Tags
"Bad Boy" Joey Janela, 205 Live, AEW, AEW Fyter Fest, AJ Styles, Angel Garza, Beyond Wrestling, Brody King, Bullet Club, Cameron Grimes, El Phantasmo, FITE, Flip Gordon, Fyter Fest, Impact Wrestling, Independent Wrestling, Independent Wrestling TV, Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, Joaquin Wilde, Joey Janela, Jon Moxley, Let Them Eat Cake, Mark Haskins, Marty Scurll, NJPW, NJPW Southern Showdown, NXT, NXT Breakout Tournament, NXT UK, Nyla Rose, PCO, PJ Black, Raw, Ricochet, Riho, Ring Of Honor, Robbie Eagles, ROH, ROH Best In The World, ROH World Six Man Tag Team Championships, Rush, Smackdown, The Club, Tracey Williams, Uncharted Territory, Villain Enterprises, Will Ospreay, Women's Wrestling Revolution, WWE, WWR, Yuka Sakazaki
As I have said many many times and I’ll say it again there is an abundance of wrestling at our disposal that it’s almost a dream come true because I remember being a teenager and wanting more wrestling than just the WWE and WCW because they were only on certain nights of the week. Now, we live in a world where you are getting WWE’s programming (RAW, Smackdown Live, 205 Live, NXT, NXT UK plus PPV’s when applicable), Impact Wrestling (free on Twitch), and so much independent wrestling whether it be Ring Of Honor TV on Fite, or all the various independent promotions that are on Independent Wrestling TV like Beyond Wrestling and ICW New York to name a few. Now, we are in the midst of a revolution in wrestling especially since AEW debuted with Double Or Nothing and with the fact that they have a weekly show coming in September. So with all this wrestling going on, I am once again here to present to you guys what I consider to be the top matches of the week from all the promotions that I have watched. If there is any match I may have missed and you think I should check it out then tweet me @EddieValiant82 on Twitter. Here are the matches that I believe you should check out, but to hear what my match of the week was, you’ll have to tune into my podcast Five Star Wrestling Podcast to find out when we read our five star moments/match of the week.
Villain Enterprises vs Mark Haskins, Tracey Williams & PJ Black (Ring Of Honor Best In The World 2019 6/28/2019)
One of the most impressive units in all of Ring Of Honor may just be that of Villain Enterprises which is comprised of Marty Scurll, Brody King, and the monster PCO. In all of there defenses of the Ring Of Honor Six Man Tag Team Titles, they have been successful as they are well on their way to breaking The Kingdom’s record, but there is one team that stood in their way and that was 2/3rds of Lifeblood in Tracey Williams and Mark Haskins who teamed with PJ Black. For the most part, the match was pretty even with both teams trying to one up each other in the beginning and then it was all out war as they threw everything but the kitchen sink at each other. I mean even PCO was attempting backflips everywhere he had a chance to which was how crazy the match was. At one point in the match, PJ Black had a chance to put away Marty Scurll, but when he attempted the back flip from the top rope, Marty was waiting with his boots up. Brody King would enter the ring and he would deliver a gonzo bomb to PJ and PCO would finish him off with a back flip from the top rope to secure the 1-2-3.
Jon Moxley vs Joey Janela (AEW Fyter Fest 6/29/2019)
The match was officially a non sanctioned match which means that AEW was not accepting liability for what was going to happen in this match and it’s a good thing that they didn’t because this match was brutal. These guys used everything that was underneath the ring from steel chairs, steel chairs wrapped in barbwire, tables, boards wrapped in barbwire, a ladder, and even more tables. Both men at one point were just beaten, broken, and bleeding as they endured whatever they through at each other, but at one point, Moxley had had enough of the Bad Boy. He went underneath the ring and he brought a bucket into the ring and inside the bucket was a bag and guess what was inside that bag? If you guessed thumb tacks then you obviously know what a hardcore match is. The only problem is that Moxley proceeded to remove Janela’s shoes and his socks to drive him into the thumb tacks. Janela almost avoided it at one point, but Moxley picked him up like he was going to suplex him into it and just drove his body right into it. Then he picked up Janela and drove his feet into the thumb tacks before delivering a paradigm shift into the thumb tacks to get the 1-2-3.
Robbie Eagles vs Will Ospreay (NJPW Southern Showdown 6/29/2019)
One of the most intriguing matches of the Southern Showdown card was the one between Bullet Club member Robbie Eagles and IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay. The two had met on three previous occasions with Robbie having the advantage with two wins over Ospreay with the last one being a controversial win thanks in large part to El Phantasmo. The match was everything that it was cracked up to be with both men just throwing everything at each other, but the complexion of the match changed when Robbie took advantage of a knee injury Ospreay suffered during the encounter. Robbie did his best to take advantage of it, but Ospreay wouldn’t go down and it worried El Phantasmo to the point that he got involved in the match, but Eagles wasn’t going to allow Phantasmo to make a difference and it cost him. Ospreay eventually after not putting away Eagles with a shooting star press, resorted to hitting the blade and then finished off the match with the stormbreaker that got him the 1-2-3. I don’t know what Robbie’s future is in the Bullet Club, but I’m sure El Phantasmo will have something to say.
Honorable Mentions:
I honestly believe that one of the top Mexican wrestlers in the world is none other than Rush who is undefeated in Ring Of Honor and had one heck of a match on the kick off show with Flip Gordon at Best In The World 2019. One match from AEW Fyter Fest that deserves some recognition for sure was the women’s triple threat match between Nyla Rose, Riho, and Yuka Sakazaki because these women through everything they had at each other and it was entertaining. A match to check out especially if you have Independent Wrestling TV, you should check out WWR (Women’s Wrestling Revolution) Let Them Eat Cake and the match between Terra Calaway and Leyla Hirsch in what was a classic David vs Goliath match. Ricochet vs AJ Styles from this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw definitely deserves an honorable mention, but mainly because the end results was a heel turn move for The Club. The last match for this list is the match between Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and Cameron Grimes which I thought was a really good match, but it didn’t top Joaquin Wilde vs Angel Garza match.
As I have said many many times and I’ll say it again there is an abundance of wrestling at our disposal that it’s almost a dream come true because I remember being a teenager and wanting more wrestling than just the WWE and WCW because they were only on certain nights of the week. Now, we live in a world where you are getting WWE’s programming (RAW, Smackdown Live, 205 Live, NXT, NXT UK plus PPV’s when applicable), Impact Wrestling (free on Twitch), and so much independent wrestling whether it be Ring Of Honor TV on Fite, or all the various independent promotions that are on Independent Wrestling TV like Beyond Wrestling and ICW New York to name a few. Now, we are in the midst of a revolution in wrestling especially since AEW debuted with Double Or Nothing and with the fact that they have a weekly show coming in September. So with all this wrestling going on, I am once again here to present to you guys what I consider to be the top matches of the week from all the promotions that I have watched. If there is any match I may have missed and you think I should check it out then tweet me 
Much like the WWE, it’s hard to find anything to be happy about when it comes to Impact Wrestling, but despite all of the hiccups the product seems to be getting better. One of the things the company does right usually is their Impact Knockouts division and one of my favorites is Tessa Blanchard who took on Jake Crist of OVE in a rare intergender match. Jake was instructed by Sami Callahan to get a victory over Tessa who interjected herself into their business the week before, but Tessa came out of the gates hot hitting Jake with some vicious forearms before launching herself not once, not twice, but three successful suicide dives. Unfortunately her advantage didn’t last long as Jake Crist was just vicious in the ring with her especially when he was raking her face with his forearm. Eventually, she would fight back and she got her opportunity when she climbed the ropes and she nailed Crist with the magnum. That was all it took as she covered him for the 1-2-3 and believe me Sami Callahan was not happy.
As you all know in CMLL, every match is fought in a best two out of three falls match and the first few falls are usually very short in time frame. Ring Of Honor sensation Rush and his partner Bestia Del Ring took on the brothers Ángel De Oro (Miguel Chavez) and Niebla Roja (Sergio Chavez) in the Gran Final De La Copa Dinastias 2019. The first fall was very quick in where Rush started the match early by attacking the others and got the first fall after hitting a missile dropkick in the corner to Niebla Roja with Bestial hitting a senton bomb against Ángel De Oro. The second fall saw them take them to the outside where they each fought their opponents in the stands. They continued to beat on them when they returned on to the ring, but soon paid when they were distracted allowing Ángel and Niebla to get back in the match with three straight suicide dives through the middle rope. Rush and Bestia would eventually drop the second fall when Rush was disqualified for using the camera wires. The two teams would go back and forth for the third fall trading advantages, but it was a powerbomb from the middle rope that Bestia delivered to Niebla that eliminated him from the match. They would try the same thing to Ángel, but he would reverse it into a huricanrana to eliminate Bestia. After going back and forth, a controversial finish would win the match for Ángel and Niebla. Ángel would deliver a low blow and turn it right into a roll up for the 1-2-3.
When it’s a lucha libre rules match and you see that Daga is on the card then you know you are going to get one heck of a match. Add the veterans Aerostar and Teddy Hart and mix them in with a fresh face like Lowrider and this is a contest. The action was heavy and it was fast as these guys threw every thing they had at each other and one of my favorite spots was the multiple tope suicidas and back flips off the ropes and to the outside from each of the participants in the match. After surviving one heck of a Canadian Destroyer from Teddy Hart, Daga was able to get back into the match thanks to Lowrider hitting Teddy with a springboard cutter. Daga eventually began to duke it out with Lowrider eventually nailing him with an scoop slam piledriver before executing an underhook into a codebreaker of sorts that was enough to pick up the win and he got the three right before Teddy Hart was able to stop it. All the men in the match deserved a round of applause including Aerostar who was returning from a a bad injury just the week before.
I went into this PPV with absolutely no expectations whatsoever and out of all the matches on the card, this one came out of nowhere. The tag team match saw Kevin Owens and his best friend Sami Zayn take on The New Day’s Big E and Xavier Woods ina grudge match of sorts. The match started and it almost looked as if KO and Zayn were going to take it early as KO eliminated Big E out of the picture temporarily with a superkick. He followed it up with three straight superkicks to Xavier and followed it with a senton from the top, but Xavier kicked out. Zayn tried a blue thunder bomb, but Xavier kicked out so he tagged KO back in. Kevin then tried to hit a frog splash, but Xavier kicked out and Big E finally made his way back onto the apron. The duo began working on Woods for most of the match before he was able to tag Big E into the ring. There was a lot of action as they never led off of the pedal. Eventually after several tags, Xavier was in the ring with Kevin and he tried climbing the ropes for a high risk maneuver, but Kevin was quick to knock him off it and when he got up, Kevin hit him with the stunner to get the 1-2-3. If you watch any match from that night make sure this is one of them.
Just from the two names that you see this match already should have been a match of the week contender, but the WWE always finds ways to screw things up and they almost did. Ricochet had won the US title from Samoa Joe the night before and now 24 hours later was in a match with AJ Styles who was returning from injury. When the match first started, it was actually fun to watch as each competitor was trying to one up each other, but then all of a sudden here comes Gallows and Anderson to screw up a perfectly good match. AJ then kicks out the duo after they tried tripping up Ricochet and when the match returns from commercial break, it has been restarted. Most of the match, it just seemed that AJ was always a step ahead of Ricochet and that is just the veteran in him, but it got serious as Ricochet was matching him move for move. At one point, Ricochet was able to hit a springboard moonsault, but he failed to get the 1-2-3 as AJ kicked out. At that point that is when he set himself up for a 630, but AJ was quick to get out of the way eventually nailing him with a forearm and then he topped it off with a phenomenal forearm to get the 1-2-3. I look forward to whatever lies in the future for these two.
“Dirty Daddy” Chris Dickinson should have his own column here on Top Matches because the man brings it week in and week out with amazing matches. As he gears up for his big match against Daisuke Sekimoto at Americanrana 19, he has asked for the best talent around and Matthew Justice, a journeyman of indy wrestling answered the call. It looked like another easy match for the dirty daddy until Justice introduced some chairs and things went hardcore in this no DQ match. Justice would get a window of opportunity as Dickinson was trying to perform the Memphis piledriver on the apron, Justice reversed it with a back body drop and in turn Dickinson hurts his elbow on the way down. Then the holy shit moment happened because Justice got too cocky. Both men were on the outside of the ring and Justice looked to be in full control as he took a door from underneath the ring and set it up at the ring bell table. As they made their way to the stage at The White Eagle in Worcester, Dickinson was able to reverse it and he delivered a Pazuzu bomb (Razor’s Edge) on to the door. Despite this, Justice would kick out of the ensuing pin attempt to stay in the match and he would kick out again after a death valley driver onto a chair. Dickinson then traveled to the outside and he pulled out a door from underneath the ring, but this time Justice delivers a death valley driver onto the door, but Dickinson kicked out. As Justice climbed the ropes, Dickinson quickly rose up and met him at the top to deliver a power bomb of sorts which was the final nail in the coffin as Dickinson was able to get the 1-2-3.
As I have said many many times and I’ll say it again there is an abundance of wrestling at our disposal that it’s almost a dream come true because I remember being a teenager and wanting more wrestling than just the WWE and WCW because they were only on certain nights of the week. Now, we live in a world where you are getting WWE’s programming (RAW, Smackdown Live, 205 Live, NXT, NXT UK plus PPV’s when applicable), Impact Wrestling (free on Twitch), and so much independent wrestling whether it be Ring Of Honor TV on Fite, or all the various independent promotions that are on Independent Wrestling TV like Beyond Wrestling and ICW New York to name a few. Now, we are in the midst of a revolution in wrestling especially since AEW debuted with Double Or Nothing and with the fact that they have a weekly show coming in September. So with all this wrestling going on, I am once again here to present to you guys what I consider to be the top matches of the week from all the promotions that I have watched. If there is any match I may have missed and you think I should check it out then tweet me 
Now that TJ Perkins is free from the WWE, he can go and roam and be where ever he wants to be which includes coming home to PCW ULTRA for their event Mind Crawler. In his return match, TJ Perkins was taking on Adam Brooks for a shot at being the number one contender for the PCW ULTRAlight Championship. The match started off with each man showing each other up, but things quickly got serious. Ity looked as if Adam Brooks was going to be in control of the match as the huge blockbuster he nailed took a little bit out of TJP. Unfortunately for Brooks, that didn’t stop TJP from mounting a comeback with his high flying style of wrestling. At one point, it looked like TJP was going to put it away early, but while on the wrong side of the ropes, Brooks was able to climb up and nail a meteora on the ring apron. Due to this, Brooks injured his knee in the process and it slowed him down because when it came time for the swonton dive from the top, he gave TJP enough time to recover and he placed his knees up as Brooks came down and TJP finished it with the disaster kick to get the win.
You can always count on Ring of Honor to bring you some of the most exciting matches around and they did just that this week on their TV tapings with a four corner survival match that featured the number one contender to Matt Taven’s ROH World Championship in Jeff Cobb taking on Rush, former ROH Champion Jay Lethal, and the freak known as PCO. This was a wild and crazy match where each wrestler sort of had their spot and PCO deserves a lot of credit being able to hang with the young guys as he begged them to do a suicide dive through the ropes at him. There was a lot of action in the match, but at one point, PCO was able to hit a pop up powerbomb to Jay, but Cobb was able to break up the pin count. Cobb follows that with delivering a brainbuster and then a standing moonsault on to PCO, but Rush was able to stop the pin count. Rush superkicked Cobb and delivers an overhead belly to belly suplex into the corner, but Jay Lethal is able to intercept. Eventually after PCO missed a moonsault from the top rope onto the ring apron, Lethal was able to get to Cobb, but Kenny King came down and distracted him allowing Cobb to hit the tour of the islands for the big win.
There is not a lot to be excited for when it comes to the WWE and I am not 100% sure that I wanted to include this match, but for a main event for Raw I’ll take it. The match originally saw Seth try to nail a second suicide dive through the second rope, but Erick Rowan caught him and slammed him ending the match. All hell broke loose with the Revival, The Usos, The New Day, and more showing up forcing the referee to ban everyone from ringside and to restart the match. The match was actually a decent one when it returned from commercial break as Seth was ion control for most of the match. Daniel had his chances as well, but the brilliance of Bryan was his ability to counter Seth and he did it a couple of times as he countered a step up enziguri into the LeBell lock and later on doing the same thing, but this time countering a five star frog splash into the LeBell lock. Unfortunately in the end, Seth was able to hit the step up enziguri and he followed it with a curb stomp that was all it took to put away Bryan. 
As is tradition in Lucha Libre, the matches are all best two out of three falls matches and usually each of the competitors seems to take one a piece before the definitive third fall. In an episode of CMLL from Puebla, Mexico, Ultimo Guerrero was taking on Terrible and he got his ass kicked for most of the 1ST fall before he was able to steal the fall with an interesting submission hold that I don’t know what to call. Terrible dominated the second fall before taking it to tie it up at one a piece and that is where the real action happened. Ultimo Guerrero had a lot to lose in this match especially when it seemed that the ref was pulling for Terrible. The last fall all came down to who was going to outsmart the referee as well and Ultimo did just that as he held on to the ropes for more added pressure to make sure Terrible did not kick out of that pinfall attempt as he succeeded in fooling the referee.
As I said for the match from RAW, it’s been very hard these days finding a good match to come out of RAW and Smackdown, but I had a feeling that Dolph Ziggler and Xavier Woods were going to bring it and they needed to after a sub-par promo session that happened before. The match started off with both men showing their amazing backgrounds in amateur wrestling as they jockeyed for an advantage. They would go back and forth in the match throwing everything they could at each other like an honor roll from Xavier or the zig zag from Dolph. At one point, I thought the match was done when Xavier lifted Dolph with a gorilla press, but chose to throw him down into a gutbuster. Unfortunately, he couldn’t put him away and Dolph ended up on the apron and that is when Xavier’s luck changed. Dolph proceeded to slam Xavier against the steel; post and followed it up with a superkick that connected. He throws him back in the ring where he hits Xavier with a zig zag, but he doesn’t cover him. He puts Xavier against the ropes where he tries to tie him up and then connects with a devastating superkick that was all he needed to get the 1-2-3.
There is an abundance of wrestling at our disposal that it’s almost a dream come true because I remember being a teenager and wanting more wrestling than just the WWE and WCW because they were only on certain nights of the week. Now, we live in a world where you are getting WWE’s programming (RAW, Smackdown Live, 205 Live, NXT, NXT UK plus PPV’s when applicable), Impact Wrestling (free on Twitch), and so much independent wrestling whether it be Ring Of Honor TV on Fite, or all the various independent promotions that are on Independent Wrestling TV like Beyond Wrestling and ICW New York to name a few. So with all this wrestling going on, I am going to try my best to present to you guys what I consider to be the top matches of the week from all the promotions that I have watched. If there is any match I may have missed and you think I should check it out then tweet me 
I have to go back to the start of my wrestling binge watching with this amazing show from this past Saturday night that featured a lot of amazing matches. One match in particular stood out for me and that was the mirror match between Independent Wrestling Champion Orange Cassidy and the “Bad Boy” Joey Janela. The best part of Indy wrestling is the spectacle that comes with it and these two definitely provided it as they both came dressed exactly the same way to the ring complete with matching sunglasses that even the referee wore. Despite all of the amazing abilities that Cassidy possesses, he was taking to the limit by Janela. I thought Janela was going to take the match when he hit Cassidy with the trapper keeper bomb, but it just wasn’t enough. The ending of the match was the best as Cassidy used his brains to beat the bad boy after both men sprayed orange juice into each others eyes. Janela still blinded by the citric acid thought he had Cassidy rolled up, but it ended up being the referee. When he thought he won the match, Cassidy then rolled him up for the 1-2-3.
I totally did not expect this match to be ass amazing as it was because I was very unfamiliar with Minoru Tanaka, a Japanese legend of the ring, but these two definitely brought the goods as the match went back and forth. While Daga was physical and hitting Tanaka with some high flying maneuvers, Tanaka was being smart with the submission game at certain points of the match as he worked on Daga’s knee. The match was a great contrast of styles as we were observing the Mexican Lucha style vs the Japanese style that mixes Martial arts with wrestling. Daga tried his best, but with every move, Tanaka had an answer for it and in the end it looked like Tanaka was going for the cross arm breaker, but he transitioned it into a pin and the win. It wasn’t a very long match, but they did so much in a decent amount of time.
What is there to say about this match that hasn’t already been said by everyone in the world? This might have been the greatest Money In The Bank ladder match of all time and these guys certainly left their all in that ring and to be honest I don’t know how some of them are still walking around with their health. Poor Ricochet at one point was put through a ladder while Andrade delivered a sunset power bomb off a ladder and into another ladder that catapulted Finn Balor like he was on a trampoline. The match at one point looked like the scene of a seven car pile up, but it was the ending of the match that bothered me a lot. Ali was climbing the ladder as Drew McIntyre, Baron Corbin, Finn Balor, Andrade, Ricochet, and Randy Orton were all laid out on the outside of the ring. Then all of a sudden the music hits and here comes Brock Lesnar to ruin the ending of a great match as he got rid of Ali and snatched the suitcase. I just want to take the time to thank them for giving it their all for our entertainment.
This was everything that you thought it was going to be. It was two of the best wrestlers in the world being allowed to do what they do best and that is put on a five star match that is worthy of being a WrestleMania main event. It was absolute poetry in motion and all of the other cliches that describe how awesome this back and forth, refuse to die match really was. Some of the amazing action included an inverted superplex into a variation of the falcon arrow by Seth, a flip off the turnbuckle into a reverse DDT that almost won it for AJ, Rollins went for a curb stomp, but AJ was able to reverse it into the styles clash, but in the end it was Rollins hitting the curb stomp that sealed the deal. AJ tried for the phenomnal forearm, but Rollins intercepted him, hitting him with the ripcord knee which was followed by a superkick, and a curb stomp to seal the deal. I definitely want to see these two in the ring one more time.