WReo here, I am an extremely superstitious individual. So when I passed the fully black cat today, on Friday the 13th, I panicked a little. I’m not proud of what I did, but it’s done so let’s just get on with the Wramblog!
-WWE Is smack in the middle of a couple of things right now. They are between their two brand-specific Pay-per-view events: the recently-completed Hell In A Cell for Smackdown Live and the upcoming Tables, Ladders, and Chairs for the Raw crew. HIAC was fairly decent, my thoughts in the night:
Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin over The Hype Bros
This was a decent match, as Gable and Benjamin are still getting their chemistry together. The pair are the next challengers for the Smackdown Live Tag Team Championships, but we didn’t get an actual date for that match. The Hype Bros have been splintering the last few weeks as the losses stack up, are we going to see a split soon?
The Usos over The New Day (c) for the Smackdown Live Tag Team Championships
This was contested inside the Cell, and holy crap was it violent. The New Day trapped one of the Usos in a corner of the Cell with kendo sticks, and proceeded to wail on the other Uso. Then Jimmy and Jey handcuffed Xavier Woods over a ringpost, and went to town with the kendo sticks. It was uncomfortable to watch, and a perfect cap on this amazing series this summer between the two.
Randy Orton over Rusev
Rusev Day did not come to the ring this time, but a solid if unspectacular match saw the Viper get the job done.
Baron Corbin over AJ Styles (c) and Tye Dillinger for the US Championship
A pre-show segment saw The Perfect Ten added to the match to make this a Triple Threat. Each pair off of this one was pretty good, with Corbin getting some good heeling in against both Styles and Dillinger. Then he stole the pin from Styles after a Phenomenal Forearm from AJ onto Tye.
Charlotte Flair over Natalya (c) via DQ for the Smackdown Live Women’s Championship
This one was done to continue their feud. It was there.
Jinder Mahal over Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE Championship
The Singh brothers got tossed during this match, but in the midst of the ejection and ensuing kerfluffle, Mahal dropped Nakamura with his finisher to retain the title. So, no direct interference by the former Bollywood Boyz, but their presence was felt in the end, anyway.
Bobby Roode over Dolph Ziggler
This match also happened, and it wasn’t all that great. Ziggler’s rants about the entrances and calling himself “The best in-ring performer in WWE history” is an interesting angle, but needs a little more. Sadly, I don’t know what that is.
Kevin Owens over Shane McMahon inside Hell In A Cell
This was a brutal match-up with nothing but ego and feelings on the line. Shane-O Mac had Owens beat before heading back up to the top of the cell to jump off of it again. Instead of landing on KO, Owens’ mortal enemy Sami Zayn pulled him out of the way. Why? Because the right way has gotten him nowhere.
Smackdown Live is now in a holding pattern until they start the build to their next PPV.
-The next PPV for the ‘E is the Raw-branded TLC. This set being set up for a huge show. There are currently three matches officially announced: Mickie James takes on Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women’s title, Emma is going to face Asuka in her main roster debut, and Cruiserweight Champion Kalisto will defend against the guy he took the title from: Enzo Amore. The other huge piece that is being put into place is some version of The Miz, Sheamus and Cesaro, and Braun Strowman taking on the newly-reunited Shield (Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Dean Ambrose). I would love that being a 4-3 handicap TLC match. Such Violence!
-After Raw get their PPV exposure, it’s all NXT in the run-up to Survivor Series. Their next TakeOver has been branded with the old WCW name of WarGames. The WarGames Match is going to be nuts! It’s the Tag Champs SAnitY defending against the ex-RoH stable of Adam Cole (BayBay), Kyle O’Reilly, and Bobby Fish, AND the former champs Authors of Pain with Roderick Strong. Nine guys in a cell, that’ll be awesome. With Asuka’s promotion, the NXT Women’s Championship is vacant. Mae Young winner Kairi Sane is in line for a shot at it in Houston, and they are filling out the rest of the match on NXT TV. NXT Champion Drew McIntyre takes on the newly-refocused Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas in an Indy Dream match from a couple of years back. Also, Aleister Black is not biting on The Velveteen Dream’s new gimmick, going as far as to refuse to acknowledge it at all (calling the VD ‘Patrick, his previous name). Black is awesome, I look forward to all of his bouts.
-New Japan Pro Wrestling is gearing up for Wrestle Kingdom 12 coming up on January 4 at Tokyo Dome, but that doesn’t mean they are taking time off. They’ve had a busy early fall, with a lot of things coming up this weekend.
-First up, was their King of Pro-Wrestling run from this past week. The Bullet Club-Los Ingobernables de Japon six-man was really fun. Leo Tonga, the newest (and youngest) Tongan brother, after Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa, has picked up steam. And Hiromu Takahashi is always fun to watch, especially when Daryl shows up.
Also at KoPW was the three-way for the IWGP Tag Team Championships. I thought I’d be tired of Killer Elite Squad vs. Guerrillas of Destiny vs. War Machine for an umpteenth time, but this was fun. The tornado and elimination rules made it a little bit more fresh than some of the other matches. Other matches that caught my eye from Ryogoku was the Will Ospreay win over KUSHIDA for the Junior Heavyweight belt, Tetsuya Naito retaining his WK12 contract with a hard-fought win over Tomohiro Ishii, and Kazuchika Okada taking down EVIL.
-This weekend (October 12-15), New Japan Pro Wrestling sends stars Stateside to combined with Ring of Honor for Global Wars 2017. Friday’s card in Pittsburgh looks like this:
Adam Page vs. Josh Woods vs. Kenny King (c) vs. KUSHIDA vs. Matt Taven vs. Punishment Martinez (ROH World Television Championship)
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Mark Briscoe
Jay Lethal vs. Jay White
Best Friends (Beretta & Chuckie T) vs. the Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian)
Minoru Suzuki vs. Silas Young
Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith, Jr. & Lance Archer) vs. War Machine (Hanson & Ray Rowe)
Kingdom (TK O’Ryan & Vinny Marseglia) vs. Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) (c) vs. Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) (ROH World Tag Team Championship)
Bullet Club (Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega, & Marty Scurll) vs. Chaos (Toru Yano, Will Ospreay, & YOSHI-HASHI)
A lot of the same guys will rotate thru match-ups over the rest of the weekend. Saturday’s Columbus card is highlighted with
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Jay Lethal
Search & Destroy (Jay White & Jonathan Gresham) vs. the Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian)
Cody Rhodes (c) vs. KUSHIDA (ROH World Championship)
The tour wraps up Sunday in Chicago with a couple of intriguing matches.
Cheeseburger & KUSHIDA vs. the Addiction (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian)
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Marty Scurll
Kenny Omega (c) vs. YOSHI-HASHI (IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship)
Bullet Club (Adam Page, Cody Rhodes, Matt Jackson, & Nick Jackson) vs. Search and Destroy (Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, Jay White, & Jonathan Gresham)
That’s a great weekend of shows that you may be able to find in different dark corners of the interwebs.
-Coming up November 5 in Osaka is the next big event, Power Struggle. The biggest match on the card is the IWGP Intercontinental Championship match between this champ Hiroshi Tanahashi and the Golden Star himself, Kota Ibushi. Also, Bullet Club’s Marty Scurll takes on fellow Brit, and new Junior champ, Will Ospreay.
-NJPW also announced the next running of the Super Jr. Tag tournament, with the finals going at PS. The teams are as follows:
ACH & Ryusuke Taguchi
Dragon Lee & Titan
Hirai Kawato & KUSHIDA
Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV
Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi
Roppongi 3K (Sho (Sho Tanaka) & Yo (Yohei Komatsu))
Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
Suzuki-gun (Taichi & TAKA Michinoku
INDIES
-The Brits have a big weekend in store for some of their biggest promotions. RevPro Live in Cardiff is one of the better shows, but it’s ICW that is taking the stage.
-ICW Eleven! Is going to feature some of the names from January’s WWE UK Tournament, like Wolfgang and Jordan Devlin, plus some of the Indies darlings like Moose and Bram.
As usual, there is plenty more wrestling out there if you have Highspots or FITE TV, to go along with your normal programming:
MONDAY
WWE Raw – 6pm – USA Network
WWE’s Flagship runs every Monday, with trimmed down highlights available on HULU the next day or the full-show on WWE Network after 30 days.
TUESDAY
WWE SmackDown Live – 6pm – USA Network
Same deal with the replays as Raw.
WWE 205 Live – 8pm – WWE Network
The Cruiserweight show is getting more interesting with Enzo’s arrival, but with rumors of Nevill walking out, there are going to miss their second big name.
WEDNESDAY
WWE NXT – 7pm – WWE Network
The ‘developmental’ brand is anything but. It actually has the best of the WWE stories going right now with The Undisputed Era of Cole, Fish, and O’Reilly, and the most coherent women’s division as well.
THURSDAY
Impact Wrestling – 7pm – POP TV
The former TNA and former Global Force promotion is under a different name again, but they have some pretty solid workers under their umbrella.
FRIDAY
Ring of Honor – Various
The States’ second-best promotion can be found on many Sinclair Stations across the country, but not here in Grand Junction. Sadly, you miss things like Bullet Club members The Young Bucks, Cody, and The Villain Marty Scurll. Plus The Addiction, Colt Cabana, and many more.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling – 6pm – AXSTV
Yes, these are replays of past NJPW events, but they are getting better. When they first started in late 2015, they aired shows with Machine Gun Anderson and Doc Gallows, who’d been in WWE for months. Last month, they were airing matches from the G1 Climax from August, I’d say that’s improvement. If you want to see the second-biggest company in the world with many of the best non-WWE wrestlers, set your DVR to catch some of AXS offerings.