Welcome to the “Week 21 of the Wednesday Night Wars” edition of The Wresting List.
Let’s start this with talking about this past Sunday night’s NXT Takeover Portland event. This was the first standalone NXT event to take place on a Sunday night. This was an awesome show! Did I like everything on it? No, there were a couple of things that I didn’t like with the booking but we’ll get there. The show opens with an awesome production of Poppy performing while NXT talent images show up on the screen above her. She really has become the singer for NXT as I think this is three times for her performing live for NXT? I enjoy Poppy. Completely different sound from what is out there. Crowd is popping for Poppy too so I think that NXT crowd has accepted Poppy too. The show opened hot with Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic. Just the awesome match that you always expect from these two and the crowd was into the whole thing. The “fight forever” chants always break out for these two. Lee gets the win by pinfall to retain the North American title. Lee offered a handshake to Dominik after the match and the two shook hands and hugged. Next was a match that I absolutely loved…..until the finish. Dakota Kai and Tegan Nox in the street fight. They were POUNDING each other. This match was a great one and those two were WORKING HARD. So many nasty spots in this one. Everything I wanted that match and rivalry to be. Then, we get to the finish where someone walks out and gets involved and I have no idea who it is. LOL. As Tegan has Dakota’s neck in a chair, Tegan walks to the top rope but Raquel Gonzalez walks out and ends up distracting Tegan. She then choke slams Tegan into the table. I won’t say through the table cause Tegan scarily kind of missed the full table not going through it but bumping into it when is never good for the ouch factor. Dakota then got the three count as Dakota looked up not knowing what was going on and why Raquel was there. Raquel raised the hand of an unsure of what is going on Dakota. I didn’t like this finish. I appreciate Beth Phoenix on commentary filling us in immediately on who Raquel was saying that she was in the Mae Young Classic. Beth was playing the role of often what Excalibur does on AEW when some random talent ends up in the ring and we have no idea who it is filling in the background info quickly. I didn’t like that run in with somebody that we don’t really know messing up a match that had been sooooooo good. I just wanted that match to go on as is. I’m sure they will explain the reasoning on why this happened and set that story going forward but I just didn’t like it in this match. Johnny Gargano took on Finn Balor Good match here. Balor prevailed in it hitting 1916 for the pinfall. Women’s title on the line next with Rhea defending against Bianca Belair. Rhea retains hitting the rip tide for the pinfall. Post match had a surprise attack from Charlotte attacking Rhea. Charlotte gets on the mic and says I’ve thought about it and I’ll see you at WrestleMania. Good with that. That means we will have Rhea and Charlotte. Guessing we will have Becky and Shayna. I don’t know where they go with Bayley. Maybe they do a multi woman match with her. Charlotte also nails Bianca leaving the ring too saying she didn’t want Bianca to feel left out too. Riddle and Dunne defeat Fish and O’Reilly next to win the tag team titles. Crowd was into this victory. I like the dynamic with Dunne and Riddle. Been a fun tag team. Main event was Cole and Ciampa. Ok, this was good but I had a couple things in this one that I didn’t like. One was the complete no sell by Ciampa with the Panama sunrise on the floor. Especially when the guy has had a neck surgery. LOL. When he landed it, that was a big move on the floor and then Ciampa was back up immediately. It was like when Dustin Rhodes nailed the Canadian destroyer on to Guevara on the apron a month ago on AEW and within a minute Guevara was back on big offense. Unusual for NXT to kind of no sell something like that but oh well. Undisputed Era runs in from everywhere trying to help. Ciampa goes to use the belt on Cole but Gargano appears and holds on to it. I just figured well, Gargano doesn’t want him to win it that way. Nope, Gargano nails him with the belt and Cole gets the win. Sooooo, I guess we are getting another round of Ciampa and Gargano. It was just odd having that happen. I wasn’t a fan of it. Just felt like the window was kind of missed a bit to go back another round of them. Now, don’t get me wrong. It will be awesome. I have pushed for years now in this List of how great that feud has been. Just kind of strange booking having Gargano snap, go heel, come back to the good side, team back up, and suddenly go dark again. Just didn’t really make sense to me and I’ll hold judgment on it to see how it is explained because Triple H always has plans and ways to make stories work. So, just waiting for the explanation and he’ll give it to us. For Sunday night, I was just confused cause it just seemed to get booked out of nowhere. It will be great though especially heading into WrestleMania season. So, just a few things booking wise that I didn’t like but this was yet another great Takeover show and one that flew by quickly watching.
This week’s NXT opens up with The Undisputed Era arriving. They are down to one championship but that is the one being celebrated here as Cole brags on his win. Before they get going too long, Velveteen Dream appears on the screen to challenge Strong for a match one on one. First match of the night has Jordan Devlin defending the cruiserweight title against Lio Rush. Match goes for multiple segments. Devlin gets the win by pinfall to retain the title. Backstage with Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez. It does look like they are going with the angle her of that Dakota is getting the respect of the PC talent by overcoming being pushed aside. Raquel mentions how Tegan had every opportunity and pushed Dakota aside. Dakota was overlooked for Wargames as well. It is a mutual bond between these two now with having each other’s back. We are ready for a Austin Theory match when Ciampa walks right into the building grabbing a mic. Theory tries to step up and get annoyed about with Ciampa saying not now, now is not the time. Basically, a you don’t want to mess with me tonight and shut up comment. LOL. Ciampa says that he was so determined to get his title back that he took his eyes off of what was going on around him talking about Gargano. He says there is no why Johnny why and that he knows why. Theory goes toward Ciampa again and Ciampa punches him down with the mic and continues to talk. Ciampa says for him to get his life back that there can be no Johnny Gargano in NXT. As Ciampa goes to leave, Theory tries a dive to the floor but Ciampa then destroys him firing him from barricade to barricade to where I just kept watching the reactions of the fans in each corner of it seeing how they were enjoying this. LOL. Next match is Mendoza and Wilde taking on Gibson and Drake. Gibson and Drake get the pinfall. The NXT tag team title celebration is next as Riddle and Dunne make their way out. I did pop for the line of Dunne asking Riddle where the golf cart was. LOL. Riddle says he got it impounded. They have a match with Lorcan and Burch. Dunne and Riddle win the match by pinfall. Keith Lee makes his way out to the ring for the next segment. He is interrupted by Kona Reeves but Lee takes him out immediately for a pinfall. Dominik makes his way out saying he is not ready to move on from this match between he and Lee. The two exchange comments on how the match turned out and Lee said he is always up for another match with him and to talk to Regal about it. They can then fight forever. Chelsea Green takes on Kayden Carter in the next match with Chelsea winning via the unprettier. So, let’s be clear here. Chelsea is always allowed on the E and C podcast. She can use Christian’s finishing move. But never forget, Zack Ryder, still banned from the podcast. LOL. Main event time with Strong vs. Velveteen. The rest of the Era gets involved in this one but Velveteen is able to beat the odds. Velveteen wins with a Death Valley driver for the pinfall. After the match, Undisputed Era all pile on Velveteen and take him down as the match ends. Anybody notice that Full Sail’s crowd energy just didn’t seem to be there this week? I don’t know if they were tired or what but it just didn’t feel like there was a lot of energy in the room.
AEW opens up with big in ring action as we have a tag team battle royal with the winner getting a tag team title shot. Interesting twist on this battle royal compared to others. Usually it is if any member of the team is eliminated, the team is eliminated. Not in this. Both members have to be thrown out. Like that. This battle royal includes……a lot of tag teams. LOL. Not going to name them. Just going to go over random things in int. Dark Order is in the front row. They do two things. One, they get on the mic and distract SCU leading to their elimination. Two, they are recruit attempting on elimination attempts. I vote for a beatdown on the Dark Order. Seriously, does anyone even take them seriously anymore? LOL. Big face-off in the middle between Luchasaurus and The Butcher. Crowd popped for this and it was a fun exchange. Luchasaurus is wayyyy over with the fans in AEW. He gets taken out by everyone in the ring throwing him out. Orange Cassidy saves a Best Friends elimination by carrying him around on his shoulders outside the ring. It comes down to Matt Jackson against Santana and Ortiz. I will say it again that I like the one elimination doesn’t eliminate the team stipulation. Guevara trips Jackson from the outside so Jackson is up against the world here against Inner Circle. He then takes out everyone and prevails. The Young Bucks are going to Revolution for the tag team title match. Cut to backstage seeing Page and Omega looking on so this definitely could continue the story of Page against the Elite here. Here is Cody and Brandi arriving backstage. I got my answer last week about Brandi when I asked is she suddenly a babyface now??? Apparently, she is and changed her ways on an AEW online video. That is one of my problems with AEW is that they have to quit assuming that everyone watches everything. I don’t watch their social media videos and I don’t watch AEW Dark so if it doesn’t happen on Dynamite, I have no idea. Kris Statlander vs. Shanna is up next. We have Britt Baker joining on commentary. How long till we have dentist office segments with Britt Baker like the Issac Yankem segments from mid 90’s WWF. Actually, don’t do that. LOL. Not just from a point of that it would be terrible TV but that is actually her real life profession and that doesn’t need to be hurt. We have a nose face-off here where each is pushing the others nose. Not quite the excitement of Luchasaurus and Butcher earlier. LOL. Fast forwarding through the picture in picture. To anyone that watches this delayed like I do, do any of you actually watch the picture in picture commercial break? I’m looking at saving time and move through it. Statlander gets the pinfall victory here. Tony is with us on the ramp as we come back from commercial and he introduces the new women’s champion, Nyla Rose for an interview. These type interviews and setting give me such Nitro nostalgia warm fuzzies. I love it. She is cutting a heel promo. I guess this is being done to establish her more as a heel cause I though the crowd was behind her quite a bit last week. Maybe this promo is being done to shut that down. Statlander arrives making her statement of wanting the belt. Big Swole arrives and she is doing the same. Officials arrive to keep everything under control. Hey, we have Tazz on commentary now. Jon Moxley arrives and he is set to take on Jeff Cobb who we learned last week had been brought in by Jericho to take out Moxley. Cobb arrives but so does Jericho who is happily showing off his ticket that he has to sit in the front row. Why does the champion need a ticket anyway? LOL. Singalong time continues. Moxley pulls off the win in this match. Immediately after the bell, Inner Circle jump in the ring and attack Moxley. Dustin Rhodes arrives to help. Numbers pile up on him though and he is getting beaten on too. Lights go out. Darby Allin’s music hits and a big pop. He’s ready for revenge. Darby jumps in using the skateboard of his as a weapon. Awesome combo with Cobb going for a suplex on Darby but Darby lands on his feet and nails him with the skateboard. Moxley lays out Cobb with a DDT. That gives us a very short battle between Moxley and Jericho before Jericho bails out. Liked that segment. Tag team title match is up next with Lucha Brothers taking on Page and Omega. The rana by Omega off the apron to the floor was incredible followed by the Page moonsault to the floor. Fun match here and Page and Omega win. That means we will get the payoff of the story build of The Bucks taking on Omega and Page where Page is the odd man out here with the friends. Bucks arrive to help up Omega. Page tries to help him up too so it is like Omega is stuck in the middle. Promo for next week with Omega vs. Pac in an ironman match on Dynamite. Toy promo where AEW announces their first ever toy line of action figures. Fun segment here with Cody, Brandi, Bucks, Omega, and Jericho all getting the first looks of their action figures. Their reactions are fun to watch. Impressive that they already have a toy line and smart to get that out there. Main event time with the steel cage match between Cody accompanied by Brandi and Arn vs. Wardlow accompanied by MJF. Pretty impressive looking cage. Lighting looks awesome hitting it. Only way to win is pinfall or submission so climbing out to win in AEW. Seriously, want to give just the tiniest bit of explanation to us Dynamite watchers on why Brandi is a babyface? LOL. Wow, this is a tall cage too now that they take the hard camera angle. At one point, Cody has the door open and is leaned over. Arn and MJF are standing by the cage door. MFJ yells at Arn to nail Cody just like he did his dad. Arn grabs the cage door…..and nails MJF with it to a pop. Cody is busted wide at this point of the match. MJF later goes to try and climb the cage and Brandi nails him with a chair a couple of times. He faces off with her and then Arn throws MFJ over the barricade into the crowd. Cody nails the crossroads on to Wardlow but he kicks out. Cody starts to look up at the corner of the cage and starts climbing. Well, this is sure to be easy. It is. A moonsault from the top for the pinfall!! That was awesome!!! That camera angle that they took of it as it happened live was perfect!!! Post match has a stunned MJF on the ramp looking up as Cody trash talks him from the top of the cage. This was a very fun show!
Show of the Night: AEW
Match of the Night: Cody vs. Wardlow in the cage match from AEW.
What were the ratings? Well, here you go. Both shows went up this week. AEW wins once again with 893,000 viewers up from last week’s 817,000. NXT did 794,000 viewers which was up from last week’s 757,000. On the 18-49 demo, AEW had 0.31 to NXT’s 0.25.
The Ruthless Aggression documentary series has debuted on the WWE Network and I watched the first episode. First, since when does this era have a name anyway? LOL. Did someone just watch a promo and hear Vince say ruthless aggression and decide that is what we’ll name it. I kind of get annoyed with the whole thinking of it anyway when it is basically Vince pushing for talent to reach for the stars. Yeah, reach for it if you are who I want to reach for it. If you get over on your own and I don’t want you there, I’m throwing ice water all over you instead of pushing you. That is the Vince McMahon way. So, what is this series? Basically, this series covers the post attitude era where the roster was split with the first draft in March of 2002. The focus of the first episode is The Rock was gone to Hollywood. Austin had went home. We had an influx of WCW talent and not enough TV time for them so we split the roster. I think this is going to be a fun series. Lots of interviews with some being brand new interviews and some being archived interviews. There are a few things that I eyerolled at where you have to have the WWE spin on things. One being that they of course cover the end of the Monday Night Wars and then bringing in the WCW talent. The talk of that fans wanted the big WCW talent such as Goldberg, Hall, Nash, etc. All of the big names had guaranteed contracts and WWE didn’t want to take those contracts on so a lot of those talents sat until their deals were over. That is long well documented obviously. They kind of ignore that they had Diamond Dallas Page who they booked so badly that they made him meaningless. They focus more on the Natural Born Thrillers group saying they were bringing in the young talent from WCW that fans weren’t as familiar with. True but the booking didn’t help. That invasion angle was booked, let’s just say, not the best. One thing that they do not mention AT ALL is that the invasion angle was booked so bad and lost so much steam that they had to bring in ECW to save it. That got it hot again but then they cooled it off again immediately when they named Stephanie McMahon as the ECW owner. They talk about the WCW talent and how they weren’t over. They completely ignore the arriving ECW talent that were already way over with the crowd. Another thing that annoyed me in this was the hype story of how Vince McMahon wanted to make a statement for this new era so he changed the name of the company to WWE. No, he changed the name because he got so arrogant ignoring an agreement with the World Wildlife Fund that they took him to court over it and he got forced to change the name. LOL. It wasn’t some grand I’m going to change things as a statement. You got your hand forced. They mention nothing on that being the reason. Turns more into a grand scheme of Vince’s topic. Just like with anything WWE, there are things that you have to run through with how they spin the story. You know the thing though. You win the war. You get to tell the story how you want. LOL. I did enjoy this episode though. Some good behind the scenes footage that I have never seen. Think of that WWE Desire music video set to the song “Weathered” in 2002 where it was a behind the scenes look at the talent and production and this episode had more footage that was shot from that and never used. The episode does a good job covering the Austin/Brock deal with Austin walking out. New interview footage in there with Austin discussing how it all went down. He is very open and honest about it. They cover the draft and how maybe only two talents knew where they were going. They cover the thing that they realized very quickly that they messed up and that was splitting the Dudley Boyz. There is a new interview in it with Bubba Ray talking about it where he says fans don’t want to see Bubba Ray on his own and they don’t want to see D-Von on his own. They want to see the Dudleys together. If you remember, they were put back together only 8 months later. They start to focus on the Ohio Valley era with showing the talent ready to come up including Brock, Cena, Orton, and Batista among others. As the episode ends, we see the Cena and Angle face-off from Smackdown in 2002 which was Cena’s debut. I think this will be a fun documentary series and an era that hasn’t really been covered before in this form by WWE. They touch on it on DVD documentaries and such but not to this extent of an overall look at it. Let us not forget that there was a lot of bad in this era too so I’m curious to see their spin on some of that. LOL. I recommend checking this out. Two episodes are up and I haven’t watched the second one yet but I think this will be fun. The WWE spin will drive me crazy at times. LOL.
Looks like Matt Hardy wasn’t finished just yet with WWE after all. Pretty nasty angle with him and Randy Orton where Orton took him out again on Raw. They took the steam out of that crowd big time with that showing just how invested they were in the angle.
Cathy Kelley announced last week that she would be leaving WWE. She has made the decision to move on to other opportunities that she is wanting to do. Her last show was NXT Takeover where she did a backstage interview and then handled her normal duties of covering the post show Facebook Live with Triple H discussing the show. As the interview was wrapping up, he acknowledged that this was her last one and that she was moving on to which she pretty much went right into tears as this was a hard decision for her. I’ve been a very long time Cathy Kelley fan. She is a fan of this business and got going by being on the Afterbuzz show that discussed NXT every week. She did the Sam and Cat podcast with Sam Roberts. She then moved up into WWE where she has been their digital video host go to person. As a fan, I would cheer every time I would see progress with her career. The night she showed up with a live segment on USA for the first ever NXT USA show. When she appeared on Smackdown interviewing backstage. I would cheer every time I saw progress with her. She was very loved in that company and I hope WWE knows what they had in her. This is going to be a major loss for WWE with her personality hosting those various shows and interviews that she did.
That is it for this week. Have a great weekend!
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