By Jeff Knapp
Tony Khan’s Big Announcement on Wednesday during Dynamite, to me was the biggest story of the week. Although Tony and the NJPW’s President, Takami Ohbari were out there to make the announcement, Adam Cole interrupted and made the announcement for them.
On June 26, 2022, AEW and NJPW will co-promote a show named “The Forbidden Door.” This brings out the current leader of the Bullet Club leader, “Switchblade” Jay White who boasts about selling out Madison Square Garden by himself and that the Bullet Club is ready for a new era.
Speaking of AEW, Tony Khan mentioned that the upcoming AEW video game coming to Playstation and Xbox will be called AEW: Fight Forever
It appears that Kushida is no longer with NXT & WWE. No word on the reason, but his pushed came to a stop once NXT transitioned to 2.0
Jack Evan’s AEW contract is set to expire at the end of April and all signs point to the fact that he will not be re-signed. He formed a fun and excited tag team with Angelico back as far as Lucha Underground. Best of luck to Jack
Lately there has been some IWC uproar over the name changes to current roster member, including Pete Dunne to Butch, Raquel Gonzalez to Raquel Rodriguez, Austin Theory to Theory and WALTER to Gunther. It looks like VKM sent out a memo stating that he doesn’t want talent using their real names or using the names that they used in the indies. With that said, Walter, Austin, Pete and Gonzalez were all their real names. This rule isn’t enforced entirely, with the likes of Brock, Rhonda, Randy and Cody for instance. We will see about Gable Steveson.
Speaking of name changes, Kacy Catanzaro will now be known as Katana Chance I’m guessing for the reason above.
D’Lo Brown made a hysterical comment this week saying, “From the Knockouts World Champ to even people we bring in to get looked at, the absolute talent level that we have in that Knockouts division is better than any out there.” “They’re all willing to go out there and prove they’re the best and help each other become the best. So that’s what I mean. It’s awesome.”
“I mean, you can put their names in a hat, pick two of them, and they’re going to have a great match. You can’t do that anywhere else in the world with a woman’s division. So, I think top to bottom, just talent describes everyone, and that’s what makes us far superior, and they all want to be the best.”
No offense to the women of Impact, but the depth of the roster isn’t deep at all.
This weekend is the Impact Rebellion PPV and with some of the shortcomings of Impact, the Main Event of the show should be a really great one. Josh Alexander will face Moose for the World title in what is one of the best long-standing feuds in all of pro wrestling.
WWE – RAW
This week we saw the wedding of Akira Tozawa to Tamina and Dana Brooke to Reggie. Thankfully R-Truth was there to save the segment.
We also witnessed Rhea Ripley turning on Liv Morgan after Liv gets pinned in a tag match against Sasha and Naomi,
Austin Theory, now just going by Theory, won the WWE United States Championship when he pinned Finn Balor and the main event saw Cody get a count out win over Kevin Owen when he walked out after Seth Rollins called him fat.
NXT
Former ROH Women’s Champion Roc-C made here debut at Roxanne Perez and defeated Jacy Jayne of Toxic Attraction when Wendy Choo distracted Jacy
In the main event, Pretty Deadly retained their NXT Tag Team Titles when they defeated Dexter Lumis & Duke Hudson.
It also appears that Tony D’Angelo has wise guys joining his new stable. No name yet, but what about the gabagools?
AEW – DYNAMITE
CM Punk continues his undefeated streak continue by defeating Dustin Rhodes
Wheeler Yuta tags for the 1st time with Moxley and Danielson and pick up a victory over Lee Moriarty, Brock Anderson and Dante Martin. Yuta is on his way. I was impressed with him when I 1st saw him a while back in MLW
We witness Kyle O’Reilly qualify for the Owen Hart Foundation Tournament when he defeated Jungle Boy Jack Perry
Hook made his Dynamite debut and finished off Anthony Henry in quick fashion
Danhausen requests a match with Hook when his curses have no effect on him. Funny stuff
Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Qualifier
Britt Baker qualifies for the Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament when she submits Danielle Kamela quickly
IMPACT
This is the go home show for the upcoming Impact PPV, Rebellion in Poughkeepise, NY.
This week’s show was at the 2300 Arena in Philly, but known to older guys like me, as the ECW Arena, and speaking of ECW, Little Guido and Tony Mamaluke made an appearance against the Major Players, Cardona, Myers and Greene. The FBI get attacked, but W. Morrisey and Jordynne Grace make the save.
In what was a 1st for Impact, we had an 8-man tag between the Bullet Club (Good Brothers, Chris Bey and “Switchblade” Jay White) and Honor No More (Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, Vincent and Kenny King) in which Bennett fell victim to the Magic Killer.
WWE – SMACKDOWN
There was a contract signing for the “I Quit” match for the Smackdown Women’s Championship between Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey which, like all contract signings ends in bedlam.
Pete Dunne, I mean Butch continues to lose his cool, this time after a loss to King Woods.
In leading up the tag title unification match at Backlash, Jey Uso loses to Riddle, which doesn’t sit well with Roman Reigns.
Angel Garza is another wrestler who loses his name and is just Angel, and not only loses his name, but he also loses to Madcap Moss, who looks like they are starting to give a push to, and to an eventual match against Corbin
Sami Zayn was about to face Drew in a Lumberjack match, but runs away. He doesn’t get too far when WWE official Adam Pierce announces that they will wrestle in a steel cage next week.
AEW – RAMPAGE
In an Owen Hart Foundation Tournament qualifying match Adam Cole defeated NJPW’s Tomohiro Ishii after some distraction from “Switchblade” Jay White.
Danhausen gets Hook’s attention, while Danhausen tries to pass as a vendor salesman
In the main event the 29-0 TBS Women’s Champion, Jade Cargill retained her championship in her hardest matchup to date when she defeated Marina Shafir to go to 30-0.
Will Marina get a rematch sooner rather than later? Who will be the one to humble the champion? Could Jade go undefeated in 2022?
The Sports Insanity Network 