By Jeff Knapp
In case you didn’t realize, former member of Finnjuice, Juice Robinson aka “The Booster is now a member of Bullet Club and according to an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, he plans on being the Scottie Pippin to Jay White’s Michael Jordan.
This past weekend we had 2 PPVs; on Saturday, Impact gave us Under Siege and on Sunday, the WWE gave us Backlash.
The biggest matches from Under Siege were The Briscoes defeating Violent by Design to become the NEW Impact World Tag Team Champions and in what could be considered a match of the year candidate, The Walking Weapon Josh Alexander retained his Impact World Championship when he defeated NJPW’s Tomohiro Ishii.
WWE’s Backlash gave us 3 follow up matches from Wrestlemania, Rhodes vs Rollins II, Styles vs Edge II and Charlotte vs Ronda II for the Smackdown Women’s Championship. These were all followed up with RK-Bro & Drew McIntyre vs. The Bloodline in the main event.
All 4 of those matches were great from start to finish. Rhodes vs Rollins could be a match of the year contender to go along with their 1st match at Wrestlemania. Charlotte lost her Championship when she tapped out to the armbar through a chair, making Ronda the new SD Women’s Champion.
We also found out that Rhea Ripley has joined Edge’s Judgment Day Faction when she attacked AJ Styles.
It seems like Roman Reigns has signed a new deal with the WWE, but according to reports, he will be working a reduced schedule. I’m guessing that means less house shows, but as long as we still get the Tribal Chief on Raw or Smackdown and PPVs.
It was reported by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, that Ric Flair is training for one more match. Flair is 73 and hasn’t wrestled since 2011 in a losing effort to Sting.
On June 11th, the NWA will present Alwayz Ready, and the updated card looks like this:
NWA Women’s Tag Team Championships: The Hex (c) vs. The Pretty Empowered (Ella Envy and Kenzie Paige)
NWA World Tag Team Championships: La Rebelión (c) vs. Commonwealth Connection (Harry Smith and Doug Williams)
NWA World Television Championship: Tyrus (c) vs. Mims
NWA National Heavyweight Championship: Jax Dane (c) vs. Chris Adonis
NWA World Women’s Championship: Kamille (c) vs. KiLynn King
NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship: Matt Cardona (c) vs. Nick Aldis
WWE – RAW
This week we got a returning Alexa Bliss, who looks like her old self, but still has Lilly the doll with her. She pinned Sonya Deville with a Twisted Bliss splash off the top. It’s always nice to see Alexa, but let’s see how creative and I use that term loosely, handles her return.
Cody Rhodes is back one month and gets a shot at the US Championship? Seth Rollins has other plans and gets involved. Rhodes vs Rollins III ?
RK-Bro is still looking to unify the Tag Titles, but will Roman allow his cousins to put their tag titles up?
It appears that after Backlash, AJ Styles has some backup in the way of Bullet Club founder, Finn Balor. These two former BC members should make this feud Too Sweet
NXT
This week on NXT we saw 2 NXT Women’s Breakout tournament Round 1 matches; Fallon Henley defeated Sloane Jacobs to advance and Nikkita Lyons pinned Arianna Grace (Santino Marella’s daughter) to advance to the next round.
The main event saw Cora Jade pass out (very quickly) to Natalya’s Sharpshooter, and when she woke up 5 seconds later, Natalya shook her hand and gave her a hug. I’m assuming she earned her respect that quickly.
AEW – DYNAMITE
This week we got three Owen Hart Foundation Tournament matches; the 1st one in a great wrestling match, Adam Cole defeated Dax Harwood by submission when he locked in the Sharpshooter on Dax’s bruised ribs, and the 2nd one was the main event match of the evening, when Jeff Hardy defeated Darby Allin. This match had some crazy high spots that looked great, but made my toes curl. The 3rd one was for the women’s tournament when we saw Toni Storm hit Storm Zero on Jamie Hayter for the victory.
At the Wardlow vs MJF contract signing for Double or Nothing, MJF gives Wardlow his conditions. In order to wrestle him, Wardlow must 1st survive 10 lashes, and if he does, then he will face Shawn Spears in a steel cage match, and if he wins that match, then he can wrestle MJF. If Wardlow wins, he is no longer under contract to MJF, but if he loses, then he can never sign a contract with AEW…ever.
The J.A.S. came out for a victory speech, but ended up getting a whooping when the Blackpool Combat Club came out followed by Santana, Ortiz and Eddie Kingston all surrounded the ring and started fighting the JAS.
IMPACT
I have to say that bell to bell, Impact is just as good as many of the other matches you see on other nights on other channels and the opening match between Chris Bey and Kenny King showcased that perfectly.
The Influence continue to hold onto their Impact Women’s World Tag Team Championships by defeating the new duo of Gisele Shaw and Alisha.
It’s announced that on June 19th at the Slammiversary PPV there will be a Queen of the Mountain match for the Impact Women’s Championship. The wrestlers will be Champion Tasha Steelz, Deonna Purrazzo, Chelsea Green, Mia Yim and Jordynne Grace. This will be Tasha’s toughest task to date.
The main event was a Gauntlet for the Gold match to determine the #1 contender and who will face Josh Alexander at Slammiversary. The wrestlers involved were Sabin, Vincent, Steve Maclin, Shelley, Edwards, Shark Boy, Johnny Swinger, Matt Rehwoldt, Moose, the returning Sami Callihan,PCO ,W.Morrissey and the eventual winner and new #1 contender, Eric Young.
WWE – SMACKDOWN
The big news coming out of Smackdown will be that there will be a tag team title unification match next week on Smackdown between RK-Bro and The Usos.
New Smackdown Women’s Champion, Ronda Rousey announced that she will be a fighting champion and will issue an open challenge, which brings out the newest addition to Smackdown, Raquel Rodriguez. Although Raquel lost, she put up one hell of a fight.
AEW – RAMPAGE
In a Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament match, Ruby Soho defeated Riho to advance in the Tournament.
Speaking of the tournament, Tony Schiavone announces that Kris Statlander will be replacing the injured Hikaru Shida against Red Velvet next week on Dynamite in an Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Quarterfinal Match.
In the main event, Scorpio Sky defended his TNT Championship against Frankie Kazarian. Sky nails the TKO and gets the pinfall.
What will happen when Sky faces Guarva again down the road?
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