By Jeff Knapp
Before anything, to be the biggest news story in wrestling is what is going on with Ring of Honor. On Tuesday, ROH issued a statement announcing that the company is going on hiatus and making significant changes to its business operations. They will still hold Final Battle in December, and that wrestlers would be let go from their contracts and not resigned at the end of the year. Those with more extended contracts past this December will continue to be paid
This is sad. I only went to one ROH show, and that was back in the early 2000s. Samoa Joe, Raven, AJ Styles, CM Punk, and Jeff Hardy were just some of the wrestlers on the show that night.
If they become just another indy promotion, that would be a horrible thing. ROH has helped give WWE, A.E.W., and Impact amazing talent and gave those men and women much-needed T.V. exposure. I’m hoping that they all find a home elsewhere and go on to have amazing careers. I’m curious what will happen to the current title holders? Will they return after the hiatus? What could the reimagining be?
Impact Wrestling – Bound for Glory – Saturday 10/23.
We witnessed Jordynne Grace become the 1st ever Impact Digital Media Champion after defeating Chelsea Green, Crazzy Steve, Fallah Bahh, John Skyler, and Madison Rayne by pinfall.
The inspiration (Cassie Lee fka Peyton Royce in the WWE and Jessica McKay fka Billie Kay in the WWE) defeated Decay (Havok and Rosemary) to become the new Impact Wrestling Women’s tag team champions.
Mickie James defeated Deonna Purrazzo to become the new Impact Women’s world champion.
Josh Alexander submitted Christian Cage, what could be considered a match of the year candidate, to become the new Impact Wrestling World champion…for 5 minutes.
Congratulations to Moose on cashing in his call your shot opportunity a few minutes after that match to become the new Impact Wrestling World champion
WWE – RAW
Triple-Threat Number One Contender Tag Match: the Street Profits vs. the Dirty Dawgs vs. the Alpha Academy – Dirty Dawgs won
We had the Queen’s Crown Victory Celebration & Coronation OF Zelina Vega; then she got interrupted by Dewdrop.
Zelina Vega vs Doudrop – Zelina Vega won after Zelina hit Doudrop with her Queen’s scepter
United States Champion Damian Priest vs. T-Bar in a non-title match – Priest wins by DQ
Carmella vs Liv Morgan – Carmella picks up the Victory
Keith “Bearcat” Lee vs. Cedric Alexander – Keith Lee picks up the pinfall victory
Dominik Mysterio vs. Austin Theory – Theory wins by pinfall, hitting his ATL finisher
Raw Tag Team Championship Match: RK-Bro(c) vs. the Dirty Dawgs – RK-Bro picks up the pinfall victory
Main Event Ladder Match: Fatal Four-Way Number One Contender for the WWE Championship: Rey Mysterio vs. Finn Bálor vs. Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens – Rollins reaches the top of the ladder 1st and unhooks the contract, picking up the win to become the #1 contender for the WWE Championship.
NXT – Halloween Havoc
The Chucky doll welcomes us….not very exciting. I wouldn’t say I liked a movie or the millennial remake for television, but it’s on the U.S.A. Network, so I understand the cross-branding reason.
NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship Triple Threat Scareway to Hell Ladder Match: Io Shirai & Zoey Stark(c) vs. Toxic Attraction vs. Indi Hartwell & Persia Pirotta – Winners and NEW NXT Tag Team Champions, Toxic Attraction (Jacy Jayne & Gigi Dollin)
I wasn’t sure how this match would go, but I was happy to see Gigi win her 1st title. But I love Io Shirai.
Joe Gacy vs. Malik Blade – Gacy picks up the pinfall victory
Imperium does a backstage interview in both German and Italian. I couldn’t wait for that tag team match. Those two men are great together and would immediately be broken up for no real reason if ever brought to Raw or Smackdown.
NXT Women’s Championship Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal Match: Raquel Gonzalez(c) vs. Mandy Rose – Your winner and NEW NXT women’s champion, Mandy Rose. They picked up the pinfall victory after a mystery person wacked Raquel in the back with a shovel. The mystery person turns out to be the returning Dakota Kai.
NXT Tag Team Championship Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal Match (Lumber-Jack o’ Lantern Match: M.S.K. (c) vs. Imperium – Winners and NEW NXT Tag Team Champions, Imperium after Aichner hit the Imperium Bomb on Lee for the pinfall.
Main Event – NXT Championship Match: Tommaso Ciampa(c) vs. Bron Breaker – The ending saw Ciampa hit Breaker with three running knee shots consecutively to the face, then connects with a Fairy Tale Ending and pick up the win and retain his NXT Championship. This was a great match, excluding Bron slipping off the 2nd rope. He has a very bright future.
A.E.W. – Dynamite
Bobby Fish vs. CM Punk – CM Punk picks up the victory after connecting with the G.T.S. I loved this match. I’ve been a fan of Punk since his days in the original MLW, Bobby Fish is from the Albany area, and I’m from the Hudson Valley area, and there is only a 45-mile difference, so I had to root against the hometown guy sadly. I see there being a 2nd match because I believe Bobby kicked out at two and the ref made a mistake. These two men had me throughout the entire match.
M.J.F. vs. Bryce Donovan – M.J.F. made the pinfall with one finger.
Trick Or Treat Match Announced For A.E.W. Rampage – Tony Schiavone informs Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. (with Jamie Hayter and Rebel) that per Tony Khan, at A.E.W. Rampage this Friday, it will be Britt Baker vs. Abadon in a Trick or Treat match where if Abadon wins, she gets a title match. The trick is, the match will be a no disqualification match.
T.N.T. Championship – Ethan Page vs. Sammy Guevara (c) – Winner via pinfall and still T.N.T. Champion: Sammy Guevara
After the match, Jericho and the others inform Page and Sky that it will be a six-man tag match at Full Gear in a Minneapolis Street Fight American Top Team vs. The Inner Circle.
The Lucha Brothers accept FTR’s challenge for the A.E.W. World Tag Team Titles at Full Gear.
T.B.S. Women’s Title Tournament – Serena Deeb vs. Hikaru Shida – Shida picks up the pinfall victory, becomes the 1st woman to reach 50 wins in A.E.W., and will face Nyla Rose in the next round.
A.E.W. World Title Eliminator Tournament – Dark Order’s 10 vs. Jon Moxley – Winner and advancing in the A.E.W. World Title Eliminator Tournament: Jon Moxley via pinfall after connecting with the Paradigm Shift.
There is another great promo from Cody Rhodes, who continues to hear the boos from the crowd. I’m not optimistic why. I get that he’s responsible for the crowd turning on Cody, but I’m not sure what he did to garner that reaction. It looks like we will see a tag match, maybe at full gear, between Maliki Black & Andrade El Idolo vs. Cody Rhodes and Bastard P.A.C. due to them getting involved after the match.
Main Event – Stu Grayson, Evil Uno, John Silver & Colt Cabana vs. Kenny Omega, Adam Cole & The Young Bucks (who came out as the Ghostbuster) – The Dark Order get the pinfall victory after Adam Page, who reveals himself as the Stay puft marshmallow man, hits the Dead Eye and then Silver follows up with the spin doctor for the pinfall victory.
IMPACT
Usually, Impact starts with a pretty exciting match, but this week we get an in-ring promo by the new Impact Champion, Moose.
Moose talks about doing some bad things, such as breaking the neck of a man he used to call a friend. He says at Bound For Glory, and he might have done the worst thing yet. Moose states that right in front of Josh’s beautiful wife and young child, he took everything Josh Alexander ever worked for — and he has no sympathy after doing so.
He also said, “it doesn’t matter how elite you are or what tribe you are a chief it doesn’t matter if you’re the boss, the man, a woman, a king, the queen. It doesn’t matter what day you hold a title, and they could add a new day to the week, and he’s still the greatest champion in all of professional wrestling.”
I loved his calm demeanor and how he got his point across. Great job.
X-Division Championship – Rocky Romero vs. Trey Miguel (c) – Miguel hits a brainbuster then heads to the top rope, where he connects with a Meteora once again. – Winner and STILL X-Division Champion: Trey Miguel
Tasha Steelz vs. Rachael Ellering – Ellering picks up the pinfall victory with a backslide on Tasha. Let’s keep the victories going to Rachael. She has the size, strength, and lineage to be a champion.
Joe Doering (XL Kid Rock) vs. Heath – The match is a no-contest after the rest of V.B.D. and Rhino all get involved. The great news out of this is that Eric Young is back and looks to be healthy.
It looks like we will be seeing Mickie James vs. Madison Rayne somewhere down the road after this week in ring confrontation.
Main Event: Ace Austin vs. Chris Sabin – This was one hell of a match, and I’ve been saying for a while that when Impact puts its premier wrestlers in a match, they are as good as any other promotion bell to bell – Winner via pinfall after interference from Madman Fulton, Ace Austin.
WWE – Smackdown
Charlotte and Banks verbally go at it to start the show-off but get interrupted by Shoti Blackheart. She wants to face Charlotte since they have never wrestled with each other before.
Championship Contenders Match – Charlotte Flair vs. Shotzi – Charlotte picks up the pinfall victory after connecting with Natural Selection. After the match, Sasha attends to Shoti and gets attacked by her. Leading into what one would imagine is a heel turn for her.
WWE Official Adam Pearce has informed the WWE Universe that Brock Lesnar has not only been indefinitely suspended for his attack on him and other officials but has been fined 1 million dollars.
Open Challenge – Drew McIntyre vs. Mustafa Ali – Drew picks up the submission victory via the Kimura lock.
Halloween Trick Or Street Fight – Rick Boogs & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss – Moss picks up the pinfall victory on Boogs after being attacked by men in Halloween costumes.
We then find out that those men are Hector Garza and Humberto Carrillo
Naomi vs. Shayna Baszler w/ guest referee Sonya Deville – Shayna Baszler picks up the submission victory with help from Sonya.
Main Event: Smackdown Tag Team Champions The Usos vs. King Xavier Woods and Sir Kofi Kingston (non-title) – In the end, King Woods gets a blind tag. Jimmy Superkicks Sir Kofi. In confusion, King Woods rolls up Jimmy for the win.
A.E.W. – Rampage
A.E.W. World Championship Eliminator Tournament – Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston – Danielson picked up the victory due to ref stoppage when Danielson trapped Kingston in a modified triangle choke and elbowed him in the head until the referee had no choice but to call for the bell.
Dante Martin (with Lio Rush) vs. Matt Sydal – Dante Martin picks up the victory via pinfall. I’m telling you that when Dante leaps in the air on a Friday, he doesn’t land until Sunday.
Main Event: Trick Or Treat Match: Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. (with Rebel and Jamie Hayter) vs. Abadon – Britt Baker wins when she goes for the Lockjaw, but Abadon bites her hand. Hayter attacks Abadon, and Rebel distracts her; Baker rolls Abadon up for the win. I love Abadon’s gimmick, and I hope to see more of her.
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