UnWrest (Week of 9/28/18)- TV Reviews for WWE, NXT, ROH, and Impact + That Brie Bella Situation + MILWAUKEE!!!!
Welcome to UnWrest, the weekly post about the TV happenings in the wrestling world. There's been a change in the format going forward, which I'll explain below. But let's go ahead and get this show started with the most controversial topic of the week.
Raw Thoughts
- Brie Bella injuring Liv Morgan was scary. Thankfully, she's ok. But it's a situation where I think both were at fault somewhat. Liv Morgan isn't exactly Trish Stratus in the ring as far as ability and timing goes. As for Brie Bella, she's officially the Yoshi-Hashi of the WWE Women's Division. She's got a dark cloud around her, and her matches just aren't that fun to watch.
When I first saw the incident, I was ready to cast her aside (and made a dark humor comment about it on a message board). But after thinking about the incident days later, I'm not ready to declare her completely unsafe in the ring. It takes two to tangle, and Liv and Brie had a clear miscommunication. Also, keep in mind that Seth Rollins went through a similar bad stretch in 2015 where several wrestlers got hurt working with Rollins in a freak series of events. I will say this though: Brie needs to get some work in the Performance Center in Florida as much as she can if he's serious about being back for a long-term.
- I was a fan of the AOP and Baron Corbin being in a match with The Shield. I felt they protected the AOP enough in that main event even if their side lost. Corbin taking the pin was the right call as he can keep losing and not lose a step.
- I really enjoyed The Revival getting the opportunity to shine against Ziggler and McIntyre even in defeat. The crowd INVESTED in them for the first time since coming to the main roster, and I think this was a good sign for both sides. All four men got that crowd going, and there may be a market for an undersized old school tag team to be faces.
- Lio Rush continues to be a saving grace for Bobby Lashley.
Raw was a mixed bag of stuff I liked and didn't like. But I do feel that the bad overweighed the good, especially the Brie Bella situation continuing to highlight her issues in the ring. And you never want to see an accident like that happen period. However, the good on this show did outweigh the good on NXT for me.
SmackDown Live Thoughts
- R-Truth hosting a talk show is something that WWE should do every month. It's not something I want to see run into the ground. R-Truth is hitting a home run since returning to TV a few weeks ago. And yes. I absolutely loved that segment. 1) It gave R-Truth something to do which can be brought back despite losing to The Miz. 2) Daniel Bryan has now stated that he wants the WWE Championship, and he's happy about having to beat The Miz in order to get that opportunity. 3) Carmella and R-Truth dance party. Seriously.
- The New Day vs. The Bar should be an interesting match at Super ShowDown. WWE has done a good job building up The Bar over the last two weeks. Now, since they won both their matches, I don't expect The Bar to actually win in Australia. But it's the effort to build them up that actually counts.
- Remember Milwaukee! Apparently, they are hinting at a big reveal about something that happened in the City of Milwaukee between Aiden and Lana. Maybe Aiden sang her a lullaby so great that it enchanted Lana's Russian accent out of her.
- We need more Asuka in our lives.
- Shinsuke Nakamura and Randy Orton both did a number on Tye Dillinger. A Perfect 10 of violence that is. That thud against the LED board when Nakamura hit him with the Kinshasa was sick, especially given what had happened the night before.
- I don't know how to feel about that last segment of the show. On one hand, I have to commend WWE for doing something that drastic with Samoa Joe after week afer week of his threatening AJ's family. On the other hand, there were things about it that did iritate me. AJ's performance actually bothered me a little bit. "Don't do this bro." "Don't do this man." It just seemed to be the wrong direction for his character to take. Also, the "STYLES" name on the mailbox seemed like it was put on yesterday. It just didn't look authentic.
Overall, again, I enjoyed SmackDown more than Raw. But that's beyond the point. SmackDown had a lot more on it that entertained me compared to Raw.
NXT Thoughts
- We start off with a promo from Regal with The Undisputed Era coming out. Adam Cole tries to intimidate Regal, but he has none of it. He gives Adam Cole his North American Championship rematch in 2 weeks against Ricochet and Pete Dunne. Meanwhile, he tells O'Reilly and Strong they will defend their titles against The War Raiders in 3 weeks. Fun opening segment.
- Lacey Evans and Candice LaRae get into an argument after Johnny Gargano finishes an interview about his match next week with Tony Nese. Good 2 for 1 promo tonight.
- We get an interview from earlier today with Velveteen Dream casting doubts on Tomasso Ciampa's innocence in the Aleister Black attack.
- Lars Sullivan eats a jobber for a late night snack. EC3 attacks him for the DQ. Sullivan laid him out a few weeks back when EC3 accused him of attacking Aleister Black. So, this is payback. (You also notice a pattern when it comes to this Aleister Black attack?)
- Nikki Cross confronts Regal backstage and says she wants Bianca Belair in a rematch. She also goes off screen saying "I know.. I know...." Regal is asked by the cameraman if he thinks Nikki knows who attacked Aleister Black. Regal responds that Nikki probably thinks she knows where the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot are. "Nobody knows what Nikki knows." (I just had the dark thought that REGAL IS THE ONE WHO ATTACKED ALEISTER!!!! I doubt that they'd put Regal in a match, but it would be a great swerve.)
- Street Profits take on The Mighty next. One of The Mighty gets decked before the bell even rings. The Street Profits definitely have a TON of charisma. Ford goes on an absolute tear in the hot tag. But The Mighty catch him and smash his leg against the ring post and steps. Great ending in which The Mighty prevent Ford from getting the tag and pin him before that can happen. It helps add something to tag team matches to have a finish like that once in a while.
- Vanessa Borne vs. Kairi Sane starts off in a unique way with Borne taking the pirate hat and mocking Sane. Quick match all things considered with Kairi Sane hitting the INSANE Elbow for the win. The match was pretty one sided. After the match, Shayna Baszler comes out. She invokes her rematch for the NXT Women's Championship. Kairi says she'll defend the title at WWE Evolution.
- Keith Lee wants to build himself to championship gold. But to do that, he decides he wants some of ... KONA REEVES?! Really?
- Otis Dozovic of Heavy Machinery faces Tomasso Ciampa in a non-title match. I still hate that Ciampa has a theme song. It takes something away from his entrance in my opinion. Ending comes when Ciampa hits a drapping DDT on the APRON! Then he hits another one into the ring this time for the win. Nice main event overall. Ciampa was bumping and selling for Dozovic like crazy. For what it was, I felt like Dozovic's stock increased a bit even in the losing effort. And it's just nice to see Ciampa work with anyone but Johnny Gargano at this point.
Overall, NXT came and went. But there were several things advanced as a result of most of what came before the main event. And even the main event paid off the mini-storyline involving Ciampa and Dozovic coming out of the Aleister Black situation. But this was still the worst show of the week for me as it was skippable for the most part.
Impact Wrestling Thoughts
This is Week 2 of the Mexico City tapings.
- Tessa Blanchard vs. Faby Apache start us off for the Impact Knockouts Championship. The match was decent for what it was, but I didn't exactly go wild for it. Taya Valkyrie gets on the video screen after Tessa retains the championship and challenges her for the Knockouts Championship at Bound for Glory.
- Jake Crist takes on the undefeated Brian Cage next. Cage continues to amaze me with his athletic ability. The big man and Crist had a decent enough match with Cage hitting several impressive moves. After the match. oVe beat up on Cage. But Dave Crist gets taken when the lights go out, and Fenix and Pentagon Jr have him in the back and are beating him up. Cage gets up and eventually hits a big dive on Sami and Jake.
- Desi Hit Squad take on LAX. A good TV tag match, but it was only window dressing for what happened after the match. King and the OGs get on the video screen after the match. King cuts a HUGE SCATHING promo on Konnan, telling him that he stopped being a man once he lost his mask and has been leeching off of younger wrestlers since then. The OGs and King then set that mask on fire. A really good short promo to set up the match at Bound for Glory. The best thing on the show so far.
-Fallah Bahh takes care of KM who is still selling his injury from a couple weeks back with Austin Aries. Bahh sings a lullaby song to him just saying "Bahh" or "Fallah" instead. KM tells Bahh he needs to take care of his business.
- In the main event, we got Eddie Edwards teaming with Johnny Impact against Killer Kross and Moose. Very good main event in my opinion that built on two of the bigger stories being told in Impact. I'm glad the heels got the win as the match made the faces look strong enough to take the loss. Also, for Edwards, it gives him more motivation to want to go after revenge now.
Overall, I thought this was a very solid episode of Impact. The main event brought this up a few points as it was my 2nd favorite main event of the week, and the show accomplished the goal of building up many of the programs the company had going into Bound for Glory.
ROH TV (9/21/18 episode)
- The Boys start off the show facing Best Friends. Seeing The Boys come out to the ring or wrestle without Dalton Castle is weird. They end up losing to The Best Friends, but NOT before they almost pulled off a major upset with an insanely close nearfall.
- Kenny King vs. Hangman Adam Page was next. I really like the stuff both of these guys do, but the moves with the inflatable rafts was a bit too much for me. The end came when King used the tights to pin Page in a rollup. Good match overall, but it was weighed down by the silliness.
- There's a Top Prospect tournament match. And Brian Johnson is wrestling! My God! Angus is going to be pissed! Wait. Wrong Brian Johnson. Sorry everyone. And guess what? Jeff Cobb interfered... again. He cancels the tournament and declares HIMSELF the top prospect.
- The next match is the main event with Silas Young and Bully Ray vs. Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham. A lot of intriguing stories being told here with Gresham and Lethal teaming up despite their friendly rivalry, Silas and Bully teaming despite their potential explosion, and Bully and Silas antagonizing Gresham and Lethal last week. Fun tag team match overall. All four men worked really hard to put this one over, and it is probably my favorite main event of the week even though it was not on my favorite show of the week. Silas and Bully get the win after a low blow and Misery on Gresham.
Overall, this wasn't a great week for wrestling overall. The Brie/Liv situation divided the wrestling world, and the TV shows this week just didn't fire on all cylinders. I'm going with SmackDown Live as the best show of the week with Impact Wrestling coming in 2nd. Then, it would be ROH, Raw, and NXT actually in that order. NXT was the least interesting of the 5 looking back on the whole week.
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Podcast Recommendation of the Week
Talk is Jericho won me over this week with an interview with Brian Pillman Jr. Jericho and Pillman talk about Pillman's father, his own upbringing, his desire to get into the business, the advice he's gotten over the last few years, and his recent knee injury. It was really cool to hear Pillman's conversation with Jericho and get into his mind for his motiviations of going into the business. This week's winner is TALK IS JERICHO.
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<<Rewind<< Match of the Week Becomes UnWrest Focus <<Rewind<<
This week's scheduled match was supposed to be Mankind vs. Shawn Michaels from In Your House: Mind Games 1996. I haven't gotten a chance to rewatch that classic match this week. Instead, I'm going to schedule that for a special UnWrest Focus individual post this week. And I'm going to recommend you check out the Focus series of posts I have posted this week. Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair or Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho are your choices. I'm also planning on doing a UnWrest Focus this weekend on The Rock vs. Steve Austin- WrestleMania Edition.
Going forward, I am going to rebrand and re-place the <<Rewind<< series. I am going to give it its own post under the UnWrest Focus brand I'm developing. The Focus series will continue to look at classic feuds and rivalries, and the <<Rewind<< posts will look at individual matches. That way, there's a distinguishing difference between the Focus posts.
So, be looking out for both the UnWrest Focus: Stone Cold vs. The Rock and UnWrest Focus <<Rewind<<: Mankind vs. Shawn Michaels, In Your House: Mind Games (1996) posts soon.
_ _ _ _
That does it for this week in wrestling fandom called UnWrest. Reminder: I will be posting wrestling content throughout the weekend, just not ROH's Death Before Dishonor. I will however cover Fighting Spirit Unleashed on Sunday Night (thank you NJPW World).
Until next time, take care of yourselves. Spread some awesomeness.
Raw Thoughts
- Brie Bella injuring Liv Morgan was scary. Thankfully, she's ok. But it's a situation where I think both were at fault somewhat. Liv Morgan isn't exactly Trish Stratus in the ring as far as ability and timing goes. As for Brie Bella, she's officially the Yoshi-Hashi of the WWE Women's Division. She's got a dark cloud around her, and her matches just aren't that fun to watch.
When I first saw the incident, I was ready to cast her aside (and made a dark humor comment about it on a message board). But after thinking about the incident days later, I'm not ready to declare her completely unsafe in the ring. It takes two to tangle, and Liv and Brie had a clear miscommunication. Also, keep in mind that Seth Rollins went through a similar bad stretch in 2015 where several wrestlers got hurt working with Rollins in a freak series of events. I will say this though: Brie needs to get some work in the Performance Center in Florida as much as she can if he's serious about being back for a long-term.
- I was a fan of the AOP and Baron Corbin being in a match with The Shield. I felt they protected the AOP enough in that main event even if their side lost. Corbin taking the pin was the right call as he can keep losing and not lose a step.
- I really enjoyed The Revival getting the opportunity to shine against Ziggler and McIntyre even in defeat. The crowd INVESTED in them for the first time since coming to the main roster, and I think this was a good sign for both sides. All four men got that crowd going, and there may be a market for an undersized old school tag team to be faces.
- Lio Rush continues to be a saving grace for Bobby Lashley.
Raw was a mixed bag of stuff I liked and didn't like. But I do feel that the bad overweighed the good, especially the Brie Bella situation continuing to highlight her issues in the ring. And you never want to see an accident like that happen period. However, the good on this show did outweigh the good on NXT for me.
SmackDown Live Thoughts
- R-Truth hosting a talk show is something that WWE should do every month. It's not something I want to see run into the ground. R-Truth is hitting a home run since returning to TV a few weeks ago. And yes. I absolutely loved that segment. 1) It gave R-Truth something to do which can be brought back despite losing to The Miz. 2) Daniel Bryan has now stated that he wants the WWE Championship, and he's happy about having to beat The Miz in order to get that opportunity. 3) Carmella and R-Truth dance party. Seriously.
- The New Day vs. The Bar should be an interesting match at Super ShowDown. WWE has done a good job building up The Bar over the last two weeks. Now, since they won both their matches, I don't expect The Bar to actually win in Australia. But it's the effort to build them up that actually counts.
- Remember Milwaukee! Apparently, they are hinting at a big reveal about something that happened in the City of Milwaukee between Aiden and Lana. Maybe Aiden sang her a lullaby so great that it enchanted Lana's Russian accent out of her.
- We need more Asuka in our lives.
- Shinsuke Nakamura and Randy Orton both did a number on Tye Dillinger. A Perfect 10 of violence that is. That thud against the LED board when Nakamura hit him with the Kinshasa was sick, especially given what had happened the night before.
- I don't know how to feel about that last segment of the show. On one hand, I have to commend WWE for doing something that drastic with Samoa Joe after week afer week of his threatening AJ's family. On the other hand, there were things about it that did iritate me. AJ's performance actually bothered me a little bit. "Don't do this bro." "Don't do this man." It just seemed to be the wrong direction for his character to take. Also, the "STYLES" name on the mailbox seemed like it was put on yesterday. It just didn't look authentic.
Overall, again, I enjoyed SmackDown more than Raw. But that's beyond the point. SmackDown had a lot more on it that entertained me compared to Raw.
NXT Thoughts
- We start off with a promo from Regal with The Undisputed Era coming out. Adam Cole tries to intimidate Regal, but he has none of it. He gives Adam Cole his North American Championship rematch in 2 weeks against Ricochet and Pete Dunne. Meanwhile, he tells O'Reilly and Strong they will defend their titles against The War Raiders in 3 weeks. Fun opening segment.
- Lacey Evans and Candice LaRae get into an argument after Johnny Gargano finishes an interview about his match next week with Tony Nese. Good 2 for 1 promo tonight.
- We get an interview from earlier today with Velveteen Dream casting doubts on Tomasso Ciampa's innocence in the Aleister Black attack.
- Lars Sullivan eats a jobber for a late night snack. EC3 attacks him for the DQ. Sullivan laid him out a few weeks back when EC3 accused him of attacking Aleister Black. So, this is payback. (You also notice a pattern when it comes to this Aleister Black attack?)
- Nikki Cross confronts Regal backstage and says she wants Bianca Belair in a rematch. She also goes off screen saying "I know.. I know...." Regal is asked by the cameraman if he thinks Nikki knows who attacked Aleister Black. Regal responds that Nikki probably thinks she knows where the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot are. "Nobody knows what Nikki knows." (I just had the dark thought that REGAL IS THE ONE WHO ATTACKED ALEISTER!!!! I doubt that they'd put Regal in a match, but it would be a great swerve.)
- Street Profits take on The Mighty next. One of The Mighty gets decked before the bell even rings. The Street Profits definitely have a TON of charisma. Ford goes on an absolute tear in the hot tag. But The Mighty catch him and smash his leg against the ring post and steps. Great ending in which The Mighty prevent Ford from getting the tag and pin him before that can happen. It helps add something to tag team matches to have a finish like that once in a while.
- Vanessa Borne vs. Kairi Sane starts off in a unique way with Borne taking the pirate hat and mocking Sane. Quick match all things considered with Kairi Sane hitting the INSANE Elbow for the win. The match was pretty one sided. After the match, Shayna Baszler comes out. She invokes her rematch for the NXT Women's Championship. Kairi says she'll defend the title at WWE Evolution.
- Keith Lee wants to build himself to championship gold. But to do that, he decides he wants some of ... KONA REEVES?! Really?
- Otis Dozovic of Heavy Machinery faces Tomasso Ciampa in a non-title match. I still hate that Ciampa has a theme song. It takes something away from his entrance in my opinion. Ending comes when Ciampa hits a drapping DDT on the APRON! Then he hits another one into the ring this time for the win. Nice main event overall. Ciampa was bumping and selling for Dozovic like crazy. For what it was, I felt like Dozovic's stock increased a bit even in the losing effort. And it's just nice to see Ciampa work with anyone but Johnny Gargano at this point.
Overall, NXT came and went. But there were several things advanced as a result of most of what came before the main event. And even the main event paid off the mini-storyline involving Ciampa and Dozovic coming out of the Aleister Black situation. But this was still the worst show of the week for me as it was skippable for the most part.
Impact Wrestling Thoughts
This is Week 2 of the Mexico City tapings.
- Tessa Blanchard vs. Faby Apache start us off for the Impact Knockouts Championship. The match was decent for what it was, but I didn't exactly go wild for it. Taya Valkyrie gets on the video screen after Tessa retains the championship and challenges her for the Knockouts Championship at Bound for Glory.
- Jake Crist takes on the undefeated Brian Cage next. Cage continues to amaze me with his athletic ability. The big man and Crist had a decent enough match with Cage hitting several impressive moves. After the match. oVe beat up on Cage. But Dave Crist gets taken when the lights go out, and Fenix and Pentagon Jr have him in the back and are beating him up. Cage gets up and eventually hits a big dive on Sami and Jake.
- Desi Hit Squad take on LAX. A good TV tag match, but it was only window dressing for what happened after the match. King and the OGs get on the video screen after the match. King cuts a HUGE SCATHING promo on Konnan, telling him that he stopped being a man once he lost his mask and has been leeching off of younger wrestlers since then. The OGs and King then set that mask on fire. A really good short promo to set up the match at Bound for Glory. The best thing on the show so far.
-Fallah Bahh takes care of KM who is still selling his injury from a couple weeks back with Austin Aries. Bahh sings a lullaby song to him just saying "Bahh" or "Fallah" instead. KM tells Bahh he needs to take care of his business.
- In the main event, we got Eddie Edwards teaming with Johnny Impact against Killer Kross and Moose. Very good main event in my opinion that built on two of the bigger stories being told in Impact. I'm glad the heels got the win as the match made the faces look strong enough to take the loss. Also, for Edwards, it gives him more motivation to want to go after revenge now.
Overall, I thought this was a very solid episode of Impact. The main event brought this up a few points as it was my 2nd favorite main event of the week, and the show accomplished the goal of building up many of the programs the company had going into Bound for Glory.
ROH TV (9/21/18 episode)
- The Boys start off the show facing Best Friends. Seeing The Boys come out to the ring or wrestle without Dalton Castle is weird. They end up losing to The Best Friends, but NOT before they almost pulled off a major upset with an insanely close nearfall.
- Kenny King vs. Hangman Adam Page was next. I really like the stuff both of these guys do, but the moves with the inflatable rafts was a bit too much for me. The end came when King used the tights to pin Page in a rollup. Good match overall, but it was weighed down by the silliness.
- There's a Top Prospect tournament match. And Brian Johnson is wrestling! My God! Angus is going to be pissed! Wait. Wrong Brian Johnson. Sorry everyone. And guess what? Jeff Cobb interfered... again. He cancels the tournament and declares HIMSELF the top prospect.
- The next match is the main event with Silas Young and Bully Ray vs. Jay Lethal and Jonathan Gresham. A lot of intriguing stories being told here with Gresham and Lethal teaming up despite their friendly rivalry, Silas and Bully teaming despite their potential explosion, and Bully and Silas antagonizing Gresham and Lethal last week. Fun tag team match overall. All four men worked really hard to put this one over, and it is probably my favorite main event of the week even though it was not on my favorite show of the week. Silas and Bully get the win after a low blow and Misery on Gresham.
Overall, this wasn't a great week for wrestling overall. The Brie/Liv situation divided the wrestling world, and the TV shows this week just didn't fire on all cylinders. I'm going with SmackDown Live as the best show of the week with Impact Wrestling coming in 2nd. Then, it would be ROH, Raw, and NXT actually in that order. NXT was the least interesting of the 5 looking back on the whole week.
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Podcast Recommendation of the Week
Talk is Jericho won me over this week with an interview with Brian Pillman Jr. Jericho and Pillman talk about Pillman's father, his own upbringing, his desire to get into the business, the advice he's gotten over the last few years, and his recent knee injury. It was really cool to hear Pillman's conversation with Jericho and get into his mind for his motiviations of going into the business. This week's winner is TALK IS JERICHO.
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<<Rewind<< Match of the Week Becomes UnWrest Focus <<Rewind<<
This week's scheduled match was supposed to be Mankind vs. Shawn Michaels from In Your House: Mind Games 1996. I haven't gotten a chance to rewatch that classic match this week. Instead, I'm going to schedule that for a special UnWrest Focus individual post this week. And I'm going to recommend you check out the Focus series of posts I have posted this week. Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair or Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho are your choices. I'm also planning on doing a UnWrest Focus this weekend on The Rock vs. Steve Austin- WrestleMania Edition.
Going forward, I am going to rebrand and re-place the <<Rewind<< series. I am going to give it its own post under the UnWrest Focus brand I'm developing. The Focus series will continue to look at classic feuds and rivalries, and the <<Rewind<< posts will look at individual matches. That way, there's a distinguishing difference between the Focus posts.
So, be looking out for both the UnWrest Focus: Stone Cold vs. The Rock and UnWrest Focus <<Rewind<<: Mankind vs. Shawn Michaels, In Your House: Mind Games (1996) posts soon.
_ _ _ _
That does it for this week in wrestling fandom called UnWrest. Reminder: I will be posting wrestling content throughout the weekend, just not ROH's Death Before Dishonor. I will however cover Fighting Spirit Unleashed on Sunday Night (thank you NJPW World).
Until next time, take care of yourselves. Spread some awesomeness.
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