Tags
Adam Cole, AEW, AEW Dynamite, AEW Heavyweight Championship, AJ Styles, Authors Of Pain, Bayley, Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Bobby Fish, Bray Wyatt, Candice LaRae, Chris Jericho, Dakota Kai, Damian Priest, Daniel Bryan, Dominik Dijakovic, Drew McIntyre, Finn Bálor, Io Shirai, Jacob Fatu, Jimmy Havoc, Jon Moxley, Karl Anderson, Kay Lee Ray, Keith Lee, Kenny Omega, Kevin Owens, Killian Dane, Kyle O'Reilly, Mance Warner, MLW, MLW Fusion, MLW Fusion On Thanksgiving, MLW Heavyweight Championship, NXT, NXT Championship, NXT North American Championship, NXT Takeover, NXT TakeOver: WarGames, NXT Women's Championship, Pac, Pete Dunne, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Rhea Ripley, Ricochet, Roderick Strong, Ross Von Erich, Scorpio Sky, Seth Rollins, Shayna Baszler, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tegan Nox, The Butcher And The Blade, The Fiend, Tommaso Ciampa, Top Matches Of The Week, Wrestling, WWE, WWE Intercontinental Championship, WWE Raw Women's Championship, WWE Smackdown Live Women's Championship, WWE Survivor Series, WWE Survivor Series 2019, WWE United States Championship
We are back again with another edition of The Top Matches of the week and this was an amazing week of wrestling especially in the WWE. There is so much wrestling at our fingertips that it’s absolutely mind blowing. There is Smackdown On Fox on Friday night, MLW Fusion every Saturday night, Raw on Mondays, Impact on Tuesdays, NXT on USA Network and AEW Dynamite on TNT on Wednesday nights, and Beyond Wrestling Uncharted Territory on Thursday nights. As you can see, you can occupy your week well if you try to watch all the wrestling promotions in the world right now, but my job is to give you what I thought was the best of every show that I watched during the week. So, get some refreshments, take a seat, and let me be your guide to the wonderful world of professional wrestling. Now the style is going to be a little different in the way that if there is more than one great match then they’ll just be short descriptions, but if not then we’ll go over the match.
NXT TakeOver: WarGames (11/23/2019)
This was an amazing night of wrestling and it all kicked off with the first ever Women’s WarGames match. The match featured Shayna Baszler, Bianca Belair, Io Shirai, and Kay Lee Ray took on Rhea Ripley, Candice LaRae, Tegan Nox, and Dakota Kai. Well , it was supposed to be Dakota and Tegan, but Dakota had her heel turn and took Tegan and herself out of the match. She essentially made it a 4 on 2 match and despite the odds, Rhea found a way to win the match pinning Shayna Baszler. The men’s WarGames match was even more exciting as it was the Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong) who took on Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic, and their mystery fourth member who turned out to be Kevin Owens. The match featured some amazing moments from guys like Lee, but it was that final moment that took your breath away as Ciampa dropped Cole from the top of the cage through a table.
WWE Survivor Series 2019 (11/24/2019)
What should have been the second consecutive amazing night for the WWE kind of fell short. None of the traditional 5 on 5 on 5 matches deserve to be up here, but two matches do. The first match saw Adam Cole having to defend his NXT Championship against Pete Dunne who won the opportunity the night before. Despite being battered and bruised up, these two gave everything they had including an incredible Panama Sunrise from Cole to Dunne on the outside apron. The other match that I thought was great was the match that saw NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong take on WWE United States Champion AJ Styles and WWE Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. The match went back and forth and Shinsuke shined in this match despite taking some bumps including a styles clash that saw Roddy come out of nowhere as he proceeded to throw AJ out of the ring and he took the pinfall for the win.
WWE RAW (11/25/2019)
It was a weird night on RAW and the two redeeming matches of the night was the Fatal 4 way to decide the man who would face AJ Styles for the WWE United States Championship as Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, and Randy Orton all did battle. Rey would get the best of Ricochet with a roll up for the win and it was up to him to get the job done against AJ. AJ was punishing Rey through out the match attacking Rey’s knee, but after Rey successfully hit the 619 on AJ, AJ’s momentum carried him into the referee who went down. This allowed Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows to come in and attack him, but thanks to Randy Orton clearing the ring and hitting AJ with an RKO, Rey was able to win the title. The other match of the night that was good was the match between Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens which happened thanks to Owens delivering a stunner to Seth at the beginning of the show. The match did wonders as it helped possible set up a heel turn for Seth with maybe A.O.P. (Authors Of Pain)?
NXT On USA (11/27/2019)
This week’s episode of NXT wasn’t a terrible one, but it had a couple of memorable matches on the card with the first one being a NXT Tag Team Championship match that saw The Undisputed Era’s Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish take on the team of Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic, but that would quickly change as Bobby Fish suffered an injury in the beginning moments that then saw Roderick Strong step in to do the match. It was an excellent match that went back and forth, but UE would take advantage of a distraction by Adam Cole to retain the titles. The other great match on the card was between Tommaso Ciampa and Finn Balor and there is no need to tell you how good the match was, but the ending is what is worth watching since Adam Cole once again made an appearance.
AEW Dynamite (11/27/2019)
There were a lot of great moments in this episode of Dyanmite like the debut of The Butcher and The Blade or the Jerigoat, but there were also a lot of strange finishes to matches as well. Nonetheless, you knew the minute you saw that Kenny Omega had his rematch with PAC that it was going to be an amazing match and it indeed delivered. After escaping each other’s attempts at finishers, Kenny was able to pull off a win against the number one ranked PAC with a second crucifix pin. I had high hopes for Scorpio Sky who I think is a future star, but we also knew that there was no way he was walking away AEW Champion against Chris Jericho. After some amazing back and forth, Jericho was able to get the win with a lion tamer. What was great about this was the fact that Jon Moxley sort of confronted Jericho at the end of the match making us wonder if that match is on the horizon.
Honorable Mention:
Mance Warner and Jimmy Havoc had themselves one hell of a match on MLW Fusion that saw them leave the arena, go to Jimmy’s house and so much more in a falls count anywhere in Orlando match. The triple threat match between Damian Priest, Pete Dunne, and Killian Dane to decide the number one contender for the NXT Championship was great, but not better than the two WarGames matches. The Fiend (Bray Wyatt) vs Daniel Bryan from Survivor Series was a decent match and while I thought WWE RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch vs WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion Bayley vs NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler was a little too slow, it was definitely a lot better than most of the matches that night. Dakota Kai taking on Candice LaRae on NXT On USA had potential to be an excellent match, but the rivalry between these two will be far from over. On Thanksgiving, MLW had a special edition that feature Ross Von Erich take on Jacob Fatu for the MLW Heavyweight Championship and it was a really good match until the predictable heel turn of Filthy Tom Lawlor happened.
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 
This was going to be one hell of a match and an interesting one because it was the first time since Kenta had left the WWE/NXT and the first time in over a decade I believe that he had fought in a New Japan ring. The other interesting note about this match is that his first opponent back in Kota Ibushi was also a master of striking with a history in Kickboxing. For most of the match, Kenta had slowed down the pace and he was in full control as he showed Ibushi why he was a master of striking himself. It also just seemed that no matter what Ibushi tried to do that Kenta always had an answer for his onslaughts. At one point in the match, Kenta was looking to put away Ibushi with the GTS, but Ibushi was too aware of his attempts and he would have a counter. At one point, both men were so determined that they tested each others fighting spirits by trading forearms and kicks, but Kenta got the best of the exchange with a high kick strike to the head. Kenta then proceeded to hit Ibushi with four straight foot strikes to the head, but that didn’t put away Ibushi. Kenta didn’t lose his composure as he lowered his knee pad, picked up Ibushi in a fireman’s carry position, and nailed the GTS which was the it factor of the match that gave Kenta the win.
When you think of legendary rivalries in the world of professional wrestling, you think of Ric Flair vs Sting, you think of Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels, and if you’re a fan of NJPW you definitely think of Okada vs Tanahashi. It’s the equivalent of the Lakers vs the Celtics in Japan and it definitely didn’t disappoint in Dallas as both men threw everything they had at each other. For a little while, it looked like Tanahashi was in well control of the match after nailing a dragon screw leg whip that allowed him to have control of most of the match. However, Okada never gave up and he came so close in so many instances to ending the match with the rainmaker, but Tanahashi stayed int he game. Eventually, Okada showed us why he is the IWGP Heavyweight Champion as he was able to nail the tombstone pile driver again and then he followed it up with the rainmaker that led to the 1-2-3 and the first victory of this long tournament.
Before I say anything about the match itself, the women of Impact Wrestling should be proud of themselves for the match that they put on because it was more exciting than a lot of the men’s matches. I mean this was a Monster’s Ball Match and they were getting hardcore with ladders, chairs, tables, thumbtacks, garbage cans, etc. Taya was a little worried heading into the match, but she held her own against some of the deadliest women in Impact Wrestling. Some of my favorite moments in the match were moments like Taya using a staple gun to staple an 8×10 of herself to Su Yung’s head, Jessicka Havok tying up Taya in the tree of woe and then delivering an elbow drop onto a chair, or how about Taya being in the tree of woe with Rosemary and Su Yung above her and she still manages to suplex them into a ladder. After putting Rosemary through a table, Taya waited for Jessicka to hit a super tombstone on Su Yung into thumbtacks for her time to strike. As soon as it happened, she saw Jessicka cover Su Yung for the pin, but Taya struck just in time by throwing a chair at Jessicka’s head to which she proceeded to cover Su for the win as she retained her Impact Wrestling Knockouts Championship.
There was a lot of significance in this match as I believe it was the first intergender match to headline Slammiversary as Tessa Blanchard took on “The Draw” Sami Callihan. The match started out exactly the way you thought it would with Tessa trying her best against Callihan, but he was just way too much at times as it looked like he was enjoying the fact that he was inflicting pain. Anytime that it looked like Tessa may be gaining any advantage, Callihan was quick to end it with just unfiltered brutality and you could hear the effects of the moves in Tessa’s cries, but she never gave up. At one point, it looked like Tessa may have a chance as she nailed Sami with a low blow and then the baseball bat to the stomach. She proceeded to hit Sami with the Magnum, but Sami kicked out and she transitioned it into a crossface, but he was able to escape. Sami would retaliate with a package piledriver, but Tessa kicked out of the ensuing pinfall attempt. Tessa would rise to her feet to give Sami the thumbs down, but he didn’t take it lightly and he hit Tessa with another piledriver, but this one did the job as he got the 1-2-3 for the win.
After having faced Joey Janela the week before, Briggs was back in action this week while on the road to Americanrana 19 where he will John Hennigan (a.k.a. Johnny Impact) one on one, but this week he faces one half of the Impact Wrestling Tag Team Champions in “All Ego” Ethan Page. For the most part of the match, Ethan dominated the match as he targeted the hip, back, and shoulder of Josh Briggs. No matter what Josh tried to do, it always seemed like Ethan would have an answer for him and he almost walked out with a win after hitting the Iconoclasm which he followed up with an elbow, but Briggs kicked out. The t went back an forth for a bit before Briggs was able to counter a powerbomb with a hurricanrana. He saw that the opportunity was there and as soon as Page got up, Briggs once again hit him with a chokeslam and he covered him for the 1-2-3. This matchwas definitely the highlight of the episode for me as Briggs once again prove how awesome he is.
One of the greatest things to happen in the WWE in the last year or two has been the women’s evolution where the men finally have to step up their game against a women’s division that is evolving at a high pace. The greatest thing to happen to the women’s evolution in that time span has been the one and only Becky Lynch, the Smackdown Live Women’s Champion who has been cutting some of the best promos around. At the WWE’s 32ND edition of Survivor Series, we were supposed to have the incredible match up between Becky and WWE Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey, but we were robbed of that due to a Nia Jax elbow to the face put Becky out of commission. It is not completely Nia’s fault because accidents do happen, but that would have been match of the night. But now, we were left with Smackdown and it’s writers deciding to flip the script and change everything. We will get the rumored WrestleMania 35 match between Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey and then for some god awful reason we got a heel turn from Daniel Bryan as he defeated AJ Styles for the WWE Championship which now means that Daniel is taking on WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar in what will surely be billed as David vs Goliath.
Now all the excitement for the PPV has almost completely left my body, but there are some matches that could save the night from being a total waste. I honestly believe that WWE Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins vs WWE United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura has the potential to be a match of the night winner as two of the best in the business in my opinion go at it for brand supremacy. I honestly do not believe that Brock Lesnar has what it takes anymore to put on an OK match which is why I think they are giving Daniel Bryan a shot, but I’d be surprised if he won. I honestly believe that Charlotte is going to be the saving grace of that match just like Becky Lynch would have been meaning that they will carry the match. As much as I would love to see the RAW women’s team win their traditional Survivor series match, I just think there is too much tension between Natalya and Ruby Riott right now that will somehow come into play during the match. I am just wondering who the last member of the Smackdown Live women’s team is going to be since Charlotte can no longer do it. I say that we bring in Nikki Cross since she already wrestled on the show a couple of weeks ago.
I don’t understand the point of having two heel tag teams face each other, but I am afraid to say that A.O.P. (Authors Of Pain) vs The Bar (Sheamus and & Cesaro) could actually be one hell of a match. I do not have too much invested interest in what 205 Live is bringing to the table only because I haven’t followed that in a while, but I like Mustafa Ali and what he brings so I’ll check it out when he challenges WWE Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy. Now, the men’s traditonal Survivor Series match that sees Drew McIntyre, Dolph Ziggler, Braun Strowman, Finn Bálor, and Bobby Lashley represent RAW as they take on Smackdown’s team of The Miz, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, Shane McMahon, and Rey Mysterio should be a very interesting match. The line in the sand could be drawn from this match as we inch closer to the road to WrestleMania 35. I think the WWE lost faith in the Tag team version of the traditional Survivor Series match when they placed it on the pre-show, but mark my words it will set the tone for the rest of the night and reveal to you which brand will take it all this year.
If you missed last night’s showing of NXT TakeOver: WarGames II then you missed one hell of a night. That event definitely set the tone for the weekend that it always does. The first match saw Matt Riddle, the king of bros, dispose of Kassius Ohno in seconds. With a little help from some friends Shayna Baszler disposed of her arch nemesis Kairi Sane 2-1 in a best two out of three falls match that left much to be desired. The next three matches are a complete toss up of what could be considered match of the night. First in what was an excellent match, Aleister Black and Johnny Gargano fought an epic match where both men left everything they had in the ring, but Aleister dug in deep and found a way to win hitting not one, but two Fade to Black’s. The very next match did much of the same as the previous match, but one thing is for certain. Even though the Velveteen Dream lost to NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa, he earned my respect and I look forward to watching this man whether it be in NXT or when he gets the call up. I loved the theatrics and the ode to Hollywood Hogan that Dream displayed last night. Last, but certainly not least the WarGames match once again lived up the hype as Ricochet, Pete Dunne, and the War Raiders went to war with The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Roderick Strong, and Kyle O’Reilly). Both teams blazed a path of destruction that I will never forget, but The Undisputed Era couldn’t get it done this time around. While it’s a hard choice to make, but the match of the night winner in my opinion is Aleister Black vs Johnny Gargano. Check out the event on the WWE Network and check out my predictions below for Survivor Series.
Things are changing in the WWE and we got a preview of it with The Greatest Royal Rumble where both brands will no longer have a solo pay per view. I can’t say that I am entirely disappointed in the WWE’s decision to do this because some PPV’s were rather lackluster at times, but what does this mean for everyone else heading into tonight’s WWE Backlash? What it means is that superstars from both rosters will be fighting to get a spot on a PPV whereas before it would be easier to do with the WWE needing to fill the slots on the specific cards. Is this the best thing? Maybe not, but it will tell you is that the end of the roster split could be over which means guys will be buried. This could also spell the end of the Universal Championship, but that remains to be seen. The WWE heads into the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ with a pretty stacked card thanks to this new change. The obvious stand out match in my opinion tonight will be the No Disqualification match between WWE Champion AJ Styles and the new and improved Shinsuke Nakamura. Is this finally the day that Shinsuke will reign supreme making his turn to the dark side the right choice after all or will the WWE just not take a chance on the man. It’s frustrating because they put a title around the waste of Jinder Mahal and that turned out to be a major flop. The WWE needs to make up it’s mind and give guys that deserve a shot at the top the chance like Cesaro or Nakamura. Vince is just burying his baby a little more and Triple H is looking like the genius with NXT.
The other match that has me intrigued because it may just turn out to be a match of the night contender is the one between Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins who puts the title on the line against The Miz. Even though we can kind of guess where the WWE is going to go with this match, it’s almost a no brainer that these two men are going to entertain you in the ring with the story they will tell. I am not entirely sure what the connection or the reasoning behind Daniel Bryan and Big Cass is, but I think I am like the rest of you in saying I am just happy to see Daniel Bryan wrestling in a WWE ring again. Now, if we could only convince CM Punk to come back, we would have more dream matches to come. I am also happy to see Big Cass make a comeback and I think it says something about where Vince’s head is at considering all the possible options he could have given Daniel Bryan. Instead, he chose to insert the big guy in there after missing almost a year which means everyone else has to wait. I think the only person that people want to see win the most tonight is Samoa Joe who gets his shot at the “Big Dog” Roman Reigns. He didn’t get over at WrestleMania or the Greatest Royal Rumble so let’s put him against the one man that the people actually want to succeed in the returning Samoa Joe. This is the thought process that goes on in this company and you can definitely see what frustrates the fans time and time again. It seemed that Carmella was over when she cashed in her Money In The Bank contract for the Smackdown Women’s title, but I am not so sure she walks out with it tonight. Then again, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay could prove to be thorns in her side tonight.
The match between Raw Women’s Champion Nia Jax and her challenger Alexa Bliss is a match that we actually care about because we respect the two of them. Alexa was one of the best champions in recent history because they didn’t constantly play hot potatoes with the strap, but how serious is the company with Nia Jax as champ? I think that Nia deserves her run as Champion to showcase how much of a dominant force that she is. The tag team match that features Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman taking on Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn could be a match that sets something up like a feud between Lashley and Strowman or this is giving Strowman something to do. I don’t really understand the idea behind their pairing, but I am hoping for a match. I don’t think it’ll happen tonight, but look for it in the future. I think that Randy Orton vs Jeff Hardy could be a decent match, but file this under I’m not expecting much out of it. The final match to talk about is the pre-show match that sees Ruby Riot taking on Bayley which will breathe new life into the Raw Women’s roster. I’d love to see Ruby take the win to set up an actual feud between the two, but we’ll see. As I said before, the combining of the two for every PPV gives the WWE a shot at giving you the best possible PPV every month instead of two PPV’s where one might be a home run versus the other. I’ll be tuning in and I suggest that you do as well. Check out my predictions below:
Things were rocking in Houston, Texas last night for WWE NXT TakeOver: WarGames and things are about to get better tonight for WWE Survivor Series. Survivor Series is one of the original Big Four Pay Per Views (alongside Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, and SummerSlam) that the WWE debuted back in 1987. It’s the second longest running pay per view the company has and one of the best for it’s unique match that it was built around which was a five on five single elimination match (dubbed the Survivor Series match). This year things got a little more exciting especially with the competition between Raw and Smackdown as we now have champion vs champion matches. We have WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar (Raw) taking on WWE Champion AJ Styles (SD Live) in what should one interesting match. We are also getting WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz (Raw) taking on WWE United States Champion Baron Corbin (SD Live). We also have WWE RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss taking on WWE Smackdown Live Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair in a sort of dream match hence the reason Charlotte won the title.
Then there are the traditional Survivor Series matches and things have been heating up with all of the changes in whose in and who is not. The original RAW men’s team consisted of Kurt Angle (Captain), Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, and Jason Jordan taking on Smackdown Live’s team made up of Shane McMahon (Captain), Randy Orton, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, and John Cena. That was the original match and a lot of us were stunned at the fact that Jordan had been picked for the team considering Smackdown told the world that Cena was the last member chosen. Stephanie McMahon agreed with me and Bray Wyatt helped the situation by injuring Jordan last week on RAW. When it came time to announce the replacement, Jordan made the situation difficult and Triple H remedied it by announcing that it was him and he put the exclamation point on it by delivering a pedigree to Jordan. Now the match is interesting and one I can not wait to see because imagine the situations you’ll get in this match. Finn and Shinsuke in the ring at the same time or even Triple H and Bobby Roode and so many more.
The other traditional Survivor Series match is between the Women this time around as RAW’s Alicia Fox (Captain), Nia Jax, Asuka, Sasha Banks, and Bayley take on Smackdown Live’s Becky Lynch (Captain), Carmella, Naomi, Tamina, and Natalya. The thing that I would love to see happen tonight with that match is that instead of Natalya being in the match, Paige makes her triumphant return to a WWE ring as a member of Team Smackdown Live. I doubt it will happen because I believe that she is being punished for a picture she took last Monday. We’ll see if anything happens tonight, but there’s more matches for tonight. In their first PPV match since reuniting The Shield (Dean, Seth, and Roman) take on The New Day in a six man elimination falls count anywhere match. RAW tag team champions The Bar (Cesaro & Sheamus) take on The Usos to finish out the RAW vs Smackdown Live matches. The Pre-show features some surprise matches like Breezango taking on Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, Enzo defends his cruiserweight title against Kalisto and Matt Hardy takes on Elias Sampson. Again, they have set this PPV up to be a very good one, but it remains to be seen if it ends up going that way for them. I’ll be tuning into it and hopefully you are if you’re a fan. Check out my predictions below:
You have to love it when the WWE finally builds up a match that deserves all the build up. At last months Summerslam, we were teased a match that we had hoped would happen for months, but the WWE did it the right way and they let Strowman build up to that very moment when he delivered two running powerslams to Brock Lesnar into two announce tables. What would follow in the next upcoming weeks has all of us salivating at the chance of a big heavyweight fight between The Monster Among Men taking on the Beast Incarnate for the WWE Universal Championship. The only questiuon heading into WWE NO Mercy tonight from the Staples Center in Los Angeles is whether or not we are getting the result that the overall consensus wants. Are we going to get a champion that is there and wrestling every week or are we going to have the same old and Lesnar is just going to be running the train through everyone until WrestleMania? I just hope that the WWE makes the right decision tonight and we get a new era in the WWE.
That isn’t the only big match on the card though, there is one more match that peaks my interest on the card. We knew for a little bit that John Cena was designated a free agent and that he could jump from brand to brand to face whoever he wanted. So we eventually knew that a match up with Roman Reigns was in the cards, I just didn’t think that we were going to get the match at No Mercy instead of WrestleMania, but this seems to be happening on both brands these days. So besides the shock of this match happening now, we have to look at the plus side of it and that is the promos between these two have been straight fire. It finally took someone like John Cena to bring out the best in Roman Reigns as far as mic skills were concerned because if it wasn’t for that first promo I probably wouldn’t have been as invested in this match as I am now. My only concern for this match is what is John Cena going to do? Is he going to do the so called “right thing” and put Roman Reigns over or is he going to “bury” him as people call it by winning the match? Another question to ask is even if Roman wins the match, is anyone going to even care enough to cheer him anyways?
Now there are other matches on the card and the only other match I am looking forward to is the tag team title rematch between the champions Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose who defend their belts against The Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro). It’s 2/3’s of The Shield so what else am I supposed to say, I am a huge mark for that team so get over it. I was looking forward to the Women’s match until the WWE decided at the last minute that it was OK to insert Bayley into the match. I am also surprised that the Jason Jordan/The Miz match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship wasn’t a pre-show match, but that could be because Miz has amazing heel skills and Jason Jordan had two amazing matches with Roman Reigns and John Cena recently. I am however not looking forward to the Neville/Enzo Amore match for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship because it’s an abomination that Neville has to defend that title against Enzo of all people. Could we have not found him a more suitable opponent like Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado, or even Akira Tozawa. Nonetheless, that is what we get for tonight and that’s what we’ll have to deal with. Here are my predictions for tonight:
Last night was the “Superstar Shakedown” part one on Monday Night Raw that saw the likes of Bray Wyatt, The Miz, Alexa Bliss, Mickie James, and Dean Ambrose all make the switch from Smackdown Live to Raw. Your saying to yourself, wait a minute Dean Ambrose, the current WWE Intercontinental Champion is on Raw now? Yes it true and in the main event of Raw, he took on US champion Kevin Owens who we can only assume is going to make the jump to Smackdown Live tomorrow when part two of the superstar shakedown continues. Nonetheless, we had an amazing main event to watch after a night that featured Braun Strowman absolutely brutalize Roman Reigns to the liking of the crowd. When the match started the two began trading advantages with Dean getting the best of Kevin to start off the match as we headed into commercial break with a springboard crossbody to the outside. When we came back, Kevin was in control of the match, but a mistake saw Ambrose take control, but he wasn’t able to do much when he ran shoulder first into the steel post. Owens cemented the control with a big knee to Ambrose against the post.
Kevin immediately put Dean right into a chin lock and he tried to wear Dean down hopefully so that he would submit. Dean was in a tough predicament, but when he tried to escape, Kevin was quick to cut it off by throwing him to the outside. Owens immediately went to the outside where he would pick up Dean in a fireman’s carry only to launch him ribs first into the steel post. When Dean beat the count to get back in the ring, Owens immediately worked on the rib area. Dean was finally able to create some separation in the match when he put his knees up when Kevin attempted a cannonball. He followed that up with a suicide dive to the outside as he threw caution to the wind as usual. With momentum on his side, Dean began taking control of the match with a swinging neck breaker and some clotheslines. After trading advantages back and forth, it was a mistake by Owens who tried to use Dean’s finisher against him that led to his demise as Dean was able to reverse it into the dirty deeds to pick up the win. Welcome to Raw Dean Ambrose!
The match we chose for today is an interesting one for many reasons with one being that it features the current President of The United States of America in Donald Trump. The other being that we are featuring another member of the Anoa’i family in Edward Fatu a.k.a. Umaga who took on current TNA superstar Bobby Lashley in a battle of the billionaires hair vs hair match. Donald Trump chose ECW World Champion Bobby Lashley while Vince McMahon chose WWE Intercontinental Champion Umaga with the loser of the bet having to get his head shaved and did we mention that Stone Cold Steve Austin was the special guest referee? Well, I just did so McMahon had that going against him entering WrestleMania 23. The match started off with Bobby getting the better of the exchanges and after a flying shoulder block, he would go for an early cover. Unfortunately, Umaga’s handler Armando Alejandro Estrada would grab Umaga’s foot and he placed it on the rope. That angered Lashley, who immediately grabbed him, brought him into the ring, and hit Armando with the dominator. Lashley tried to keep his advantage going with a suicide dive type spear, but Umaga moved out of the way sending Lashley head first to the outside.
It was the chance Umaga needed to take advantage of the match and he did so with a big splash and some choking from Umaga. Austin had to be an unconventional referee after hitting the big man in the back to get his attention. Umaga was not happy at all with it, but Austin warned him. Umaga again would resort to choking Lashley and after not listening to his five count, Austin grabbed him by the hair to rip him off of Lashley. No matter Umaga continued the assault with some big splashes to the chest area of Lashley. Umaga wanted to punish Lashley methodically. Lashley tried to fight back, but Umaga was a step ahead with the big Samoan drop. Lashley did make a comeback when Umaga tried to climb the ropes, Lahley was there to cut him off and bodyslam him. Lashley followed that up by turning Umaga inside out with a huge clothesline. With both men now on the mat, Austin began his count and he reached the count of nine, but as soon as he attempted to motion for ten, he stopped the count and said that there would be no count outs because he wanted to see someone shaved bald.
Nervous about Austin’s decision, Shane McMahon made his way down to ringside to accompany his father. Lashley tried to continue his advantage when he got up, but a big chop from Umaga put a halt to those plans. Umaga began pounding away at Lashley int he corner and decided to choke him again which angered Austin. This time Austin grabbed him with a hook to the eye, but Shane distracted Austin giving Umaga time to deliver the Samoan spike to Stone Cold. Shane and Umaga began double teaming Lashley just hammering away at him and Umaga even hit him with the Samoan Wrecking Ball. Then Vince went under the ring and he grabbed a metal trash can that he proceeded to set up against Lashley. Shane knew exactly what to do as he climbed the ropes and went coast to coast hitting the trash can over Lashley. Shane would proceed to remove his dress shirt to reveal a referee shirt as he commanded Umaga to hit a big splash from the top on Lashley. As soon as Shane went to do the pin count, Austin pulled him out of the ring and beat the crap out of Shane.
As soon as Austin entered the ring, he was once again attacked by Umaga with a right to the chin. Donald Trump looked frustrated at what was going on so he went to the other side of the ring and he attacked Vince McMahon. As soon as Austin got up, Umaga went to hit him with a Samoan spike, but Austin countered with a stone cold stunner and Bobby Lashley would follow it up with a spear. He then covered Umaga for the 1-2-3, but I want to make a note that the bell rang before Austin’s hand hit the mat for three. After the match, Shane tried to distract Austin to allow his father to escape, but Austin took care of business hitting him with a stone cold stunner. Vince tried to escape, but Lashley grabbed him before he could get to the back, threw him in the ring, and Austin stunned him. They strapped him to the chair, Austin held him down, and they shaved the chairman of the WWE bald. Hey, don’t forget to like our page on Facebook at 
We are continuing to pay tribute here at Mr. X’s Punch Out to all the amazing African Americans that have stepped foot into the squared circle for Black History Month. We have already checked out one member of The New Day in Big E Langston, now we are checking out the man who once went from being Jamaican to being from West Ghana in Kofi Kingston. It’s hard to believe that Kofi has been with the company over ten years now, but he has done so much including a run for the Intercontinental Championship back in 2008. All roads lead to WWE Night Of Champions 2008 when he took on then IC Champ Chris Jericho at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, TX. Going into the match, Jericho had no idea who his opponent was going to be so when Kofi’s music kicked on Jericho may have taken him lightly at that very point. Jericho established the early advantage over Kofi by grounding the high flyer and then punishing him with some kicks to the chest. Jericho thought he had the match though when he tried to throw Kingston over the top rope, but he bounced off of it and started delivering some haymakers to Jericho.
When he went to hit the a flying elbow, Jericho was smart and left the ring, but he was met by a baseball slide and a springboard cross body from Kingston. Once he was back in the ring, he was met with another crossbody, but the advantage wouldn’t last long as Jericho tossed Kofi out of the ring. At this point, Jericho was in full control of the match as he targeted the back area of Kofi to try and ground him from being a high flyer and hopefully set up a walls of Jericho at some point. Finally after a while, Kofi was able to garner some offense surprising Jericho with some great shots and a hurricanrana. He would then attempt the boom drop, but Jericho tried to counter it into the walls, but Kofi wouldn’t let him and eventually he hit the boom drop. After he failed to get the pinfall, Jericho clotheslined him forcing the advantage to be back in his corner.
Jericho would then execute an bodyslam and he followed it with the lionsault before he put Kofi right into the walls of Jericho. With his body in the scorpion position, Kofi needed a hope in the world to get out of it and his prayers were answered. All of a sudden there was a commotion in the crowd and it was the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels who instantly superkicks Lance Cade. Jericho sees all of this happening and he instantly lets go of Kofi and shoulder blocks Michaels from getting in the ring. This provided Kofi with enough time to hit Trouble in Paradise as he pinned Jericho for the 1-2-3. Kofi was your new Intercontinental Champion and the rest they say is history. After the match, Jericho would go on to strike Shawn Michaels out of frustration over the loss.
We are continuing to pay tribute here at Mr. X’s Punch Out to all the amazing African Americans that have stepped foot into the squared circle for Black History Month. The man we are checking out today is none other than The New Day’s Big E Langston as we are covering every member of The New Day separately. We are rewinding to March 25, 2014 when Big E was the WWE Intercontinental Champion and he had to defend the championship against Dolph Ziggler at that edition of Main Event in Boston, MA. Earlier in the night, Dolph had earned the right to face Big E after he won a triple threat match against Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio. You had to figure that Dolph wasn’t going to be 100% entering the match against the massive Big E, but we all know that Dolph never quits that easily. It was going to be a match of speed vs power and if Dolph wanted to win, he had to keep the match going in a fast pace environment while avoiding the brute power of Big E.
In the beginning of the match, Big E used his power to get the best of Dolph as he used all 300 lbs to keep Dolph isolated on the mat. Despite a nice dropkick from Ziggler, Big E was able to keep his advantage with a huge clubbing clothesline that sent Ziggler to the outside to regroup. When we came back from commercial break, it looked like Big E was still in control until he went shoulder first into the steel ring post and then Dolph began his flurry of fists and stinger like splashes. Despite the effort, Big E would make a comeback, but the two for the rest of the match would be trading advantages with Dolph hitting a big time DDT, but Big E hung in there. After Ziggler tried to hit the zig zag, Big E would brush him off and hit him with another clubbing clothesline, but Dolph would kick out on the pin attempt. After the straps came off, Big E would try for the big ending, but Dolph would hit the famouser, but Big E kicks out. Dolph would then try to hit a Superkick, but Big turned into a Big Ending and that was all she wrote. Even though I love The New Day, I would love to see Big E get a big push in the WWE.