One of the biggest stars in women’s wrestling, Becky Lynch has long flourished from her NXT beginnings to being the face of WWE’s women’s division. Competing in many of the greatest women’s matches in history, being one of the first women to main-event WrestleMania, having legendary title reigns and feuds – as well as recently released her autobiography – The Man has done so much to go into the Hall Of Fame one day.
Advertisements
Of course, Becky’s contract with WWE expired this past week (H/T Cageside Seats) and she is now a free agent. Having devoted 11 years of her life to WWE, The Man has more than earned a break from wrestling, so she can spend time off with real-life husband Seth Rollins and their daughter. And it’s also the perfect time to reflect on the 10 best matches of The Man’s WWE career.
10. Becky Lynch vs. Asuka – WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship Match (Royal Rumble 2019)
After losing the SmackDown Women’s Championship to Asuka at TLC 2018, Lynch received her rematch at Royal Rumble 2019. Two of WWE’s best were about to collide one-on-one in Phoenix, Arizona.
As expected, it was a hard-hitting bout between the two-toughest ladies in the business. There was such sublime submission-wrestling and a sick fisherwoman’s suplex off the ring-apron to the floor from Asuka to Becky. After many more first-class grapples and reversals, The Empress Of Tomorrow cinched in the Asuka Lock (with a bridge) to score a clean, decisive win over The Man.
9. Becky Lynch vs. Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair – TLC Match, WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship (TLC 2018)
IMG Credit: WWE.com
2018 was the year where Becky Lynch cemented herself in the eyes of the WWE Universe as The Man. Having dethroned The Queen for the SmackDown Women’s Title at Hell In A Cell 2018, Lynch was now on top of the world. However, she came under threat from not only her arch-rival Charlotte Flair, but also a resurgent Asuka.
Advertisements
It was another historic-first for the WWE Women’s Revolution as Lynch had to defend her SmackDown Women’s Championship against Charlotte and Asuka in the first-ever women’s TLC match. It was a terrific main-event of a great pay-per-view, where in the exciting climax, Ronda Rousey cost Charlotte and Becky the title, allowing Asuka to claim her first Women’s Championship on the main-roster.
8. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair (WWE Survivor Series 2021)
IMG Credit: WWE.com
Once upon a time, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair were the best of friends. Two of the Four Horsewomen in NXT, Becky and Charlotte formed a deep, real-life bond that transcended as they moved from NXT to the main WWE roster.
Unfortunately, by Survivor Series 2021, Lynch and Flair’s real-life friendship had soured to the point where it was seemingly unsalvageable. And that translated to an intense, fierce conflict where the Raw (Lynch) and SmackDown (Flair) Women’s Champions fought tooth-and-nail to prove who was the bigger star and better wrestler. In the end, Becky out-cheated Charlotte at her own game to prove once-and-for-all that The Man was superior to The Queen.
7. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Flair – WWE Women’s Championship (WrestleMania 32)
IMG Credit: WWE/Bleacher Report
The Women’s Revolution in 2015 sparked off much interest for the WWE Universe. Especially when Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch AND Sasha Banks had all been called up from NXT to become part of the main-roster. And after several months of Charlotte, Becky and Sasha all revitalising the Women’s Division, it all came to a head at WrestleMania 32.
Advertisements
With the upcoming triple-threat match promising to retire the tedious Diva’s Championship and awarding a beautiful and promising new WWE Women’s Championship for the winner, The Queen, The Man and The Boss tore the house down in a WrestleMania epic worthy of their NXT work. It was the first women’s match at a WrestleMania treated like a major deal since Trish Stratus/Mickie James at WrestleMania 22, and it stole the show with all three ladies proving themselves on the grandest stage of them all. In the end, Charlotte prevailed to take her place in history.
6. Becky Lynch vs. Natalya – Submission Match, WWE Raw Women’s Championship (SummerSlam 2019)
In the midst of her epic Raw Women’s Title Reign, Becky Lynch had finally triumphed in her feud with Lacey Evans and was now challenged by the Queen Of Harts, Natalya. A proud WWE veteran and once of the best to step in the squared-circle, Natalya was determined to once again get back on top.
With the challenge set for SummerSlam, Becky and Nattie engaged in an epic-contest, resplendent with submissions, chain-wrestling and great psychology. Both also used the No-DQ stipulation to their advantage, with Natalya even skilfully applying the Sharpshooter on the top-ropes and Becky struggling to escape from a move that was perfectly legal. Eventually, after brilliant exchanges and sublime mat-wrestling, The Man finally prevailed with Dis-Arm-Her to retain the title.
5. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks – NXT Women’s Championship Match (NXT Takeover: Unstoppable 2015)
In the glory days of NXT, it was now Sasha Banks’ turn in the spotlight. Having defeated Charlotte for the NXT Women’s Title, The Boss’ heelish partnership with the Irish Lasskicker had now soured after belittling her too many times. A showdown was now set for NXT Takeover: Unstoppable.
From the catalogue of phenomenal matches in NXT history, Becky Lynch more than proved herself as Women’s Champion-material. In this back-and-forth struggle, Lynch came so close to knocking The Boss off her perch. Unfortunately, Sasha forced Becky to tap-out to the Bank Statement. But afterwards, the NXT faithful at Full Sail University gave Lynch a standing ovation for her efforts. Becky was now a champion in the eyes of many.
Advertisements
4. Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus – Steel Cage Match (Payback 2023)
Trish Stratus’ 2023 comeback not only proved how much she continues to mean to the WWE Universe, she also proved that she can still put on a great show in the ring. Still as versatile and tough as ever, Stratus again shocked the world by turning heel on Lynch and feuding with her throughout most of 2023.
Eventually, the rivalry came to its conclusion at Payback 2023, where The Man and the WWE Hall of Famer clashed in a terrific cage match. Not only did Becky and Trish steal the show on this night, they restored the reputation of the cage match, producing a dramatic, vicious story full of bumps and tension that successfully ended the feud and saw Becky score a major win over Trish. At 47 years old, Trish may have wrestled the match of her career on this night!
3. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks – Hell In A Cell Match, WWE Raw Women’s Championship (Hell In A Cell 2019)
IMG Credit: WWE/YouTube
Right after SummerSlam 2019, Becky was confronted by a returning Sasha Banks, who immediately turned heel and attacked The Man. Once again fighting tooth-and-nail over the championship, things soon escalated to the appropriate setting: Hell In A Cell.
It’s a shame that the appallingly-bad Hell In A Cell main-event between Seth Rollins and The Fiend overshadowed this match. This contest between The Boss and The Man for the Raw Women’s Title is not only a far-superior to the previously-mentioned Cell match on this show, it’s also the best women’s match inside the structure. After an epic twenty-minutes full of brutal spots and intensity, Becky finally forced Sasha to submit and retain her Raw Women’s Championship.
2. Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair – WWE Raw Women’s Championship Match (WrestleMania 38)
After relinquishing the Raw Women’s Championship in May 2020 before going on maternity leave, Becky Lynch finally returned to a hero’s welcome at SummerSlam 2021! Challenging then Women’s Champion Bianca Belair to an impromptu match, the WWE Universe were in total disbelief when Lynch upset Belair in less than THIRTY-SECONDS to get back on top!
Advertisements
Now as the heelish Big Time Becks, Lynch had reigned supreme once again since SummerSlam 2021, with Bianca having worked long and hard to finally get her rematch with Becky. Finally, at WrestleMania 38, Bianca and Becky faced each other again one-on-one. This time, Bianca withstood everything Becky threw at her in a hard-hitting classic, to finally topple The Man for the title, and once again be the EST of WWE.
1. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair – Last Woman Standing Match, WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship (Evolution 2018)
Advertisements
Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair’s epic rivalry in 2018 could only intensify to the point where the SmackDown Women’s Title had to be contested for under Last Woman Standing rules. And there was no better choice for the battleground than Evolution; WWE’s first-ever all women’s pay-per-view.
Evolution was a high-quality show overall, Becky and Charlotte’s Last Woman Standing affair not only being Match Of The Night, but also one of WWE’s greatest matches for 2018. It was thirty-minutes full of absolute carnage and two of the all-time best delivering one of the greatest Last Person Standing Matches in the history of wrestling. Ultimately, Becky Lynch prevailed over the fallen Charlotte Flair to truly cement herself as The Man.
What are YOUR favourite matches of Becky Lynch’s career? Please share with us in the comments below!
October 4, 1993 Taped show (on September 27, 1993) Location: New Haven, Connecticut, USA (New Haven Coliseum) Announced attendance: ca 5,500 TV rating: 2.9 (USA Network) [up 7.4% from the previous week’s 2.7 rating]
Randy Savage, Mr. Perfect, Razor Ramon, IRS & others compete in a huge 20-man battle royal to determine who will wrestle for the vacant Intercontinental Championship on next week’s RAW.
Here is the list of champions in WWF heading into this episode: (considering the air date)
WWF Champion: Yokozuna [113th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Hulk Hogan
WWF Tag Team Champions: The Quebecers (Jacques & Pierre) [21st day of their 1st reign] – previous champions: The Steiners (Rick & Scott Steiner)
Note: in title matches, the defending champions appear underlined
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: WWE & thesmackdownhotel.com
Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Bobby Heenan
RAW’s intro plays to kick off the episode.
Tatanka, Adam Bomb, Razor Ramon, The Quebecers and Randy Savage make their entrances for the battle royal. Everyone else was already standing in the ring.
20 Man Battle Royal
Final Two Wrestle For The IC Title Next Week
The participants are: Randy Savage, IRS, Tatanka, Adam Bomb, Razor Ramon, Pierre, Jacques, Giant Gonzalez, Rick Martel, Jimmy Snuka, Owen Hart, Bob Backlund, Diesel, Mabel, MVP, Bam Bam Bigelow, Mr. Perfect, Bastion Booger, Marty Jannetty and 1-2-3 Kid
Once again, the final two men win this match and will face each other next week for the vacant Intercontinental Championship.
The bell rings and it’s a big melee to start. Everyone gangs up on Giant Gonzalez and he’s the first one eliminated. Bigelow and Savage go at it in the corner. Savage tries to eliminate Bastion Booger but IRS saves him for some reason. The ring is way too full for me to follow the action. Bigelow and IRS nearly eliminate Savage, who barely hangs on. The Kid nearly eliminates IRS. Diesel gets Mabel over the top rope and IRS helps Diesel put the big man out. IRS is gone next courtesy of Razor. Jacques Rougeau jumps Razor from behind and nearly puts him out, but Savage makes the save. I hate saves in battle royals. Bastion Booger throws The 1-2-3 Kid out. Diesel and Tatanka slug it out in the corner. Diesel takes it to Mr. Perfect next, who ducks a clothesline and backdrops Diesel over the top for the elimination. Diesel was booked well in this match, looking dominant until his inexperience allowed Perfect to capitalize. We take a break.
Commercial break
We’re back with Rick Martel eliminating Bob Backlund. Martel scores another elimination as he throws Jimmy Snuka out. Martel nearly eliminates Jannetty, but he finds a way to stay in it. Bigelow dumps Perfect. Shocked to see him go already. Jannetty is out next at the hands of Adam Bomb. Savage eliminates Bastion Booger and Razor clotheslines Bigelow out as we take another break.
Commercial break
We come back with Razor saving Savage from being eliminated. Owen Hart dropkicks MVP (Brawler) out. Owen is gone too at the hands of Jacques. At this point, the action stops and the remaining heels decide to team up against Razor & Savage. The Quebecers jump Razor while Bomb & Martel attack Savage. Jacques backdrops Pierre onto Razor’s body. Nice double-team move by The Quebecers there. Jacques & Martel with a double clothesline on Razor. Adam Bomb picks up Savage for a powerslam, but Savage escapes and dumps Bomb. Adam Bomb grabs Savage’s legs after being eliminated and that allows The Quebecers to eliminate Savage.
Final Four: Razor Ramon, Rick Martel & The Quebecers
Ramon is alone in the ring against three heels. They all get heat on Razor for a bit. Razor avoids a triple dropkick and gets some offense for a bit, but they end up cutting him off rather easily. Jacques & Martel hold Razor so Pierre can throw some bombs. Martel gets too cocky and Razor kicks him away, but The Quebecers keep him down with a double-team slam. Jacques sets up Razor for a Pierre clothesline, but Razor ducks and Jacques inadvertently eliminates his own partner. Pierre can’t believe it and Razor throws him out to set up next week’s title match at 19:21. Razor and Martel wanna go at it right away and have to be separated by a bunch of referees.
Winners: Razor Ramon & Rick Martel
Order Of Elimination
Wrestler
Eliminated By
1
Giant Gonzalez
Everyone
2
Mabel
Diesel & IRS
3
IRS
Razor Ramon
4
The 1-2-3 Kid
Bastion Booger
5
Diesel
Mr. Perfect
6
Bob Backlund
Rick Martel
7
Jimmy Snuka
Rick Martel
8
Mr. Perfect
Bam Bam Bigelow
9
Marty Jannetty
Adam Bomb
10
Tatanka
Bam Bam Bigelow
11
Bastion Booger
Randy Savage
12
Bam Bam Bigelow
Razor Ramon
13
The MVP
Owen Hart
14
Owen Hart
Quebecer Jacques
15
Adam Bomb
Randy Savage
16
Randy Savage
The Quebecers
17
Quebecer Jacques
Quebecer Pierre
18
Quebecer Pierre
Razor Ramon
19
Razor Ramon
– (Winner)
20
Rick Martel
– (Winner)
Rating: It took them a while to get going but this turned out to be a really fun battle royal. It was a bit messy at first and it took them a bit longer than needed to eliminate a few filler names, but it switched gears after the first commercial break. It was nice seeing Diesel by himself for the first time in the WWF, and he did look really good for the relatively short run he had. While it was a bit disappointing to see Perfect – who could’ve offered a lot more to this match – being thrown out so soon, the final wrestlers remaining did a great job. The final sequence was extremely entertaining, with Razor Ramon in particular looking like a million bucks. Good battle royal to open the show. ***1/4
The Heavenly Bodies (Jimmy Del Ray & Tom Prichard) (w/ Jim Cornette) vs. Mark Thomas & Scott Taylor
Prichard starts in control over Mark Thomas. Del Ray gets tagged in and Prichard slams him onto Thomas for two, with Del Ray breaking up the pin on purpose. Prichard gets back in, Thomas gets a small flurry of offense and Del Ray comes in off the blind tag with a springboard clothesline that nearly misses. Off to Scott Taylor, who gets hit with a super spinebuster off the top rope by Prichard. Suplex by Prichard followed by an enziguiri. Double suplex by The Heavenly Bodies. They follow it up with a clothesline/DDT combo on Taylor, a double superkick to Thomas and Jimmy Del Ray pins Taylor at 3:39.
Winners: The Heavenly Bodies
Rating: Good little squash with The Heavenly Bodies showcasing great double-team moves as always. 1/2*
We see a recap of the newly turned face Doink the Clown throwing confetti at Bam Bam Bigelow & Luna Vachon on the last episode of Superstars.
Main Event
Doink the Clown vs. Cory Student
The now face Doink comes out to the ring giving away stuff to fans. Poor Bobby Heenan gets covered with popcorn this week! Doink outwrestles Student and stays on the mat for a while. Powerslam by Doink and he goes up for the buttdrop splash to finish Student at 1:58.
Winner: Doink the Clown
Rating: Barely a match but it established Doink as a face. 1/4*
Bam Bam Bigelow comes down to ringside and gets some heat by destroying Doink’s wagon.
We take a look back at the final moments of tonight’s battle royal while the announcers promote next week’s title match to end the show.
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: It was all about the battle royal this week, so I can’t say it didn’t deliver. The squashes were fine too, although I’m not looking forward to the Bigelow/Doink feud. The whole concept of Doink as a face is too goofy for me, personally. Overall, while it wasn’t a spectacular show, it did make me want to watch next week’s Intercontinental Championship match. Solid episode. 6/10
September 27, 1993 Location: New Haven, Connecticut, USA (New Haven Coliseum) Announced attendance: ca 5,500 TV rating: 2.7 (USA Network) [up 28.6% from the previous week’s 2.1 rating]
The undefeated Tatanka faces Rick Martel this week on RAW. The Quebecers defend the WWF Tag Team Championship against “worthy” opponents – or so they say! Jimmy Snuka returns. Furthermore, Jack Tunney has an announcement regarding Shawn Michaels’ Intercontinental Title. Let’s get into it.
Here is the list of WWF champions heading into this episode:
WWF Champion: Yokozuna [106th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Hulk Hogan
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels [113th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Marty Jannetty
WWF Tag Team Champions: The Quebecers (Jacques & Pierre) [14th day of their 1st reign] – previous champions: The Steiners (Rick & Scott Steiner)
Note: in title matches, the defending champions appear underlined
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: WWE & thesmackdownhotel.com
Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan & Randy Savage
WWF President Jack Tunney announces the Intercontinental Title is vacated and Shawn Michaels’ suspended after he failed to show up for a number of title defenses. Next week, there will be a battle royal with the final 2 participants meeting the following week for the belt.
RAW’s intro plays.
Tatanka vs. Rick Martel
They lockup and shove each other to start. Back to the lockup, Tatanka with a headlock takeover and Martel escapes with a headscissors. Martel avoids a Tatanka attack and does some taunting while the announcers talk about next week’s battle royal. Tatanka blocks a kick to the gut by Martel, hits an atomic drop and clotheslines Martel to the outside. Martel stalls and persuades Tatanka into chasing him, allowing Martel to stomp away on Tatanka as he was getting back in the ring. Tatanka goes for a springboard crossbody, but messes up the spot and does it a second time. Martel ducks the crossbody and throws Tatanka to the outside as we take a break.
Commercial break
We return with Martel in control. Sunset flip by Tatanka gets two and Martel locks in an abdominal stretch. Tatanka explodes with a hiptoss to escape the hold before applying an abdominal stretch himself. Martel rakes the eyes to escape. Tatanka misses a blind charge and eats the turnbuckle. Backdrop suplex by Martel gets two. Backbreaker by Martel and he goes for a slingshot splash, but Tatanka gets his knees up to block it. Despite the reversal, Martel remains in control as he keeps working over Tatanka’s back. Martel applies a reverse chinlock. Tatanka escapes that and comes back with a crossbody for two. Martel rams Tatanka’s head into the buckle but it has no effect and Tatanka IS ON THE WARPATH! Tatanka makes the usual comeback with chops and clotheslines. He hits a flying chop off the top rope, but chooses not to cover and Martel throws him to the outside. Eventually they take the fight to the floor and the referee counts both men out at 10:48.
Result: Draw
Rating: This was a decent match with both men putting on a solid performance, but also ultimately pointless due to the finish. Tatanka’s undefeated streak simply wasn’t that interesting anymore and it was clearly just a matter of time until someone ended it. **1/2
Event Center with Joe Fowler
Joe Fowler recaps the rules for next week’s battle royal for a shot at the Intercontinental Championship and announces the participants:
IRS
Randy Savage
Adam Bomb
Giant Gonzalez (he’s still around??)
Mr. Perfect
Owen Hart
Rick Martel
Jimmy Snuka
Bob Backlund
Quebecer Pierre
Quebecer Jacques
Razor Ramon
Mabel
Diesel
MVP (not that one!)
The 1-2-3 Kid
Bam Bam Bigelow
Marty Jannetty
Tatanka
Bastion Booger
Ludvig Borga vs. Phil Apollo
Borga goes after Apollo right away with knees in the corner before hitting a clothesline. Sidewalk slam by Borga. He dumps Apollo and clotheslines him on the outside. Borga hits a delayed vertical suplex back inside the ring. Slam by Borga followed by an elbowdrop. Borga with some shots to the midsection and the Torture Rack ends it at 3:15.
Winner: Ludvig Borga
Rating: Simply not interesting, slow, boring and the crowd couldn’t care less. DUD
Jimmy Snuka vs. Paul Van Dale
Snuka is back for a one-off cameo. Or apparently one of two appearances now that we know he’s in the battle royal. Snuka takes over with the usual chops, leapfrog and hiptoss sequence. Slam and a headbutt by Snuka. Van Dale actually gets some offense while the announcers get Crush on the phone yet again. Snuka hits a piledriver. This keeps going but the focus is all on the Savage/Crush feud. Van Dale surprisingly takes Snuka down with a shoulderblock. Snuka comes back with a leapfrog right into a chop. Backbreaker by Snuka sets up the Superfly Splash for the win at 4:34.
Winner: Jimmy Snuka
Rating: Another uninteresting squash on this episode. I was surprised to see the crowd not reacting to Snuka, who always got loud reactions even in his recent WWF run in the early 90s. What should’ve been a short and sweet Legends appearance kept going on forever, and the focus was all on Savage/Crush. This was no good but at least the fans did get up for the Superfly Splash. DUD
Meanwhile, IRS is in his office with secretaries for a promo. Razor Ramon will pay for costing him the match against PJ Walker last week and promises to be one of the final two in next week’s battle royal.
The Quebecers come down to the ring ahead of their title defense against a surprise “top” WWF tag team.
We come back from a commercial break with Barry Horowitz in the ring. Bobby Heenan interviews him and asks him where his partner is. Reno Riggins is home with the flu, but he chooses a replacement: The 1-2-3 Kid.
Main Event
The Quebecers (Jacques & Pierre) (w/ Johnny Polo) vs. The 1-2-3 Kid & Barry Horowitz
WWF Tag Team Championship
The crowd are behind The Kid here. He starts off with a couple of quick kicks to both Jacques & Pierre. Even Horowitz joins in with a few dropkicks and The Quebecers bail. Back in, Jacques asks for a handshake and Pierre jumps The Kid from behind. The Quebecers take over with a nice double-team clothesline. Jacques & Pierre slam each other onto The Kid a number of times and get a nearfall. The heels remain in control until The Kid ducks a springboard crossbody by Jacques. Kid sends Jacques to the outside with a roundhouse kick. Polo checks on him and screams that he’s been knocked out. Jacques gets stretchered out as Polo & Heenan ask for the match to end, but Howard Finkel announces the match must continue.
Commercial break
We’re back with Pierre defending the belts alone as we see Jacques still out in the back. Pierre hits a flying legdrop off the top rope for two. Pierre up top again for a diving crossbody, and then Pierre slams Horowitz onto his corner so he can make the tag to Kid. That didn’t make much sense. Pierre takes The Kid down as the crowd chants for The Kid. He comes back with a series of kicks. Pierre blocks a spinning wheel kick attempt, but Kid catches him with another kick. Kid goes for yet another spinning wheel kick, Pierre ducks and The Kid knocks himself out on the floor. Johnny Polo immediately throws Kid back inside the ring and Pierre gets one arm on top for the really cheap win at 9:47.
Winners & still champions: The Quebecers (Jacques & Pierre)
Rating: I get what they were going for here, but the execution wasn’t the best. First of all, the introduction of the lame challengers was poor – they went to break and Horowitz was standing in the ring when the show came back on. They could’ve done that a lot better. Second, the match itself was weird. The idea on paper of having Jacques getting knocked out to make it look like The Quebecers could lose the titles was a good idea on paper, but having it happen because of a roundhouse kick – which The Kid does in every match – was odd. The finish was very underwhelming as well, as Horowitz could’ve easily taken the pin after a small flurry of offense. It was still a watchable match with the crowd finally waking up after the previous squashes. **
Finally, Razor Ramon joins the announcers for a short interview. They tease a potential Intercontinental Championship match between Razor and Savage right before the episode ends.
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: Not a strong episode this week. The squashes were longer than necessary and not impressive. As far as the two featured matches go, while they were technically solid, both finishes were extremely flat. Nothing memorable happened here apart from the Intercontinental Title announcement, which was enough to make me wanna watch the next episodes. 4/10
That’s all from today’s post. Thank you all for reading. Make sure you don’t miss any of the upcoming WWF & WCW reviews here on the blog. See you next time!
He may be injured and on the sidelines but CM Punk is front and centre of all wrestling news as AEW aired the previously unseen backstage footage of the infamous All In brawl from August 2023. On this week’s episode of Dynamite Tony Khan decided to air the security camera footage showing the backstage fight that occurred right before the main show of All In started where CM Punk and Jack Perry ended up in an altercation that had to be broken up which would ultimately result in CM Punk’s departure from AEW and return to WWE and Jack Perry’s suspension form which he has yet to return to the company.
For context, Jack Perry was facing Hook on the last match of the All In: Buy-In show before the main card, as the two fought to the entrance way near a limo that Perry was driven into the arena in, Perry tapped on the windshield and said into the camera “Real glass! Go cry me a river!” This was a reference to a segment that was planned on AEW Collison several week earlier where Perry wanted to use real glass in a segment to write himself off TV but Punk who was producer of Collision since his return in June 2023 shot the idea down claiming it was ‘Stupid and dangerous’ to use real glass in the segment which Perry agreed and the idea was dropped.
IMG Credit: MMA Hour
Fast forward to London and Perry supposedly got his wish to use real glass in his match which everyone watching immediately knew was a shot at Punk. After the match Perry walked through the curtain to be confronted by Punk who was scheduled to be the opening match of All In against Samoa Joe, as Punk himself recalled on the now legendary MMA Hour interview with Ariel Helwani last week, he asked why Perry seemingly took a minor issue and decided to take it personally he claimed that Perry told him to do something about it, and a scuffle ensued which lead to Punk leaving the promotion. On Wednesday night the fateful footage was showed on Dynamite by the Young Bucks, also company EVP’s Matt and Nick Jackson who introduced the footage.
As the footage showed Punk confronts Perry, the discussion seems calm at first, then we visibly see Perry telling Punk to do something about it, afterwards Punk then forcibly shoves Perry to which Perry tries to tackle Punk who proceeds to grab him in a chokehold as they stumbled into the backstage monitors in the gorilla position before it was quickly broken up by Jerry Lynn, Chris Hero and Samoa Joe who separated them. As Punk is being held he begins talking to someone off the camera who we can’t see but is believed to be Tony Khan which matches up to what Punk said when he told Tony “This place is a joke! You’re a clown! I quit!”
The biggest takeaway from the footage is that CM Punk was proven to be completely right in what he said and has been vindicated, there are minor discrepancies in the stories, Punk was clearly the one who started the physical altercation by showing Perry but that aside everything else was exactly as Punk described. As the footage is being played in the arena the fans were chanting “CM Punk”. The fans only interest in this segement was about the only wrestler who isn’t employed by the company right now, proving that Punk is the only person that AEW fans care about, he was the company’s megastar who was driving viewers and numbers up and seemingly leading the company up to the heights and that they could do nothing wrong and a series of events set off a chain reaction that ultimately lead to that night at Wembley Stadium which in turn has brought us to where we are now.
IMG Credit: Wrestling Inc
Many will look at Jack Perry as the man who was responsible for all of this by not listening to Punk’s advice, and while he definitely didn’t help the situation by seemingly wanting to do whatever he wanted it also shines another bad light on the management in AEW as no-one appeared to attempt to rein Perry in or at least try to defuse the matter before it exploded. Also it says something that Perry was initially suspended but it’s been 7 months since the incident and hasn’t been brought back, it may lead to an angle where Perry joins the Young Bucks to play off the segment but it will only highlight what Punk claimed by saying Perry got away with doing this because of who he’s friends with.
IMG Credit: Forbes
One other point that’s very glaring from this is Tony Khan seemingly makes no attempt to defuse the situation which further solidifies what Punk claimed in the Helwani interview about the fact that Tony isn’t a real boss and the alarming lack of leadership shown by the supposed president of the company is both inept and laughable. Something else that is being noted is there is a crucial missing piece, where was the part of this where Tony Khan feared for his life? Given the context of what we saw, it seemed like a gross over-dramatisation by Tony Khan to either make himself sympathetic to the fans or to smear Punk’s reputation but all has been accomplished by showing that tape is that Khan looks like a weak leader who overreacted and that Punk was simply an disgruntled man who had, in his mind, been pushed dover the edge and lost his cool in a highly pressured moment.
In conclusion, this entire farce has only served to make AEW look like a second rate promotion who seemingly can’t let go of it’s mistakes and is using drama and revealing the secrets behind the curtain to grab the attention of viewers which is mirror imaging what WCW were doing in 1999-2000 and in a time where wrestling is experiencing a renaissance in the public eye, Tony Khan has only succeeded in making his company look bush league. As WWE is delivering record attendances for weekly shows and their PLE’s, fan interest and positivity is the highest it’s been in decades, on the week that WWE produced the ultimate fairytale ending at WrestleMania with Cody Rhodes winning the WWE Championship to complete his story, Tony Khan may have ended any chance that All Elite Wrestling had at being a viable competitor and instead of moving on and trying to help. the company grow and move upwards, his petulance is sinking the company into the darkness of irrelevancy and this may be the point of no return.
September 20, 1993 Taped show (on September 13, 1993) Location: Manhattan, New York, USA (Manhattan Center) Announced attendance: ca 1,200 TV rating: 2.1 (USA Network) [up 16.7% from the previous week’s 1.8 rating]
After the shocking tag team title change last week, Scott Steiner meets Quebecer Pierre on RAWwith a title rematch hanging in the balance. Plus, Bam Bam Bigelow, Mr. Perfect and IRS are in action this week.
Here’s the list of WWF champions heading into this episode: (considering the air date)
WWF Champion: Yokozuna [99th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Hulk Hogan
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels [106th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Marty Jannetty
WWF Tag Team Champions: The Quebecers (Jacques & Pierre) [7th day of their 1st reign] – previous champions: The Steiners (Rick & Scott Steiner)
Note: in title matches, the defending champions appear underlined
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: WWE & thesmackdownhotel.com
Your hosts are Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan & Randy Savage
Steiner and Pierre slug it out to kick us off. Steiner takes Pierre down with an atomic drop before coming off the top rope with a double axehandle. Steiner throws Pierre over the top to the floor, which was illegal last week. Back in, Steiner hits a piledriver (also would’ve been a DQ last week) but Johnny Polo breaks up the pin. Steiner with an inverted Indian deathlock followed by a leg crab as he continues to bring the pain to Pierre, but he makes it to the ropes. Steiner takes Pierre up top and brings him down with a release overhead suplex. Pierre leaves the ring looking for some advice from Johnny Polo, but Steiner steals the hockey stick and the heels run all the way to the backstage area.
Commercial break
We come back with Pierre returning to the ring, and Jacques comes in with him. However, Rick Steiner also comes in to even the odds. Meanwhile, Pierre cheapshots Scott and that allows him to finally get the upper hand. DDT puts Steiner down. Pierre chokes Steiner on the ropes while Rick (with a chair in hand) and Jacques (with the hockey stick in hand) get in each other’s faces outside. Pierre hits a clothesline for two. Sunset flip by Steiner only gets one, as Polo was distracting the ref. Chinlock by Pierre, Scott fights out of it only to charge into a knee to the gut for two. Vader Bomb by Pierre gets two. And back to the chinlock goes Pierre as he remains in control. We get a “Johnny Polo” chant from the crowd. Pierre with a flying legdrop off the top rope gets two. Steiner fights back with a backslide for two, and an inside cradle gets two more. Pierre misses another Vader Bomb and Steiner capitalizes with a backdrop. Steiner makes the comeback by hitting a Steinerline, butterfly powerbomb and the Frankensteiner puts Pierre away at 12:43.
Winner: Scott Steiner
Rating: Good TV match to get the show going. I like how they started off by having Steiner do everything that wasn’t legal in last week’s title match. The heat spot came right after the break and it was fine, but then Steiner won quite easily after making his comeback, which I wasn’t expecting. This was good although I think the heels should’ve put up more of a fight in this feud, even if it had to involve shenanigans. **3/4
Note: the title rematch didn’t happen.
Bam Bam Bigelow (w/ Luna Vachon) vs. Laverne McGill
Bigelow strikes with a dropkick as soon as the bell rings. McGill surprises Bigelow with a leapfrog and he actually blocks another dropkick attempt by Bigelow. Dropkick by McGill and he actually pounds away on Bigelow in the corner. The announcers mention “anything can happen” due to The 1-2-3 Kid’s recent win against Razor Ramon. McGill fails to dropkick Bam Bam off the apron and the big man takes over. Meanwhile, Crush joins us via phone call. Suplex by Bigelow and a sloppy dropkick. Crush ignores Savage’s comments and tells him he doesn’t wanna speak to Savage ever again. Meanwhile, the action continues with Luna getting involved while Bigelow distracts the referee. Back in, McGill tries to take Bam Bam down with a sunset flip, but Bigelow counters by sitting down on his chest. Bigelow catches McGill in midair and finishes him off with a senton bomb in 5:19.
Winner: Bam Bam Bigelow
Rating: A really long squash that didn’t do Bigelow much favors. This was just there for the whole Savage/Crush drama on commentary. 1/4*
We see a recap of Doink the Clown’s face turn last week. Bobby Heenan has a cold because of that!
Interview with Bret Hart
Vince McMahon is in the ring with Hart. McMahon recaps the events from SummerSlam and reminds Bret that technically Lawler did win. Bret disputes the fact Lawler is the “undisputed king of the WWF” since he hasn’t beat anyone in the company still, and he didn’t win the King of the Ring. McMahon asks Bret how he’s going to rectify this. Bret says his family honor is more important than wearing a crown on his head, and his only regret is that he didn’t hold on to the Sharpshooter a bit longer. Bret finishes by saying after he’s done with Lawler, the ‘King’ won’t have a head to hold that crown on. That was a good promo as this feud continues to deliver the goods.
Mr. Perfect vs. Mike Bell
Perfect takes it to Mike Bell with a chop in the corner. Bell connects with an armdrag out of the corner. He gets all cocky about it, and Perfect quickly shuts him up with a dropkick. Perfect takes the fight outside and chops him around ringside. Back in, more chops from Perfect and he takes Bell down with the Perfect necksnap out of the corner. Kneelift and the Perfectplex end Mr. Bell’s night at 3:55.
Winner: Mr. Perfect
Rating: Solid win by Perfect. 1/4*
Ludvig Borga cuts a promo on Lex Luger.
Meanwhile, Bobby Heenan hosts a proposal at ringside.
Main Event
Irwin R. Schyster vs. PJ Walker
IRS claims Razor Ramon doesn’t have the guts to face him before the match. IRS puts the boots to Walker to start, Razor Ramon comes down to ringside. IRS gets distracted and Walker rolls him up for another shocking upset at 1:22.
Winner: PJ Walker
Rating: I get what they were going for, but it didn’t quite work out this time around. The match was literally just some shots by IRS and the roll-up. DUD
Meanwhile, Bobby Heenan is backstage with The Quebecers & Johnny Polo. Even though they’re not afraid of The Steiners, they think another tag teams deserve a title shot. Polo announces The Quebecers will defend the titles next week against a team that truly deserves it.
Next week: Tatanka in action, Ludvig Borga in action, the surprise tag team title match, and a one-night-only cameo from the returning Jimmy Snuka.
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: A solid RAW that progressed a few stories – Savage/Crush, Razor/IRS and Bret/Lawler. The highlights were the good opener between Scott Steiner and Quebecer Pierre (even though that will ultimately go nowhere) and Bret Hart’s promo, which was really interesting. This RAW didn’t set the world on fire but I had fun watching it, outside of the really long Bam Bam Bigelow squash. 6/10
That’s gonna be all from me. Before finishing this post, I would like to apologize for not doing this series for the last few months. I don’t plan on stopping these reviews, I’ve just been very busy with work recently. Make sure you don’t miss any of the upcoming reviews. Thank you all for reading.
Sunday April 7th 2024 will forever be remembered as the night that WWE produced arguably the greatest WrestleMania in history and undisputedly the great main event and maybe WWE match of all time. WrestleMania 40 Night 2 delivered with amazing matches, surprise twists, engaging stories, a main event that was straight out of a marvel movie with the ultimate fairytale ending. On that note here’s Ben and Prince here for you to review night 2 of WrestleMania 40.
World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins vs Drew McIntyre
Ben’s Review:
Drew hits the claymore right at the start of the match and nearly gets the 3 count. Drew dominates early on until Seth comes back with a pedigree to Drew on the outside and then nails the stomp for a near fall, Rollins reverses a claymore into another pedigree-stomp combination which again McIntyre kicks out. Drew hits the future shock DDT then hits the claymore again but Rollins kicks out again, Drew hits another Claymore but Seth somehow kicks out again, McIntyre then hits one final massive Claymore and finally puts Rollins away to win the World title.
Then after the match Drew insults CM Punk on commentary before Punk attacks Drew with his arm brace when suddenly Damian Priest runs down and jumps McIntyre. He cashes in his Money In The Bank briefcase then nails the South of Heaven chokeslam and pins Drew and Damian Priest leaves WrestleMania the new World Heavyweight Champion.
IMG Credit: Cageside Seats
Match Rating: 4.25/5
Prince’s Review:
It was a red-hot, great sprint of action that didn’t need to be a clinic like their previous matches. The wear and tear that ensued by Rollins last night played so well in the flow of the match and served nothing but a stellar moment of Drew winning the big gold in front of a packed audience until his head was spun all over Punk resulting in a whirlwind of moments. Punk went physical, blew off massive buzz, and helped to pencil in Priest’s cash-in successfully. I’m aware of the trolls and dejections set forward, but Priest is one of the top prospects under Hunter’s regime during the Black & Gold days of NXT and I hope the fans remember his capability.
Match Rating [7/10]
IMG Credit: Latin Post
Philadelphia Street Fight: The Final Testament vs Bobby Lashley & The Street Profits
Bubba Ray Dudley was special guest referee, a fun brawl with big weapon spots throughout, a chaotic set of action, B-Fab and Scarlett both crash through a table, Kross confronts Bubba who then instructs the Babyfaces to “Get the tables” Montez hits his frog splash on Kross through the table and Lashley gets the pin.
Match Rating: 3/5
Prince’s Review:
This had no reason to pop a surprise commentator in Snoop Dogg and a special referee in Bubba Ray! Glad to see both, ending up elevating the match higher than before. Even though the action was decent at best and lightyears below a set of Philly street fights, this was a fun way to pit these stars in the card. The small interaction between Scarlett and B-Fab worked well, and the fun infuse of the ‘What’s Up? ‘ moment was nice. Lashley’s team taking the win was expected, but it jeopardizes the future of Final Testament, especially the returning AOP.
Match Rating [5/10]
LA Knight vs AJ Styles
A fight from the get go feeling on the bad blood between the two that’s built since Styles returned, Knight with a huge tilt-the-world DDT, Styles responds with aggressive ground action and takes control, Knight then delivers a comeback with a German superplex from the top rope. Styles backdrops Knight on the concrete floor outside then goes for the 450 splash but Knight gets the knees up, AJ goes for the phenomenal forearm but Knight counters into the BFT and get the win.
Match Rating: 3.5/5
Prince’s Review:
Knight vs. Styles: Out of the match card combining both nights, the build for this match was underrated because of the bait in LA’s path to gold. But it’s against one of the best to embrace the squared circle, AJ Styles, and who would refuse a ‘Mania program with him? These guys kicked in a personal touch, giving an intense feel throughout the battle. From the entrances to the urgency in executing the moves, magic was presented! Knight’s victory was expected, and I’m glad the aura didn’t fall. Looking up and high, it’s time to usher with everybody saying, L A Knight! Yeah!
Match Rating [8/10]
IMG Credit: WhatCulture
Triple Threat Match For The United States Championship: Logan Paul vs Kevin Owens vs Randy Orton
Orton and Owens double team on Logan for most of the opening of the match before Paul hits a double buckshot lariat and begins to take control, Paul then nails a combo of a swanton bomb on Owens and then straight into a frog splash on Orton, Orton then hits the double elevated DDT, Owens hits the moonsault on Paul from the top rope. Orton hits the RKO but Owens kicks out, Paul nails Orton with the brass knuckles but Randy kicks out, Randy goes for the punt but the Prime bottle mascot pulls Paul out of the ring who turns out to be streamer iShowSpeed who suffers an RKO on the announce table. Owens goes for the pop-up powerbomb and Orton reverses it in mid-air for the RKO but Logan throws out Orton and hits the frog splash on Owens to win and retain the championship.
Match Rating: 4.25/5
IMG Credit: Fox News
Prince’s Review:
The best title defense for Logan! Not only did he share the ring with two absolute beasts of this field, but developed a fantastic ounce of chemistry with them. Owens and Orton brought great banter and switched to a fun, competitive duel in style. The intense pace meshed well with the spots called on, especially the ridiculous reveal of Speed behind the PRIME mascot. Trust me, that wasn’t on my wrestling bingo of this year. It was a fun moment between him and Orton, eventually leading to a fantastic finish in favor of Logan. His first ‘Mania as a champ and getting a huge win like this meant more than the other pathways of an end.
Match Rating [8/10]
IMG Credit: USA Today
WWE Women’s Championship: IYO Sky vs Bayley
IYO works on Bayley’s leg early on to slow her down, IYO cuts off Bayley’s offence at every turn because of her injured knee, Bayley goes for the elbow, IYO reverses into the crossface. Bayley hits the Bayley-to-Belly suplex but IYO kicks out, IYO hits the moonsault but Bayley kicks out. IYO goes for the moonsault again but Bayley moves out of the way and hits the suplex and hits the elbow and then the Rose Plant to win the Women’s Championship.
Match Rating 4.5/5
IMG Credit: Wrestletalk
Prince’s Review:
After a close margin of two years, the story of Bayley and Damage CTRL reached its end convincingly. The ladies worked frantically with a steady arc of Iyo targeting Bayley’s knee and working more. Bayley replied in her wacky, dexterous style and never backed down. The chemistry was amazing, the emotions were at their peak, the fans were fantabulously pro-Bayley, and the final stretch was beautiful. After being selfless for so many years and backing up the pandemic era as one of the underrated champions, Bayley deserves this crowning more than anything else. I’m super happy that it happened via a great clinic of a match.
Match Rating [9/10]
IMG Credit: Wrestling Inc
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes
Roman takes charge early whipping Cody with a kendo stick, they brawl to the outside and into the crowd, Roman goes for a suplex on the outside but Cody reverses into one of his own, Reigns reverses the disaster kick into a powerbomb, Roman dominates the middle portion of the match then Rhodes begins his comeback hits the disaster kick, Roman fights back and hits the Cross Rhodes on Cody but Cody kicks out. Rhodes stings Reigns with the left jabs before landing the Boinic elbow, Reigns low blows Rhodes and powerbombs Cody through the table and then hits the Superman Punch but Cody kicks at 2. Cody hits Roman with a spear but that wasn’t enough, Cody goes for the Cross Rhodes but Jimmy Uso runs-in and superkicks Cody, Jey Uso runs down and spears Jimmy off the stage, Roman nails the spear but Cody kicks out. Cody goes for Cross Rhodes again but Solo Sikoa spikes him to save Reigns, Sikoa and Reigns hit the spike/spear combo but Rhodes kicks out again. John Cena runs in and attacks Sikoa, the hits the AA on Roman in the ring then AA’s Solo through the announce table. The Rock comes out to attack Cena with a Rock Bottom, Rock. goes to attack Rhodes but then the Shield music hits, Rollins tries to help but gets Superman Punched by Reigns. Cody seems helpless but then… Gong! Undertaker appears and chokeslams The Rock. Roman is going to hit Cody with the chair but he glances across at Seth and the flashback to the breakup of the Shield 10 years ago, he can’t let go of the past and smashes Rollins in the back with the chair just as Rollins did to him that fateful night in June 2014. Roman goes for one final spear but Rhodes see it coming, Cody finally hits the, first one, then the second one and then after forever hits the third and final Cross Rhodes and covers Roman Reigns, 1… 2… 3! Cody Rhodes finishes the story and finally wins the Undisputed WWE Championship!
Match Rating: 5/5
Prince’s Review:
It would be best to take a simple decision and weave it into something magical. That happened here in this high-stakes match, culminating in one of the best stories in modern wrestling history. After Saturday’s turmoil, these two weren’t meant to deliver a spectacle like last year. Still, the intertwined confrontations upped the ante in the form of a massively positive overbooking move. Jey/Jimmy getting crazier than their actual battle, Cena stepping up to Sikoa for revenge, Rock/Cena teasing Thrice in a Lifetime (jokingly), and to cap off, THE UNDERTAKER folding The Rock! Even, Seth’s loyalty of being a true shield to Cody pissed off Roman like how he felt back in the day – man! It hit differently and cemented the conclusion in style.
Match Rating [10/10]
Final Thoughts:
What a night! After an indifferent Saturday that seem like a set up plot more than a wrestling show, Sunday was the full cinematic movie that lived up to being not just the biggest show of the year, but arguably the biggest of all time. A show of amazing matches, surprising twists, great action and the greatest story in pro wrestling delivered the most satisfying conclusion in the best WrestleMania main event in history. After the agony and questions in looking back to the ending last year, all of us wondering if they’d blown the chance to make something special, they’ve proved everyone wrong and in Cody Rhodes they have the most mega babyface in the 21st century and absolutely the man to replace John Cena as the face of WWE. What’s more, the exciting thing is it’s only the beginning, there are so many new stories to come now and many that have brand new chapters that will be developed and grown over the next months and even the next year, especially with Cody, after all, as a wise man once told us a year ago… The story never ends.
Night 1 of WrestleMania 40 is officially in the books, a show that had some interesting decisions, questionable pacing, great, good and lacklustre action in between, overall it was a fun show to watch, it had the highs and lows that any big show can have so here’s our review of WrestleMania 40 Night 1.
Women’s World Championship: Rhea Ripley vs Becky Lynch
IMG Credit: Sporting News
Becky’s entrance shows snippets and voice bits from her new book, Rhea gets a live performance of her theme from Motionless In White. Rhea controlled the match early but Becky targeted Rhea’s injured left hand, Lynch hitting big moves to Ripley outside the ring, Rhea uses her strength to counter Becky’s attempts to attack her injured arm. Becky locks in the Disarm-Her, Rhea reverses with an electric chair to the outside of the ring, great back and forth in the closing stages, Rhea wins with a Riptide into the turnbuckles and then another Riptide in the centre of the ring to get the pin and remain champion. Great call to have Rhea win clean with no shenanigans, there’s some bigger matches for her down the road, suspect Becky could be going off TV for a while, very good opener.
Match Rating: 4/5
Six-Pack Ladder Match for the Undisputed Tag Team Championship: The Judgement Day vs #DIY vs New Catch Republic vs The Awesome Truth vs A-Town Down Under vs The New Day
IMG Credit: The Independent
Fun filled ladder spots with every team given a chance to showcase, Bate & Dunne doing simultaneous moonsaults off the ladder to everyone, R-Truth cosplaying as John Cena was amazing, had the entire crowd eating it up, Waller & Theory chickening their way to win the SmackDown titles was a genius move. Kofi delivering a dive to everyone off the ladder, Gargano & Ciampa delivering big finishers through tables and off the ladder, R-Truth wins the RAW titles the result the crowd wanted. It was what it was, nothing truly spectacular, it was mostly a spot filled match that had good moments in it but nothing too memorable but overall a decent showing with two clever choices of winners and absolutely the right decision to split the Tag Team titles.
Match Rating: 3/5
Rey Mysterio & Andrade vs Dominik Mysterio & Santos Escobar
IMG Credit: Yahoo
Huge double crossbody from the top to the outside from Rey and Andrade, heels work over Rey for a while, good callbacks to Rey/Dom’s Mania match from last year, Rey gets beat down until Andrade gets the hot tag and takes control, chaos between the factions outside the ring, including some big dives from everyone, finish sees Dom’s attempts to use a chair thwarted by two huge men in masks, revealed to be Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson of the Philadelphia Eagles, Rey hits a double 619 and a splash on Dom to get the win. The finish seemed very abrupt and out of nowhere, also curious that there was no surprise turn from Carlito which was heavily hinted at, maybe that’ll be saved for down the road, a decent match.
Match Rating: 3/5
Jey Uso vs Jimmy Uso
IMG Credit: Sony Liv TV
Jey jumps Jimmy before the match starts and dominates most of the match showing his development of his character over these years in this story, showing as being able to stand on his own without the Bloodline, batters Jimmy with super kicks for days. Jimmy tries to beg off and sucker Jey into a trap by apologising to him. But in the end Jey finishes Jimmy off with an Uso splash, nice to see they didn’t drag it out into a long affair for the sake which they have fallen into the trap of doing in recent years. This will definitely divide opinions, some might say it underdelivered, the fact they essentially used the same moves on each other didn’t help, but the story was clear, in that Jey has elevated himself and created his own career while Jimmy has been left in the past. I can understand if some felt it was a bit underwhelming action wise but overall a solid showing from both.
Match Rating: 3.5/5
Damage CTRL vs Bianca Belair & Naomi & Jade Cargill
IMG Credit: New York Post
A simple match but it was done with one job in kind and it achieved that. This was a showing for Jade Cargill, Damage CTRL picked off Bianca and Naomi for most of the match and would always get cut off when they would try a comeback and then as soon as Jade tagged into the match, the match turned on it’s head. All the babyfaces hit their big moves including Bianca landing a massive whiplash of her hair on Asuka that was heard by everyone, Jade picks up the win hitting her Jaded finisher on Dakota. Jade was clearly presented at the star and it’s obvious they’re shooting her too the moon, the crowd was super into her too, she had the star attraction and presence about her and hopefully big and better things to come and have mega matches against Bianca and many others in the future.
Match Rating: 3.25/5
Intercontinental Championship: Gunther vs Sami Zayn
IMG Credit: Daily Mail
The Rocky story they’ve been doing between Sami Zayn and Chad Gable was brilliant including the backstage interactions before the match, the interactions with Sami’s family and Kevin Owens showed how much belief Sami’s family and friends have in him. Gunther battered Sami most of the match, lethal chops from the start, then just hit powerbombs and splashes from the top rope, taunting Sami’s wife at ringside, until Sami did the massive comeback, Sami’s selling the whole match was so believable, same applies to Gunther, he makes everything so believable with every move he delivers, the building frustration at not putting Sami away just built to the ending sequence so well. Sami busts out the brainbuster from the top rope which was insane, Sami hits back-to-back Helluva Kicks, Sami Zayn wins the IC title and ends Gunther’s reign as champion at 666 days. Great match and Sami pulling out the amazing win was a genuine surprise but it was brilliantly done, take a moment to appreciate Gunther delivering the greatest IC title reign in history, hopefully he slowly now transitions into the World title scene later this year.
Match Rating 4.25/5
Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins vs The Rock & Roman Reigns
IMG Credit: Hindustan Times
Great main event, went at their own pace and slowly built up the tension and stakes into the match, Rock didn’t look out of place or out of breath considering it’s his first real wrestling match for 11 years and more than held his own, Cody/Seth/Roman delivered as we’d expect them to do. Felt like an old school attitude era PPV main event match, refs giving some leeway as they brawled on the outside, heel Rock is simultaneously hated and beloved in equal measures, there were enough story elements and teases for night 2, mostly the spear from Reigns on Rock which will absolutely come into play at some point, Cody had Roman beaten twice in the match before Rock stopped him, first by pulling the ref out of the ring and then right at the end they replay the finish of Roman/Cody last year when Cody hits the double Cross-Rhodes and goes for the 3rd one but Rock lashes Cody with the weight belt to prevent Roman from losing. Roman then spears Cody but Rock insists Reigns tag him in, which he eventually does, then Rock hits Cody with a spinebuster and then gets the win with the People’s Elbow. Rock winning the match pinning Cody is what everyone felt would happen, it’s seems a sure sign that Cody wins on Night 2, we hope and pray, and that Cody/Rock title feud is surely set for later in the year, maybe at SummerSlam.
Match Rating 4.25/5
Overall Thoughts:
A fun show for the most part, the opener was great and the last two matches were both fantastic for different reasons. The middle portion of the show did fall a bit flat but nothing was bad or ruined the show, a very good Night 1. For the first in the two night era of WrestleManias, Sunday has a shot at being the better show than Saturday, it should be an absolute barn burner and Roman/Cody is going to feel like a movie and please, please… Please WWE, get the ending right this time and… Finish The Story.
Trick Williams faces Carmelo Hayes in the main event, Tony D’Angelo’s most important match against Ilja Dragunov, and more in the first PLE of WrestleMania weekend.
The Countdown:
Singles Match: Shawn Spears vs. Joe Gacy
IMG Credits: WWE.com
Joe Gacy won by pinfall in 9:04
Both men made things work and delivered the right amount of hype before the main show. The rivalry wasn’t otherworldly, but it generated buzz amongst the fans and led to an engaging match. It’s sad to see Spears lose this early, but from Gacy’s perspective, he needed this win to bounce back from the string of downfall in recent weeks. Holland’s pre-match interruption and his whole take on this story feel weird still, and it could take time to see what’s in store for the former Brawling Brute.
Rating: 3/5
The Main Show:
NXT Tag Team Championship Match: Bron Breakker & Baron Corbin [C] vs. Nathan Frazer & Axiom
IMG Credits: WWE.com
Bron Breakker & Baron Corbin retain in 11:20
Despite a few mishaps, the synergy between these teams was amazing. Wolf Dogs are growing so well as a duo, creating an energetic dynamic that most makeshift teams lacked in on the long haul. Frazer & Axiom fit the same description but brought a more frenzy nature of two diverse acrobats. That’s why I had them winning the titles here so that the transition of Bron to SmackDown would be smooth. Now that the result wasn’t in favor of the challengers, it creates an immediate intrigue on what’s next for the champions.
Rating: 3.5/5
NXT North American Championship Match: Oba Femi [C] vs. Dijak vs. Josh Briggs
IMG Credits: WWE.com
Oba Femi pinned Josh Briggs to retain in 15:01
Phew! The heart of Big E would be filled with satisfaction after witnessing this hellacious fight of “Big Meaty Men Slapping Meat”, and that’s what I expected. Every person had their chance under the spotlight, and they killed it like there was no tomorrow. Dijak is a specialty in matches like this where the stakes are high and the barriers are huge to hurdle. His performance is undoubted, but the showings of Briggs and Oba must be praised. Briggs walked in as the dark horse and stayed the same, and the champion himself stepped up higher than anticipated in such a short time. The meteoric rise of Oba continues, and there wasn’t any form of disappointment within the fans.
Rating: 4.25/5
Six-Woman Tag Team Match: Thea Hail, Fallon Henley & Kelani Jordan vs. Jacy Jayne, Kiana James & Izzi Dame
IMG Credits: WWE.com
Thea Hail made Izzi Dame tap out in 11:41 for the victory
I was rooting for this match to be the catalyst for cooling down the audience, and it certainly was! No disrespect to the talent involved, but, this story didn’t break the ceiling like other rivalries. From the start of the Hail/Jayne friendship, it was meant to travel this path and I’m glad that both picked the right cohorts to infuse in this story to hide the amateur shades of Izzi and Hail to an extent. Kelani took a lot of damage, which worked very well as part of her character as the undermined starter. The winning way was a surprise that matched well with Thea’s energy.
Rating: 3/5
NXT Women’s Championship Match: Lyra Valkyria [C] vs. Roxanne Perez
IMG Credits: WWE.com
Roxanne Perez won by submission in 16:18
Unlike the previous matches, this started slow with an underlying layer of Lyra walking into this match less than a hundred percent. The limb work on Lyra’s arm was well focused and executed by Roxanne, and props to Lyra for her selling. As the clock ticked, they transitioned to a fast pace, started to trade blows, and felt more connected with the fans. The interference of Tatum was expected in one way or another, but it didn’t resonate well with the story. Roxanne’s title victory needed so much after bringing the shift in her character, and at a young age, the accolades on her resumé speak volumes.
Rating: 3.75/5
NXT Championship Match: Ilja Dragunov [C] vs. Tony D’Angelo
IMG Credits: WWE.com
Ilja Dragunov won by pinfall in 17:05
The buildup to this match was extremely intriguing, and I didn’t anticipate an instant classic; all I rooted for was a breakout party for D’Angelo through the main event scene. Thanks to the intensity brought by both men, this match certainly became the party and let every one soak in his caliber. The moments were spot on, the action was equally delivered, and the emotions were expressed excellently. If it weren’t now, the stars would certainly align for D’Angelo in the future, and Dragunov’s reign has reached its peak here.
Rating: 4/5
Singles Match: Trick Williams vs. Carmelo Hayes
IMG Credits: WWE.com
Trick Williams won by pinfall in 14:46
Considering the monstrous build, I’d say on behalf of the fans that the expectations were sky-high for this showdown. As much as I loved the ‘relaxed rules’ condition being the theme of the match to let them loosen up, the benefits would’ve been even better if it had a wild stipulation. In addition, the match length was arguably cutthroat as the hype was enormous. Nonetheless, the magnitude was felt, the action was kept to a minimum without going too hard because of Trick’s grow-up process, and I firmly believe that the rivalry is far from over.
Rating: 4/5
Overall Match Rating: 3.5/5 Overall Show Rating: 8/10
Match of the Night: Oba Femi vs. Dijak vs. Josh Briggs Highlight of the Night: Giulia’s classic appearance Weak Link of the Night: N/A
Overall Thoughts
In recent memory, NXT’s work in building matches ahead of the upcoming PLE has been commendable despite taking a few bumps in the journey. However, the quality of the event is undeniable, and Stand & Deliver is no different. From the highly energetic tag-team opener to the emotionally superior main event, every match had a reason to be on the card, and nothing overstayed. The North American three-way was the best match, a supercharged hoss fight between three of the meatiest men in NXT’s current crop. To add more sauce, the surprise appearance of Giulia, a former superstar in STARDOM in classic TakeOver style. Other than the excitement of her presence, the major takeaways would be the anticipation of the next steps for the champions who walked out and the main event storyline’s consequence.
What are your thoughts on the show? Chime it in the comments section below!
It’s the week of WrestleMania and despite not being able to perform on the show of shows CM Punk is still in the news as his interview on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani revealed a lot about his departure and problems with AEW and how his return to WWE came to fruition and for the entirety of the 2-hour interview he detailed the good, the bad and the ugly, the only way CM Punk knows how.
10. He Re-signed With WWE Right Before He Walked Out On Survivor Series
IMG Credit: Daily Mail
The wrestling landscape was shifted seismically when Phil Brooks walked out into the Allstate Arena in Chicago at the end of the Men’s WarGames main event at Survivor Series. It came as a massive surprise to fans and wrestling reporters alike that Punk resurfaced as quickly as he did following his highly publicised departure from AEW, revealing own the show that during his discussions with WWE President Nick Khan about potentially coming back that he never had a no-compete clause in his AEW contract which allowed him to resign with WWE anytime he wished. Punk detailed that on thanksgiving week through a FaceTime with Triple H they hashed out their differences and spoke about coming back to WWE again, and that he signed his WWE contract right before he went to the gorilla position to walk out at the end of Survivor Series to once again change the game.
9. He Said AEW Felt Betrayed When He Went Backstage To WWE
IMG Credit: WrestleTalk
During his time in the sidelines injured with a torn triceps in early 2023, and don’t worry we’ll get to that situation later, it was reported that CM Punk was backstage during an edition of Monday Night RAW live from his hometown of Chicago. On the show Punk said he was invited backstage by good friend Bayley to come and say hi and he met up with several WWE talent including Triple H for a few moments before Vince McMahon instructed Punk to leave the building during to him being contracted to AEW which Punk immediately did of his own accord. Once word got back to AEW officials about this fleeting visit, Punk claimed that they felt betrayed by his showing up backstage which he found amusing considering that AEW allow their wrestlers to appear and perform in other promotions shows but chastised him for just showing up backstage to another show.
8. He Was Originally Supposed To Face Seth Rollins At WrestleMania
IMG Credit: Bleacher Report
A curse that has been following CM Punk ever since his return to wrestling in 2021 has been a reoccurring theme of injuries. Suffering a broken foot in June 2022 on an episode of Dynamite during a stage dive into the crowd and then a torn triceps in September of the same year, we’ll get to that one, on which note that injury flared up again during his in-ring return to the WWE at the 2024 Royal Rumble. Soon after entering the match he tore the triceps on the opposite arm to the one he injured in AEW, he confirmed that there was no audible called in the Rumble revealing he was never supposed to win the Rumble. However on the show Punk did say that he was originally supposed to face Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship on Night 1 of WrestleMania but Punk was very philosophical about it, saying he was not mad about it and that he wouldn’t step on anyone’s toes or steal main events from anyone, he said he’s recovering very well from his surgery and can’t wait to come back to the ring.
7. He Said AEW Isn’t A Business And Not Wasn’t What He Thought It Was
IMG Credit: Inside The Ropes
Upon his sensational return to wrestling in the United Center in Chicago, CM Punk appeared to be the new leader of AEW to help drive them to compete with WWE as the true alternative and to lead them into a thriving business that would grow expediently. or at least that’s what Punk though he was signing up for when he joined in August 2021. He realised AEW weren’t interested in making money, selling tickets or growing the company and that it was an independent promotion with a large budget, appealing to the internet fans, calling them a niche audience who only care about having “5-star matches” claiming that the product that AEW shows is not sustainable to be produced on national television and that it’s being proved right now with AEW’s dwindling attendances and ratings compared to the growth and upward trajectory that WWE is on right now. He has no ill will towards AEW, he wishes everyone well and he hopes it will be successful to help the business and that it will give other wrestlers opportunities to work and make money.
6. He Claims Tony Khan Is Not A Boss And Has No Leadership Skills
IMG Credit: Wrestling News
Obviously one of the biggest discussion points of the interview was about AEW president Tony Khan. Although Punk said Tony was a nice guy, he said he was not a leader and judging by incidents that we know of and what Punk revealed in the interview it’s very hard to argue with that statement. He said there were many times were a lack of leadership and wondering who’s actually in charge became detrimental not only to himself but to the locker room, the promo with Hangman page before Double Or Nothing, the rumours about Colt Cabana being allegedly removed from TV, the incidents that lead to his tirade at the All Out post-show scrum just to name a few. Upon his return from injury in June 2023, he was signed as a producer for Collision and a consultant to Tony Khan, during which time came the confrontation with Jack Perry about using real glass in a segment on Collision after multiple push-backs from others on site that day, Punk made the call to not allow Perry to do the spot, however he shouldn’t have had to deal with it in the first place. Tony Khan as the boss of the promotion should’ve handled that or any of these situations and defused it immediately, instead he allowed them to bubble over into these explosions and has left himself as a figure of ridicule for a lack of control over the people he employs. As Punk said during the interview “Be the boss and please handle that, or I’ll handle it and you won’t like the way I handle it”.
5. He Had To Pay For His Own Surgery After Brawl Out Incident
IMG Credit: WrestleTalk
One of the most startling revelations of the interview was the infamous ‘Brawl Out’ incident at the post-show scrum at All Out 2022. When asked about how he recovered from ‘Brawl Out’ Put revealed that no-one from AEW contacted him for 6 months following the incident, that he paid out of his own pocket to have surgery for his torn triceps which occurred that September night in Chicago and had to book his own rehab because he was excommunicated from the higher-ups in the company, thankfully he contacted Dr. Samson an AEW physician who he knew from WWE who managed to help him through his recovery. During this, Punk heavily implied that the torn triceps occurred during the backstage brawl with company EVP’s The Elite rather than the match with Jon Moxley that night, which if true is staggering that no-one in the company bothered to help out their biggest star with recovery from a serious injury, it highlights both a lack of organisation and also serious negligence which does not reflect well on anyone in AEW at all.
4. He Wanted AEW To Let Him Go & Never Wanted Them To Split The Roster
IMG Credit: Wrestling Headlines
During the hiatus of September 2022 to June 2023, CM Punk said he felt there was too much drama and BS backstage in All Elite Wrestling and that no one in the upper clique, heavily implying company EVP’s The Elite, wanted him there and that it would be better for everyone to just be let go but Tony Khan refused to let him go and pitched him the idea of splitting the roster in half with the creation of AEW Collision. Punk did not like the idea of spreading the wrestlers claiming that he told Tony Khan that it would never work without gathering everyone into a room and hashing out their differences and that the cliques and division between the roster would only get worse and that it would be impossible to make it work but Khan insisted on doing it. Immediately after his return he knew that nothing had changed in the company over his 9 months on the sidelines and he lamented what he was doing and realising the company was in his words, never going to work, that no-one was prepared to make moves to make the changes that he believed were necessary to help AEW move forward.
3. He Quit AEW Right Before His Match At All In: London
IMG Credit: Sports Illustrated
The infamous day of August 27th 2023 at Wembley Stadium in London was cursed for Punk right from when he landed in the UK. Nobody from AEW was there to pick him up from the airport so he had to ride the tube in London to reach his hotel room which he chuckled about the whole situation but claimed it was irresponsible of the company to allow that to happen. Then when Jack Perry uttered those seven immortal words on the buy-in “Real glass, go cry me a river.” Punk pleaded with Khan to fix the problem which Khan responded indifferently. Punk proceeded to take matters into his own hands and he confronted Perry backstage and just asked why he would appealing to internet fans doing dangerous stuff. Perry responded by saying Punk could do something about it and Punk locked Perry in a chokehold before Samoa Joe and others asked him to stop, at which point Punk went to Tony Khan and said “This place is a joke. You’re a clown. I quit.” He then went out in Wembley in front of 80,000 fans to wrestle his match against Samoa Joe before then leaving the stadium during the show, on a suggestion from head of security that it would be easier for him to leave, although he was never asked or told that he had to go, but he did on his own accord and hasn’t spoken to Tony Khan since that fateful night in London.
2. He Says WWE Is Much Friendlier Now Then When He Left
IMG Credit: Wrestling Inc.
Reflecting on the changes he’s already experienced in WWE since his return 4 months ago, Punk feels the locker room atmosphere in WWE now compared to his first time in the company is night and day. His experiences of when he first came to WWE was of a very cutthroat environment and that the tense atmosphere translated with competitiveness to get a spot on TV and having to fight relentlessly for anything which lead to the burnout he felt en route to his infamous walkout in 2014. By comparison today he feels the backstage feeling in WWE today is much more relaxed and friendly, it feels like a team effort by everyone to roused amazing matches and shows and that collaborative effort is what is helping WWE boom upwards to the rebound in popularity that it’s been experiencing even before Punk came back. He feels happy and that instead of stressing about his match and what will happen in the future, he’s enjoying everything as it happens and that he’s looking forward to what happens next.
1. He Has No Regrets About Returning To Wrestling
IMG Credit: PWMania
Summarising at the end of the interview, Punk was asked whether or not he regretted returning to wrestling due to the vast array of incidents and controversies that have happened both to him and directly involving him over the past 2 1/2 years but he emphatically answered no. He has a sense of freedom now to enjoy whatever he does in the future, in reflection he was so possessed about his character and so consumed in all of it that led to him losing his passion for the business the way that he did. But now he feels a level of happiness that he never though he’d feel again and he’s super excited about the future and we as fans cannot wait for the multitude of amazing programs involving our favourite Chicago muffin lover.
September 19, 1993 Location: Houston, Texas, USA (Astro Arena) Announced attendance: ca 6,000 PPV buys: 95,000 (down 5% from Beach Blast 1993’s 100,000 buys; down 62% from WWF SummerSlam 1993’s 250,000 buys)
Fall Brawl 1993 features the return of WarGames, as a team led by Sting & The British Bulldog takes on the fivesome led by Big Van Vader & Sid Vicious. Ric Flair defends the newly-renamed WCW International World Heavyweight Championship (formerly the NWA World Title). Cactus Jack makes his return to WCW and much more.
Here is the list of WCW champions heading into Fall Brawl:
WCW World Heavyweight Champion: Big Van Vader [186th day of his 3rd reign] – previous champion: Sting
WCW International World Heavyweight Champion: Ric Flair [63rd day of his 1st reign] – previous (NWA) champion: Barry Windham
WCW United States Heavyweight Champion: Dustin Rhodes [20th day of his 2nd reign] – previous champion: Dustin Rhodes, before it was vacated
WCW World Television Champion: Ricky Steamboat [63rd day of his 4th reign] – previous champion: Paul Orndorff
WCW World Tag Team Champions: The Four Horsemen (Arn Anderson & Paul Roma) [32nd day of their 1st reign] – previous champions: The Hollywood Blonds (Stunning Steve Austin & Flyin’ Brian Pillman)
Note: in title matches, the defending champions are underlined
Enjoy the review!
IMG credit: WWE & Sean’s Wrestling Reviews
Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Jesse Ventura
The show kicks off with a video showing regular things that happen in the fall, like kids coming back to school, before transitioning to Fall Brawl and WarGames taking over this year’s fall. The commentators hype up tonight’s matches before Eric Bischoff throws it to Michael Buffer for our first title match of the evening.
Ricky Steamboat vs. Lord Steven Regal (w/ Sir William)
WCW World Television Championship
Steamboat walks out with taped ribs due to a beating from Regal using an umbrella. Dragon takes it to Regal with chops right from the get-go. Steamboat throws Regal over the top rope to the floor, which isn’t a DQ for reasons that aren’t explained. Regal gets thrown over the top back to the ring, and Steamboat comes off the top rope with a double axehandle. The moves ends up hurting Steamboat’s ribs, though. Regal smartly drives his elbow to the ribs, but Steamboat fights back with a thrust kick. Steamboat with more aggressive chops in the corner as Regal’s chest has turned red. Steamboat takes Regal to the mat with a hammerlock. He drives some knees to the leg, and Regal goes after the ribs again to break free. Then, Steamboat plays possum in a brilliant spot before rolling Regal over into an armbar. Again, Regal with a stiff kick to the ribs forces Steamboat to break the hold. Regal lands hard on his shoulder and Steamboat goes immediately after it with a tight hammerlock. Dragon switches to an armbar, Regal manages to cover Steamboat with the hold still on, but it only gets two and Steamboat goes back to the armbar. Regal tries to break it by getting Steamboat up on his shoulders, but Steamboat rolls over and takes him back to the mat. Regal finally breaks it by dumping Steamboat to the floor and then backdrops Steamboat back inside the ring. Regal squeezes the ribs with his elbow while applying a submission, before hitting a senton on Steamboat’s back.
Steamboat uses his power to reverse, hitting an electric chair drop on Regal. He goes for a splash, but hurts his own injured ribs as Regal gets his knees up. Regal with a torture rack submission. Steamboat manages to land on his feet to break the hold before chopping Regal in the head. Regal with a painful looking surfboard submission on Steamboat. Great psychology there. Steamboat breaks free and chops away while constantly selling the ribs. His selling is superb. Regal again goes after the ribs to cut Steamboat off, and then takes the tape off. Butterfly suplex by Regal gets two. Dragon catapults Regal into the turnbuckle and goes for a powerslam, but his ribs give out and Regal lands on top for two. That’s another clever spot. Regal connects with a powerslam of his own and gets two. Regal goes for a piledriver, Steamboat leans back and reverses into his own piledriver for two. Steamboat hits a vertical suplex for two. That was a delayed cover as Steamboat was selling the ribs. Steamboat to the top and he comes down with the high crossbody for two. Shoulderblock by Ricky gets two. Regal tosses Steamboat out, Steamboat skins the cat… but Sir William knocks him out with an umbrella shot to the back of the head. Regal capitalizes with a German suplex to win the title at 17:05.
Winner & new champion: Lord Steven Regal
Rating: Badass match to open the PPV. It was a fantastic technical match that might seem boring to some, but it featured incredible selling and psychology. Some of the smart fans were booing Steamboat, but he sold his ass off like a pro here and made Regal look like a world-beater. He kept going after the injured ribs to gain the advantage yet Steamboat kept fighting back. He only went down for good once Sir William and the umbrella became a factor during the “skin the cat” spot. The fact that the umbrella caused the injury to begin with and then caused Ricky to lose the title was another great touch. This was fantastic wrestling. ****
The Nasty Boys are with Eric Bischoff and they “reveal” they’ll beat The Horsemen with a bulldog off the top rope for the 1, 2, 3. This was a knock on the spoilers that were all over the dirt sheets since WCW decided it was a good idea to book WCW TV months in advance, and thus all the hardcore fans knew the results ahead of the show.
Charlie Norris vs. Big Sky
Oh look, a babyface native American. I wonder where WCW got the idea from. Big Sky takes control early on. Charlie chops Big Sky in the arm to break free as the crowd starts a small “we want Flair” chant. Charlie takes Big Sky down to the mat and goes after the arm. “Boring” chant next while Charlie still applies the boring hold. Big Sky comes back with a chokeslam but sadly doesn’t go for the cover. Sky with a powerslam followed by a legdrop. Another slam by Big Sky and he goes up top, just to miss a flying kneedrop. Tatan… I mean Charlie Norris IS ON THE WARPATH and he makes the comeback. Big Sky cuts him off but Norris comes back with a bycicle kick to finally end this nonsense at 4:34. Jesse Ventura makes sure to point out Charlie Norris is still undefeated in WCW. Where have I seen this before?
Winner: Charlie Norris
Rating: Utterly pointless and awful. Charlie Norris came off looking like the Vinted version of Tatanka and no one gave a crap about him. DUD
A special backstage interviewer with cerebral palsy interviews Davey Boy Smith, who talks about WarGames later on.
It’s time for a ‘bonus match’ that was just added to the PPV.
2 Cold Scorpio & Marcus Alexander Bagwell vs. Paul Orndorff & The Equalizer
The fans chant ‘Paula’ before the bell. Equalizer takes it to Bagwell to start us off. Bagwell gets things going his way by avoiding an elbowdrop and hitting a running shoulderblock. Scorpio & Bagwell double-team Equalizer, with the heels walking away for a while to cut them off. Back inside the ring, Equalizer takes back control with a headbutt. Double backdrop by the heels and Orndorff comes in to work over Scorpio. Scorpio fights back and hits an inverted high crossbody, but the momentum puts Orndorff on top for two. More Paula chants from the crowd. Bagwell comes back in and hits a suplex for two. Bagwell runs the ropes for a move, but Equalizer pulls the top rope and Bagwell gets knocked to the floor. That allows the heels to get the advantage. Equalizer with a chinlock. Bagwell tries to fight out of it and manages to roll through into a crucifix pin for a one count, only to eat a clothesline by Equalizer right away. Orndorff gets tagged in and locks in a bearhug. Bagwell escapes with a backdrop suplex and finally makes the hot tag. The crowd doesn’t react to it at first, but they start making a bit more noise once Scorpio starts running wild. High crossbody gets two with Orndorff breaking up the pin, and we have everyone fighting in the ring. WE HAVE A MELEE GOING ON, says Schiavone. Sadly, no one really cares about this match. Orndorff ends up hitting Equalizer by mistake, setting him up for Scorpio’s 450 Splash at 10:46. The heels jump the babyfaces after the match and stand tall.
Winners: 2 Cold Scorpio & Marcus Alexander Bagwell
Rating: Just a cold (no pun intended) match to fill some time on the PPV. The Equalizer worked most of the match for the heel team and his heat segment was boring as hell. All the crowd wanted to do was chant Paula at Orndorff and they did care when he was in the ring, but they went back to their seats everytime The Equalizer (Dave Sullivan) got tagged in. This was a bit long for what it was, but it wasn’t horrible or anything. Just boring and a bit pointless, not necessarily bad. **
Eric Bischoff interviews Lord Steven Regal & Sir William. William says they’re going back to England, and Regal adds he’ll defend the title with honor and pride once he comes back to “this land of decadence”. Bischoff questions his values due to the way he won the title, but Regal has no time for him and walks away. This should be the beginning of an entertaining title run.
Ice Train vs. Shanghai Pierce (w/ Tex Slazenger)
I’m starting to question if I’m really watching a PPV or accidentally played an episode of Saturday Night or Worldwide. Lockup to start, Ice Train strikes first with a shoulderblock. Shanghai asks for a test of strength and cheapshots Ice Train to get control. Shanghai pounds away on Ice Train but he can’t suplex him, and Ice Train turns it into a suplex of his own. Backdrop by Ice Train. Shanghai thumbs him in the eye and Pierce & Slazenger try to use the cowbell, but Ice Train runs right through it and powerslams Pierce for the win at 3:27.
Winner: Ice Train
Rating: The finish was decent and put Ice Train’s power over, but this didn’t belong on an already weak PPV card. 1/4*
The Four Horsemen (Arn Anderson & Paul Roma) vs. The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags) (w/ Missy Hyatt)
WCW World Tag Team Championship
Michael Buffer does the introductions and announces Paul Roma as one of the most popular stars in WCW. Yeah, right. Missy Hyatt surprisingly comes out with The Nasty Boys after she was essentially rejected by The Horsemen. Knobbs talks some trash and Roma slugs away to start. Roma with powerslams on both Knobbs & Sags, and The Nasty Boys bail. Back in, Sags asks for Anderson to get tagged in, and Roma obliges. Arn takes it to Sags, rams Sags’ leg into the post and brings Roma back in. Roma goes to work on the leg with boring holds while the crowd chants “crack whore” at Missy Hyatt. Arn gets tagged in and starts going after Brian Knobbs’ leg as well. Arn goes to work on the leg with a grapevine submission followed by some knees to the leg, which looks a lot better than Roma’s offense. Roma gets back in and shows a bit more aggression as he pounds away on Knobbs’ leg. However, Roma ends up getting caught in the heel corner and Sags turns things around with a gutwrench suplex.
Knobbs with a reverse chinlock while the crowd keeps having fun calling Missy Hyatt some nice names. Roma powers up Knobbs and brings him down with an electric chair drop. Anderson gets tagged in and comes in with a sleeper on Sags. Hyatt distracts the referee, though, allowing Knobbs to clothesline Anderson over the top to the floor as The Nasty Boys take control. Jerry Sags hits Anderson with a steel chair to the back behind the ref’s back, and Sags whips Arn back-first into the turnbuckle back inside the ring. Abdominal stretch by Sags with some assistance from Knobbs. Anderson finally reverses the hold, but Sags clotheslines Anderson to cut him off. The referee misses Arn’s hot tag to Roma, as apparently this match just MUST keep going forever. Anderson bites Knobbs to escape a bearhug, only for Sags to prevent the hot tag and hit a suplex for two. Sags with a bearhug followed by a double back elbow by The Nasty Boys. Anderson avoids a backdrop and reaches for the hot tag, but Sags again stops him. The Nasty Boys go for another double-team move, but Anderson faceplants them and finally makes the hot tag. Roma unloads on both heels. Clothesline to Knobbs, dropkick to Sags, powerslam to Knobbs and a double noggin knocker. Roma goes up top and hits a missile dropkick on Knobbs for two, with Sags breaking up the pin. Knobbs gets Roma up on his shoulder and The Nasty Boys actually set him up for the bulldog off the top rope that they mentioned earlier. However, Anderson pushes Sags off the top and Roma covers Knobbs for two. Spinebuster by Arn followed by a flying splash off the top from Roma, but the ref is busy getting Anderson out of the ring. Sags drops an elbow off the top rope on Roma and that’s enough for Knobbs to steal the pin and the titles at 23:58.
Winners & new champions: The Nasty Boys
Rating: This was a lot longer than it needed to be. The Nasty Boys’ heat spot was incredibly boring and not eve Arn Anderson could save it from being mediocre. The Horsemen’s forgettable reign was over less than a month after it began, which makes me wonder why WCW took it off The Hollywood Blonds to begin with. **1/4
We see a recap of Cactus Jack getting injured back in April after taking a powerbomb from Vader on the concrete floor. Harley Race stole a mysterious leather bag from Cactus when he was getting taken away in the ambulance, and then Cactus went missing. After weeks and weeks of trying, a WCW reporter finally caught Cactus living with the homeless in Cleveland. Cactus now had amnesia and didn’t even recognize his own name or family, but Harley Race started receiving strange gifts on television such as a cactus. This led to Cactus’ return after several months away, attacking Vader after he’d defended the title against British Bulldog. Cactus revealed he’d faked the whole amnesia angle and no one believed it except from Vader & Harley. Cactus says they didn’t believe it because they’re dumb, as you can’t win that many World Titles by being an idiot, but rather because they wanted to believe it and to avoid Cactus at all cost. Vader wants to collect Cactus Jack’s head much like he did to Sting’s ribs, Ron Simmons’ shoulder and Nikita Koloff’s neck, but he can’t have it. Cactus finishes by saying there’s a day Cactus Jack is worse than any ghost, which is obviously a challenge for the next PPV, Halloween Havoc. But for now, Harley Race is offering money to anyone who can take Cactus Jack down and he hired Yoshi Kwan to get it done.
Cactus Jack vs. Yoshi Kwan (w/ Harley Race)
Cactus punches Harley Race and takes Kwan down. Cactus Clothesline puts both men on the floor. Harley Race gets involved, allowing Kwan to jump Cactus from behind with a kick to the floor. Yoshi hits a nice enziguiri on the ramp and keeps beating him up. Back in the ring, Kwan hits a nice roundhouse kick. He gets caught going for a bycicle kick and Cactus takes over. Cactus with an atomic drop, he sets up for an elbowdrop but Race trips him up. Race gets up on the apron and holds Cactus for a Kwan kick, but Cactus moves and Kwan hits Race instead. Cactus follows it up with the double-arm DDT and wins at 3:38. Cactus attacks Race after the match and officially challenges Vader for a match at Halloween Havoc.
Winner: Cactus Jack
Rating: It was barely a match and more of an angle, but it worked because the fans were excited to see the returning Cactus Jack. 1/2*
We see a recap of the Flair/Rude feud. It started during an edition of ‘Flair For The Gold’ with Rick Rude as the guest. Rude tried to seduce Fifi during the show, only to get slapped by Fifi in return. Rude jumped Flair from behind and hit him with the title belt, followed by a Rude Awakening on the floor.
Ric Flair (w/ Fifi) vs. Rick Rude
WCW International World Heavyweight Championship
Rude takes the microphone and says he’ll take Flair’s belt and his woman, before taking off his robe to show an image of Fifi on his tights. Rude works a headlock to start, with Schiavone doing a nice job explaining Rude is targeting the neck after the recent Rude Awakening on the floor. Flair avoids a flying kneedrop with Rude landing on his knee, and Flair immediately locks in the Figure Four. Rude quickly makes it to the ropes, though. Flair comes off the top with a double axehandle and he locks in a wristlock. Flair goes to work on the arm for a few minutes. Rude rakes the eyes to finally get back into it, only to miss a blind charge in the corner and Flair goes after the arm again. After a while, Rude picks up Flair for a bodyslam but the arm gives out and Flair takes him down to the mat again. Flair with his classic kneedrop to the arm and he locks in an armbar. Rude escapes it and tries a hiptoss, reversed by Flair into a backslide for two. Flair charges with a crossbody and both men go over the top rope to the floor.
Rude clotheslines Flair on the floor and drives the back onto the apron. Back in, Rude suplexes Flair from the apron into the ring for two. Bodyslam gets two more, and Rude applies a chinlock. After over two minutes in the hold, Flair escapes and runs wild for a bit, only to get caught and press slammed on the top rope. Rude dumps Flair to the outside and pounds away back inside the ring. Long bearhug by Rude. This whole PPV is so damn boring. Flair finds a way to escape, but ends up charging into a stungun. Rude hits a couple of double axehandles off the top until Flair finally reverses one. Classic Flair kneedrop followed by a butterfly suplex gets a nearfall. Flair unloads on Rude in the corner, but Rude gets his knees up to block a blind charge. DDT by Rude gets two. He sets Flair up for the Rude Awakening, but Flair bites Rude’s fingers to escape and hits his own version of the Rude Awakening to finally wake up the crowd. Flair covers but Rude gets his foot on the ropes at two. Rude locks in a sleeper, Flair escapes with a kneebreaker and goes after the knee. He goes for the Figure Four again, but Rude cradles him for two. They take the fight to the floor, with Flair slamming Rude onto the railing.
Flair goes up top and connects with a flying double axehandle on the outside. Flair chops away back in but Rude catches him with a clothesline in midair. Rude hits a kneedrop off the top rope for a nearfall before dumping Flair to the floor yet again. Rude stops to seduce Fifi, who slaps him. Rude forces a kiss on her and brings her into the ring, giving Flair enough time to get back in and take it to Rude. Flair sets up for the Figure Four, and this time he applies it. However, the referee is still busy with Fifi and Rude grabs brass knuckles from his tights. Rude knocks Flair out cold and covers Flair to win his first world title at 30:47.
Winner & new champion: Rick Rude
Rating: I wanted this match to be great. In fact, after such a weak PPV, I’d actually say it needed to be great, yet for whatever strange reason Rude and Flair just didn’t click here. Although it did get much better near the end, the first half of this match was extremely boring and felt like it would go on forever. The crowd was pretty much dead until Flair hit his own Rude Awakening too, which didn’t help. Like I said, thankfully the match got better after that spot and the finishing sequence was fun to watch, but overall this was an incredibly disappointing match between two all-time greats. But hey, it was nice to see Rude winning his first world title. **1/2
Jesse & Schiavone hype up Halloween Havoc some more before talking about the history of WarGames and tonight’s match. Dustin Rhodes has injured ribs due to a vicious attack on the previous night’s episode of Saturday Night, yet he’s still competing. Rhodes forces his way into the ring against his team’s will to start off the match against Vader.
Main Event
WarGames – Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes & The Shockmaster (w/ Road Warrior Animal) vs. Big Van Vader, Sid Vicious & Harlem Heat (Kane & Kole) (w/ Harley Race & Col. Robert Parker)
Dustin catches Vader off guard and slugs away on the big man in the corner. Dustin takes off his boot and uses it to attack Vader, until Vader takes him down with a hard clothesline. Vader goes after the injured ribs but Dustin keeps fighting back while Sting cheers him on at ringside. However, Vader slams Rhodes down and squashes him with a massive Vader Bomb. Dustin uses the boot to stay in it and actually manages to powerslam Vader in midair. The heels win the coin toss as always and send the next man in.
Kane (Stevie Ray) enters the ring to make it 2-on-1 for the heels. I’ll just call him Stevie Ray because honestly I struggle to remember who’s Kane and who’s Kole. Vader holds Dustin and allows Ray to hit Dustin with his boot. They ram Dustin’s head into the cage which busts him open and here comes Sting for the faces. Sting takes down both heels with a double clothesline and he unloads on Vader and Ray. Sting sends Ray flying into the cage. Stinger Splash to Vader and Sting slams Vader into the cage. Sting whips Ray into the second ring and focuses on Vader, resulting in two separate fights in each ring.
Sid Vicious joins the match and immediately makes an impact with a big Chokeslam to Sting. Sid chokes away on the ropes and maintains control until Sting explodes with a faceplant that draws a massive pop from the crowd. Dustin is a bloody mess in there. Sid & Vader slam Sting onto the top of the cage and beat up Dustin some more as well. Davey Boy Smith is in to even the odds but Sid is waiting for him right by the door. Sid slugs away but Bulldog breaks free and clotheslines him. Vader is on the top rope and jumps off, only for Bulldog to powerslam him in midair. Vader eventually puts him down and takes control. Rhodes rams Sid into the cage while the last man gets ready to enter the ring.
Kole (Booker T) is up last for the heels and he joins the beatdown. They actually saved The Shockmaster for last to save the day! Even Jesse mocks it on commentary by saying he’s wondering what kind of entrance we’ll see tonight. The Shockmaster is in and he goes after all the heels like the big natural disaster he is. He hammers Vader to the mat and gets a half-assed pop. Shockmaster sends Booker into the cage twice but the crowd still doesn’t give a shit. Shockmaster locks in a bearhug on Booker who gives it up (WHAT THE FUCK?) at 16:39. You’ve gotta be kidding…
Winners: Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes & The Shockmaster
Rating: You know what, this didn’t start off bad with Dustin Rhodes taking a beating due to his injured ribs. The heels cut him open early on and this had all the makings to be a fun comeback for the faces (or even a heel win as Vader could’ve used a submission win to set up the match with Foley), but that was quickly forgotten because it turned out to be all about The Shockmaster. He was barely two minutes in the ring and finished Booker T – who was the last heel to enter, no less – with a freaking bearhug. No extended beatdown on Dustin near the end, not the heels taking advantage of that to gain an advantage near the end, no nothing. A bearhug. This is one of the worst WarGames ever. **
Jesse & Tony announce at Halloween Havoc it’ll be “spin the wheel make the deal” between Vader and Cactus Jack before closing the show.
END OF THE SHOW
Final thoughts: God, this is a painful PPV to sit through from start to finish. It starts off really well with a terrific technical match for the TV Title between Regal and Steamboat, but everything after that is average at best. While the matches aren’t total duds, most are super long (a lot longer than necessary), boring and heatless. Overall, this has to be a recommendation to avoid because it’s simply not enjoyable. One of the worst PPVs of the year, for sure. 3/10
That’s all from me today. Make sure you don’t miss the upcoming reviews here on the blog. Check out the archive on top of the page with all the shows I’ve reviewed so far. Thanks for reading. See you all in the next review!
SmarKdown's Blog 