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UnWrest (Week of August 23, 2018)- A Good Week for Wrestling 

Welcome to another edition of UnWrest. I think all us wrestling fans feel like we've about stuffed ourselves on the buffet of WWE programming this week. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to make this as short and sweet (maybe too sweet!) and hit on the big events of the week.


Raw Thoughts
- Ronda Rousey breaking Stephanie McMahon's arm is the equivalent of a Stone Cold Stunner from Austin to McMahon. I could watch that all day. I also like how Ronda differentiated herself from Brock Lesnar, letting the audience know that she WANTS to be there and loves doing so.
- WWE needs to do a better job explaining just when and where The Demon will come up. On the surface, it's pretty stupid for a guy to have an unbeatable gimmick that he only uses once or twice a year. What does Finn have to do to summon The Demon up? I know it's stupid storyline garbage, but it is the type of stuff that people ask for good reason.
- The Shield attacking Braun Strowman surprised me a bit, but in hindsight, it was probably the right call. The Shield is not going to be the heel group of this feud. Besides, Braun having to overcome three people in order to cash in his contract is a good storyline. And I like the theory I heard earlier this week about Braun possibly going back to his "Family" to get some recruits to face The Shield.
Other than that, Raw was very forgettable. The only other thing I can remember is Baron Corbin is now the Acting GM while Kurt Angle goes on indefinite vacation.


SmackDown Thoughts
- Again, that fakeout promo had to be used again by a heel. It's such a garbage tactic. I laugh at it more than anything at his point.
As for the program, I really think they should hold off from any more Miz/Bryan interaction for a few months. But I'm going into the next few weeks with an open mind. The Mixed Tag should be fun at Hell in a Cell between Bryan/Brie and Miz/Maryse. Then, we get another Miz vs. Bryan match at Super Show-Down in October with the winner becoming the #1 Contender for the WWE Championship. The only way Bryan is winning THIS match is if Joe gets the title against AJ at Hell in a Cell.
- Becky Lynch's heel turn has been a topic of the wrestling world. Most people say she's been terribly miscast. I'm not ready to call "abandon ship" on this yet. Becky's promo was great in my personal opinion in her delivery and overall performance. I say give this a month. If fans are still cheering for Becky over Charlotte, you do the double switch in the build to their next match.
- The United States of Nakamerica. I love it.
- Jeff got his revenge against Randy Orton by putting Randy through a table and kicking him in the jewels. I know Hell in a Cell is a cobranded show, but both Hell in a Cell matches should be from the SmackDown brand. Jeff Hardy. Hell in a Cell. Come on now.
- I was glad to see Rusev and Lana get the win on TV, even if it is typical WWE 50/50 booking. The fact is Rusev needed a little more shine after losing on the kickoff show. So, this was perfectly fine. People will remember that Rusev won more than Almas lost, if that makes any sense.
- It is sad to see Rowan go through yet another injury, one that potentially could spell doom for his WWE tenure. But you have to take your hat off to the guy for wrestling the Tag Team Street Fight the way he did. The Bludgeon Brothers had a decent run with the tag titles, albeit an unspectacular one. But it was time to get the titles off them, even if it was due to injury. The New Day have officially won me over as one of the great tag teams/three man teams in wrestling history. You can't deny it at this point. As for Luke Harper, I would like to see him traded to Raw to restart a certain "family."


ROH Thoughts
- YES! We're at Center Stage in Atlanta. That means we're OUT of Fairfax finally. And we're in the same venue that housed a lot of WCW Saturday Nights.
- We get Alex Shelley's retirement/nonretirement speech as well. I'm anxious to see where Chris Sabin goes from here. After the interview was over, Punishment Martinez attacked both of them. And later, Shelley was backstage selling some sort of attack. The conspiracy man inside of me is thinking "It was Sabin." But I really could care less if it wasn't.
- Women wrestled. I'll give ROH this: at least these women aren't caught up in all the garbage storylines that Sasha Banks and Bayley have been over this past year. But still... there's a clear difference between women who wrestled in NXT to those who haven't when it comes to American wrestling.
- Jeff Cobb made his debut tonight attacking two other prospects in the Top Prospect Tournament. Cobb had a big match against Hirooki Goto at the San Francisco show in July (which seems like a year ago with all this wrestling in the last 2 months). I'm going to withhold praise or judgment until I see more of Cobb's work.
- We get a Marty Scurll vs. Kenny King main event. A typically good main event as expected. Kenny King is a solid hand in these type of matches, and Marty Scurll is oddly captivating. The ending is a bit of a shocker, spoiler alert. (Is that how it works?)
Anyways, if you are watching this show, I'd skip to the last two segments. See Jeff Cobb and make your own mind up about what you think about him. Then, watch King and Scurll have a solid TV main event.

NXT Thoughts
**It's one of those post-Takeover shows. So, there's only one or two things to really talk about here.**
- Next week, we're getting O'Reilly and Strong vs. Dunne and Ricochet. Thank you Triple H.
- The main event was excellent between Zack Gibson and Pete Dunne. I don't know if it was as good as their match at the UK Tournament Finals, but it was definitely worth going out of your way to watch. 

Overall Thoughts
Smackdown was the better show overall this week. The 2 hours move by quickly. But there were enough things on each show to validate a watch. If you have Hulu, I'd probably watch Raw on Hulu as you'll get the main positive things in a 90 minute block. ROH deserves a 15-20 minute watch for the last couple segments. And NXT is a main event show as well, albeit a stronger main event than ROH in my opinion.
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Podcast Recommendation

This week's podcast recommendation comes from NotSam Wrestling, the new name for the former Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast. This week, it's a live interview from Alexa Bliss recorded prior to SummerSlam. I almost didn't listen to it, but Bliss was absolutely awesome in this. She gives an inside look into her career and discusses the sick road schedule that WWE performers go through on a weekly basis. She also talks about going from fitness model to NXT to WWE and her own family's reservations about getting into the business. In addition, as usual, Sam runs through the week's big events in the State of Wrestling. Check it out.

Other Worthy Podcasts This Week
1) What Happened When- SummerSlam 1989- Tony and Conrad provide commentary for SummerSlam including inside discussions on what was happening in front of and behind the cameras. Conrad's Jimmy Hart impersonation is still in my head. I now want to go to Daytona Beach, FL.
2) Steve Austin Podcast- NXT Takeover/SummerSlam 2018 Review- Steve and Wade Keller discussed the weekend's big matches with Austin providing great commentary on the mechanics of what was going on in the ring. I found the discussion on why AJ vs. Joe didn't click to start off their match interesting, as it was a point I thought of in why it wasn't my favorite match of the evening.
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<< Rewind << Match of the Week
Madison Square Garden. SummerSlam 1991. The Intercontinental Champion: Curt Hennig, known as Mr. Perfect. The Challenger: Former 2-Time Tag Team Champion, Bret "The Hitman" Hart.
This is one of my favorite matches in the history of SummerSlam. The sick chemistry between Bret Hart and Curt Hennig cannot be denied. They are the combination that deserves a "Fight Forever" chant. It was the true beginning of Bret Hart's singles push and another example of why Mr. Perfect was one of the best workers in WWF/WWE history. From bell to bell, it's a masterpiece of drama, wrestling execution, storytelling, and crowd involvement. It would be Perfect's last match for over a year as he would have lingering back issues that kept him out (Note: He'd spend that time managing the debuting Ric Flair as his "Executive Consultant."). For Bret, he would be in the Intercontinental Championship picture for a year, losing and regaining the championship along the way. But when you think of how Bret Hart was elevated to WWF Championship level, this was the first of 3 big matches over the course of that year that truly propelled him to main event status.
Preview for Next Week: A Golden Lover faces A King at A Kingdom of Wrestling

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ALL IN
I am planning on covering the PPV portion of ALL IN next weekend. I won't be covering ZERO HOUR since I don't have WGN America. But I will be covering the actual event itself (thanks to Honor Club). This will be my first time seeing several of these talents wrestle, and I'm looking forward to seeing this whole thing play out.
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Well, that does it for this week. I hope you all enjoyed the blog. Comment on anything you liked or anything you would like me to cover going forward.

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

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