BWOTW: 4/9/17 - 9/9/17

Hey there readers and welcome to this newest edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Thank You, Asuka' AKA 'Another Horrifically Late One'

We had a few headlines come at us this week....

1. Corey Graves is going to be replacing JBL on SmackDown!, and Nigel McGuinness will now be commentating on Main Event and 205 Live! I'm a big fan of both of these men and look forward to these changes
2. It turns out that the finals of the Mae Young Classic will be taking place after the next episode of SmackDown! LIVE in Las Vegas, taking 205 Live's spot for the night. Personally, I don't think this was the best of moves, but we'll see how it goes. Also, talking about the MYC, they sure teased a battle of the two sets of Four Horsewomen (WWE's and MMA's), so something might come of that on the night too.
3. WWE have officially announced the signing of Donovan Dijak this week. From what I hear he tore it up at PWG last weekend, and I am sure a guy like him will do very well for himself in NXT.
4. Monday Night RAW is going to be broadcast live on Christmas Day and New Year's Day too. It appears this more due to the USA Network's desires than WWE's, with them feeling a little shitty indeed.

And now for the frame in this painting of a wrestling blog, its the matches!

WWE Mae Young Classic

Episode 5

Best Match on MYC E5: Kairi Sane vs Bianca Belair
Honourable Mention(s): Rachael Evers vs Abbey Laith

It's the first episode of the next set of MYC tapings and good lord above did we get a fucking barn burner here or what? The excellent opener of Evers/Laith got things off to a hot start, but the bout between Kairi Sane and Bianca Belair was by far the top of the heap.

Both women got to show off more personality in this match over their matches in the first round, with Belair portraying the more cocky, confident side of her character, and Kairi with some very Nakamura-esque retorts.



The highlight of this match for me was Bianca really showing just how damaging her hair whip can be. We got a little bit of it in her first match, but things got turned up to 11 here, with her unleashing a torrent of nasty looking and sounding lashes from her braid. I've only ever seen her do it once in a match, so this really was something;

Just got damn brutal. This was definitely a stand out match for Belair, astoundingly good for how few matches she has had. She's got the character down, the facial expressions and mannerisms are there, as well as being pretty good in the interstitial spaces between spots. Plus, after seeing her NXT Combine results before this match, her athleticism really is something and it came to fruition here;

What a goddamn beautiful 450 splash, great rotation and great landing. However, Bianca did have an excellent opponent with her in this match making things all the more better. Kairi has been great in all of her matches so far in the tournament, and the highlight she gave me in this one was this harsh backfist;

That there spelt the end as Sane then ascended to the top and dropped a beautiful elbow on Belair for the 3-count.

This was an awesome match, through and through, quickly and easily becoming my favourite match of the MYC so far. I thoroughly recommend checking this one out.

Episode 6

Best Match on MYC E6: Rhea Ripley vs Dakota Kai

Holy kickerooni Batman, it's the Battle for Oceania as Australia's Rhea Ripley takes on New Zealand's Dakota Kai. 

Rhea is just massive and a great intimidating competitor to be paired with Dakota without having an explicit big/small dynamic but still putting across Kai's efforts as being an uphill battle. This factor of the match was shown best when Ripley dropped Kai across the ring apron right on her back in an especially sore looking spot. 

Kai had a great showing in this match, and this match marked the first time I can ever remember seeing an actual scorpion kick used in a wrestling ring.

Kai would ultimately come out victorious in this match, laying out Rhea with her cool double footstomp. This was a real good match, and it would lead to an even better one in the next round, featuring...

Episode 7

Best Match on MYC E7: Kairi Sane vs Dakota Kai
Honourable Mention(s): Piper Niven vs Toni Storm

That last match had some really nasty looking/sounding kicks, but with Dakota Kai taking on Kairi Sane, these two took it to an even stiffer level. They beat the dogfuck out of each other, like proper bad. I was wincing a fair bit as I watched these women not take things lightly at all and go hell for leather on one another, making it feel all the more dramatic and captivating. The nastiest of them all had to be from Kai going for her sliding boot into the corner;

They worked Kai aggravating her knee into the match, adding a nice layer of story to it, as well as helping to build Kai up as a plucky and enduring babyface for if/when they hopefully add her to the NXT women's division. 

Once again, Kairi would push the battle back, fighting her way up and finding herself dropping another huge elbow drop onto her opponent and securing her place in the next round of the tournament. Another great match here in the MYC, I would rank it as Dakota Kai's best match in the series, but not quite as good as Belair/Sane. With a win over Kai, Kairi Sane just had one match left separating her and a spot in the finals...

Episode 8

Best Match on MYC E8: Kairi Sane vs Toni Storm

It's the last episode, and the last match, to finish off the brackets before we get a live final after the next episode of SmackDown! (for some reason). Fighting for the opportunity to compete against Shayna Bazsler, it's Kairi Sane taking on Toni Storm.

To me, this felt like a real Japanese strong style match. With both of these women being well versed in the joshi scene in the Land of the Rising Sun, they were able to put on a match just like they have been putting on here in Full Sail University. I will say that this match was probably my least favourite of the MYC matches covered on this edition of BWOTW. I can't remember too much about it at all if I'm honest. I know a lot of people are really hot on Toni Storm coming out of this, but I wasn't really blown away by her like I was expecting to be. This was still a good match though, but, to me, not the big blowout match to send us into the finals.

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (4/9/17): Braun Strowman vs The Big Show - Steel Cage Match

It's the third in this seriously surprisingly good series of matches - Braun Strowman. The Big Show. INSIDE A STEEL CAAAAAAAAAGE!

Do you like big bastards doing big moves? This match is for you! Whilst this match doesn;t quite have as strong a structure and story to the previous match these two had, it sure had its own set of monumental and memorable moments, for example, Big Show pulling out a thunderous elbow drop (not quite Kairi Sane but still awesome to see);

Despite Big Show stretching to the spectacular, 

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (5/9/17): Shinsuke Nakamura vs Randy Orton - No.1 Contender's Match for the WWE World Championship

We're over on SmackDown! now and we've got this highly anticipated match-up between Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura to determine who will face Jinder Mahal at Hell in a Cell. What did I think? Yeah, it was alright.

There were definitely to some real cool moments in this match, that's for sure. Just get a load of this RKO counter that I don't think I've ever seen before;

So yeah, there was some fancy nice stuff like that which I enjoyed, but for the rest of the match, to me, it was all a bit of a blur. These two guys, especially Orton, tend to go at a bit of a slower pace compared to the rest of the roster, and I certainly felt it was a bit of a slog to watch at times.

The ending sequence did have another unique RKO reversal I thought was ultra-cool, and then we got to see Nak hit that Kinshasa with Corey Graves on commentary once again;

So yeah, I thought this was a decent match overall. Perhaps in a week where we didn't get as many great matches, this might have entertained me some more, but after the likes of the Mae Young Classic, I felt this fell a bit short in comparison. 

205 Live

Best Match on 205 (5/9/17): Tony Nese vs Brian Kendrick vs Cedric Alexander vs Gran Metalik vs Enzo Amore - No.1 Contender's Elimination Match for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship

HOLY FUCK GRAN METALIK HAS BEEN CONSISTENTLY ON TV FOR LIKE TWO MONTHS NOW AND I LOVE IT!

205 Live now and to decide who gets to challenge Big Nevvy Neville at No Mercy, we have an elimination 5-way between Nese, Kendrick, Cedric, Metalik and Enzo, and this was a really fun watch if I do say so.

There was a fair bit of really cool shit in this match. Metalik got to bounce all over the place, Kendrick and Nese were absolute dicks to everyone around them, Enzo was....there, but this was for sure Cedric's match. If I remember right, Cedric got all the eliminations until he was pinned for Enzo to win, going on a fucking rampage with his Lumbar Checks, even dropping Kendrick on the ring apron in a particularly rough looking one. His mannerisms after the loss also added a nice little touch to the match too, I really hope we get a championship programme with Cedric soon. He's great!

I have no idea where they are heading with Enzo. He was hardly involved here and spent most of the time mouthing off on the outside, and then pretty much stole the victory from Cedric. It all points to being very heelish tendencies as well as making him appear as a lesser wrestler compared to the others here, but he's still sorta being portrayed as a good guy character. It's a tad confusing, but in the end, it did make for this being quite a fun match and I cannot wait for Nev to rip him apart. Good times.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (6/9/17): Kassius Ohno vs Hideo Itami - No Disqualification Match

It's been months in the making (and probably should have been at Takeover if you ask me), Kassius Ohno faces off against the guy who has been a right dickhead to him for a long while, Hideo Itami with no disqualifications at work.

This was another match of having two lads knock some shit out of each other and it was great. With Ohno's signature weapon being his elbow strikes, I liked that they swung that into being the target of the body work done by Hideo, instigated by the countering of this Van-Ohno-Nator;

Proper clank and on bare skin, God I hope he didn't hit his funny bone. We got the damage being worsened off of a suplex on the steel ring ramp, a smart way of doing it I thought - not a move you'd associate with being harmful to the arms, but an odd landing could do just that. 

Rather than have Ohno being completely unable to use it, he eventually did hit a rolling elbow to finish the match, a nice detail to make him come across tougher I thought. Plus, with Ohno being one of my favourites, I was a very happy boy to see him get a big win here on this episode of NXT. I really liked this match, and I would recommend digging this one out if you haven't seen it.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 311): Mark Briscoe & Bully Ray vs The Bullet Club (Cody Rhodes & Hangman Page)

We're off to Ring of Honour now and this week on television we have a tag team match between two thirds of a usual trio, Mark Briscoe and Bully Ray and a couple of Bullet Club members, Hangman Page and ROH World Champion, Cody Rhodes. 

The Cody/Page team is a combo that I really enjoyed in their match at the G1 Finals last month when they challenged War Machine for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Titles. Whilst I did enjoy them here, this match was not really as good as that one - which is totally fine and understandable seeing as this is just some episode of TV.

There were a fair bit of interference here in this match. Going in, they had like an injury angle that stopped Jay Briscoe taking part to make this a six man, but they had him do a run-in anyway for some reason when they could have just done a bigger tag match that I would have probably liked better. Marty Scurll interfered for the benefit of his Bullet Club friends, and I can't really remember him doing too much.

Overall, this was a fine match here on ROH TV, but this did very much feel like a bit of a throwaway episode. There was a great segment with Caprice Coleman and The Addiction that's worth a watch though. 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. It was a real good episode this week so I'd recommend it.

Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E34): Joey Ryan vs Castro Cortez - Five-O Street Fight

Over on Lucha Underground now and we've got a bizarre but awesomely so match between Joey Ryan and Castro Cortez in a Five-O Street Fight. I swear to God LU has some variation of a street fight with whatever props they happen to stumble upon for a good few episodes lately. Last week it was all biker stuff, but tonight we had a few riot police surrounding the ring for some reason, police weapons, and of course, a table with coffee and doughnuts (THAT'S RIGHT I'M BRITISH FUCK YER AND YER U.S.A SPELLING)

The best parts of this match was from the purely ridiculous stuff going on, like Joey just tossing a box of doughnuts into Cortez's face, Cortez pouring hot coffee down Joey's trunks and then shortly after tasering his penis. There was a couple of nasty looking spots with people being dropped on riot shields that shattered, and the end seeing Joey dropped on a pile of them, with a few already broken and jagged. 

This was a really fun match, the most insane match this week for sure. I liked it a lot and I think you will too.
The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Kairi Sane vs Bianca Belair - Mae Young Classic Episode 5

It sure wins it for me this week. To me it's both of these women's best match in the tournament so far, with Belair really wowing me and proving her worth. This match made her go from one of my lesser anticipated competitors in the match to one of the most impressive. Shoutouts this week also go out to Ohno/Itami, Strowman/Show and Ryan/Cortez.

With that week done, dusted and duly noted, here's what the leaderboard looks like now.

And finally, it's time to award 'The Best Promo of the Week' who this time around I'm giving to Daniel Bryan from SmackDown! LIVE. Love it when continuity is kept in wrestling, and comparing the episodes events with him and The Miz was something I really liked;

All that's left for me to say is that I am really sorry for the wait on this one. Back to school now and still getting back into the swing of things as well as all the stresses that comes with it. The next edition hopefully wont be as much work, so here's hoping all turns out well. I hope that between now and then, you have a hell of a time in your part of the world and that you enjoy everyday that comes. I'll seeya later!

BWOTW: 28/8/17 - 2/9/17

Hey there dear readers and welcome to this newest edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Long Live Flair'

But before we get stuck in, here's the news we got this week (not much really);

1. Championship news with Alexa Bliss winning the RAW Women's Championship off of Sasha Banks this week on TV, continuing Sasha's inability to defend that championship successfully. Why? Well, rumblings about setting this up for Total Divas to use the belt as a focal point has been brought up....
2. JBL has stepped down from his commentary position on SmackDown! LIVE to focus on his charitable efforts. As of writing there is no news on who will be replacing him.
3. A couple of injuries this week. Samoa Joe has sustained some sort of knee injury at a house show this week and is reportedly going to be out for a little over a month or so, and Xavier Woods sustained some sort of sprain, so nothing too bad which is the good news.

And now for the cream in this Twinkee of a wrestling blog, it's the matches!

WWE Mae Young Classic

Episode 1

Best Match on MYC E1: Abbey Laith vs Jazzy Gabert

The Mae Young Classic is here with the first round in its entirety, and here on the first episode, the best match came in the form of Abbey Laith taking on 'The Alpha Female', Jazzy Gabert. 

The story of this match can be summed up as 'holy shit Jazzy is a fucking monster', and it was very well told. Both women's facial expressions sold this story, especially on the part of Laith who portrayed the early parts with some confidence, especially with this slick splits spot, and also the later desperation and frantic need to capitalise on every window of opportunity she had. 

With Gabert being dominant for the majority of the match did mean we didn't get to see a whole lot of offence from Laith. But, saying that, having her on the back-foot fighting up was a great way to get support from the fans that is sure to help later one. 

Another nice touch came with Laith using Mae Young's patented Alligator Clutch to win the match and go on to the next round.

This was a really good and well done match, a great choice to cap off the first episode. Whilst it's sad to see Gabert go out, I do like Laith and look forward to seeing how she fares in the next round.

Episode 2

Best Match on MYC E2: Sarah Logan vs Mia Yim

Episode 2 now and the best match this time around was the Kentucky strong Sarah Logan heading up against former TNA Knockout Champion, Mia Yim.

I will say that out of the four tournament matches covered on this edition, this is probably the weakest. The most I remember of this match was Yim kicking the ever loving shit out of Logan. I can't recall much of Logan being on offence, which is a shame because I was looking forward to seeing how she'd fare.

Eventually, the match came to a close with Yim winning with an Eat Defeat right on the money;

Decent match here, but like I said, there are better matches here in the field.

Episode 3

Best Match on MYC E3: Piper Niven vs Santana Garrett 

Another small/big dynamic here in the tournament, with Santana Garrett taking on Piper Niven, but less of a dominant powerhouse though.

Piper can move like nobody's business, with Santana keeping up for quite a pacey match here in the tournament. Niven did have the upper hand for most of the match, with Santana resisting her power, but not to the extent of Laith/Gabert from a couple of episodes ago. Unlike that one, the bigger woman would win, with Niven laying Garrett out with a sit-out powerslam;

Nice match here on Episode 3, I prefer Laith/Gabert but this was also an enjoyable watch.

Episode 4

Best Match on MYC E4: Kairi Sane vs Tessa Blanchard

The main event of the first round (or that set of tapings at least) taking the cake here on Episode 4 as the tournament's most hyped entrant, The Pirate Princess, Kairi Sane, takes on the woman with Horsemen blood, Tessa Blanchard.

This was a really great match, with Kairi putting on a hell of a show. This is my first time seeing her and I have to say that she is very good indeed. Tessa meshed really well with her, and although they perhaps didn't have the time available to put on a barnburner that I feel they could have, this was still awesome. 

Kairi's elbow drop was one of the most talked about things going into this match, but bloody hell that flying forearm off the top was equally as beautiful. JR seemed to call every fucking strike that took someone off of their feet a Superman Punch, and that irked me a little, but this was seriously on par with Styles in terms of form and execution.

But of course, it was the amazing elbow drop that finished the match off, much to the enjoyment of the crowd in Full Sail;

Hands down the best match of these first four episodes released so far. Kairi did not disappoint in any way, and Tessa did great job working with her to make that a reality. Definitely recommend checking this one out.

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (28/8/17): Cesaro vs Seth Rolllins

How do you fill time between pay-per-views with the tag champions? Mix 'em up in singles competition of course! We two matches come of this procedure on RAW this week, with this contest between Cesaro and Seth Rollins being the best match on the card.

I think that Cesaro/Ambrose from the other week was a better match than this. That felt more exciting with more near falls and some really good pure wrestling coming out of nowhere to liven up a pretty dull episode. There wasn't too much out of the ordinary playbook this time around, which lent to this not being as exciting to watch. The main thing I popped for was that Cesaro ended up winning straight from a nasty looking uppercut straight up. I like it when that happens. Its a fun match here on RAW if you're wanting something to watch, with these two guys being great in-ring workers putting on a match above the average of what you get on RAW.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (29/8/17): Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable vs The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor)

AIN'T NO STOPPING ME NOOO-Oh they went with a different song. Okay.

Shelton Benjamin is back competing in a WWE ring after years away from the company, with his new tag team partner, Chad Gable, taking on Eddie Money lovers, The Ascension.

This was a quick little match here on SmackDown!, reintroducing ol' Shelty to the audience with him getting the hot tag and the eventual pin to claim the win. I'm not sure whether it was intentional, but there was a bit of miscommunication/Shelton doing as he liked, going against Gable's plan for a double team. This could either be just to show that they aren't totally familiar with each other, or perhaps planting the seeds to Benjamin breaking out on his own later on. I found it interesting at least.

So yeah, Benjamin hit the Jumping Complete Shot for the win. Bit of a tame finisher in my opinion but its not too bad. 

205 Live

Best Match on 205 (29/8/17): Tony Nese, Noam Dar & Drew Gulak vs Gran Metalik, Cedric Alexander & Enzo Amore

GRAN METALIK IS STILL HERE! Lovely to see him getting this much TV time over the past month, and here he is teaming with Cedric Alexander and 205 Live's newest addition, Enzo Amore, to take on the team of Tony Nese, Drew Gulak and Noam Dar.

It's your fairly standard six man tag here, but with some good wrestling, especially watching my boy Metalik showing why he is called 'The King of the Ropes'. Another touch I liked was seeing both sets of teammates on the apron mouthing off to each other across the ring early on in the match, it's something I've never really thought about, but seeing it here made the animosities between both sides come across better and made for a more engaging viewing experience. 

Eventually things boiled down to Enzo picking up the win, putting his feet on the ropes to secure a pin. This was another little something about this match I liked. It is clear to near everyone that Enzo is not a great wrestler, so having him this way got across this mentality as well as giving him a win. It was a fun little match here on 205, a nice something if you're looking for something like that.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (30/8/17): Roderick Strong vs Bobby Roode
Honourable Mention(s): Peyton Royce vs Ruby Riot

It's a new set of tapings here at NXT, and I was so excited coming out of Takeover: Brooklyn III that this was the first episode I have stayed up to watch (airing at 1am here in sunny ol' England Towne). I was sure not to be disappointed as not only did Ruby Riot and Peyton Royce have a good match, but the main event of Roderick Strong taking on Bobby Roode was a great match too.

Roddy got his vengeance in this match, taking the first few minutes seeking and destroying the back of Roode with a variety of backbreakers, a focus on the match developing with seeing him apply the Stronghold submission and would eventually lead to Roode's downfall. Bobby got his fair share of offence in, highlighted with him landing his beautiful spinebuster on the outside.

Roddy's retribution would come in the form of not one, but two End of Heartache backbreakers, easily the coolest move in his playbook, looking absolutely devastating
to everyone he delivers it to. Really great, exciting match here on NXT, one that I recommend checking out.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 310): Jay White & Jonathan Gresham vs War Machine (Hanson & Ray Rowe)

We've got a great tag team match here from Ring of Honour, with Jay White and Jonathan Gresham teaming up to face the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, War Machine.

It occurred to me in this match that Gresham has gotten a lot better since debuting in ROH sometime last year (?). He's more vocal, more expressive and has a better air of charisma about him. I was really high on White coming off of his match with Will Ospreay at Mayhem in Manhattan, but he hasn't quite lived up to continuing this trend. Perhaps when he returns to New Japan he might find his niche.

Having said that, this match was really exciting. There were plenty of near falls and kick outs that made this seem like a pay-per-view worthy match in my opinion. With each one, I was rooting more and more for Gresham and White to win. They found themselves on top of things several times in this bout, but there were certainly times where War Machine had their way with the two smaller men.

War Machine are just fucking beasts, accentuated by their new badass finisher, an assisted pop-up powerslam, aptly called 'Thor's Hammer'. That brought this great match to a close and made for a tantalising start to the episode.

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. It was a real good episode this week so I'd recommend it.


Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E33): Son of Madness vs Son of Havoc - Biker Brawl Match

We're in the lead to Ultima Lucha Tres now, and this week we have a match for one of the seven ancient medallions, pitting Son of Havoc against his new rival, Son of Madness, in a Biker Brawl match - meaning that it was no disqualification but also there was some bikes at ringside.

This was a very spotty match, some pretty goddamn brutal. Like a minute into the match, Madness hit with a double footstomp to the outside that looked deadly. How Havoc retained breathing function after that, I have no idea. Most of this match took place outside the ring, going into the audience for a fair bit before they would get back in between the ropes. Lots of weaponry use here in the match, predominantly trash cans, like biker's have. The weapons led to a pretty hype finish, with Madness looking to clock Havoc with a claw hammer, only to have a bottled smashed over his head before Havoc ascended to the top and pulled off a picture perfect Shooting Star Press. So pretty.

A really good match here on Lucha Underground, but, will it be able to top the charts this week....?

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Kairi Sane vs Tessa Blanchard - WWE Mae Young Classic Episode 4

Although the average match quality of the first round might not have been outstanding, this match was head and shoulders above the rest. Kairi came off like the star WWE has built her to be, in the process making Tessa look real good in that ring. If you are interested in this tournament, I would recommend watching it all regardless, there are some great characters and the presentation of it is wonderful. Plus, I can't get that theme song for it out of my head. Shoutouts to Strong/Roode from NXT, the tag match from ROH TV and the Lucha Underground match, they were all incredibly exciting too.

With another week in the books, here is how the leaderboard looks, populated by a lot of newcomers to the blog this week. But, Kenny Omega still leads the charge by quite a considerable lead.

And now to present 'The Best Promo of the Week', and whilst Dolph Ziggler topped his mental breakdown from last week on SmackDown!, the best we got this week was the confrontation between Roman Reigns and John Cena is a fantastic segment;

That's all from me for this week folks, I hope you are all enjoying yourselves in whatever part of the world you are in, in whatever walk of life you are from. Us graps-fans gotta stick together, and I wish you all the best for the next few days. Seeya!