Tag: Review

AEW All Out review: Splinters, cinder blocks, and syringes

Posted on by Bryan Rose

I’m not going to forget what happened between Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page at this year’s All Out.

I mean, how can I? Page took a vertebreaker on a real concrete block. Page then proceeded to powerbomb Swerve on top of said concrete block. Swerve, still furious over his house being burnt down days prior at the hands of Page, took a splinter from the doomed house and stabbed him in the head with it. Then Page took a hypodermic needle, pushed the needle inside Swerve’s cheek, then ended him with a steel chair head shot to end all head shots to win the match. Just an incredibly brutal, bloody bout.

It’s hard to express this match in terms of star ratings. As far as wrestling is concerned, their other matches were better. More heated too, as I think people were shocked by what they were seeing live. Still, this was a spectacle match for the ages. It’s going to be hard to top something like this in terms of violence and honestly, I wouldn’t recommend someone trying that.

Although the first half was better than the last half, All Out overall ended up being a strong show-of-the-year contender, with many of the matches being good to great, and one reaching match-of-the-year caliber.

The opening match between Daniel Garcia and MJF was excellent. A lot of hard strikes and emotions here between the two. I don’t know if I would have gone with that finish as I feel Garcia needs a big win more than MJF does. But Garcia low blowing and piledriving MJF off the middle rope at least gets his heat back. I think this may have something to do with Garcia’s contract status which, hey, if he’s not signed, I get it. I do have to wonder what the reaction would have been if Garcia had done all that to MJF after winning.

Young Bucks retained the titles over Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta in a very good match. I thought Castagnoli looked great here and seeing him work with the Bucks was pretty enjoyable. There doesn’t seem to be a clear direction for The Young Bucks going forward. It’s kind of astonishing how much that Tony Khan attack angle fizzled with the follow-up, but they can always get the heat back somehow.

You are going to be stunned hearing this, but Will Ospreay and PAC had a match-of-the-year contender. Some of the reversals in this match have to be seen to be believed. I can’t comprehend some of the stuff I saw here between the poison ranas on the apron, the scary release suplexes, and the insane bumps Ospreay took on his neck, I mean wow. And also, ow. Ospreay continues to build a resume for wrestler of the year, even if he doesn’t end up as AEW World Champion. But if I were AEW, after this Bryan Danielson storyline concludes I feel Ospreay should be that guy at the top.

Willow Nightingale and Kris Statlander had to follow the Ospreay match, but they did a good job of doing so and ended up having an excellent street fight. People got into so many spots with the tables, the thumbtacks, and the steel chain. They worked their butts off and it paid off, though Nightingale losing clean by submission probably isn’t something I would have booked. Not that we’ll never see her again, but she always gets over and probably should be going for one of AEW’s titles.

I thought the Continental title match was just fine, with lots of action and good near falls. Honestly, when I heard about this match, my initial thoughts were I would have liked to see a singles match between Okada and one of the men he was facing here (Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy, and Konosuke Takeshita). Probably would have ended up being a better match, too. Oh well. Regardless, this was good.

The biggest problem with Hikaru Shida and Mercedes Mone was that the crowd wasn’t into it that much, and was put in a position where it was going to be hard to get people into it. I also don’t think many people thought Shida had a chance of beating Mone, despite Kamille being barred from ringside. The work was hit and miss as well, as some stuff looked good, and some stuff just felt off. A match that just didn’t work and never got going.

Bryan Danielson defeated Jack Perry to retain the AEW World Championship. This was a very good, hard-hitting match. There were teases that The Young Bucks were going to interfere, but it only led to one spot where Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta came in to run them out. Of course, while this was a very good match, most will probably remember the beatdown that took place after with Moxley and Claudio turning on Danielson, seemingly kicking him out of the Blackpool Combat Club after attempting to suffocate him with a plastic bag. Seems like we’re seeing Danielson vs. Moxley before Danielson leaves. 

And that was All Out! I feel like it will do strongly during Observer Awards season. Up next for AEW will be WrestleDream next month in Tacoma. It’s nice there are no pay-per-views for a few weeks. I need a breather! 

WWE Bash in Berlin review: The Ring General stands tall

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Gunther is probably going to be World Champion for a long, long time.

The Ring General righted a wrong on Saturday morning by defeating Randy Orton in what ended up being a methodically sound, terrific main event. If you wanted a brutal Gunther match, you got it, as he laid in Orton with chops and kicks. Orton, one of the best mechanical wrestlers WWE has, more than held his own and took Gunther’s punishment. In the end, while he battled out of the sleeper once, he couldn’t do it again, ultimately passing out to end a fantastic main event.

One thing I appreciate about WWE nowadays is that instead of just shrugging and moving on, they took something that happened in real life (Orton’s shoulders were up in their King of the Ring match a few months ago) and made it into a storyline where Gunther, the new face of Raw and World Heavyweight Champion, took on a decorated veteran.

The long-term storyline involving Gunther isn’t as clear as others in WWE, but one thing is for sure: he’s likely to be champion for a long time and given his recent performances, there’s no reason not to go with him. In the short term, based on post-match interviews, it seems like CM Punk is looking at challenging Gunther next. Good luck!

Here’s the rest of my thoughts on Bash in Berlin, a very good show thanks to two excellent title matches:

  • The opening match had Cody Rhodes retain the WWE Championship by defeating Kevin Owens in what ended up being a fantastic match thanks to the Berlin crowd, which was hot all night for everything. The work here was really good, but the crowd made it so much better, especially in the final moments of the match. You can have the best match in the world but if people aren’t reacting, no one’s going to remember or care. Next up for Cody is…probably Solo Sikoa again from what it sounds like. I’m not particularly excited about that one given their SummerSlam match, but maybe a stipulation match would make things more interesting? Hell in a Cell?
  • What I got from the WWE Women’s Tag Team title match wasn’t so much the match, which was fine aside from some sloppy moments. What I realized is while Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair are teaming up now, they probably aren’t going to be for the long run. Bianca sold and sold and sold, and announcers put over that it was Jade, the star, that turned the match around for them, winning the titles from Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn. It is clear WWE sees Cargill as something special, and I feel it’s only a matter of time before a turn goes down and these two face off.
  • Here’s the thing about the strap match. This was pretty good as a whole. The crowd was into it, and the finish was pretty strong. Here is what annoys me: this was a strap match, right? They are tethered together. The strap hurts, and since this is a strap match, this can be a weapon, right? Well, that worked for the first few minutes, as Drew used the strap to batter Punk. Then McIntyre introduced a chair. Why? Then CM Punk took out a table. Why? Why does every stipulation match in the year of our lord 2024 need tables and chairs and other plunder? There is a strap RIGHT THERE. It is ATTACHED TO YOU. USE IT! IT HURTS! Ok, I got that out of my system. This was good but man sometimes some of the psychology involved in these kinds of stipulation matches are just not sound at all.
  • Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest got their measure of revenge, defeating Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio despite the interference from the rest of Judgement Day. This was pretty good, the crowd was hot for everything. Seems like a given that the programs taking place this fall on Raw will be Rhea Ripley looking to get the Women’s World title back from Rhea and Damian Priest seeking a match against Finn Balor.

And that will do it for Bash in Berlin, a good show overall with two great title matches. Up next is October’s Bad Blood. The fall season for WWE begins now.

AEW All In review: The Final Countdown

Posted on by Bryan Rose

There’s nothing better than a Bryan Danielson main event match.

The end of this year’s All In at Wembley Stadium saw Danielson, ultimate babyface in physical peril against champion Swerve Strickland, beat the odds by submitting Strickland to win the AEW World Championship for the first time. The show ended with Danielson, his wife Brie, and their two children celebrating in the ring as a gigantic fireworks display lit up Wembley Stadium. It was an incredible main event to cap off a very good show. Although there have been better pay-per-views this year overall, it will be very tough to match the performances of Danielson and Strickland on this night.

It wasn’t just the match that made this an excellent main event, even though the wrestling was pretty awesome. This had everything bad faith ‘fans’ of pro wrestling complain about when it comes to grifting off of AEW disdain: the cool video packages, the big entrances, the great wrestling, and the emotional aftermath. This is how you tell stories in pro wrestling.

I’ll be the first to admit that for some of AEW’s main events, not everything is there, even if the wrestling is out of this world. But this main event felt different than the others. It felt like AEW touching upon things that WWE is known for when they are firing off on all cylinders. No, this can’t match Cody’s championship win, which was built over two years. But it did an excellent job of making me invested in the story they are telling.

Bryan Danielson’s future isn’t clear, as he’s intentionally made his future vague. Despite now being AEW World Champion, he is working without a contract, and is still winding down his career as he transitions to a part-time wrestler. We’ll know more where his future lies this coming Wednesday, where he’s scheduled to appear on Dynamite.

Here’s the rest of the main card:

  • Jack Perry beating Darby Allin was more of a backdrop to everything that happened after the match, with Sting coming out to Seek and Destroy and  proceeded to, in fact, seek and destroy The Young Bucks and Jack Perry. The match was fine, particularly made memorable by Allin’s nasty bumps. I would never attempt to fall off the stage with my feet and hands tied together, geez.
  • Mechanically, Britt Baker and Mercedes Mone had a fine match. Problem is, the crowd simply wasn’t into this after watching MJF and Will Ospreay. And the finish, where Mone simply threw Baker into the ropes and pinned her with the Mone Maker, didn’t exactly excite me about watching another match between these two down the road. Nothing they did was wrong per se, but this was more about the placing on the card than anything.
  • As expected, Will Ospreay defeated MJF in an excellent match, finally hitting the Tiger Driver 91 for the win. I wouldn’t say it was as good as their hour-long match from a few weeks ago, which was a match of the year contender. But you can’t ask more from one of the top matches on one of the biggest shows of the year. MJF doesn’t get enough credit for being a top tier wrestler and Will Ospreay is well on his way to winning back-to-back Wrestler of the Year awards.
  • The Casino Battle Royal was probably the best battle royal AEW has put out. Seeing Nigel McGuiness wrestle for the first time in over a decade was damn cool and it was a delight to see him go against the likes of Zack Sabre Jr. and Kyle O’Reilly, showing he can still hang with them. Putting some of AEW’s best talent like Orange Cassidy and Mark Briscoe also helped a lot. The finish was…whatever. I don’t know what is going on with Killswitch and Christian Cage as one week Killswitch is ready to turn and the next minute he’s helping Cage out anyway. This has been going on for nearly a year at this point. Still, the match itself was big win and one of the more fun matches on the show.
  • The Tag Team title match was a perfectly fine three-way. I kinda expected a bit more considering who was in the ring, but everyone looked good. Grizzled Young Veterans ran out after The Bucks retained and pretty much made it clear they were in the running for the titles, so that should be a fun new addition to a division that needs some new people in the mix.
  • Hook and Chris Jericho was a fine weapons match. I did like the build to the big spot where Big Bill flew off the apron and into the barbed wire table. I also liked the finish, with Taz taking out Bryan Keith, which allowed Hook to score the submission win.
  • Toni Storm and Mariah May was pretty good. I thought the right person won as with a Mariah May win, the feud can continue, and this is a feud that still has juice to it. Perhaps a stipulation match on one of AEW’s upcoming big shows. There’s also the Mina Shirakawa situation, as she will probably play a role in the continuing story.
  • The London Ladder match to open the show was very good. Not the best out of the 1400 ladder matches I’ve seen this year, but a good opener to kick off the night. I don’t have anything else to add here other than I am VERY GOOD on not seeing another ladder match for the rest of 2024 or even all of 2025 for that matter. The stipulation has been DONE TO DEATH. And it’s not just AEW, as WWE and NXT have both spammed this match like nobody’s business. 

And that is All In 2024. I don’t think this is as strong as other AEW pay-per-views this year as there were other cards that had deeper, better undercards. Regardess, it’s an aboslute thumbs up show with a main event I highly recommended.

Next up for AEW…All Out in two weeks. At least they waited a week this year before another big show.

WWE SummerSlam review: The Original Tribal Chief returns

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Image: WWE

The Original Tribal Chief is back.

As many expected, the end of Saturday’s WWE SummerSlam saw Roman Reigns make his return, laying out Solo Sikoa while led to Cody Rhodes hitting the Cross Rhodes for the win, retaining the undisputed WWE Championship.

People reacted huge to Reigns’ return and it set up the big storyline for this fall between Reigns and the Bloodline group that left him in the dust.

The match itself wasn’t anything special: think of the Cody/Roman match from WrestleMania 40 dialed down to a 5. When they announced the stipulation on Friday’s SmackDown, it was almost assured that this would be a match filled with run-ins and indeed, there were. No one really reacted until the interference started, but at least they reacted big when everything started to go down.

Overall, SummerSlam won’t be remembered for the matches (which were fine) as it was largely nothing special. What it did a great job of is paying off the storylines that started following WrestleMania, and now has created intrigue for the fall which will likely focus on the Judgment Day breakup, Gunther’s rise on Raw as the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, and Bloodline drama on SmackDown. 

Here’s my thoughts on the rest of the show:

  • For all of the build, I didn’t think CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre was a good match. This was a THEATRE match where Seth Rollins’ outfit, his refereeing, and Punk’s bracelet were more important than the two wrestlers having a wrestling match. If you were someone who thought Reigns deserved an Emmy for his work in the last year, this match was for you. I don’t think this was the match to do after Punk spent most of this year out of action. This needed to be a better payoff after eight months of build. At least there is clearly more between these three, which means more matches, heading into the fall.
  • The question heading into the Rhea Ripley vs. Liv Morgan match was if Dominik Mysterio was going to do the turn. He did, helping Liv by putting a steel chair exactly where she needed it, allowing her to hit Oblivion to retain the Women’s World title. This was good, particularly toward the end where the crowd really got into it. This was the first shoe to drop in the Judgment Day split with the other one happening later in the show…
  • ..which we will get into now with Gunther defeating Damian Priest to win the World Heavyweight Championship. This was a good, hard-hitting match that was the best bout on the show. I mean, just look at Gunther’s chest during the course of the match. Yikes! It was Finn Balor’s turn to do the turn, putting Gunther’s foot on the ropes during a pinfall attempt and betraying Priest. The two big questions coming out of this bout is who Gunther faces as Bash in Berlin, and what will happen with Judgment Day next.
  • Bron Breakker quickly took care of Sami Zayn to win the Intercontinental title. There isn’t much to say as this match only lasted five minutes, though it was good while it lasted and they worked a quick pace. I expect a very long title reign for Breakker as they are going to push him strongly.
  • LA Knight defeated Logan Paul to take the United States title. This was good — nothing explicitly amazing but both looked fine. Well, there was that scary superplex spot where Paul almost landed on his head, but overall, it was good. I guess this is it for Paul until it’s time for a Saudi Arabia payday, but we’ll see.
  • The WWE Women’s title match was fine. Bayley and Nia Jax worked hard and toward the end, it got really good. Then, Jax won. Yay. The major story here in the long term is how long will it be until Tiffany Britton eventually turns on her and cashes in the Money in the Bank briefcase.

That’s it for SummerSlam. Next is Bash in Berlin later this month, which yes, will be in Berlin. I’m not exactly sure what we’ll see as I don’t think there’s any obvious rematches, but I think that will become more clear in the next week.

WWE Money in the Bank review: The road to SummerSlam begins

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Image: WWE

The main event for WWE SummerSlam was pretty much official at the end of Saturday’s Money in the Bank.

The Bloodline’s Solo Sikoa, teaming with Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga, defeated Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton & Kevin Owens after Sikoa pinned Rhodes after the throat spike. It was the expected result as they have built up the idea of that match in the last few weeks.

The match itself was pretty good and maybe slightly better than the usual main event TV match thanks to a hot crowd. The question in my mind heading into MITB was how Fatu would look in a WWE ring and he did a fine job. He clearly has something, and I wonder if somewhere down the line, this turns into a situation where he becomes more over than Sikoa. But that’s another story for way, way down the line, I imagine.

Another big story coming out of Saturday is John Cena announcing his retirement tour for next year. Given he’s repeatedly talked about wrapping things up soon, it makes sense. He’s nearing 50 and at this point, he has a career narrating car commercials for as long as he wants to. The tour doesn’t begin until 2025, so probably best not to speculate on future Cena matches until then. Well, okay, one: Cena vs. Gunther. Let’s will it into existence.

Elsewhere on the card:

  • The men’s Money in the Bank ladder match opened the show. Like I said in my last review containing a ladder match (last Sunday’s Forbidden Door), I can’t think of a more overused match type in wrestling right now. With that said, I’d say this was the best match on the show. It was your typical PPV ladder match filled with crazy spots. Drew McIntyre ended up winning as expected, but I can’t talk about what this means because it’s a moot point (more shortly).
  • Bron Breakker surprisingly failed to defeat Sami Zayn to win the Intercontinental title. This was very good as they did a great job showcasing Breakker’s explosiveness while Zayn is one of the best babyfaces in WWE. Triple H’s booking is pretty predictable, so I was surprised to see Zayn keep the title. This does fit in with his usual booking traits in another way: he really likes long title reigns. The Zayn run with the IC title isn’t over, but where it takes him next is anyone’s guess.
  • The World Heavyweight title match will probably be remembered more for the angle than the match which seems like a recurring theme with Damian Priest’s title run. He and Seth Rollins were having a pretty good match when McIntyre came down with the briefcase. For whatever reason, instead of waiting until the match finished, he cashed in during the match and made it a three way…until CM Punk made his return and attacked McIntyre once again, costing him the match. I am guessing this will all come together at SummerSlam, but with Punk’s status still in the air, it’s a wait-and-see approach. One thing I can say is WWE has done a great job of keeping Punk fresh in everyone’s minds while he’s recovering from the triceps injury.
  • The women’s Money in the Bank ladder match was…sloppy. Things looked really bad in some spots like that Unprettier by Chelsea Green or Zoey Stark landing right on her head after a corkscrew springboard. Everyone worked hard and I don’t think it was a bad match per se. It was a weird combination of sloppiness and people looking like they were actually attempting to hurt people. Weird match. Tiffany Stratton ended up the winner, so she’ll have the briefcase for a time. I wonder if Nia Jax wins the WWE Women’s title next month and then Stratton turns on Jax at SummerSlam and pins her to take the title.

That’ll do it for Money in the Bank. Next up is SummerSlam: one of the bigger WWE shows of the year. Will Roman Reigns return? Will CM Punk wrestle? Just how dangerous is Nia Jax? We’ll learn all of these answers in less than a month.

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door review: Swerve & Ospreay’s incredible night

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Image: AEW

Heading into the main event, AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door had been a pretty darn good show filled with plenty of good to great matches. 

By the end of the night, most people will only remember one match.

Will Ospreay and AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland ended up having a match of the year contender with some of the best work out of either man. Their timing was top notch, there were some absolutely crazy moves (that Swerve dive to the outside on Ospreay looked like it HURT) and the crowd, which had been hot and cold all night, came unglued for the final few moments. Those moments saw Ospreay kick out of everything but he eventually could not kick out any longer, giving Strickland a huge win.

Whenever you see an online troll yell into the ether that AEW matches are nothing but glorified spot fests, I feel matches like this make them look like idiots. Anyone can go out there and do the moves these two did. What makes matches like these special are the participants involved, how they do the moves, when to do the moves, what to do in between, and reading the crowd to know what to do next. It’s so hard to pull off something special like this, and these two not only succeeded, but left the match even bigger stars than they were when they walked in.

I do have to mention part of the finish involved Don Callis giving Ospreay the Kenny Omega screwdriver to use on Swerve. He rejected it, probably starting the course for their eventual separation. I guess that could keep him busy in July, leading to August or September where it seems like he and MJF are inevitable.

Here is the rest of Forbidden Door, which was another great pay-per-view from AEW:

  • Tetsuya Naito winning the IWGP title from Jon Moxley was surprisingly boring. For whatever reason, Naito didn’t feel like doing much and it felt like he was moving at a slow speed for the entire match. Most Moxley matches have a sense of intensity to them — something this one lacked. Their match at NJPW Windy City Riot earlier this year was way better. It didn’t help that the crowd fell asleep for this one.
  • Mercedes Mone is now a double champion, defeating Stephanie Vaquer for the NJPW Strong Women’s Championship. This was good, even though the crowd weirdly hated Mone by the end of the match. I guess they just decided she was to blame for the Celtics winning the NBA title or something. Vaquer has really made a name for herself in the last year when she faced Mone, so this was a cool full circle moment.
  • I did a poll during this match asking if the ladder match is used too much in pro wrestling. The answer is yes as after this ladder match, there will be two more next weekend and probably lots of other ones will take place before the year is over. With that said, I have to say the match to crown a new TNT Champion was absolutely wild. Mark Briscoe did some insane things that have to be seen to be believed. Jack Perry ended up winning the title, and probably will hold it for a while as all members of The Elite are now wearing gold.
  • Samoa Joe, Hook and Katsuyori Shibata defeated Chris Jericho, his redwood Big Bill, and Jeff Cobb. This was perfectly fine action, but it was hard to follow the other matches on the card. It mostly made me want to see Cobb and Joe have a match somewhere, hopefully sooner than later. Hook pinning Jericho clean with his own finish makes sense as the singles rematch is likely for Wembley.
  • I loved seeing Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Orange Cassidy. Sabre’s style of technical wrestling is always fun to watch and Cassidy kept up with him every step of the way. They had a Sabre-style technical bout and Cassidy kept up with him every step of the way. This was probably my favorite match of the show up to that point in the show.
  • Toni Storm retained the AEW Women’s title once more, defeating Stardom’s Mina Shirakawa. This was another great PPV performance by Storm who is finding the groove in having good matches while also keeping in line with her current gimmick. It helps that Shirakawa is very good and the crowd were invested in seeing these two wrestle. In the end, Mariah May didn’t have to choose either lady as everyone kissed and made up after the match, literally. Good for them.
  • Unsurprisingly, Bryan Danielson and Shingo Takagi had an excellent, heated match with Danielson scoring the win in an Owen Hart tournament match with a brutal-looking armbar. Danielson is telling the story that he is banged up and doesn’t have much time left, but can still pull off wins when they matter. I feel like it has to be him and Strickland for the title at Wembley.
  • The Elite taking on “Scissor Ace” Hiroshi Tanahashi was good, especially when Okada and Tanahashi were involved. It was like watching their greatest hits and that’s never a bad thing. I actually was expecting The Acclaimed to get a win here ahead of their title match against The Young Bucks, but it didn’t happen.
  • MJF defeating Hechicero in the opener was good while it lasted. It was mainly a match to put MJF over in his hometown area, and not much else.

Next up for AEW is what I believe is now their own version of WrestleMania: August’s All In from Wembley Stadium in London. The pieces are starting to come together, so hopefully they play out over the next couple of months. One of the things AEW needs to solve is making the TV just as engaging as the pay-per-views. They’ve struggled with that in recent months, but with their biggest show of the year coming up this might be the best time to really flesh out the stories they’ve been telling.

WWE Clash at the Castle review: Drew McIntyre comes up short…again

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Image: WWE

You can’t say Drew McIntyre didn’t have it coming.

The end of Saturday’s WWE Clash at the Castle saw CM Punk running to the ring wearing a referee t-shirt as McIntyre made a cover, counting to two, stopping, and blatantly interfering in the main event. The distraction led to McIntyre’s downfall, being pinned by Damian Priest quickly after to lose his second consecutive Clash at the Castle match.

It was a good main event, perhaps overshadowed by Priest’s knee injury after accidently wrapping his knee during an attempt to launch off with a dive to the outside. Priest worked the rest of the match anyway and it ended up being good.

Some were upset that McIntyre didn’t win on Saturday. But I am, to take a phrase right out of the WWE textbook, looking at the bigger picture. Much like Cody Rhodes taking two years to win the WWE Championship, McIntyre regaining the title in his home country is a slow build. The rivalry between he and Punk has been building ever since Punk got injured, so it only makes sense the two have their big match on one of the bigger WWE shows of the year. 

Priest defending the title against Gunther doesn’t sound like a big-time World title match at SummerSlam just yet, but they still have weeks of build to get there.

Like normal B-level WWE PLEs, it went by fast and while I don’t think there were any match of the year contenders, everything was good for the most part. Here’s my thoughts on the whole card:

  • Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles opened the show with a very good I Quit match. These types of matches in WWE can go either way and, in this case, it worked well. You had good brawling, some blood (!), and Rhodes’ mother berating Styles throughout the match. I think the best part was actually the post-match where Styles quit right as Rhodes was about to attack him with the steel steps. After the bell rang, he hit Styles anyway in a final measure of revenge for what happened a few weeks ago. That was neat. As for what is next, the Bloodline has set Rhodes in their crosshairs, attacking him after the match only for him to be saved by Kevin Owens and Randy Orton. My best guess is a six-man tag at Money in the Bank.
  • Sami Zayn retained the Intercontinental title in a good, dramatic match that saw Otis help Maxxine Dupri rather than help Chad Gable, enabling Zayn to hit the helluva kick for the win. The one thing to understand in this match was that people REALLY WANTED Otis to turn on Gable. The wrestling here was great, but the story of the match was strong between Gable and Otis. Based on the finish, we’re likely to see more between these two in the coming weeks.
  • The WWE Women’s title match was good with Bayley retaining over Piper Niven. The Chelsea Green spot at the end with her wearing a lucha mask after being ejected was dumb, but there wasn’t anything wrong here…except everyone probably knew the finish beforehand. Next up for the champion? Nia Jax. Good luck with that.
  • Isla Dawn & Alba Fyre, in a shock, won the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles. The match was okay and I am glad the two got their big moment in their home country, but this was a team that was hardly on television this year until a few weeks ago and they just lost in two minutes on last week’s Raw. They don’t exactly have the credibility as champions coming out of this and all it really does is make this title feel like it’s being passed around like a game of hot potato. Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair will very likely regain the titles. It’s just a matter of when.

Next up for WWE will be Money in the Bank next month, where we will crown the next two people to hold briefcases for the rest of the year. Qualifying matches begin Monday, so we’ll know quickly who will do crazy spots off a ladder, something that hasn’t been done to death in the year 2024.

AEW Dynasty review: Swerve’s house

Posted on by Bryan Rose

AEW Dynasty was a tale of two stories.

One was Swerve Strickland, who over the last several months positioned himself as one of the top acts in AEW. He achieved that goal on Sunday, defeating Samoa Joe. It wasn’t the match of the night, but the two had a very good match ending when Swerve gave Joe a second stomp from the top rope, becoming the first-ever Black AEW World Champion. It capped off a show of the year contender, continuing the hot streak started by AEW Revolution just one month ago.

Strickland’s rise to the top isn’t surprising. He’s had that star aura for years, dating back to his rise in NXT as the clear standout in the Hit Row stable. For whatever reason, he was another example of WWE’s previous regime completely missing the boat. All he’s done since is thrive when given the opportunity, with the Hangman Page feud cementing his rise to the top and making it clear he was here to be a top-level player. He’s now achieved that.

As for what is next, my thinking is Hangman. I’m surprised he didn’t appear on the show. But Page making his return for one more match with Swerve, probably for next month, makes the most sense.

The second story of the night was Bryan Danielson and Will Ospreay. These two had a lot to live up to given the hype, and by the end of the match, I felt they had surpassed their expectations.

These two put on an excellent match, absolutely a match-of-a-year contender in a year where that is a very high bar. I explained this on X, but there’s so much more than what they did beyond MOVEZ, which yes, there were plenty of. These two are so great at reading the room, knowing when to hit their stuff, and making every move matter. Doing this kind of match seems easy to do on paper but in actuality, it’s a culmination of years of hard work, perfecting your timing and pouring it all into one match. It was beautiful to watch.

This is a match to show to those who always complain that AEW “never tells stories”, “has no psychology”, or “is just about moves.” It won’t change their mind, as we live in an era of my way or the highway tribalism, but it’s proof that their accusations aren’t of merit.

Here is the rest of the card:

  • Kazuchika Okada defeated PAC to retain the Continental title in a great opener. This was a full-fledged NJPW main event-level Okada match, and PAC more than held his ground. If more matches like this come from Okada’s run with this title, he needs to hold it for a long time.
  • House of Black bested Mark Briscoe, Adam Copeland, and Eddie Kingston when Malakai Black pinned Copeland. The finish makes sense since it is likely Copeland and Black will have a singles match for the TNT title down the line. The match was your standard good match on an AEW card, nonstop action with good crowd heat.
  • The FTW Championship match wasn’t good. I’m not into this Hook/Jericho feud at all, and this result here just tells me that they will have another match, probably at Double or Nothing. Compared to all the other hardcore matches we’ve seen on AEW TV as of late, this felt like a WWE-style PG hardcore match with WWE-style drama, which is good if you’re into this feud I guess. I’m not. The crowd hated Jericho, it felt like go-home heat. This didn’t work and didn’t make me invested in their feud.
  • Toni Storm and Thunder Rosa had a good match, I think stronger than I thought it would be going in. I don’t know where you go with Storm and this character. It seems like the eventual match is her and Mariah May, but when will they pull the trigger?
  • The ladder match followed Ospreay/Danielson, and while they could never come close to what had just taken place, they still had a very good ladder match with some crazy spots. Sure enough, Jack Perry returned from his suspension and helped the Young Bucks become the first-ever three-time AEW Tag Team Champions. The pop Perry got was huge, much like his NJPW appearance earlier this month. What happened at All In may have been a positive to his career in the long run.
  • Willow Nightingale and Julia Hart didn’t last long, but I was happy that Willow finally got a big title win in AEW. She has something special and connects well with the crowd, but sadly I think this is all for Mone to get the win next month, probably after a Statlander heel turn.
  • Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly had a really good, hard-hitting match. Strong winning clean was a surprise. It feels like the turn and match feels rushed and I was hoping to see more from these two. Adam Cole revealed he can walk following the match. I wonder if the storyline advances further after this.

And that’s it for Dynasty! Next will be Double or Nothing, where we already have one match, Mercedes Mone challenging Willow Nightingale. See you in Vegas!

WWE Royal Rumble review: The road to WrestleMania begins

Posted on by Bryan Rose

This year’s Royal Rumble is over, and now we know who’s going to WrestleMania.

Cody Rhodes will get another shot at finishing the story after eliminating CM Punk in the men’s Royal Rumble. He also made it perfectly clear that he’s going after Roman Reigns, pointing at him and shouting “I’M CHOOSING YOU” to close out the show. It was a good finish in a match that, much like the show overall, felt flat at times.

We’ll get into the women’s Rumble in a bit, but the men’s match had better wrestling, though the women’s match had a better finish. Punk and Rhodes wrestled for a long while once everyone was eliminated, and for whatever reason the crowd wasn’t into it. That hurt the momentum of the match, as you would assume Cody Rhodes getting a chance to FINISH THE STORY would be a bigger deal to this crowd. At least they popped when he threw Punk out.

So now the question is: will Rhodes finally win the Undisputed (but not really) WWE Championship one year after failing to do so? I think he should as winning the title at WrestleMania over Roman, finally ending his forever reign as champion, makes all the sense in the world. But given WWE’s track record, you can’t automatically assume it’ll happen.

Bayley was the first to earn her ticket to WrestleMania, last eliminating the returning Liv Morgan to win her first Royal Rumble. The match itself had a ton of missed spots, though it did have the better heat and had a clever finish with the returning Liv Morgan eliminating Jade Cargill, only to immediately get dumped to the floor by Bayley.

With Charlotte out of the picture, it seems clear to me the big title match for SmackDown is Bayley and IYO SKY. They’ve definitely been planting the seeds for Damage CTRL to turn on Bayley for months now, and with her win it’s likely we’ll see the trigger for that feud to begin soon, possibly starting on next Friday’s show.

I thought the four-way for the Undisputed WWE Championship was good but here’s the problem: I did not think at any point Roman was in danger of losing the title. There were a million near falls where they tried to get you to think Roman would lose, but I didn’t buy it. No one bought it. So you had a match where people were just doing stuff, the crowd weren’t really reacting like this to anything important, you had the 10,000th Solo Sikoa interference spot, then yes, Roman won with the spear. Nothing bad about it, but absolutely a match that was nothing of note.

The United States title match probably had the best wrestling out of anything on the show. Logan Paul looked really good at times, his offense is great. But then the finish went down, with the same Logan Paul associate from Crown Jewel (who was eventually named JEFF) introducing the brass knucks, only for Grayson Waller and Austin Theory to interfere and give the knuckles to Paul. Owens grabbed them and hit Paul with the knuckles, but right as the referee counted to three he stopped, pointed to the knuckles, and DQ’d Owens. Hideous finish on a pay-per-view but it’s clear they are getting a rematch, probably next month in Australia or WrestleMania.

That was the Royal Rumble, kind of a middle-of-the-road show where nothing was real bad but there wasn’t a ton that was real good either. WWE is off to Australia next month for the Elimination Chamber before heading to Philadelphia for the biggest wrestling show of the year.

And with that folks, the countdown to WrestleMania is now on.

AEW Worlds End review: A company at a crossroads

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Following the end of Worlds End, the final AEW pay-per-view of the year, I can tell you one thing for sure: AEW is changing, and I can’t say it’s for the better.

The hometown hero MJF lost to Samoa Joe in what ended up being a pretty good heel vs. babyface attempting to overcome the odds match until the finish, where MJF passed out from the coquina clutch. Not only did the finish come off as flat, but it felt like right out of WWE’s playbook where the hometown hero almost always loses. Then the big reveal happened: Adam Cole ended up being the devil with Roderick Strong, The Kingdom, and Wardlow all being his minions. They destroyed MJF to end the show.

I’m not sure what the future is of this angle is because both of the key players are injured, and the likelihood of a singles match between MJF and Adam Cole happening anytime soon is small. Plus, the build towards the eventual reveal did not feel all that hot. By the end, it felt like a story that went on and on until we finally got the underwhelming payoff, and now we can finally move on.

I mentioned this in last month’s review but the last thing AEW needs to be at this moment in time is to now all of a sudden do WWE’s greatest hits that always got people upset. People lost interest in WWE over doing things like this too many times over and over and over again. Much can be forgiven if you have a card that ends up having tons of great matches like Full Gear, which had an incomprehensible show-long angle but at least had a ton of great matches. But Worlds End ended up being one of the weaker shows AEW has put out to date and one of the first misses the company has put out since its inception in 2019.

Here is the rest of the card:

  • The Continental Classic finals was the one thing on the show that actually felt like AEW, not AEW trying to do low-rent WWE. This was a great, hard-hitting match with Eddie Kingston, the perennial favorite in AEW, scoring the big win to become the first Continental Crown winner. This was definitely the highlight of the show, and the Continental Classic as a whole was a big positive on all of AEW’s programming for the last month. Too bad it’s over now.
  • Adam Copeland and Christian Cage turned this show around with a really good no DQ match for the TNT Championship until the swerve at the end. I thought we would see a TNT title change here, and we did! Then we didn’t as Killswitch gave his title shot to Christian, who immediately cashed it in and pinned Copeland with a spear. This was right out of WWE on a show that had ended with another heat-seeking ending. My guess is they’ll do a third match but at this point, I’m looking for reasons to care.
  • The TBS Championship match was really bad. Abadon and Julia Hart did stuff in front of a crowd that just didn’t care. It did not help that what they did was not that compelling. Then Skye Blue ran in and attacked Abadon. Then Julia Hart won with a moonsault where she landed on her feet. I cannot say I am into the spooky time nonsense that’s seeped its way into AEW. Another bad WWE hallmark.
  • The second eight man tag of the night seemed all over the place. I think it got better towards the end, but some parts just felt real clunky. No one felt like they were on the same page And the real story of the match is the crowd completely turning on Chris Jericho given the recent accusations that surfaced over the weekend (I will not get into them here). The wrong match to do in front of the wrong crowd at the wrong time.
  • I liked the match between Dustin Rhodes and Swerve Strickland but I am not really sure why they did the concrete angle before the match. I guess it was to give Rhodes an out for a loss but I didn’t think it was needed. At this point I am not sure we will ever get Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee.
  • Toni Storm defeating Riho was significantly better than last month’s match. I think Storm needs to find the right balance between doing the ha ha for this gimmick and having great matches. With rumors of Jamie Hayter making her return soon hopefully we’ll get something compelling in this division.
  • You won’t believe this, but Andrade lost to Miro after CJ Perry turned on him. Match was fine, good even, but nothing memorable. This wouldn’t have been a shocking finish even if Andrade wasn’t leaving the company. I’m not sure what you do with Miro as he seems to be a hard person to book for.
  • Eight man opener featuring the participants of the Continental Classic was fantastic, probably the second best match on the show. This illustrated everything I like about that tournament, with Daniel Garcia getting in the win after spending most of the tournament losing. This and the finals later in the show was a nice bow on the present that was the C2.
  • FTW rules between Wheeler Yuta and Hook was a fine weapons match, but nothing special. This didn’t have any heat for whatever reason. Yuta even did a heel promo before the match running down the local sports teams for easy heat, and no one bit.
  • I didn’t think the battle royal was all that good. AEW battle royals lately haven’t been that great because they put out a bunch of people you know aren’t winning, then they put out one person who is definitely winning (Killswitch) who then goes on to win the match. Wasn’t that compelling.

And that’s Worlds End, a middling show that didn’t really give me any encouragement for AEW as we head into the new year. Good times don’t last forever, I guess. But with Sting’s retirement coming in a few months, I think they’ll try and make Revolution a special show.

AEW All Out review: Never judge a show by its build

Posted on by Bryan Rose

I had many reservations about Sunday’s AEW All Out which had most of its card announced Wednesday and Saturday. The build, to say the least, wasn’t solid. So it’s a good thing that the card itself ended up being one of the better shows of the year once everything was said and done. Who would have thought?

After nearly a year as champion, Orange Cassidy finally lost the AEW International title in the main event to Jon Moxley in a match that, shock of all shocks, was an excellent, bloody, back and forth battle. There were many times where I thought Cassidy had a shot to win, but ultimately, the story told here was that after so many great title defenses, he could not keep up with someone as unrelenting as Moxley, who finished off Cassidy with two death rider DDTs.

The main event was awesome in a show that featured plenty of awesome matches. But it wasn’t the best match on the card.

After Bryan Danielson returned on Saturday’s Collision to accept a strap match against Ricky Starks in a shocker, their match Sunday was incredible, one of the best strap matches I’ve ever seen, and what should be seen as a benchmark for what to do in the future.

Danielson utterly beat Starks within an inch of his life in a ridiculously brutal match, full of hard belt shots and, you guessed it, blood. Danielson won by taking the strap and choking the life out of Starks for the win. No, really: Starks’ face was turning red. It was gross, but incredible.

Here’s the rest of the rundown for this show, which continued the streak of very long AEW pay-per-views clocking in at almost five hours:

  • Bullet Club Gold scored a win over the odd pairing of FTR and The Young Bucks in a match that ended up being really good. They were put in a bad spot on the card as the show was well over the four-hour mark at this point, but everyone here looked great. It’s clear there’s more to the story between FTR and the Bucks, and we’ll likely see another match between the two down the line. Maybe in Seattle?
  • Konosuke Takeshita got the biggest win of his career by defeating Kenny Omega in their big singles match. This lived up to the hype as the two had an incredible athletic match. Omega tends to lose a lot in these big singles matches, but he’s Omega. That’s fine, he’s made. Takeshita needed a big win here to really solidify himself as a top name in AEW, and they did so here. Now it’s up to AEW to continue with that momentum as their track record for that is pretty spotty (remember Wardlow?).
  • The TBS Championship match was perfectly fine. Kris Statlander retained over Ruby Soho in a match where nobody did anything wrong. Toni Storm distracted Soho long enough for Statlander to get the win, furthering the split between The Outcasts. The main problem is everyone in this match feels like they’re just treading water. Statlander seems to be missing something she had before getting injured since returning in May. The Outcasts stable has just kind of been going along with no real direction and now they’re breaking up. None of this feels engaging at all.
  • Miro defeated Powerhouse Hobbs in a great match where the crowd made it special, chanting for “MEAT” at every possible turn. They wanted desperately for this to be great, and it elevated the match as a result. Just two guys going out there and having a cool back and forth match with big spots– exactly what was needed. After Miro won, Hobbs beat him up after shaking his hand until a woman who was not named made the save with a steel chair. That woman, formerly known as Lana in WWE, did not have a name here and the announcers went out of their way to not name her. The video screen, which read “HOT AND FLEXIBLE” did not name her. Miro then didn’t seem happy she was there and left in a weird ending to what was a really good match.
  • Darby Allin was unsuccessful in winning the TNT title from Luchasaurus, but man, did he work his ass off to have a real good match. He looked like a complete mess when this was all over. The finish felt like right out of the WWE playbook, but my assumption is that there is more to this storyline and we’re not totally done between these two just yet.
  • The ROH title matches seemed more like a backdrop to what appears to be MJF’s next AEW World title program as he got into it with Samoa Joe following an altercation between the two in between their title matches. They ended up getting into a brawl, having to be separated by security. The matches themselves were just matches, not really anything beyond your normal television fare.
  • Hangman Page won the Over Budget Battle Royal, winning $50,000 dollars for a charity of his choice, the Chicago Public Education Fund. It was every single battle royal you’ve ever seen, but it was fun towards the end with Page last eliminating Brian Cage.
  • The Acclaimed retained the AEW Trios titles over Jeff Jarrett, Satnam Singh, and Jay Lethal in a match that was just kinda there with the usual Jarrett antics. I don’t mind seeing a Jarrett family spotfest once in a while, but after that Texas Chain Saw Massacre match from a few weeks ago, I don’t need to see another one for months. They’re wacky and fun, but the matches feel like overkill.
  • The women’s trios match was good and seemed to maybe set up a future ROH Women’s title match between Athena and Hikaru Shida, which I’m all for.

AEW is inching closer to monthly pay-per-view events with their next PPV set for Sunday, October 1st with their first-ever WrestleDream in Seattle. On the plus side, I am hopeful the build towards that card becomes clear after this week’s AEW shows. On the minus side, dear lord, there is too much wrestling content. I’ve done three of these in the last week. Help.

WWE Clash at the Castle review: A classic in Wales

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Make no mistake, the Vince McMahon era of WWE is over.

While most WWE premium live events post-WrestleMania have been good, Clash at the Castle was the best showing by WWE all year, and, dare I say it, could be in contention for show of the year. Between a dramatic main event between Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns and an extremely physical encounter between Sheamus and Gunther, it’s going to be hard to top a show with this many great matches that was helped by one of the best crowds WWE has had in awhile in Cardiff, Wales.

Reigns’ long run with the Undisputed Universal WWE Championship continues, as he defeated McIntyre in what ended up being a slow-paced, yet dramatic main event with many twists and turns, including Austin Theory (he has his first name back) attempting to cash in, only to get knocked out by Tyson Fury, who was sitting at ringside. However, it was the debut of NXT’s Solo Sikoa that gave Reigns the distraction needed for the win, continuing his long reign as champion for as long as WWE wants.

The question, as it is following every Reigns title defense, is what’s next? Unlike the Vince McMahon era where no one seems ready, there are actually a few people that could challenge Reigns next, including Karrion Kross, Kevin Owens, and even Fury, who had a staredown with Reigns after the match. Not that the latter would necessarily be a good match, but at least there’s a few directions WWE can go in that will at the very least be intriguing.

The strongest match of the night absolutely goes to Gunther and Sheamus, who destroyed each other in a match that saw Gunther successfully retain the Intercontinental title after one of the most wicked lariats you’ll ever see. Going in, I expected this to be a hard-hitting match and now I can pat myself on the back, as they delivered a classic with sick sounding shots amid a great atmosphere. With Giovanni Vinici being called up as a surprise to reform Imperium, it is likely we’ll at least get one trios match between Imperium and the Brawling Brutes going forward.

Liv Morgan and Shayna Baszler had a good match. Considering they had to follow one of the better WWE matches of the last few years, they did a tremendous job. With Ronda Rousey’s suspension being lifted, it is very likely that Rousey and Morgan will go at it once again, likely at the October pay-per-view.

The trios match won’t be remembered for what happened before or during the  bout. It’s too bad, as it was good and there were some fun moments. But it was the backdrop for what happened after Edge and the Mysterios won, as months of speculation finally became reality as Dominik Mysterio turned on both Edge and his father following some miscommunication. I am not sure exactly where Dominik goes from here, as his record so far is…mid. But it’s possible he could be better as a heel than a babyface.

Seth Rollins and Matt Riddle (another who has gotten his full name back) had a great match, though I am not sure if Riddle should have lost the match as this is his second loss in a row to Rollins. I have a feeling there will be a third match, and probably one that will involve many weapons. It’s a match Riddle needs to win; with the new regime, there’s a chance he could break out into one of WWE’s top babyfaces if given the opportunity.

Bayley vs. Bianca Belair for the Raw Women’s title seems to be the next match for Belair, as she was pinned in a hot trios match that opened the show. It seems natural based on the surprise finish on Raw, Bayley’s faction (named Damage Control) needed a big win, which they got here. 

WWE’s next show will be in October with Extreme Rules. The women’s title directions seem to be clear (Rousey/Morgan, Belair/Bayley), and I think the next Rollins/Riddle match will be here in some sort of stipulation match. What will headline will be anyone’s guess, as Roman Reigns isn’t scheduled to be on the show. Whatever it may be will be the next test in the new WWE regime. It’s one thing to hold big stadium shows like SummerSlam and Clash at the Castle. We’ll know be seeing what kind of matches we’ll get on a show that’s designed for a much smaller in-person audience.

WWE SummerSlam 2022 review: The start of a new era

Posted on by Bryan Rose

SummerSlam marked the first show of a new era. And by the end of the show, things did seem to trend towards positive changes. But as usual, there one was constant: Roman Reigns ending the show as champion.

Reigns managed to beat Brock Lesnar for a second time this year to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, though it required an army of men to do it, including The Usos, Paul Heyman, and Theory, who after weeks of television hype failed to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase. The match was a huge improvement from their WrestleMania bout, which failed to meet WrestleMania main event standards. This was a wild brawl, including a tractor that at one point lifted the ring, sending Reigns tumbling down to the floor. It was an awesome spectacle and capped off the show in a positive way. And since Drew McIntyre defeated Sheamus on Friday’s SmackDown to become Reign’s next challenger, we do know that is the direction for the next five weeks leading to September 3’s Clash at the Castle in Wales.

As many will likely do in the weeks following Vince McMahon’s shock resignation from WWE on July 22, it was easy to see the Triple H changes during SummerSlam, most of them being for the better. The finishes were clean and simple, save for the SmackDown Women’s Championship match. Commentary felt much more at ease, with announcers less focused on trying to argue with one another and refrained from drowning the home audience with branding and buzzwords, a McMahon staple that had intensified in the last year.

At one point in the show, Corey Graves told Micheal Cole that he “liked it better when he didn’t have an opinion.”

“That’s changed,” Cole said. “A lot has changed.”

But perhaps the biggest indicator things have changed was following the Raw Women’s Championship match that kicked off the show. After an excellent match between Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch (and a handshake seemingly made to turn Lynch face), Dakota Kai (who was released from WWE back in April) and Io Shirai (which recent reports indicated her future with the WWE were unclear) joining with a returning Bayley to form a new faction, setting their sights on Belair and Lynch.

Both Shirai (now going under the name IYO SKY) and Kai had languished in the WWE developmental system for years, seemingly because those in charge didn’t see any reason to bring them up. But with McMahon gone, and Shirai and Kai both having memorable runs in NXT 1.0 under Triple H, it’s clear to see why the moves were made, and who was responsible for bringing them back.

Matches up and down the card were solid to good. The two big celebrity matches delivered, with Logan Paul and Miz turning out to be a good match thanks to Paul’s athleticism, including a giant frog splash off the apron to the commentary table outside the ring. It remains to be seen what kind of schedule Logan will have for the rest of the year, but given this is his second match, and he came out of the match looking far better than most in NXT that have had more experience, it’s possible he could be a contender for rookie of the year. And that is high praise for a year stacked with contenders such as Hook, Nick Wayne, and Bron Breakker.

Pat McAfee and Happy Corbin also had a good match, though it was a bit clunky at times. McAfee impressed during his run in NXT, and this was his first match on the main roster where he didn’t have an impromptu wrestling match with a 76-year-old immobile man. The match wasn’t entirely smooth, and Paul had more athleticism, but McAfee didn’t look bad and had a cool finish, a springboard code red.

Edge made his return to the company, coming out in a spooky entrance that came off as an updated version of the old Brood entrance, to attack Judgment Day, who threw him out of the group following Hell in a Cell. After losing clean on Raw, another loss for Finn Balor and Damian Priest puts them in a bad position. But they do have a direction going forward, as it’s clear Edge will likely face off against Judgment Day in some sort of match down the line, probably at Clash of the Castle.

The rest of the card had The Usos retain the Undisputed WWE Tag Team titles against The Street Profits in a match that was fine, but paled in comparison to the match they had at Money in the Bank earlier this month. Bobby Lashley defeated Theory in under five minutes to retain the United States championship in a match that was mostly meant as a reminder that Theory could play spoiler later in the show, which ended up not happening.

Liv Morgan retained the SmackDown Women’s Championship following a short match with a wonky finish that involved Rousey’s shoulders being counted by the referee as Morgan submitted. Rousey then attacked Morgan after the match and attacked the referee as well. The finish clearly means that another match is coming, likely in Wales, but it remains to be seen if this was a heel turn for Rousey or just someone with a chip on their shoulder heading to the next match.

SummerSlam was the first show under the Triple H regime, and it largely was a success. The changes were noticeable throughout the show, and the hangups I’ve had in the past with the announcing and verbiage were mostly non-existent. The next few weeks of television, however, will tell the real story of what changes are coming to WWE following McMahon’s exit.

Evolve 34 Blu-ray review: Drew Galloway vs. Rich Swann, Uhaa Nation vs. Roddy Strong

Posted on by Bryan Rose

When I was granted the opportunity to review some Evolve shows from the last year or so, I jumped at the opportunity. I’m always looking to review wrestling from all promotions around the world, especially from ones I haven’t seen. While I have usually read the results from each Evolve show, I haven’t actually seen one live. What I do know about the promotion is that it’s been the stomping ground for many wrestlers that have made their way to other promotions, most notably WWE, as you’ll see in these results. These shows that I’ll be reviewing for the next few weeks are far enough in the past that it’ll be interesting to see who competed on these shows and where they are now.

Some notes on the blu ray itself before I start on the show. I can say that the blu ray I was given for review was very well produced. The disc and art cover looks great, and the show looked excellent in high definition. I wish the audio was a bit better, but it wasn’t bad. Very well produced blu ray in terms of presentation and production.

This is Evolve 34, which took place on September 13, 2014 in Elmhurst, New York.

Johnny Gargano comes out to start Evolve 34. Apparently, Caleb Konley beat him and told him that he wasn’t that man that he used to be. He also mentioned that he doesn’t like Rich Swann due to their past, but when Konley and Nese jumped Swann he knew that he had to prove to himself that he was still the man around here, so he wanted to wrestle tonight in order to prove to himself that he’s the Johnny Gargano of old. He finishes off by saying the road to the Evolve title begins now.

Johnny Gargano vs. Anthony Nese

Su Yung, Trent Baretta and Mr. A accompanied Nese, as they’re all a part ofa group along with Caleb Konley called the Premiere Athlete Brand. Mr. A looks like a bigger Big Bubba, if you can imagine that. At one point Nese had Gargano on the ropes and Baretta took the opportunity to take a selfie for all his Snapchat buddies. This is a very 2015 show here. These two had good chemistry, with some great back and forth towards the end. Nese dodged a swipe off the apron by doing a cartwheel. That’s new! Nese went for a one arm powerbomb but Gargano countered with a roll up for the win. Good opener.

Mr. A laid out Gargano after the match, but Rich Swann ran in and laid him out with a lariat. He also took out Beretta, who was injured with his knee in a cast, and then went for Su Yung but Nese recovered and laid him out, posting him. Gargano took care of the heels with a suicide dive off the top rope, but the damage was done. This would play into Swann’s title match against Drew Galloway later in the night.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Timothy Thatcher

This is my first time seeing Zack Sabre Jr. after hearing a ton of good things about him. These two had a really cool technical style match. Just a ton of mat work throughout, including working on body parts, which was really well done by both men. Bending the fingers always gets a pop out of me as well. Wonder if they saw the AJ/Suzuki match from a few months before this. Thatcher eventually got tired of mat work and laid out Sabre with a trio of gutwrench suplexes. Sabre countered back, applied an armbar/hammerlock combo and started stomping on his head for the submission. Very good, unique match and the best of the entire show.

Uhaa Nation vs. Roderick Strong

The future Apollo Crews really stands out as a very unique wrestler. He is not only physically opposing, but the finesse he has in the ring is extraordinary given his frame. Guys his size could probably do what he does, but he makes it look effortless which isn’t always easy to pull off. Uhaa got the control until Roderick Strong used the referee to push him out to the floor. Strong tied for his boston crab submission after Uhaa tried for his gorilla press/standing shooting star press combo but Uhaa escaped then hit the combo for the win. A good, solid match.

Ricochet vs. Caleb Konley

Ricochet’s Open the Freedom Gate title was not on the line here. In fact, Ricochet made sure to have the announcer repeat this before the match started, which Konley did not like at all. Konley has a weird highlight pattern in his hair. It’s distracting, but hey, he’s a heel. Ricochet is so beyond the talent level of anyone on the indy scene it’s really amazing WWE passed on him. It’s not only he does high flying stuff, he has the charisma to boot and has an amazing confidence level not many people in the industry have. Again, he’s such a special talent. Konley looked good here, even hitting a Regalplex at one point. Ricochet was going for a springboard hurricanrana, but Konley cut him off and countered with a falcon arrow off the top rope for the surprise win. Hey, after all that talk about a non title match, maybe he’s in line for one now! Good stuff here as well. Konley looked good and I’ve already said my thing on Ricochet.

AR Fox comes out for an interview. He says he wants an Open the Freedom Gate title match. This brings out the Bravado Brothers, whose gimmick is that they are Grandma’s boys while wearing nice sweaters. They say they take offense to him saying that he and Cima were the greatest tag team in the company, because they are. Fox disagrees, saying that they’re the most boring. They don’t like that, saying that they have a surprise for Fox, and it’s none other than Moose.

AR Fox vs. Moose

I liked this match. It wasn’t a great back and forth match like others on this show, but it told a good, solid story. AR Fox used his high flying abilities to take out Moose, but when Moose countered he’d use nothing but big power moves. Fox went for a senton at one point but Moose grabbed him and powerbombed him into the ropes. Ouch! Fox also hit what I think was a springboard inverted moonsault. I’d never really seen a move like that before, but it worked. All of this was good stuff until the Bravado Brothers ran in for the DQ. This protects both guys, but the finish was still kinda lame.

The Colony, consisting of Fire Ant and Silver Ant, ran in, leading to the next match…

Open the United Gate tag champions The Bravado Brothers vs. The Colony

This was ok. Nothing wrong with it, but never really got going. They worked on Fire Ant for the heat. Silver Ant got the hot tag, and from there it devolved into a four way. Silver Ant had Harlem Bravado in the Chikara Special, but Harlem grabbed his mask. Lance came in and grabbed it as well, distracting Silver Ant long enough for Harlem to low blow him and pin him.

Evolve Champion Drew Galloway vs. Rich Swann

The injured Swann, who came out here not in the best condition due to the attack early in the show, jumped Galloway at the bell. Galloway countered, and they ended up having a fine back and forth match. Not awesome, but very competent and both guys looked good. Galloway tried for the Future Shock DDT at one point but as they fell Swann countered into a pin for a nearfall. That was cool. The Premiere Athlete Brand all came out again to interfere, but Galloway wiped them out with a senton. Swann went for a springboard off the ropes but Galloway grabbed him and put him in a sleeper choke. Swann tried valiantly to escape, but Drew got him to the floor and Swann submitted. Nice match that told a good story.

Drew grabs a mic after the bout and gave Swann props, saying that he fought like a man and he’ll get his rematch. He put over Evolve, saying that he’ll defend the title anywhere, anytime. He won’t lead you, but he asks to walk by his side for this revolution.

Final Thoughts:

Not a knockdown, drag out awesome show, but a good show highlighted by some great athleticism and good storytelling. I like the concept of having two shows per weekend as you use one show to build to the other, and that’s what this was here while also having some good wrestling on the card as well. This was my first Evolve show, and I’m looking forward to watching more, as I’ll review Evolve 35 in the near future. Stay tuned!