BWOTW: 9/1/17 - 14/1/17

Hey there pretty people, and welcome to the latest edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Jerichoholics Anonymous'.

International Treasures

But before we get neckdeep in wrestling goodies, lets have a quick gander in this past week's news;

1. It appears that as well as ITV being happy with their World of Sport ratings, British network Channel 5 have teamed up with Spike TV (just the British one I think) to bring 5* Wrestling to television! With WOS being more for family entertainment, lets see how this one compares.
2. It is being reported that Lucha Underground is very close to making a deal to appear on Netflix. It's always good when access improves, with this meaning that a lot more people in areas where LU wasn't previously available will be able to watch. Good news all round.
3. Yes, Chris Jericho is the new WWE United States Champion! The one belt in WWE that has evaded him all this time is finally added to the list (of Jericho, maaaaan)

And now for the unfathomable amount of glaze on this Krispy Kreme doughnut, its the matches!

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (9/1/17): Roman Reigns vs Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens - WWE United States Championship Match


Monday kicks us off this week with a United States Championship Match defended in a 2-on-1 handicap match!

Now whilst this match was quite a 'OOWAAH REIGNS POWER' match with lots of clotheslines and punches, it did have some cool spots in it. Reigns hit a Superman Punch off of Jericho's triangle dropkick that was pretty nice looking, and Jericho hit a Lionsault for the first time in ages, love it! But the shining stars of this match weren't Primo and Epico, but they were the combos done by KO and Jericho towards the end of the match.

Not a thick...meaty match here, but it was fun to watch, especially those cool ending spots. Other than that, RAW was kinda eh. C'mon lets get to some proper Rumble/Mania build now lads.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (10/1/17): American Alpha (Chad Gable & Jason Jordan) vs The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton) - SmackDown! Tag Team Championship Match

This was pretty similar to these two teams's previous encounters, but it was still a good watch. 

Gable took one hell of a beating in this one. Even though he tends to be the one taking the brunt of the damage to build towards a Jordan hot tag, it felt like he was taking more of a shit-kicking than usual, particularly from Orton. Gable is just a treat to watch, whether he's dishing it out on the offensive or whether he's selling and taking a beating on the defensive. There's always glimmers where you think 'cyoar, that was sweet' in his matches, even if its just his simple holds and transitions.

The match came to a close from Luke Harper screwing things up for the Wyatts, allowing Alpha to score a roll-up victory and tick off another victory. It was quite a decently lengthed match though my write up doesn't make it feel so, but Orton does like to drag things out, filling in some time there. Good match here.

205 Live

Best Match on 205 Live (10/1/17): Cedric Alexander vs Noam Dar

The Cruiserweights are taking over now as we look towards 205 Live, which featured the face off between Cedric Alexander and Noam Dar. 

Dar worked the bejeezus out of Cedric's arm for quite a large portion of this match, but it didn't really play into anything that decided the ending so there wasn't much of a point, shame that. Cedric had a solid babyface fighting from the back foot match in this one, started off pretty well, get beaten up some, and throw in some comebacks with pzazz and there ya go, entertainment! 

Now, Alicia Fox/Faaawwwks played a role in this, getting in the way a couple times and all out interfering in the finish. She betrays Cedric and pulls Dar out of the way of a moonsault, alllowing him to capitalise. I suppose I didn't see it coming, but I'm not too fussed. 

NXT

Best Match on NXT (11/1/17): #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) - NXT Tag Team Championship Match

They sure know how to treat us, it's #DIY squaring off with The Revival!

Now, this wasn't as good as their clashes at Brooklyn and Toronto, but it was still damn good. It was a much faster, more action packed match than their prior battles, which I think was beneficial in the TV format, we haven't been building to this for long, so it makes sense that this isn't an epic. I thought this was awesome for what it was.

How does Johnny Gargano still have knees? They were targeted yet a-fuckin'-gain in this one, adding a nice layer to this match and letting us all reminisce over this killer rivalry. Johnny was beaten pretty bad, but boy when he got that hot tag to Ciampa did things go their way.

Nasty. 

There was a cool double dive spot, with Gargano pulling out a suicide dive, that did look incredibly self-destructive, followed by Ciampa doing some kind of diving knee attack off the apron to lay everyone out and get the crowd up.

The climax saw #DIY do their tag finisher with both Dash and Dawson being victim to it. It was an oddly nice thing to see, the two of them hugging in the centre of the ring before their fate was delivered, but then they got moidah'd. 

Really good this one, check this out if you've dug this series so far and/or just like tag matches that do a lot with the time they have.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 277): Silas Young & The Beer City Bruiser vs Alex Reynolds & John Silver

Bloody hell I haven't seen these guys since PWG's last DDT4 tournament in 2015, Alex Reynolds and John Silver, its The Beaver Boys! It was lovely seeing them again because I thought they were awesome in PWG, and its sad they haven't popped up again there. Hopefully this isn't their last ROH appearance. 

Bruiser and Young are starting to properly come together as a team, setting each other up for moves and using some more complex tag team manoeuvres. The Beaver Boys threw in a couple real nice sequences, and the build to Silver powering up and suplexing the hulk of Beer City Bruiser was a cool addition to the match. 

I thought this match was real good, not many lulls, they were always doing something to keep it interesting. Plus this episode had a nice Colt Cabana vs Chris Sabin match if you want to give that a look-see, too. As always, you can watch ROH TV for FREE at either www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app.

Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E19): Joey Ryan vs Texano

Going Underground, going underground, lyrics-lyrics-lyrics going underground.

We're in The Temple now and the best of the night was the contest between Joey Ryan and Texano. 

Starting us off, Joey puts his lollipop in his trunks. As a possessor of male genitalia, this seems very uncomfortable, especially in wrestling trunks I imagine. What made it worse is later her took it out and put it back in his mouth. Fuckin' ewwwwwwwwwwww.

Truth be told, I'm just happy to see Joey appear at all. His matches are always fun to watch because I tend to taken away with his whole character shtick that I forget how good he is in the ring. 

I can't really remember a whole lot of the in-ring stuff, but there was a whole thing with Famous B coming out to aid Texano in getting a victory. Decent match this.

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) - NXT Tag Team Championship Match

Once again they are top of the heap! Great in ring chemistry made for a great match to seemingly top off this feud around the tag belts. Lots of action made for a consistent entertainment throughout. Like I said, check this out if you've loved these two teams' work so far together. 

With another week come and gone, the leaderboard now looks like this. Even on there DIY and The Revival are battling for supremacy. And now for a segment I'm still managing to keep chugging, its 'The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week'. This time, there was too many to choose from out of this one promo, so here it is in its entirety featuring Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens.

That's all from me for this week, hope you wonderful people had some fun these past few days, and I hope you have even more in the days yet to come. Stay safe, stay warm and stay your lovely selves. 

Seeya next time!

BWOTW: 2/1/17 - 7/1/17

Hello and welcome to the very first 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' of the year AKA 'Okada Vs. Omega-d THAT WAS AMAZING'

When 3 tag team titles aren't enough so you make your own

But first, let us sneak a peek at the news brought to us straight from the wrestling world;

1. 6 out of 8 championships changed hands at WrestleKingdom, so its a bit of a daunting task to list. All but Okada and Naito lost their belts, that about clears it up.
2. It appears that after his incredible match at WrestleKingdom, Kenny Omega is taking some time off. I know if I got hit with 4 Rainmakers I'd be in a coma for a decade.
3. Adam Cole has made history by becoming the first ever 3-time Ring of Honour World Champion! (BAY-BAY!) Really wasn't expecting O'Reilly to lose the belt this quick, so I wonder if he might be popping up in NXT soon-ish.
4. The full list of competitors for the United Kingdom Championship tournament have been unveiled! Who knows, if I've got the time I might try and whip up another guide like I did for the Cruiserweight Classic.
5. We have a new talkshow on the WWE Network, hosted by Peter Rosenberg, 'Bring it to the Table'. I dunno whether we'e having a rotation of guests, or how regular it will be, but we had Paul Heyman and JBL on this first episode. I really liked it, they talked about stuff like Conor McGregor, RAW being 3 hours, SmackDown! vs RAW and even the rumours of Ric Flair having had sex with Halle Berry. That's this month 9.99 accounted for just for that last one.
6. Tommy End has wrestled at a NXT live event under the name Aleister Black. Not quite sure its as badass as 'Tommy (Tommy, Tommy Fucking) End', but its still pretty cool.
7. Charlotte vs Bayley has been confirmed for the Royal Rumble. I don't think we'll be seeing a Bayley win, but who knows what WWE's got planned. 
8. Remember how Undertaker came back in November and said SmackDown!'s his home and he'll be sticking around? You'll see him on RAW next week, and Shawn Michaels too.
9. Chris Hero has appeared at NXT! He's back under the guise of 'Kassius Ohno' with his cool theme once more;

And now for the garlic bread in this Italian feast of a wrestling blog, its the matches!

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (2/1/17): Sami Zayn vs Braun Strowman - Last Man Standing Match
Honourable Mention: Cesaro vs Karl Anderson

Monday Night RAW kicks us off with this Last Man Standing Match between Sami Zayn and Braun Strowman. 

We started with Zayn trying to use his speed and nimbleness to keep out of the grasp of Braun, but soon enough he would succumb to it. Strowman kicked some shit out of Zayn, tossing him around and just generally brutalising him. 

But, we had a lot of weapon usage in this match, pretty much entirely from Zayn. Kendo sticks lashed at the flesh of Braun, and chairs were cracked across the back. They went up the ramp and backstage, something we've not properly had in a long time. It was reminiscent of an Attitude Era Hardcore match in that Zayn just found things to hit Braun with as they walked. For some reason there was a steel chair tucked between a couple of crates, but I'm not asking questions here. Deus ex machina. 

We came back out to the arena, and get heading back to the ring by way of a dive off a stage putting both men through tables. We haven't seen Strowman on such a back foot since the Survivor Series match, and this is one-on-one too! I like that they've gone out of their way to build Sami up in these matches, making him look like a major player on the roster.

The match came to an end when Strowman hit his finishing Running Powerslam at ringside, leaving Zayn on the ground for the 10-count. Then, Braun attacked him some more, because he is a big angry man that does big angry things.

I really liked this match, brought a refreshing change of pace to the show, and it was lovely. I feel RAW has gotten back into a slump of being a slog to watch. This broke the form, and gave us a little treat for our troubles. Plus, I would like to add that I really like Zayn's tights with the tartan on them. 

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (3/1/17): Baron Corbin vs Dolph Ziggler

We start off Tuesday night with a match between Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler, and although its not like these guys have a stellar history of having amazing matches together, I thought this one was actually pretty decent.

There isn't a massive amount to say about this match, everything was real solid, but it was quite a bit of things we've seen before. Nothing hugely memorable about it, except I was a tad surprised that Corbin kicked out of a Zig-Zag from Dolph. They have been pushing Corbin as a big deal lately, so its little things like that which make him appear like it. 

There was the Intercontinental Championship Match between Miz and Ambrose also on the show, but I was not that engaged by it. In my opinion, both of them have a pretty uninteresting moveset, and add to this there was a bunch of stuff with Maryse that didn't do anything for me.

So yeah, Corbin/Ziggler. It was alright.

205 Live

Best Match on 205 Live (3/1/17): Neville vs TJ Perkins

Are you tired of Neville killing everyone yet? Me neither. 

WWE have followed the 'how to give a heel a new theme' formula and have slowed it down and made it a bit lower for Neville, and he's not got his cape any more. 

So yeah, we've got Neville beating up TJ Perkins for the majority of this one. Not much else to say really. He showed some more flash in this one, busting out his magnificent second rope Phoenix Splash. 

It was a lot of quick action, predominantly Neville on the offensive, and there wasn't a whole lot else to it really. Not boring, just not memorable. 

NXT

Best Match on NXT (4/1/17): #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs TM-61 (Nick Miller & Shane Thorne) - NXT Tag Team Championship Match

It's another bumper episode of NXT this week, this time showing off their show in Melbourne from their last international tour. And, just like last week, we got an awesome tag team match, this time with TM-61 challenging Ciampa & Gargano for the titles. 

I thought this was TM-61's best match so far in NXT. Miller showed off a lot more interesting offence that I thought he had been missing for the longest time. A good amount of more powerful moves to coincide with Thorne's more speedy approach.

However, I felt that #DIY had a better showing last week against Tajiri and Tozawa. A few things didn't look as slick or flush as they normally due for whatever reason, and whilst it was a niggling issue, it wasn't a huge negative. 

We had some super close falls in this match, with the Aussie crowd showing their disapproval each time #DIY managed to break out of a pin attempt. They didn't all out hate #DIY in this one, but it was very clear who the favourites were. 

I love the presentation style of these live events. The bigger venues yet closer up recording style of NXT make the whole thing feel big. The atmosphere was great, loud as all hell, and it gave everything a big fight feel but retained a jovial special live event.

Great match this, I certainly recommend it to you. 

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 276): N/A

It's a 'Best of 2016' episode this week on ROH TV, but if you're interested it has Adam Cole vs Jay Lethal at Death Before Dishonour where Cole wins the ROH World Championship for his second reign. 

Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E18): Johnny Mundo vs The Mack

It's not the championship match yet, this week, the winner of these two will decide the stipulation for it. 

So, Mack/Mundo. What's it like? It wasn't terribly long, but it did the job. Mundo is great as champion I think, his cocky prick character being enhanced by the belt's presence on his waist. Mack was more power based than speed based in this one, but was fighting uphill for the majority.

The Worldwide Underground interfered in the end to allow Mundo a win, and then they curbed stomped Mack a couple times. 

It was a good match, but I haven't retained a whole lot of it. I dunno, I feel like I'm falling a little out of love with Lucha Underground. Pentagon's been written off for a bit, Mysterio hasn't been on for a while, and I was hoping that Joey Ryan would have a bigger part. Who knows, but its the mid-season finale soon so maybe it'll act as a breather. 

NJPW: WrestleKingdom 11

Best Match on WK11: Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega - IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match

Get your ass to the Tokyo Dome, because here it is, WrestleKingdom 11. This week's big boy. Personally, I thought as a whole WK10 was better, but fuck me, this main event was so much better than last year's.

Kenny Omega takes on Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. What better way to strike fear into the heart of your opponent than saying you're a terminator? It worked for Triple H at WrestleMania 31 anyways;

Nice slow start getting us under way, gradually building it up as the match progressed. It took a good few minutes for us to get balls out with it, which is by no means a fault, but when we got there, good lord was it worth it. 

Now, I know New Japan usually is on the stiffer side of working, but sweet Harley Race did these guys rock some heads. Kenny does these bicycle knees, and every time they're hitting Okada flush either on the side of his face,or on his chest, making a big clap sound. B-R-Utal.

Probably my personal highlight was Omega taking to the air and getting some distance with this spectacular moonsault. Insane;

Over the guard rail!? Good lord.

Kenny took so much fucking damage in this contest, not only from Okada just in general hitting him over and over and over and over again, but also with this nasty back bump that was more ridiculous than the moonsault;

First back then tailbone. God I wince just thinking about it. Plus, its an unforgiving Japanese table. Pain. Lots of pain.

This match went on for the better part of an hour, and with myself settled firmly in the corner of Omega, the tension was super high for the last half of the match. His attempts at the One-Winged Angel had me cheering, and Okada's escapes frustrated me. Then with each Rainmaker lariat that hit I was calling for a kick-out. In the end, my hopes and dreams of an Omega victory were humbled with a fourth and final, Rainmaker.

Whilst I would've preferred Kenny to win, I couldn't ask for anything more from this. I'm not sure I could take much more of the high-nerve action, so it was a lovely end. Awesome match this, awesome indeed.

NJPW: New Year Dash

Best Match on NYD: The Superkliq (Adam Cole & The Young Bucks) vs CHAOS (Rocky Romero, Trent Beretta & YOSHI-HASHI)

We're one day removed from WrestleKingdom and we're in the hallowed Karouken Hall. Do you like 6/8 man tags because that's basically all this show was. Now I like a good multi-man tag, but good lord when its every match, and I don't particularly care much for all of New Japan's stables, it can ware on you. 

But, the best of these saw a new Bullet Club sub-division 'The Superkliq' comprising of the new ROH Champion, Adam Cole and The Young Bucks taking on CHAOS, with the new IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi Vice and YOSHI-HASHI.

Its my first time seeing YOSHI-HASHI, I haven't formed much of an opinion, he's alright I suppose. Its a Young Bucks match, so we had a fair few high spots and cool tag sequences, also on the part of Roppongi Vice. They continue to extend Romero's 'Forever Clotheslines', with them finding a more convoluted way to keep it going, and I love it. 

So, if you like your quicker 6-mans with some Young Bucks action, this one's for you.

SUPERKICK COUNT: 11 (I think)

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega - IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match - WrestleKingdom 11


Did I drop enough hints that it was this? Well, here you go, a great match through and through. A thrilling watch, and I recommend it to anyone if you've got the time. Here's a Dailymotion link because I'm not too sure it'll stay up long on YouTube, but here it is anyway.

With that week now catalogued, here is what the leaderboard looks like! There's just time for one more thing, and that's for The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week, coming to you straight from WrestleKingdom;

'GNAAAAAH SHIT!' - Kyle O'Reilly 

That's all from me folks. hope you enjoyed this one, sorry a couple of the matches didn't have a great write up, I promise I'll make it up to you. Seeya next week peeps!

BWOTW: 26/12/16 - 31/12/16

Hello one and all, and welcome to this shiny new edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'It's a New Day Year, Yes It Is!'

Tozawa's fucking hyped for New Year

But before we jump in, lets look at what news we had this week;

1. Cena's back - and he's sort of a dick! It appears his new direction is just taking opportunities 'because he's John Cena'. This could turn out to be very interesting indeed. Keep an eye on it guys.
2. It has come to light that after WWE's UK Championship tournament, the signed talent will not be allowed to work WCPW shows despite WWE's promises of 'no restrictions'. I don't know who to trust anymore.
3. Jay Lethal has signed with Ring of Honour for another 2 years. However, Adam Cole is yet to re-sign, with his contract expiring in April. It'll be interesting to see whether he does or not, and whether we should expect him anywhere in WWE in the coming year.
4. American Alpha are your new SmackDown! Tag Team Champions! Here's hoping we get some awesome title matches in the coming months, and hopefully see them defend that gold silver at WrestleMania

And now for the leftover turkey in this post-Christmas fridge of a wrestling blog, it's the matches!

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (26/12/16): Sheamus & Cesaro vs The New Day (Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston) - RAW Tag Team Championship Match


We're in Chicago, Illinois this week, and among all the 'CM Punk' chants, we had this great match between the defending champions, Sheamus and Cesaro, and the challenging New Day, this time with Xavier Woods in for Big E.

New Day were not messing around in this one, going about this through a whole lot of tandem offence thick and fast in the opening few minutes. Cesaro and Sheamus managed to overcome them in the one-on-one aspect most of the time, though the pair did utilise some double teams of their own. 

Cesaro again continues to display incredible feats of strength, they fucked up a spot where he was gonna transition from a catch to a gorilla press, but with him dropping Kofi, he then straight up lifted him off the ground like a beast, then threw him out the ring. Madness.

The finish of this was awesome, whilst Sheamus had plenty of Brogue Kicks to spare, I'm pretty sure his fucks to distribute were running out.

This match certainly doesn't best their contest at Roadblock, but it was still good. Let's see where this Sheasaro train takes us next.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (27/12/16): AJ Styles vs Baron Corbin vs Dolph Ziggler - WWE World Championship Match


It's the SmackDown! mini-PPV this week featuring 3, count 'em, 3 title matches! Out of the whole show, the best match was that consisting of AJ Styles defending his WWE World Championship against Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin.

Hot damn this was a great match! Even though I was sure Styles would be retaining, they did a great job of making it look as if any of them could snag a victory. They also did a great job of making Corbin look like a fucking monster. He wrecked house when he was on top, and it would either take something big or some 2-on-1 to cut him down. 

Styles and Ziggler put him through the announce table somewhat awkwardly. They were perched on the barricade behind it, AJ did a legdrop, landing before Ziggler, so he kinda sat there for a split second before the table collapsed under Ziggler's added elbow drop weight.

However, the spot of the match was undeniably 2 finishers being hit at once;

How cool was that!? 

The match ended through an amalgamation of a bit of a wonky End of Days, though it didn't dampen the finish much at all, and a top dollar Phenomenal Forearm. That Chicago crowd loved that springboard;

Great match here to close out SmackDown!'s 2016, and it does show off this new brand's image; the new stars at the forefront (Styles), with a rejuvenated challenger (Ziggler) and a guy who had been a bit mishandled before getting time to shine (Corbin). 2017 is your year SmackDown!, take it.

205 Live

Best Match on 205 Live (27/12/16): Rich Swann vs Neville

Did you enjoy Neville's shit-knocking last week? Well here's some more. 

It's a non-title match here on 205 Live, with Neville continuing to dominate his matches, working the back of Swann over and over and over and over. Just nasty stuff. Not a whole lot of flashy flips with this new Neville, we had one dive to the outside and one standing Shooting Star Press. Might not be as exciting, but I like it, it fits this revamped version of his character.

That's not to say Swann was helpless, he got some licks in. One thing that's not so lovely is the fucking gob that falls from Neville's mouth after this kick. You've got to wrestle on that now, ewwwww.



Last week we saw Neville pull out the Red Arrow to end the match, this time, superplex. Not a usual match ender, so this was a pretty surprising spot to see. Kinda fits with Neville's new direction, almost as if to portray a sense of 'fuck you I don't even need a fancy move to finish you.' Also, you'll be glad to know the following gif has been cut to include a fan reaction WWE are adamant of showing after everything nowadays - stop it for chrissakes! 

NXT

Best Match on NXT (28/12/16): #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs Akira Tozawa & Tajiri - NXT Tag Team Championship Match


It's a two hour special this week on NXT, showing more from the Osaka, Japan show, including Nakamura/Joe again. However, it was not that title match that stole the show, rather, the tag team championship match between #DIY and the team of 'we need more Japanese people on this show', Akira Tozawa and Tajiri. I don't mean to knock the booking too bad, because they were a great team.

It's been too long since I've had chance to see Tozawa - he's goddamn awesome, so vocal, so expressive, so athletic. What a guy. Tajiri too was impressive, showing that age is just a number, with a couple beautiful handsprings and a barrage of buzzsaw kicks that rocked #DIY's casbah. We did get to see some mist - it just wasn't used on anyone, more as a taunt I guess. The two also used a few double teams, they may have been pretty simple but they were damn effective.

This is #DIY's first televised defence of their belts, and they certainly showed off why they deserve them. Incredible teamwork on their part, with some lovely sequences and saves. I like that they have clear differences in the matches, Ciampa being used for more bruiser, heavier lifting spots and Gargano in for the more nimble, agile moments. I felt with Dash and Dawson they were pretty interchangeable with little consequence, but with #DIY you can see how who is in the ring affects how the match goes.

Tozawa had his beast moments in this one, none better than when he baked a fresh batch of German Suplexes to serve up to the defending champions.

#DIY would retain however following their tag finisher, 'Meeting in the Middle' - really don't know if that's what its called, but that's what Wikipedia calls it. 

Awesome match here this week on NXT, tag team wrestling is on track to be a knockout in 2017, not just in NXT. We've got it picking up steam on the main roster for both brands, ROH has been having great tag matches for a long time and it's gaining traction in many more places. 

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 275): Will Ospreay vs Marty Scurll - ROH World Television Championship Match

Do you like Will Ospreay? Because he's in every match on this episode of ROH TV, which gives us a look at the recent 'Reach for the Sky' tour of the UK. The show also showed showed Ospreay/Fish with the former winning the TV Title, a Tag Title match of Ospreay and Marty Scurll versus The Young Bucks, and culminating with this match. We're at York Hall, familiar to these gentlemen and the British promotion of Revolution Pro. 

This was a fantastic match, we started a little way into it, suppose to fit with TV time. I don't think it cut off too much though. We had Ospreay as ever been dazzling to watch, with the chemistry between these two making for some lovely sequences and manoeuvres. Marty was his devious self, with not one, but two finger snapping moments that cringe the shit out of me. Plus him fucking gagging afterwards and spewing out whatever ringside was just awfully good, he even sickens himself guys and gals. 

No matter how many times I see it, Scurll catching Ospreay off a handspring with a Crossface Chickenwing is amazing, and what is even prettier was seeing Scurll lock it in flush to tap out the champ. Scurll got a booming pop with his victory, and I am so hyped to see where these two go from here in ROH.

Definitely see if you can catch this, because this whole episode was awesome. As always you can catch ROH TV for FREE at either www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app.

Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E17): Cage vs Texano - Best of Five Series Final

Jesus shit this was intense. To preface this, we had the fourth match of this series immediately before this, with Texano essentially squashing Cage and making him bleed. Then we had this massive battle afterwards. 

The blood poured like the Nile in this match-up, getting everywhere. These guys brawled all over the Temple, up into the crowd and around the entrance ways. I know there was some cool moves and stuff, but still can't quite get over how much colour Cage got, proper 'crimson mask' type stuff. 

Oh, and there was some brutal unprotected headshots with chairs. Wince-worthy stuff. Now, I don't really like these, and I didn't particularly in this match, but I suppose it lent to making this match more hellacious. 

If you wanna watch an all out war, watch this.

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa) vs Akira Tozawa & Tajiri - NXT Tag Team Championship Match

Whilst the SmackDown! and ROH TV matches were awesome, and I definitely recommend them, but the NXT match took it this week. Great action throughout, lovely tag team wrestling and psychology. #DIY continue to improve as a tag team, and I look forward to seeing them expand and excel in 2017. 

And with that now recorded, the leaderboard now looks like this link here click it! To close us out now, it's 'The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week'

That's all from me this week, this year in fact! But stay tuned loyal readers, as I have an end of year retrospective coming your way soon! I hope you enjoy your new year night and have a lovely next few days.

BWOTW: 19/12/16 - 24/12/16

IT'S NEARLY CHRISTMAS! Hi by the way, and welcome to this holiday edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Re-United and IT Feels So Good'

Stone Cold tells Tajiri/Santa Claus of how he's been a good boy and all the beer he wants for Christmas

But before we rifle through this week's matches, let's have a quick look at the news!

1. New champions ahoy! Charlotte is RAW Women's Champion, a-fucking-gain, and Sheamus & Cesaro ended the record setting reign of The New Day, becoming new RAW Tag Team Champions, and get some swanky new belts too!
2. Neville is back and is badass as all hell, being a new pissed off heel for the Cruiserweights. I love it!
3. As it stands at the minute, we're gonna get Nakamura vs Roode at TakeOver: San Antonio. Should be good, no idea where they're going with Nakamura's reign though.

And now for the orange in this wrestling blog stocking hanging over the fireplace, it's the matches!

WWE Roadblock: End of the Line

Best Match on Roadblock: The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) vs Sheamus & Cesaro - RAW Tag Team Championship Match

It's the final WWE Pay-Per-View of the year, Roadblock II: Roadblock Harder. Stealing this show was the Tag Team Championship Match between The New Day and Sheamus & Cesaro. 

It was awesome right from the off, Kofi and Cesaro one-upping each other in a lovely bit o' wrestling. These two are so slick and crisp that everything flows wonderfully, what wonderful opponents they make. Big E and Sheamus were the shit-kickers in this match, making big impact moves, with E doing his suicide spear through the ropes, and landing the best he ever has by the looks of things.

Cesaro was the MVP of this match, rampaging through the New Day, and showcasing why they call him The Swiss Superman;

Thing of beauty.

The tandem offence of Sheasaro continues to expand, their Assisted White Noise is pretty similar to New Day's 'The Midnight Hour', but its still cool nonetheless. They did a great job of adding tension to the match with Sheasaro fighting hard to win the belts, kicking out of finishers and taking on the third man game of Xavier Woods. As a guy rooting for them, it was so satisfying seeing them edging their way closer to the victory.

The finish was a stroke of genius. Something I've never seen before and it definitely had me super-intrigued watching it; Cesaro fakes the tag, takes the kick and allows for the advantage to be taken.

What a lovely pop that got. That was an awesome match, I loved it all. Thought there was a lot of drama and excitement that kept everything very entertaining. I'm very excited to see the reign these two have, the rematch should be great, a feud with The Club has potential to be really cool and for the love of God RAW get some more gooders teams. 

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (19/12/16): Bayley vs Charlotte

Charlotte's champion again and needs a new challenger, enter Bayley, at least it looks like their going that way with it.

This was a good match, but maybe it went a little long, who knows. Bayley started off out-performing Charlotte and taunting quite a bit, but she soon succumbed to Charlotte knocking ten tonnes of piss out of her. She'd have some brief comebacks and flurries every now and then, but Charlotte was dominant for the majority. 

Bayley got the roll up victory, to a pretty big cheer from the Columbus crowd. Knowing these two and seeing their clashes back in NXT, once this rivalry gets rolling, we should be getting some top dollar stuff.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (20/12/16): The Miz vs Apollo Crews - WWE Intercontinental Championship Match


On SmackDown! this week we got treated to a lovely little Intercontinental Championship match between The Miz and Apollo Crews, who it appears WWE just remembered they have on the roster. 

Apollo was pretty dominant throughout this one, Miz having to use underhanded tactics to get any momentum, that was more often that not short lived, with Crews rocking him again. Possibly the best display of power I've seen from Crews occurred in this contest, treating Miz like a goddamn ragdoll with this big bastard of a German Suplex;

However, Miz won after a thumb to the eye and a Skull Crushing Finale. Apollo was made to look real good in this match, coming dangerously close to winning the belt at one or two points. I thought Apollo did really well in this match, plus the crowd were solidly behind him. I hope this showing persuades whoever to start having this guy on SmackDown! more often.

205 Live

Best Match on 205 Live (20/12/16): Neville & Brian Kendrick vs Rich Swann & TJ Perkins

Stickin' around after SmackDown! now, it's time for the cruiserweights.

Taking the division by storm, it's Neville teaming with Brian Kendrick to take on the duo of Rich Swann and TJ Perkins.

The point of this match was to portray this new Neville as a mean bastard, and it did that perfectly. He did a whole fucking lot of destroying dudes. Being the legal man more than Kendrick, he steamrolled Swann for a good few minutes. Pretty soon after the first bell, he got Swann with a snapmare then followed that up with a nasty dropkick to the back of the head, knocking Swann dizzy. Kicks and stomps from then on.

Plus, he hit a picture perfect deadlift German, God I have missed this man.

Whilst that was gorgeous, I think my favourite part of the match was when Neville buried TJ's hopes and dreams of a springboard attack with a foot to the head. Sounds like Mauro fucking loved it too; 

I have a sneaking suspicion that Perkins may have discovered fake tan recently, just a hunch though. As you'd expect from the amount of asses Neville was handing people, him and Kendrick came out on top, finishing the job with a magnificent Red Arrow that never fails to impress.



Awesome match here, nice change of pace to 205 Live, and I look forward to where Neville takes the division going forwards.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (21/12/16): Bobby Roode vs Andrade 'Cien' Almas vs Roderick Strong vs Tye Dillinger - No.1 Contender's Elimination Match for the NXT Championship Match

Y'know what types of matches I love most?

1. Elimination Matches
2. Fatal-Four-Ways

Oh, NXT, how you spoil me. 

Heel antics out the wazzoo from Andrade and Roode. I'm loving Andrade now that he's gone full 'tranquilo', in the opening promo he even says he wats the belt 'just to shut everyone up'. Such a dick, and its great. And for reasons yet to be explained, he fucking hates Roddy;

Thinking quickly now about it, Almas/Strong at TakeOver: San Antonio would be dope. 

Roddy got a fairly good showing in this one, though I would've liked him to have had a bit larger a presence. He hasn't done a whole lot in NXT as of yet, and after having him own PWG and be a big deal in ROH, it feels weird him not being seen as a proper big deal.

Tye was on fire in this match, it was near impossible to root against him. He had a great build in this match, the promo setting up a big redemption story for the guy. Once in the final two, he had a massive flurry against Roode, getting big money moves and the crowd were just eating it all up. They went nuts for it and rightfully so, Tye was gonna do it!

Or so we thought. Who should steal it but BOBBY ROOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo.......

I thought this was a great match, a nice sizeable match to tuck into. All these guys had their moments to shine, and I left more than satisfied. I'd say check this out.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 274): Christopher Daniels vs Mark Briscoe

We're kicking off the Decade of Excellence, a tournament comprised of roster members who had been in Ring of Honour a decade ago - so whilst Daniels went to TNA, he was in Ring of Honour 10 years ago. 

In this first round, we've got Christopher Daniels facing Mark Briscoe. I dunno if it was because of the way I was watching this, not totally focused, but I can't remember anything majorly standing out to me. It was a solid match, great ring work from these guys, but nothing springs to mind really. 

I felt the main event was a bit 'too much-too quick' with not a whole lot of tangible wrestling, more here's a move and now another.

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

Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E16): The Mack vs PJ Black vs Jeremiah Crane vs Cage

IT'S ANOTHER ELIMINATION FATAL-FOUR-WAY FUCK ME IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!

It's the final of the Battle of the Bulls tournament do determine the No.1 Contender for the Lucha Underground Championship. 

Cage started off monster-ing across the ring, dishing out hefty doses of destruction to all. Plus, we had him coming to the ring from the other side of the steps, first time I've seen that, kinda cool. Crane was on fire in this one, everybody got a bicycle kick and they were all as intense as the last. PJ was a great dick heel, and The Mack had his big babyface run throughout. Mack would end up finishing the match by delivering a stunner to PJ, who sold it like a champ. It looked like someone handed him a grenade.

I can't really recall any specific spots, just that there was a hole lot of holy shit-ness happening all over the place and pretty quickly. It's the type of thing you can expect from LU, quick, lots and loud. David Arquette was shown in the crowd too, what a legend.

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Big E) vs Sheamus & Cesaro - RAW Tag Team Championship Match - Roadblock: End of the Line

I thought this match ruled, such smart wrestling, genius end with great spots and shock sprinkled in the mix. Cover it in rum and strike a match because this was hot. I also thought the NXT match was also very good, worth a watch if you get chance over the holidays. 205 Live is also a good watch for those interested in the new approach on Neville.

And with those taken into accord, the leaderboard looks like this for Christmas. I haven't forgotten yet, it's time for 'The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week';

Welp, we've come the close of this week and there is just time to wish you all a Merry Christmas, or a Wonderful Whatever-You-Celebrate. Seeya next time!

BWOTW: 12/12/16 - 17/12/16

Hey ho there readers, and welcome to 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Worth 1,000 Eva Marie's'

Since Ellsworth's betrayal, Dean has found a much cuter companion

But before we get neckdeep in this shiznits, lets have a quick looksee at what stormed the headlines this week;

1. HOLY SHIT WHAT!? WWE have announced the United Kingdom Championship! January (fuckin' January!) will see a two day tournament to crown the first ever champion. Not only that, it appears there will be a new weekly show, and Nigel McGuinness will be on commentary! GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH (I'm doing a special on this so stay tuned!)
2. Chris Hero is reportedly coming back to WWE, but there is some debate over he will be known as that or his previous NXT name, 'Kassius Ohno'. What with Kevin Owens being known as 'KO' now, I think there's a strong case for keeping the Hero name
3. Booker T is running for Mayor of Houston, Texas. I wonder if they can dig it.
4. 2016 decided to claim one more victim as Zack Ryder got injured on SmackDown! You bastards!
5. Its being reported the new TNA owners have reached out to Jeff Jarrett to come in and help out. I dunno how much truth there is to it, but supposedly there might be some sort of re-branding with Global Force Wrestling. Fucking hell guys, GFW ain't worth it at this point.

And now for the tinsel on this Chistmas tree of a wrestling blog, it's the matches!

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (12/12/16): The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) vs The Club (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson) vs Sheamus & Cesaro
Honourable Mention: The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) vs Chris Jericho & Kevin Owens vs Roman Reigns & Rollins

We begin this week with Monday Night RAW centring its focus on the New Day and their quest to etch their names into the history books as the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions in history, topping that of Ax & Smash, Demolition, a duo with one of the best entrance themes ever.

This was New Day’s night. Whilst their title run may feel a little stagnant, there’s no denying that they deliver some awesome matches. Pitted against The Club and Sheamus & Cesaro, this too fell under that bracket. We started off with Kofi and Cesaro, showcasing some nice, fluid action to kick start this match. Cesaro was a goddamn machine in this contest, destroying so many things so very well;

Just noticed the last couple times seeing this, Cesaro hooks the leg as he lands with the crossbody; fuckin' slick mate.
I also felt that Gallows and Anderson had a particularly good showing in this contest, getting some big shots in and coming very close to winning the titles, landing double-team manoeuvre after double team manoeuvre. 

In the end however, Sheasaro were inches away from claiming the gold, well bronze, but the power of positivity came knocking and took them back. 

New Day also had another great match in the main event versus two thirds of The Shield, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, and the turbulent team of Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens. This episode of RAW certainly reminded me that, New---Day Rocks.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (13/12/16): Dean Ambrose vs Luke Harper vs The Miz vs Dolph Ziggler - No.1 Contender's Match for the WWE World Championship

Looking to SmackDown! now, and the show stealer here was the elimination fatal-four-way to decide the next challenger for AJ Styles's WWE World Championship. Ambrose. Harper. Miz. Ziggler.

Harper was hands down the MVP of this match. As soon as the bell rang, his tirade of destruction and head rocking began. Superkicks, lariats, suicide dives, the works. Out of all of this, I think my favourite was his 'Get Fucked' boot. 

That's not to say that everyone else under-performed, the other three had their moments and added something to the match. Dean threw in some roughness, Dolph some explosive sequences and Miz some heelish antics.

Overall, I really liked this match. Well paced, everyone looked good in it, no-one was wasted. With Harper's dominance, it's given him a new flavour of danger he's been lacking for a while, glad to see him properly being used. Good stuff.

205 Live

Best Match on 205 Live (13/12/16): Rich Swann vs TJ Perkins

Non-title match headlining 205 Live here, with Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann facing TJ Perkins. 

I can't remember a whole lot about this match, so please forgive me, but that can be seen as telling of the quality of this match. It wasn't bad per se, just not massively memorable. We had their fairly standard quick grappling with a few high spots dashed in every now and then. 

I hate to say it, but it was a bit of a 'more of the same' type match, what you might expect of these two on an episode of 205 Live. Hopefully the title match at Roadblock will give some zest to the title picture.

WWE Tribute to the Troops

Best Match on TttT: Dolph Ziggler & American Alpha (Jason Jordan & Chad Gable) vs The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper & Randy Orton)

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

What with me being British I suppose this show isn't directed at me, but I love wrestling, and big ups to the armed forces. 

Anywho, here we are with a nice six-man tag of The Wyatt Family taking on American Alpha and Dolph Ziggler.

I'm really digging Orton in tag team matches, him being in the ring with these guys is very beneficial. With Orton being a big money player, them looking like a threat and doing legitimate damage on him only elevates the teams he's against. 

All of the Wyatts in a match at once is awesome in my opinion, the dynamics are great, the Harper/Bray following, the Orton/Bray growing teamwork and the slight Harper/Orton animosity.

Alpha are always cool to watch, and I think they've added some new tandem offence to their repertoire. I thought Ziggler meshed quite well with these two, making a nice little team for this one-off match-up.


When it came to the climax, we got to see the super cool Sister Abigail throw into the RKO, and Gable sold it like a motherfucker;




Just noticed how annoyed the ref is in the start of that gif, giggles were made. Taking everything into account, nice match. 

NXT

Best Match on NXT (14/12/16): Bobby Roode vs Oney Lorcan

We're trucking down to Florida now, taking in the sights at Full Sail for this episode of NXT. This episode did feature the Nakamura/Joe steel cage match from the Australia live event, but it really didn't do anything for me. What I was really entertained by though was the match between the glorious Bobby Roode and Oney Lorcan.

Not a massive match, but I really liked it. We had Roode playing his role of big-shot dick really well, slapping the head of Lorcan, taunting him throughout. I'm glad to see Lorcan being used more regularly, and as a bigger contender. Just being put into this match and having a chance at NXT Championship elevates him. 

I tell ya, Lorcan kicked some shit out of Roode in this one, working pretty stiff with his chops and uppercuts. He looked like a real threat taking it to Roode in a pretty major way.

Whilst Roode was on the back foot for what seemed to be the majority of the contest, her sure did make his shots count. There are few things in this world prettier than a Bobby Roode spinebuster;

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 273): Candice LeRae vs Deonna Purazzo

It's a special episode of ROH TV this week, dedicated to the Women of Honour. If I had my way I'd just have the women alongside the rest of the roster on the regular TV show, but hey, I ain't booking.

But anyway, here we are with a good match between Candice LeRae and Deonna Purazzo (yeah, that one who has been on NXT a few times). Quite a mat-based match here, slow and methodical. Deonna focused on the left arm of Candice, weakening it for her Fujiwara armbar. LeRae did have some flurries, landing a pretty sweet looking suicide dive amongst other things. 

It was a good match, but I feel the rest of the episode wasn't that great, which is a shame considering how little the Women of Honour get this spotlight. 

As always, you can watch ROH TV for FREE (zero dimes!) at www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app.

Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E15): Jack Evans vs PJ Black vs Son of Havoc vs Angelico

This week had more action from the Battle of the Bulls to decide the next challenger to the Lucha Underground Championship. We had Mariposa, Jeremiah Crane, Killshot and Dante Fox doing battle in a great match, but I felt this was beaten in quality by the fatal-four-way between PJ Black, Jack Evans, Angelico and Son of Havoc.

Incredibly fast paced this one, no two ways about it. There was bound to be something awesome going on no matter what point of the match you look at. It's been a while since I've seen Angelico in action, possibly since last year's Battle of Los Angeles tournament, and he's not lost a step.

I'm loving Son of Havoc more and more as I watch him, he's a very entertaining guy. He works best when he's against people like himself in these three competitors, super agile and lucha heavy. 

EVOVLE 74

Best Match on EVOLVE 74: Catch Point (Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi) vs Ricochet & Peter Kaasa - EVOLVE Tag Team Championship Match
Honourable Mention: Chris Hero vs Dick Togo

It's another EVOLVE weekend here on the blog, this first night taking place in New York City. The tag titles are on the line as we see Catch Point representatives Fred Yehi and 'Hot Sauce' Tracy Williams taking on the team of Ricochet and Peter Kaasa. 

It's my first time seeing Kaasa, and he looks like 1980s Scott Steiner; long dark hair, singlet, jacked, plus he's on the flippier side of things. He had a springboard corkscrew moonsault that was a thing of beauty. Ricochet however was king of the high flying in this match though, not sure what else to expect. 

I fucking love Catch Point, I think both Yehi and Williams are criminally underrated. Yehi has a great style with his stomps and targeting of hands and feet, and Williams has an awesome ground and pound moveset. 

I was pretty impressed by Kaasa, though I felt sometimes he felt a bit out of place, not as fluid moving as Ricochet or his opponents, but he made up for that with some feats of strength and some pretty moves. 

I thought this match was awesome, with nice sequences between competitors and there were some great 2-on-1 moments, with momentum swinging both ways. I'd definitely check this one out.

EVOLVE 75

Best Match on EVOLVE 75: Drew Gulak vs Tracy Williams

Second night of the weekend and we are greeted by the main event of Drew Gulak taking on his protege, 'Hot Sauce' Tracy Williams, whose praises were written above.

These guys went fucking hard in this one, nasty strikes with extra mustard and some downright horrifying submissions taking place. Drew pulled Tracy's leg behind his head and sweet Nelly I feel tingly just thinking about it. Gulak manipulated those joints pretty damn brutally, I know it made me wince as I watched. 

As a fan of both of these men, so I was a bit back and forth with who I was rooting for, but I think I marginally leaned towards my boy Gulak. This made the tension a lot greater, as does any match where you have a steak in who you want to win, making all the submission attempts even more fist clenching and exciting. 


This match seemed to go on for fucking ages. Whilst at times it did feel like it was dragging and was maybe too much, there was a feeling of 'how much longer can these guys go?' and I was amazed with their endurance. You sure as shit had a pair of red, sweaty men at the end of this and you can hardly blame them, they left everything in that ring with that massive battle. 

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Drew Gulak vs Tracy Williams - EVOLVE 75

Like I said, this match was great. Edge of your seat stuff with the way these guys were going, and I think I preferred this over the tag match from the night before because this had a lot more psychology and story-telling to it, with Williams trying to prove he was no longer in Gulak's shadow, and Gulak on the reverse of the coin aiming to prove himself as being better. 

The RAW tag match was also really great and is worth checking out. as well as New Day's second match that night. With Sheamus and Cesaro winning the opportunity to face them at Roadblock on the Tribute to the Troops show, it gives me something to be pretty excited about on this sorta-okay-ish built Pay-Per-View. 

And with that week collected and catalogued, here is how the leaderboard shapes up nowadays. One last thing, it's time for 'The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week', this time in video format! 

That's all I've got for this week folks, I hope you enjoy the continuing wind down to the holidays and that Roadblock isn't shit. Stay tuned for a BWOTW Special on the UK tournament, but make sure you have a good time whatever you do. Seeya!