By : Jeff Knapp
WWE – RAW
Cody had his 1st match on Raw in 6 years. It was against The Miz. Now before the match, Cody was a guest on MizTV. I’m not sure if the Miz was told to correct Cody when he used the terms “Wrestler” and Championship “Belt” or if that was Miz thinking on his feet as a heel and having to correct him. I applaud the Miz if he corrected Cody due to being a heel and thinking on his feet like that.
That segment also leads us into finding out that Backlash will give us Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins 2, which will be another amazing match
Bianca Belair found out that her next opponent will be WWE “official” Sonya Deville. I’m a huge fan of Sonya and with this power trip she’s on, I’m curious to where this goes. Bianca is one of the greatest athletes, male or female the WWE has and think this could be a great match.
We learned that former NXT Champion, Tommaso Ciampa is now an official member of Raw. I’m happy that his name hasn’t changed like the last few NXT wrestler’s name have IE: “Butch”. I’ve been a fan of his since his ROH days, and since we all know how things can go on the Raw and Smackdown rosters, I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop. His official introduction to Raw with Ezekial and Owens, was kind of a comedy bit, so we will see.
We also learned the reason why MVP turned on The Almighty Bobby Lashley, and it seems like there will be a rematch between Lashley and Omos at Backlash.
Austin Theory will now be known as Theory.
Finally, after the Usos defeated the Street Profits, that they will take on RK-Bro (at Backlash I would guess) to unify the 2 Tag Team titles. It also sounds like the main championship will be called the WWE unified universal title, or something like that.
NXT 2.0
It appears that after Grimes defeated solo to retain the NXT North American Championship that Carmelo Hayes has his sights set on regaining the title. When that happens will Grimes take it to the moon or willHayes not miss when he takes his shot?
We see that Gacy is continuing to goat Breakker and burn his father’s HOF ring. Gacy seems to change his character a little. Going from a “woke” style of character to more of a cult leader type. I’m actually interested in the transformation and where it’s going.
Von Wagner and Ikemen Jiro had a match and I could care less. Von threw Ikemen into the crowd, but Bam Bam did it better in ECW to Spike Dudley.
We see an escalation in the feud between Nakkita Lyons and Lash Legend. Not sure how this will go, but when Lyons is on the screen, she has my full attention.
Mandy Rose had another successful title defense against Dakota Kai. Toxic Attraction is doing anything they can to keep the gold. Mandy has been getting better than ever since going to NXT. It’s just a matter of time before she goes back to Raw or Smackdown and becomes another Finn Balor.
Finally, the night ended with a NXT Tag Team Championship Gauntlet Match featuring Grayson Waller & Sanga vs Legado Del Fantasma vs the Creed Brothers vs Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen vs Pretty Deadly, who just arrived from NXT-UK. The titles were on the line due to MSK having to vacate the championship. The newly arrived Pretty Deadly picked up the victory when Prince pinned Brutus.
AEW – DYNAMITE
Once again AEW starts the show off with a great match. This week was CM Punk vs Penta Oscuro (spanish for dark). Solid match that saw Punk connect with the GTS for the 1-2-3.
After seeing 2pointO getting taken out on sight by Eddie Kingston, we go back to the ring for an amazing tag team title match between reDRagon and Jurrasic Express. Although Perry got the pin on Fish, RD attacked them from behind with chairs and left until FTR came out and showed off their gold. Will we see FTR vs reDRagon or J.E. ?
Although the brackets for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament hasn’t been formed yet, we do find out that Jamie Hayter will face Toni Storm in the opening round.
I just can’t go a week without saying how much I appreciate MJF
During MJF’s match Wardlow comes out and is attacked by every member of the security staff, but during this MJF is counted out and loses to Shawn Dean again.
Maliki Black has a cryptic message for the AEW
We got the 1st in ring confrontation between Ediie Kingston, Santana & Ortiz vs the JAS which saw Daniel Garcia get the pin on Kingston after Jericho nailed Kingston in the back with a pipe.
We also get MJF to use Wardlow’s contract to set up a match between him and the Butcher for next week.
I’m excited to see when and where Marina Shafir gets her hands on the undefeated Jade Gargill after her quick match against Skye Blue
In what was a great tag team match between Swerve & Keith Lee and Starks & Hobbs, Team Taz picks up the win when Taz gets involved allowing Hobbs to pin Lee. I still can’t get over how big Hobbs is, but when Lee gets in there, you see just how massive Keith Lee really is.
We also see the set up for Thunder Rosa vs Nyla Rose at Battle of the Belts. I’m a huge Thunder Rosa fan, so I’m hoping she retain the championship and keeps it for a long time.
The main event gave us Minoru Suzuki defending is ROH Television title vs Samoa Joe. After 20 minutes of chops, they get things going and give us the best match of the week so far. Joe nails the Muscle Buster and get the 1-2-3 and is the NEW ROH television champion, but the celebration doesn’t last when Satnam Singh attacked him from behind. Satnam was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the 2015 draft.
IMPACT
From the 2300 Arena in Philly, aka the ECW Arena, W. Morrisey comes out and thanks everybody for their support during his hard times and is clean and sober.
The major players get involved and take out Morrisey. The major players consist on Brian Myers, Matt Cardona and Chelsea Green. The one thing that baffles me is that Impact makes no mention that Matt is the NWA Worlds Champion but talk about the digital media champion, which is the oddest title in my opinion.
Deonna Purrazzo has another challenge and is answered by Willow Nightingale. She is fairly new to the scene and has been on Impact, AEW and the 1st ROH ppv after the hiatus. She is young and has a good amount of upside.
Speaking of young, Tasha Steelz will be defending her Knockouts title against Rosemary at Rebellion. I really hope Rosemary wins this, but for some reason Impact pushes Tasha. There has to be something that I don’t see.
Once again ROH Champion Jonathan Greshman gets a win over Rocky Romero. Over the past few years, I haven’t seen a match that he’s been in that I wasn’t entertained. Who else need Gresham vs Danielson very soon?
Impact gave an extremely impressive Josh Alexander promo for his match against Moose at Rebellion for the world title. Moose has been great as champion, but it’s time for Josh to get his comeuppance.
Honor no more came out and gave us some insight into their future and it seems like they are at Impact to stay. I’m really hoping that is true since Impact needs wrestlers like them. Bullet Club comes out and cuts them off leading to mass brawl, which I hope we see BC vs HNM in a 8 man tag in the near future.
WWE – SMACKDOWN
The show starts off with an in-ring showdown between the Usos and RK-Bro. The Usos gave us a 5 star promo during that exchange.
Setting up the WWE Women’s tag team match this coming Monday, Rhea Ripley goes 1 on 1 vs Naomi. Rhea’s power was just too much for Naomi’s athleticism
Drew Gulak is now getting the chance to be a backstage interviewer? I remember how much I loved his cruiserweight classic matches. Very talented. I’m happy to see he still has a job. Maybe Impact, AEW/ROH in his future if it doesn’t work out.
We are now in a post madcap Moss / Happy Corbin era, and Moss started things off right with a win over Humberto, who might have also lost his last name as well.
After running from Drew multiple times, Sami Zayn will now face Mcintyire in a Lumberjack match
We are given another reintroduction promo of Lacey Evans. I love her stories and how they come across. This feels so real, and possibly is. It brings us closer to the wrestler. I love these stories and hope to hear a few more before she comes back to the ring.
Setting up the for the team team unification match at Backlash, Riddle defeated Jimmy Uso. Solid match from both these men.
AEW – Rampage
The real works starts tonight for Wheeler Yuta and he and Danielson & Mox tag against the Gunn Club. and Yuta gets the pinfall over Billy Gunn.
Dustin Rhodes challenges CM Punk to a bucket list match of his for next week on Dynamite. Will he accept? I’m sure he will
It was great to see Ruby Soho back on TV again in a Owen Hart qualifying match against Robyn something??
We get a barn burner in the main event. Texas Death Match Adam Page vs Adam Cole for the AEW world Title. Page wrapped barbed wire around Cole’s head and some people got upset due to something about Christmas.
Great match. These two men have such great matches together.
The Sports Insanity Network 