Tags
Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Brock Lesnar, Buddy Murphy, Cedric Alexander, Charlotte Flair, Drew McIntyre, Ember Moon, Hirooki Goto, Ilja Dragunov, Jay White, Johnny Gargano, Jon Moxley, Kassius Ohno, Kyle O'Reilly, NJPW, NJPW G1 Climax 29, NXT Takeover, NXT TakeOver: Toronto, NXT UK, Raw, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Shingo Takagi, Smackdown, Smackdown Live, Street Profits, Summerslam, Taichi, Tetsuya Naito, The Undisputed Era, Tomohiro Ishii, Trish Stratus, William Regal, WWE, WWE Network, WWE Raw, WWE Smackdown, WWE Summerslam
We took a little break from doing these top matches of the week and it was a much needed break. The landscape has been pretty bleak as far as top matches from the WWE were concerned which is in part the reason for the break. But as you all know, 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 October. 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.
Adam Cole Vs Johnny Gargano 3 (NXT TakeOver: Toronto 8/10/2019)
The question going into any rivalry that heads into a rubber match is always how can we top the first two? The WWE/NXT and William Regal definitely set them up for success with the best two out of three falls match, but with stipulations (sort of like a 3 stages of hell match). The first stipulation of the match was chosen by Adam Cole and it was a straight up wrestling match. The first fall overall was in Johnny Gargano’s pocket as he was dominating Cole, but after a blatant low blow, Johnny lost it and hit Cole with a steel chair giving him the first fall. The second fall of the match was a street fight chosen by Gargano and he dominated the fall beating Cole up all over the arena and even put him through a table at one point, but it was a Gargano escape applied on to Cole that would even things up at one. The third and final stipulation was chosen by William Regal and it was a no escape barbwired steel cage match that saw them beat the hell out of each other with Kendo sticks, steel chairs, and even a sledgehammer. After surviving so much punishment, Adam Cole climbed to the top of a table on top the cage as he was trying to escape Gargano who had cut a piece of the barbwire, but it was one moment that would change it all. They were on top of the table and Johnny tried to hit Cole with the barbwire that was wrapped around his hand, but Cole blocked it and launched each other right into the tables waiting 20 feet below in the ring. Unfortunately for Gargano, that was all she wrote as Adam Cole is still NXT Champion.
Taichi vs Tomohiro Ishii (NJPW G1 Climax 29 Day 18 8/11/2019)
We all knew that at this point in the tournament that Tomohiro Ishii and Taichi were not going to be crowned the winners of the B block as Ishii came into the match with 8 points while Taichi had only 6 points. So, it’s safe to say that this match was all about ending the tournament the right way by saving face. These guys were throwing everything at each other but the kitchen sink as neither man refused to lose and it showed. At one point, Taichi tried for his patent Black Memphisto, but Ishii did his homework by countering it and then hitting Taichi with a huge lariat that you would think Taichi was out, but he kicked out of the ensuing pin attempt. Later on in the match, you were feeling that something had to give so Taichi attempted to end the match with a super kick, but Ishii blocked it. Unfortunately for Ishii, he didn’t see the enziguri coming, but never fear cause he shook that off like it was nothing. Shocked that it happened, Taichi was quick on his feet and he hit Ishii with a superkick that connected this time and allowed him to hit the Black Memphisto which was all she wrote as Taichi picked up as huge win to be a part of six way tie for fifth place.
Shingo Takagi vs Hirooki Goto (NJPW G1 Climax 29 Day 18 8/11/2019)
One of my favorite Japanese superstars is the Dragon Shingo Takagi who has continuously impressed me in all of 2019. Unfortunately for Shingo, he didn’t have a lot of success in the G1 Climax tournament which was why he was also looking to save face as he entered the match with only six points. Now his opponent on the other hand, Hirooki Goto had a pretty decent tournament as he was in tie for first place with Tetsuya Naito, Jon Moxley, and Jay White. So in order for Goto to have a chances stay alive, he needed to beat Shingo, but that wasn’t going to be easy. They were throwing everything at each other in this match from suplexes to lariats as they were trying to take each others heads off. At one point, they were involved in a huge exchange with rights and lefts flying everywhere, but Goto thought he was going to have Shingo dazed with a headbutt. Unfortunately for him, Shingo returned with a huge lariat that helped setup the holy bomber that nearly took Goto’s head off and Shingo finished it all by hitting the last of the dragons for the win.
Brock Lesnar vs Seth Rollins (WWE SummerSlam 2019 8/11/2019)
I never thought in a million years that I would be putting a Brock Lesnar match into this category, but after what I saw you can’t deny it. Brock Lesnar was defending the WWE Universal Championship in the very hurt Seth Rollins and the question heading in was how much was Rollins going to be able to take from the beast with injured ribs? The match looked as if Brock was going to dominate again, but as soon as he went to hit that first German, Seth was able to land on his feet and he nailed Brock with a superkick. It dazed Brock a little, but Brock would soon go back to work on Rollins. Brock would then go on his rampage of hitting six German suplexes and an F5 before Rollins got his opportunity to strike and your damn right Rollins took advantage. Lesnar started clearing the Spanish announce table, but as soon as he turned to grab Rollins, he was met with a superkick that sent him lying on the table. Rollins would climb the ropes to the top of steel post and he connected with a huge splash. He would then hit Lesnar with a curb stomp, but Lesnar would kick out of the ensuing pin attempt. As soon as Rollins tried for a second curb stomp, Lesnar countered and attempted an F5, but Rollins would counter that with a superkick and then he finished off Lesnar with another curb stomp that secured the win.
Buddy Murphy Vs Roman Reigns (WWE Smackdown Live 8/13/2019)
I was super excited for this week’s episode of Smackdown because it featured the first ever match featuring Buddy Murphy who is WWE’s best kept secret, but I am going to be honest with all of you. Knowing that I was excited for the match, I never thought it would end up here cause I figured it would be a total squash match for Roman, but Buddy brought the fight to the big dog almost right from the get go. After being launched into the opposite corner of the ring, Buddy comes full steam ahead and he nails Roman with a big knee shot that almost gets him the pinfall. For the most part Buddy held his own against Roman whether the fight ended up on the outside of the ring or back inside. At one point, I thought the WWE was going to allow Buddy to defeat Roman after a series of knee shots that found their mark and followed with a brain buster, but Roman would ultimately kick out. He would go on to hit a superman punch and he followed it up with a spear that put Buddy away for the 1-2-3. One thing is for sure, Roman knows who Buddy Murphy is that is for sure.
Ilja Dragunov vs Kassius Ohno (NXT UK 8/14/2019)
Ilja Dragunov has been undefeated in NXT UK since he started with the British brand, but he was getting his real test when he took on the wrestling genius Kassius Ohno on this weeks episode. The match looked as if Ilja had this high octane adrenaline fueled ability that almost made him immune to attacks by Ohno in the beginning of the match because he seemed to have an answer for everything until Ohno was given the window of opportunity. Ilja made a mistake in the match which allowed Ohno to damage his left arm and from there Ohno was relentless, but much to Ilja’s credit he never gave up as well. Ilja had so many opportunities in the match to win, but the damage to the arm would come back to haunt him. He would nail Ohno with a German suplex into a pin cover, but he couldn’t hold on because of the arm. He would hit Ohno with a huge powerbomb into a cover attempt, but he couldn’t hold on because of the arm. Finally in the end, it was the genius of Ohno that would prevail as Ilja climbed the ropes, Ohno used the referee as a shield. He would do it long enough to give himself an opportunity to knock Ilja off the ropes into the steel post and on to the floor to which he followed up by throwing him against the steel post, and then proceeded to hit Ilja with a death by elbow to the back of the head which was enough to gain the win and hand Ilja his first loss.
Honorable Mention:
The NXT Tag Team Title match between the Street Profits (Champions) and The Undisputed Era’s Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish started off a little rough, but they definitely finished strong as the Street Profits retained. I know everyone was worried what type of a match was Trish Stratus going to have with Charlotte at SummerSlam, but that match was so good it almost ended up at the top. Drew McIntyre vs Cedric Alexander deserves some kudos as both men were able to put on a good show on RAW. The match between Ember Moon and Charlotte from this week’s Smackdown Live was good, but not amazing enough to end up int he top matches.
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 covering today is one that I actually kind of cringed at the idea of covering when I first started this, but figured at this point why not. I am covering Virgil for one simple reason is that he is a very controversial figure outside of the ring that according to this article by TheSportster is someone you do not want to meet at conventions (read about it 
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. For today, we are covering a man who has been a constant with the WWE since the attitude era and that man is the world’s strongest man Mark Henry. At the point of Summerslam 2011, Mark Henry had been the most dominating force in the company as he put both The Big Show and Kane on the shelf. It looked like there was no one in the company that wanted to step up the world’s strongest man. That was until “The Celtic Warrior” Sheamus stepped up to the plate to challenge the big man setting up their match at the Staples Center. Sheamus did not look intimidated at all when he entered the ring and it looked like Henry was going to use his size to his advantage, but Sheamus wasn’t having any of it. Unfortunately the tides would soon change when Henry tossed Sheamus out of the ring to create some separation after some clubbing blows from Sheamus.
It’s truly amazing the kind of strength that Henry has because he simply lifted Sheamus up and threw him like he was nothing back into the ring. Henry began using his size to his advantage with a huge clothesline, body splash, and even did a leapfrog body guillotine when Sheamus was hung up on the rope. No matter what Sheamus tried to do, Henry was there to cut it off with huge power moves. The night looked very bleak for the Celtic Warrior as Henry was calculating his every move. You could tell that Henry wanted to destroy Sheamus in the ring cause he was doing it. At one point in the match, Henry went for the world’s strongest splash, but when he came down nobody was home as Sheamus rolled out of the way. This was Sheamus’s chance to do some damage to Henry who was reeling. Sheamus began his comeback with some huge axehandle smashes and the Beats of the Bodhrán. After a few offensive maneuvers, Sheamus would nail Henry with the Brogue kick, but the only problem is that Henry rolled out of the ring due to the kick. As soon as Sheamus grabbed Henry on the outside, Henry picked him up like he was setting him for the world’s strongest slam and proceeded to slam him against the ring post and through the security barricade. In the aftermath of it, Henry would go back into the ring and he allowed the referee to count Sheamus out for the win.