UnWrest

It's time for the B Block to take the stage in the G1 Climax 29 tournament. But can they actually meet the high standard set by the A Block on their first night? Let's find out... Undercard Results 1) LIJ (BUSHI, Evil, and Sanada) vs. Will Ospreay, Kota Ibushi, Yuys Uemura Tomorrow is Ibushi vs. Evil and Sanada vs. Ospreay tomorrow. And keep in mind that both sets of partners will have to face off against each other later in the tournament (July 18th for Ospreay vs. Ibushi and Evil vs. Sanada). Ibushi's injured ankle becomes the focus of the early part of the match with LIJ working on it.  Ibushi eventually gets the tag to Ospreay. Ospreay and Sanada get a moment to go at it and show how awesome the next A Block show should be. Bushi and Uemura get tagged in. Uemura gets massacred by LIJ. Ospreay and Ibushi prevent a pin after a triple-team sequence, but they can't stop the pin after Bushi gets a lungblower on Uemura. After the match, Evil bends Ibushi's ank...

Well there were no "second fall opportunities" tonight. But SmackDown delivered an imperfect but better show compared to Raw. SmackDown Thoughts - Dolph Ziggler shows up earlier today and cuts a promo about the useless tub called Kevin Owens. Ziggler complains about carrying the company on his back. All of a sudden, a car shows up blowing its horn. It's Kevin Owens. Kevin Owens and Ziggler start arguing. Owens and Ziggler start fighting. Owens and Ziggler start getting separated. Owens and Ziggler start fighting again. Owens and Ziggler get separated again. Shane McMahon shows up. He throws Kevin Owens out for the evening to go "cool off." Owens is bleeding from the mouth. - Shane is asked why he cancelled tonight's main event. He says he is going to protect his superstars. He's asked what the main event is going to be. He has a few ideas. - It is confirmed that Finn Balor vs. Shinsuke Nakamura will happen tonight. Kevin Owens shows up out of nowhere...

The title basically says it all. For the small steps that WWE took tonight, this validated the fears that many have about the supposed "change" that WWE is going to bring with Heyman and Bischoff's latest roles. Raw Thoughts - So much for last week's big explosion being the catalyst for the new stage. Same old stage as last week. - The show starts off with a Mixed Tag Team Elimination Match between Seth Rollins/Becky Lynch and Andrade/Zelina Vega. Um, so if Andrade gets eliminated, does that mean Seth can pin her too? Because if it is a straight-up Mixed Tag Match, Seth pinning Andrade would basically eliminate himself, right? It's not intergender. I don't see Tessa Blanchard or Sami Callihan out in the ring. Then again, not many people saw them in the ring last night either. (You can hate on that, but you know I'm right.) Zelina and Becky have a great chemistry compared to Becky and Lacey. Good back and forth between both genders here in the opening ...

A big show tonight from Dallas, TX as a G1 Climax show takes place for the first time ever in the United States. (Note: As I did last year, I'll be writing some basic notes for the undercard matches and saving the grades for the actual tournament matches.) Here we go! Undercard - Kevin Kelly and Rocky Romero welcome us to the show. Then we get a video highlighting the A Block participants: Tanahashi, Okada, Ibushi, Ospreay, Evil, Sanada, Sabre Jr., Fale, Archer, and KENTA. 1) Roppongi 3K vs.  Guerrillas of Destiny- Ain't nobody more real than the Tongans. 3K takes the advantage early on, with even the cameraman having a hard time getting out of the ring in time. However, as expected, the aerial acrobatics and fast-paced offense of 3K get snuffed out by the brute force and aggression of The Tongans. YOH gets beaten down for a good bit of time, but he's able to spear one of The Tongans down and tag in SHO. SHO gets some good offense in before getting knocked down by Ta...

After a Raw that was well received by many, SmackDown stopped that momentum and lived up to my nickname for it: Diet Raw. SmackDown Thoughts - They replay the events of last night between Lashley and Strowman and put it over as one of the "most explosive moments" in WWE. (With all those fireworks that went off, I would have to say that's a safe bet.)  Lashley was released last night. Strowman is still in the hospital after what happened. - We officially start the show with The Kevin Owens Show. His guests are Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon. They replay Undertaker's appearance and promo last night. (Diet Raw is off and running I see so far.)  Shane is not afraid of Undertaker. He's on a hot streak, and he makes it a No Holds Barred Match. Drew calls the upcoming match "a physical assault the likes of which no one has ever seen before." Kevin replays the footage and says "Shane isn't afraid." He ends up getting under Shane's skin. Sh...

Whether Paul Heyman's hand was already at work creatively, tonight's shows provided just enough change to bring hope on the horizon. But there were still moments of frustration with the product overall. Let's get started: Raw Thoughts - We are welcomed to Dallas, TX by Michael Cole as the commentary team sets the table for tonight's show. This includes Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins appearing tonight, The New Day (Big E and Xavier) vs. Viking Raiders, and a possible Undertaker appearance. - We start the show with Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley in a Falls Count Anywhere Match. Lashley takes the fight to Strowman immediately with a spear, but Braun catches him on the floor with some high impact moves. Lashley spears Strowman yet again, this time into the timekeeper's area. 2 count only. They go over the area into the crowd to continue the fight. Lashley uses a chair to the spine of Braun over and over again. Braun knocks down Lashley. Then he charges and runs over...