Hi!
This week, the wrestling begins with America then goes to Japan where Captain Lou is watching DDT’s D-Oh Grand Prix and New Japan returned to a pre-pandemic show format. The “Working Man’s WWE TV Review” is now “Hey, It’s WWE TV” too. Any questions?
Happy Thoughts: AEW in October 2021 - Dum Dum Daniels
Hey, It’s WWE TV (10/24 - 10/30/21) - Dum Dum Daniels
Top 10 WWE Matches of the Month (October 2021) - Dum Dum Daniels
Hey, It’s WWE TV (10/31 - 11/6/21) - Dum Dum Daniels
DDT D-Oh Grand Prix 2021 II Day 1 (11/3/21) - Captain Lou
DDT D-Oh Grand Prix 2021 II Day 2 (11/6/21) - Captain Lou
NJPW Power Struggle 2021 (11/6/21) - Dum Dum Daniels
Next Time: Stardom Kawasaki Super Wars, More DDT D-Oh, and… more?
Also, here are 3 things I found interesting this week:
1. The Many Lives of H. Rap Brown (TIME)
2. Robert Sarver Is What You Get (Defector)
3. New NASA chief doesn’t think UFOs are an optical illusion (USA Today)
Happy Thoughts – AEW in October 2021 (Hangman Returns, Danielson Wrestles, Full Gear Build)
“LET’S GO @AEW FANS, WRESTLERS, STAFF! EVERYONE, LFG #AEW !!!!” – Tony Khan
Sometimes you have to adapt your language for the comically spectacular situation you are in. Welcome to another month of a wrestling company filling buildings and trying stuff out.
October 2021
September was the fallout from All Out, October was getting in full gear for… a pay-per-view in early November.
AEW continued doing the things that make them fun, mainly putting effort into building out new acts or canon that will presumably lead to exciting moments or matches. In addition to the setup for a match they’ve been building for 2 years and the on-screen endorsement of a Four Pillars of homegrown star talent, there were quality bits of randomness like a mini Bobby Fish run and like eight great Bryan Danielson matches.
There was also that night (10/15) they went head-to-head with an episode of SmackDown, aired Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki on YouTube as a lead-in, and CEO Tony Khan talked all sorts of shit on Twitter. That was wild.
In the lead-up to Full Gear, AEW did what you do when you need to re-establish the landscape a little: wrestling tournaments! There were two of them, one an AEW World Title #1 Contender Tournament that will conclude at Full Gear and one to decide the first TBS Champion (more on that in a bit).
Hangman Page has come home too (10/6), and cowboy won himself back a shot at Kenny Omega and the AEW World Title. It provided a great promo, some gigantic pops, and one Dynamite (10/27) ending with Page emerging from a Stay Puft Marshallow Man costume and attacking all of The Elite with his friends in the Dark Order.
Speaking of The Elite, Adam Cole and The Young Bucks had a little reunion tour this month and scrapped with, among others, Jurassic Express, Christian Cage and The Dark Order. With Kenny Omega they form The Super Elite and continue to provide AEW an Actually Great central heel act.
CM Punk and Bryan Danielson are just part of the show now, but in a good way. In pro wrestling one’s “lack of direction” is another’s “room to breathe,” and all month The Fans kept getting surprised with random awesome things like Punk vs. Matt Sydal, Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes, and Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston which put Danielson in the finals of the World Title Eliminator and setup Kingston vs. Punk. It was all kind of beautiful.
Even if there’s one or two folks I’d swap, the balls go with an endorsement of a new generation Four Pillars by AEW are impressively sized. In addition to the ongoing quests of the Jungle Boy, Sammy Guevara began his reign as TNT Champion while MJF and Darby Allin ended up in a rivalry that like Omega/Hangman felt inevitable since the beginning of AEW. Sidenote: MJF has assigned Wardlow an Accountabilibuddy: Shawn Spears.
Sammy stayed close to The Inner Circle too as Chris Jericho and Jake Hager began a feud with Dan Lambert and his American Top Team, which at this point includes Scorpio Sky, Ethan Page, Paige VanZant, Jorge Masvidal, and Junior dos Santos. The material pandering to a teenager of the 90s is awful, but otherwise it’s been a fun freak show diversion.
With his Rhodes to the Top reality-ish show airing every week, Cody Rhodes returned to AEW TV full-time too. Besides getting bitched out by Arn Anderson though, he struggled to find a role in a company that took quite a few jumps while he was gone. Eventually his waning rivalry with Malakai Black ran into another couple guys struggling to find a role: Andrade el Idolo and PAC, and I won’t say it all made sense but it did get more interesting. As far as things used to kill time until a role pops up too… a couple random Andrade/PAC matches and Cody getting bitched out are at a minimum top 5 options.
Andrade also paid off MJF to have FTR put on masks and beat The Lucha Bros for the AAA Tag Team Titles (10/16), which gives FTR a new annoying wrinkle and setup an attractive match for The Bros’ AEW Tag Team Titles at Full Gear.
At the start of the year Dynamite will move to TBS (and Rampage will stay on TNT — don’t ask), so enter the TBS Championship and a tournament to decide who holds it first featuring basically anyone not friends with Baker. Serena Deeb returned to action too and immediately made an impact by preventing the re-emerged Hikaru Shida from a 50th TV singles win.
Considering AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker is used as sparingly as Hogan in ’84, the introduction of a second championship makes wonderful sense. Not that I’m complaining about Baker either — establish your star and bring in pieces around her, you know? Even if Thunder Rosa is still just right there, and her current feud has her calling out Tay Conti‘s ass. The match with Abadon at the end of the month (10/29) was a trip.
Malakai Black had an effective side-feud with Dante Martin that also introduced Lio Rush as first Dante’s adviser then his tag team partner and then his advisor — something like that. In addition to Rush, Bobby Fish and Tony Nese made their AEW debuts. Fish was especially present, having like 12 matches with all of the greats for some reason before CM Punk ran him off to a heckuva pop.
The Dark Order Civil War appears over with Hangman Page back, Ricky Starks beat Brian Cage in a Philadelphia Street Fight (10/8), and after losing his TNT Championship Miro cut a series of promos on God (that one). AEW World Title Eliminator competitor Jon Moxley seemed real goddam grumpy too.
Daniel Garcia and 2point0 cooled off quite a bit, as did the Orange Cassidy/Hardy Family Office feud after Jack Evans got his head shaved (10/1). The Gunn Club was still mean mugging Paul Wight on AEW Dark, while Colten dag nabit Gunn is as of this writing 30-0. Also Crowbar wrestled Joey Janela when they were in Philadelphia.
Top 10 Matches
Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki (10/15/21)
AEW World Title Eliminator – Semi Final: Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston (Rampage 10/29/21)
AEW World Title Eliminator – Round 1: Bryan Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes (Dynamite 10/23/21)
Bryan Danielson, Christian Cage & Jurassic Express vs. Kenny Omega, Adam Cole & The Young Bucks (Dynamite 10/6/21)
TBS Championship Tournament – Round 1: Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb (Dynamite 10/27/21)
Hikaru Shida’s Possible 50th Victory: Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb (Dynamite 10/6/21)
PAC vs. Andrade el Idolo (Rampage 10/22/21)
Bryan Danielson vs. Nick Jackson w/ The Elite (Rampage 10/1/21)
CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal (Rampage 10/15/21)
AEW World Title Eliminator – Round 1: Jon Moxley vs. Dark Order’s 10 (Dynamite 10/27/21)
1. AEW World Title Eliminator – Semi Final: Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston (Rampage 10/29/21) – Danielson has all top 4 spots for the month locked down because he had a great variety of opponents, is having the time of his life stretching his wrestling muscles post-WWE, and most of all because he’s Freakin’ Great. I went back-and-forth between this and the Suzuki match at #1, and at the end of the day this match didn’t just keep a faster pace but was somehow more violent too. It’s a sprint of a Japanese-influenced shit-kicking between two guys who know how to sell that sort of thing, a dream match that still felt like two guys in their prime having the most current match they could.
2. Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki (10/15/21) – Sometimes life feels too short, and sometimes just before 53-year-old Minoru Suzuki’s U.S. tour concludes he gets to have a match with a guy who was known as Daniel Bryan just six months ago. The serotonin boost of this match coming together with just a couple days notice could help along any match, but this would’ve gotten by either way. They traded knucklelocks and kneebars and kicks and chops, all enhanced by each guy’s ability to get across violence despite a general sense that everyone was just happy to be there. Each guy ran through all the hits, but they are the hits of two of the best ever and thus you got a pretty complete awesome match.
3. AEW World Title Eliminator – Round 1: Bryan Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes (Dynamite 10/23/21) – Big Dustin and the American Dragon had a match completely different from the two above, Dustin playing veteran trying to keep up and Danielson playing guy at the top of his game. It was less about strikes and withstanding violence and more about build-up and selling from 1991 wrapping in a crowd from 2021. Piledrivers and superplexes, baby.
4. Bryan Danielson, Christian Cage & Jurassic Express vs. Kenny Omega, Adam Cole & The Young Bucks (Dynamite 10/6/21) – At some point towards the end of this, Tony Schiavone uttered “What a freaking match” and I know it’s Tony Schiavone but it really did kind of nail it. The Super Elite are astoundingly good at the multi-man tag and just look at that babyface lineup.
5. TBS Championship Tournament – Round 1: Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb (Dynamite 10/27/21)
6. Hikaru Shida’s Possible 50th Victory: Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb (Dynamite 10/6/21) – It is unbelievable how under wraps AEW kept Shida over the last year, especially given her two first non-squashes in a while were both great matches and fired up a dormant women’s midcard. Serena Deeb has been gone for a while too, but that was because of injury — here she returned to the awesome form she was in prior to it, a less gawky Zack Sabre Jr. or something. These matches built on each other, the first a misdirection and surprise finish then the second with a whole finishing sequence built around dramatic near falls, like they just re-invented the whole idea of wrestling or something.
7. PAC vs. Andrade el Idolo (Rampage 10/22/21) – Two of the most athletically impressive wrestlers of all-time both in delivery and ability to base for their opponent had a pair of matches, one at the end of September and this one right here. A top rope brainbuster was delivered exceptionally well and an apron DDT was received the same.
8. Bryan Danielson vs. Nick Jackson w/ The Elite (Rampage 10/1/21) – Before a life or death battle with Kingston, YouTube dream match with Suzuki, 90s classic with Dustin, and 8-man tag with the Super Elite… Danielson did a bit of showing off with Nick Jackson. Two gentleman of Shawn Michaels’ influence casually worked in so much cool stuff that HBK would never dare, a
Tiger suplex hold or Nick’s ridiculous plancha all delivered with a trademark kind of precise recklessness.
9. CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal (Rampage 10/15/21) – I seriously actually saw this match live in 2004 at an IWA Mid-South show and what struck me then and has always struck me is how each Punk and Sydal never made matwork a core component of their styles, but they were always pretty dang smooth at it. The revitalized CM Punk is making the most out of bodyslams and dropkicks, and Sydal’s sell of the GTS was tremendous.
10. AEW World Title Eliminator – Round 1: Jon Moxley vs. Dark Order’s 10 (Dynamite 10/27/21) – Not quite Akiyama/Shibata but bizarrely close, with Moxley in ass-kicker mode but young Preston “10” Vance briefly (like 5 minutes worth) putting up not a fight but a whole war. Mox might not be able to German suplex big 10 but he rips his mask, makes him bleed, and kicks his ass anyways.
Visit the post at Happy Wrestling Land for more match recommendations, best angles/promos, power rankings and more!
Hey, It’s WWE TV: 10/24/21 – 10/30/21
Four new champions, two new rosters, and just one gloriously similar way of wrestling — welcome to the Working Man’s WWE TV Review for the week before Halloween.
WWE TV Recap (10/24/21 – 10/30/21)
Highlights:
– Fatal 4-Way Ladder Match: Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins (RAW 10/25/21)
– Lumberjack O’Lantern Match – NXT Tag Team Title: MSK [c] vs. Imperium (NXT 10/26/21)
– NXT Heritage Cup: Tyler Bate [c] w/ Trent Seven vs. Noam Dar (NXT UK 10/28/21)
Stuff Happening: Becky & Charlotte Shoot Heat, RAW Season Premiere, Bearcat Lee Returns, NXT Halloween Havoc, Dakota Kai Returns, Toxic Attraction Wins all NXT Women’s Titles, Imperium Wins NXT Tag Titles, Noam Dar Wins NXT UK Heritage Cup, SmackDown Kills Time, Sonya Deville Bullies Naomi
Good Work: Big E, Kevin Owens, Io Shirai, Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams, MSK, Tyler Bate, Noam Dar, Shotzi, King Woods
RAW (10/25/21)
Relaunches are one of the few things WWE has remained pretty good at, so that this was such a mediocre show is a little concerning. At least the Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair confrontation seemed to go as planned.
Three of RAW’s new tag teams — Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode, the Street Profits, and Chad Gable & Otis — wrestled a Triple Threat match for a shot at RK-Bro‘s Tag Team Titles. Ziggler & Roode won, then lost to RK-Bro.
The Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair confrontation seemed to go as planned.
Queen Zelina celebrated her coronation with a half-English accent, Damian Priest obliterated T-BAR, and Austin Theory is doing a thing with Dominik Mysterio now.
Liv Morgan and Carmella switched brands and wrestled again.
Keith “Bearcat” Lee was re-introduced with a match against Cedric Alexander, which was the ol’ “fine for what it was.” Lee blocking Cedric’s handspring setup with a body attack was neat.
Seth Rollins, Rey Mysterio, Finn Balor and Kevin Owens all introduced themselves to the RAW audience by bumping all over the place in a Ladder Match for a shot at Big E, which Rollins won. Even on normie RAW, Owens was an absolute lunatic.
Rating: 2.75 / 5.0
NXT (10/26/21)
NXT 2.0 stacked the deck for what they called Halloween Havoc, with four title matches and three new champions. Welcome to the new era that kind of just feels like a shot at what was supposedly going to be the new era.
WWE main roster isn’t fun enough to have Halloween parties anymore I guess, so NXT did one. KUSHIDA, Cameron Grimes, Kyle O’Reilly, Tony D’Angelo, Elvis Robert Stone and others all got varying levels of character development. Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams met Dexter Lumis & Johnny Gargano at a haunted house too, which provided the same.
The title changes were OK. RAW closed with a Ladder Match and NXT opened with one, Toxic Attraction defeating champions Io Shirai & Zoey Stark as well as Indi Hartwell & her pal Persia Pirotta for the NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles. Io was nearly as much of a lunatic as Owens.
Raquel Gonzalez entered in a motorcycle then lost the NXT Women’s Title to Mandy Rose in a Trick or Street Fight.
MSK vs. Imperium was a good tag match within a silly Lumberjack-O-Lantern Match, and then Imperium actually won the NXT Tag Team Titles.
The three title changes setup what ended up the biggest surprise of all: Tommaso Ciampa retaining his NXT Title from New Hero Bron Breakker in a 10-minute wrestling match. Neither guy came out of this looking much better than before.
Elsewhere: Solo Sikoa (debut) suplexed vampire LA Knight. Joe Gacy and Harland beat up Malik Blade. Roderick Strong/Odyssey Jones II.
Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
MAIN EVENT (10/27/21)
Veer got a vignette on RAW then beat Jaxson Ryker (who goes WHOAAAA now) on Main Event.
John Morrison vs. Apollo Crews was a series of wrestling maneuvers.
Rating: 2.0 / 5.0
NXT UK (10/28/21)
It was the kind of NXT UK where they setup things like Gallus/Charlie Dempsey, Rampage Brown/Flash Morgan Webster, and a Triple Threat #1 Contender’s Match. These are the days of our lives.
Mark Coffey vs. Rohan Raja. Amale vs. Myla Grace. Dempsey vs. Danny Jones. These were the matches on the show.
Tyler Bate vs. Noam Dar for the Heritage Cup was a match on the show too, and I might have really liked it if I didn’t sort of resent NXT UK. Heritage Cup/European Rules is a nice concept anywhere but WWE, and the rounds system just seemed to break up some compelling and eventually hard-hitting wrestling.
Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
SMACKDOWN (10/29/21)
Love King Woods, but this felt like the most inconsequential SmackDown since the Thunderdome. Like RAW, it was another lacking launch of an updated roster.
Shotzi went toe-to-toe with Charlotte Flair (sort of) then turned heel on Sasha Banks (I think). It was a good if not confusing showing.
Drew McIntyre vs. workrate guys (Sami Zayn last week, now Mustafa Ali), on SmackDown has been a welcome approach, especially compared to almost anything he did as WWE Champion on RAW. Post-match Ali took some questionable material and made a quality promo out of it too.
A pair of gentleman named Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss beat Shinsuke Nakamura & Rick Boogs in a Trick or Street Fight after interference from Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo.
No follow-ups from Sheamus, Ridge Holland, or Aliyah.
The Usos vs. The New Day headlined, and it might have been the most mid-level Usos/New Day there ever has been. Kofi Kingston getting named King Woods‘ Hand of the King in the middle of the show was kind of adorable though.
Rating: 2.0 / 5.0
205 LIVE (10/29/21)
Tough to really analyze any of the new class when they are mostly doing the same thing. Three very quiet WWE developmental matches this week.
Jeet Rama in his amateur singlet casually walking past Mei Ying on the way to his match with Boa was fun.
Sarray wrecked Valentina Cortez with a dropkick.
Xyon Quinn downed the very strangely marketed (even for WWE) Ru Feng in a very short main event.
Rating: 1.5 / 5.0
Working Man’s Satisfaction: 2.75 / 5.0 [No Change]
Top 10 WWE Matches of the Month – October 2021
Well, the cat’s out of the bag: WWE doesn’t really do “good” matches anymore. At least not enough to have a Top 25 here, and sometimes barely a Top 10. October featured both King of the Ring and Queen’s Crown tournaments running weekly, but other than a trip to Saudi Arabia you had a bunch of variations on a similar match.
1. Triple Threat Match – SmackDown Women’s Title: Becky Lynch [c] vs. Bianca Belair vs. Sasha Banks (Crown Jewel 10/21/21)
They put on the t-shirts and went to work, delivering 20 minutes of fast-paced and well-timed action highlighted by random Banks/Belair pairings and an especially emotive heel Becky Lynch. Probably the best women’s Triple Threat ever.
2. Hell in a Cell: Edge vs. Seth Rollins (Crown Jewel 10/21/21)
There were tables. Ladders. Chairs. Stairs. A Cactus Jack elbow drop with chair on stairs and sunset flip powerbomb off ladder through table. Rollins was game for bumps, while Edge did that thing where he maintained the energy of his entrance by strategically using some signature moves. It’s the kind of commercially acceptable showcase Hell in a Cell WWE does nowadays, an insane effort physically if not always creatively.
3. WWE Title: Big E [c] vs. Drew McIntyre (Crown Jewel 10/21/21)
A big and raucous crowd vs. half-empty and clapping arena helps, but this was very possibly a better example of slow build-up + hot finish than 90% of the G1 Climax. Premium example of a WWE heavyweight main event too.
4. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks (SmackDown 10/15/21)
With Becky headed to RAW and their only other match on tap together a week later in Saudi Arabia, Becky and Sasha delivered a quality WWE TV main event that cut a ridiculous pace. Check Becky’s selling on every Meteora too.
5. NXT UK Title: Ilja Dragunov [c] vs. A-Kid (NXT UK 10/14/21)
A match all about limbs, attempt after attempt to gain the upperhand with legs and arms then feet and… that’s it. It would be a lot more impactful in a less sterile environment that accentuated its’ genius, but there’s still some great wrestling here.
6. NXT Heritage Cup: Tyler Bate [c] w/ Trent Seven vs. Noam Dar (NXT UK 10/28/21)
If it wasn’t for the Heritage Cup rules, this may have been a more enthusiastic version of Dragunov/A-Kid. It had the NXT UK curse, but even in the shadows the lads can still sort of go.
7. King of the Ring – Final: Finn Balor vs. Xavier Woods (Crown Jewel 10/21/21)
8. King of the Ring – Round 1: Xavier Woods vs. Ricochet (RAW 10/11/21)
The emergence of King Xavier in October provided some good wrestling from a guy who knows 10-minute WWE formula like a science but is creative and likable enough to keep it working. The match with Balor stood out on a loaded show, while the match with Ricochet felt like the first spotfest on RAW in a decade.
9. RAW Women’s Title: Charlotte Flair [c] vs. Bianca Belair (RAW 10/18/21)
Charlotte Flair and a 20-minute title match — it is not the most iconic duo, but it is certainly an iconic duo. Bianca Belair no longer just “keeps up” too, but brings her own energy to the party. Then someone got hit with a title belt.
10. Lumberjack O’Lantern Match – NXT Tag Team Title: MSK [c] vs. Imperium (NXT 10/26/21)
Out of many gimmick matches announced last minute this month, this was the best just by virtue of having input from MSK and Imperium.
Honorable Mentions: Fatal 4-Way Ladder Match – Winner Earns a WWE Title Opportunity Next Week: Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins (RAW 10/25/21), Street Fight – SmackDown Tag Team Title: The Usos [c] vs. Street Profits (SmackDown 10/15/21), King of the Ring – Round 1: Rey Mysterio vs. Sami Zayn (SmackDown 10/8/21), King of the Ring – Semi Final: Finn Balor vs. Sami Zayn (SmackDown 10/15/21)
King of the Ring – Round 1: Finn Balor vs. Cesaro (SmackDown 10/8/21), Bianca Belair & Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair (RAW 10/11/21), Odyssey Jones vs. Roderick Strong (205 Live 10/15/21), John Morrison & Ricochet vs. Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo (Main Event 10/20/21), Trey Baxter vs. Grayson Waller (205 Live 10/8/21), Big E & Drew McIntyre vs. The Usos (RAW 10/11/21), Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn (SmackDown 10/22/21)
Hey, It’s WWE TV: The Discouraging Process Of A Modern Corporation Is On TV Every Week And It Has Wrestlers (10/31 – 11/6/21)
Every few months now WWE publicly fires double-digit numbers of talent and other staff, and this week saw the exits of Keith Lee, Mia Yim, Ember Moon, Nia Jax, Gran Metalik, Hit Row’s B-Fab and others. It’s become an expected, but uniquely terrible occurrence.
There’s capitalism, there’s douchebag capitalism, and there’s douchebag capitalism where you can see evidence on TV five days a week of corporate disorganization and if not spiteful carelessness then a resolute care for most of the wrong things.
As far as the actual wrestling went this week: not many highlights!
WWE TV Recap (10/31/21 – 11/6/21)
Highlights:
RAW Women’s Title: Becky Lynch [c] vs. Bianca Belair (RAW 11/1/21)
Finn Balor vs. Chad Gable (RAW 11/1/21)
Cesaro & Mansoor vs. Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo (SmackDown 11/5/21)
Drew McIntyre vs. Ricochet (SmackDown 11/5/21)
King Woods Acknowledges Roman Reigns or Jimmy Uso Bends the Knee: Xavier Woods vs. Jimmy Uso (SmackDown 11/5/21)
Stuff Happening: Even More Talent Cuts, Becky beats Bianca, Big E gets Challengers, Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams Step Up, Roman Reigns Attacks King Woods
Good Work: Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, Chad Gable, Big E, Mandy Rose, Dakota Kai, Carmelo Hayes, Meiko Satomura, King Woods, Sami Zayn, Drew McIntyre, KUSHIDA & Ikeman Jiro
RAW (11/1/21)
Big E as RAW ace is a nice dose of happy in between all the RAW.
Becky Lynch defended the RAW Women’s Title against Bianca Belair to open the show and they had a good, competitive match that kept the title on Becky with a buzzkill cradle finish. Liv Morgan stepped up to Becky later in the show, continuing to send Belair down the path of… underdog? Lukewarm hero? What’s the idea here?
Chad Gable had himself a night, bragging about his recent Master’s degree in a quality promo to Big E backstage then having a real good (and fresh!) match with Finn Balor. They jived with matwork and counters and as it seemed to be wrapping up, Gable really smoothly countered the Jon Woo dropkick with a jackknife cradle.
Queen Zelina & Carmella vs. Rhea Ripley & Nikki A.S.H. was also a thing.
RAW’s new class made noise: Austin Theory has moved on from Jeff Hardy to the Mysterio Family, Apollo Crews confronted Damian Priest, and Veer Mahaan was given a last name.
RK-Bro did commentary over a Street Profits vs. Dirty Dawgs tag.
WWE Champion Big E is getting shit from several different directions, among them Seth Rollins and Otis and Kevin Owens. Rollins has a title shot coming, but Big E vs. Kevin Owens closed the show with a match that was sort of unremarkable.
Rating: 2.5 / 5.0
NXT (11/2/21)
NXT 2.0 continues to choose chaos, if they are still actually making choices.
Mandy Rose can promo and she opened the show with one, which led to — well — a lot: Toxic Attraction attacked Zoey Stark backstage, then Io Shirai confronted Mandy which brought Toxic Attraction to the ring, only for Kayden Carter & Kacy Catanzaro to make the save. On their way to the locker room, Toxic Attraction ran into Dakota Kai, who wants to fight Raquel Gonzalez and made quick work of Cora Jade who rides a skateboard to the ring now. Whew.
Bron Breakker squashed Andre Chase, Tony D’Angelo visited Lash Legend, and Xyon Quinn danced (and sang!) to HBK’s theme song.
Cameron Grimes visited Duke Hudson poker room, Boa may’ve absorbed Mei Ying’s powers, and Imperium got horny.
The Kyle O’Reilly & Von Wagner pairing continues to be a real dream-crusher of an experiment, just negative chemistry between two acts especially when facing Legado del Fantasma who I would say are just a vehicle for Elektra Lopez now — but she got cut two days after this show.
Before he was cut, Jeet Rama fell to the debuting younger Uso brother, Solo Sikoa. Seems like he could be good.
After a Tommaso Ciampa promo and brief nod to the history between #DIY, Johnny Gargano & Dexter Lumis vs. Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams delivered the most serviceable of WWE TV main events. Serviceable works, but it could’ve used a better show prior.
Rating: 2.5 / 5.0
MAIN EVENT (11/3/21)
After Shelton Benjamin trips Jaxson Ryker on behalf of Cedric Alexander, Kevin Patrick asks Byron Saxton: “you doubted this would happen!?” Byron responds grimly, “Well I hoped it wouldn’t happen.” What a show. What a company.
Liv Morgan defeated Tamina in the opening contest.
Rating: 2.0 / 5.0
NXT UK (11/4/21)
Nathan Frazer challenged Mark Andrews towards the end of the sow, and I will tell you this: after a year-long stay in NXT UK, I did not recognize Nathan Frazer. He just looks like some guy. I had to look it up.
Rampage Brown vs. Flash Morgan Webster — 3 months in the making — opened the show and had an OK match with an overtly re-done tope tornado DDT spot in the middle.
Beyond the bell, where things on NXT UK really happen: Rampage Brown attacked Ilja Dragunov, Trent Seven apologized to Tyler Bate for throwing in the towel, and Xia Brookside called her dad after Sid Scala didn’t give her a title shot.
Besides an Isla Dawn squash, the only other wrestling was the main event: Meiko Satomura vs. Jinny for the NXT UK Women’s Title. Jinny hasn’t made much in-ring progress stuck in this landscape for the last 5 years, but it was pretty good — mostly because Meiko is pretty great.
Rating: 2.5 / 5.0
SMACKDOWN (11/5/21)
“I take one vacation and SmackDown sucks… it’s almost as bad as RAW” – Roman Reigns. He’s not wrong, it’s just weird that he and WWE have the ability to recognize it.
Good night for WWE and ability to recognize things in general. Carrillo & Garza got introduced in-ring with a random but game Cesaro & Mansoor team, and Ricochet rejected Mustafa Ali‘s team offer by referencing how Ali treated his last partner like dirt. Was expecting a Retribution reference for a second even.
Drew McIntyre‘s match with Big E at Crown Jewel was tremendous, but another welcome addition to SmackDown stems from someone’s sudden ability to recognize that McIntyre works best with high-flyers he can just toss around and do cool shit with. He had a great 5-minute match with Ricochet, an old buddy from the Royal Rumble. They packed in like 7 wild spots and capped it off with a moonsault into a Claymore kick to the face.
Someone also recognized that Sami Zayn is an ideal candidate to jostle around backstage and introduce some of SmackDown’s newest talent like Aliyah and the B-Fab-less Hit Row. Sami obnoxiously rocking out without his original theme is like Hit Row with B-Fab — not as good as it could be.
Elsewhere: Shotzi bellowed about Sasha Banks, Sonya Deville continued harassing Naomi in the workplace, and The Viking Raiders visited Happy Time then beat its’ goofball hosts via countout.
Also, the undeniable charm of King Woods carried a fun opening segment that led to Woods vs. Jimmy Uso in a main event where the loser would have to bend the knee and acknowledge something or another. They had a hot TV main event, not a big surprise considering this is two fifths of the greatest tag rivalry of all-time.
Out of either unmotivated incompetence or inspired subtlety, it wasn’t acknowledged last week how Woods and Kofi were scrapping with The Usos and Roman Reigns a few weeks before the Survivor Series, an event traditionally home to a Universal vs. WWE Champion match that in 2021 would be Reigns vs. Big E. We are pretty overtly headed to some kind of confrontation and while Fall is traditionally the dumb(est) season in WWE, Reigns and E is a nearly can’t-miss program.
Unless E loses the title in the next few weeks.
Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
205 LIVE (11/5/21)
This was a very Diamond Mine-based edition of 205 Live, and while they were missed on Tuesday night it made for a decent 205 Live.
Roderick Strong opened with young Ru Feng and it was no Odyssey Jones match but it was solid vet vs. young lion wrestling.
Valentina Feroz beat Shanghai’s Erica Yan real quick. Like two minutes.
The new tag team of KUSHIDA & Ikeman Jiro faced The Grizzled Young Veterans in the main event, and while I’m fully cynical about how and why their team came together the rock solid GYV provided a solid foundation for two of the more of lovable fellas left in WWE to have a fun tag team match.
The Creed Brothers of The Diamond Mine distracted KUSHIDA and Jiro to give GYV the win.
Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
Working Man’s Satisfaction: 2.5 / 5.0 [-.25]
Captain Lou’s Review: DDT D-Oh Grand Prix 2021 II – Day 1 (11/3/2021)
Remember tournaments?
HARASHIMA vs. Kazusada Higuchi – D-Oh Grand Prix (Block B)
Early on, I had the nagging impression that this was a slightly-watered-down version of the usual match between these two. ‘’We’ve seen Gooch hit a lot harder and HARA bring a lot more viciousness to his limb targeting’’ – direct quote from my inner monologue. Then some god damn shoot headbutts were thrown and I just felt like a huge piece of shit. These men know how to wrestle professionally and ended up roping me in with their sneaky brutality and inspired setups for Higuchi’s power moves. Shame on me. That whole Doctorbomb sequence was super satisfying and I dug all the work around the brain claw slam. ***1/4
Tetsuya Endo vs. Yuji Hino – D-Oh Grand Prix (Block A)
Your appreciation of this match will vary depending on your feelings about Babyface Tetsuya Endo. Since the guy’s entire shtick revolves around being 2 Cool 4 School, I often struggle with him as an underdog-type protagonist. THUS, this was a bit of an uphill battle for me, even if they worked with a logical-ish beef provider vs. flippy boi template. While the banana peel finish and some of Endo’s more convoluted offense made Hino look kinda dumb, there were some genuinely cool moments spread throughout (Hino’s nuclear chop/lariat cut-offs and that wild Torture Rack Bomb). A very watchable mixed bag. ***
Jun Akiyama vs. Yuki Ueno – D-Oh Grand Prix (Block B)
Puro Twitter darling Ueno went into this one with an absolute death wish and his insolence sparked the most entertaining ass whipping since Akiyama’s murder of Black Buffalo a few weeks ago. They worked the best kind of Akiyama match – an 80/20 slaughter in the old man’s favor with Ueno selling his as off and making the most of his (very few) comebacks. Despite having one foot in the retirement home, Uncle Jun still feels more menacing than most wrestlers half his age and I will forever cherish DDT for bringing him in and treating him as a full-on killer. ***3/4
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yuji Okabayashi – D-Oh Grand Prix (Block A)
Working with Akiyama for an extended period of time has rubbed off on Takeshita in the best way. While he can still pull off the crazy videogame shit with ease (see his recent title defense against Chris Brookes), Take seems to be using this latest Ace run to showcase a renewed grasp on the basic-ass fundamentals of Japanese wrestling.
Going the distance with the Golem was a great way to put the champ’s newfound love for Cobra twists to the test. They milked the holy hell out of Boston crabs and made Vertical suplexes look like apocalyptic match-enders – both guys leaning into the Strong BJ philosophy and having themselves 30 minutes of gripping pro-wrasslin’.
There have been much more dramatic broadways at Ota-ku this year (looking at you, Miyahara/Lee broadway), but the high levels of energy and lariat-based ass kicking kept me on board all the way through. That super aggressive lockup they pulled to kick off the ending stretch was worth an entire star alone. The basics look good on Take. ****
Captain Lou’s Review: DDT D-Oh Grand Prix 2021 II – Day 2 (11/6/2021)
Kazusada Higuchi vs. MAO – D-Oh Grand Prix (Block B)
A match with a lot of wild ideas, most of them coming from the Super Delfin enthusiast MAO. If this youngster often stands right on the line between cringe and clever, he was firmly in clever territory for this one. Using weirdo/probably made-up fight stances to bait Higuchi into slick takedowns and getting a crooked headscissors over as a new death move – the new MMA MAO (MMAO?) approach was as exciting as it was unexpected. Meanwhile, Higuchi was there to ground the match in big dude vs. little dude logic, popping me multiple times by cutting off palm strikes with his unbreakable head. The blend of styles was super refreshing and more than piqued my interest for MAO’s tournament run. ***1/2
HARASHIMA vs. Chris Brookes – D-Oh Grand Prix (Block B)
Although these guys probably have a better match in them, I dug how the various set pieces came together here. All the disparate sections (long matwork opening, Brookes leg work, HARA being annoyed by the bad leg during his comebacks) clicked together magically during that gnarly strike exchange that re-opened HARASHIMA’s chest (shoutout to Higuchi and his very large hands). Brookes going back to the leg injury to survive the Sheemster’s striking superiority was an inspired bit of storytelling and set up his eventual upset win in smart fashion. ***1/4
The Bodyguard vs. Naomi Yoshimura – D-Oh Grand Prix (Block A)
The lack of Bodyguard Karaoke entrance was appalling and the wrestling wasn’t a whole lot better. As much as I enjoy Bodyguard as a character/recording artist, there’s a clear limit to what he can do in the ring. Some of the generic hoss fighting worked just fine, but the bigger moments were all fumbled by poor Bodyguard’s complete incapacity to take a bump. Felt terrible for Yoshimura who had to eat the pin off that shit-looking head kick finish. **1/4
Jun Akiyama vs. Yuji Hino – D-Oh Grand Prix (Block A)
Tremendous match between two pros who know how to get it done in a wrestling ring. They borrowed heavily from the Akiyama/Higuchi KO-D title defense from March, Uncle Jun staying on the arm like a shark to cut down Hino’s monster chops. Akiyama’s viciousness brought new life to some of Hino’s more tired tropes, the highlight being a tricky Fujiwara armbar counter to the big man’s usual Fuck You Senton. Both guys supplied physicality in spades, which helped Hino’s eventual comeback feel both organic and earned. As wise as Akiyama’s strategy was, Hino still had enough bombs in his back pocket to shift the balance in his favor. Love a match that hits hard and just makes sense, two staples of Big Match Akiyama wrasslin’. ***3/4
Happy Thoughts - NJPW Power Struggle 2021 (11/6/21)
The boys were in a building for Power Struggle: nine matches, five championships and a four-hour runtime. Welcome back to your regularly scheduled layout of New Japan shows.
You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone, I s’pose. Also wrestling can sometimes seem so simple that you might wonder why it has to be so stubbornly bad so often. There is good wrestling here, but it’s a good show just because it’s a throwback to the before times.
1. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI vs. Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita
Talk about your Bret vs. Owen, your Angle vs. Rey… Dum Dum Daniels says two grumpy heels battering two bold rookies is all an opener needs. Oiwa attacks before the bell, then comes a cut-off. A comeback. A crab hold. **
2. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Tiger Mask IV vs. Tanga Loa, Jado & Gedo
Jado & Gedo as two power brokers still actively wrestling into their mid-50s is wild, though so is a 51-year-old Tiger Mask 4 refusing to step aside for a fifth and so is 45-year-old Tomoaki Honma just walking upright and completing sentences. He and Tanga Loa actually got a little thing going at the end, otherwise this was a few minutes of Jado & Gedo on Tiger Mask Violence and even in 2003 that felt overrated. *1/2
3. Yuji Nagata, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato vs. SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI
Six skilled wrestlers have a fine and appropriately timed match, and there’s a whole 6-match card ahead! New Japan is healing. Highlights here included Hriomu/Taguchi exchanges and SANADA popping the crowd with a Mongolian chop. **
4. NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Title: Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI [c] vs. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & SHO
Here’s a reasonable six-man tag lineup on the undercard made even better with the stakes of six-man tag team titles. Compared to CHAOS’ recent run of main event title defenses it felt a little lacking in both time and position, but their non-title match was pretty good and so was this. The House of Torture might be shoddy, but EVIL and Yujiro took a step back (the shock) and young heel SHO got to stand out: he had a really fun back-and-forth with Goto as well as moments of both bringing it to and getting his ass kicked by Ishii. YOSHI and EVIL always manage some low key magic together too.
The record-breaking championship reign of the CHAOS boys ending by intrusion from Dick Togo, a gimmick wrench and kick to the nuts is pretty crap though. ***
Afterwards, YOH ran out and went at SHO like he was Owen Hart returning post-Montreal Screwjob as commentary shouted “YOOOHHHH!!!!” That was great.
5. Amateur Wrestling Rules – KOPW 2021: Toru Yano [c] vs. Great-O-Khan
Toru Yano and The Great O-Khan are in wrestling singlets, folks. I mean. Yano has delivered years of moderate entertainment, but the charm checked out a few years ago and it’s especially lame that Great By God O-Khan has had to lose matches to him in year 2021. Yuji Nagata led an adorable amateur wrestling exhibition to explain the rules before the match, which ultimately explained why this was even happening as Nagata vs. O-Khan seems to be the next direction. Here’s the question though: why this way? *
6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Robbie Eagles [c] vs. El Desperado
Robbie got tossed into a heck of a position and he could still use some extra seasoning of charisma but otherwise the guy is talent, keeping up with all that is asked of the modern New Japan Jr. Title match. His challenger is El Desperado, the undeniably good wrestler who carries the Liger/Samurai tradition of New Japan masked guy that is somehow more emotive than 95% of the roster.
They got right to it and never really lost it, a welcome thing considering we went to intermission with the whole singlet nonsense. They establish credibility, target legs, wow the crowd, and eventually Robbie tries a 450 splash that Despy instinctively puts his knees up to counter which rocks both their worlds. As they try to end each other, the action is delightful and screams of agonizing knee pain appear real. Well done wrestling. ****
7. IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi [c] vs. KENTA
This wasn’t much different from their match during Summer Struggle, but without a Katsuyori Shibata run-in. I’d also probably best describe that match as “satisfactory” and so was this. I think the issue might be the contrast of each guy’s approach to the 20+ minute match: chain wrestling and slow build from Tanahashi, chinlocks and stalling from KENTA. They fit the bill of third from top — and threw in a High Fly Flow through a table — but it did sometimes veer into territory of seeing what Tanahashi vs. KENTA would’ve been been if they both went to WWE in 2014 and returned to Japan in 2019 slower and in more pain. **3/4
8. Tokyo Dome IWGP World Heavyweight Title Right to Challenge Contract: Kazuchika Okada [c] vs. Tama Tonga
One unintended consequence of AEW actually delivering on TV weekly in the United States is that the already tough sell of a Tama Tonga semi-main event (and potential Tokyo Dome main event, somehow) becomes pretty impossible. Is that unfair? Probably! Tama Tonga is an OK wrestler who stepped up for both the G1 and this, but the Okada aura didn’t bring him to a much higher ceiling and I’m not convinced even Okada and crowds of a few years ago would’ve created much better. ***
9. IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Shingo Takagi [c] vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
I fancied Shingo and ZSJ’s match early in the G1 quite a bit, ZSJ taking Shingo’s sell-smash-pop style and adding attacks to the arm where he is just constantly asking terrible things of Shingo’s sockets. This was similar, with ZSJ bringing a fresh approach to a dependable New Japan main event. Even across 30 minutes his campaign of arm attacks remained interesting and downright savage. He traps Shingo so securely it feels like someone said hey maybe you can go after the leg tonight and Zack said Absolutely Not. Shingo alternates between selling the arm like a tortured artist and swinging at ZSJ’s stupid face, which sometimes works and leads to a brief rally before ZSJ’s next torture device.
ZSJ’s near fall from a Michinoku Driver felt closer than one from a Japanese leg roll clutch or any from a submission to the arm, which is a problem though the potential for a ZSJ win never really felt completely probable anyways. Regardless: plenty of wrestling greatness. ***3/4
Happy Thoughts: Tanahashi and Okada looked bored in their respective 25-minute headline matches, but Eagles/Desperado and Shingo/ZSJ rocked while the undercard was of reasonable length and quality: 14-minute 6-Man Titles match, 5-minute Match #2… the boys are back, mo’FUCKA. 3.5 / 5.0