BWOTFortnight: 19/6/17 - 1/7/17

Hey there readers and welcome to this newest edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'RAW Kills Relationships'. Apologies for the delays along with this, had two weekends away and that kinda skewed everything else in my life around it.

But before we get settled, lets have a quick look at the news!

1. Baron Corbin is your Money in the Bank winner and Carmella won her ladder match, as well as a rematch on SmackDown! Big Banter's Banking Bare Dollar!
2. Title news and Cody Rhodes is your new Ring of Honour World Champion, defeating Christopher Daniels at this past week's 'Best in the World' pay-per-view. Also, Dalton Castle and The Boys claimed the ROH Six-Man Titles from The Briscoes and Bully Ray on the show as well.
3. Kota Ibushi has been announced as competing in this year's G1 Climax tournament, and good golly gosh the crowd went apeshit when they saw his reveal. I haven't seen the man since the Cruiserweight Classic, so this is gonna be lovely. I think my coverage of the G1 might be similar to that of the Super Juniors - big opening shows and the finals, perhaps some other big shows too. Should be fun.
4. Mike and Maria Kanellis debuted at this past weekend's Money in the Bank pay-per-view, coming over from TNA. I really like Mike (formerly Bennett), hopefully he gets to shine.
5. Big Cass has turned on Enzo Amore - it turns out he attacked Enzo and faked his own attacks. Monday Night RAW, where love and friendships go to die.
6. BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN! Braun's back and not to the surprise of anyone, he's not finished with Roman Reigns, with an Ambulance Match being announced for Great Balls of Fire.
7. WWE is reportedly in talks again with Shelton Benjamin! It turned out that before he could be stopped, but since recovering from injury, there AIN'T NO STOPPING HIM, NOWWWW!
8. Mauro Ranallo is returning to WWE to commentate for NXT! MAMMIA MIA!
9. Mae Young Classic news now; Kairi Hojo has been announced for the tournament, now under the name of Kairi Sane and it has come to light that Jim Ross and Lita will be on commentary. No idea how well Lita will do on commentary, hopefully she isn't too bad.

And now for the honey in this beehive of a wrestling blog, its the matches! Just a heads up, as a means of getting this out in time and because of some foggy memory, some write ups may be pretty lacking, please forgive me.

WEEK 1

WWE Money in the Bank

Best Match on MitB: AJ Styles vs Dolph Ziggler vs Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs Baron Corbin

Taking the prize of top quality spot on the card was the marquee match of this event, the Money in the Bank ladder match. I did find the women's one earlier in the show a little disappointing if I do say so, but this match exceeded all expectations. 

Baron taking out Nakamura at the start was genius, I thought. I don't think Nak has ever been in any form of ladder match before, so giving him a more limited run in this did come to be beneficial, and also made the time he was present that much more exciting, but more on that later.

There was a healthy dollop of death in this match, with Kevin Owens and ladders going as well together as peanut butter and kerosene; broken from a slam onto a ladder and once again dropped hard on one propped up against the apron and announce table from a Death Valley Driver from Styles. It's amazing that Owens is still willing to go through this sort of thing, as it seems any of his matches with a stipulation he beckoning the Grim Reaper over, and fair fucks to him for it. Everyone took some sore looking bumps in this, and they all definitely worked hard here, having moments to shine and make an impact.

Hands down the biggest spot in this one was Zayn delivering a sunset flip powerbomb off the top of a ladder to Ziggler. Big ouch here;

With these sorts of falls, I kinda expect those receiving to do a bit of a bounce off of the mat, but bloody hell Dolph just plummeted straight down and got laid out flat. Must have been 
very painful, especially considering Ziggler's selling tendencies.

As I said, Nak's time in this match was short but noteworthy, bringing about arguably the highlight of the match, a confrontation between him and AJ Styles.



This showdown gave this clusterfuck ladder match a nice portion of wrestling to it, something that tends to get left behind when there's this many men and this much metal apparatus in the ring. It was all so slick and crisp, the crowd loud and reactive to every exchange and move, and who could blame them when there's are two of the top performers in the world going at it?



So, things wound up with Big Banter Corbin getting the case and become Mr. Money in the Bank. Whilst I was rooting hard for Sami, Kev and AJ, I suppose it does make the most sense for Corbin to win, and it means some fresh blood in the title picture soon. Fun times.

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (19/6/17): Samoa Joe vs Roman Reigns

Right, here comes the haze. Not a lot comes to mind when thinking of this match, but Joe certainly got a good match out of Reigns. It was one of the better RAW matches we've had lately, with the crowd being real into this one.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (20/6/17): Dolph Ziggler vs Shinsuke Nakamura

Another match I cannot remember much at all about, other than the fact that I did find this a more enjoyable watch than their initial match at Backlash. Nakamura wasn't beaten down loads like last time and was on the strong foot for a good proportion of it. So yeah, decent.

205 Live

Best Match on 205 (20/6/17): Neville vs Rich Swann

Taking place after SmackDown!, it's 205 Live, with a main event consisting of Neville brutalising Rich Swann. Big Nev just keeps delivering and delivering on being the biggest and best dick going in WWE today. A masterclass of how to be a heel;

God I love Neville.

Another real good match here on 205 Live that deserves a better spotlight. Check it out if you can.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (21/6/17): Kassius Ohno vs Aleister Black

Here comes NXT bringing us a really good match here between former 'Heroes Eventually Die' tag team partners, Kassius Ohno and Aleister Black. 

Thinking about it, this was arguably both men's best match so far in NXT to date, their familiarity more than likely playing a big part in this. Everything flowed really well in their sequences, with the majority of this being made up of striking, Ohno with his signature elbows and Black with the stiff kicks. A lot of the offence looked real nasty, pain and suffering at every corner.



Black would come out the victor, continuing his winning streak, with the loss lending to this growing Ohno/Itami programme. I would definitely recommend giving this one a looksee if you haven't already.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 300): The Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Gedo & Will Ospreay)

Last episode before Best in the World and we had The Addiction teaming with Hiroshi Tanahashi to take on the CHAOS representatives of Goto, Gedo and Ospreay. A snappy six man tag team match here, with everyone getting their chance to shine, very much a bit of filler to the pay-per-view and ending the tapings from the War of the Worlds tour. Good match, but nothing too spectacular.

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.

ROH: Best in the World

Best Match on ROH: BitW: The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) vs War Machine (Hanson & Rowe) vs Best Friends (Trent Baretta & Chuck Taylor) - ROH Tag Team Championship Match

What was originally just Bucks/War Machine, Trent and Chuck came out and had their challenge accepted to make this a three-way-dance for the ROH Tag Team Championships. This was a big ol' spotfest with lots and lots of stuff going on. The Bucks as always were on top form with War Machine and Best Friends also having stellar performances on the show. I was a tad worried that Chuck in ROH may have just been that one-off from TV the other week, but hopefully this means we might be having him pop up here more often to team with Trent. 

Awesome match this, definitely recommend it.

Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E23): Fenix vs Mariposa

This another match I don't have much memory on. It's one of the better matches from the Cuerto Cup so far, but in the other hand I've seen a lot better matches on Lucha Underground. Fenix is always great, and it was nice to see Mariposa who doesn't seem to be on as often as other competitors. She's got that unique look plus can hold her own against the likes of Fenix and other luchadors of such a calibre as well. Nice match this one.

PWG: Game Over, Man

Best Match on GOM: The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) vs War Machine (Hanson & Rowe)

We're back in PWG for Game Over, Man and taking the prize of best match on the show is the tag match between The Young Bucks and War Machine. A more comedic showing from these teams, but not so that it was the main takeaway from this match. This is quite possibly my favourite War Machine match that I can remember. I was luke-warm on War Machine for the longest time, wasn't a fan of Hanson's singles run when Rowe was injured and even though its just a little thing, their old theme in ROH did bother me. But, they feel reinvigorated to me coming off of their stint in New Japan with some new stuff in their playbook and having a more badass feel to them. The size difference was played up big time in this match, with the Young Bucks' uphill battle making the mostly split PWG crowd root for them. Overall, this was a really good match, I felt the finish was a little anti-climactic, but it made sense in the grand scheme of things.

This show also had some other great contests in the form of Fenix versus Lio Rush and Chuck Taylor against Marty Scurll in a street fight, so this is very much a good watch if you have the time.

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: AJ Styles vs Dolph Ziggler vs Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs Baron Corbin - WWE Money in the Bank

We had a collection of really dope matches this week, but it is hard to beat a balls-out insane ladder match no matter the occasion. But, I do recommend giving Black/Ohno and the two Young Bucks matches a seeing.

WEEK 2

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (26/6/17): Elias Samson, Sheamus & Cesaro vs Finn Balor & The Hardy Boyz (Matt & Jeff Hardy)

We're on RAW and we've got the classic booking of putting together two sets of feuds together to make a tag match, but this time a bit bigger than usual. Nothing amazing in this match, but the one thing it did made me think was that Sheamus and Cesaro need a better tag finisher. The Assisted White Noise is essentially just a White Noise with Cesaro doing a jump, and I feel these guys could be doing something cooler. Even if it was something a bit simple like a European Uppercut into a Brogue would look much more lethal. So, there's my two cents. 

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (27/6/17): Carmella vs Tamina vs Natalya vs Charlotte vs Becky Lynch - Money in the Bank Ladder Match

After the drama following the Women's ladder match at Money in the Bank taking place in the main event of SmackDown! LIVE. Carmella won clean this time which begs the question why not do that the first time instead of dicking around with what was hyped up as history making, but again, I digress. 

I reckon I preferred this one just slightly to the initial match at the pay-per-view. They might not have been as crazy with the ladder offence in this one, but it was still there to a degree. You can have all the ladders you want, but my favourite bit of the whole match was Natalya's nasty powerbomb;

The finish to this match was hands down much better to the last one, and I wasn't even that bothered by Ellsworth getting the briefcase for Carmella. They played up the possibility of Becky winning the thing, repeating her chances and making them look more prosperous each time to heighten the tension, then ultimately having her fail was a cruel but smart twist. Ellsworth getting involved only to be taken out was a nice touch too and let Carmella win but not totally cleanly. It's a nice treat to have a ladder match on our weekly TV, and it helped that this was a pretty good one. 

205 Live

Best Match on 205 (27/6/17): Mustafa Ali vs Drew Gulak

205 Live now and we've got Ali and Gulak going at it once again as this feud is becoming Groundhog Day with no real end in sight. So far, this one in the series had the highest levels of Gulak kicking the shit out of Mustafa, really tossing him around and mouthing off in the process. They had Gulak go up top to try out the high flying which he has been so against, and had it be his downfall, which was kinda fun, helped by his Snuka impression. In all, this was a fine match.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (28/6/17): Asuka vs Nikki Cross - NXT Women's Championship Last Woman Standing Match

We're down to NXT for a new batch of tapings, with Mauro Ranallo on his first episode of commentary. Main eventing this week, we had Asuka defending her NXT Women's Championship in a Last Woman Standing match. This match was goddamn awesome, with both women going through hell in their bid to lay the other out for the 10 count. The striking game in this match was rough enough to warrant a bit of wincing, but these two properly looked to deal some damage from the spots they were including in this one. Piles of chairs played quite the role in this, with both women taking a drop on one in the ring, but the harshest of the highlights was this one at ringside.

I dunno whether Asuka hit her head on the edge of the ramp or not, but either way I doubt she had a lot of fun with that. 

A nice touch I really liked in this match was one time when Nikki was getting up to her feet, she kept whispering 'Asuka' under her breath. Pretty creepy and a nice layer to this match, adding to her twisted obsession over Asuka and the title.

So, the match ended with a big bastard of a move. I can't remember if I have actually seen a suplex off a ladder through a table or if that's just something I attempt in the WWE games and the table never seems to be in the right position and just tips over. With that in mind, this felt even more insane watching it actually unfold;

Both would be down, but Asuka would manage to get back to her feet before the 10 and claim the victory. Personally, I would have liked a double count and then a rematch at Brooklyn III, but I guess they're going with Ember Moon challenging again on that show, so this was a happy medium I suppose.

Awesome match this, I would go far as to say both of these women's best match in NXT so far, definitely for Nikki at least. I strongly urge you to seek this one out.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 301): Jonathan Gresham vs Flip Gordon

This week on ROH TV its two of my favourite things going in the company today going one on one; Jonathan Gresham and Flip Gordon. Considering this only the second match of Gordon I've seen and I'm enjoying him this much already, I hope ROH don't fuck him up and use him properly. Gresham seems to be going into the right direction as of late, lets hope it continues.

As for the match itself, this was really great. Both of these two are insanely talented and when mixed together they put on a hell of a show. Gordon played the more cocky and show-offy person in the match, but just because how impressive it all was no-one booed him for it. The finish saw the sorest looking Octopus Stretch I have ever seen coming from Gresham, wrenching Flip's shoulder's like he'd just murdered his family in front of him. This seriously was a proper good match, and it went on first. The episode also had some good matches with Silas Young/Bobby Fish and Jay White/Punishment Martinez, but they couldn't touch this contest.


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 (S3E24): Jeremiah Crane vs Killshot

Rounding off this hella long post, it's another first round match from the Cuerto Cup with Jeremiah Crane taking on Killshot.

They started off with like 4 dives which was pretty crazy, and kept up a pretty high pace for the entirety of this match. Both of these guys are really good, and made a real good match happen from their efforts. The specifics and details escape me as of writing, except the screwy finish. I cannot remember what they're calling AR Fox in Lucha Underground, but whatever the name, he distracted Killshot and let Crane take advantage and win. Good match here, but nothing too memorable I have to say (for me at least)

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Asuka vs Nikki Cross - NXT Women's Championship Last Woman Standing Match - NXT

That title match was insane and both of these ladies deserve this prize, but I have to say that Gresham/Gordon was a whisker away from being named the best of the week. Those two matches stuck out head and shoulders above the rest to me this week, and should be on your list to watch if you haven't already.

And with those two weeks done and dusted, here is how the leaderboard shapes up nowadays

Due to the hectic nature of this write up I've not managed to get together a 'Best Promo of the Week(s)', so my sincerest apologies go out to you now. 

That pretty much wraps it up for this time around, again, sorry that I had to clump two together. A weekend in the south of England, getting sunburnt, and only now just getting back from a second trip (London this time) has had me a little frazzled, but I hope you've found everything satisfactory at the very least. Just time now to wish you all a happy week, and be sure to check out next week's instalment for New Japan's G1 Special in Long Beach plus more from Pro Wrestling Guerrilla! Have a good time everyone, wishing you all the best wherever you are!

Wrestlintroduction: The Money in the Bank

Hey there readers and welcome to this newest edition of 'Wrestlintroduction', a series in which I explain (or at least try to) elements of pro wrestling to those of you new to this wonderful medium. This time around, with it coming in a little under 4 weeks from now, we're going to look at something relatively new in wrestling history, the Money in the Bank.

The Money in the Bank match itself is nothing massively revolutionary. It is a typical multi-man ladder match, with every man gunning for the same prize; a briefcase hanging over the ring. That's not to undermine it at all, Money in the Banks have pretty consistently been great matches on whatever card they're on. Some of the most exciting and innovative usage of ladders have come from these matches, making them some of the best ladder matches in existence. 

The prize in question is what separates this match from the rest. Inside the briefcase is a contract which the winner can 'cash in' for a world championship match at a time of their choosing (within a year of winning it). So, obviously, the stakes are pretty high. Such an opportunity pretty much has 'championship win' written all over it, and the stats support this. Since its debut in 2005, there have been 17 Money in the Bank winners, 15 of which have won their cash ins. This formulates to a 88.2% success rate, so the odds are in the winner's favour. With the stipulation as it is, it enables for cash ins to happen at any time, sometimes not for a while after winning. There have been instances where the contract has been cashed in on the night it was won, most recently Dean Ambrose last year, and some cases where it has been held onto for the better part of a year, like Edge and Dolph Ziggler.

For the first six occurrences, the Money in the Bank match was exclusive to WrestleMania, appearing on 21 through 26. From 2010 on, the match began to be featured on a Pay-Per-View of the same name, furthering the importance and significance that the match has in WWE's storytelling. Many of the title changes resulting from cash ins have been pretty big, though saying that pretty much all world title changes are quite major. Though it has waned a little in recent years, the Money in the Bank has always had a bit of a feeling of giving those who might not be already in the main event picture, sometimes used as an elevation device. Examples of this can be seen with CM Punk in 2008 and 2009, Jack Swagger in 2010, Daniel Bryan in 2011 and Damien Sandow in 2013 (though his cash-in was unsuccessful)



Cash ins have produced some of the best and loudest pops in WWE history, from the initial surprise coming from the music hitting, and oftentimes a louder one when the title is won. Prime examples of these are Dolph Ziggler cashing in against Alberto Del Rio, and Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 31.

Now, getting the jump on your opponents like this is quite a bad guy thing to do, so with babyface winners, there have been instances of the contract being cashed in for a match scheduled ahead of time. This does kind of take away from the effect and excitement around the Money in the Bank, but this tactic has resulted in one of my favourite matches of all time, Rob Van Dam versus John Cena at ECW: One Night Stand 2006. (See it in full!: Dailymotion Link - WWE Network Link)

So, in effect, the Money in the Bank signals a very interesting and engaging time in the WWE calendar, with the fallout marking an intriguing and telling time in the company's story telling. This year, we've got the first ever Money in the Bank for female competitors, meaning that we'll be getting twice the amount of such events. I know I'll be watching with a close eye, will you?

That does it for my run down and explanation on the whole Money in the Bank thing. Something else in wrestling got you confused? Need some more explanation on something? Let me know and I can cover it in the next 'Wrestlintroduction'. Until next time, thank you for reading and I'll catch your ass down the road.

BWOTW: 20/6/16 - 25/6/16

Good day everyone! My exams are now dead and buried meaning I no longer feel the tiny bit of guilt I had when I watched copious amounts of wrestling instead of study, and looking at the clock, I think its about time to jump into another edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week!' AKA 'I Figured Out How To Add In More GIFs & Things Better' AKA 'The GIFiest One Yet'

One of my biggest wishes is that politics becomes as entertaining as wrestling one day.

In terms of news, here's what we've got...

1. Reigns has been suspended for violation of the Wellness Policy, and rumour has it WWE knew about it before Money in the Bank. Thinking about it, it was best to leave the suspension until after RAW, minimises the problems it causes for them. 
2. The Superstar Draft has been confirmed for the July 19th episode of SmackDown! Also, there are rumblings about WWE bringing in some of their alumni back to bolster the rosters. Reported names include Kurt Angle, Goldberg, MVP, Shelton Benjamin, Stevie Richards plus a couple others
3. Seth pinning Reigns at Money in the Bank marks the first time he has been pinned clean in 4 fucking years.
4. Jay Lethal has reached 1 year as ROH World Champion. I love the guy and am loving thid reign, hopefully he carries this for much longer.
5. The release date for the first episode of WhatCulture Pro Wrestling's weekly show, Loaded, and it is June 27th at 10PM British time (finally I don't have to maths to find out when I can watch wrestling)
6. Turns out CM Punk will make his UFC debut on September 10th at UFC 203, competing at a Welterweight level. Oh so my writing thing puts a red squiggle under 'cruiserweight' but not 'welterweight'? Goddammit.
7. The WWE Cruiserweight Classic has had it's first taping. GODDAMN I CANT WAIT 
8. Candice LeRae is scheduled to make her Ring of Honour debut on the 8th July versus Kelly Klein. I've been enjoying the Women of Honour matches ROH have been putting on and it was announced that an upcoming episode of ROH TV will be dedicated to the women's roster. Hopefully this means more regular showcasing of the women's division, and even more so the introduction of an ROH Women's Championship.

And now for the mince in this wrestle blog con carne, its the matches!

WWE Money in the Bank

Best Match on MitB: AJ Styles vs John Cena 
Honourable Mention: Chris Jericho vs Cesaro vs Alberto Del Rio vs Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens vs Dean Ambrose - Money in the Bank Ladder Match

It's match over a decade in the making, AJ Styles vs John Cena. This, right up until the end, was a belter of a match. Going into this, we had AJ proclaiming how he could 'wrestle circles around' Cena and this detail was executed perfectly throughout this match. The first sequence was an exchange of holds with AJ coming out the better of the two. I liked how they had Cena throw in some stuff he doesn't usually do as a means to Styles off, I can't remember the last time I saw Cena do an arm-drag. AJ breaking down Cena's usual flurry of the 'Five Moves of Doom', and him getting out of the AA and into a Calf Crusher was sheer beauty. Another favourite part for me was AJ's little hop over the steps following Cena whipping him their way, just a cool little add-on. Near-falls worked especially well in this one, me reacting wildly in some way when a shoulder popped up after a seemingly match-ending move. Whilst the ending soured it a bit with The Club run-in, it was still damn good, and I'm confident this wont be the last match between these two.

It'd feel wrong if I didn't mention the awesome Money in the Bank match itself, so here it is as an honourable mention. There was so much going on throughout, and it was real cool, so real quick, just a peek at some of my favourite moments from the match. 

The first sorta 'Holy Shit!' moment in the match: Cesaro knows no limits. Not pictured here is before this happened Del Rio had a Cesaro in an armbar through the damn ladder. B-R-Utal.

BOING

Reminiscent of TakeOver: Brooklyn, Special K(evin) teases us but then does something pretty damn awesome in its own right.




WELCOME TO THE FORTRESS OF STEEL AND PUNCHING - This was ridiculously cool, such a great image to have, I applaud whoever dreamt up this contraption.

Sami Zayn - Wanted For Murder. Zayn really loves to slam Kevin on ladders. 



Everyone did some cool stuff in this one, I kinda felt Dean didn't do much spectacular, but he won, so, eh. Del Rio's flurry was awesome, kicking a ladder into Zayn, lobbing one at Dean, and his footstomp with a ladder on Cesaro was aaaaaallllllll fucking cool. They did a good job of teasing Zayn as winning, and in the process crushing my hopes and dreams every time he was stops. With Rollins also losing the title too, I'm beginning to think WWE didn't do it inadvertently, I think WWE decided tonight would be a good night to raise my hopes before powerbombing them through a table. Kinda luke-warm about Ambrose's win and subsequent title win, but I guess its a nice change, certainly better than more of Roman spearing his way through more people who are better than him.

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (20/6/16): Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens

Looks like they're continuing with Zayn/Owens for a while, but this feud is inevitably going to last forever so it can stop and start as much as they want it to be. It was a nice match here, and they pulled out some cool spots; I'll never not be impressed by Zayn's tope con hilos. Owens was rough as ever with Zayn, and its a good job because it always makes their encounters even more entertaining, plus it was probably payback for that Michinoku Driver onto the ladder from the night before. These two always put on a good match, a bonus from having wrestled each other for most of their careers I suppose. 

Thursday Night SmackDown!

Best Match on SD! (23/6/16): Sami Zayn vs Seth Rollins

It's a battle between two of my absolute favourites and it was pretty damn good. The match was the result of an open challenge issued by Rollins, so for the first few minutes we had Seth showboating and not taking Sami too seriously. After a little bit of an aggressive chat with Ambrose on the outside and a bruising lariat by Sami, Rollins stepped it up a notch. One of my favourite moments in this match would have to be when Zayn dodged Rollins' kneeling superkick and Mauro shouted 'Oh snap!'. Quite a bit of reversals of big moves in this one which I really liked. The finish saw and 'out of nowhere' like Pedigree, which in its own right was awesome. Following similar happening at Money in the Bank, I'd like Seth to keep going with hitting sudden and unexpected Pedigrees, if he is keeping it as his finisher. Pretty good match here and a pretty nice episode of SmackDown! overall.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (22/6/16): Oney Lorcan vs Tye Dillinger

Oney Lorcan, formerly Christopher Girard, formerly Biff Busick, is back on NXT. I mean, its not the best of names, not sure it even is one. Anywho, he's back and this time, he's up against The Perfect 10, Tye Dillinger. Very grappley to start with, kinda slow building and the crowd were kinda silent to start with. Things got more action packed soon enough, mind. Tye did a flurry of strikes into the corner and he looked proper pissed, I'm liking rough Tye. The highlight of this match was undoubtedly Dillinger's superkick on a running Lorcan, hell of a sound, hell of a spot. Lorcan hit a cool flip neckbreaker at then end which was pretty damn cool too. Nice match.
The rest of the matches on the show were essentially squashes, it's kind of a staple of the NXT booking in their way of building stars. Whilst it is a good method, like 4 in one episode might be a bit much.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV: Jay Lethal, Roderick Strong & The Briscoe Brothers (Mark & Jay Briscoe) vs The Bullet Club (Matt Jackson, Kenny Omega, Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa)

This week it's the go-home show for Best in the World (which is the same day this goes up). It's Bullet Club versus a team of ROH All-Stars, comprised of the competitors of two of the matches at Best in the World - (BitW featuring Jay Lethal/Jay Briscoe and Roderick Strong/Mark Briscoe). These played a part in this one, mainly with Roderick kinda being a dick to Mark. The two Jays got on pretty well, with Lethal even sacrificing himself to a double-superkick to save Briscoe. The biggest reactions of this match occurred when Lethal and Omega faced off, and getting themselves into an exchange of strikes. I never realised how much I want a Lethal/Omega match until I saw this match, with Lethal going on about having beaten everybody ROH has to offer, I think a championship match between the two of them would be golden. Nick was still injured at the time of this taping, but I guess I'll just give the leaderboard points to 'The Young Bucks' anyway. Another moment I liked in this match was the one man Superkick Party that Matt invited everyone too, landing one on each in the span of like a minute. I reckon everybody got a decent share of spots/ring time, its nice when we get an even spread. Real nice match here.

SUPERKICK COUNT: 7 (+2 to own teammates) 

Also, this episode had a pretty badass Steve Corino promo which was incredible. And remember, every week you can catch ROH TV completely FREE on www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current

NJPW: Dominion 2016

Best Match on NJPW: Dominion: KUSHIDA vs Will Ospreay - IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

Having won The Best of The Super Juniors representing Great Britain (good on ya Will, proud of you), here at Dominion is his reward, a shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. This was great. Its been a while since I've seen KUSHIDA face off against more of a high-flying challenger, so it was nice to see more of his fast-paced repertoire and able to counter some of Will's offence into some of his more ground-based manoeuvres. Ospreay never fails to dazzle me with his aerial antics, and he pulled out a Phoenix Splash which is probably my favourite move ever. KUSHIDA got Will in quite a few submission holds and Will's selling of them, for me, was absolutely heart braking. Being fully in his corner, it was quite unnerving hearing his screams and yelps, made it sound like he was being murdered. I love the Junior Heavyweight division of New Japan, they are more often than not my highlight of the show. Also, Will's wearing shorts now, I think I prefer him in long tights, but that might be due to familiarity, I might grow to love them. Real awesome match here.

Seeing as I don't think I've mentioned it on here before, I just wanted to point out how goddamn awesome KUSHIDA's theme is. WWE's themes have the tendency to be loops of themselves, whereas New Japan really go all out on these themes, its definitely noticeable and welcome.

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: KUSHIDA vs Will Ospreay - IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match - NJPW Dominion 2016

Like I said, this was class. Amazing stuff throughout, I was completely enthralled and 
my God it made me glad I had time to watch the show. It was lovely and it was a great depiction of what the Super Juniors of New Japan can do. I strongly encourage you to seek this out, dear readers, you wont feel an ounce of disappointment. 

Welp, after another hectic week of wrestling, we can turn our attention to the leaderboard. In closing, I just wanna thank my readers at /r/WredditCountryClub for your encouraging words and support. You guys are not SAWFT at all. 

And with that, I'll catch you guys next week.