Thoughts on AEW Full Gear

This review is a bit late, better late than never. But AEW recently held its Full Gear event, which was a fantastic show.

The buy in match was an unusual one. Simply because the window to the show proper was an NWA women's title match with Serena Deeb defending against Alison Kay, it was a decent opener with Deeb coming out on top only to be confronted by Thunder Rosa at the end who recently lost the title to Deeb. Whilst this all centred on the NWA Women's championship it does suggest that all three of them are not done with AEW yet, and perhaps a deepening of a working relationship between AEW and NWA.

Those show proper opened with a bang. The tournament final for the #1 contednership of the AEW World championship. Kenny Omega vs. Adam Page.

This match could have easily main evented the card and did not fail to deliver. A real back and forth of equals with a fantastic ending. Both were still in the fight Page was desperately attempting to counter Omega's One Winged Angel, however as soon as it was hit, the match was over. Great in so many ways. Omega, was the right person to win, Page was kept strong and needs to be, he is positioned as the future of AEW and also the One Winged Angel is still that most rare thing in wrestling. A protected finisher.

Next up we saw the Dark Order's John Silver taking on Orange Cassidy. Silver is absolutely gold as a personality, this his by far his biggest singles match to date so it is interesting to see what he can do. This was the match i didn't realise I wanted. The match started off playing on the comedy strength of both competitors and was brilliant but when the match got going, it got going and both could really go, a fantastic match over all with Cassidy coming out with the win. 

Next up Cody Rhodes defended the TNT championship against Darby Allin. It was a fantastic match with an old school mentality to the match, Cody just keeps getting better an better as a character and in ring worker. In a very solid match up a very surprising victory for Darby Allin and  Cody graciously handed over the title to a very emotional Allin. 

This led to Taz coming out to cut a promo on both before Brian Cage and Ricky Starks attacked both from behind. A great use of two top performers who did not feature on the card. Setting up a future angle.

Next up was the AEW World women's championship match with Hikaru Shida defending against Nyla Rose. A solid match with Shida coming out victorious, disappointing simply because I believe that Nyla Rose should completely dominate the division for a long time.

The tag team championship match was up next with FTR defending against the Young Bucks with the stipulation that if the Young Bucks do not win they will never challenge for the tag titles again. This is not the same as when Cody won did the same, there is no likely to be a secondary tag title so I cannot see them loosing, likely to be a count out of disqualification win as I don't see them picking up the titles either. 

This was a great show case of tag team wrestling throughout. A great match with the urgency of the stakes showing through. Battling through injury the Young Bucks picked up the victory in dramatic fashion, there will clearly be a further match between the bucks and FTR and this is not a bad thing at all.

Next up was a cinematic match involving the originator of the cinematic match. Matt Hardy vs Sammy Guevara in an Elite Deletion match. Cinematic matches are obviously very different. This one did not fail to deliver, with cameos from Private Party, Santana and Ortiz, Hurricane Helms and Gangrel. The closing moments had references to recent botches, Sammy went through a table and cut the back off his head, then Hardy to him in the face with a chair a reverse of what had happened recently. A great addition to the cinematic match catalogue.

Next up was Jericho vs MJF for the rights to join the Inner Circle. This had to end in a win for MJF it is the only logical ending with MJF joining the Inner Circle to see what happens next. There was an ingenious finish, Jericho caught using a baseball bat, though he didn't and actually was setup by MJF who then used the distraction to role Jericho up for the win, which was the perfect finish for this match.

Jericho then announced that both MJF and Wardlow had joined the Inner Circle. It was disappointing to see Wardlow join as well, I thought it would have been better for MJF TO Beat him down along with Jericho and Hager and for him to subsequently break out on his own, maybe they are playing to long game with this one though.

Now it was time for the main event. Jon Moxley defending the AEW World championship against Eddie Kingston. Kingston is a veteran who up until now has not had a run in a major promotion befitting his talents. With this taking place as as no dq submission match and knowing the history of both in such stipulations I was looking forward to this match. Brutal is the only word you could use to describe this hard-core affair. It ended when Kingston quit whilst in a choke hold utilising barbed wired. This raised both competitors, Morley has not been top dog as champion and Kingston relatively new to the promotion  both had their stocks raised by the end of the night.

Overall a fantastic show, I think it really is a question of quality over quantity. AEW only have 4 ppvs per year and as a result they can build storyline and put everything into them. A great show for sure.

Thoughts on NJPW Power Struggle

Recently NJPW held its Power Struggle event on the 7th November.

The first match up saw 'provisional champion' for the KOPW 2020 Toru Yank defend against Zack Sabre Jr. The KOPW is an interesting concept as it features non-standard matches which generally do not feature in NJPW, however rather than it being a division where we would see things like ladder matches, table matches or cage matches, we instead get some weird and minor stipulations. This match bring no exception, being contested as a 'no corner pads' match. This could have been a very interesting stipulation, though it did not really come into play.

The match itself highlighted the technical style of Zack and the comedy styling of Yano equally and was a very decent opener match, in the end Toru Yano picked up the victory after tying ZSJ's shoe laces together around the guide rail after he had Yano in a leg lock around the rail.

The second match up was Shingo Takagi challenging Minoru Suzuki for the NEVER openweight championship. We have seen this particular match up several times recently. A hard hitting strong style affair, this time with Takagi coming out on top as the new NEVER openweight champion.

The third match up on the card saw Obama take in the Great O Khan, a match really as a placeholder toward Obama vs Osprey. Which was set up for Wrestle Kingdom after the match. The match itself was OK, there is not a lot more to say about it other than that. Okada took the victory.

Next up was Kenta defending his briefcase for a shot at the IWGP United States championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi. A solid match with Kenya coming out of top retaining the title shot. The only question really is when will the title shot be? John Morley is unlikely to travel to Japan anytime soon to defend the title, hopefully at Wrestle Kingdom, but with travel restrictions still likely to be in effect it is unlikely.

In the semi main event, in another defence of a briefcase, Kota Ibushi defended his shot at the IWGP heavyweight championship. For the first time in history the briefcase changed hands. A completely unexpected twist i was absolutely convinced that this would have been an Ibushi retention!

In the main event Tetsyu Naito defended both IWGP heavyweight and intercontinental championship against Evil, to determine who the other participant would be in the Wrestle Kingdom 15 main event.

Thoughts of WWE Hell in a Cell

Recently WWE Hell in a Cell took place, with several high profile cell matches in the card it was
definitely one to watch.

The pre-show match up saw R-Truth take on Drew Gulak, R-Truth's gimmick and possession of the 24/7 championship has become very stale, though in ring he can still go and the match itself was decent. The only downside to it was the R-Truth retained the title and then fled the ring as everyone chased him down for the 24/7 championship.

The first match on the main card was a surprising match up. I had assumed that Roman Reigns vs Jay USA would have been the main event. The first ever Hell in a Cell I quit match. For the Universal Championship and the rights to be the 'tribal chief'. Annoyingly it was the red version of the cell in use tonight.

A hard hitting brutal match, this time around Us got a lot more offense in that their last encounter whilst still dominated by Reigns. There was an interested finish where Jimmy Uso came to the bring to plead for mercy and when Reigns turned on him, this is where Jay Uso quit, to save his twin brother not himself. It seems like as they have to follow Reigns as the tribal chief we are now set for a new Heel faction.

Next up was Elias vs Jeff Hardy in a regular match. A  nonsensical story line if ever there was one. Ella's blames Hardy for running him over, but in his absence it had been proved that Hardy had been setup by Sheamus, so why isn't Ella's going after Sheamus?

A short match  which ended with Hardy being disqualified after a guitar shot to Elias revenge for the guitar shot from Elias on the previous Raw. This story line is obviously to be continued.

Next up we saw Otis defend his Money in the Bank contract against The Miz. I never thought that Otis should have one the MITB ladder match to begin with, so was hoping to The Mix, who is under utilised in the main event would pick up the victory. 

 

Next up was the Smackdown women's title with Bayley defending against Sasha Banks. This was easily the best match on the card. A hard  hitting cell match with the inclusion of kendo sticks. Sasha came out on top which was the right way to go with this, a lot to be made out of this story line going forward. Sasha has never successfully defended a title and this is perfect fodder for Bayley to use.

Next was an impromptu match after a challenge was laid down on the preshow for a member of the Hurt Business to face a member of retribution which saw Bobby Lashley taking on slapjack. There is not a lot to say about this, so I won't.

 

This took us to the main event, Randy Orton took on Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship. Another great match between the two which saw Orton come out as a 14 champion at the end of the night. I would have preferred for Drew to retain cementing his position in the main event and moving on to other challenges. Drew vs AJ Styles would be a fantastic feud. With Orton taking the title it looks as if the feud is due to continue this time with McIntyre chasing.

Thoughts on Impact Wrestling Bound for Glory

Impact Wrestling Bound for Glory took place recently, the biggest event of the year for Impact.  The card was as follows.

 Rohit Raju vs Chris Bey vs Jordaynne Grace vs TJP vs Trey vs Willie Mack

20 man Gauntlet match

Moose vs. EC3 in a cinematic match

Ken Shamrock vs Eddie Edwards

The North vs Motor City Machine Guns vs The Good Brothers vs Ace Austin & Madman Fulton

Su Yung vs. Deonna Purrazzo

Eric Young vs Rich Swann

 

First up was the X Division match, with 6 competitors this was perfect for an Ultimate X match which unfortunately it was not so immediately I was disappointed before the match even took place. This was a missed opportunity for Impact to return to their unique selling points.

As a result I struggled to even be interested in the match, there was nothing special to it, no particularly big spots that you would expect from the X division, the only thing of note was the cowardly heel antics of Rohit Raju who left the ring for the others to fight it out and eventually stole a win after TJP hit his finisher to retain the title.

Next up was the gauntlet match, this one I was interested in. The winner getting a title match of their choosing and with the added stakes that if Heath or Rhino win Heath gets a contract but if they don't Rhino is fired. Only half of the 20 participants were announced beforehand so surprise appearances to be expected. The biggest of which was a returning James Storm.

You had some bizarre spots like the farcical self elimination of Hernandez who went after Fallah Bah, who could just as easily gone under the ropes. The final came down to Rhino and Sami Callihan, with Rhino picking up the win which secured both his job and a contract for Heath and earning a title shot, you would imagine you would see the duo challenge for the tag titles.

The third match was a cinematic match, Impact Wrestling being the originator of the cinematic match, but of course the brains behind it, Matt Hardy and Jeremy Borash are no longer with the company so it would be interesting to see what they could produce. Moose took on EC3.

This story line did seem suited to a cinematic match l, with flashbacks to EC3's past which he is trying to escape preventing him from picking up the win and Moose leaving victorious.

Ken Shamrock took on Eddie Edwards next. The match was a hard hitting affair which saw Shamrock pick up a submission win after interference from Sami Callihan, overall a decent match.

Next was the match which I was most interested in a fatal four way for the tag team titles. However before the match started Alex Shelley of the Motor City Machine Guns was taken out meaning Chris Sabin had to go solo. The match was good with a good back and forth pace with all teams. However I kept waiting for Shelley to return to the ring  which did not happen and The North picked up the victory at a surprise moment to regain the titles.

In the semi main event we saw Donna Parazzo defend the knockouts championship against Su Young  this match definitely exceeded my expectations it was a good match which ultimately saw Yung becoming the new knockouts champion.

The main event saw world champion Eric Young defending against Rich Swann. Young was criminally under utilised or should I say not utilised during his run in WWE. His character work is second to none and could easily had a great run in some mid card feuds and him now being a main event in Impact Wrestling is certainly not out of place, particularly with him being a TNA original.

The match itself was good and certainly played to the in ring strengths of Young as opposed to Swann which better suits a main event spot anyway.

Rich Swann came out on top becoming the new Impact Wrestling world champion with a Phoenix splash. A good match overall with the exception of the ending. I don't think Eric Young should have lost the title any time soon.

Overall a good show from Impact, but generally I have a disconnect with what they are putting out, something I feel that slot of people suffer with, I think it is a combination of a variety of factors, the lack of invested fans, which although as a result of the Covid19 pandemic is certainly not new. The loss of known stars, which is beginning to change with returns, debuts and building up the wrestlers they do have, but I think the biggest issue is the commentary. Without commentators like Mike Tenay and Jeremy Borash or even Don West and Tazz there is a problem, even fresh faces might brighten things up but I struggle with Don Callis and Josh Matthews, I just find they miss the mark.

Thoughts of NJPW G1 Climax Final

 

This years G1 Climax tournament from New Japan Pro Wrestling has just concluded. The round robin tournament split into two blocks, with the winner of each block meeting in the final.

The tournament itself was adapted from recent due directly as a result of covid29 restrictions and was better as a result! With Less matches taking place each night, with only one preliminary match prior to the tournament matches, considering that there are 19 nights of the tournament, this slimming down of the tournament and eliminating the multi-man prelimiary matches was a welcome change.

The tournament has some great matches, it also had some not so great matches as well, it struggled as it has in recent years with too many entrants who you know have no chance of winning or even coming close to winning being involved.  

The final night, prelimary matches and the final itself set up future story lines, interestingly the prelimary matches, in my view were more interesting than the final. The card was as follows

1. Chaos (Toru Yano, Yoshi-Hashi, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., Douki & El Desperado)

2. LIJ (Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi) vs. Suzuki-gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Minoru Sukuki)

3. Taguchi Japan (Master Wato, Jeff Cobb, Juice Robinson & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bullet Club (Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, Kenta & Jay White)

4. Chaos (Sho and Kazuchika Okada) vs. Great-O-Khan and Will Ospreay

5. LIJ (Bushi and Tetsuya Naito) vs. Bullet Club (Yujiro Takahashi and Evil)

6. G1 Climax Final Sanada vs. Kota Ibushi

This was a standard multi-man match under card from New Japan. The first match up pitting Chaos up against Suzuki-gun epitomised this, but it did also include some story line development, Suzuki-gun picked up the win but at the end Douki held up the 6-man tag titles indicated that there will be a challenge from him and Suzuki-gun against Chaos for the titles, a much needed focus on the 6-man titles which have completed dropped off the radar.

The second match was a hard hitting brawl, although a tag team match it centred around the rivalry between Shingo and Suzuki and seemingly set up a future match the Suzuki's Never Open weight Championship. The third match was just a classic multi-man match from New Japan and there is very little to say about it, other than it did seem to show case Master Wato a little, which seems to be perfectly timed for the upcoming Best of the Super Juniors.

The next match was the most interesting, not the match itself, but what it represented With a The Great-O-Khan returning from excursion in the UK and teaming with Ospreay who had turned on Okada, in process looking to setup a new faction. Hopefully something more comes from this. The Chaos stable has been around for years and is completely stale and something new needs to arise in its place.

Next up was a tag team match the Bullet Club up against LIJ, continuing the feud between Naito and Evil, this was run of the mill, but Evil stood tall and the end, likely to be setting up a title match between the two at Power Struggle.

The final was a break back and forth match between Ibushi and Sanada, the only thing that it suffered from was that it was completely predictable. It was obvious that Ibushi was always going to be the winner as as good as Sanada is, he has not been positioned to main event Wrestle Kingdom and that did take away from the match, knowing who the winner would be.

Thoughts on WWE Clash of Champions

Last Sunday WWE Clash of Champions took place. The card had huge potential and I was looking forward to several of the matches on the card which was as follows.

1.Smackdown tag team championship natch

 Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesero  (c) vs. Lucha House Party

2. Intercontinental championship ladder match

Jeff hardy (c) vs. AJ Styles vs. Sami Zayn 

3. Raw women's championship match

Asuka (c) vs. Zelina Vega

4. United States championship match

Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Apollo Crews

5. Raw tag team championship

Street Profits (c) vs. Andrade & Angel Garza

6. Smackdown women's championship

Bayley (c) vs Asuka

7. WWE Championship Ambulance match

Drew McIntyre (c) vs. Randy Orton

8. WWE universal championship

Roman Reigns (c) vs. Jey Uso

 

*there were also two segments between R-truth and Drew Gulak which could be considered matches for the 24/7 championship

The kickoff show had one match before the main show started. Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesero defended the Smackdown tag team championships against the Lucha House Party (Kalisto & Lince Dorado) with Gran Metalik. It was a solid tag team match and a good showing for both teams, nothing special but a fitting kickoff match. Nakamura & Cesero picked up the win with the Cesero swing into a knee from Nakamura.

I would have preferred the Lucha House Party to pick up the win, largely because I think that both Nakamura and Cesero would be fantastic as singles wrestlers, but I have always much preferred a solid tag team as opposed to a throw together team.

The main show started explosively with a triple threat ladder match for the intercontinental championship featuring the champion Jeff Hardy, the self proclaimed champion Sami Zayn (he was stripped of the belt as he did not appear for some time due to restrictions entering the US because of covid19) and challenger AJ Styles.

This was always going to be a good match, AJ Styles, in my opinion is one of the greatest of all time, Jeff Hardy has huge experience in multiple ladder matches and Sami Zayn does not look out of place tangling with these two. This ladder match was instantly better than both the ladder matches at Money in the Bank and Wrestlemania. The absence of the crowd has a huge impact and is much more noticeable in high spot matches like this, but the introduction of the thunderdome has brought an atmosphere back which was much needed and certainly adds to the match.

The match started a little slow, as you would expect for a decent ladder match, there was an usual spot where Hardy dived towards Styles who moved out of the way, only for Hardy to dive on an up turned ladder, these seemed unnecessary, a low impact looking move that in reality was probably quite painful.

There were some great spots too. Styles pulled out his moonsault into an inverted DDT, a move which used to be a part of his regular move set, but one that I can't remember seeing for sometime, certainly not since he has been in WWE. Hardy also, from atop the ladder hit a Swanton bomb on Sami Zayn who himself was draped across a ladder. At this point I thought this was the end of Zayn and we would not see him again.

However, we did see him again with quite an innovative finish. First Zayn handcuffed Jeff Hardy to a ladder, although he could move still the handcuff was through his earlobe severely limiting his ability to move in any meaningful way and ultimately took him out of the action, next Zayn handcuffed himself to Styles, seemingly a bizarre thing to as it limited himself and much as it did Styles. However as they climbed the ladder he switched the cuffs and handcuffed Styles to the supporting strut of the ladder meaning he could not get to the top of the ladder allowing Zayn to reach the top and become the undisputed Intercontinental champion. Although I could not help from feeling that Styles could have simply tipped the ladder st this point, overall it was a great match.

Next up after a few backstage segments Drew Gulak rolled up R-Truth to win the 24/7 championship. It was good to see the title move onto someone other than R-Truth or Akira Tozawa who have been exchanging the title back and forth for sometime now. There is huge potential with the 24/7 title but it seems laziness has resulted in it becoming R-Truth's personal title. He is great with it, but this is definitely a case of over doing it.

The next match was a demonstration of how the women's division is not treated with the seriousness which it is claimed. Zelina Vega challenged Asuka for the Raw women's championship. Zelina Vega is definitely a worthy challenger who can go in the ring, however Vega rarely wrestles and has been used primarily as a manager, a role she also excels in. Whilst she is a great in ring talent, going simply into a title shot without having wrestled much shows how little the division is regarded. 

The match itself had some great spots, Vega held Asuka in what I can only describe as a bridging hammer lock, a very innovative move. The match seemed to suffer a bit and was stop - start at several points, inevitable really with Vega wrestling so infrequently. The match ended with Vega tapping out to the Asuka lock.

The next match I was thoroughly uninterested in. Bobby Lashley defended the United States championship against Apollo Crews. Uninterested because this fued has had the same match up repeatedly. Two great competitors with very different styles, however both need to move on from this fued. Lastly picked up the win with the hurt lock, so hopefully this signifies the end of this story line.

Next up Andrade & Angel Garza challenged the Street Profits for the Raw tag team championships. This was a solid match up, with some great team work from Andrade & Garza. The Street Profits came out on top in what seemed to be a botched finish. The commentators announced that Andrade had kicked out, it certainly looked that way, but the bell rang and the Street Profits where declared winners, the referee did not seem decisive either way so it seemed like a botch of some kind.

Unfortunately another backstage segment led to R-Truth regaining the 24/7 championship from Drew Gulak.

Next Bayley came out to announce that Nikki Cross was unable to compete, (possibly due to self isolating) and after cutting a promo gave an open challenge for the Smackdown women's championship which was answered by the raw women's champion Asuka. This again demonstrated the unseriousness in which the division is treated, the depth the division has and yet it is the same women over and over  including one who had already competed earlier in the night.

This, however was not the main story. After a brief match in which Bayley was disqualified for using a chair outside the ring, therefore retaining the title she was the attacked from behind with a chair by Sasha Banks, setting up a match between the two at a later date, this is a match which has been in the making for sometime and is something fresh to look forward to.

The next match up pitted the current WWE champion Drew McIntyre up against Randy Orton in an ambulance match. McIntyre's rise to the main event was organic and he certainly belongs and still has a lot to give. Orton is currently undergoing a character revival and is currently at the top of his game so I was certainly looking forward to this match.

It was a slow, methodical and brutal affair exactly what you would expect from these two in a no disqualification match. Throughout the match you seemed to have a 'ghost of Christmas past vibe with Orton being attacked first by The Big Show, later by Christain and towards the end by Shawn Michaels and then with Ric Flair driving off the ambulance at the end. All the people that Orton had crossed in recent months. Drew came out on top and won the match to retain the WWE championship, however due to the interference at multiple times throughout, what was missing was that decisive victory that Drew McIntyre needs to solidify his position at the top of the card.

The main event saw the Paul Heyman guy, Roman Reigns take on his cousin Jey Uso, usually a solid tag wrestler, in his biggest singles match to date, with Reigns defending the WWE Universal championship against Uso.

This was a great match, firstly Reigns supporting a new in ring look sans the vest was dominant throughout as he should have been Uso had moments a brilliance and the facial expressions of Paul Heyman were second to none  showing real doubt over who would win.

The dominance of Reigns came to a head but he would not pin Jey Uso instead continued to ruthlessly beat him down until he would acknowledge him as the tribal chief which he would not. This led to an injured Jimmy Uso coming down to the ring an eventually throwing in the towel on behalf of Jey Uso. Usually finishes like this can be hit and miss, especially in the main event. This time is was definitely a hit. Reigns is solidified as a monster heel  will to punish his own family, but Jey's stock is also raised, he was beaten nor did he give up. 

Overall this was a great ppv but with a stacked card how could it not be, stacked it was you didn't even notice that so many top talents were not on the card. Set Rollins, Kevin Owens, Big E, Matt Riddle, Sheamus, Lacey Evans, Naomi, Bruan Strauman, Bray Wyatt and many more were missing. One notable absence though particularly on a show called clash of champions  was that every main roster title was defended with one exception. The women's tag team championships were the only title not to appear, again showing how the women's roster is treated.