UnWrest #2- WWE and ROH TV Thoughts, Rewind Match of the Week, Podcast of the Week, and Remembering Vader

What's up everyone? Welcome to the 2nd Edition of the main UnWrest post. Given the news of Big Van Vader's passing, I've decided not to do any additional news after my weekly TV thoughts, Rewind, and Podcast Recommendations. Instead, after those, I'm going to write on The Man from the Rocky Mountains. I'll cover the other news from this week later. With that in mind, let's get to it.

Raw Thoughts
- That opening segment was perfect with Rousey going off on Alexa Bliss and even Kurt Angle after being somewhat screwed out of the Raw Women's Championship at Money in the Bank. This is the way to develop Ronda's character and get her over more with both WWE's hardcore and mainstream audience: Everyone loves a badass. Look at Samoa Joe. He's a heel, but the audience loves him because he's a legit badass. Rousey in 24 hours regained a lot of the momentum she had lost after WrestleMania. This tapped into the Steve Austin territory for beating up people that wrong you and getting a major crowd reaction. If WWE can tap into that without seeming to be overtly retreading old territory, they could make some serious money.

- As for Ziggler and Rollins, it was a very good match with both men going back and forth. McIntyre did a great job stalking Rollins from the outside up to the finish, foreshadowing what the finish could/would be. It was the little things like Rollins going for a springboard move off the ropes, and Drew just slowly walking behind him. Rollins didn't look back or anything, but it was that small move that makes a viewer think he was going to interfere. THAT sucks you into a match: not just waiting for the spot but doing the smallest things to build to that that bring an audience into the story. Everything about McIntyre is so much better than he was 5-10 years ago. My hats off to him for completely changing his game and becoming a legit badass himself. Ziggler being the guy who beat Rollins was... shocking, but I hope they do something with Ziggler in this position now. Otherwise, all this work for elevating the IC Title would have been for nothing. 

- Strowman said his win at Money in the Bank was more important than anything else he did in his career. Considering he didn't get a title shot for winning the "Greatest" Royal Rumble, I can see why the character would say that. I half expected Roman Reigns to interrupt Strowman and say "Hey. Vince said it's mine. Hand it over."

- Bo Dallas impersonating his real life brother  Bray Wyatt was meta and hilarious.

- Roman Reigns did come out later, and he again said he deserves to face Lesnar. He once again claimed to be "the uncrowned Universal Champion." No one likes it when athletes say that. Period. How are they not building this guy to be a heel? Bobby "I Got Sisters" Lashley said he could whoop Lesnar and Reigns. I'd like to see the former, and I'd really like to see the latter. The Revival, poor guys, got fed to the wolves by facing these two in a tag match. Remember when The Revival were a great tag team in NXT and got 5 star reviews? Yeah. It's been a LONG time now. If I'm The Revival, I'm asking WWE to put me everywhere possible to get noticed: Raw House SHows, NXT House Shows, maybe sent back to NXT period. Something. Just sitting and eating catering (which I'm sure is good) isn't doing anything for them. They're too good of a team to just sit and wait for their spot.

- The main event was just there to me as it had no major bearing on anything major happening storyline wise. Balor losing to Corbin is laughable. Then again, so is the treatment of most major NXT stars that transitioned to WWE these days.

I'm giving the show a thumbs up though. The first hour was worth going out of your way to watch. Those two segments should be on the Hulu edition of the show.
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SmackDown Thoughts

- Big Cass, there's only ONE WORD to describe you, and I'm gonna spell it out for you: "F-I-R-E-D" FIRRRRRRRED! How do you pee away a company's investment in you? See Big Cass. Whatever the dude does, I hope he gets what he needs, takes Drew McIntyre's method to success, and comes back focused and determined. I mean... the dude is 7 feet tall. And you can't teach that.

- Becky Lynch got a good exhibition against Billie Kay. I agree with Bully Ray and Jim Ross: Becky Lynch is due. Problem is with a talent roster this deep (Charlotte, Asuka, Naomi, among others), not everyone gets a turn as champion. I hope Becky gets a run, but if it stands in the way of Asuka finally getting the title, I actually have to be against it. Asuka needs a run first before Becky gets a second go as champion. 

- BROTHER NERO! I knew you'd come! I was worried that Nakamura would have nothing to do after Money in the Bank. Problem solved. Looking forward to seeing what Jeff Hardy does with an "awoken" character against Nakamura's "unique" personality. This could make for some awesome TV, folks. By the way, I agree with Shinsuke Nakamura: that referee was totally unfair at Money in the Bank. :) I am on Team Nakamura. I'd wear a cup and a helmet around him, but I'm Team Nakamura!

- Sanity finally came out of nowhere to get their first moments on the Main Roster. Eric Young looks legitimately insane. Therefore, the gimmick should always work. I'm anxious for the day that Nikki Cross gets called up and joins with Sanity again.

- I was surprised to see how much offense the Bludgeon Brothers took on SmackDown again this week against Anderson and Gallows. But the big story was The Bludgeon Brothers' interaction with Daniel Bryan... 

- The Gauntlet started off with Bryan and Big E. It was weird to see two faces starting the whole thing off: the technical, serious in-ring wrestler Bryan facing the charismatic, gyrating, pancake-loving Big E. Please, for the love of God, someone stop Daniel Bryan from doing that flying headbutt. That's not a joke. And Mamma Mia (to quote Mauro Ranallo), that dive by Big E through Daniel Bryan was insane.  Bryan wins the match....

- But he has to face SAMOA JOE next!!!! Joe and Bryan had a solid confrontation that didn't give away any potential one-on-one match the two may have. The Bludgeon Brothers beating up Bryan after that fall makes me believe we're in for a weird confrontation between Bryan and The Bludgeon Brothers somehow. It also allowed Miz to beat Bryan easily without giving away that one-on-one match either. Smart booking.

- The big shock after all this was that Rusev actually got the victory over The Miz to win the Gauntlet. After ignoring Rusev Day again and again, Vince finally decided to give Rusev a big win by making him the challenger to AJ Styles at Extreme Rules. Granted, I see little to no chance for Rusev to actually win the match, but it's a great opportunity for Rusev to prove he belongs in the conversation for main eventing SmackDown. Rusev helps AJ steal the show, and I think we see more time for Rusev on SmackDown.

Overall, this was an excellent edition of SmackDown Live with a lot of storyline progression, big debuts, and a good few teases of things to come. Worth a watch on Hulu.
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ROH TV 6/15/18- Main Event: LIJ vs. Bullet Club

- Dalton Castle was on commentary for the main event: LIJ vs. Bullet Club.
I love watching these two teams wrestle (see Rewind... SPOILER. Is that how a spoiler alert works?). Good back and forth action and shenanigans by both groups. They are both known for rule-breaking. So, no one should be surprised when said rules get broken in comedic ways. Hiromu Takahashi is a breakout star in LIJ both in Japan and in America. He's a guy who can move to the heavyweight division in two years. I know Cody is probably going to win the ROH Championship at Best in the World, but I would love to see Scurll get the belt just to cause more problems within the Bullet Club. FUN tag team match with both Daryl Jr. and Bernard the Business Bear getting involved. Fun.  Nothing more, nothing less. And that is perfectly fine.

I would recommend watching only the 10 Man Tag Match on ROH TV, which can be seen on any SINCLAIR station, FITE app, or on Honor Club.  Check the REWIND below for a match that goes along with this one.
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NXT

- To be honest, I hate these NXT shows right after Takeover. Most of the after-match interviews from TakeOver are on YouTube already, and the new matches you get tend to be forgettable. For example, the War Raiders crushed "The Mighty." Will I care tomorrow? No. It's all a blur because it's just another match. So, I'm going to just say something I usually don't say about NXT this week: skip.

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Rewind Match of the Week: ROH War of the Worlds UK 2017: London
Bullet Club vs. LIJ
I didn't plan on the 10 man tag happening on this week's ROH TV, but I'm glad it did. For similar reasons as what I wrote above, this match is worth going out of your way to watch. Just a fun 10 man tag with everyone showing off their talent. You can watch it on Honor Club or, if you can find it on FITE App, it's on the ROH TV January 3rd, 2018 (Best of 2017) show.

(Side note: If you only have time for one of these two LIJ vs. Bullet Club matches, watch this one.)
Clue for Next Week's Match: A Mastadon vs. A Scorpion

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Podcast to Check out

This week's favorite podcast to check out... shock... does not have Conrad Thompson involved in it. I am saying that jokingly because the guy owns the market on awesome podcasts (83 Weeks, What Happened When, and the 2x Best Podcast Winning Something To Wrestle). But this week's podcast to check out comes from Sam Roberts' Wrestling Podcast and the continuation of the Jeff Jarrett interview from last week (definitely worth a listen as well). Jarrett talks about his brief run in WCW before returning to the WWF in 1997, the NWA stable, the evolution of his character, working in the Attitude Era, working with Owen Hart and finally grieving all these years later,  what led Jeff to leave the WWF in 1999, the real story about the Chyna storyline and No Mercy, and his true thoughts on Vince "firing" him in March 2001 after WWF bought WCW. After the interview, Sam gives his thoughts on the top events happening in the wrestling world. I listen to a lot of wrestling podcasts and ask questions on a couple regularly. I would check out this and last week's Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast for an incredible discussion with Jeff Jarrett that doesn't even cover half of his career yet still gives you a lot of information.  

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A Word about Vader

Wednesday, it was announced that Big Van Vader, Leon White, passed away at the age of 63. It was from complications involving pneumonia, but Vader had issues with congested heart to the point where he was told by several doctors that he had 2 years left to live. I have a lot of feelings about Vader's passing, and having a conversation with a brother of mine (shout-out to AJ) helped me work through a couple of those thoughts. First, undoubtedly, Vader is one of the greatest big men in the history of pro wrestling. An athlete of Vader's size should not have been able to do the things he did (backflips and moonsaults off the top rope, among other things). Vader could cut a promo, even though his best work was with Harley Race by his side. Vader beat the ever-loving hell out of people and was known for his physicality in the ring. But if you ask most people that worked with him, they always credited Vader for helping get them over. Vader's greatest rivalry was one of the greatest rivalries of the 1990s: Vader vs. Sting (Note: That might be a discussion later in the future.). He also had great feuds with Cactus Jack, Ron Simmons, and Ric Flair. Vader was a legend in every sense of the word. In 2012, during a one-off return to promote Raw 1000, Vader came out to a great ovaton and reminded the world why he was so fondly remembered.

But here's where I'm going to get a little nasty: WWF ruined Vader. Or in the very least, WWF misused Vader and didn't maximize his talents to be the fullest potential. Granted, he started off HOT with his Rumble debut, roughing up Gorilla Monsoon, and feuding eventually with HBK. But I think it was that match with HBK at SummerSlam that killed his run in WWF. HBK audibly yelled at Vader during the match, and I don't think Vader was ever the same after the feud. I'm not going to say Shawn Michaels ruined Vader's career, but there was a noticeable dropoff for Vader after SummerSlam. Granted, he did a program with Undertaker, had a short-lived team with Mankind, and feuded with Goldust in the undercard. But in 1998, Vader was jobbing to Kane multiple times as well as other talent WWF wanted to push and being involved in forgotten tag team matches. WWF brought Vader back off and on for random one-offs (as mentioned above). Vader was not treated at any time or remembered as a monster by WWF from 1998 on. He was just another guy, and that's really unfortunate considering how well Vader did in WCW and Japan. Vader struck fear into the hearts of children in WCW. Vader in WWF was just another big guy for someone to beat on the road to something else.

But to me the biggest slap in the face was WWE refusing to induct Vader into the Hall of Fame before his passing. Vader had made it clear that he had 2 years left to live. His fellow wrestling compatriots, including most vividly Mick Foley, were supportive of Vader's induction into the Hall of Fame. But once again, for whatever backstage reason, another wrestler is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame posthumously. It's a damn shame as I would have loved to have seen Vader get that one last moment in the spotlight to give his speech. Now, we aren't going to get that. Wlll WWE induct him? Eventually yes. I'm not convinced it's going to be 2019. But it will happen. And as far as I'm concerned, it needs to be one of two people inducting Vader: Harley Race or Sting. Ric Flair put Sting on the map. Vader MADE Sting. Sting had to overcome Vader at the cost of getting his butt kicked (and sometimes getting hospitalized). Vader, on his end, looked great in victory and defeat facing off against Sting as Sting (and WCW to a degree) protected Vader's monster image. So, if anyone should induct Vader other than Race, it is The Icon Sting.

Bottom line: Rest in peace to the man they called Vader. We will never forget what time it was. Thank you.

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Until next time, take care of yourselves and spread some awesomeness.