The latest WWE and AEW News and Results
Happy Friday! Join on-camera personality Denise Salcedo as she recaps both WWE SmackDown and AEW Rampage!
Topics include Andrade vs. Rey Fenix with the AEW formation of La Faccion Ingobernable, more matches added to Forbidden Door, and the continued build towards Money in the Bank!
This podcast is sponsored by Wrestle Rumble.
Rush has not signed a full-time contract with AEW.
The 33-year-old debuted for the promotion at Double or Nothing in a segment with Andrade El Idolo, reuniting the Los Ingobernables stablemates. They had both been original members of the faction when it formed in 2014.
During a recent interview with Lucha Libre Online, Rush revealed that he is currently on a per appearance deal with AEW. The two sides are still in negotiations, however.
“I am grateful to Tony Khan for giving me the opportunity,” Rush said. “We are still under talks and negotiations. For now, there are just dates (not a full-time contract). I already did the first jump (step), which is being in the PPV, and not just a segment, but they gave it the value that both Rush and Andrade have. They left that promo for the end. Nobody expected it, not even my own family.”
Rush continued to talk about who in AEW he’s most interested in wrestling.
“For now, my objective is AEW,” he continued. “I am now in AEW and I want to face the biggest names. I want everything! I am not going for the minimum. You name it! CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, (Jon) Moxley, Samoa Joe, the best they have (to offer).”
“Imagine Rush vs Samoa Joe. There’s a lot of material. Bryan Danielson vs Toro Blanco Rush, two ex ROH World Champions against each other. There’s Moxley, which they state is the most extreme one. They need to see a real Mexican badass. A lot of people have requested this match… Rush vs. Kenny Omega. We can finally have that match.”
H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions.
Suzuki-gun returned to New Japan, laying waste to Chaos and made clear they wanted all of their titles, with Suzuki gunning for the top title. Juice Robinson scored a big upset win over Goto, making himself next in line for the NEVER title. Elgin scored a win over Naito, looking to take the Intercontinental title back down the line. Dragon Lee made his return, laying out Hiromu Takahashi and challenged for the IWGP Jr. title, much to the chagrin of KUSHIDA, who also wants another crack.
Good opener. Ricochet is excellent, in case you didn’t know. Not just him doing great spots, but how he does it in execution, it’s virtually flawless at times. The match boiled down to Henare fighting for his team, but as like with other young lions, took the pin here. Finlay did the rolling senton, Ricochet hit a shooting star press and Finlay covered for the win.
Finlay went into the crowd and hugged his mom after the match in a nice moment.
This wasn’t that good. The crowd wasn’t into it aside from a few faint Billy Gunn chants. Yujiro laid out Yoshitatsu on the outside with the pimp juice DDT. Page laid out Gunn with a lariat then pinned Yoshitatsu with the Rite of Passage (Omori Driver).
Bucks (and even Cole) tried to do the Meltzer Driver but were taken out by Baretta. Bullet Club made their comeback. Cole gave the Last Shot to Romero and Nick followed with a knee strike but Romero kicked out. YOSHI-HASHI made a good comeback but Cole cut him off. He was going for the Last Shot but YOSHI-HASHI cradled him and got a flash win.
Cole and the Bucks laid out YOSHI-HASHI after the match, drilling him with a double superkick/Last Shot combo. That seems to indicate YOSHI-HASHI getting an ROH title shot down the line.
All of Team 2000 posed for a picture and Tiger Hattori pulled Cheeseburger away in a funny spot. Both teams did the Wolfpac sign before the match. Omega tried to get Norton to join the Bullet Club, but he wasn’t interested.
There was a hilarious spot where Norton laid everyone out, then Cheeseburger came in to do the Wolfpac sign again, but instead Norton opted to Gorilla Press Cheeseburger out of the ring. He was supposed to wipe out all the Bullet Club members on the outside, but instead they grabbed him and just threw him back in the ring. Cheeseburger tried to do Kojima’s chops in the corner on Fale but it didn’t exactly work. Kojima laid out Bone Soldier, allowing Cheeseburger and Saito to land a couple of sentons, then Kojima pinned him with the lariat.
Good action. KUSHIDA focused on Takahashi and Elgin set his sights on Naito. Good back and forth action by everyone involved. Elgin took Naito and gave him a German suplex into the turnbuckle, then smooshed Takahashi on top of Naito after a running Death Valley Driver. Naito low blowed Elgin but all of a sudden Dragon Lee ran out and took out Naito, then wiped out Takahashi on the outside with a dive. Elgin proceeded to score the win with a running Death Valley Driver.
Dragon Lee posed with the title after the match, shaking hand with Elgin. He and KUSHIDA had a staredown as well, with KUSHIDA making his intentions known.
Shibata and Ospreay started things off. Ospreay motioned that he wanted the RPW British Heavyweight Championship. He and Shibata had a nice early exchange. It ended up becoming a brawl on the outside with Ishii taking Makabe and throwing him into a sign in the crowd. All good, solid action throughout. It continues to be clear that Robinson has improved tons since joining New Japan. Everyone came in and were trading spots. Goto and Robinson went at it. Goto pelted him with clotheslines but Robinson responded with one of his own. Shibata flew in and hit the penalty kick. Robinson hit the unprettier and pinned Goto in a big upset.
Juice Robinson was holding the NEVER title, making clear he was challenging next when all of a sudden, Suzuki-gun ran in for the big return and started to clear house on Chaos. Davey Boy Smith Jr, Lance Archer, Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi, Takashi Iizuka & Taka Michinoku all came in and destroyed whoever was in their path. Taichi and Taka Michinoku laid out Roppongi Vice and Killer Elite Squad laid out Yano. Okada came in and tried to clear house, but the boss himself Minoru Suzuki came in and laid him out with the Gotch piledriver. Suzuki said he wants to rule this ring again and all the belts will be theirs. This got really great heat.
A solid main event with some good action. Crowd was into this and treated it like a big deal. Nakanishi worked in here longer than you’d think. A big cluster went down during the final moments of the match. Nakanishi scored the win with the Hercules cutter, winning the titles for his team. These titles are quickly becoming redundant, but they were never that interesting to begin with so it doesn’t matter much.
Nakanishi closed the show off with a promo.
A good show to set up events leading to the New Beginning shows next month. The return of Suzuki-gun has its plusses and minuses (Iizuka, Taichi) but it does set up an exciting future main event in Okada vs. Suzuki. Nothing blow away here, but a fun show that did what was needed to start New Japan’s year with a bang.
Strongly focusing on tag teams, Ring of Honor television from this past week was another episode from Lowell, MA that continued to establish a path to Final Battle.
As noted in the latest issue of the Observer, the current direction could change for the ROH world title match at the next PPV. Whether by coincidence or not, there is a hint on this episode at a possible shift in storyline tying Jay Lethal into the ongoing narrative involving challenger Kyle O’Reilly and ROH World Champion Adam Cole.
Other than that brief hint and O’Reilly later shining in a showcase match, the episode was all about tag teams and teams in general.
The Tempura Boyz are Yohey & Sho. New Japan young lions on excursion in North America, they formerly appeared in ROH under masks representing personas they first used in CMLL. Here they were unmasked, taking part in a match with some comedy but also some serious wrestling.
When Cabana used a sunset flip for a two count, Steve Corino jokingly called it a “Tony Garea special” on commentary. They sure don’t make wrestlers like Tony Garea anymore. Anyway, Dalton pinned Yohey after a delivering a bang-a-rang.
The Briscoes walked onto the ramp for a promo afterwards and had words with Cabana and Castle. They briefly argued before the Briscoes vowed to win the tag team titles for the ninth time at Final Battle.
Promos edited together featuring ROH World Champion Adam Cole and Jay Lethal hyped their upcoming title match in London.
After those promos, Kyle O’Reilly cut a promo himself about his title shot facing whoever is champion at Final Battle. He has a vendetta against Cole, but a point to prove with Lethal. He will take on either to challenge for the title at the next PPV.
A showcase for O’Reilly and his grappling skills, Gresham held his own in this mix of old fashioned pro wrasslin’ spots and more realistic hand-to-hand combat. Displaying good sportsmanship at first, that soon eroded when Gresham started targeting O’Reilly’s injured shoulder.
The intensity picked up when tempers flared and O’Reilly cut Gresham down with kicks and strikes, transitioning later into some submission holds. O’Reilly choked out Gresham with a front facelock, then finished him off by hoisting him for a brainbuster followed by a pinfall.
Bullet Club’s Hangman Page ran in after the bell to attack O’Reilly. His reDRagon teammate and TV champion, Bobby Fish, made the save. Fish brawled with Page before Cole sprinted into the ring to help assault Fish. Page grabbed a chair and began clobbering Fish, leaving him laying. This sets up Page challenging Fish for the World TV title while also continuing the feud with O’Reilly and Cole.
A video package hyped Punishment Martinez before Cheeseburger and Will Ferrara came down to the ring to issue a challenge. The video showed them being mauled by Punishment. So they proceeded to gallantly challenge Punishment, and company, to a match.
On commentary, Sullivan told Corino to basically take his rightful seat at his side in joining his evil stable, almost blaming him for the punishment (pun intended) seen in the ring. The match itself was a backdrop for the unfolding drama, with Sullivan somewhat speaking in tongues as he said Corino should join his family.
Corino could take no more as Punishment looked to finish off Cheeseburger, after pummeling him and Ferrara in the match. Corino left the announce table and ran to the ring to make the save, sparing Cheeseburger. Corino caused a disqualification when he ran in and shoved Punishment. Whitmer sneered at Corino. Sullivan was seemingly pleased with the mind games he unleashed.
A Ladder Wars featurette led into an in-ring promo from the Motor City Machine Guns putting over their work ethic and their drive to please the audience. Chris Sabin said that Nigel McGuinness and ROH had given them the night off, as this was taped the night after the now infamous Ladder Wars match at the last pay-per-view. They refused to take the night off, apparently for the sake of the fans. Alex Shelley vowed to take the fight to Los Ingobernables de Japon.
Los Ingobernables de Japon lived up to their name of being “the ungovernables” as they broke the rules with a double team to gain the upperhand in the opening moments. The Motor City Machine Guns soon fired up, leading to Shelley with a flying knee off the apron on Naito and Sabin doing a senton off the apron on EVIL.
The Machine Guns were running wild until Naito tripped up Sabin and EVIL cut off Shelley. EVIL put a chair around the neck of Shelley before posting him. Los Ingobernables worked over Shelley heading into a commercial break.
Shelley eventually gets some separation to make the the hot tag. Sabin ran wild and soon jumped off the top with a missile dropkick on Naito. On commentary, announcer Kevin Kelly kept mentioning that Sabin had taped ribs, despite him running wild on Naito. EVIL then saved Naito by targeting the Sabin’s ribs. Nevertheless, Sabin and Shelley both flew off the top with crossbodies.
MCMG then did a double team tope dive. Back in the ring, Naito was at the mercy of the Machine Guns. He tripped them up again as EVIL jumped back in to dispatch Shelley with a STO. Sabin tried to fight off the assault, but Naito executed the Destino and covered him to score the pinfall.
On the next episode of ROH TV airing this weekend in syndication, the focus on tag teams continues with a semifinal match in the ongoing six-man tag tournament. Plus, The Addiction face The Briscoes. After first airing on Sinclair affiliates, the latest episode is available on various services and streaming platforms before also airing this Wednesday night on Comet.
This week from ROH on YouTube:
Here are some notes from this morning’s Road to Destruction event held in Korakuen Hall, continuing to set up events for the three Destruction shows taking place later this month.
David Finlay defeated Henare after pinning him with the stunner. Finlay has a new look and a new finish, evolving beyond young boy status, it looks like.
Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens defeated Yoshitatsu & Captain New Japan when Yujiro pinned CNJ with the Pimp Juice DDT. Yujiro has new music, I guess removing the one thing that people liked about him. His new music has a lady moaning throughout it. This ended up how you’d expect a Captain New Japan match to go — he gets in some offense, but loses in the end.
Yoshitatsu cut a promo after the match. The gist of it was that he was tired of losing, needed more help from CNJ, and would leave it up to the fans if they should keep teaming by doing some sort of Twitter poll.
Jushin Liger, Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Will Ospreay, Rocky Romero, Gedo, and Baretta when Taguchi submitted Romero with the ankle lock. Pretty solid, fun match between these guys. Ospreay looked great in particular.
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma defeated Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi after Makabe hit the King Kong knee drop on Nakanishi. Honma also assisted with a Kokeshi beforehand.
EVIL defeated Juice Robinson with the STO. Pretty decent match.
ReDragon defeated Tiger Mask & Katsuyori Shibata when Tiger Mask was pinned following the Chasing the Dragon. Another pretty solid match. Bobby Fish cut a promo after the match talking about the ROH TV title.
Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Kazuchika Okada, & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Guerillas of Destiny, Kenny Omega, & Bad Luck Fale when Ishii pinned Tanga Loa with a brainbuster. YH has a new blonde look. After the match he cut a short promo
BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito, & SANADA defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin, & KUSHIDA when BUSHI defeated KUSHIDA with the codebreaker from the top rope. BUSHI decided to watch the match rather than participate early on in the bout. Lots of back and forth between Naito and Elgin. KUSHIDA worked with SANADA since BUSHI was on the outside.
Suddenly, BUSHI emerged and came down to the ring. Turns out the guy that came out with SANADA and Naito wasn’t BUSH, but someone new.. BUSHI comes out, mists KUSHIDA and hits a codebreaker for a near fall. After some frantic back and forth, BUSHI managed to land another codebreaker and picked up the win. Fun main event.
The heels laid out the faces after the match. BUSHI grabbed KUSHIDA and chokes him out on the bottom rope. Elgin ran in and tried to make the save but was thwarted as the numbers game became too much, and was dropkicked on the knee by Naito which might lead to something.
BUSHI cut a promo after the match, but didn’t reveal who the new Los Ingobernables member was.
Tonight’s Road to Show is a themed show! That’s great as these shows are usually a bunch of tag matches with or two singles. We are still getting a bunch of tags (well, three) but we’re also getting a best of five series tonight between New Japan and Bullet Club.
It was your standard NJPW eight man tag opener. Good, solid action that set the tone for the night. It was cool in that you saw some people interact with each other where it couldn’t happen under normal circumstances. For example, Liger and Ishii worked together and it was actually pretty interesting. Kushida worked with him briefly as well. That would be a very interesting match if it were ever to happen. Yano was only in there briefly, doing his usual deal with the Finlay made his comeback but RPG Vice countered. Romero took out Kushida with a dive, then they followed with the dropkick/dudebuster combo for the win.
Why did Shibata agree to tag with Captain New Japan? Eh, I always bring this up but someone should go to management and mention CNJ’s never, like, won a match. If this were real he’d be canned a long time ago, old or not. The Old Lion Squad beat up Shibata and isolated him early. Kojima managed to thwart Taguchi’s hip attacks. It was Nagata who worked with CNJ towards the end. All of Shibata’s team mates tried to help take down Nagata but it was no use as he got the backdrop driver on CNJ and pinned him. It wasn’t that good or even interesting. Wrong team dynamics here.
Tenzan and Shibata got into a big brawl after the match, with Tenzan pelting Shibata with chairs as his team mates tried to stop him. They’re competing for the NEVER title at Invasion Attack.
This is Hall’s first singles match in New Japan if I recall correctly. If not it’s been a very long time. He’s still green in spots but has tons of potential, has good facials and has improved dramatically in the last year. They had a short, but pretty solid back and forth match with Elgin getting the win, pinning Hall with a powerbomb pinning combination.
This was pretty good. White is really good technically at this point. Crowd was kind of quiet early, but got into it towards the end, especially when White was making his comeback and was getting all the close submissions/near falls. Omega cut him off with a snap German suplex then a knee strike, pinning White to even things up.
Yujiro seems to not even have Mao or his cool theme song anymore at this point. He just came out to the usual Bullet Club theme. Tanahashi came out but Yujiro jumped him immediately. This was fine – short, but was probably the right amount of length. Yujiro low blowed him at one point and got a near fall with a cradle. Yujiro bumped into the referee towards the end of the match, and Tanahashi returned the favor. He gave him the sling blade, high fly flow, boom, there’s your winner.
I liked this match in the sense it told a nice story. People were into Honma’s comebacks and were totally behind him. Honma fought hard early but Fale took him to town and dominated, as he’s the big giant of the promotion. Fale beat him up forever and ever until he escaped the Bad Luck Fall and scored a roll up for a nearfall. Fale gave him a GIGANTIC lariat in retaliation, then pinned him with the Bad Luck Fall.
This is the deciding match in the best of five series as they’re tied with two wins each. This wasn’t really anything interesting. Not terrible, but I couldn’t get into it. Just a lot of back and forth brawling with no real significant heat. Tonga did do a ref spot and a gun stun at one point. Makabe fought him off, hit the spider German suplex and was going for the King Kong knee drop when Tonga Roa came in and shoved him off the top rope, then continued beating him for the DQ. So technically, the New Japan guys win the best of five battle.
Roa and Tonga beat up on Makabe (Honma was destroyed in the previous match) as young lions try to intervene, but Roa throws them around easily. They laid out Makabe one more time with a modified double team version of Tonga’s finish (waistlock DDT). Tonga cut a promo saying they are GOD – Guerillas of Destruction. Cool name. Don’t know if this team will work, but we’ll see. It’s something new at the very least.
Ingobernables were mean early with Bushi choking out Yoshi-Hashi and Naito beating up Gedo all the way back to the backstage area. What’s funny here is that now Crowd were into Goto as opposed to booing him, I guess because he finally joined Chaos. He and Evil worked pretty good together. Okada and Naito had some good back and forth before he tagged in Yoshi-Hashi. He made a good comeback and battled out of the Destino and walloped Naito with a lariat. There was another ref spot. That’s like three matches tonight where there’s been some sort of ref bump, pretty excessive and unnecessary. This allowed the heels to lay everyone out and pin Yoshi-Hashi for the win.
