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 (S3E22): Drago vs Aero Star
The Cuerto Cup is underway and in this first round match we have the newly turned evil Drago (with a fancy new colour scheme) taking on his former partner, Aero Star. This another match where in retrospect I can't remember many details, but I know that it was the most enjoyable match on the card; Pentagon had a match/slaughter of Argenis, Texano squashed Famous B and The Mack faced one of the dude's from Paul London's stable that was a bit clunky.
With these two, it was all flush and slick lucha action, with Aero Star always mesmerising with is ability on the ropes. It's insane the balance and control he has on them, a lot like Gran Metalik, perhaps better. Had some moments with Aero Star trying to bring Drago back to the side of the good, but in the end they'd prove fruitless as Drago would beat him and progress to the next round.
Anyway, Cage murdering a man was probably the coolest part of this week's episode.
NJPW: Dominion
Best Match on Dominion: Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega - IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match
Honourable Mention(s): Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA - IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship Match
Ho-ho-holy fuck the big boys came out to play this week. Dominion was awesome, and it was headlined by a rematch from WrestleKingdom 11 for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, Kazuchika Okada taking on Kenny Omega.
I believe that this match was better than their match at the Tokyo Dome in January. In their first match, as we got deeper into the second half I felt that it was getting a little long in the tooth. That match went around 45 minutes. This match went to the full 60 minute time limit and I was invested and engaged the whole way through. I was massively behind Omega here, as I was last time, perhaps more so this time around. Each glimmer of hope for his victory was matched with another Okada Rainmaker or dropkick to thwart my dreams away.
I've got a bunch of clips and bits to show from this match, I think I've got them in order, please don't berate me if I got it wrong I'm just one man (but I'm the one man band). So, here they are.
At that point Okada had already hit a couple of dropkicks, so when that powerbomb came out of nowhere I popped hard.
via GIPHY
That was just fucking cool.
That was a classic. The whole thing with the Bucks pleading with the Bullet Club to let Omega continue was great storytelling, especially with Omega looking like absolute death after every dropkick and Rainmaker. Kenny's bursts of energy got me full of hype, and when he finally hit that One-Winged Angel only for Okada to touch the ropes and break the fall; killed me. My hopes were only extinguished in the dying seconds when Okada hit one last big move before crawling over to Omega. I cannot wait until these two meet again, for the love of God let Omega win and end my suffering.
Guess what comes next...
The Verdict
Best Match of the Week: Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega - IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match - NJPW: Dominion
Just an amazing match, it lived up to its predecessor and exceeded it. Poppa Metlzer gave it the magical 6.25 stars - I don't tend to give numerical ratings to matches, but I will definitely say this is certainly a Match of the Year contender. I also enthusiastically suggest watching KUSHIDA/Takahashi at Dominion as well, plus the six-man from ROH this week.
After all that, here is what the leaderboard looks like as we get another week deeper.
Now to finish off with 'The Best Promo of the Week', which this week goes to The Bullet Club in their paid advertisement to hype up the New Japan Long Beach shows coming the beginning of July.
All that's left is to wish you all a happy coming week. I hope it is filled with delight and sunshine, and makes you feel like you're on cloud-9. Also, big ups to all those fathers who may be reading this, I can't remember if Father's Day is the same in the UK and everywhere else in the world, regardless, you dads are awesome and so is everyone whose reading's dad, including mine. Love ya, pops.
