This Week In Wrestling III

By Jeff Knapp

AEW – Dynamite

This past Saturday, we saw a special weekend edition of AEW Dynamite, and just like on Wednesdays, I wasn’t disappointed. I’m not saying everything is perfect, but I love it when a wrestling show starts with a match. This week they started with one of my favorites, and the fact that Malakai Black loves the darker side of music and walks the left-hand path, he never disappoints. We saw Malakai Black take on Dante Martin. Dante goes for a dropkick on Saturday and lands on Monday. This kid has all the athletic talent in the world, but I’m terrified by some of the moves he performs. The top rope to top rope springboard can go wrong 100 different ways. I’m very interested to see where this heads with Lio Rush in his corner, and we get the feeling that these two will face each other somewhere down the road.

We saw the Lucha Brothers lose their AAA Tag Team titles to FTR with some help from Tully Blanchard, so congratulations to Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood (One of my personal favorite tag teams in all of wrestling)

 There was footage of Cody Rhodes in the ring with the Nightmare Factory and Arn Anderson (on the outside). Arn instructs everybody to attack Cody. After Cody takes out the factory, Arn shows Cody footage of his father Dusty being violent in the past. He asks if he heard any fans booing him. Arn tells him that Malakai needs stitches in him too.

MJF continues to egg on Darby and cuts a promo like nobody’s business. Anytime MJF has the pic, I’m glued to the television.

Adam Page talks up his AEW World title match at Full Gear against Kenny Omega and how he will give Kenny his blood, sweat, tears, heart, and soul, but he will give him at the end of the day Cowboy shit. He had the fans right in the palm of his hands throughout, and he will have the AEW faithful in his corner at Full gear.

We saw the American Dragon Bryan Danielson take on the newly signed Bobby Fish in another Dynamite classic at the end of the night. This shows you the difference between what we see on Dynamite and Raw or Smackdown. I’m not saying one is better, but that there is a huge difference. Bryan finally locks in a heel hook and forces Bobby to tap out.

Lastly, we were given the brackets for the AEW World title elimination tournament. 

Dark Order’s 10 VS Jon Moxley

Orange Cassidy VS Powerhouse Hobbs

Dustin Rhodes VS Bryan Danielson

Lance Archer VS Eddie Kingston

WWE – RAW

Once again, I’m sure I’ll say this many more times, but Raw starts with an extended promo with Bianca and Charlotte. They are exciting what could be an excellent main event. I love Bianca, but I’d rather see this a little later in the show.

We also see Xavier Woods vs. Jinder Mahal face Finn Balor at Crown Jewel in the King of the Ring Finals on Thursday.

The Street Profits return to Raw, and if given the right push, I believe these two men can have a great run as tag team champions, but singly, Montez Ford has everything right there to become the breakout star of that team, and we all know that Vince loves to break up tag teams if one of them stands out. I’d hate to see them break up at any point, but Montez is uber-athletic and over-the-top entertaining and can bring it when needed. 

The WWE fans finally got to see the fire in the eyes of Monsoor. This is something that we’ve been waiting for. I think his match against Mustafa Ali at Crown Jewel could be a sleeper gem. I can’t picture him losing in his home country. He brought the fire and rage on his promo and kicked it up a notch when he started yelling in Arabic. I’m hoping this feud goes beyond Crown Jewel.

The stage is set for the crowning of the 1st winner of the queen’s cup Doudrop defeated Shayna Baszler and will face Zelina Vega in the finals. I love Doudrop, but I was hoping to see Shayna win the entire thing. 

The main event of Charlotte vs. Bianca was a great match, but when you learn from the dirtiest player in the game, there is a 100% chance you will do whatever you need to do to retain your championship, and that’s just what Charlotte did. Now, I would like to see where this was leading, but Bianca and Charlotte will be on different brands as of Friday. All that buildup for what, will there be a payoff? Time will tell.

NXT

Just like Raw, NXT starts with an in-ring promo. Don’t get me wrong, as of now, Carmelo Hayes is one of the most significant breakouts from this newer roster. He and Trick seemed like they were trying to get heel heat, but the crowd didn’t have it. Outcomes Johnny Gargano who lost his way… I liked the play on words. He has his sights set on the NXT North American Championship. When Carmello shoots, he doesn’t miss. When he finally faces Johnny Wrestling, will that be his 1st miss?

Almost 20 minutes into the show, we finally get our 1st match of the night, Odyssey Jones vs. Andre Chase…next.

We are then treated to Imperium vs. the Diamond Mine’s Creed Brothers. The Creed Brothers are another pair that are standouts in the new NXT. This was a great tag team match, and I’m a big fan of tag team wrestling. Imperium picked up the win thanks to an ongoing feud with Ikemen Jiro (Mr. jacket on during the match for no reason at all) & Kushida. Imperium is as solid as any wrestling team, and the Creed Brothers have a huge ceiling. I can’t wait to see where they go.

Another week, another week of forced Von Wagner. I pushed the fast-forward button. 

Santos Escobar and the rest of Legado Del Fantasma come out to cut a promo on Carmello Hayes, and Santos is also coming for him. I’m thinking possible triple threat (Carmello vs. Santos vs. Gargano) in the near future or at the subsequent takeover. After that, “La Madrina” Elektra Lopez is interrupted by Cora Jade, which leads to a match that Lopez is victorious in. I’m a fan of Elektra Lopez, so I’m banking on her to go far in NXT.

Next, there is a three-way match to see who spins the Wheel of Misfortune. Io Shirai vs. Persia Pirotta vs. Toxic Attraction’s Jacy Jayne go at it, and at one point, I thought Persia died when she took a NASTY spill when she got caught up diving through the ropes. Not everybody should be making that move.

Io Shirai picks up the victory, spins the wheel, and next week at Halloween Havoc. There will be a “Stairway to Hell” ladder match for the NXT women’s tag team championship.

The main event was a tag Match featuring the NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa & Bron Breaker vs. the Grizzled Young Veterans. This match was a great way to set up Bron as an actual threat to Tommaso’s championship. Bron was solid, and it shows that having the Steiner Brothers as your dad (rick) and your uncle (Scott) has its advantages. If Vince wants me to get excited over a newer wrestler after moving on from the likes of Carrion and Bronson Reed, then count me on board for this guy.

IMPACT

 IMPACT has been doing a great job of getting their shows off on the right foot with what is usually good to a very good match, and this week was no different. We have Finjuice (Juice Robinson and David Finley) take on Chris Bey and Hikuleo. I know they are members of the Bullet Club, but it just doesn’t carry the weight it once did, especially when they are wrestling in front of 100 fans at the most. 

The match was really good, but I have a problem with the outcome. I like the idea of the triple threat at Bound For Glory, but how they got there was just messy and seemed a little too far-fetched. Why would two refs count a pinfall at the same time right next to each other? At least put them at opposite sides of the ring, let the pin falls happen, but force the first ref to count them both.

One of my biggest complaints of the night was the ending of the triple threat tag team match with Jordynne Grace & Fallah Bahh vs. Tenille Dashwood & John Skyler vs. Chelsea Green & Crazzy Steve. How in the world am I supposed to believe that Tenille picked up a clean pinfall victory over the likes of Fallah? At least have him get knocked out or let John Skyler get the pinfall. He’s huge, so some illegal cover should have been used. 

They are trying to hype Mickie James & Deonna Purrazzo at BFG, but I’m just not feeling it. I believe this match should be great, but having Matt Rehwoldt banned from ringside because he broke the spirit of the no-contact clause seems a bit much. Personally, his character does nothing for me at all. If Deonna weren’t there, the fast forward button would be used, or I’d leave the room.

To be honest, the segment that had Sam Beal getting kicked out of the learning tree was pretty funny and entertaining. Be on the lookout for sam vs. brian at some point down the road. 

The show ends with a face-off between Josh Alexander and Christian Cage. I’m very excited about this match. Josh carried the X-Division for a while and did a great job with that. I am not a fan of Option C and wish they got to this match differently. To me, Christian Cage is like a modern-day Ricky Steamboat. I’m already putting this match in a MOTY candidate box. 

Will we see the debut of any monster or titan at BFG? I’m just hoping that. 

WWE – Smackdown

Once again, the WWE started the show off with another promo, but our Tribal Chief was on fire this time. He called out everybody he has smashed since Wrestlemania. I was surprised he mentioned Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson), though. He questioned Paul’s loyalty, and that’s when Brock came out and destroyed everything, including refs and other officials. This led to Adam Pierce having to suspend Brock until further notice. That opening was grand and was one of the few shows opening promos that I loved.

Tonight was the debut of new and returning faces. We saw Drew Mcintyre, the coming soon promo for Xia li, who I think is a stone-cold fox and one hell of an athlete. 

Hit Row made their debut and saw Swerve and Top Dolla crush two local nobodies. 

Xavier had his coronation. I’d love to say hail king woods, but Finn Balor, the prince, should have won that match…the prince becomes King. Maybe Woods can put the crown on the line against him at Survivor Series or a different PPV down the road. We’ll see.

Happy Corbin? Changed the channel. I’d love to see him return to a darker version like he was in NXT. This madcap thing is also a dud. I’m not sure if this is regular heel heat or “this is horrible” heat?

The night ended with the WWE Women’s title exchange between Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch. The WWE officials want Becky booed so severely, but the crowd is still behind her. The titles finally get exchanged but not before the boss Sasha Banks comes out and gets involved. Sasha vs. Charlotte for the SD women’s title, and that winner will face raw women’s champion Becky Lynch at Survivor series.