Wrestlintroduction: WarGames

Hi there readers and welcome to 'Noah's Ark of Wrestling', and another 'Wrestlintroduction' this time looking at the recently revived and mythic match type, WarGames! It's the answer to the world's trickiest question; what's better than one steel cage? A proper big one.

Welcome to Thunderdome

WarGames is a match unlike any other. The concept was conceived by wrestling legend, Dusty Rhodes, as a means to culminate his feud with The Four Horsemen in 1987, taking place at The Great American Bash, put on by the NWA and Jim Crockett Promotions. To contain such a battle, the idea was come up with that two rings would be needed, side-by-side, with a steel cage encompassing them. 

The opening stages of the match would see one representative of both teams starting in the ring, with another wrestler entering after a set period of time. The heels would tend to get the numbers advantage (2-on-1, 3-on-2 etc.) decided before the match with a coin toss or another contest. Once all members of the match are inside the cage, we transition into perhaps the coolest named time ever, 'The Match Beyond'.

From this point on, the match could be won. Apart from a couple instances, pinfalls were not an option, instead having to claim victory through either submission, forfeit or knockout. With that in play, WarGames led to some horrific bloodletting clashes, as is a staple of southern wrestling of the time. Most of these matches ended in some form of submission being applied, but reading some of the results from the Wikipedia entry make this match sound like outright torture;

'El Gigante ran in to surrender the match on Brian Pillman's behalf after he had been knocked out and legitimately injured by two botched powerbombs from Sid Vicious.'

'McMichael asked for the match to be stopped in order to prevent further punishment to Flair.'

'Animal forced the War Machine to submit by gouging his eyes with a spiked armband.'

Imagine them fucking things in your eyes. Christ.

Whilst this barbaric structure of death, misery, blood, bile, piss and vinegar laid claim to many a victim, it is important to remember that the build to the 1993 Fall Brawl gave us one of wrestling's most iconic moments;

Remember guys, WarGames was a WCW thing, so its worth keeping in mind that it had its fair share of zany shit going on at times, that's not even mentioning the whole Triple Cage incarnation of the match.

That's a real thing

So, with this being a product of non-WWE territories, the utilisation of it for the upcoming NXT Takeover is significant. For a few years not too long ago, it seemed that most things associated with WCW weren't really used in WWE, speculated as being Vince McMahon not wanting anything to do with his rivals' creations. However, with this, the return of Clash of the Champions and Starrcade coming up, it seems this has changed. With that, there's room for some of WCW's other cool features to pop up, like Halloween Havoc, or God knows, even a Triple Cage.

I haven't actually seen a WarGames match yet, and I am tempted to hold off from delving into WWE Network to make this one at Takeover my first. But, in case you can't wait til then and want to get your fix of the two ring, massive cage onslaught, here's a few links to bide you over;

The Super Powers vs The Four Horsemen - The Great American Bash 1987

The Road Warriors, The Midnight Express & Steve Williams vs The Fabulous Freebirds & The Samoan Swat Team - The Great American Bash 1989

Terry Funk, Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck & Robert Parker vs Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes & The Nasty Boys - Fall Brawl 1994

Team WCW vs nWo Hollywood vs nWo Wolfpac - Fall Brawl 1998

Thank you for joining me in this edition of 'Wrestlintroduction', and hopefully its a nice primer for Takeover: WarGames. Let me know if there's any aspect of pro wrestling you'd like to be covered in a Wrestlintroduction and I'll get right on it. Until then, thanks again, and I'll catch your ass down the road.

Wrestling With Anxiety: Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

Hi there readers, now, I'm trying something new here on this blog of mine. Having turned another year older just a couple of weeks ago, I've had time to ponder what aims I have going ahead and how I want to achieve them. My main goal is to drown out as much negativity and ill-feeling I can from my life at the moment, and in doing so, I've felt the need to be more up front about my mental health.

Over the past couple years in particular, I have had an ongoing struggle with anxiety in various forms as well as some other similar afflictions. Whilst, at the minute, I don't wanna get too much into the details of why I feel like shit, its safe to say there have been quite severe lows and some rough patches, along with times of more smoother sailing. I've had a bit of a nasty spat with it quite recently, and I felt that the best way to combat this is to be more open and up-front with these issues. I am lucky enough to have some wonderful friends and family that have been an incredibly helpful and patient with me throughout this time; I cannot thank them enough for everything they've done. Without their continued support, I doubt I'd be able to write these very words.

But how does this relate to this blog? Well, if I'm talking about my personal experience with my struggles, pro wrestling has played a huge role in my ability to cope like I have. So, in this series I've entitled 'Wrestling With Anxiety', I hope to relay to you, dear readers, how big a help the graps have been for me. This is in no way meant to be preaching a cure, or saying that if you're experiencing similar things watch wrestling and it'll be grand, this is purely me telling my story, hopefully providing ideas that people could adapt and apply to their own problems using their passion. I cannot stress enough the importance of reaching out to people and seeking help. I have and it has done wonders, so if you're in a similar spot, I implore you to do so as well.

Kevin Owens here taking on the physical form of anxiety for the purposes of a nice visual metaphor

So, in regards to wrestling's impact on me, I plan on discussing different aspects in each post. For this first one, I want to focus on something that has helped immensely; regularity and perpetuity.

As a long time viewer, especially in this day and age, its sometimes easy to overlook the sheer volume of  new content there is on a weekly basis. WWE alone produces a minimum of around 7 hours of programming every week, as well as there being numerous other promotions that produce regular content like Impact and Ring of Honour. Although I follow the belief of quality over quantity in wrestling, I'd say on average WWE's weekly product is pretty good, at least in regards to the in-ring action. Over the past couple years, this frequency has certainly aided me.

Bad days throughout the week have been pushed through thanks to knowing that when I get home I've got ______ to watch. Whether it be out of habit or fuelled with legitimate excitement, I've found that these small glimmers of hope really help to put a positive twist on an otherwise shitty day. In the grand scheme of things, these sorts of overarching problems don't tend to be solved in a day, but I've found that instances of anxiety and worry about one relatively small thing in particular are eased by having something to look forward to. As menial as it is to preoccupy yourself on who Neville is gonna kill next or the prospect of a Young Bucks match on the next episode of ROH TV, in my experience, its a big help. The ever-present nature of wrestling means that there's always something I can put in my mind as the end goal for the day. 

On a broader scale, bigger shows like Pay-Per-Views also help in similar ways. When I've been going through a bit of a slump over the span of a few days/weeks/other extended measurements of time, it's stuff like the prospect of a killer card at an NXT: Takeover or a massively hyped match that do the job. When something like a Cena/Styles or an Okada/Omega gets announced, that shit keeps me buzzing for a good long while. Yes, sometimes these sorts of matches might not live up to expectations, but when they hit they mark, Lord does it feel great. For me, having a satisfying climax to these gets me in a good mood for a period after, as if refreshing my mind whilst I ride that high.

Despite AJ's stellar performance evaluation, John is still reluctant to give him that raise he's been asking for

I will say that I have recently have a rough go of it; I've had some recurring feelings of hopelessness, my sense of self-worth has been a bit thrown off and I feel like I'm at a stage where I have to reevaluate a few aspects of my life. As of late, NXT has been the weekly content that's given me something to look forward to. It's been consistently delivering, really feeling like it's gotten it's groove back from the golden age of the early-ish Takeover period. Every division is promising and exciting, plus at an hour every week, its not a massive task to watch. Plus, any chance to see my British boys in action is always a delight.

Top lads

Wrestling gives me something to push through for. Whether it be just a singular match, a developing story or an upcoming show, there always seems to be something to look forward to. In times where everything seems to be going really rather shit, I've found that having little things to get excited about go a long way. The regularity of this has been vital, consistently helping me battle my afflictions through dark time after dark time. I owe a lot to wrestling, and this is just the beginning of the story. 

So that just about does it for this first edition of 'Wrestling With Anxiety' and I hope its been a somewhat fun ride. Let me know your thoughts, feedback is always welcomed with open arms. With the shake-up this blog's received, I feel the need to reaffirm that I am still active, still thinking of ideas for things to write about, and still a big ol' fan of the graps. 

BWOTW: 21/8/17 - 26/8/17

Hey there readers and welcome to this newest instalment of this ongoing blogging adventure of mine 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Love Me Some Tag Teams' AKA 'Fuck Sexy Star'. Apologies for the delay on this, I've had a rough few days, further apologies for what might be a lesser quality.

But before we get down and dirty in it, lets first look at the news;

1. Belts, belts, belts! Championship changes aplenty here. NXT saw SAnitY and Drew McIntyre become champions, as well as the main roster seeing Neville, The Usos, Natalya, Sasha Banks and Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose picking up some gold. Lots and lots and lots of changes. Also, on ROH's UK tour, the six-man belts traded places, with the trio of 'The Hung Bucks' (Page and the Bucks) picking them up. That's a lot of metal.
2. Adam Cole has debuted in NXT, forming this rumoured ROH stable with Fish and O'Reilly! Can't wait to see where this goes!
3. Bobby Roode has debuted on SmackDown! LIVE, as well as FUCKING FINALLY SHELTON BENJAMIN! 
4. Despite retaining at Brooklyn, Asuka has vacated the NXT Women's Championship. She will be recovering from an injured collarbone for now, but will be called up when she returns
5. Talking of injuries, Big Cass has injured his knee this past Monday on RAW. Though I thought this Enzo/Cass feud was dogshite, can't help but feel bad for the guy. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.
6. Leading on from that, Enzo Amore debuted on 205 Live this week. If anyone can carry him through a feud it's Big Nev.

And now for the undisclosed meat in this mysterious pie of a wrestling blog, its the matches!

NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III

Best Match on Takeover: Brooklyn III: Asuka vs Ember Moon - NXT Women's Championship Match
Honourable Mention(s): The whole goddamn card

The women of NXT take centre stage once again as we get Asuka defending her title against the woman she couldn't beat clean in their last bout, Ember Moon.

This was a really great match. I would go as far to say this is both of these women's best matches so far in their respective runs in NXT. I think this match has finally sold me on Ember Moon. I've always been pretty so-so on her, but she sure had a great showing in this match. Her selling was really good in this match, making it all the more dramatic. Add to this the dynamic of Asuka's cocky championship reign, and the mocking of Becky Lynch at ringside, it all made her being on the backfoot more compelling. I honestly believed we were getting a title change here, making Asuka's out of nowhere Asuka-Lock all the more exciting and shocking.

I have seen all the praise this is getting, and whether it was from my tiredness on the night staying up late over here in jolly ol' Englande Towne, but I wouldn't say this is the best women's match we've had. I'd still rank both Sasha/Bayley matches, as well as Becky/Sasha too, above it. Nevertheless, this was great and definitely worth a watch.

WWE SummerSlam

Best Match on SummerSlam: The New Day vs The Usos - SmackDown! Tag Team Championship Match (Pre-show)
Honourable Mention(s): Brock Lesnar vs Braun Strowman vs Samoa Joe vs Roman Reigns - WWE Universal Championship Match

DOWN SINCE DAY ONE-ISH! This was more awesome than anyone could have imagined. The New Day went with my favourite pairing, Big E and Xavier Woods and busted out some awesome new combo moves, such as Woods picking E up in an electric chair (fuck!) for an assisted splash.

You could see the work these guys were putting in, more than likely a response for putting them on the preshow, when they very much deserved to be on the main card, especially in the later minutes. With there already being plenty of near falls to the match, things got even more hyped from some insane spots like this bad boy;



Then soon near immediately after that, we got to see Big E risk his life once again with his big dive through the ropes, but with a less wince-inducing landing than his previous performances of that move. 

Things looked to be going well for New Day, until The Usos channelled their inner Young Bucks, laying out E with a barrage of superkicks and finally finishing the match.

And there you have it, Usos are new tag champs. What a fucking awesome match, and I hope it goes as a reminder to not put these guys in this position again, because they will make it hard to follow - certainly the case here with the show not getting anywhere near this level until the main event.

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (21/8/17): Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs The Hardy Boyz (Matt & Jeff Hardy)

We're on RAW now and we have a pretty damn good tag team match here between the new RAW Tag Team Champions, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose, taking on The Hardy Boyz.

This was much better than the standard sort of tag matches you tend to get on RAW, with this having many more near falls and false finishes than usual. Like the above matches, this adds to the drama and overall excitement of what we get here. The Hardys looked like they were real close to beating the new champions, landing a couple Twists of Fate and Jeff almost scoring with a Swanton Bomb too. 

Rollins and Dean are showing more double team offence with each match, and considering it was Rollins and Reigns who were tag champs in the Shield, these two are a very promising team. Plus, being in the ring with awesome teams like The Hardy Boyz and Shesaro really helps.

Overall, a real good match here on RAW, a fun li'l something here on the show.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (22/8/17): AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens - WWE United States Championship Match w/ Special Guest Referee (Baron Corbin) 

On SmackDown! LIVE now and we have another United States Championship match between AJ Styles and Kevin Owens.

Summing this up, its another good match between these two that's soured by the stipulation and the muddying of a special referee, here Baron Corbin, a great next step after facing John Cena at SummerSlam two days prior. Basically, this is a perfectly fine match, but the SummerSlam match between these two, and probably the SmackDown! matches from this past month, are better. I'd watch those instead.

205 Live

Best Match on 205 (23/8/17): Neville vs Akira Tozawa - WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match

Another SummerSlam rematch here on 205 Live, pitting the recently re-crowned King of the Crusierweights, Neville against Titus Worldwide representative, Akira Tozawa.

This is another instance of the SummerSlam match being superior, but this was also a very good match. I can't really recall any specifics from this, other than that it boiled down to Big Daddy Nev making Tozawa tap from the Rings of Saturn. Can I just say that it is great that WWE have kept that name for the move. Perry Saturn's luck hasn't been great over the past few years, and I sure am happy his legacy gets to continue with his signature submission being used to such devastating effect. Lovely. So yeah, good match here on 205, seeming closing the book on this Neville/Tozawa feud. 

NXT

Best Match on NXT (24/8/17): Tyler Bate & Trent Seven vs Wolfgang & Pete Dunne

Woooo nelly we've got ourselves an amazing match here on NXT. Taped before Takeover: Brooklyn III, it's Moustache Mountain, Tyler Bate and Trent Seven teaming up to do battle with Wolfgang and the WWE United Kingdom Champion, Pete Dunne.

This is my first time seeing Bate and Seven together like this, something I've been wanting to for a long time, so this was an absolute treat, though any of WWE's UK division matches are for me. They got in some really cool tag moves in, like Bate vaulting off of Seven's shoulders with a senton. I feel Bate in particular shone in this match, with him getting some of the biggest pops in ring, my favourite being with this slick as all hell rebound lariat;



After a bit of misdirection, it boiled down to Wolfgang landing a swanton bomb (can't remember the name he has for it) on the former champion Bate interestingly, and gaining the pinfall for his team. From the backstage segment preceding this match, it looks like Wolfgang/Dunne might be the next title match, but from what I've heard about the newest NXT tapings, there is a lot more to be looking forward to.

Awesome match here on NXT, I definitely recommend checking it out. Please do.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 309): Coast 2 Coast (Leon St. Geovanni & Shaheem Ali) vs Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Baretta)
Honourable Mention(s): Dalton Castle & The Boys vs Colt Cabana & The Tempura Boys - ROH World 6-Man Tag Championship Match

The Best Friends are back in Ring of Honour, taking on the up and coming team of LSG and Shaheem Ali, Coast 2 Coast. This match, bell to bell, was packed with exciting action that tickled me lovingly. Both of these teams had some great spots, with Coast 2 Coast doing some insane dives, notably LSG springboarding to the outside with a move with more flips than I have fingers. An Awful Waffle from Chuckie T brought about the end of this great match.

At this point in time, I feel like Chuck and Baretta are the best candidates to take the tag belts off of the Young Bucks who have had them for a long ass time. They are running out of challengers, plus with them teaming with Page as The Hung Bucks as a six man group, I can see them dropping them soon.

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: War of the Worlds UK

Best Match on WotW UK: KUSHIDA vs Hiromu Takahashi vs Dalton Castle vs Marty Scurll - ROH World Television Championship Match

It was another War of the Worlds event this past week, uniting ROH, CMLL, New Japan and even RevPro this time at one event in Liverpool in the exact same building as ROH: Unified that saw the McGuinness/Danielson classic, a nice little factoid to this match. Here, we have a fatal-4-way with KUSHIDA defending his ROH World Television Championship against Hiromu Takahashi, Dalton Castle and 'The Villain' Marty Scurll.

This was a pretty fast paced match that went more for the one-in, one-out approach to the multi-man dynamic, with a lot of spots and big moves keeping things flowing. I was a bit disappointed that Hiromu didn't get more a showing outside of antics with Daryl, and I do wish this match could have gone longer. It did feel a little bit rushed, but it was good. KUSHIDA retained the title after connecting with his new small package driver 'Back to the Future'. KUSHIDA's reign doesn't show any sign of slowing, with him having one of the hottest streaks currently in wrestling, having just won the WCPW World Cup as well. God damn that man knows no defeat.

Lucha Underground

Best Match on LU (S3E32): Johnny Mundo vs Rey Mysterio - Lucha Underground Championship Match

The Cuerto Cup Finals happened this week, but a better match, in my opinion, was the massively hyped up match for the Lucha Underground Championship between Johnny Mundo and Rey Mysterio.

To me, it is still insane to see how Rey is working these days, just so much better than his later time in WWE its ridiculous. I think its pretty safe to say that under AAA, LU might not have quite the same standard of wellness policy WWE has and that might be involved in that to some degree, but hey, I'm not one to judge.

Mundo continues to be great in championship matches, and I know he is a heel and it makes sense to garner heat, but the constant interference of the Worldwide Underground is getting pretty repetitive at this point, and its no longer a matter of 'if' with them getting involved, but 'when'. That is what led to Mundo retaining once again here on the show. It was a great match for the belt, but I can't help but be soured by the shenanigans.
PWG: Pushing Forward Back

Best Match on PFB: The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) vs The Unbreakable Fucking Machines (Brian Cage & Michael Elgin)

Things are looking towards Reseda now in the last show before this year's Battle of Los Angeles (I think), and we have one more tag team match stealing the show, this time around with the Jackson brothers taking on the team of Brian Cage and Michael Elgin, The Unbreakable F'N Machines.

If I'm remembering correctly, this may be the first time that I haven't heard a Young Bucks chant not interspersed with 'Fuck The' in between the shouts. Being booked against these guys and the likes of War Machine, they've been the smaller underdogs against these big hoss teams. Even so, I can't think of any circumstance where the Young Bucks will be universally booed. 

The match itself was full of high spots a plenty, with the Machines having some of the most impressive movesets I have ever witnessed. Cage's new powerbomb/slam combo on both the Bucks is a sight to behold, and Elgin has no business moving around the ring like he does. The Bucks are ever-entertaining, both in character antics and wrestling manoeuvres and I doubt I will ever get bored with them. 

This was an awesome match, however I've felt that PWG shows may be a bit of step down from around this time last year I'd say, but with BOLA just around the corner, with some very talented individuals on the cards, it should be a fantastic trio of shows.

SUPERKICK COUNTER: 17

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week:The New Day vs The Usos - SmackDown! Tag Team Championship Match - WWE SummerSlam Pre-show

YEAH THAT'S RIGHT, DAMMIT. Yes, Asuka/Moon was very good indeed, but this match truly blew me away. My expectations from these two teams were exceeded greatly, putting on one of the best tag team matches in recent WWE memory. Plus, if I'm honest, Asuka/Moon didn't quite hold my attention the same way that New Day/Usos did, and I just enjoyed it that much more. Shoutouts this week to the tag match on NXT as well as on ROH TV, they were great too.

With those results in the books, here's how the leaderboard looks, with things still looking very New Japan at the top, but with WWE guys catching up.

And now for the 'Best Promo of the Week' that this time around goes to this impassioned and absurd promo by the returning Dolph Ziggler getting pretty meta in places. Ziggy's gone cray-cray;

Now all that's left is to wish you all a very merry few days ahead (and even shorter span probably due to the delay on this), and in every sense of the phrase, I wish you the best of luck. I've been Noah, this has been the week, and that was it's best wrestling. Seeya next time!

BWOTW: 22/5/17 - 27/5/17

Hey there readers and welcome to the newest edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA '#DI-Why Ciampa, Why?'

AJ left his phone just too far out on his bedside table

But let us first take a li'l look at the past week's news....

1. What the actual fuck? Jinder Mahal is the new WWE World Champion. This is real life. This is what is happening now.
2. It appears #DIY are no more, with Tommaso Ciampa turning on Gargano to end this past TakeOver show. I am a very sad boy, a very sad boy indeed.
3. Pete Dunne is your new WWE United Kingdom Champion, dethroning the inaugural title holder, Tyler Bate. I feel this might be to help usher in the start of a new UK weekly show, with a new champion at the heart of it. 
4. It has been announced that the Women's Tournament is entitled 'The Mae Young Classic', which I think is quite nice. 
5. Ring of Honour have announced another War of the Worlds tour with NJPW this August, however, this is in the UK! They list RevPro's Summer Sizzler as part of the tour, following it with 3 WotW shows in London, Edinburgh and Liverpool.
6. Cedric Alexander is back, returning on 205 Live this week. His reaction was....well a 205 Live reaction really. 

There is also something else I wanted to address, doesn't really fit in anywhere else so I'll plop it here. In regards to the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, I did want to try and cover as much as possible. This ideal was made before I realised how the whole thing is scheduled. I don't think I'll try to cover it all, with doing so effectively doubling the workload put into this and my time spent watching - I do have an exam this week so I should maybe spend some time studying. 

Also, its pretty clear that A-Block is where its at, and B-Block just doesn't have quite as strong a draw for me. I feel like I may just leave it at the opening nights from last week. As awesome as the match-ups that are scheduled to happen, I feel it would be unfair to just cover them. So, unless there is a real desire from you guys for some of the live shows, that might be it on the tournament for now. I feel similar might occur when I try to tackle the G1 Climax, but, we'll just have to see how things turn out. Apologies for anyone who was expecting to see coverage of all the taped shows, please forgive me. 

However, I am gonna try and keep up with A-Block a bit and whatever I hear is worth a watch, so perhaps if I feel there's something that deserves to be the 'Best Match of the Week' instead of what's on the covered shows, I may give it the award and write it up there and then. Let me know what you think of this idea, not sure if it bastardises this blog a bit.

And now for the petals on this flower of a wrestling blog, its the matches!

NXT TakeOver: Chicago

Best Match on TakeOver: Chicago: Tyler Bate vs Pete Dunne - WWE United Kingdom Championship Match

Holy fuck-a-rooni we are starting this week off with a big ol' bang. The WWE United Kingdom Championship is making its first appearance on a TakeOver card, pitting the defending champion Tyler Bate against the Bruiserweight, Pete Dunne.

We started off with some slick and sweet grappling and technicalities. I appreciate that in an arena the size of this one they're in, it can't be a bit difficult to get all the joint manipulation and the subtleties of it across to those in attendance, but luckily that didn't alienate anyone. Bate's shoulder and arm received the brunt of Dunne's surgery, with also some nasty finger work, bending and stretching the champ's digits.

Then when things started to pick up, bloody hell they went whole hog. In my opinion, it was (British) strong style at its finest. The strikes were pretty stiff indeed, all the throws and slams were beautiful, it was all so wonderful for me to watch. 

There were so many great moments and sequences in this match its unreal. I just want to show you some of my favourite highlights, I think I have all these following clips in order, but good lord you just get lost in it and its amazing. First, just look at this goddamn aeroplane spin. I have never seen anyone ever get the momentum and speed Tyler gets, its unreal.

Look at him go!

Just amazing. We had a Dunne X-Plex onto the apron earlier on, then we got to see it transformed into an Orange Crush powerbomb;

Dunne has great facial expressions, both in the above with his look of bewilderment, as well as his signature sneers and grimaces. Great storytelling that, when the man comes in with a face of confidence and then has it changed to one of desperation and disbelief. Phenomenal.

Like I said, the strikes came in plentifully, and this next exchange was just class. For whatever reason, open hand slaps have a special allure to them, a combination of impact and big sound. Plus, Bate's rebound lariat is a thing of beauty on top of all that.

Then just the most incredible thing happened. Now, in the tournament final, we had Bate do a 450 splash/footstomp thing on Dunne, and I figured when he was climbing up to the top we'd see it again. Everything I knew came tumbling down. 

Who does the Spiral Tap? AJ Styles and AJ Styles only, or so I thought;



And he hit it flush! Bugger me that was insane.

The whole sequence into the finish, as well as having the finisher teases throughout, and when Dunne finally hit The Bitter End, it felt like it rounded off a perfect match. 

I'm gonna be honest with you guys, this is probably my Match of the Year so far. As a Brit, and a young one at that who is beginning to idolise this current crop of British talent, this was quite overwhelming to me. On three occasions during the match they got a standing ovation. The crowd finally figured out of how to make a good UK chant. I watched this match perched on the edge of my seat, when that match screen popped up I was banging on the armrest to hype me up. Through and through, I love this. Doesn't get much better for me. Guess what's best match of the week.

WWE Backlash

Best Match on Backlash: Kevin Owens vs AJ Styles - WWE United States Championship Match

With an act tougher than the Salty Spittoon to follow, it's WWE's second Backlash in under a year (sort ya fucking schedule out lads). Taking the cake on this show was Kevin Owens' defence of the United States Championship against AJ Styles.

This was a rather good match I'd say. It is ridiculous how consistent AJ is at delivering great performances, and this pairing with Owens made for both of these guys to have a very nice match up.

I feel like everything they did was nice and smooth, though its only a few spots here and there that were memorable about this. There was this pretty cool sequence with multiple sentons that I really liked.

The big one of course was Styles suplexing Owens on the apron, with the US Champion landing right on the cornered of the edge. Looked very sore indeed. They'd teased a Styles Clash off of the apron onto ringside alongside this. I definitely seen videos of them doing it on the indies on yesteryear, but I would be very surprised if they would be allowed to do such a thing.

The ending, though a little bit of a low-point with Owens retaining via countout, I thought it was quite creative. Styles' leg was slipped into a hole on the commentator's desk where the monitor goes and his feetsies got caught in the wiring. It did look cool, kept them both protected I suppose and leaves there room for a future rematch.

I feel that these two have got better matches in store for us. Maybe SummerSlam might have another clash between these guys, that'd be baller. Still, this was a good match.

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (22/5/17): Bray Wyatt & Samoa Joe vs Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns

It's a thrown together tag team main event here on RAW, and that's exactly the sort of match this was. Nothing really too memorable about any of it. Just....meh. It was all decent, better to watch than some of the other matches on the card. Sheamus/Hardy felt a bit of a drag, was there Nese/Aries? I dunno, it was an okay episode of RAW. 

Sorry there isn't much of a write up for this match, but I legitimately cannot recall anything standing out or leaving much of an impression. I remember Joe choked out Rollins for the win (I think). Yeah, not long til Extreme Rules so that might shake things up a bit, though I would enjoy  A FUCKING UNIVERSAL TITLE SOMEWHERE ON THE EPISODE. Brock having this belt is doing absolutely nothing for me. Can't wait til he drops it really.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (23/5/17): Kevin Owens & Dolph Ziggler vs AJ Styles & Shinsuke Nakamura

Guess what! Another thrown together tag team main event - though this is commonly known here as a 'SmackDown! Speciality' (just made that phrase up so dunno if its called that or what). Along with Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin, these four will be taking part in this year's Money in the Bank ladder match at the marquee Pay-Per-View. So, here we have it, Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler taking on the team of AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura.

I have to say, this is pretty similar to the RAW match really. Just a bit eh. The match was perfectly fine, but not much more. They don't seem to have learned from the Backlash match and although Shinsuke got the win in the end, he spent quite a lot of time getting beat up by Dolph and Big Kev. Hopefully he gets a big showing in some sort of amazing one-on-one match, whether it be Styles, Owens, Cena or maybe even Zayn again.

But yeah, this match was fine. Highlights of the show were really all the Breezango stuff, just a shame they didn't get much of a match on the episode. 

205 Live

Best Match on 205 (23/5/17): Brian Kendrick vs Akira Tozawa - Street Fight

In my opinion, keeping in line with the rest if this blog, 205 Live delivered with the best match from WWE's weekly shows, with a street fight between Brian Kendrick and Akira Tozawa. It's a rematch from a past 'Best Match of the Week', but I don't think it's the first though. But, this was a great match.

Tozawa started kicking the shit out of Kendrick right from the bell, getting us off to a hot start. Kendrick's ingenuity would be the thing to keep Tozawa down and change the tide of things, and in a setting with props, Kendrick thrives even more. We saw him use the purple tape that the ring crew use for the ropes to tie up Tozawa. First, he taped over his mouth and put him in the Captain's Hook, which was pretty damn cool. Then, he took a more Viet Cong POW camp approach to it;

There wasn't masses of weapons used in this match; they did the tape (if that counts), used the steps a bit, but they went and had some big bollocks on for the use of the table;

Christ-a-loo its a good thing Tozawa landed on Kendrick, he has done some of those dives and pretty much landed directly on his tailbone (see: arse). If he'd have fucked it there he'd be walking funny for days.

That there was the finish by the way, rolled Brian into the ring and pinned him there and then. It was a nice end to the match, a big ol' spot to round off the main event and seemingly end this feud with an exclamation point. Well done 205 Live, rest of the show was a bit shaky but a real good main event here.

NXT

Best Match on NXT (24/5/17): Drew McIntyre vs Wesley Blake

We're at the matches taped before TakeOver, and here we have Drew McIntyre versus a revitalised Wesley Blake. 

Again, like his past few appearances, this was very much McIntyre's match. He got his shit in and looked impressive, he got to do his big reverse Alabama Slamma that looked fucking lethal. But I saw this match as Wesley Blake's chance at reintroducing himself, which I think he did quite well actually. New gear, new music and some new moves to boot. With the way NXT is looking, they could use a new lower/midcard-ish guy. 

Decent match here, just a nice little something to fill time until we get into the next set of tapings.

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 296): N/A

It was repeats of February's Honour Rising shows in Karouken Hall featuring New Japan and ROH talent, so if you're still on that crossover buzz from War of the Worlds, might be worth a watch.

PWG: Nice Boys (Don't Play Rock'n'Roll)

Best Match on PWG: NB(DPR'n'R): The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) vs Matt Sydal & Ricochet vs The Lucha Bros. (Rey Fenix & Penta El 0M) - PWG World Tag Team Championship Match

We're back once again at Reseda, CA to bear witness to Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's Nice Boys (Don't Play Rock'n'Roll). The main event saw a triple threat between three awesome teams for the companies tag belts; The Young Bucks defend against The Lucha Bros and Matt Sydal and Ricochet (I dunno if they have a team name but they really should).

This was just insane, crazy shit happenin' all the over the goddamn place. The Bucks are always on the top of their game in PWG, with them able to thrive in the environment of what I can only presume is 'do whatever the fuck you want'. Ricochet and Sydal, though they don't tag all that often anymore really, pulled out some sick spots. The Addiction parodied the Meltzer Driver with the 'Best Meltzer Ever' (moonsault instead of a 450), but these two upped the ante - Ricochet hoisted 'em up for the tombstone and Sydal finished it with a Shooting Star Press. Just incredible.

I love The Lucha Bros more and more each time I see them. With Penta, I feel its gotten to the point where I reckon his superkicks are probably the best. Y'know those prank videos where they put like tape or cling-film in a doorway and they get the person to come running? The whiplash and fall from it is what it looks like a Penta superkick is. Sounds like a fucking shotgun as well.

One of the best bits about PWG is that they can mix in some comedy, and not make it a comedic match, the spot just meshes in with everything. Here, they went all out;

PWG has always had some of the most clinically insane apron spots and bumps in human history, though ol' Abe Lincoln did do a sick brainbuster to the Confederacy on the edge of the ring. Anyway, we had a procession of nasty falls onto the apron in a row;

Don't worry, no-one died.

One thing that did stick out to me a little was that the finish of this match probably wasn't the high moment that it probably could have been. Watching it, it sort of felt the crowd weren't expecting the pin, not because they thought Young Bucks were losing, but because after all the massive moves and combos done in the match, the final blow didn't seem quite as powerful. It's a risk you run in PWG, but the vast majority of the time they manage fine. Nevertheless, this was an awesome match through and through. I think I preferred the Bucks/Lucha Bros match from last year, but I still enjoyed this very much indeed.

SUPERKICK COUNTER: 9 (plus a metric fuck load of superkicks from everyone else)

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: Tyler Bate vs Pete Dunne - WWE United Kingdom Championship Match - NXT TakeOver: Chicago

What else, really? The pure wrestling in it, the amazing moments and I have to say that Her Majesty's Royal blood and tea that pumps through my veins may have helped the choice. But, I believe that if I took that factor out this still is head and shoulders above the rest. The PWG match was very good, but I felt there was much more of a story told through Bate/Dunne, whereas that triple threat was more 'BOOM-POW-WHATTHEFUCK-BANG'

And with another week done and dusted here on the blog, here is what the leaderboard looks like nowadays.


Winning 'Best Promo of the Week' this time around is this great segment with the newly heel turned Goldust, who appears to have gone old school, even his paint looks like his Attitude Era run if I remember rightly. I really am looking forward to where they go with Goldy, have a look here;

Welp, that's gonna do it for me for this week. Let me know what you thought? Think anything topped Bate/Dunne? Do you think it isn't as good as I've made it out to be? I know I might have laid it on a little thick there, but bloody hell I really do love this match; it's probably up there with my favourites. Either way, I hope you all enjoy yourselves in these coming days. I've got some time off school so I'm a happy boy, and I hope you all get some relaxation too. Buh-bye for now!

BWOTWend: WrestleMania in Orlando

Hello there BWOTW faithful, and welcome to this edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Orlando Magic'. WrestleMania descended upon Orlando, FL this past weekend, bringing it with it fans and promotions from all over the world. I haven't been able to get my mitts on all the weekend's events, but I got the big ones. For you here, I have WrestleMania, TakeOver Orlando and ROH's Supercard of Honour. Let's not waste any time getting into it, we're not gonna cover any news for this special mini entry, let's get jiggy! 

Beautiful

ROH: Supercard of Honour XI

Best Match on SOH XI: The Hardys (Matt & Jeff Hardy) vs The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) - ROH World Tag Team Championship Ladder Match
Honourable Mention(s): Marty Scurll vs Adam Cole - ROH World Television Championship Match

Taking us to Lakeland for Ring of Honour's Supercard of Honour XI, we have the main event claiming the prize of being the best match on the show, seeing the ROH Tag Team Championships being defended in a ladder match. Its The Young Bucks challenging The Hardys, its Too Sweet or DELETE.

They might as well have gone ahead and called this Ladder War 7 because that's what this was. We had a whole goddamn bunch of ladders coming into play in a whole host of structures and spots. We had the see-saw thing that broke Joey Mercury's nose that time make an appearance, Nick got wheelbarrow-ed through a ladder and a metric fuck load of tables were broken, with everyone going through one at some point. With the Bucks and Hardys, they continue to innovate with ladders, just one example here;

Whilst a fair chunk of this match was dedicated to spots using ladders and tables, we had a good share of tag offence and sequences thrown in there too, evening it out a bit. Had some playing on the Too Sweet/DELETE tagline, with pairings of the teams getting in exchanges either on the floor or atop the ladders with the fans chanting along. This was the biggest crowd in ROH history, and everyone in attendance was invested in this, making every moment, every spot that much more dramatic.

I loved this match, Hardys/Bucks has been a dream match for years, and although we've had it here and there over the past few years or so, I believe that this has been the best incarnation of it yet. WONDERFUL.

SUPERKICK COUNTER: 10

NXT: TakeOver Orlando

Best Match on TakeOver Orlando: The Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar) vs The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson) vs #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) - NXT Tag Team Championship Match


Coming to WWE territory now, its NXT's TakeOver event at the Amway Centre. As has been the trend the past year more or less in NXT, the tag team division takes the cake in becoming the best match on the card. This time around, we have the new champions, the formidable Authors of Pain defending against two of, if not the best teams ever to grace an NXT ring, The Revival and #DIY.

This match had it all. We had some awesome high spots and an incredible story being told in the ring. There were two main aspects to the tale they laid out for us; the longstanding rivalry between Revival and DIY, plus the need for them to join forces to take on AoP. My favourite was the former of the two, though the latter did make some awesome moments;

There were melees that occurred when Revival and DIY occupied the ring, staring each other down and the animosity that exists between them making the pot boil over, but there were subtleties that made it for me, with prior viewing allowing a deeper story to be told. When Gargano saw the submission that ruined his knee be applied to one of the Authors, hesitating before ultimately applying another submission on top.

However, my absolute favourite moment was when a mix up of pairings led to unlikely finisher tandems. 

Whilst those four gave this match its highest points, AoP played a key role. They were the ever present big bastards that brought the power and some devastation that rocked the ring. They were there to cut down the others, getting some deep heat lathered on. AoP would eventually win, the causation of both pinfalls that took place.

This match was awesome through and through. It felt like the NXT booking committee sat back and thought 'How can we make our tag matches better than they already are?' and it appears the answer was; throw more tag teams into the match.

WrestleMania 33

Best Match on WM33: AJ Styles vs Shane McMahon
Honourable Mention(s): The Club (Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson) vs Enzo & Cass vs Sheamus & Cesaro vs The Hardy Boyz (Matt & Jeff Hardy) - RAW Tag Team Championship Match
Neville vs Austin Aries - WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match

This match was exponentially better than it had any right to be. I voiced my concerns and displeasure at the fact WWE didn't have AJ in a more prominent role on the card. I felt after such an incredible year, a WWE World Championship match would have been great, whoever the opponent. Shane, although I love the guy and his matches, kinda figured he wouldn't be up to snuff. Boy was I wrong.

The opening few minutes, though fairly simple in respect to the moves performed in comparison to what came later on, saw the story unfold beautifully. Styles started off wrestling circles around Shane, tying him up, misdirecting him, all over him basically. Then he hit that big overhand right to hammer home the disrespect. Shane coming back with the Muay Thai, taking Styles down, launching him overhead was killer, showing that he could fucking go. He fired up with all those punches we've known to expect from him, and he threw in a poppin' elbow right upside AJ's head. Nasty.

That MMA ground game also came into play, making for one memorable moment. AJ hit those ropes like he's done thousands of times, done that rotation he's done thousands of times, but then got a big shock;

Now, this is a Shane McMahon match, so inevitably, he's gonna take some tumbles. We got his jump from the corner to the announce table, the coast to coast, and I was going into this thinking there was a good chance we'd see those. But then, fuck me sideways down the Mississippi River, I did not sit down that night expecting to see the 47-year-old Shane McMahon climb that turnbuckle and do a fucking Shooting Star Press;

I mean, he did miss, but still. Jesus. And the knees! Good lord above that looked sore on those patellas. That then led to Styles finally managing to put the heir to the McMahon empire down for good.

Sweet and sour balls that was amazing. Like I said, much better than I had anticipated. The ring work and story telling was immense, let alone the spots. It delivered and then some, like you just clicked checkout and there's an immediate knock on the door, that's how much it delivered. Faaaantastic.

The Verdict

Best Match of the Weekend: The Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar) vs The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson) vs #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) - NXT Tag Team Championship Match - Takeover: Orlando

Ah yessir, NXT takes the top spot with the #TOPGUYS claiming yet another such prize. All three teams played their role expertly;

AoP - The monsters champions that don't know anything other than bulldoze.
#DIY - The determined fan favourites that never say die.
The Revival - The smash mouthed opportunists, dangerous to trust but even worse to face.

Everything flowed wonderfully, each beat hit, and they each made sense. At any one point, nothing felt out of place, whether that be who was in the ring, the moves being done down to the idle actions of those on the apron. A joy to watch.

With that said, here's how the leaderboard now looks after this li'l bo-bo episode.

The whole TakeOver card was amazing. Supercard of Honour had more great matches to it, and I think overall, 'Mania was one of the better ones in the past decade or so, and although I haven't managed to properly watch much else that's been on, I have no doubt there was some fucking barn burners this weekend.

This past weekend has been glorious, Hall of Fame was a lot of fun, TakeOver was insane and WrestleMania, despite a bump here and there, was the spectacle that has yet to fail me. Life may have me a bit down lately, but this weekend has put smile after smile after wide eyed smile on my face. I fucking love wrestling, me, and I hope you do too.

BWOTW: 30/1/17 - 4/2/17

Hello and welcome to this newest edition of 'Noah's Best Wrestling of the Week' AKA 'Okay Then'

Sure

Let us now, as is the norm, look at the past week in news form;

1. Randy Orton is the 2017 Royal Rumble winner. He was the betting favourite, which I have no idea where that came from with him having not shown any real interest in the Rumble the past few weeks, but okay then. At the minute we're slated for Orton versus Cena at 'Mania (uugghhh), but we have Elimination Chamber coming up so things might change
2. Championship changes galore! Bobby Roode is the new NXT Champion, The Authors of Pain are the new NXT Tag Team Champions, Neville is the new WWE Cruiserweight Champion, Gallows and Anderson are new RAW Tag Team Champions, and finally, John Cena is the new WWE World Champion. Shake up fever over here in the WWE.
3. Samoa Joe debuted in the Royal Rumble and won like everyone wanted on Monday Night RAW, attacking Seth Rollins in what appears to be some sort of allegiance with Triple H. That brings us to our next story...
4. Seth Rollins has re-injured his knee being assaulted by Samoa Joe. It sounds like the injury occurred when he went down for the Coquina Clutch, with it going anything but smoothly. Reports say it will be around 8 weeks to recover, which means he could be missing a second WrestleMania in a row. Get well soon, Seth.
5. Like I said, we've got Elimination Chamber coming up, and the participants in the marquee match have been announced. John Cena will defend his newly won championship in the Chamber against AJ Styles, Bray Wyatt, Baron Corbin, The Miz and Dean Ambrose. They've also got a big tag match slated for the event, and I'm hoping this gets added into the Chamber as well.
6. Corey Graves will no longer be commentating for NXT. However, he will be succeeded by WWE's newest announce team addition, Nigel McGuinness! 
7. Chikara's King of Trios is coming to Brummy-Brum; Birmingham, England! I might just have to look into going.
8. Akira Tozawa has debuted on 205 Live, and it appears he will be feuding with Brian Kendrick. I forgot how cool his theme is;

And now for the intersect in this Venn diagram of a wrestling blog, it's the matches!

NXT TakeOver: San Antonio

Best Match on TakeOver: San Antonio: Shinsuke Nakamura vs Bobby Roode - NXT Championship Match
Honourable Mention(s): Andrade 'Cien' Almas vs Roderick Strong

Kicking off Rumble weekend for us here on BWOTW, its NXT TakeOver: San Antonio, with Shinsuke Nakamura taking on Bobby Roode with the NXT Championship on the line. 

I think this is hands down Roode's best match in NXT so far, and it was certainly a breath of fresh air on Nakamura's part following his number of clashes against Samoa Joe over the past half-year or so. What made this a lot different from those matches was that we have Roode being dastardly in his tactics, as well as having his own over the top personality. There were instances where the two would exchange taunts, it made all the difference to having just one person being like that.

Roode did a great job of countering Nakmura's offence and working out how to take advantage of things. My favourite moment of Bobby's ingenuity is this instance of playing possum;

We had an injury angle that I thought worked in some aspects, and in others not so much. Nakamura hurts his knee dropping a knee to Roode on the apron, he then continued to sell it really well, and made it very believable. He hit the Kinshasa, then immediately clutched it in pain and dropped to the floor, again I thought that was great. However, he was down for ages and being attended to by doctors and even had Matt Bloom come out to check on him. I get that it gave Roode time to recover, and in effect protecting the move, but it did drag a tad. 

Roode picks up the injured Shinsuke and gives him 2 Glorious DDT's to finally put the man down long enough for the pin. And there you have it, Bobby Roode is new NXT Champion! I haven't looked at the tapings spoilers, so I have no idea who he'll be facing at Orlando; Kassius Ohno? Will they have Nakamura heal in time? Not too sure.

WWE Royal Rumble

Best Match on RR: AJ Styles vs John Cena - WWE World Championship Match
Honourable Mention(s): Kevin Owens vs Roman Reigns - WWE Universal Championship Match

It's Royal-Rumble o'clock now and we have this match up I was majorly excited for; AJ Styles versus John Cena for the WWE World Championship. 

Although I think I prefer their match at SummerSlam last year to this one, it was still a barn burner. There were a few things that were quite similar to their prior encounter, but its not like it was disappointing or detracted from the quality at all. These guys going at it in any capacity has always been a great watch, though I'm confident I could watch AJ Styles daily and not complain. Styles did pull out some new counters that were just the coolest; Cena got him up for his slam after the shoulder tackles, and AJ flopped out like a salmon and huricanrana'd Cena away. Slick. And no matter how many times you see a Phenomenal Forearm, its always amazing;

I had some curiosity as to how Cena would wrestle in this match, with a more cocky heel-like side to him being put across on TV, and I feel there were some noticeable changes in his work. There were a couple instances where he just straight up clocked AJ on the schnoz with a big overhand right. Plus, he nailed AJ with a couple consecutive clattering lariats, flip-turned his world upside down. He stood there pumping every hunk of meat that would flex on his body like a damn bull about to charge, absolutely terrifying. Remind me to never piss of John Cena, or face him in a championship match. 

They had a whole sequence trading submissions and wriggling their way out, throwing in a figure-four leglock and a cross armbar in there alongside their usual repertoires. Cena also performed what is most likely his most fluid Code Red yet, hopping straight up and getting a full rotation in a split second, props to both men for that piece of magic.

Whilst I wasn't ecstatic to see Cena leave with the gold, I have to admit that the ending sequence was brilliant. Cena's Okada-like roll into the AA was awesome and got an audible reaction from me.


Now comparison there have been a fair amount of comparison between this match and Okada/Omega, and I can see why with both of them being great bouts, and also they were both in January. To me, you can't really compare them, they both serve different purposes and are made for different audiences with different wants and needs. I think I might prefer just a smidge more, but I do have my irks with the heavyweight style matches in New Japan. 

Nevertheless, whichever way you look at, I'd say you should definitely give this a look-see.

Monday Night RAW

Best Match on RAW (30/1/17): Kevin Owens vs Braun Strowman - WWE Universal Championship Match

Bit of a surprise of how much I enjoyed this, Monday Night RAW gave us the Universal Championship match between Kevin Owens and the challenging Braun Strowman. This wasn't a huge match, and it didn't even finish properly, but it had me more intrigued than the majority of RAW this week. 

Before the bell, Braun chokeslammed Chris Jericho through the announce table, so immediately we have Owens going through this match with a hopeless 'oh shit how do I win this' attitude, something we don't tend to get with heels. Speaking of which, Owens felt very much like a babyface in this match, taking the brunt of an exhaustive assault from Strowman, and having flurries and comebacks that received some big cheers. 

It was interesting to see this contrast in Owens's presentation, and it made me optimistic that one day we might see a good face run from him, akin to that of his final days in Ring of Honour, where he's still a nasty bastard, he just is to the bad guys. 

Nice bit of variety here on RAW, I wouldn't say it's a must-see, but if you feel like something a little different from KO, its worth a watch.

SmackDown! LIVE

Best Match on SD! (31/1/17): AJ Styles vs Dean Ambrose

This week on SmackDown! LIVE, how many people can we fit around the announce table?

We're on SmackDown! LIVE now, and we've got 'The Phenomenal One', AJ Styles taking on Dean Ambrose ahead of the two of them competing in the Elimination Chamber on the 12th. Whilst I can't remember a whole lot about this match, it was definitely good. I'm by far not his biggest fan, but there just seems to be something about watching Ambrose that makes me shut off or just totally forget. Who knows? 

I mean, he's sound and I understand the appeal, but his usual stuff just doesn't do it for me. I know I say this pretty much every time he appears on this blog, and I apologise if you guys have heard this before, but I can't get over it. His clotheslines, his scrapping punches, his elbow drop and his fucking rebound lariat, none of it really appeals to me. I appreciate it when he varies it up, with this being a pretty cool example;

However, he did through something else new into the mix and managed to piss me off; he only went and did Neville's bloody submission move. Mate, we've spent the past month and a half making this move look like a killer, and you just slap it on half-assed with no real effect. Fuck off. Neville, use a double underhook DDT that gets kicked out of at 1.9, show him who's boss.

Overall, a good match here, whilst I have my grievances with Ambrose, Styles was tip-top in this match, so if you enjoy watching AJ, I should think you'll like this match, same with if you're an Ambrose fan.

205 Live

Best Match on 205 Live (31/1/17): Cedric Alexander & Jack Gallagher vs Neville & Noam Dar

Just like half of the crowd, we're sticking around for 205 Live after SmackDown! now, and the best match that we were offered this week was the tag team contest between the team of Cedric Alexander and Jack Gallagher, and Noam Dar teaming with the new Crusierweight Champion, Neville.

Again, a match I can't remember a whole lot about. However, I do recall Neville being very shouty and berating everyone, including Dar. Plus, he did a lot of shit-kicking. He knocked Gallagher around, he knocked Alexander around, and he wanted to knock Dar around. 

I honestly can't really think of much. I know the end saw Neville abandon Dar in the ring, allowing Cedric to hit literally all his moves on him for the victory. I guess you can describe it as something we've become accustomed to on 205 Live; has some nice moments but by and large pretty forgettable. 

NXT

Best Match on NXT (1/2/17): Tyler Bate vs Oney Lorcan

It's Tyler bloody Bate! His first in-ring appearance on WWE since the United Kingdom Championship Finals, and he's facing up against Oney Lorcan on this episode of NXT. We started off good and proper with a nice lock up, and then we started off our rough and tumble match with a bang;

From then on we had a pretty heavy, stiff striking match-up, with Lorcan unloading an ungodly amount of European uppercuts to Bate, as well as a barrage of chops to his progressively more red chest. Bate got his licks in though, utilising a similar arsenal on the strike front. 

We got to see all the things that made the universe fall in love with young Tyler, his roll kick, the airplane spin, the Tyler Driver '97, and of course, his waves. It was great to see Bate again, been wondering when he'd pop up next and didn't you just love his surprise appearance in the Royal Rumble and praise be that it was sooner rather than later. I can't wait for some proper UK division programming, but I will gladly settle for popping up on NXT for a bit. 

I really enjoyed this match, and I'd definitely recommend adding it to the watch list, especially to those who enjoyed the UK Championship Tournament.

Also, this was Corey Graves' final time calling NXT, and they put together this lovely video package;

Ring of Honour

Best Match on ROH TV (Episode 280): Marty Scurll vs Juice Robinson - ROH World Television Championship Match

Tilting our gaze now to Ring of Honour, we had a belter of an episode this week; there was a great three way tag team match, a Decade of Excellence tournament match of Jay Lethal against Jay Briscoe, but the best of all was Marty Scurll defending his TV Title against Juice Robinson. In case you didn't know, Juice Robinson is CJ Parker from NXT (that one Owens debuted against), now in New Japan.

Very good match here. Consistent action and well paced wrestling made for a highly entertaining contest. I have to admit, Robinson was much better than I was anticipating him to be, in actual wrestling capabilities and his moveset. He did a big, cool powerbomb at one point with Marty properly bouncing off the mat hard. 

Scurll's villainous antics forever play a key role in his matches, with him just being an arrogant prick at points, as well as being the rules along with Robinson's fingers. I can't get enough Scurll, this signing with ROH has made me a very happy boy indeed, and his champion status has elevated that feeling higher.

I would certainly recommend getting round to watching this, as well as the episode as a whole, 3 great matches in one go. As always, you can watch ROH TV for FREE at both www.rohwrestling.com/tv/current or on the Fite TV app.

EVOLVE 76

Best Match on EVOVLE 76: Chris Hero vs Keith Lee

Taking us back to San Antonio now, it's Chris Hero's final EVOLVE weekend before becoming a full-time NXT competitor. Here he is in this one facing off a debut for the company, and a man we've seen before in Ring of Honour, it's Keith Lee.

We've got big lad versus big lad, so I went in thinking it wasn't going to be the paciest of matches. That was true in some moments, taking things a bit slow, but there were times when these guys cranked it some and started bouncing off them ropes like nobody's business. In fact, I felt that this match was probably a bit faster than most of the card. As I watched I did feel that a lot of the show was plodding along a bit, encouraging me to skip through, but this managed to maintain my attention.

Now, probably the most notable detail about this match was that not only did the top rope break from Hero rebounding off it, but so did the second one after an attempted moonsault of all things from Lee. Only one rope remained by the end, managing to stay out of theses two's way for long enough, the real sole survivor this Royal Rumble weekend. 

Good match here in what felt like one of the lesser EVOLVE shows I've watched, but hey, you take some of the good and some of the bad, and there you have it. 

EVOLVE 77

Best Match on EVOLVE 77: Chris Hero vs Zack Sabre Jr.

It's the next day and it's EVOLVE 77! When I say the next 'day' I really mean it, with this match bathed in the sunlight of the Texan afternoon. You could see the dust in the air floating along. First time seeing something like that I must say. Not quite first half of WrestleMania 31 blinding, but bright enough that you could annoy someone by reflecting it off your watch.

The match itself took to the outside a fair bit, right by the fans, and Hero even tossed Zack into a guy at one point, landing on the litter of the concessions stand. Sabre was fighting from the backfoot for the majority of this match. Whenever he managed to wrap up Hero in a submission hold, Hero would hulk up and power out or find some technical way out of it. 

Zack did exchange strikes with the big man, but mostly ended up landing the many, but not the big. He'd throw a bunch of forearms, and then get floored by a straight jab. Not too sure what he was expecting going into a fight with a man named 'The Knockout Artist'. 

I've seen Hero pull out the Tombstone Piledriver before, but he hit one in this with more tenacity than ever. He spun him round and without delay dropped to his knees and flattened the top of Sabre's head. Vicious. 

The end was tense as all fuck, with Hero's Death Blow not managing to get a 3, and then the following Gotch-style piledriver attempt countered into Sabre contorting Hero's arms and a leg to force a submission. Nasty stuff.

Great match this, and a nice send off to Hero as he travels to Orlando in the hopes of doing better than the first time around, which I am confident will happen, mainly because Chris Hero ain't nothin' to fuck with.

The Verdict

Best Match of the Week: AJ Styles vs John Cena - WWE World Championship Match - Royal Rumble

Yes, this week's best was the Royal Rumble's match of Cena vs Styles. It was fantastic in my eyes, and was just a pleasure to watch. Shout outs to Hero/Sabre and Nakamura/Roode also, with both being great matches too and very much worth a watch.

And with that one done, here's what the leaderboard bares a striking resemblance to. Now, for a segment I'm running short on, it's 'The Best Wrestling Quote of the Week';

'HYAAH' - Akira Tozawa

That's all from me for this week folks, thank you for joining me on this journey everyone. I hope you enjoyed, and feel free to chat with me on the past week in wrestling, or anything about pro wrestling whatsoever. Art is best discussed. I do hope that the next few days are great for you guys, and I hope to see you again soon!