Tag: reviews

AEW All In review: Hangman Page frees us from the Death Riders

Posted on by Bryan Rose

After months of speculation and dread regarding whether AEW was going to send fans home happy at All In, the answer ended up being obvious: of course they did.

Hangman Page defeated Jon Moxley on Saturday to finish his story and finally take away the AEW World title from Jon Moxley and the Death Riders. After spending a year lost in his own hate and self-pity, he overcame everything to finally defeat Moxley, who since October has held the AEW World Championship hostage in a stuffy, stifling briefcase. It was a fantastic, bloody, and downright painful match that was booked perfectly, exactly what it needed to be.

Of course, there was copious amounts of interference. After Samoa Joe was injured earlier in the night, Will Ospreay also fell to the Death Riders, who interfered constantly throughout the match. The arrival of the Young Bucks also seemed to put a damper on things. But the returns of Bryan Danielson and Darby Allin helped even the odds once more. Swerve Strickland ended up being the deciding factor, helping Hangman by striking the Young Bucks with a chain and tossed it to our hero, who then used the chain he left in Swerve’s locker room on Collision to hang Moxley off the ropes, eventually earning the submission win.

Tony Khan thinks long term, very long term when it comes to storylines so sometimes it’s hard to see what the endgame is. The rise of the Death Riders and their rampage across AEW will be remembered as divisive, to say the least. While Moxley’s run as AEW World Champion can be credited for AEW’s upswing in 2025, the matches he defended the title in were a mixed bag, and the promos stopped being interesting a few weeks in. But in the end, after months of sour endings and fans wondering if he should piviot away, Khan stayed true to his vision and delivered the ending he wanted. And it can’t be labeled anything other than a success.

This was a grittier, bloodier version of Cody Rhodes’ WWE Championship win from last year. Some people will be upset about that comparison, but it’s true! It’s okay to copy ideas that work really well, and booking a long-term storyline leading to a cathartic-like win, as we witnessed Saturday, always works when everything comes together. With Page’s win, it does feel like a new era in AEW has begun, and while it’s not immediately clear what the future holds, it does look bright after a show like this.

I don’t think this was the best show of the year, as I thought Revolution was a tad better. And also, at six hours, yes this was a very long show. But the main event and its conclusion will likely be remembered by fans around voting time.

My other thoughts from the show:

  • The Trios titles opener was fine, but seemed like more of an angle to ensure there would be hijinks in the main event after Samoa Joe was taken out on a stretcher. And sure enough, it was. I kind of wish for the days where these titles seemed like a big deal, they’ve really fallen by the wayside. But don’t get me started on AEW and its titles.
  • MJF won the men’s Casino Gauntlet match, earning a future world title shot. I liked this mostly, it featured a ton of good workers like Konosuke Takeshita, Mistico, Mark Briscoe and Josh Alexander going at it and the mystery people coming in kept things going well. The finish pretty much means we’ll see the long-teased MJF and Hangman Page match, though if it’s like last year where people can cash in at any time, you know MJF’s going to use that to his advantage.
  • Dustin Rhodes won the TNT title in an impromptu four-way match to crown a new TNT Champion after Adam Cole gave an emotional speech questioning his career status after vacating the title earlier in the day. This was a solid match that was overshadowed by Cole’s emotional announcement, but people reacted to the surprise win for hometown hero Rhodes. This was all designed to give fans something to cheer for, and they did.
  • The Young Bucks are no longer EVPs, losing that status to Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland in what I thought was a fantastic match. It’s not just that The Young Bucks are one of the best tag teams ever, but Ospreay and Strickland gel very well as a tag team, their synchronicity are top notch. There were some sequences here that were just incredible. The Young Bucks losing is probably a way to keep them off TV for a while until they pop up once again later this year.
  • Athena ended up winning the Women’s Casino gauntlet match, giving herself a future chance at the AEW Women’s title. This was pretty good, everyone worked hard. Syuri from Stardom made her debut and looked great, as did Alex Windsor. Athena winning makes it seem like we’ll see a future match between her Toni Storm soon enough, which sounds good to me.
  • To nobody’s surprise, The Hurt Syndicate retained the tag team titles over JetSpeed and Christian Cage & Nick Wayne. This took place long into the show and no one really reacted to the work here as nobody thought the Hurt Syndicate, who had been booked like demigods in the weeks leading to this match save for this last week, was going to lose the titles here. They didn’t.
  • The match was also overshadowed by Nick Wayne turning on Christian Cage, which was a weird dynamic was it was Christian being mean to Wayne in the weeks leading to this match. Wayne, Kip Sabian, and FTR were about to take out Cage with the conchairto when Adam Copeland made his return, taking out everyone. He then helped Cage to his feet and told him to go…find himself. Deep. All Out is in Toronto so they will likely be buddies again by then, but this all seemed abrupt.
  • Mercedes Mone was not successful in winning the AEW Women’s Championship, as she sustained her first AEW loss to Toni Storm, who won with an avalanche storm zero. This was fantastic with a lot of great nearfalls and submission attempts toward the end. Between the entrances and the work, this felt like a big time main event. Don’t know where they go from here as I feel this is just the start of a series that could eventually see Mone win the title.
  • Kazuchika Okada emerged victorious over Kenny Omega in what I thought was his best match since arriving in AEW last year. The question coming in here is what kind of Okada were going to get — an Okada that works at a 5 or an Okada that works at 10? We got something closer to the latter, probably a 7. With that in mind, this was not as good as their matches from several years ago in NJPW as their bodies are battered, but this was still a great match. With Omega’s loss, he may be taking some time off as he continues on his road to recovery.

WWE Night of Champions review: John Cena & CM Punk’s last dance

Posted on by Bryan Rose

This is a column that represents the views of the author and not the website.

WWE Night of Champions was the final time John Cena wrestled CM Punk and you know what? I’m okay with that.

By now, we should know the formula of a Cena main event. Let’s be realistic: at 48, he is battered and bruised. He can’t do a long match. He doesn’t like taking bumps. So, you’re only going to get one kind of match where he trades some basic offense with his opponent until people run down to the ring for interference to pad the runtime.

To be fair, everything was perfectly alright for the most part between these two and probably the best match they could have done in 2025. But this was hardly the kind of match one would hope for considering their history.

As per usual, a ref bump took place near the end. Seth Rollins came out and instructed his new squad of Bronson Reed and Bron Breakker to do his bidding, taking out Cena. After Penta came out and took out Breakker and Sami Zayn took out Reed, Cena and Punk were left in the ring. Cena attempted to repeat what he did at Elimination Chamber, going for a hug and a low blow. It didn’t work this time as Punk caught him and laid Cena out with the GTS.

However, wouldn’t you know it, that was when Rollins came in and ruined everything by hitting Punk with the curb stomp. Before he could cash in, Cena threw Rollins out of the ring and covered Punk to win the match. This was one of Cena’s better matches this year but standards are so much higher now, especially for main events, and most of his matches aren’t reaching that bar.

One of WWE’s plusses lately is that you can clearly see where the company is going. Punk and Rollins are very likely to do battle at SummerSlam while Cena will face Rhodes in a WrestleMania rematch for the WWE title. Cody needs to win if we’re going to have any good main events on WWE television this year and we need to kickstart Cena’s turn back as a babyface as we head into the final months of his career.

The heel run isn’t working, it’s not leading to good promos and matches, and it just feels like a compelling idea that ended up being a dud due to lack of creativity and performance.

Rhodes, as expected, won the King of the Ring final, defeating Randy Orton in the opening contest of Saturday’s show in Saudi Arabia.

This was the best match on a overall middling show. It was a standard, very good WWE main event style bout where both men kicked out each other’s big moves as the crowd in Riyadh cheered for everything. Orton orchestrated his own downfall, being pushed into a turnbuckle he had exposed.

Jade Cargill is the Queen of the Ring, pinning Asuka in what I thought was a short and rather uninteresting match.

It was just kinda there and didn’t get me into the idea of seeing Cargill challenge for the title. She’s been here for a while at this point and while she absolutely has the look and presence of a star, the work still isn’t there. She will take on Tiffany Stratton, which, well, I don’t know how that will go.

Solo Sikoa is the new United States champion, defeating Jacob Fatu thanks to the debuting TALA TONGA, fka Hikuleo, who chokeslammed Fatu through the announce desk.

This was okay, but Fatu at this point comes off as a far bigger star than Solo and it’s clear he’s outshined most of what remains of the Bloodline, so a title change here felt weird. There is bound to be a rematch here where Fatu regains the title but before that I think we may have a six-man tag for SummerSlam with Fatu likely teaming with Jimmy Uso and another family member to take on his three mean family members — maybe the one that just got a part in the upcoming Street Fighter movie.

The street fight between Raquel Rodriguez and Rhea Ripley was pretty good — your standard WWE weapons match where both worked hard.

Ripley won, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she and IYO SKY battle it out soon for the WWE Women’s World Championship as perhaps that’s the SummerSlam match. Rodriguez, meanwhile, needs a tag team partner and with Roxanne Perez’s interference on her behalf, it is likely these two will team together and become friends.

Sami Zayn defeated Karrion Kross in A Match That Took Place.

Nothing of note, though Zayn was obviously very over with the crowd. They keep pushing Zayn wanting to be a World Champion so much that I think that will be a title program for the fall, or maybe even a tease for the Royal Rumble.

WWE Bad Blood review: The Bloodline drama continues

Posted on by Bryan Rose

The Rock is back. Jimmy Uso is back. But the Bloodline drama? It never ends.

Saturday’s Bad Blood in Atlanta, Georgia continued the Bloodline storyline that has developed following the events of WrestleMania 40. After being taken out by Solo Sikoa shortly following that show, Jimmy Uso made his return on Saturday, helping Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes by taking out Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa. After the match, he reunited with Reigns, then ultimately convinced him to help Rhodes once he was jumped by Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa.

Then, just when you thought the show was over, guess who made his appearance? The Final Boss himself, The Rock. Holding his People’s Championship given to him by Muhammad Ali’s widow, he stared down Uso, Rhodes, and Reigns in the ring as the show closed, casting uncertainty about what may happen next.

You’ll notice that I didn’t say much about the match. Well, that isn’t particularly important. It was fine, there were some cool moves, and of course, there was the usual DRAMA seen in Roman Reigns matches. But the match won’t be remembered. The Rock and Jimmy Uso making their returns was what mattered the most. And it worked!

So now the question is, what’s next? For Cody Rhodes, it seems like Kevin Owens who jumped him in the parking lot in a social media angle. As for the rest of The Bloodline, The Rock has made it clear he’s been seeing what has been going on, but when he’ll be seen again is anyone’s guess. Survivor Series is drawing nearer, meaning there will be a War Games match…will old vs. new square off?

In the opener, CM Punk defeated Drew McIntyre in one of the best Hell in a Cell matches I’ve seen in a long time and was easily the best match on the show by a country mile. Yes, it had the usual WWE weapons plunder I find so annoying in these cage matches, but they did it in such a compelling, captivating way that I can’t complain about it. Both men bled buckets during the match and by the end, the ring was covered with red stains. Good! A Hell in a Cell match shouldn’t be a yearly PLE, it should be a rarely-used match used only when meant to end a feud, and this felt like it. Then again, so did their Bash in Berlin match. But this was much better.

Nia Jax retained the WWE Women’s title in a bad match against Bayley. Before I say anything, look. Jax has been in some matches this year that were not bad. I thought the Elimination Chamber match with her and Ripley was fine. But this title run has not been impressive, and this was a banner match that exemplifies her case for Most Overrated in the upcoming Wrestling Observer Awards. There was one spot where Jax attempted something new by doing a hurricanrana. The problem was, there was no effort to do the spot correctly. She just kind of fell, then Bayley had to sell it like it connected. Then Jax won after Stratton teased cashing in, then didn’t and got Jax mad, then helped Jax win anyway. This is all building to a Stratton face turn on Jax down the line. Here’s the thing: I don’t care. I don’t want to see Nia Jax win. I don’t want to see Nia Jax lose. I just don’t want to see Nia Jax.

Liv Morgan retained the Women’s World title over Rhea Ripley in a match that was better than the previous match, but had maybe a lamer finish. You see, Ripley had the match won. Then she saw Dominik Mysterio dangling off the shark cage. Instead of pinning Morgan and winning the title, which any normal human being would do, Ripley instead told the referee she had “unfinished business” with Mysterio, took out a kendo stick, and began beating Mysterio like he was a pinata. Then Raquel Rodriguez made her return and laid out Ripley for the DQ. The work was fine, but nothing special. These two aren’t done yet, clearly, and will probably have one more stipulation match before the year ends, hopefully with a better finish.

Finn Balor and Damian Priest had a decent match, but it wasn’t much better than a Raw match which, when you think about how long they’ve been building this feud, is somewhat of a disappointment. This also felt like a House of Torture match at times with tons of interference with the other Judgment Day members. Balor and Priest probably also aren’t done with one another so we’ll probably see more from them too.

And that will do it for Bad Blood! Good open, good ending, not much to say about the middle. Next up is Crown Jewel on November 2, where the WWE and World Champions, both male and female, will take on one another for the Crown Jewel Championship. Well, it’s a gimmick, I guess!

WWE Backlash review: The crowd makes the show

Posted on by Bryan Rose

The story coming out of Saturday’s WWE Backlash wasn’t so much about a match or a result. It was about the crowd.

Much like last year’s Backlash, the show in Lyon, France, had monumental heat for every one of the matches that took place, creating an environment that made WWE look like the hottest promotion on Earth.

As a result, all matches from Saturday’s premium live event benefited and made the show an absolute thumbs up just to hear the crowd react to anything and everything.

Cody Rhodes retained the undisputed WWE Championship in a very good match against AJ Styles — a true WWE main event match in structure. There isn’t much to say about it as it was good! Not a match-of-the-year contender by any means, but they had a good match in front of a hot crowd. You can say that for most of the matches that took place on Saturday.

One thing I’ll praise WWE events about is the brisk pace. That’s refreshing in a world where I have to spend all day covering an AEW pay-per-view that starts at 3:30 PM PST and doesn’t finish until Tony Khan stops talking at around 11:30 PM PST.

Anyway, here’s my thoughts on the rest of the card:

  • The opening match had The Bloodline’s Tama Tonga and Solo Sikoa earn a win over Randy Orton and Kevin Owens when, of all people, Tanga Loa came in and interfered, seemingly becoming the newest member of The Bloodline. The match was your typical very good WWE-style weapons match, but the crowd made it memorable. One thing is for sure: France likes singing Orton’s theme.
  • Bayley retained the WWE Women’s Championship in a three-way over Naomi and Tiffany Stratton. This was a match made to showcase Stratton as it’s clear she’s getting over and improving to the point where she may become a top star sooner than one would think. As much as I liked this match, I am wincing as the next title program is probably Bayley vs. Nia Jax. I can’t wait for that. Just kidding, I can.
  • Damian Priest kept the WWE World title, denying Jey Uso thanks to the help of JD McDonagh and Finn Balor. The match was a backdrop for the Judgment Day drama, which I think is finally leading to the split that’s been teased for well over a year. Still, I thought this was good as well, a big step up by Uso after a very disappointing WrestleMania match.
  • There was one title change on the show with Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair winning the Women’s Tag Team titles by defeating The Kabuki Warriors. I also thought this was good as Cargill is improving. It’s a smart idea to put her in a team for a while with someone like Belair. The only problem is what other tag teams are there in this division?

With Backlash out of the way and King of the Ring coming up, we should be getting some ideas for SummerSlam in the next few weeks, at the very least planting the seeds for the next big stadium show in the U.S. We’ll likely see that once the dust clears from the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments that begin on Monday’s Raw.

WWE WrestleMania 40 review: Cody Rhodes finishes his story

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Cody Rhodes finishing his story at WWE WrestleMania 40 on Sunday was the most predictable finish WWE could do. That’s why it worked so well.

In a match under Bloodline rules, Rhodes finally won the undisputed WWE Universal Championship, defeating Roman Reigns to end his 1316-day reign as champion. It was a tremendous match that finally capped off two years of storytelling, something that would probably never happen in Vince McMahon’s WWE but did under Triple H’s reign.

The first twenty minutes of the match was good back-and-forth WWE action. But then, of course, Jimmy Uso came out. He was taken out by brother Jey, but then, it was time for Solo Sikoa. But unlike last year where Sikoa’s interference cost Cody the match, John Cena, who was totaled by Sikoa last year, came out for revenge. The Rock then came out to lay out Cena, but then of all people, The Undertaker chokeslammed The Rock. Cody then hit three Crossroads and pinned Reigns to a tremendous reaction.

After Cody won, a wonderful celebration took place with his family, Triple H, Bruce Prichard and all of the other babyfaces that were taken out by Reigns over the last three years. It was one of the most satisfying finishes to a show I have seen from WWE in years. Many matches this year on a technical level will probably be better than this main event. But in terms of presentation, build, and story, it was one of the best matches in WWE in quite some time.

Pro wrestling isn’t hard to book. You sign talent that people want to see succeed and win, you book them against effective heels you want to see lose, and you go from there. Under Vince McMahon’s watch, especially in the last decade of his run, he could not book a babyface to save his life. Everything was about heat. He booked horrible, terrible wrestling with disappointing finishes to the point where he couldn’t even book happy things during the pandemic, one of the worst things to happen in the world in decades.

All weekend long, I kept hearing the phrase “it’s a new era in WWE,” probably because the company crammed that phrase down everyone’s throats. But you know what? Unlike all the other times WWE promised change, this time it does feel like a new era: an era where storylines pay off,. one where no one is trying to book against the crowd, and the storylines actually kind of make sense. Things pay off. Triple H had the easiest job in the world to convince people things have changed, and by the end of Sunday, he accomplished that goal.

Since I talked about the major story everyone is invested in, I’ll run down the rest of both cards quickly. Here we go!

The rest of Saturday’s night one:

  • The main event of night one was tremendously boring as The Rock and Roman Reigns defeated Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins in one of the most plodding main event matches I have seen in quite some time. They just kept wrestling. They just kept DOING THINGS until finally, The Rock pinned Cody Rhodes, a sign that perhaps a singles match between the two is down the line. Rock looked fine, you got to see him wrestle for a VERY LONG TIME, and didn’t seem out of step. This would have been a fine match if it were maybe 20 minutes shorter. Instead, it was a dull 40-minute bore.
  • Sami Zayn and Gunther was an excellent presentation from start to finish and absolutely the highlight of the first night. From Zayn hugging his family before walking to the ring to Gunther harassing Zayn’s wife at ringside, everyone told their story so well and the match itself was a perfect David vs. Goliath battle. Zayn executing the turnbuckle brainbuster for the first time in years was also a sight to see.
  • Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch was good, but I think both have had better WrestleMania matches. This was a very prototypical big WWE match where everyone hits their finishers and scores big nearfalls. I expected Ripley to win and she did as there just isn’t anyone on the Raw roster right now that comes close to her aura.
  • The ladder match separated the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team titles with Awesome Truth winning the Raw titles and Grayson Waller & Austin Theory claiming the SmackDown titles. The match itself was good and was a lot of atypical ladder spots and some brutal-looking ones as well. Toward the end, it just felt like a lot of the same thing with one team climbing the ladder, another team taking them out, rinse and repeat. It was the right finish as it was probably time for Judgment Day to move on from the tag title scene. The situation the next day proved that.
  • I don’t have much to say about the Rey Mysterio & Andrade vs. Dominik Mysterio & Santos Escobar match or Damage CTRL vs. Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair, and Naomi. Both were just kinda there and didn’t feel like big-time matches. The matches did do their jobs, however, with Philadelphia Eagles stars Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson helping Mysterio’s team and Cargill looking strong in her WrestleMania debut.
  • I wasn’t feeling the Uso vs. Uso match going into WrestleMania. I kept thinking that for a brother vs. brother match, there should be more heat here. I was astonished by how flat the match ended up being. Jey and Jimmy just had a nothing match in front of a crowd that didn’t seem to care. Then, Jey just won. There isn’t more to say and for a feud that has lasted for months, that’s quite sad.

The rest of night two:

  • The opener between Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre was a very good match with McIntyre winning the World Heavyweight title…for a while. After mocking CM Punk at ringside, Punk attacked him. That allowed Damian Priest to cash in and win the World Heavyweight Championship. This makes things interesting as now I want to see McIntyre’s reaction to the loss and who will first challenge the new champion.
  • Lashley and the Street Profits defeated The Final Testament in a Philadelphia street fight. Bubba Ray Dudley was the referee. I don’t have much to say it was a weapons match. It was fine. The Final Testament does not feel over at all. Next!
  • LA Knight defeated AJ Styles in a match I thought was better than expected. I’m so-so on Styles these days, but both looked good and had a good match.
  • Logan Paul kept the United States title over Kevin Owens and Randy Orton. I expected that finish as one would assume that Paul will be wrestling in Saudi Arabia next month. A good match, though I am old enough to say I did not know who “iShowSpeed” is. He was in the Prime bottle this year and was taken out by Orton.
  • Bayley defeated IYO SKY for the WWE Women’s title in a very good match. The final few minutes were excellent and I think it was better than the Women’s World title match from the previous night. Good chemistry and good heat.

And that is it for WrestleMania! New stories will start on Raw Monday and we’ll see where WWE goes from here. All I can say is that the Raw after WrestleMania cannot be as bad as last year’s show. I think.

WWE 2K24 review: Don’t fix what isn’t broken

Posted on by Bryan Rose

This year’s WWE video game offering, 2K24, isn’t that terribly different from last year’s entry. That’s good news, as 2K23 was a step in the right direction for a series still recovering from the poorly-received 2K20. While there aren’t any major changes, there are enough refinements and additions that make 2K24 one of the better WWE games that’s been put out in recent years, though there’s always room for further improvement.

Gameplay is largely the same as last year’s title, though there’s a few new additions. A new striking mini-game can appear during matches that allows the player to execute a strong-style battle of strikes against their opponent. These seem to happen out of the blue and I didn’t particularly like them as they took me out of the game. The more welcoming new feature is stacking three finishers together to unleash a new dramatic super finisher.

New match types this year include special referee, gauntlet, ambulance, and casket. Guest referee mode was the most fun to mess around with, though there’s a referee meter that grades based on how well the player does as a referee, and if it gets too low, another referee will come down to do the rest of the match. Thankfully that can be turned off so hijinks can ensue. Backstage Brawl matches have also been enhanced, adding things like elevators and vending machines. It’s easy to throw people off scaffolds and powerbomb opponents into objects during these kinds of matches, which is always a blast.

Like last year, MyRise has two different storylines: Unleashed, which follows a female independent talent trying to make it in WWE, and Unrivaled, which pits a male character in a storyline involving the Undisputed WWE Championship after Roman Reigns shockingly vacates the title to pursue Hollywood dreams. 2K puts a lot of effort into these stories, with branching paths that can be chosen to alter where the story goes. There’s even cameos from previous characters seen in last year’s story modes, which is a nice touch.

Showcase mode continues to have the same problems that have plagued the 2K series for years. The focus this year is on 40 Years of WrestleMania, reliving some of WWE’s biggest WrestleMania moments. The problem is some of the matches, especially more recent fare, simply aren’t that memorable and are more along the lines of what people are available to use. That becomes even more apparent when footage involving fans, referees, and those not under any kind of contract to WWE have their faces blurred during usage of actual match and storyline footage. The tedious nature of having to follow a checklist to unlock every unlockable is still there, too.

Universe and MyGM are pretty much the same modes they have been for the last couple of years. Universe involves either watching the computer sim matches and premium live events or taking control of a wrestler as they go through shows and develop rivalries over time. MyGM allows the player to become General Manager of a brand where they are pitted against other GMs for brand supremacy. There are new GMs to use, and there are a few other new additions like the ability to trade talent following premium live events. These are always fun to play around and experiment with. 

MyFaction is the live service-type mode where the aim is to open cards and assemble teams to play against either CPU or real opponents over the internet. There’s rewards for daily logins, and real money can be used to purchase more powerful cards. This mode isn’t for me, but there’s enough content for people interested in this type of gameplay.

There’s a lot to like in WWE 2K24. The problems with Showcase mode remain, but the story modes are worth investing time in, and the new match types are fun to play with. Though there is still more to fix, this is very much a “don’t fix what isn’t broken” year for the 2K series, and that’s never a bad thing.

WWE 2K24 is out now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Steam. A PlayStation 5 code was provided for this review.

WWE Survivor Series review: Hey, that’s CM Punk

Posted on by Bryan Rose

There was a WWE show on Saturday, but no one will remember much aside from the final few minutes.

Yes, after weeks of speculation and despite all the reports indicating that WWE didn’t have any interest in bringing CM Punk back, guess what happened? CM Punk came back, much to the joy of the Chicago crowd and the many people on social media who now feel vindicated against the reporters who they knew, deep in their hearts, were just plain wrong. It was a genuinely surprising moment in an era where those kinds of surprises are few and far between, though I guess for the true believers, Punk’s return wasn’t a shock.

So what happens now, does Punk go to Raw? SmackDown? What’s the WrestleMania plan? Who is his first opponent? We’ll probably find out sooner than later, but at the very least, it’s an interesting wrinkle in the current dynamics of pro wrestling where WWE right now feels like the hotter product than AEW who, perception-wise, feels lacking in terms of storytelling. A lot about pro wrestling is momentum, and it’s clear which promotion has that right now.

Punk’s return followed the men’s WarGames match, which had a very simple formula: make everyone wait for Randy Orton’s return. Of course, as soon as everyone entered the ring, all the heels beat up the babyfaces and started to pose when….Rhea Ripley came out with Damian Priest’s Money in the Bank contract. It was only then that Orton’s music hit, leading to a very jacked Orton to come out and do all of his trademark spots. A big RKO to JD McDonagh off the steel cage and a crossroads to Damian Priest later by Cody Rhodes, and that was the match. 

These WarGames bouts don’t have the intensity of the ones back in the NWA/WCW days, and I wish there wasn’t such an urgency to use the same weapons you see in just about every WWE hardcore match. But this crowd was hot for everything in this match, so you can’t say this match didn’t work. If anything, it was a huge success.

And now, on to the rest of the card:

  • The Women’s WarGames match was also very relatively simple, with the heels controlling until the babyfaces mounted their comeback, did cool stuff (Charlotte with a moonsault off the cage! Becky Lynch putting Bayley through a table!) and got the win. Very good way to start the show, and a bad omen for Bayley, who took the pin. The split is coming, but the question is when. That trash can spot IYO SKY did, by the way, was nuts.
  • One of the biggest problems that I had with The Miz and Gunther was that they booked this like a competitive match. Miz even kicked out of the powerbomb finish. To that, I say, no. Not that I thought this would be a squash, or Miz would get zero offense in, but I had a vision for this match and they had a completly different match that I found hard to believe. I cannot buy that THE MIZ would have a competitive match with Gunther, sorry. To be fair, out of context wasn’t a bad match particularly due to the crowd, who ate up all of Miz’s nearfalls towards the end.
  • Santos Escobar defeated Dragon Lee in what I thought was a good match, particularly toward the end. I thought the finish was flat, with Escobar hitting the phantom driver in the middle for the win. Not sure why you’d have Dragon Lee lose after being highlighting him the last few weeks on SmackDown. It is true that the big program in the future is Rey Mysterio vs. Santos Escobar, so it’s not like Escobar should have lost here either. But then the question is, why did they replace Carlito with Lee at the last minute?
  • Rhea Ripley defeated Zoey Stark. That’s about it. This was good while it lasted, but I thought they didn’t get enough time for it to be anything of substance. I think one of the problems with this match is that no one thought Stark would win, and unlike the Intercontinental title match where people bought into Miz’s nearfalls, they didn’t here. With Ripley, it’s just a holding pattern until they want to do the Nia Jax match and, presumably, the Becky Lynch match.

And that’s Survivor Series! It was a two match show, and the two matches delivered, so it’s an easy thumbs up show. There’s actually no PLE next month, so the next WWE review will be 9 weeks away for the Royal Rumble!

AEW All Out review: Yes, there was a pay-per-view too

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Yes, there was a pay-per-view before last night’s scrum.

AEW All Out 2022 continued the streak of excellent pay-per-views from the company, with many matches delivering and one completely blowing everything out of the water. People will likely focus on the events in the hours following All Out, but for this article I’ll focus on the show itself.

The big news, of course, is CM Punk…regaining the AEW World Championship from Jon Moxley after losing it to him in quick fashion a week ago. I don’t know if the story heading into this match was necessary, as I think the match itself was strong anyway based on CM Punk facing Jon Moxley, a fresh match. But a great promo by Ace Steel on Wednesday’s Dynamite led to Sunday’s great main event, which ended up being a mix of both Punk and Mox’s styles.

Of course, the show ended with the return of MJF, who revealed himself to be the masked mystery Joker participant in the ladder match that opened the show. The ladder match had some cool spots, but was overshadowed by the angle that ended the match, with Stokely Hathaway and his new clients (W. Morrissey, Colten & Austin Gunn, Lee Moriarty, and Ethan Page) arriving in ski masks to lay everyone out and hand the victory (and the future World title match) to MJF, who is now likely to headline the next title match against CM Punk.

I don’t know about all of this Pillman-esque stuff that has been going on in the months following Double or Nothing, but I do know this: MJF is the future world champion heel that the company needs to focus on next. It’s clear he’s someone special, regardless of where he may go in a couple of years. It’s the match to make, and it’s the time to crown MJF, whenever that time may be.

The match that stole the show was none other than the AEW World Tag Team title match between Swerve in Our Glory and The Acclaimed. I don’t know how this translated to TV, but the heat for this match live was unreal and better than anything at Clash at the Castle, which had a pretty hot crowd! Chicago so desperately wanted for The Acclaimed to win, and it made the match all that much hotter following each nearfall. The pop for that win would have been something that Steve Austin and The Rock in their heyday could only dream of.

That didn’t happen, as Keith Lee and Swerve Scott walked out as champions. But these two teams did something I thought absolutely wasn’t possible: they had a better match than Sheamus and Gunther from the previous day’s Clash at the Catle. And you have to give The Acclaimed massive credit, as a lot of people were skeptical about them getting the title shot. Now everyone wants them as champions, and you know what? Perhaps it is time after all.

The Elite (Young Bucks and a ripped Kenny Omega) are in fact the first-ever AEW World Trios Tag Team Champions, defeating Hangman Page and The Dark Order in an excellent match, just one hot nearfall after another. It’s fitting they are the first champions, as there’s really no one else that can carry the banner for trios wrestling like they will. I’ve enjoyed the storyline between The Elite and Hangman Page, and no doubt their long-running story will continue.

One trios team that seems unlikely to challenge The Elite is The House of Black, who lost to Miro, Sting, and Darby Allin in the co-main event, with Allin pinning Malakai Black clean with a coffin drop. After the match, The House of Black hugged as the crowd gave Black a standing ovation. What does this mean? Who knows. There’s rumors, and while this all looked like the swan song for Black, it may have been something else. Who knows, it’s wrestling.

Jurassic Express is over, with Luchasaurus attacking Jungle Boy in the aisle as he was heading to the ring for his match against Christian Cage, slamming him off the announce stage and powerbombing him through a table before sending him in the ring to Christian. Despite barely being able to get up, Jungle Boy preserered, but ultimately lost after an unprettier. This is another one in the “there will be more to this” department, as clearly the two aren’t going to move on after such a short match, and with Luchasurus’ turn, Jungle Boy has matches down the line with two of his former friends.

Jade Cargill retained the TBS Championship against Athena. Some spots looked off, but this ended quickly anyway with Cargill pinning Athena to continue her long winning streak. It was the right call, as Cargill has an awesome presence that no one really has in the company. Question is, who will be the person that eventually beats her? Are they in the company now or somewhere else?

Bryan Danielson was not successful in dodging the Judas Effect, losing to ‘Lionheart’ Chris Jericho in a match that was good, but felt a little flat with the ending. I was expecting Danielson to kick out, but he didn’t ,which surprised me. But it also tells me this is likely the start of a rivalry that’s just beginning, and it’s likely we’ll see more matches between the two down the road.

The final two matches to cap off the main card had Powerhouse Hobbs defeat Ricky Starks in five minutes, a surprising result given the feud. Again, probably more to this. Finally, FTR & Wardlow defeated Jay Lethal & The Motor City Machine Guns, which was also a fun match capped off with a cute segment in the end that had Harwood’s daughter pin Sonjay Dutt.

Oh, and there’s the four pre-show matches! Tomohiro Ishii and Eddie Kingston delivered exactly what you think they would do, chopping each other silly and fighting each other until one finally could no longer go, and that ended up being Ishii. This was excellent. Kip Sabian and PAC also had a great match, with PAC looking as he always does, and Sabian keeping up with him, also looking great here. Hook beat Angelo Parker in quick fashion, and finally, Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo defeated Ruby Soho and Ortiz in a really fun opener that had some cool spots, a great way to start the show.

So yes, fifteen matches overall. That is a lot! The good news for All Out is that the pacing was good, and five hours flew by pretty quickly. Five hours is a very long time for a wrestling show, but if the wrestling is good and everything winds up pacing well, then there isn’t much of a problem. The show capped off an extremely busy and newsworthy weekend that, while I am glad I experienced it live and with people from this website, doesn’t need to be repeated for a long while.

WWF Tuesday Night Titans episode 38 review: George Steele’s childhood secret revealed

Posted on by F4W Staff

By Joshua Molina for WrestlingObserver.com

– Run date: June 20, 1985
– Air time: 44:57
– Stars of the show: Steele, Capt. Lou Albano and Dr. Sigmund Ziff

Talk about a show that absolutely could not happen today. This was an offensive, insensitive and politically incorrect show. But it was also absolutely hilarious, with several laugh-out-loud moments, and some of the best acting ever on cable television. No TNT never won an Emmy, but my goodness, George “The Animal” Steele deserved an Emmy and an Oscar for his ridiculously brilliant performance as a psychotic, traumatized, dysfunctional person with several mental limitations. 

This guy nailed this character, to the point where we are almost believe that he was legitimately limited. We’ll get to Steele in a minute, but first we get to hear Vince McMahon interview The Junkyard Dog. 

The JYD was one of those legitimately super-popular guys before he ever stepped into a WWF ring. The WWF had not real plan for him, other than he was part of the dozens of wrestlers stolen from the territories. JYD was charismatic and super-popular, but he never destined for anything other than mid-card status with Hulk Hogan on top.

The Dog comes out and McMahon launches into his typical fanboy gushing, mentioning how popular JYD is. The Dog says “I can get along with anybody.”

We go quickly to a match between JYD and Tito Santana against Matt Borne and Steve Lombardi. Santana really carried this match. This guy was an incredible worker. Too bad he was buried also as a mid-carder in the Hulk Hogan area. In terms of technical ability he is one of the to 75 wrestlers of all time. The Dog was not a great worker. He was charismatic, but his offense here looked worse than Jon Stewart’s chair shot on John Cena at Summerslam.

Borne is doing his best to sell for JYD though, bumping like he’s Dolph Ziggler after two energy drinks.  For no reason Ventura decides to go full-on racist: “The Junkyard Dog to me is almost illiterate and Chico Santana he don’t speak English all that well.”

No wonder Ventura wants to be Donald Trump’s running mate? Or wait, is that Hulk Hogan who wants to be his running mate. Ventura is the more sensible of the two, so maybe it was Hogan. Nonetheless, the WWF “scriptwriters” weren’t too kind to these wrestlers of color in 1985.

Santana pins Borne and we are back in the studio with JYD and McMahon saying “the fans were all over you.” McMahon humors us: “You have nothing but success in front of you as far as the fans are concerned.” McMahon even suggests that maybe if the Dog keeps winning he’ll get a title show against Hulk Hogan.

Yeah right. Hogan was no John Cena, who in the last decade put over fan favorites such as Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, RVD, The Rock and Edge, for no other reason other than he wanted get those guys over. Hogan put over the JYD in 1985? That was never going to happen. 

The Junkyard Dog lingers, sliding down the couch as they introduce the next guest, Jimmy “Mouth of the South” Hart. Hart had the best laugh in the world. It rolled on forever. So annoying. He was a little fireball. A perfect heel. Hart refuses sit on the same couch as JYD, saying that either he leaves or the JYD leaves. Of course, JYD leaves because he’s a gentleman and doesn’t want to disrupt the show. 

Hart has a package that give gives Lord Alfred Hayes. Apparently, in one of the episodes that is not on the WWE network, a few weeks ago Hart dumped water on Hayes in a beach segment featuring King Kong Bundy. To make up for this, Hart gave Hayes a package.

As Hart starts to fiddle with the package, we go to a match featuring Greg “The Hammer” Valentine and Mario Mancini. Valentine was a true professional wrestler, but my god was he boring to watch. The match is moving like Ryback vs. The Big Show. Making matters worse, we have Bruno Sammartino on color commentary, who is referring to Hammer as being in “tip-top shape.”

No matter how great or awful they were in the ring, you could always count on Sammartino to comment about each wrestler’s physique and strength and conditioning, even if the were pudgy little jobbers. Oh well, at least we didn’t have to listen to him talk this week about how strong his son David is. 

To distract people from the ridiculously slow pace of the match, Hart is jabbering with a crazy fan at ringside. Hart knew how to draw heel heat. 

Valentine wins with a figure-four-leglock and back in the TNT studio Hayes is still opening the package. It’s one of those boxes that when you open it there’s another box inside. Hayes finally gets to the right box and a snake and powder explodes into the air, splashing all over Hayes and his jacket. 

“There’s no fool, like an old fool,” Hart says with a maniacal laugh. Hayes pops up as though he’s going to assault him, when JYD returns with a jug of water. He goes after Hart and pours it on him.  Hart screams, “You ruined my outfit. You are going to pay for this” and runs off the set. 

Up next, we get what McMahon calls “a great lady wrestler.” Too bad McMahon doesn’t call his talent “wrestlers” anymore. Petersen comes out apparently as the newest challenger for Wendi Richter. McMahon has no shame: “Talk about an attractive young lady,” he says.

Sitting straight up and proper, she says “thank you” for the compliments. McMahon has morphed into his slimy nice guy character here, his voice low, his body leaning toward Petersen, trying to make her feel comfortable.

We go to the ring and its Peterson against Judy Martin. 

I’ll say it again: The female wrestlers in 1985 were better than most of the current WWE female roster. The women were more normal looking, and their wrestling looked much more athletic and realistic. I don’t think they were trying to turn models into wrestlers in 1985. These were wrestlers that they were trying to glam up. 

Petersen wins the match after Martin refuses to release a choke hold and pushes the referee, a big no-no, or a convenient went to end a match without having either wrestler do the job for the other. 

The lady segments are typically short. They give Peterse enough time to look pretty, proper and grateful for the opportunity and then they ship her off the set. On the couch she said she wants a rematch with Martin and she wants to challenge Wendi Richter for the world title.

Before she leaves, McMahon calls her “a pretty young lady.” After Petersen, we get to meet “the lucky winner” of the WWF trivia contest that Lord Alfed Hayes was pushing several months ago. I am not sure they ever said her name, but I do remember her saying “this is an ultimate fantasy of mine dream come true,” while standing between Hayes and McMahon.

She’s apparently a huge professional wrestling fan, although not enough to get on a plane for. Hayes points out that she took a 19-hour Greyhound bus ride to get to New York. She also reveals that she has 10 cats, six dogs and three horses.

This is a bridge segment before the main event: George “The Animal” Steele. 

Now watching TNT as a kid, of course I knew that wrestling was predetermined. The big question for me was always whether the wrestlers were like their characters in real life. When they said things, did they really mean that? Did Rowdy Roddy Piper and Cowboy Bob Orton really hang out together and cause trouble on the road? That was always the big question. And even though I knew wrestling outcomes were pre-determined, I knew that these guys were athletes, who chose professional wrestling because they loved the art of it. 

But when George “The Animal” Steele was on TV, it was an entirely different story. I was convinced this guy was legitimately limited in his mental capacity. 

He was also scary as hell. Can you imagine that bald, fat, hairy guy coming after you? It’s a boy’s nightmare. So props to Steele for playing that role so masterfully, as evidenced on this episode of TNT. Steele comes out with a noticeably fatter Albano, who is sporting a haircut. Albano lost some weight during the Cyndi Lauper angle, but appears to be morphing back into his gross self. 

McMahon calls him on it, asking Albano if he has gained weight. Albano unbuttons his shirt and says that actually he has lost 30 to 35 bounds. No one embraced their fatness quite like Albano.

Albano starts to explain that he has found “Dr. Sigmund Ziff” who is a renowned “psychiatrist and gynecologist.” You just can’t make this stuff up. He said the doctor determined that Steele was depressed, homicidal and suicidal. But he can be helped. 

“Under hypnosis, they said the man can be helped and they said there’s only one man in the nation today with a PhD, PhU, an IOU and an IOA that can help George Steele.”

Albano was so good at just making up words in the moment. Before the hypnosis we go to the ring to Saturday Night’s Main Event and a six-man tag match between Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham against The Iron Sheik, Nikolai Volkov and Steele.

A couple of notables: Steamboat was amazing. Windham was ridiculously amazing. Windham was so good in that ring, everything from his timing, to his athleticism and his ability to call a match. The match ends after Volkoff tags in Steele, who quickly attempts to tag back, but his partners abandoned him. Windham then rolls up Steele for the victory. 

Just because they are bullies, Sheik and Volkoff decide to beat on Steele until Steel battles back. Albano runs into the ring and comforts Steele in a real tender moment. Albano rubs his head and Steele puts his head on his chest. 

Ahhhhh. McMahon calls Steele, “the most unorthodox wrestler in the world today.” Back on the TNT set, Albano continues to explain why he wants to help Steele. 

“I felt that in this man I saw nothing but goodness,” Albano said. “I realized the man was handicapped. He had a speech impediment. he was in trouble.” Meanwhile, Steele is acting like a paranoid freak, as though bugs are crawling all over him and there’s someone lurking over him about to slam him over the head. He was born for this role. 

Albano says Steele simply has a calcium deposit building up in his head blocking his medulla, but that Dr. Ziff is going to fix it all. We go to the psychiatrist’s office and Steele is sprawled out. McMahon asks him how he plans to help Steele.

“I am the doctor of the last resort,” Dr. Ziff says. “Whenever things are hopeless they send them to me. And this man is hopeless.”

Ziff said he needs silence to hypnotize Steele. Ziff swings the pendulum in about three seconds claims that “he’s under, just like that.” What follows is a combination of disappointment and sadness. Dr. Ziff tells Steele to go back to his childhood, and suddenly Steele starts talking. 

Now I don’t remember watching this segment as a kid, but if I did I would have been terribly disappointed. George was actually talking. I new that the psychiatry gimmick was a total work, so if George is talking, he must actually be a really smart guy to play along with this act. 

Over the next minute George barks out these words:

“School!”

“Football!”

“Tongue”

“George Stand.”

“George Talk”

“Teacher Say: Sit Down, Dummy.”

“George, No Talk in School.”

Man. How sad. Now we know that George was not a mentally challenged individual, he was actually a metaphor for all the bullied children all over the world.  Then it goes worse. George says he grew up to become a professional wrestler. 

“They booed George.”

“Threw things at me.”

“Spit at me.”

Dr. Ziff concludes that George is traumatized from a double rejection in his life. He claims that  now that Steel has acknowledge his trauma, he will come out of the hypnosis as a new man. Of course, that doesn’t happen. Why would the WWF kill a great gimmick just for shock value? This isn’t 2015. 

Dr. Ziff snaps his fingers and George starts freaking out like he sat on a bed of thumbtacks. Albano starts screaming that Steele will need more therapy. No kidding. It should have been a weekly segment. The show wraps up with Dr. Ziff on the couch. He’s trying to explain to McMahon how he can be a gynecologist and psychiatrist.”

“Everything is inside,” Dr. Ziff says, “sometimes you start at the top and work down and sometimes, well you get the idea.” Dr. Ziff says he is willing to help anybody:

“We will help anyone who comes to us,” Dr. Ziff says. “We only need need one qualification: money.”

What an amazing episode, thanks to Steele, who played this role perfectly. They tried something similar with Eugene a decade ago, but Steele shows on this episode that if they ever start handing out Emmys to WWE wrestlers, Steele definitely deserves one of those Lifetime Achievement Awards.