By Jeff Knapp
WWE has announced that Cody Rhodes will be out 9 months due to his recovery from his pectoral injury and surgery. With the news coming into Hell In A Cell that Cody Rhodes will have surgery for a torn Pectoral muscle after his match with Seth Rollins, it seems like we may not see him again until the Royal Rumble. Some other names that have had the same injury have been out of action for about 5-6 months. With that said, he could stay off until the rumble and be a surprise entrant, or show up a few weeks before and be advertised for ratings as being the 1st entrant in the RR and then going on to win the entire thing.
AEW reveals a new championship, the AEW All Atlantic Championship. There will be a tournament where one wrestler from AEW and one from NJPW will face off to determine the champion at Forbidden Door PPV.
WWE’s Paige announced that July 7th will be her last day under contract to the WWE, and may possibly be back in the ring. Of course she will not be going with the name Paige going forward, but will use her name Saraya.
NXT – IN YOUR HOUSE
After a hard fought 6 man tag, LDF will now have to work for Tony DeAngelo and his crew.
Toxic Attraction keeps improving as a tag team, and GiGi Dolan is mesmerizing. They fought off a great team of Katana Chance & Kayden Carter. These 2 ladies have amazing chemistry and the sky’s the limits with their athleticism.
In what could be a NXT match of the candidate, Carmelo Hayes won back the North American Championship from Cameron Grimes with a lot of help from Trick Williams. I’m hoping this rivalry can take us through SummerSlam weekend. The only big issue I had was the fact that the ref caught Trick Williams multiple times interfering in the match and not calling for a DQ or for Williams to be ejected from ringside. Even if Hayes won without Williams, that would make him look stronger. By not taking control of the side action since Williams was caught multiple times, this makes the ref look incompetent. I’d rather have the same exact outcome, but the ref never saw Trick getting involved.
In Mandy’s 5th NXT Women’s title defense, she had her toughest title defense to date when she defeated Wendy Choo clean after tossing her off the top rope and stacking her up for the win. I’m really enjoying Mandy’s time in NXT and will be sad to see her eventually go back to Raw or Smackdown. Although Roxanne Perez will possibly be the next contender if she can defeat Tiffany Straton on Wednesday, I believe the toughest task for her will be in the form of Nakita Lyons when she returns from injury.
Breezango 2.0 aka Pretty Deadly the NXT Tag Team champions had a very short title reign by losing the tag titles to the Creed Brothers, who had the match of their lives. By winning they are still part of Diamond Mine. I’ll be honest and say that Pretty Deadly was impressive. I guess if they get rid of the half top shirts and tweak their character presentation, they might be a lot more palatable to the rest of the audience.
In the main event Bron Breakker retained his NXT Championship over the resident Jim Jones, Joe Gacy. I actually am entertained by Gacy and for the time being, believe he has a great NXT / WWE career ahead of him. I love how his character has evolved and want to see the product 2, 3 and 4 years from now.
It was crazy seeing a man of Bron’s size doing a leap over the top like he did, and this kid is the future as long as the WWE universe doesn’t feel like he’s being pushed down their throats, like they felt about Roman Reigns.
Overall this was a really solid NXT ppv.
WWE – Hell In A Cell
Going into this weekend of WWE “Premium Live Events” I didn’t see a lot of promise. I’m not sure if it was the over saturation of those events or the lack of buildup to these events. Possibly both.
The WWE started the night off with Bianca Belair taking on Asuka and Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Championship. One of my biggest gripes with women’s matches in the WWE are the amount of time they are given. This wasn’t rushed and gave the women plenty of time to get the audience invested, so that when Becky was on the verge of pinning Asuka, the crowd went nuts when Bianca tossed Becky out of the ring at the last second to pick up the victory and retain her title. This young lady has all the tools to be a hall of famer when she retires many years down the road.
The next match was2 on 1 handicap match between Bobby Lashley and Omos & MVP. MVP’s work previously with Bobby and now with Omos better not go unappreciated among the fans and management. Cedric got involved and helped out Lashley for being disrespected by MVP earlier. He later told Bobby he felt like a misfit toy that nobody wants to play with. If he is ever released, I’m sure there is a home for him at Impact or in ROH. In the end Booby submitted MVP with the Hurt Lock.
The 3rd match was here because Kevin Ownes believes that Ezekiel is actually Elias and is a liar. I’m a huge fan of Owens, but this was not for me. Maybe this will go somewhere, but we’ll see. Owens picks up the victory and still doesn’t get the answer he wants.
We now move on the the 6 person tag of Edge, Damian Priest & Rhea Ripley (Judgement Day) taking on AJ Styles, Finn Balor & Liv Morgan. When you see Edge and AJ in the match, you know the match is going to be an amazing match and this was no different.
I know most people wanted AJ, Finn and Liv to win, but I’m fine with them losing, because they are yet to hit their stride and things will be too sweet then. Will there be a 4th member to either of the factions. I’m waiting for the WWE to give AJ’s group a horrible name. With Styles and Finn there should be a nod to the Bullet Club, just not The Club 2.0
In the end, Edge picks up the pinfall for the Judgment Day’s win.
Madcap Moss vs Happy Corbin was next. I didn’t expect much, but with more time and a few tweeks, Moss can be a name guy in the WWE. He’s young, built and fast. I love the aggression of Moss at the end with him getting revenge in his win over Corbin.
Next is the US Championship match between Theory and Mustafa Ali. Ali has my full backing. He’s great in the ring and as somebody who follows him on social media, he’s a better human being. As far as Theory goes, there is no denying his talent. He doesn’t have Cena’s size, but he’s starting to get that type of push and you know he’s got VKM behind him every step of the way.
In the end, Theory nails a chop block on an already injured knee, followed by A Town Down for the pinfall.
Now onto the main event, Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins part 3 in Hell in a Cell. Rollins with the Dusty polka dots outfit to get un Cody’s skin. Speaking of Skin, Cody’s full upper right side torso is completely purple from having his peck torn off the bone and still competing. I can’t imagine the level of pain he was in during this match. I just hope that he doesn’t injure himself worse.
After rewatching the match, I 100% believe Corey Graves made a Fruedian slip and said the name Tony Khan.
I honestly wanted this match to be stopped because I felt for Cody like I did as was a kid again.
In the end Cody beats all the obstacles, connects with 2 consecutive Crossroads then gets the sledgehammer and nails Rollins with it and gets the 1-2-3. This match alone was worth watching this PPV / Premium Live Event.
WWE – RAW
Raw started off with a match between Dana Brooke and Becky Lynch, but when catering came out to the ring, it turned into a 24/7 match in which Dana won the title back. This led to Becky challenging for the championship in which she lost due to Asuka interfering. The only way to win this title, which is nothing without R-Truth, is to pin your opponent with a roll up from behind. I’ve never seen it change hands any other way. Can they think of another way?
Cody Rhodes comes out and talks about his injury and is interrupted by Seth Rollins who shakes his hand, but as Cody leaves, Rollins attacks him from behind with a sledgehammer to his torn pectoral muscle. Let’s hope Cody will be back by the Royal Rumble.
The Street Profits are now the #1 contenders to the WWE Tag Team Titles, when they beat the Usos via count out. When the titles are on the line, this should actually be a really entertaining match.
Dominik Mysterio lost to Veer Mahaan when Rey interfered. Veer should be part of Max Dupree’s modeling stable. With that being said, I absolutely could care less about Rey or Dominik Mysterio. I’m not talking about what he can or can’t do in the ring, but he’s as entertaining as watching paint dry and grass grow. If he wants to stand on his own, send him to NXT and do something with the younger Uso or some of the younger talent.
Cedric Alexander was squashed within seconds by Omos. On the bright side, his wife announced on Twitter that she was going to rock his world when he got home. This is sad since Cedric is an amazing talent and would benefit from NXT.
Judgement Day come out and announce they have a new member joining the group. To the surprise of a few, it ends up being Finn Balor. As they talk about dominating and what could hurt them, Finn, Rhea and Damian all shock the entire crowd and even surprise me by turning on Edge. They beat him down, put him through a table and put him in a submission hold until they stand tall above him and leave him for dead.
I’m now very interested in where this goes? Will Edge align with Styles? If so, will Edge turn on him in a long game plot to take him out once and for all? Will he go his own way and form a new faction to battle Judgment Day? If done correctly, this could be one of the best WWE storylines of 2022.
In the main event, Rhea Ripley pinned Doudrop in a fatal four-way to become the #1 contender to Biance Belair’s Raw’s Women’s championship.
NXT
In what was the best thing going in the WWE universe, NXT has become the complete opposite. There are great people in NXT and I just wish those in charge could pick the 4-6 men and women to build around.
They keep pushing Van Horrible down our throats and it’s terrible.
The Nathan Frazer and Santos Escobar match was pretty good until the rest of the D’Angelo family interfered. This whole joining his family idea is terrible and I don’t see where this is going until they finally have a match between Tony and Santos in order for LDF to be free again.
Congratulations to Roxanne Perez in winning the Inaugural NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament. I assumed they were going with Tiffany Straton just because.
The biggest surprise of the night was the return of Apollo Crews, who came back not only to deal with unfinished business, but he returned without his Nigerian accent.
He reminded us just how good he is by teaming with Solo Sikoa to face Carmelo Hayes & Grayson Waller.
We found out that next week Joe Gacy’s minions, the Dyad will have their in ring debut. Blade & Enofe’ will challenge the Creed Brothers for the NXT tag team titles and finally Indi Hartwell, Cora Jade & Roxanne Perez will face Toxic Attraction.
AEW – DYNAMITE
I never get tired of saying that AEW started off the show like a ball of fire. Thank goodness I’m not tired of it because once again they did by having a battle royal with the winner set to face Jon Moxley in the Main Event.
The participants include Darby Allin, Daniel Garcia, Eddie Kingston, Tony Nese, and Lance Archer. Ricky Starks, Rey Fenix, Swerve Strickland, Jake Hager,Keith Lee, John Silver, Konosuke Takeshita, Max Caster, Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn,Powerhouse Hobbs, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, Dante Martin, Wheeler Yuta and finally Andrade El Idolo.
In the end Kyle O’Reilly eliminated Wheeler Yuta to advance to the main event.
AEW will debut a new championship at Forbidden Door called the All Atlantic Championship where one member of AEW and NJPW will face off to become the inaugural champion.
To start off the tournament, PAC defeated Buddy Matthews in the opening round.
There is an in ring segment between Trent Baretta and FTR. Trent is looking to compete against FTR for the ROH Tag Titles. As they are talking out comes NJPW superstar Will Ospreay. This leads to the rest of the United Empire coming out and taking out Trent and FTR. I’m guessing this will lead to a match at Forbidden Door, but personally, I’d rather see FTR defend their ROH titles against a top NJPW team.
Wardlow makes it known that until CM Punk returns from his injury that he will set his sights on the AEW TNT Championship, currently held by Scorpio Sky. As a fan of Scorpio Sky, there is no way Wardlow isn’t TNT champion before the end of the year.
We also find out that Christian put the current AEW Tag Team champions, The Jurassic Express in a match next week with the titles on the line in a ladder match against the Young Bucks and The Hardys. This will be an amazing match and will either open the show or will be the main event, but I have this odd feeling that there will be some rift between the J.E. and Christian somewhere soon down the road.
AEW Women’s Champion, Thunder Rosa offers up an open challenge to anyone in the back. The challenge is answered by Marina Shafir, who ended up having a hard hitting but early on awkward match. At the end Thunder Rosa solved “The Problem” only to be attacked from behind until Toni Storm makes the save.
Kris Statlander vs. Red Velvet is announced for AEW Rampage. I’m really hoping to see Kris take this one, but with Jade Cardgill and Kiera Hogan possibly ringside, I’m not sure if this will happen.
In the Main Event Jon Moxley battled Kyle O’Reilly to advance in the AEW Interm World Title tournament. After both going back and forth, Mox finally took out Kyle with a Paradigm Shift.
At Forbidden Door, Moxley will now face the winner of the qualifying match that will happen at NJPW Dominion between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Hirooki Goto.
IMPACT
There are times I can really get on Impact for what they do wrong or what doesn’t make any sense but one thing they do I love is something that AEW does and that’s start each week off with a match. This week was no different as they give us Rosemary vs Tenille Dashwood.
Rosemary picked up the pinfall victory but was attacked from behind from Madison Rayne until Taya Valkyrie.
One thing they did after coming eye to eye was have a stare down, look at the crowd and then back at each other. Just handle your business, don’t ask us what to do in that moment.
The Good Brothers show up in Sandy Fork, Delaware on the Briscoe chicken farm. I was amused with the reference to uncle Allen on a tractor. For those who may not know, they were talking about AJ Styles during their match at Wrestlemania against the Undertaker.
They went to the wrong damn farm #Demboys
Leading up to Joash Alexander vs Eric Young match at Slammiversary, VBD’s Joe Doring takes on Impact World Champion Josh Alexander. Josh was eventually disqualified when he used VBD’s flag on Doring.
The main event of the evening will see Eddie Edwards, Mike Bennett and Matt Taven vs Frankie Kazarian and the Motor City Machine Guns.
This was a great match but eventually things broke down and Heath ran down to the ring to get some revenge for the brutal attack on Rhino from HNM.
HNM eventually got the upper hand and took out Heath’s leg. He has kids and they don’t even care.
I can’t say it’s a better show than what I see on Monday, Wednesday or Fridays, but this might actually put NXT in last place between all 5 shows.
WWE – Smackdown
Taking a cue from Impact and AEW, Smackdown started the show off tonight with the 296th meeting between Drew McIntyre and Sheamus. Just like the others, these 2 men put on a physical and hard hitting match. Now, this was supposed to be a MITB qualifying match, and although Butch got involved and didn’t cause a DQ in favor of Drew somehow, both men got counted out after brawling on the outside.
What will happen to that spot? Will Adam Pearce do right by Drew or put both men in the match?
The returning Lacey Evans had her 1st match back in over a year and took out Xia Li with her “Woman’s Right” for the victory and will now be in the Women’s MITB match. I love the change in character and I’m genuinely interested in where her character goes. They have an opportunity with her background to do some great things.
In his 5th televised IC championship match, Ricochet lost his IC Title to Gunther. The champion put up one hell of a fight, but Gunther surprised Ricochet with a shotgun drop kick of his own and then was nailed with a powerbomb for the 1-2-3. Congratulations to Gunther. I’m hoping that Ricochet gets his rematch soon than later, because this match up shouldn’t be a one and done.
In the main event we saw Riddle face Sami Zayn with a lot on the line. If Sami won, then Riddle was barred from Smackdown (and presumably going to Raw) but if Riddle won, then he gets a title shot next week against Roman Reigns on Smackdown.
In a gem of an ending, Riddle was in the corner and as Sami was charging for a Helluva Kick, Riddle hit Orton’s RKO out of…nowhere and picked up the win and title opportunity against Roman next week.
AEW – RAMPAGE
This week AEW starts off with a match pinning Jake Hagger vs Eddie Kingston. It’s hard to find many wrestlers in all of wrestling who have the crowd support and love that Eddie Kingston gets. After a long physical match Eddie pick up the pinfall after connecting with 2 spinning back fists.
Jay Lethal and Satnam Singh are in tag action against 2 “enhancement wrestlers” who are no match for the monstrous Satnam Singh. He is more or less AEW’s version of Omos but seems a bit more athletic. The was Singh’s in ring debut and with Lethal by his side, things looked pretty good. This was a great idea to put him with a vet like Lethal, just like when the WWE put Omos with Styles.
After checking in on Hookhausen, wo are treated to a match that I didn’t see much coming out of. We got Kris Statlander vs Red Velvet. I thought that Kris’s power was going to be too much for Red Velvet to overcome and although Velvet eventually lost, she showed the world just how much she has gotten better since her arrival in AEW. She used her speed to overcome some strength differences between her and Kris and nailed a well placed double knee against the ropes that should have ended Kris, but the resilience is strong and Kris finally picked up the win.
The main event had the best tag team in all of wrestling FTR partnered with Trent Baretta to face NJPW’s United Empire which consisted of Will Ospreay, and the tag team of Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis). This was my 1st time seeing Aussie Open wrestle and I was really impressed. Hard hitting and fast were these two, but when you’re in the ring with FTR, you have your work cut out for you.
In the end with most of everyone outside, Trent connects with his Strong Zero on Kyle Fletcher for the pinfall victory.
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