Welcome to the “Week 17 of the Wednesday Night Wars” edition of The Wrestling List. Let’s get right into the recap and some of my random booking and thoughts of the show as these shows go on.
AEW this week was recorded from the Jericho Cruise. So, it was a definite unique look to the show. It reminded me a lot of the old WCW Spring Break Nitro shows. Definite windy weather coming on that outdoor setting. They had the pyro and smoke set up in the aisle way and every time that stuff would go off, you would see the pyro lean and the smoke drift. As I was watching the talent walk through that, I thought that wouldn’t be the most fun to walk through. Kind of reminded you of walking through Goldberg’s WCW pyro. Definite cruise party atmosphere to this show. As I was watching, I said this would not be for me with something to attend. Show opens with the tag titles on the line as SCU defends against Page and Omega. We have new tag team champions as Omega and Page win the belts. The victory celebration has the Bucks walking out to celebrate with them. Page remains standoffish with a look of go celebrate with Omega. Page goes out into the crowd to celebrate. Next is Britt Baker taking on Priscilla Kelly. Announcers and graphics putting over Baker’s frustrations as of late. There was one spot in the match where Baker had a submission on. Kelly was trying to reach the ropes. Baker kicked herself off of the ropes to land the submission more back in the ring. JR said that is a judgment call by the ref as the ref acted like it was a cheating tactic. That isn’t illegal. Since when can you kick yourself off of the ropes to move yourself? LOL. I’ve never seen that be illegal. I’d rather talk about the days of when the person in the submission would touch the ropes and the ref wouldn’t break the hold when they went into the you have to grab the rope deal. Touch the rope, break the hold. Never understood why WWE went to that tactic. Baker wins the match by submission. After the match, Tony goes in the ring to interview her and Baker goes into full heel mode ripping on Tony. Commenting on how he was working at a Starbucks. She failed to mention how he works in sports broadcasting. LOL. Just kind of odd that they are turning Baker heel. Did they feel like she wasn’t getting over as a babyface? I haven’t seen the crowd just getting behind her huge but they cheer her. They haven’t been against her for sure. So, this is kind of odd that they flipped her heel so quick. JR says we’re going to commercial and we aren’t going to listen to this anymore from her on Tony. She was also doing the whole I’m a role model thing and the hottest thing here. So, she is basically doing another version of the Bayley heel character. As I was watching this, I said well, this isn’t very original especially when WWE is already doing the same thing on their show. Six man tag next with Jurassic Express taking on Chris Jericho, Santana, and Ortiz. Jericho is way over here including the crowd singing his song on the way to the ring. The song stops and they finish out the chorus. That was fun. Chants of “thank you Jericho” and he grinned at that. I mean this is his cruise so I expect he’ll be even more over here. LOL. This is a fun match. Jericho, Santana, and Ortiz prevail when Marco is pinned by Jericho. MJF is next taking on Joey Janela. Finish has Janela distracted when Sabian and Penelope arrive on the ramp. They kiss up on the ramp distracting Janela. That allows MJF to get the win. MJF gets on the mic reminding that Wardlow isn’t there but that Cody can’t touch him anyway. Cody makes his way to the ring. Cody says he knows that he can’t touch him. Enter The Bucks. They sneak up and hey, there is a pool there so you know someone is going in it. Just like the WCW Spring Break days. MJF is the one going in it courtesy of the Bucks. Main event time with Pac against Moxley. Winner is the number one contender for Jericho. Moxley is of course still bandaged with the eye selling the attack from last week by Inner Circle. Jericho is on commentary for this one. Moxley is able to prevail in this match. He is now the number one contender
NXT goes on the air with its go home show leading into Rumble weekend leading up to NXT When Worlds Collide. Opening up with the Dusty Rhodes Classic semifinals with Undisputed Era taking on Grizzled Young Veterans. Cole walks over to the announce table immediately saying they aren’t hiding from IMPERIUM. This was also my first realization of oh, I hadn’t realized they moved the announce table from the other end of the building. Did this just happen? LOL. We get near the finish of the match and the IMPERIUM music hits. They are standing up on the perch area of the floor. Undisputed Era yells at them to come down there. IMPERIUM just stands and watches. This leads to the Veterans getting the distraction victory and moving on in the tournament. Undisputed Era is livid after the match wanting IMPERIUM. Io Shirai up next taking on Toni Storm. The match ends when Bianca Belair interferes and attacks Toni Storm. Belair is sending a message as Belair wants to be the one to dethrone Rhea. Rhea arrives on the ramp. Rhea gets in ring and Belair tells her to bring it. They brawl for a few seconds before Shirai nails a big dropkick on to Rhea. She then moonsaults taking out Rhea and Belair on the floor. Toni then takes out Shirai. Toni looks at the championship belt and holds it up. Full Sail is booing her. Toni is going to have a problem here with the crowd. Crowd loves Io. Then, they also are behind Rhea. Toni is the odd one out here. Next segment is up with Finn Balor taking on Joaquin Wilde. Finn hits the 1916 DDT for the win in a very short match. Cathy Kelley here as she interviews Shayna backstage about what Shotzi did to her eliminating her in the battle royal last week. Shayna is looking to end a career here. The match is up next with Shayna taking on Shotzi. Will Shotzi get another moment on Shayna or will Shayna end her? LOL. Shayna is doing a lot of toying with her early on looking like she is messing with her prey. Shotzi gets momentum though nailing sliced bread number two on the apron on to Shayna. Shotzi goes for the senton and Shayna catches her right into the submission. I love how Shayna can hook that into anything. Shotzi fights for a while but finally taps out. Shayna isn’t letting go though sending her message. She finally lets it go. Yep, Shayna is out here looking to end careers. LOL. Good video package airs on the history of Tegan Nox and Dakota Kai. They will go one on one next week on NXT and I am here for every bit of that. Dusty Rhodes Classic is next with Pete Dunne and Matt Riddle taking on IMPERIUM. Riddle and Dunne get the win moving on to the final. Veterans walk out after the match on to the stage in front of the trophy as both talk trash on winning. Main event time with Keith Lee challenging Roderick Strong for the North American title. Undisputed Era is at ringside for this one so Lee has some odds to overcome. I mean really though, we know IMPERIUM is going to get involved at some point cause we have to have a big brawl for the go home show with the main event of it. Keith Lee gets the win and wins the North American title by pinball. Not a good show for Undisputed Era. IMPERIUM cost them the Classic and now they have lost their first championship. And here we go. IMPERIUM is now standing on the outside of the ring. Now facing off with Undisputed Era. Brawl is on. Here is the paint by number booking on a go home show but it’s good stuff. Paint by number is all you need sometimes. And I think WALTER just chopped Adam Cole’s chest off!!!!! That was NASTY. Don’t think I have ever heard the crowd chant that on a chop before. LOL. That’s it for NXT. All roads lead to When Worlds Collide now.
Show of the Week: NXT
Match of the Week: Riddle and Dunne against IMPERIUM.
Ratings. AEW lost viewers. NXT gained viewers. However, AEW still prevails. AEW does 871,000 viewers which is down from last week’s 940,000. NXT was up to 769,000 viewers as compared to last week’s 700,000. 18-49 demo for AEW is 0.35. NXT does 0.24.
I had to look back and remind myself of if I talked about the Stone Cold interview with Kane. I watched that the day it aired. It was fun. I wouldn’t call it must see but you’ll enjoy it. Lots of good stories between the two who have worked so much with one another. They do discuss the 1998 King of the Ring which is hilarious from their perspective. Kane said this was my first championship win and…..nobody remembers it because of Undertaker and Mick Foley. That was of course the famous cell match where Foley went off the cell. Kane tells a great story of being backstage watching that moment huddled around the production area. They reminisce of how they knew Foley was going to be part of the finish of the match. Kane said he was watching that and saying there is no way Mick can be in their match and wondering if Mick was even going to be ok. He said he and Vince locked eyes in the moment and Vince said, “if Mick can’t come out there for your match, you are going to have to figure out another finish”. Kane told the story laughing saying he gave a shocked look of “MEEEEE????!!! What do you mean me???!!”. He said I don’t know how to finish this thing. Austin got a laugh out of that story too. As the match is going, they just keep looking hoping Mick is going to make his way down and sure enough he amazingly did. Finish went as planned. Good stories in this one. They do spend time going over Kane’s bad gimmicks such as Yankem and the fake Diesel. They don’t spend much time on Diesel though. Plenty of talk on Yankem though where he was saying how am I going to make this gimmick work???? He puts over Taker huge in how much he helped him in his career. He said he thought Taker was probably the one that put the word in for him after working with him in Smoky Mountain to get him to WWF. He said he could always go to Taker for advice and was actually told once by someone that he thought Taker was more concerned about him than he was his own self. If Taker saw something he didn’t like with what they were doing with Kane, he’d speak up about it. Watch it and you’ll enjoy this interview. There is talk that the next Stone Cold interview will be with Bret Hart which will be must see if true.
If you want to watch some old school Prime Time Wrestling, WWE Network has just added 10 episodes from 1989 that stretch from the build to SummerSlam and on into October. Lots of good stuff in that stretch of episodes that you’ll enjoy. 1989 WWF was a fun time then and looking back at it now.
It’s Royal Rumble weekend. NXT When Worlds Collide is this Saturday night. Lineup is IMPERIUM vs. Undisputed Era. Women’s champion, Rhea Ripley against Toni Storm. DIY takes on Tyler Bate and Trent Seven. Finn Balor against Ilja Dragunov. Cruiserweight title with Angel Garza vs. Swerve Scott vs. Travis Banks vs. Jordan Devlin. Royal Rumble is this Sunday night. Here is your lineup. The men’s Royal Rumble match. The women’s Royal Rumble match. WWE Universal champion Bray Wyatt defends against Daniel Bryan in a strap match. Raw Women’s Champion, Becky Lynch defends against Asuka. Smackdown Women’s Champion, Bayley defends against Lacey Evans. US title on the line with Andrade defending against Carillo. Sheamus taking on Gable. Roman Reigns against Baron Corbin in a falls count anywhere match. So, my thoughts? This will have a big show feel to it once again with it taking place in a baseball stadium which was a very cool visual for last year’s Rumble. For me, I feel like this show needs some surprises for momentum. This show just doesn’t have the I can’t wait to watch this feel as the last couple of years have felt like. I think it will be a fun show as the Rumble is a fun show. I’m also at the point of not reading much of anything or listening to much cause I don’t even like hearing any sort of buzz on surprises for the Rumble. That is the fun of it. I don’t want to know who is in town. I don’t want to know anything. As far as thoughts and predictions, I really don’t have any. Last year, we were in Becky wins this or else mode and we just don’t have that momentum of anything this year. I think Brock being in the Rumble is going to set up something for WrestleMania for him. I don’t expect him to win. Surely not, right? I’m going to go way out on a limb here as I have heard nothing on her return but I am going to predict a Ronda Rousey surprise in the women’s Rumble and that she wins it. Again, I’m just looking for something that will build momentum for that division going toward Mania and that is the first thing I thought of.
That is it for today. Have a great rest of the week!
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