The Wrestling Thread

Hmm, I thought there was a lack of shennanigans on the Revival’s part, and the young guys powered their way through much of the match. While I did know who Moss & Sabatelli were via 24 (?) maybe I just had zero expectations of them?

So I went along and took the boy with me. Along with his ‘perfect 10’ sign. My first ever live wrestling show…

NXT GC

Akira Tozawa (who?) v Cien Almas
Big pop for Akira, nothing for Cien. I don’t know how they’ve messed up Cien, I like him but he seems to have got no momentum going in NXT. Good match, Akira got the crowd into it plenty. (Yah! Yah! Yah!) Good finish for Akira to take it.

Liv and Aliyah v Peyton Royce and Billie Kay
Heel work on the mic by Kay. Asked to be announced from Orlando. Really boring match compared to the one before. “Eyyy bailey” chant attempted for Billie but didn’t really take off. Liv pinned. Meh.

Oney Lorcan (who?) v Patrick Clark
“You look stupid” chant off the top for Clark. Followed immediately by “you are a wanker”. Clark runs around the ring and takes off his gloves. Crowd chants “you’re still a wanker”. Biggest crowd noise of the night so far easily. I don’t care for Clark but hey the idea is to get a reaction right? Done. Lorcan wins after barely doing anything all match. Also ECW chant …?

Video backstage of Revival and Dillinger plays. “Hey Tye hope this match goes better for you than Toronto”, “Oh yeah? Where’s your tag belts?” etc.

Out comes Elias Samson. Gets on the mic. Getting hammered. “What” chants. I love the Drifter so screw everyone else here.

Elias Samson v Buddy Murphy
Crowd goes nuts for Murphy. So many delete chants in the Drifter’s direction. I like him. Okay match but nothing too spectacular. My attempts at getting “drifter’s awesome” and “drifter mania” don’t catch on. For shame.

Sabatelli and Moss v DIY
Zero pop for the first two. DIY however are well over. And with good cause. Crowd gets plenty into the SnR. “Who are you?” “Go back to football!” Etc. Ciampa joins in the ten chants that have been happening since Takeover Toronto. Plenty of crowd interaction. Solid finish. DIY pose for photos and do autographs after which is … kinda weird?

(Disappointed DIY aren’t in the main event instead of TM61. I like TM61 but they aren’t main eventers yet.)

Glorious v 10
Excellent match. A lot of fun back and forth with the crowd. Bit shorter than I expected though. Shenanigans! Revival come in to cost Dillinger the match.

Ember Moon v Asuka
These two are putting on a decent match and some idiots in the crowd want to start an Ellsworth chant?

For. No. Reason.

They’re shut down with a “shut the f up” chant. Minutes go by. “Ellsworth”. Immediately boos fill the arena. Great match now. For a while it looks like Moon might actually do it (house show Joe v Balor style) as she sets up for her crazy stunner finisher (that will one day break her hip but hey it looks so rad) but Asuka counters and gets the Asuka lock in. Bah. They hug it out after the match (which is weird). Maybe match of the night surprisingly.

I have a problem with Moon dressing like a Mortal Combat character but acting as happy as Bailey. Pick one.

Six man tag
Joe and Revival vs Nakamura and TM61

Moments before the match begins the obvious dawns on me. Glorious and 10 had a short match, combined with the video package, means we’ll get a pay off in the last match.

Before Nakamura makes it out Revival and Joe take out TM61. Out comes Dillinger to even it up and following behind is Roode. Finally the violins hit and out comes Shinsuke. Heels get tossed out. 10 grabs the mic. Proposes an eight man tag. Many, many vulgar chants ensue. Terms are agreed to.

Eight man tag
Joe, Revival and Glorious vs Nakamura and TM61 + 10

TM61 in the flesh raise the same question they do on television. Why do they have the baggiest jocks in wrestling? It seriously distracts me every time I see them. “Aussie battler” chants do the rounds as the guy in orange does a marathon stint in the ring.

Getting these eight in the ring at once is fun but it also means it’s not really a great match. Revival and TM61 do good things but everyone else is relegated to bit parts. Joe barely gets involved all match. Plenty of non-wrestling back and forth though. Revival are such good heels. Roode accidentally low blows Joe while he’s holding Nakamura. Everyone gets to yell “kinshasa”. Good guys win. Everyone is happy.

===

Overall great fun show but no real particular stand out match. NXT still kinda has its problems right now with the four headline acts being over age 35 though … it’s not exactly developmental.

I wonder if Dillinger has a future? He’s so over right now but would be the very definition of a lost mid-carder on the main roster. They wouldn’t know what to do with him. Also proves how far a gimmick can get you. How do absolutely boring guys like Apollo Crews get so far without one?

Oh yeah and this finish was neat:

Full Wrestle Kingdom 11 card released: Okada vs Omega is the main event, and in his never-ending tour of every booker agreeing to his list, the man formerly known as Cody Rhodes gets a singles match against the man formerly known as CJ Parker.

EVERYONE gets a tryout.

Notables not yet mentioned include:

  • former judo Commonwealth Games medalist Jake Andrewartha is the big guy in the blue and yellow to the right. He’s a really bad wrestler and a worse talker/actor.
  • Robbie Eagles is the tiny guy in the ribcage shirt.
  • In the green is Mick Morretti. Weird unit, but can go and is very entertaining.

Mario Milano died Saturday and (almost) no one noticed.

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Oh boy the way Tom Phillips pronounces ‘Yarra River’…

Oh so that’s what he was saying

I looked at tickets to Wrestlemania today. Make me stop.

Oh boy the way Tom Phillips pronounces 'Yarra River'...
Just had a look at that...yeesh. Not sure how he went that far wrong given the common way to pronounce unfamiliar words is saying them how they look, but he's managed to invent an "aw" syllable.

Whilst I was on Phillips’s twitter I legitimately thought this new UK Championship was a ■■■■ take…nope. Really going hard at/sucking up to the UK audience. I do have to wonder what they think the saturation point is for new wrestling per week on the network, especially given they’re gauging interest in paying for indy wrestling on the network - however that would work.

Spoilers for opening match from Roadblock:

Oh dear. WWE are sooooooooo predictable when it comes to record runs with titles.

I kinda got distracted during the match because, not being a RAW watcher, I’d never noticed the “WHO” plastered all over Kofi’s tights. At the end of the match, when he stopped moving and gave me a proper look at them: YES. It is the same font as used for the Doctor Who logo in the early Eighties! Now I’m sad they lost.

Women’s Title:

Wow. Despite my comment above about the WWE’s perverse fascination with records, I had assumed Sasha would win — because how else do you have closure to the feud (of the year)?

Crowd mostly sat on their hands, sadly. (They did that for the nominal main event, too, but that included huge stretches of rest holds applied by the guy deemed by the crowd to be the face, so it deserved it.)

There was some sloppiness (e.g. Sasha’s first pin) and it was weird for Charlotte to only start working the legs after 25 minutes… but I still loved it. Charlotte could get a 4-star match out of a broomstick, if the director focused on her facial story-telling.

Thanks for the no-nonsense transition to overtime, thanks for ignoring the hardway blood at the end. Let Sasha go off and embrace her heel side, and please give Bayley a decent chase story.

Also, this guy:

The rest:

The pop for Neville’s elbow!

The RAW main event scene goes nowhere. It’s December, you expected them to do something other than to squander what money could be left in the Shield?

Letting a (failed) “happy ending” determine the choice of main event sucks.

AJ vs Ellsworth for the Title:

Nup. The crowd didn’t say that.

Highlight of the last month was when Jack Gallagher came out, announced his intention to interfere in the match, and then interfered in the match.

2016…

2016…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL_pFAyeFu8

There’s a hardy family new year special? I am going to have to watch that.

NXT over the next two weeks will include/be only from matches from the recent tour. Probably mostly Osaka this week, and Melbourne the next. Presumably will include DIY vs TM61 from Melbourne.

NXT over the next two weeks will include/be only from matches from the recent tour. Probably mostly Osaka this week, and Melbourne the next. Presumably will include DIY vs TM61 from Melbourne.
2 hour specials from each show so it'll be interesting how they edit around certain things given it looks like 5 matches will air per show.

Osaka matches to air in the 12/28 edition:
Replay of Shinsuke vs. Joe
Asuka vs. Nia Jax
DIY vs. Tajiri & Tozawa
Liv Morgan & Aliyah vs. Peyton Royce & Billie Kay
Andrade Almas vs. Oney Lorcan

Melbourne matches being broadcast on January 4 episode haven’t been announced yet, but you can expect to see:
Replay of the Steel Cage match
DIY vs. TM61 (definite)
Roode/Samson vs. Dillinger/Murphy (probable)

Other 2 at a guess…
Revival vs. Sabbatelli/Moss
Ember Moon vs. Billie Kay vs. Liv Morgan

other options are
Asuka vs. Peyton Royce
Andrade vs. Blake
Oney Lorcan vs. Patrick Clark

That last one is probably close to unairable without considerable crowd muting/overdubbing.

They wonder why interest declines in Raw. Nothing ever happens, ends in another pointless match where they try and combine fueds at the end. Oh and did I mention he champ gets pinned again? Whatever. And they wonder why no one feels special anymore.