UnWrest (Week of October 19, 2018): Goodbye Impact; Hello MLW and NXT UK + WWE, NXT, and ROH Reviews

What's up everyone?

First of all, I've decided to stop covering Impact Wrestling as of this week. I've lost a little bit of interest in the show, and I'm wanting to give a couple other wrestling shows some attention. So, thanks to YouTube, I'll be covering Episode 26 of MLW. Also, I will be watching the first episode of NXT UK on the WWE Network. So, out with the undead realms and Grado and in with Pete Dunne and TONY SCHIAVONE ON COMMENTARY!

Let's Do This!


Raw Thoughts

- The opening segment of Raw was your typical promo to set up the rest of the show, but I wasn't feeling it. It just felt so by-the-numbers. I'm getting sick of seeing these six run around in circles. Something needs to actually change in this.
- Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins had a fun match all things considered. There was too much outside interference for my taste, but it also helped save the eventual one-on-one match between Seth and Drew on a big stage. So, I can't hate on it too much. "Seth advances to Crown Jewel, streaming live on the WWE Network. Where? Well, we can't say right now. The media would destroy us."
- Nice to see Tamina back on TV. I liked how they built her up tonight as the one woman who can go toe-to-toe with Nia Jax. That match needs to be built up though. How come I have a feeling we're getting that next week on Raw?
- I really enjoyed the Rousey-Bella segment. And hats off to the Bellas for allowing themselves to be publically talked to like that. Rousey delivered excellently here. She may have stepped over herself a time or two while talking, but that's nothing too terrible. It didn't distract from the segment at all.
- The Angle-Corbin stuff continued. Um.. yeah. That about describes it.
- Lashley and Lio Rush continue to be an effective monster/annoying manager combination. The Tyler Breeze victory does nothing in the long-term for Lashley, but it does continue to make him look like a monster.
- Practice. Allen Iverson just wrote a WWE Women's promo.
- Are they actually trying to do something with Apollo Crews? He interrupted Elias. I mean, that's one of Raw's most over acts at the moment. So, there's hope?
- Too much overkill with The Shield and The Dogs of War. I like watching these teams go at it, but the main event was the fourth or fifth time we've seen them that evening.
The ending was interesting though for a couple reasons. Ambrose got the pin for his team after losing earlier in the night. Ziggler takes the fall after beating Ambrose earlier. 50/50 booking in one night?!
BUT I will say this: It was nice to see McIntyre get that big moment of knocking Strowman down with that Claymore kick. Now, is that the end of this "greatest (lol)" three-man team? Or will Vince McMahon see his shadow and order 6 more weeks of gang warfare?

Overall, this was a good episode of Raw that didn't kill the momentum of the previous weeks. My favorite segments were definitely the Rollins-McIntyre and Rousey-Bellas.  segments. The main event was good too for a lot of reasons as well.


SmackDown 1000
- One quick overall thought I have on this show was that it felt too rushed for a good portion of the night. Also, this was the one time WWE really needed a 3rd hour for one of their TV shows. Of course, they won't have that option once they move to Fox a year from now. It's nights like this that make me want WWE to cancel 205 Live and just absorb the show into a secondary show for SmackDown Live. I'd watch a Velocity/Heat show more than I would 205 Live, especially if a big talent or two were on it every week.
- I enjoyed the Truth TV segment and the use of the McMahons in this segment. It got the crowd hyped up, and you can't tell me Vince McMahon isn't still over when he's getting his theme chanted by 12-13,000 people.
- Great to see The Usos get the win over Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles. It helps set up the Bryan-Styles match at Crown Jewel. And they didn't job out one of their tag teams to put over the singles acts.
- I wish we had gotten more of The Miz vs. Rusev. They were robbed by the time allowed.
- Evolution was the highlight of this show. I thought that all four men delivered what was expected of them, with Batista delivering in my opinion his greatest in-ring promo. It was real. It was heartfelt. And it set up a possible match with Triple H sometime down the road. (That line about Ric Flair by Batista had me rolling in laughter.)
- The Cutting Edge did nothing for me. It wasn't Edge as Edge did exactly what was asked of him (as did Becky and Charlotte). It's just (again) that WWE continues to push this narrative of Becky being the heel despite the fact that the fans are cheering her so defiantly.
- And it wouldn't be a big show without our 2,543,245.5th heel/face turn by The Big Show. The guy makes more changes than Madonna on tour. But thankfully, The Bar have the tag titles. I just wish it was original as we already have a giant with Tag Champions on Raw (or at least we did up to Monday). But still, it was a good match while it lasted. I felt bad for Booker T and The King as they didn't get the cue a couple times of when they were supposed to be talking and when they weren't on commentary. It made them look silly a couple times.
- Nakamura vs. Rey was fun while it lasted. Again, it felt like it was just a little rushed. I always love it when they give us those in-commercial views of the matches when we don't need them or want them. And matches like this have regular commercial breaks.
- And Undertaker's appearance was set up to be in the worst position possible. At that point, if Undertaker was simply going to say one line, he could have just stopped at the ramp. Again, this felt like more of a plug for Crown Jewel than anything.

There was a lot to like about SmackDown 1000. Batista stole the show with his heartfelt promo in the ring, the tag titles changed hands, and Rey/Nakamura was good. But there was also a LOT of stuff to hate about this. Pacing was terrible, the matches were cut short, and few if any of SmackDown's current storylines were truly advanced (other than again Big Show's 2,543,245.5th heel turn. And that's assuming Big Show actually will be on TV for a while going forward for this to matter.) AJ and Bryan still have heat, Rusev and Aiden still have their issues, and Becky and Charlotte continue their fighting. Nothing changed. Nothing really advanced. And worst off, a lot of legends got stuffed into this show without much to do.
If WWE couldn't do a SmackDown 1000 justice, they should have spread it over two weeks and had a two-week celebration of the show instead. It wouldn't be the most asinine thing to do. As it is, the show was just ok, but it could have been better. The only thing I'll carry with me going forward was the amazing Batista promo that was on this show. For me, that's one of the true great SmackDown moments in recent memory.


NXT Thoughts
- NXT started hot with the first of their two main events on this show: The Undisputed Era defending the NXT Tag Team Championships against The War Raiders. The more I see of The War Raiders, I don't think they'll make a good transition to the main roster. And that's not a knock on them at all. I just think WWE will book them to be the next Ascension.
As expected, these two teams killed it with the time they were given. I thought both teams gelled well with War Raiders being pushed more than they have been in recent months. The return of Bobby Fish for Undisputed Era feels like it completes the group. It'll be interesting to see how the Tag Team Championships are defended in the group now. Will they keep Strong and O'Reilly together, swap out Strong for the original reDRagon, or do a Fabulous Freebirds/New Day thing with the titles?
- SHE KNOWS! SHE KNOWS! SHE KNOWS! The other main event was a fun match between Bianca Belair and Nikki Cross. I love the insane Nikki Cross character. Belair continues to impress me in matches like this where she's working with someone that works such a unique style of wrestling. Plus her facial expressions as Nikki kept kicking out were excellent.
THEN ALEISTER BLACK SHOWED UP! And he demanded the secret from Nikki. That whole ending worked out perfectly. Nikki Cross telling Aleister, and his facial expressions when he found out who it was were great. It's the type of ending that just begs for more attention. I can't wait to see what happens next. Mission accomplished.

NXT has returned to form this week, and it was my favorite of the WWE shows this week. While NXT had a couple "enhancement/jobber" matches (which I didn't even bother covering on here), the two "main event" matches more than delivered in my opinion. That made it a fun hour of TV to watch. 


ROH Thoughts
- The beginning was the coronation of Matt Taven as the "unofficial" ROH World Champion. More Kingdom garbage. More yawns.
- Chase Owens made his ROH debut this week by losing yet again, this time to Kenny King.
- And guess what just happened again? Bully Ray beats up Flip Gordon. Yet... again. And we get Shane Taylor and Silas Young get in on the action as well.
- We get a main event of The Addiction vs. Best Friends vs. The Young Bucks vs. EVIL/SANADA. And I was actually disappointed with this match. It felt just very forgettable. I compare it to one of those cheap "Greatest Hits" albums that only have like 6 songs on it that you find at a dollar store or $5 Wal-Mart bin. It's hardly worth the time in the end. These guys just did their basic moves, and nothing about the match felt special at all. 

Overall, ROH was a DUD for me. Nothing really going on, and it felt like I wasted 51 minutes when this show ended. Here's hoping for better next week. I'm getting close to not covering this show. It's getting ready to get the Impact Wrestling Treatment from me.


MLW Fusion (Episode 26)
- Teddy Hart sounds like Bret Hart's twin. It's amazing how much they sound alike.
- Vandal Ortagun from Turkey starts us off on this show as he faces Brian Pillman Jr. (w/The Hart Foundation: Teddy Hart and Davey Boy Smith Jr.). Pillman has his dad's mullet going on there. (By the way, the Jericho podcast he was on is excellent. Check it out, folks.) Pillman wrestles a lot like his father did in 1997, at least from what I'm seeing. Hard strikes and playing to the audience (in the arena and at home). Decent exhibition match for Pillman here as he was able to do some offense and do a little bit of selling as well. Again, he's still a little green as anyone else would be in his position. BUt there's a lot of positives from what I'm seeing. He's got the character going in the right direction. That much, I know for sure.
- Jimmy Yuta took on Hijo de La Park (the son of LA Park/La Parka). Good start to the match with a lot of high-flying action. Both guys were impressive in my opinion. And they had me engaged in the match throughout. Seeing Yuta win was a bit of a surprise, but I guess that means there's no nepotism in MLW. Lol.
- Teddy Hart (w/ The Hart Foundation) wrestled Rich Swann (w/ ACH) next. I've never seen Teddy Hart wrestle prior to this. I was very impressed by what I saw here. Teddy moved like a dang Cruiserweight mixed with some of the snap technical offense that you would expect someone with the last name Hart. Rich Swann continues to impress me more and more in his post-WWE career. He's wrestling a much less restrictive style of wrestling, and I'm noticing a lot more of Swann's abilities. A hard-fought physical match inside and outside the ring. This may actually be my favorite match on TV this week. Both men just told a really good story with their actions in this match. Check this match out if you get a chance.

Overall, this was a really fun hour of wrestling. It wasn't on the same level as NXT, but it's one of the better shows for the week that I watched.


NXT UK Thoughts
- Mark Andrews starts off the NXT UK brand show in a match against Joe Coffey. He's accompanied by his brother Mark, and they are heels since they attacked a bunch of wrestlers during the NXT UK show a few months ago. Poor Andrews was definitely overmatched in the size department, but they both wrestled a solid back and forth match. Andrews gets caught in the numbers game, leading to a discus lariat from Coffey for the win.
- We have a little Mustache Mountain going on for this first show here. They cut a promo in front of the live crowd about their past, present, and future.
- Sid Scala is up next facing Dave Mastiff, who the cameras do a great job making look like a monster (the Lars Sullivan treatment with a little bit of Earthquake going on). Mastiff shows off his impressive power and athletic skills in an enhancement match. More Scala gets crushed with a jumping cannonball into the corner. 1-2-3. Count to 100. This guy's getting his money for the job tonight.
- Toni Storm vs. Nina Samuels is our next match here.  Basic little match between the two women. I didn't see much to make this special, but Nina's interaction with the fans for a quick second showed promise of what she could develop into.
- The main event is Noam Dar challenging Pete Dunne for the WWE United Kingdom Championship. I have to say this: Pete Dunne is a freaking star no matter what side of the Atlantic Ocean you want to put the guy. He's just an amazing wrestler. He's so young still that he's going to develop even more. The "Bruiserweight" will be a name to be reckoned with. The fans actually chant Dar's name to the tune of "The Imperial March" from Empire Strikes Back. (I love wrestling. And again, England... it's obviously a magical, musical land.) Fun match between the two. At no point did I think that Dar was going to upset Dunne on this. Dunne is just on a completely different level than most of the talent on NXT UK. I'm anxious to see who finally unseats him as NXT Champion.

Overall, this was a solid, if unspectacular, way to begin the NXT UK brand. The main event is clearly the best thing on this show. If you get a chance, give the show a chance.

As for the week, I'm giving the victory to NXT. Then, I'm going with Raw. Then I'm going with MLW. Next would be SmackDown Live. Then, I'm going with NXT UK. Finally, ROH gets the worst reviewed show of the week. (But hey, Ring of Honor. At least I watched your show. Sorry Impact.)
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Podcast Recommendation of the Week

I'm going with The Ross Report from this week featuring an interview with both Matt Hardy and WOKEN Matt Hardy. Ross's commentary on the happenings of the world in and out of wrestling is always fun to listen to, but this podcast wins again for the great exchange between Ross and Hardy discussing the current wrestling climate, "legends" being brought back to wrestle on TV, and the upcoming Hardy Halloween special (for which Woken Matt Hardy graced us and enlightened us with his oratory PREMONIIIIITIONS of what will come to pass. It was simply WONDERFUL!!! YAAAAAAS!
A runner-up for me was What Happened When for a off-the-rails episode looking at WCW Saturday Night from 1992. Their watch-a-long episodes are always worth a listen, but hearing these guys rip on everyone on the screen is always fun to listen to.

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Well, that does it for this week. What do you think? Should I continue to cover MLW and NXT UK OR do you want me to cover Impact Wrestling instead? I am not going to cover all 3. It'll either be MLW AND NXT UK or Impact Wrestling, period.  Leave a comment on here or on my Twitter page @cdub1898. I welcome any and all constructive suggestions.

Until next time, take care of yourselves. Spread some awesomeness.