First off, I’d like to send my condolences to the family of long time WWF/WWE referee Tim White. From what I’ve read he was very well respected and loved by the wrestlers. I had the opportunity to meet him many years ago at a signing along with Eddie Guerrero and Chavo Guerrero Jr. All 3 men were extremely nice.

Former NXT wrestler, KUSHIDA returned to NJPW at the New Japan Road event and confronted IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and Bullet Club member Taiji Ishimori. If he goes against Bullet Club, I hope he has back up.

Tomohiro Ishii is injured and will not be able to wrestle at Forbidden Door for the  AEW All Atlantic Championship.  

It appears that Triple H is back working with NXT. This is very exciting since NXT hasn’t been as good without him there.

This Sunday is the AEW / NJPW Forbidden Door PPV and below are the scheduled matches:

Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Jay White (c) vs. Hangman Adam Page vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Adam Cole

AEW All-Atlantic Championship (Four-Way Match) Pac vs. Miro vs. Malakai Black vs. Clark Connors

IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Orange Cassidy

AEW Women’s World Championship: Thunder Rosa (c) vs. Toni Storm

Winner Takes All for the ROH World Tag Team Championship and IWGP Tag Team Championships: FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) (ROH) vs. United Empire (Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb) (IWGP) vs. Roppongi Vice (Trent Beretta and Rocky Romero)

Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara and Minoru Suzuki vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta and Shota Umino

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Bryan Danielson’s mystery opponent

Bullet Club (Young Bucks, Hikuleo & El Phantasmo) vs Darby Allin, Sting, Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi

Impact – Slammiversary

This past Sunday, Impact had another solid ppv, with Slammiversary in Nashville back where they held their 1^st show back in 2002. I was lucky enough to be at one of those original ppvs when they were with the NWA.

They started the show of with Rich Swann vs Brian Myers. Solid match, and Rich is always putting on a great performance, but I’m just having trouble with a digital media championship. I’m guessing it’s their version of a TV title, but I’m not a fan of the concept.

Slammiversary was a big night for title changes, as we saw Taya & Rosemary become the new Knockouts tag team Champions, Jordynne Grace became the new Knockouts champion in a great Queen of the Mountain match, just as Tasha Steelz was gaining momentum as champion. It should be noted that I do see Jordynne remaining champion for quite some time.

We also saw The Good Brothers defeat the Briscoes to become new Impact Tag Team Champions and finally Mike Bailey is the new X-Division Champion. Congratulations to all the new Champions.

We also saw the return of Dixie Carter, Earl Hebner and Goldilocks, who was a backstage interviewer at one-point years ago. I wish they brought back Lollipop. Now currently, I’m not sure if the gimmick they used for her would go over today, but she was something else.

The Impact originals defeated Team HNM when Sabin pinned PCO. Once again, a great match, and these men and women keep delivering when the lights are bright. I just wish they could garner a crowd that was at least what we saw when they 1^st started. I was a little befuddled on why they chose Davey Richards as an Impact Original. He’s a great wrestler, but I was hoping for somebody that was there during the weekly NWA-TNA days. Possibly Elix Skipper or Monty Brown?

Moving onto the main event, we saw yet another amazing match from Josh Alexander. I can’t remember the last bad match this guy had, and he had it with Eric Young, who is a veteran in every sense of the word. I’ve been with EY since his team Canada days, and throughout his evolution as a character. I love the crazy EY. He is criminally under rated in the ring and on the mic.

WWE – RAW

It appears that Rhea Ripley will not be cleared to compete at MITB, so the WWE had another 5-way watch to see who will get an opportunity at becoming the champion. The crowd was none to happy to see Carmella pick up the victory, but she was in the right place at the right time. It wasn’t her fault everybody else was outside the ring when she connected with a kick to Liv Morgan. Liv is on the cusp and will get over that mountain one day.

When things couldn’t get worse for Riddle when he was defeated by Roman last Friday, he then lost his MITB qualifying match to Omos, who will be one of the favorites to win that match (He may not need the ladder) but after the match he was attacked by Seth Rollins. Will the WWE universe see Seth vs Riddle at Summer Slam?

Is there anything Booby Lashley won’t do to get his hands on Theory and his US Title? After blinding Theory with water in the eyes, Bobby accepted a gauntlet match where if he defeats all 3 opponents, he gets a title shot at MITB. He plowed through Gable, Otis and then Theory himself to gain his shot at the championship. Theory could very well be the future, but right now the Almighty is here.

We’re seeing Ciampa randomly attacking people and picking up victories here and there, and Raw was no different when he attacked and then later lost his match to AJ Styles. Great match, but what is Ciampa doing? Is he trying to prove something?

I just have to say that I wasn’t that excited about the whole Ezekial thing, but with Kevin Owens involved this has taken a course to gold. I love everything that Owens gets his hands into.

Finally in the main event, Asuka defeated Becky Lynch in a MITB qualifying match after Becky complained to Adam Pierce earlier in the evening about being screwed over in her previous matches. MITB is 2 weeks away and there are a few spots left. Will she qualify in time or be left out and have to take a different path back to the Raw Women’s championship?

We also had another Mr. McMahon siting and this time he came to the ring and announced that John Cena will be back next week on Raw.

NXT

NXT started off with a match between the young Uso, Solo Sikoa and Grayson Waller. It’s just a matter of time when we see these 2 men make their way over to Raw or Smackdown. I’m sure Solo will be involved with the Bloodline story at some point and Waller, who I wasn’t high on earlier, has shown his athleticism and his amazing ability to annoy the hell out of you. He will be a heel when he arrives on Monday or Friday nights.

We got women’s tag team action pitting the team of Katana Chance & Kayden Carter against the young team of Yulissa Leon & Valentina Feroz. If given the chance, Leon & Feroz can improve, but the teamwork of Chance and Carter are impossible to deny, and I see them as the future NXT women’s tag team champions.

Before I get to the main event, we were subjected to matches that I just couldn’t get into, Lash Legend and Ven Wagner. I had higher hopes for the Cameron Grimes vs Edris Enofé but they were not given enough time to build to anything. It does appear that we are heading to Grimes facing Bron Breakker at some point.

The good news is that Nikkita Lyons is returning next week, and all eyes will be on her and how she wrestles after the injury.

The main event had generic Italian Tony Mamaluke or whatever his name is facing one of the top young wrestlers in NXT, Carmelo Hayes.

They have this story line that LDF had to join the mamalukes since they lost the 6-man tag match. Tony was all excited to have new underlings and now does everything in his power to undermine everything he’s accomplished. I just don’t understand the thought process.

The next thing I don’t get is that last week the crowd is all hyped by the return of Apollo Crews and what happens this week, there is a vignette where he is some avenging angel or something? Did the writers just watch Death Wish and want a watered-down version?

I’m still trying to figure out who in the WWE, besides Vince thinks this version of NXT is better than the previous version. This is just a cut above the 2011-2013 version of NXT.

AEW – DYNAMITE

This was the “go home” show for the Forbidden Door PPV.

The show started off on a sad note when Bryan Danielson came out and revealed that due to injury, he won’t be able to wrestle at the PPV or at Blood and Guts the following Wednesday but stated that he found the one person he can trust to be as technical and can beat Zack Sabre Jr. at the PPV. My money is on Claudio Castagnoli (FKA Cesaro) and some people are betting on Johnny Wrestling to show up. Either way, I couldn’t think of a better replacement than either one of those men.

Christian Cage came out and cut a promo of the year award winning type promo. He answers the reason that he turned on Jungle Boy Jack Perry. It all stems from the fact that JB eliminated Christian in a title tournament when he 1^st arrived. He talks about being a father figure and that it’s better than JB’s dad is dead, so he won’t see what he’s become. This brings out Luchasaurus who starts to choke Cage but is finally calmed down enough to talk in the back. This was a great promo that people should watch over again.

The Young Bucks say that at Forbidden Door they will rejoin the Bullet Club for one night and will take on Darby Allin, Sting and their team.

In the last qualifying match for the AEW All Atlantic Championship, Malakai Black narrowly defeated Penta Oscuro and will move onto Forbidden Door.

Hangman Adam Page defeated the debuting Silas Young but was then attacked by Jay White and Adam Cole until Okada came out to a huge pop to make the save.

In the main event, Jon Moxley & Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Chris Jericho & Lance Archer and after the match all hell broke loose as Eddie Kingston, Ortiz, Suzuki and others all came down to the ring as Mox and Tanahashi stood eye to eye in the ring.

IMPACT

Honor No More came out to talk about how they never really lost at Slamaversary Because of Tracy Brooks attacking Maria Kanellis, Eral Hebner counting the 3 and not being the official referee and so on.

This brings out one of the great tag teams in TNA/Impact history, America’s Most Wanted. They come out and trash talk, which leads to the Good Brothers and the Briscoes all fighting HNM.

In a less than desirable match Bhupinder Gujjar & Shark Boy defeated Johnny Swinger & Zicky Dice. I honestly have high hopes for Bhupinder in Impact, but I’d pull a Vince McMahon and either change his name or drop his 1^st name. It’s more palatable to the American audience, easier to announce and he isn’t losing his Indian name. Shark Boy used to be thin, now his stomach is hanging out over his tights. It looks sloppy. It looks like I put the wrestling gear on. You don’t want to see that.

We find out that Josh Alexander will defend his Impact Championship at the next PPV against Joe Doering, but until then he will face Deaner in a match that should have been the main event.

We also find out that Tasha Steelz will receive her Knockouts Championship rematch against Jordynne Grace at Against All Odds

Now I’m not sure if this will happen at the PPV, but Sami Callihan informs Gail Kim that he wants to face Moose one last time in Raven’s Clockwork Orange House of Fun match. I’m guessing this will be at Against All Odds, butyou never know with Impact.

In the Main event Honor No More (Eddie Edwards, Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) w/ Maria Kanellis vs The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) & James Storm

Taven and Bennett hit the Broton Pack on Mark for the 1-2-3 and then the rest of HNM come down and assault the Briscoes and Storm and eventually smash Mark’s leg in a chair as the Good Brothers try to make the save.

The thing about Impact is that with some of the talent there like the Good Brothers, the Briscoes, Josh Alexander for instance, they just can’t seem to pull in a respectable size audience for a TV taping. This was in Nashville and when I was there during the TNA weekly PPV days, they would give away tickets to fill it in just before the show started. They need to fill in the crowd to at least the size ECW would get in Queens or Philly.

WWE- SMACKDOWN

Another Smackdown without the Tribal Chief, but until he returns, “Honorary Bloodline Member” Sami Zayn took on and defeated Shinsuke Nakamura in a MITB qualifying match. 

Speaking of MITB, Adam Pierce, with a little pressure from Paul Heyman and upper WWE management that he had to inform Drew and Sheamus that due to the fact that neither man lost or won their qualifying match last week that neither man will be in MITB UNLESS they can put their differences aside and team up to fight the Usos. If they win, then they’re in. 

The 2 UK brutes did what needed to be done and with one Claymore kick, they both have officially advanced to MITB.

Speaking of MITB, there was a women’s qualifying match with Tamina vs Shotzi (Alyiah was supposed to be in the match, but due to injury Shotzi took her place). After nearly getting pinned, Shotzi connects with her Never Wake Up finisher and secures the 6th out of 7 spots in the women’s MITB match.

There was a heated promo between Ronda and Natalyia where Ronda talks about Natalyia’s choice of leaving less to the imagination online and her having some type of plastic surgery. 

After a 2 on 1 handicap match between Sonya and the team of Lacey Evans & Raquel Rodriguez, Sonya falls victim to Lacey’s Women’s Right finisher. Now we can see that Sonya does have some backup in the form of Xia Li and Shayna Baszler which could make a great women’s heel stable if given the chance.

AEW – RAMPAGE

This is it, the final AEW show before Forbidden Door, and they stated things out  with 2 men that won’t be wrestling at that show, Rey Fenix vs Andrade El Idolo.

This was an amazing hard hitting match that say Rey take some high risk chances that had my toes curl with anxiety. After Andrade’s  compañero, and former ROH World Champion RUSH (pronounced more like rooosh) joined in and hit a low blow, Andrade picked up the pinfall after hitting his hammerlock DDT. 

The newly formed Tully Blanchard Enterprises consisting of “The Machine” Brian Cage, Toa and Kaun challenge ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham & Lee Moriarty to a match.

In the Main event FTR’s Cash Wheeler took on The United Empire’s Jeff Cobb. It appeared that Cobb’s size was a bit much for Cash as he fell victim to Cobb’s Tour of the Islands finisher. After the match all hell broke loose again as a giant brawl between Dax Harwood, Great O-Khan, Will Ospreay, Orange Cassidy, and Roppongi Vice ensued. During the bedlam, Eddie Kingston attacked Chris Jericho who was at the announce table.

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.