There are certain female wrestlers that are just astonishing to marvel at because of their physical prowess like a Jade Cargill (AEW), Raquel González (NXT), and the one that inspired them all and made it OK for a woman to have definition and power in wrestling Chyna. For NWA (National Wrestling Alliance), they have Kamille who before she became the most dominant Women’s Champion in the NWA (Champion for 255+ days and counting), she was a physical specimen ti astonish and marvel at when she was former NWA Champion Nick Aldis’s bodyguard. On the first episode of NWA Powersurge, she was taking in former Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion Taryn Terrell, but if you watched the match, Kamille dominated it. Taryn had about a total of a minute where she had the advantage, but Kamille was too good. After failing to hit what looked like a stunner, Kamille got down, positioned herself and hit Taryn with a spear that knocked her out of her boots. The 1-2-3 that followed was elementary as Kamille retained her championship.
If the WWE has decided that they are going to take top talent and every once in a while they would face top talent from NXT, I would say that I was definitely has been living in the mid-cards and you put him against a bonafide main event talent on NXT. Dolph Ziggler is a multi time champion who has found some level of success in the WWE with Robert Roode in the tag team division, but there is a part of him that wants to prove that he could still hang with the main event stars and that is NXT’s heart and soul in Tommaso Ciampa. When you think of NXT, you automatically picture Ciampa and just what the psycho killer is all about. After interfering in Bron Breakkers match, they made it official for this week as Dolph Ziggler took on Tommaso Ciampa in this weeks main event. A match that certainly sees the best of WWE take on the best of NXT and the possibilities are limitless or at least it gives us a great main event to look forward to.
The match was pretty even from the start, but Ciampa was getting the best of Dolph almost as if Dolph had underestimated Ciampa and his abilities. As soon as it looked like Ziggler had something going, Ciampa was there to cut it off with some big moved like a high knee that connected pretty flush with Zigglers jaw. Eventually during the match, Ciampa would suffer a unfortunate injury that seemed to impair his shoulder because it prevented him from hitting the fairy tale ending. Dolph like the crafty veteran that he is took advantage of it and placed him in a sleeper hold, but Ciampa was too determined to stay down and he fought through it Valiantly as he rose to his feet with Dolph still on his back and he took a bump to get Dolph off of him, but as fate would have it, wherever Dolph goes, someone else is bound to follow and be close by. That someone that I am referring to is none other than his tag team partner Robert Roode who posed as a cameraman and hit Ciampa with the camera giving Dolph the opportunity to steal the win which he did. It was a dastardly act and it didn’t prove anything for Dolph, but as Bron Breakker made it to the ring to save Ciampa from the double team, he challenged both Roode and Ziggler to a tag team match next week in NXT 2.0.
Normally I would be watching Monday Night Raw, but I’m pretty sure nothing interesting enough is happening that could make me pass up this opportunity. I have never checked out Prestige Wrestling before and thanks to their poster for the card I was excited. When you see the names Davey Richards and Malakai Black (f.k.a. Tommy End & Aleister Black) you think veteran guys who have traveled the world honing their craft for years. You think two guys that could easily be too guys wherever they go in the world of wrestling and here they are meeting at Prestige Wrestling’s Roseland 2 from the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon on Sunday night for what was a mega main event on a card that already featured some fantastic matches. The two have plenty of experience fighting each other in the indies in the past whether it be singles action or tag team warfare, but they are meeting for the first time in years and Malakai has had a resurgence since introducing the House Of Black to the world in AEW. With a sold out crowd in hand, it was an opportunity for both wrestlers to once again showcase what they had and the contrast of styles would come into play for sure.
Both men valiantly went at it from the very start of the bell as both jockeyed for an advantage. Black has some of the most deadliest and Lethal offense in all of wrestling where at any moment in the blink of an eye he can change the complexity of the match. He was able to gain an advantage on Richards as he worked on the knee even executing an inverted figure four, but soon they would get into an exchange of thrusts kicks and surprisingly Richards would get the best of the exchange when he ended it with a well executed German suplex. The two would continue to trade advantages until it seemed like Richards was close to victory. After managing to escape an ankle lock, things looked ok for Black until Richards hit him with a double stomp. Black would kick out of the ensuing pin attempt only to be hit with a brainbuster, but Black would kick out again. Then as I said before, Black has the deadliest offense and he proved it by hitting Richards with a black mass out of nowhere. The rest is rather elementary as Black picked up the victory.
Roman Reigns has accomplished so much in the WWE and whether or not it was by design, you have to Marvel at how far he has come along. The man headed into Elimination Chamber in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia WWE Universal Champion for 537 which is the longest streak the WWE has seen in the last 35 years. There are only four other men who have streaks that equal, match, or surpass it and that is Pedro Morales (1,027), Bob Backlund (1,470), Hulk Hogan (1,474), and Bruno Sammartino (2,803). Now through out this 537 day reign, Roman has handled some of the best the WWE has to offer like Edge, John Cena, Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, Finn Balor, Daniel Bryan, and so many more. There is just one minor problem with the list and that there is one name that is not on that list and that is WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg. The match was supposed to take place two years before, but for whatever reason the match never did. Now it has been two years and Roman has the chance to put another name on the list as he furthers his quest for pure dominance. Goldberg meanwhile, is out to prove the naysayers wrong and that coming back to wrestling was not a major mistake.
We also knew going into this that the match wasn’t going to be pretty or feature a ton of fancy wrestling moves as these were two gargantuan men colliding in a vulgar display of power and that is exactly how the match played out. Roman was able to gain the upper hand on Goldberg for most of the match, but when he tried for a finish, Goldberg would answer with a spear. At that moment, we were asking ourselves, “ is Goldberg about to pull this off?” Goldberg would try for his patent jackhammer, but Reigns would quickly counter out of it. Roman would once again take control of the match and he would hit his patent superman punch, but as soon as he tried for a spear, Goldberg would spear him again. Goldberg would try again for the jackhammer, but Reigns did his homework cause when he countered, he countered it right into a guillotine choke. Goldberg tried as valiantly as he could to hang on, but Reigns had it locked in and it was in tight. There was no where for the veteran to go and he had no choice as Roman retained the WWE Universal Championship by submission. What’s next for Goldberg? No one really knows, but the rumor mills are saying it could be tne much anticipated match with Stone Cold Steve Austin. For Roman Reigns, it’s a date with destiny as he takes on Brock Lesnar in a champion vs champion match at WrestleMania.
Bron Breakker is a guy that had a stellar 2021 and 2022 has already gotten off to an excellent start for the second generation superstar who is currently the NXT Champion. There are those in the industry who may grow jealous of the young superstar and his success especially if they had been grinding it out a lot longer than Breakker. Santos Escobar, the controversial leader of the Legado Del Fantasma may have something to say to Bron Breakker as the wrestler formerly known as El Hijo Del Fantasma was NXT Cruiserweight Champion for 321 days which is the 2ND best reign in NXT history behind Jordan Devlin’s 400 plus reign. Well the time for talking was over as the two would meet for the main event at NXT Vengeance Day 2022. Bron was flying solo and as admirable as that is one had to wonder what kind of a factor was Legado Del Fantasma was going to play in the match because you had Joaquin Wilde, Raul Mendoza, and Elektra Lopez in his corner. Something was bound to happen during this match. The match of course started out with both men trying to get a feel for what the other had planned, but there’s no science to Breakkers game and Escobar knew this.
It was just like clockwork as soon as it looked like Bron could be running away with the match, Legado stepped right in and distracted the referee and Santos took advantage of it. Santos worked on Bron’s neck and back muscle/shoulder area for most of the match which was smart because it would limit the amount of power moves that Bron could execute for the most part, but you can’t keep a good man down for long as Breakker broke out of the mess he was in. He was hitting Escobar with everything he had, but as soon as Legado went to interfere again, someone else helped out Santos this time around and out of nowhere came Dolph Ziggler who superkicked Bron almost out of his boots. Santos tried for the cover, but Bron kicked out at 2. Dolph tried to get back in to the ring in frustration and disbelief, but Tommaso Ciampa was there to back him up. Santos quickly turns around after being distracted by the action outside and gets speared into hell by Breakker. To finish the job, Breakker military presses him right into his patent powerslam which was all it took for Breakker to retain his NXT Championship. Next week is already looking interesting when Dolph Ziggler has his first match on NXT TV.
Some rivalries are born out of necessity while some are born from injustices that are committed and that was what today’s match on Beyond Wrestling’s new show Wrestling Open (replaced Uncharted Territory) at the White Eagle Hall in Worcester, MA as Teddy Goodz, the local hero took on newcomer World Class Channing Thomas whose manager Sidney Bakabella called out Goodz at Beyond Wrestling’s Day 91 event days earlier. At the previous weeks Wrestling Open, Bakabella had attacked Little Mean Kathleen with a microphone which in turn saw Teddy Goodz challenge Thomas for some revenge. The only unfortunate thing is that the anticipation for the match was greater then the match itself because within 30 seconds the match was over. As the bell was rung, Sidney Bakabella imposed himself on the ring apron distracting the referee allowing Thomas to remove brass knuckles from his trunks and before you knew it, he knocked out Teddy Goodz with a devastating hook. The referee turns around not knowing what had just conspired and does the three count awarding Thomas the win. To make matters worse, Thomas grabbed Little Mean Kathleen and delivered a devastating piledriver that most certainly put her on the shelf. Time will tell what reaction these heinous actions will receive in the future.
Reality television has really taken over the world and it’s nothing new to the world of professional wrestling as the WWE has dominated reality television in the wrestling world for years with shows like The Bellas, Miz and Mrs, and so many more. The Masked Singer has been a phenomenon since it’s debut on Fox and it was only a matter of time until someone else followed that shows recipe and translated it to the wrestling world and IWTV (Independent Wrestling TV) has done just that with their own version called The Masked Wrestler. It’s a show where a panel of judges who have a job which is to try and figure out who the two wrestlers are whose identities have been concealed. When the match is over, it is the judges jobs (The judges are Matt Tremont, Warhorse, and Edith Surreal) to figure out just who the losing wrestler is. The winner at the end of all of it gets a title match against the IWTV Champion. The match we checked out for today was the season two, match three battle that saw Wallflower take on R.A.L.P.H. (Robotic Automated Lucha-Powered Humanoid). What we knew about these two competitors coming into the match was that wallflower had been a wrestler for six years while R.A.L.PH. had only been wrestling for two years and he has only competed in IWA Mid-South. Wallflowers two truths and lie was that he ran a wrestling promotion, was best friends with a rodent, and he drove cars for extra cash while R.A.L.P.H.’S were his first girlfriend was a cash register, his favorite movie was RoboCop, and he has a really big and before he could finish the statement, he powered down.
The match itself was very entertaining and saw both wrestlers play up their characters especially R.A.L.P.H. who really did a great job masking his identity playing up the robot gimmick during their match. The match got really interesting and almost gave a really huge clue for the judges as soon as Wallflower started breaking out the hardware like chairs, pieces of wood that he would use to build table like weapons, and even a ladder which saw him hit an elbow on R.A.L.P.H. on the outside of the ring. At one point, it looked like he was going to have the advantage when he poured water on R.A.L.P.H.’s arm frying the electronics. He would set R.A.L.P.H. up on top of the wood in-between the two chairs and he climbed the ropes, but he was taking too long to get there and all of a sudden R.A.L.P.H. came back to life and bodyslammed him from the top through the table. That was all it took for R.A.L.P.H. to gain the victory because now it was time for the judges to figure out just who was Wallflower? Matt Tremont pointed out right away that the style of wrestling that Wallflower broke out reminded him of Jimmy Lloyd so that was his answer. Edith Surreal who was the only one with points on the board agreed with Tremont, but she picked Akira as her answer. Warhorse also concurred with the other judges, but he saw something in his fighting style that made him pick Wildheart Cole Radrick for his answer which turned out to be the correct answer as soon as he pulled off the mask. The one lie that he had was that he ran a wrestling promotion because the truth was that he used to run one.
When it comes to independent wrestling in New England, there may not be another company more exciting and entertaining to watch then Beyond Wrestling. Beyond is a company that boasts no champions and they don’t have to because the amount of men and women that have graced that ring and have gone on to bigger careers in the WWE, AEW, Impact Wrestling, and more is astronomical and the proof is right there in the pudding. Biff Busick who was once know in Stamford, CT as Oney Lorcan was in a 90 day no compete clause so to help celebrate his freedom, the prodigal son of Beyond Wrestling was coming home to the Fete Music Hall in Providence, RI for the aptly titled Day 91 as he stepped into the squared circle to face the Michael Myers of wrestling in Slade. Slade is a wrestler who the minute you spot him, you are looking for the exits because the man oozes terror and he has no fear in those cold dead eyes, but he is stepping into the ring with a man who loves to fight and does not back down from a challenge. This was definitely not going to be a fight for the faint of hearts, this was going to be a blood bath.
The match started out with the two of them testing their machismo as they battled for the first advantage and that would ultimatelygo to Slade who began clobbering away on Busick and he ultimately never looked back as he dominated the match even busting Busick open early. Biff would try everything to gain an advantage or a moment of separation, but nothing seemed to keep Slade down. Biff tried everything from a half & half to even using a barrel, but Slade kept coming. He even busted Slade open with a chair, but nothing seemed to slow him down. Biff took so much punishment throughout the match by going through a door, but nothing would keep the veteran down as well. Finally at one point, the two engaged in a slug fest that saw Busick get the advantage as he dropped a bloodied Slade to his knees. Busick would use the barrel on Slade’s head, but Slade shrugged it off and asked for more. Biff would oblige him and he hit him for a second time which saw Slade lose a little power, but he sat back up and asked for more. This time, Busick placed the damaged barrel over his head and proceeded to hit him with flying European uppercut which was the one that put him away as the referee counted the 1-2-3 making it a successful return for the hometown hero.
Talk about having super matches, AEW offered us a super match this week as they finally pinned MJF who has been talking way too much against the legend CM Punk in Punks hometown of Chicago, IL in AEW Dynamite. The only thing we could hope for is that this one was going to be better than the one we got at the Royal Rumble earlier in the week. We had seen these two talk for weeks, we saw MJF duck it fit as long as he could, we saw CM Punk defeat members of the pinnacle, and the match was finally here. Punk entered the match undefeated and he was risking it because MJF is one of the craftiest competitors despite how young he is. MJF is one of those guys who is going to be around for a very long time and who knows what he is capable of, but Punk was there to make a statement. When the match started, MJF did the typical heel move with the cheap shot to Punk, but once Punk was able to get over that he dominated the match both inside and outside the ring. After three straight body slams, he had MJF reeling and it seemed like the perfect time for a high risk maneuver so Punk went to the top for his famous elbow drop. Unfortunately for him, MJF did his research and rolled out of harms way.
That forced CM Punk off the top rope and it forced him into a mistake that would cost the one time self proclaimed best in the world. Punk charged at MJF looking to connect with his shoulder, but he met the ring post instead when MJF moved away just in time giving MJF a body part to work on the whole entire match and he did just that. Punk would try so many moves, but his arm was giving out on him and it allowed MJF time to adjust and recover. At one point, it looked as if MJF was about to win when he locked the sleeper hold on Punk and for a moment he did when the referee raised the arm of Punk three times and Punk didn’t answer. The shock of the loss quickly wore off when the referee noticed medical tape in MJF’s hand and he restarted the match. That saw some life being brought back into Punk, but a high risk moonsault to the outside injured Punk when he landed awkwardly giving MJF yet another body part to work on and you best believe that he did. After several close calls for both men, MJF ended up on the outside of the ring where Punk would naturally chase him, but then Wardlow made his way. Wardlow didn’t attack Punk, but he distracted the referee long enough to allow MJF to knock out Punk. We later during the replay found out that Wardlow had handed MJF a ring to use and that’s what he did as he shocked the world with a win over CM Punk.
Ever since the day we found out that Bobby Lashley had resigned with the WWE, I instantly had hoped that one day we were going to get Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley. That all came true the night after WWE Day 1 on Raw when Lashley defeated Big E, Seth Rollins, and Kevin Owens and I was excited as a child on Christmas that these two gargantuan men were finally colliding. There wasn’t a huge amount of build up for the match as everything was done on short notice, but nonetheless we were waiting for a clash of Titans. The match was 15 years in the making with two guys who had different trajectories in the path that led them to this very point. Brock almost instantly became a WWE Champion as soon as his career began while Bobby Lashley took a different path. Bobby almost seemed like the one who was supposed to follow a similar path, but as soon as the hype began it quickly ended. The path he went on to was at Impact Wrestling where he became one of the top guys. Brock would leave the WWE almost as soon as it was hitting its peak and chose a path in the UFC where he dominated the heavyweight division before making his return to the WWE in 2012 where he made waves ending The Undertakers Wrestlemania streak. Lashley would make his return in 2018 where he began to dominate, but the WWE championship seemed elusive until he hooked up with MVP which saw him dethrone Drew McIntyre to claim his first piece of Gold in the WWE.
The lead up to the bell was full of excitement as both men stared a hole through each other. As they say, “If looks could kill…” Once the bell rang, they sized each other up and they locked up with Brock almost immediately making the first move with a German suplex, but Lashley wasn’t phased as he delivered a German of his own. The two would continue exchanging blows and advantages until Brock found his opening with several German Suplexs that found their mark. Lashley would show some signs of life, but Lesnar was too smart as a German and an F5 were delivered taking out the referee, but who was there to count. Absolutely no one and as Brock looked on, he knew there was no way to win unless the referee was conscious. As soon as Brock got to his feet, he was met with a huge spear from Roman Reigns who turned his attention to Paul Heyman, his former advocate, who in turn handed Roman the WWE Championship. Roman would finish off Lesnar by hitting him with the championship allowing Bobby Lashley to cover while a second referee conveniently made his way to ringside for the pinfall attempt and after the 1-2-3, Bobby Lashley was once again WWE Champion ending a match we had all been waiting for in a very controversial way. As we would find out later on in the night, Lesnar was the big winner of the night in the end.
Mr. X's Punch Out 