RAW opened with Roman Reigns taking way too long to set up his rematch with Rusev at Hell in the Cell and inside the structure. Michael Cole says that Mick Foley and Stephanie McMahon will have to take it into consideration, proving that Roman Reigns is not a match maker, but yeah, let's face it, that match is happening now.
Between the Reigns-Rusev match and now the TJP-Kendrick match I'm seeing a lot of highlights from Clash of Champions and feel like maybe we should go through and finally watch that show but then I realize No Mercy is this Sunday and I just feel like I'm slipping even further behind.
Brian Kendrick defeated TJP in a match which will make me feel better about not watching Clash of Champions and I thought this was going to be a title match but I guess not. Brian Kendrick should be in line for another title shot at TJP because there are, of course, only two cruiserweights on RAW.
Seth Rollins has a sit down interview where he calls Kevin Owens names because bullying is cool.
Bayley and Sasha Banks talked backstage and then Kevin Owens talked in the ring with Chris Jericho. If RAW has more matches than this- and I'm not looking at the WWE.com recap to see what I missed- then why are they being edited out on Hulu in favor of all of this talking?? Y2KO discussed challenging New Day for the Tag Team Titles and then they talked about facing the team of Sheamus & Cesaro because who doesn't want to see two makeshift tag teams fight?
Y2KO had a backstage segment with Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson after New Day came out to the ring for more talking. Is Kendrick-TJP really the only match we've seen so far tonight?? Enzo & Cass did an in ring thing with some women who were cancer survivors because I assume whoever controls the whole "what goes into the replay" thing felt badly about cutting it.
It's funny that Ashton "I can't find a changing table in a men's bathroom" Kutcher and Danny Masterson are promoting "The Ranch" on Netflix while I watch RAW on Hulu and, well, Kutcher even mentioned "Punk'd" while WWE has not yet promoted "Swerved" on The Network. New Day took on Y2KO in our second match of the night. Kofi wasn't in the match and as it was hyped up that if Y2KO wins they'd be in line for a title shot I'm just wondering where Gallows & Anderson are. New Day gets the win as Seth Rollins came out to distract Jericho, so hopefully no Y2KO Tag Titles shot then.
So I had to look it up-- it was eating me up inside-- and on the Hulu replay we missed Braun Strowman defeating a jobber and Sami Zayn defeated Titus O'Neil. Also, to answer my previous question, Gallows & Anderson defeated The Golden Truth. I won't be watching any of those matches on YouTube but the match to talking ratio thus far has been just awful.
Good news! Charlotte is talking backstage about her match coming up tonight with Sasha Banks because as we all know talking > wrestling on RAW is TALK. And now Stephanie is talking to Seth Rollins. Can we get a Hulu cut of RAW where they take out all the talking? And look, here comes another Charlotte-Sasha video package!
Cesaro & Sheamus defeating some jobbers and even Tony Nese def. Rich Swann have to take a backseat for the Hulu replay as we are now into our main event. I'm kind of on the fence with the Sasha Banks title win coming on RAW instead of one of the "PPVs" but since WWE doesn't really have pay-per-views any more as much as Network Specials it's not as big of a deal I suppose. But the fact that before this match Bayley said it could be like Lita-Trish kind of bothers me simply because WWE needs to stop focusing on the past and start looking towards the future and making their own rivalries and matches which feel important and aren't just versions of what worked in the past revisited. Oh well. WWE isn't perfect but I'll keep watching the Hulu replay of RAW for whatever reason.
The last Smack Down! before No Mercy opened up with Bray Wyatt. Since Randy Orton was to fight Bray Wyatt previously and instead Bray Wyatt took on Kane, we go back to Kane-Wyatt here and hope that Wyatt-RKO really happens this Sunday. Randy Orton came on the screen and Bray Wyatt took the count out loss which was a great way to open this show. Baron Corbin and Jack Swagger had a backstage segment so here comes that match for Sunday.
Alexa Bliss had a match against one of the Bellas with Carmella on commentary. The Bella Twin threw Alexa Bliss into Carmella. Becky Lynch came out and Daniel Bryan turned this into a tag team match. I thought this was a match for the No. 1 Contender spot, but apparently Alexa Bliss is already the No. 1 Contender. So if Alexa Bliss has a title shot against Becky Lynch on Sunday, why was she fighting Nikki Bella in the first place? How does that make any sense?? Alexa Bliss got the pin over Becky Lynch in this match but the title wasn't on the line in the tag team match so whether or not she can do it when it counts remains to be seen.
Randy Orton locked Bray Wyatt in a trailer or whatever and what's coming up tonight is hyped. Daniel Bryan brings out cancer survivors much like Enzo & Cass did on RAW. Apparently Corbin-Swagger is also happening tonight.
The Hype Bros. defeated The Vaudevillains while The Ascension looked on. So Ascension-Hype Bros. soon but where does that leave The Vaudevillains??
The Miz brought back two of the Spirit Squad members to attack Dolph Ziggler because apparently Mitch (who was linked to Torrie Wilson at one time) and Johnny couldn't be bothered. I think it would have been funny though if WWE brought back Johnny Jeter when Derek Jeter was on his retirement tour and they mocked that. But that might just be me. I don't know. I feel like when Paul Heyman was running OVW- which was in the time of guys like Johnny Jeter but also Brent Albright (Whatever happened to him??) they missed this chance to bring those faces back and instead we get... Jinder Mahal, who I still haven't really seen on RAW. I mean, I'd go out of my way to watch Superstars or Main Event if Brent Albright was on it.
Jason Jordan defeated Jey Uso because The Usos are challenging Slater & Rhyno at No Mercy and now they're kind of showing us a preview of that match. I'm kind of not wanting to watch No Mercy after it happens now though and just read the results.
Jack Swagger defeated Baron Corbin in a controversial call. They said Corbin tapped but it also looked like he was just reaching for the ropes. It's funny because sometimes when an opponent is in a submission hold they kind of steady their hand onto the mat to try and turn over and reverse the hold and I always think they're tapping when they're so obviously not, so, yeah, thanks WWE for further adding to that confusion.
In our "main event", AJ Styles, Dean Ambrose and John Cena all got together in the ring to talk. It eventually broke down into a fight and I'm beginning to think I need to somehow catch up on both RAW and Smack Down! in maybe an hour long slot. Oh, how I long for the Saturday mornings I spent with Todd Pettingzoo.
It was nice to see the Bollywood Boyz in action on NXT as part of The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic against the Authors of Pain. The Bollywood Boyz cut a pre-match promo about something or other, pretty standard stuff, and I mean, it just felt like at this point they should have perhaps, um, said something about Dusty Rhodes. I mean, it's not like they were training in the Performance Center when Dusty Rhodes was there, were they? But at least Authors of Pain got the win because Quentin seemed very much like he wanted them to win as well.
Rich Swann defeated Patrick Clark and I'm not sure what is going on with Patrick Clark but after Tough Enough (and all the other recent Tough Enough people were basically released by WWE except for Amanda ("Mandy Rose") and Josh ("The Yeti") it seems like Patrick Clark could be on his way out and find himself in a Eli Drake type of role in TNA.
Billie Kaye and Peyton Royce mocked Liv Moore backstage after she lost to Asuka last week. Peyton Royce then defeated Danielle Kamela, which was a strange match because I kept thinking her name was either "Carmella" or "Kamala", so either way she needs a name change I'd say.
Samoa Joe attacked Dan Matha before he could have his debut match. This was kind of funny because Dan Matha came out first and if he was making his NXT debut shouldn't there have already been a jobber in there waiting for him? But I've heard rumblings that Elias Sampson is on his way back from injury. If he is announced as making his "return" only to be attacked by Samoa Joe then I'm all for it.
There was a segment backstage with Bobby Roode and Tye Dillinger and one later on as well with Rich Swann and No Way Jose because they are teams in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic but they're not facing each other. Roode & Dillinger are, interestingly enough, facing Sanity, which we still don't know what that means.
In the main event, The Revival defeated Andrade "Cien" Almas and Cedric Alexander in a first round match in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic which made sense because The Revival are the tag champs (Though last year the tag champs were defeated in the tournament) and Almas/Alexander are a makeshift tag team. I'm not saying that a makeshift tag team cannot win because Samoa Joe and Finn Balor won last year, but I'm really just thinking/hoping that The Revival win this year. As tag team champions they should be untouchable. After the match, Almas turned on Alexander and we saw how Cedric Alexander made his NXT debut and earned the respect of Almas and now it looks like they're going to fight again with Almas going full heel. I'd actually really like to see Almas go heel like Eddie Guerrero was, saying that he wasn't wrong to attack Cedric Alexander because he lost the match for them and that the people cheer for Cedric when they should be cheering for him. I don't know. Almas couldn't possibly be any worse as a heel than his run in NXT has been thus far.
Lucha Underground opened with an Ivelisse victory over Mariposa. Prince Puma gets a title shot via the wheel of fortune and Johnny Mundo is not happy. Mundo somehow gets a match with Sexy Star, which may or may not pay off for him in the long run. Texano and Cage were up next for their second match in a Best of Five Series which will earn the winner an "ultimate opportunity". I'm still not a fan of "Best of" matches and feel like after watching Cesaro-Sheamus in WWE I have no time to do something similar in Lucha Underground and, really, any other promotion for that matter.
In a locker room segment, Sami Callihan made his Lucha Underground debut as the boyfriend of Ivelisse. This could be interesting. I was surprised when Sami Callihan left WWE he didn't show up in either TNA or Lucha Underground and here he is. Hopefully he gets a better run in the ring than Son of Havoc, who I still believe could/should be Lucha Underground Champion.
In the main event, Mantanza Cueto retained the championship as Mil Muertes returned to The Temple to attack Prince Puma. This match wasn't nearly as interesting as the segment which closed the show. Joey Ryan handed Killshot an envelope he said was handed to him outside and when Killshot asked what the guy who handed it to him looked like he said "What am I, a detective?" The paper said "You left me for dead" and it looks like a former friend of Killshot will be visiting him in The Temple soon. Or it is just some huge prank by Marty The Moth, but either way, I'm really fond of this Killshot gimmick right now so I say bring it on.
Lucha Underground opened with an Ivelisse victory over Mariposa. Prince Puma gets a title shot via the wheel of fortune and Johnny Mundo is not happy. Mundo somehow gets a match with Sexy Star, which may or may not pay off for him in the long run. Texano and Cage were up next for their second match in a Best of Five Series which will earn the winner an "ultimate opportunity". I'm still not a fan of "Best of" matches and feel like after watching Cesaro-Sheamus in WWE I have no time to do something similar in Lucha Underground and, really, any other promotion for that matter.
In a locker room segment, Sami Callihan made his Lucha Underground debut as the boyfriend of Ivelisse. This could be interesting. I was surprised when Sami Callihan left WWE he didn't show up in either TNA or Lucha Underground and here he is. Hopefully he gets a better run in the ring than Son of Havoc, who I still believe could/should be Lucha Underground Champion.
In the main event, Mantanza Cueto retained the championship as Mil Muertes returned to The Temple to attack Prince Puma. This match wasn't nearly as interesting as the segment which closed the show. Joey Ryan handed Killshot an envelope he said was handed to him outside and when Killshot asked what the guy who handed it to him looked like he said "What am I, a detective?" The paper said "You left me for dead" and it looks like a former friend of Killshot will be visiting him in The Temple soon. Or it is just some huge prank by Marty The Moth, but either way, I'm really fond of this Killshot gimmick right now so I say bring it on.
Impact opened with all the champions in the ring and then Billy Corgan came out with Aiden O'Shea and said Lashley would pick his opponent in a title shot tonight. We heard the choices campaign throughout the show and it was rather... Odd. I mean, EC3 said he wanted to face Lashley again but didn't think Lashley would choose him. Why? Lashley just defeated EC3 so it should be an easy win for Lashley. Moose also made a similar case and he hasn't really held any major titles, so again, another person Lashley could seemingly easily beat. And then there was also Eddie Edwards who Lashley actually defeated for the X Division Championship which he was then forced to surrender and DJ Z won it, so... Yeah. TNA isn't exactly making it easy for fans to choose someone who could defeat Lashely here.
Aside from an X Division match (which was 3 on 3) there was also a segment with EC3 and Eli Drake, which had me rolling my eyes at the thought that these two were going to feud again. And then the women... Well, as Sienna faced off against Gail Kim it was pretty obvious that Maria was not done with Gail Kim yet and I feel like this feud really should be over by now and Allie should be feuding with Maria right now, but whatever, let's see how much longer we can drag it out until TNA decides to, you know, sign more women to wrestle. Also, I'm not really feeling so badly about not watching all of Bound For Glory (We only watched the Hardyz-Decay match) because they showed the Gail Kim Hall of Fame speech on Impact and, yeah, I could have done without seeing that.
I actually rather enjoyed the Hardyz-Decay rematch even if it was centered around a cage which had the gimmick of Wolf Creek because that movie was coming on after Impact on Pop and then apparently Pop TV also has an entire series based upon that movie now. Say what you will about the placement of Pop TV shows in Impact Wrestling but at least it got us to see some crazy weapons, you know? Plus it's always fun that I was so impressed by The Decay and little else on the TNA roster and then The Hardyz took over and so it's like two of my favorite parts (And really some of my only favorite parts) of TNA are working together.
Cody "not Rhodes" and Brandi "somehow married to him and has the last name Rhodes" made their way to the ring to be interupted by Mike Bennett and, yeah, this will obviously lead to a match between the two since it's on Cody's List. Shout out to whoever makes a Schindler's List style poster that says "Cody's List", haha.
Aiden O'Shea is guarding Billy Corgan's office and calls Maria "toots", which is kind of funny. I'm not sure why, but this could eventually lead to an Aiden O'Shea-Mike Bennett feud, which I would oddly enough be all right with seeing.
There was a match with Aron Rex defending the Grand Championship against the guy who got fired from NXT that Tyler Breeze called an uggo, but yeah, nothing worth noting really there. I'm still waiting to be impressed by the former Damien Sandow.
The main event of Impact saw Bobby Lashley choosing what he felt like was his easiest option for a title defense, which turned out to be Eddie Edwards. Oddly enough, and to the surprise of most, Eddie Edwards got the pin and became the TNA World Champion. So... I look at this two ways. From a booking standpoint, you have a guy who lost the tag titles because his partner became injured, he lost the X Division Championship in a match to Bobby Lashley and, um, right before this Impact he lost in the finals of the Grand Championship Tournament to Aron Rex. So, sure, why not give him this World Title shot and win. Makes complete sense, right? At the same time though, I've never been that impressed by Eddie Edwards. When I was younger than I am now (which, when you look into the past, you'll always find yourself being younger) I watched IWA-MS and I remember an event with Eddie Edwards on it where Dave Prazak said he was sick of all of these guys with names like this- like Brad Bradley (who oddly enough is Aiden O'Shea now) and Danny Daniels, etc. That always kind of stuck with me in regards to Eddie Edwards and I always felt like he should have had a better name. If this was circa 1992 or so, Shawn Michaels would cut a promo saying "My mom didn't name me Mike Michaels for a reason, kid" and that'd be the end of Eddie Edwards in WWE. But, anyway, at the same time, my other way of thinking about this is that... Eddie Edwards is everything in TNA right now that he shouldn't be- in my opinion- because this quest of getting the title shot and then winning the title shot is actually what his American Wolves partner should be doing. Yes, I believe in a lot of ways Eddie Edwards is stealing that spotlight that Davey Richards should have. As cliche as it sounds, Eddie Edwards is the Marty Jannetty of the team and if this somehow hinders or overshadows Davey RIchards one day breaking through to becoming TNA World Champion it will upset me to no end. I just... I always felt like Davey would break out on his own first and become World Champion and then kind of look at Eddie Edwards like, "It's okay... You're good too..." You could say that wouldn't happen because Davey Richards is hurt but my question is... Why take the title off of Lashley in the first place? And if there was a need to- such as Lashley going away for a bit for MMA reasons or whatever- then why not give EC3 the win and title at Bound For Glory? This is just the decisions which TNA makes in their booking that make me question them most of the time. Forget all of the things I think and have said about Eddie Edwards... Why wasn't this big title change at the PPV??
We finished up the week with the first of two episodes of ROH TV where they were at Field of Honor. Last year, actually around this time, ROH had a signed baseball on their website which went on sale and so I bought it. (Note: The 2015 Baseball is what I have and is still available for purchase on their site. However, I do not see a 2016 version yet) I don't know if they'll do it again this year or not, but I didn't get to see matches from Field of Honor last year via the ROH TV for free (Though you can buy the event on DVD) so this was a nice touch and there were two title matches with Bobby Fish defending against EVIL and Michael Elgin defending against Dijak before a Bullet Club vs. MCMG/ACH/Lio Rush main event. This is the type of event that even if I see these matches on ROH TV for free I might go and buy the DVD just because it's so much fun. Wouldn't it be great if there was a wrestling promotion which only held events inside baseball stadiums? I'd actually be really excited about that. It is also likely at this point- just to throw it out there- that we won't be watching WWE No Mercy and instead will just play catch up via Smack Down! this week.
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