By Jeff Knapp
Week of 11/08/21– Recaps
***Before the recaps, I’d like to take this moment to say RIP to Judy Bagwell, the mother of former WCW wrestler Buff Bagwell. She was 78***
WWE – RAW
Eight-Man Tag Match: Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro and the Street Profits vs. the Dirty Dawgs and AJ Styles & Omos – Dolph Ziggler picks up the pinfall victory over Matt Riddle after a chokeslam from Omos.
Team Raw Survivor Series Qualifier Match: Dominik Mysterio w/ Rey vs. Bobby Lashley w/ MVP – Bobby Lashley wins via a Hurt Lock submission.
Non-Title Singles Match: WWE Champion Big E vs. Chad Gable w/ Otis – Big E picks up the victory after hitting the Big Ending, which then brings Otis to the ring to have a staredown, to what will possibly be a new feud for Big E.
24/7 Championship Match: Reggie(c) vs. Drake Maverick – Reggie retains and regains the 24/7 championship after it changes hands multiple times.
Drake Maverick wins the title from Reggie 1st, who loses it to Akira Tozawa, who is then pinned by Corey Graves, who then loses it to co announcer Byron Saxton, who then gets pinned by Drake Maverick, who then loses it to Reggie.
Number One Contender’s Fatal Five-Way Match: Queen Zelina vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Liv Morgan vs. Carmella vs. Bianca Belair – Liv Morgan picks up the pinfall victory on Zelina Vega after the EST of WWE hits the KOD on Vega.
Main Event Match: Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins – Seth wins via count-out when Big E mistakenly gets in the way of Owens. – After the match, KO snaps and attacks the WWE Champion, whipping him into the barricade and steel steps. Owens hits a pop-up Powerbomb from the ground to the apron, leaving the champion laid out.
NXT
Six-Woman Tag Match: Toxic Attraction vs. Io Shirai and Kayden Carter & Kacy Catanzaro – Gigi Dolin connects with her finisher, The Uncaged on Kayden Carter, for the pinfall victory.
Kay Lee Ray (former nxt UK women’s champion) vs. Sarray – KLR picks up the pinfall victory after connecting with 2 KLR Bombs.
Joe Gacy vs. Boa – Gacy wins via DQ after Boa refuses to relinquish the rope break hold.
Jacket Time (Ikemen Jiro & Kushida) vs. The Creed Brothers – Julius connects with a one-armed bomb roll-up to pick up the win on Jiro
JACKET TIME !!! What a joke. It takes a lot of energy to keep what I want to write at a PG level, but it wasn’t for the faint of heart if you read my mind.
Cameron Grimes vs. Ru Feng – Grimes connects with his running stomp followed by a diving splash for the pinfall victory.
This sets up an in-ring confrontation between Grimes and Duke Hudson. Hudson is upset because Grimes took all his money in a poker game the week before. Maybe he would have had better luck at Swinger’s Palace over at Impact before they shut that down too.
Triple Threat Match: Solo Sikoa vs. LA Knight vs. Grayson Waller – Knight connects with a cutter on Solo, then Waller hits Knight with a springboard rolling cutter. Solo gets back to his feet, tosses Grayson out of the ring, and then hits a diving splash on Knight for the pinfall victory.
Elektra Lopez vs. Erika Yan – Lopez with the quick victory
COMING SOON….NXT TAKEOVER: WARGAMES
Non-Title Main Event Match: Pete Dune vs. North American Champion Carmelo Hayes w/ Trick Williams – Dunne picks up the pinfall victory after a distraction from Johnny Gargano.
AEW – DYNAMITE
Bryan Danielson vs. Rocky Romero w/ Orange Cassidy (It was announced Wednesday morning via Twitter that Best Friends are officially in the NJPW stable CHAOS) – Bryan Danielson picks up the submission victory after locking in the tequila sunrise (very close to a single leg Boston crab)
Six-Woman Tag Match: AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter & Rebel vs. Anna Jay, Tay Conti & Thunder Rosa – Tay Conti picks up the pinfall victory on Rebel after connecting with a DDT
Jungle Boy vs. Anthony Bowens w/ Max Caster – Winner by Submission, Jungle Boy. I don’t care what anybody says or thinks, but Platinum Max Caster’s raps always entertain me before the match.
Wheeler Yuta w/ Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy vs. Wardlow – Wardlow hits 4 powerbombs on Wheeler for the pinfall win
Matt Sydal & Lee Moriarty vs. Leo Rush & Dante Martin – Leo & Dante pick up the victory
Dax Harwood w/ Tully Blanchard vs. “the Bastard” PAC – PAC picks up the rings of Saturn submission victory.
Contract Signing/Main Event: Tony Khan, AEW Champion Kenny Omega, and Hangman Page at Full Gear on Saturday 11/13/2021
Omega talks to Page about how they were once friends and family. He says everything in AEW was meant for Page, but if it wasn’t for his failures and insecurities, he’d have it. “What a disappointment,” Omega says. He wants to shake Page’s hand one last time before they kill it at the PPV. They both shake hands. As Omega walks away, the cameraman then clocks Page with the camera… It’s Don Callis. Page is bleeding from the head. Omega then signs the contract in Page’s blood as the show ends.
IMPACT WRESTLING
# 1 contenders match for the Impact World Tag Team Championships: FinJuice vs. Bullet Club – Bey picks up the pinfall victory on Juice Robinson, making this version of the Bullet Club the #1 contenders to the Good Brother’s Impact Tag Team Championships
Minoru Suzuki vs. Kaleb with a K – Susuki wins….I can’t stand the Kaleb character. Just go away
The Undead Bridesmaids (Kimber Lee and Brandi Lauren) vs. Decay (Havok and Rosemary) – Decay gets the victory after they hit a neck-breaker and spear combo to finish off Lauren.
Mercedes Martinez vs. Madison Rayne –Mercedes connected with a jumping knee and followed by a schoolgirl for the pinfall victory.
Rohit Raju vs. Rocky Romero – Raju blocks a tornado DDT and hits a drive-by kick to pick up the pinfall victory over Romero.
Scott D’Amore announces that a four-way match next week’s show that will see Chelsea Green vs. Alisha Edwards vs. Jake Something vs. Matthew Rehwoldt, and the winner will be the #1 contender to the IMPACT Digital Media Championship
Impact World Championship #1 contenders match: Eddie Edwards vs. W. Morrissey vs. Matt Cardona – Eddie Edwards picks up the pinfall victory when he pinned Matt Cardona after connecting with his Boston Knee Party finisher.
WWE – SMACKDOWN
WWE Official Sonya Deville introduces the SmackDown Survivor Series Team, consisting of Shayna Baszler, Natalya, Aliyah, Shotzi Blackheart, and the team captain, Sasha Banks. We then go straight to our 1st match of the evening.
Sasha Banks, Naomi, & Aliyah vs. Natalya, Shotzi & Shayna Baszler – Aliyah picks up the pinfall victory on Natalya.
After the match, Sonya Deville informs Aliyah that she is no longer on Team Smackdown for Survivor Series…no explanation.
IC Champion Shinsuke Nakamura & Rick Boogs vs. Los Lotharios (Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo) – Los Lotharios pick up the double team pinfall victory on Nakamura
NXT’s Von Wagner is apparently Adam Pierce’s bodyguard
Jeff Hardy vs. Sami Zayn (loser is off SS team smackdown) – Jeff Hardy hit the Swanton and picks up pinfall victory, and Sami is off team Smackdown
Xia Li debuts next week – I’ve seen her on Twitter, and she is so beautiful. The WWE will try to hide that like they do with Natalya.
We are given a tease that Sheamus will be returning soon and teaming with Ridge Holland.
Main Event: Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. “King” Xavier Woods – Woods connects with a top rope elbow drop, goes for the cover but is pulled off by the Usos, which leads to a DQ victory for King Woods. The Usos attack Woods after the match, take his crown, and present it to Roman.
AEW – RAMPAGE
It’s Friday, and you know what that means….the last show before Full Gear on Saturday.
Jungle Boy Jack Perry vs. Bobby Fish – Jungle Boy picks up the victory when he locks in a snare trap submission, and Bobby Fish passes out.
Adam Page issues a warning to the Young Bucks about getting involved in his match at Full Gear.
Jade Cargill vs. Santana Garrett – Jade Cargill picks up the pinfall victory
Dante Martin vs. Ariya Daivari – Dante connects with his double jump moonsault and gets the pinfall victory.
After the match, Dante gets an offer to join Team Taz
Main Event: Lumberjack Match- Orange Cassidy vs. Matt Hardy – Pandemonium runs wild as both Best Friends and The Hardy group hit the ring. The Blade hits Cassidy with brass knuckles, and Matt covers for the victory.
Week of 11/15/21– Recent WWE/NXT Releases
Recently the WWE completed another round of “budget” cuts and released 18 wrestlers from Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and a few in development and non-assigned wrestlers like Harry Smith, aka Davey Boy Smith Jr.
The ones that stick out the most for me are Keith Lee, Karrion Kross, Nia Jax, Scarlett Bordeaux, Franky Monet (aka Taya Valkyrie), Oney Lorcan, Mia Yim, and B-Fab, who, although I wasn’t a fan of her in-ring work, she was just brought up to Smackdown the week before.
That brings the total to roughly 71 wrestlers released so far this year. While many have found new homes at Impact, AEW, and the NWA, some, including Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman, and Buddy Murphy, for example, have not.
The cool thing to say is that Tony Khan will scoop up all these wrestlers and sign them to AEW, but let’s give Impact, NWA, NJPW, and possibly AAA a piece of the action.
Now I understand the WWE possibly has too many wrestlers on their rosters, which led to the downsizing. But have you taken a look at those who have recently been brought into NXT? The WWE has added just over 20 new faces to NXT in a short amount of time. Out of those 20 or so, I only enjoy watching a handful. I want to take this moment to say that I’m impressed with Bron Breakker (Ric Steiner’s son), Joe Gacy, The Creed Brothers, Carmelo Hayes, and Elektra Lopez. I’m hoping the others grow on me. I’ll give them time since I wasn’t a fan of Johnny Gargano or even Bayley at 1st either.
Sadly this will continue as long as Vince is around and also surrounds himself with Nick Khan and Kevin Dunn.
Just like everybody else, I was truly surprised by the releases of Kross, Lee, Nia Jax, and Scarlett. Kross was a monster champion in NXT and was recently brought up, with this horrible change to his gimmick that we will never know the reason behind. Keith Lee wasn’t the most charismatic wrestler in the world, but he was super athletic for a man his size and, just like Kross, will be a star wherever he goes.
I wish I had the money to start a promotion and just use the wrestlers that were released.
I’ll make my BOLD predictions on where we might see the above wrestlers end up. I’m sure indies like GCW, the revived XPW, and PWG will use these wrestlers, and other smaller promotions around the US like NEW Wrestling out the northeast will try to book them. I’d like to include ROH, but we’ll see what happens:
Keith Lee – NJPW as part of their Strong shows in the US, unless he can get a visa to work in Japan or MLW
Karrion / Killer Kross – I think Impact is out since I believe he had a falling out with them, so I’m saying either AAA or AEW. Scarlett goes where he goes.
Nia Jax – I can see her going to Impact Wrestling and possibly having a great feud with Havok before moving onto the Impact Women’s championship.
Taya Valkyrie – If she doesn’t go to AAA after this, I fully expect her to head back to Impact. I could have seen her going to ROH if they weren’t going on Hiatus.
Oney Lorcan – I’d love to see him in Impact and have a great series with Josh Alexander. If not, then you might see him in the NWA, MLW, or some of the high-end indies.
Mia Yim – She had a less than stellar run in Impact, so maybe she heads back there to correct the wrongs that creativity and lack of experience gave to her. I can also see her adding to the small women’s division in the NWA.
I know many people say that everybody under the sun who has been released should go to AEW. I love AEW, but #1, that’s insulting to Impact, NWA, NJPW, and MLW. I’d add ROH into that mix if I knew their status.
As of this writing, Bronson Reed, who was released from NXT during their last batch of releases, has signed with NJPW and will be known as Jonah. He will be working on their American program, STRONG. Along with another WWE-released wrestler Buddy Murphy, who goes by Buddy Matthews, he debuted for NJPW on November 13th at the Battle in the Valley Show.
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