Professional Wrestling

In brighter news, the Wednesday Night Wars came to an end as NXT got moved to a different night. And here is the result of the first night of AEW Dynamite unopposed:

• AEW registers 1.2 million in audience, their best rating since their debut episode. This is because, of course, this is the first Dynamite to run unopposed since.

LIGHT THE FUSE! BRING THE BOOM!

If this video is to be believed, the writing for the IIconics was on the wall.

Edited by Mario1995 on Apr 16th 2021 at 8:42:58 AM

I don't watch WWE enough to have an opinion on the cuts, but I enjoyed reading my friend's take:

So Sasha Banks...

Imagine going 0-6 at Wrestlemania to put over and pass the torch to someone who is 3 years older than you. And imagine doing that when you're 29 years old.

Seriously, some of these women's evolution wrestlers "peaked" ridiculously young. Sasha's 29. Paige is 28 and has been retired for years. Bayley's 31.

Charlotte's the oldest of the Horsewomen, at 35. Asuka is 39.

WOW.

I just saw the Apollo and "Commander Aziz" promo, and within 5 seconds I was embarrassed as a Nigerian. Even if they pitched it themselves, it's just embarrassing.

• Kenny Omega makes history holding four belts simultaneously from three separate companies after winning the Impact World Championship in Impact's Rebellion PPV last night

The rise of The Collector (he now holds: AEW World Championship, Impact World Championship, TNA World Heavyweight Championship, and AAA Megacampeonato). No belt is safe! The speculation is he'll go for some NWA belt next and then NJPW.

Cultaholic with a retrospective of a key strong episode of RAW, because current RAW is so bad.

And since I decided to watch one of its clips,

I realized that only certain headshots are edited. The plastic trash can wasn't.

In some news that will make wanderlust happy, Jon Moxley to defend his IWPG Us title in next week's Dynamite against Yuji Nagata

Cultaholic can no longer do regular "Graded" episodes, and it's serving as a handy excuse for me to not pay attention to week to week wrestling.

Someone posed an interesting question: Who would be on the Mount Rushmore of WCW? What four individual wrestlers best headline it for its span? I don't know enough about WCW to choose 4. But to try anyway, since it's 4 wrestlers, it would of course make sense to put Ric Flair there. Goldberg and Sting are there, of course. Who rounds out the pack? I hesitate to put any one member of the NWO in, and also, eff Hogan. Does the fourth spot go to Booker T, DDP, Vader?

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on May 4th 2021 at 5:59:21 AM

Think DDP would be a pretty solid choice. He was WCW's most "homegrown" star and he was pretty huge in his heyday, with the "Diamond Cutter" becoming a pretty iconic move in american wrestling largely popularized by him. He has also aged gracefully in terms of reputation due the fantastic work he did rehabilitating Jake the Snake and Scott Hall.

That actually made me think who'd be "the big four" of ECW as well. Raven, Tommy Dreamer, Sandman and Tazz?

Edited by Gaon on May 4th 2021 at 12:17:37 PM

DDP's one of the few wrestlers I've met in person (during All In), and he's tall as fuck.

Booker T is I think the only WCW wrestler to be a two-time WWE Hall of Famer and not be in the NWO/DX/Kliq. He's also one of the Grand Slam Champion / Triple Crown Champion wrestlers in WCW, like DDP and others, but Booker's the only one to also be a WWE Grand Slam Champion. For what it's worth, on Booker's WCW Rushmore, it's himself, DDP, Sting, and Goldberg.

Speaking of Grand Slams, once NJPW settles on the wording for Jay White's latest accomplishment, then I'll add him to those pages where appropriate.

Fans seem to put Rhyno up there too, right? And the Dudleyz, but they're a tag team. And of course Heyman if you're including non-wrestlers.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on May 4th 2021 at 5:58:39 AM

Some rapid-fire news:

• Jon Moxley defended his IWGP US championship on AEW Dynamite now against Yuji Nagata, in the first high profile AEW-NJPW crossover.
• Miro (former Rusev) becomes AEW champion after what was literally the best match of his career against a bruised Darby Allin, now set for a match with Lance Archer.

And more seriously...

• Hardcore madman and psycho New Jack passes away at 58 froma a heart attack.

TNT Champion, not AEW Champion (that's still Kenny Omega).

Also, about New Jack, damn.

IWC Proving Grounds on YouTube. Four matches at their training facility. Basically, they have more wrestlers then they have space in their events. I particularly liked the match between Miles Monroe and Spencer Slade. Two schools of grappling, BJJ versus more technical Wrestling, and some excellent transitions.

Edited by FuzzyBoots on May 28th 2021 at 1:11:16 PM

So AEW's Double Or Nothing aired in a great (if rather long) PPV.

Notes:

• Cody Rhodes vs. Anthony Ogogo was the lowlight. Ogogo doesn't look bad for as green as he is but the whole "american patriotism" angle was ill-conceived which made the whole match fall a bit flat.

• AEW Women's World Championship Match: Hikaru Shida vs. Britt Baker: Slow start, but incredible fight towards the end. Baker is a star.

• Stadium Stampede II: Inner Circle vs. The Pinnacle: was a barrel of fun and had a great live-ending. Sammy Guevara looking huge.

• Orange Cassidy vs. PAC vs. Kenny Omega was incredible. MOTY contender. Orange looked like the biggest babyface on earth.

• Young Bucks vs Moxley-Kingston: Anotther MOTY contender. Bucks really deliver every PPV without fail.

Notes:

• Lio Rush is now All-Elite.
• Mark Henry is now All-Elite.
• Only one title change: Britt Baker (D.M.D) became women's world champ in a big moment for her and the female division. Deserved and she's a bonafide star.

I saw it. I enjoyed it as well.

The triple threat match had one of my all time favorite spots Orange Cassidy is in the brutalizer and Omega is trying to break him free so that Pac doesn't get the title, but Pac isn't having it because he knows if he can hold on he'll finally be at the top of the mountain, so Omega knocks out the ref so he can't end the match.

That was a good one.

You don't expect someone to just shrug off an attempt to break a pin like that. Looks like now he's the man pain forgot.

Also the man gravity forgot considering how far he flew when Kenny kicked him. Feel like Pac will definitely be world champ soon, probably with the Lucha Bros as a trio (I suspect a trios belt is coming) or as World Champ after Kenny and maybe Page.

Edited by Gaon on Jun 1st 2021 at 10:25:24 AM

I definitely feel like Page is going to be the man to defeat Kenny Omega. I think either MJF or Pac will beat Page for the title.

Feel like Pac first. MJF has the Pinnacle to lead to great heights in that meantime. He could for example lead them to a trios title (if that comes to pass as I think it is) alongside FTR or a run as TNT champion.

I feel like Darby Allin might possibly be champ before MJF. AEW has basically Four great young talents (MJF, Darby Allin, Jungle Boy and Sammy Guevara) and between those Darby and MJF have a rocket strapped to their backs while JB and Guevara are progressing a bit slower. It'd be a great move if Darby dethroned Pac (in this hypothetical Kenny-Page-Pac order, so like 2-3 years down the line) and then got dethroned by MJF. A feud between AEW's biggest homegrown talents: their biggest Face (Darby) and their biggest Heel (MJF) in something like main event Double or Nothing 2023/4. It'd sell like water in the Sahara.

I'm also wondering who is going to be the team that takes the tag belts from the Bucks.

As far as I see it, has to be the Lucha Brothers or Santana & Ortiz. Lucha Bros would make the most sense because they're the Bucks's most storied rival (they fought I think something like 6 times between the US and Mexico since 2019 with a roughly even amount of wins and losses between them) and they have incredible ring chemistry. Then the Lucha Bros drop to Santana & Ortiz in a full Latino feud.

After that it's uncharted waters, but if I had to throw a guess at I'd say Private Party.

Oh yeah! I'm not even sure how he did that. It looked like something out of a movie. Like, that's how you fly when you get kicked by fucking MCU Captain America. If he jumped back, it was so seamless and smooth, I couldn't even tell.

Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Lana, Murphy, Ruby Riott and Santana Garrett were all released on Wednesday from the WWE.