Dynamite – December 30, 2020: This Was Outstanding

Dynamite
Date: December 30, 2020
Location: Daily’s Place, Jacksonville, Florida
Commentators: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross, Chris Jericho

This is going to be a complete detour as the show is going to be all about Brodie Lee, who shockingly passed away on Saturday due to some kind of lung issue. The show is going to be a complete tribute to him with all stories postponed until next week. That’s the only way this could have gone and there is nothing wrong with that. Let’s get to it.

We open with a ten bell salute to Brodie Lee, with his family on the stage, including his son in a Dark Order mask.

Jon Moxley talks about Lee being a good person who he knew for years. This has been a soccer kick to the face but it has shown him that wrestling is a community. He is going to appreciate every day and he’ll never forget Brodie.

Matt Hardy/Private Party vs. Young Bucks/Colt Cabana

For the sake of sanity, I’ll only refer to Matt Jackson as Matt. Colt and the Bucks clean house one at a time to start, including a triple dropkick to put Hardy on the floor. Nick adds the running flip dive to take them all down again. Colt hits an Asai moonsault to do the same. We settle down to Hardy hammering on Matt but everything breaks down all over again with Marq Quen hitting a dive to Hardy on the floor.

Back in and Matt is taken down again, including being sent face first into Isaiah Kassidy’s boot in the corner. the triple teaming continues until Hardy makes the mistake of going after Cabana, allowing Matt to get over for the hot tag. Cabana comes in to clean house with the Flip Flop and Fly, followed by the Flying Apple to Kassidy. Hardy breaks up the tag to Nick and the discus lariat is countered into a crucifix for two on Cabana. A crossbody gets the same but Nick comes in sans tag with a hurricanrana.

Nick gets the actual tag a few seconds later and starts taking over, only to be tripped down by Hardy. Back in and Gin and Juice hits Matt, setting up Kassidy’s Swanton and Quen’s shooting star for two with Cabana and Nick making the save (JR: “Let’s hear it for Boom Boom!”). Hardy grabs a chair but gets taken down, leaving Cabana to have to fight out of Gin and Juice. The Chicago Skyline hits Kassidy and the Indytaker into the Superman pin finishes Quen at 13:29.

Rating: B-. The wrestling is going to be quite the minor point here and that’s how a show like this should be. This was a bunch of high flying and diving, with the Bucks doing everything they should be doing. Cabana can do any style and Hardy looked good enough. Private Party didn’t go too insane either, leaving this to be a rather nice and energetic opener.

Post match it’s the Acclaimed coming in to rap about this show but SCU jumps them from behind and Cabana hits the double Bionic Elbow. Cabana throws up the Dark Order sign for perhaps the first time.

Darby Allin, sans face paint, talks about how Lee was the #1 guy he wanted to wrestle because of everything he did behind the scenes. Lee was a great person to talk to and Allin is sad he never got in the ring with him.

Lance Archer/Stu Grayson/Evil Uno vs. Eddie Kingston/Butcher and the Blade

Archer is in Luke Harper gear for a nice touch. Jake Roberts and the Bunny are here as well. Before the match, Kingston says he’s going to show that the Dark Order is nothing without Lee and the brawl is on in a hurry. Archer gets suplexed onto Kingston, who is taken into the corner for some wild eyed shots from Grayson. Bunny grabs Grayson’s leg though, allowing Butcher to clothesline him down.

Blade powerslams Grayson down but Jake grabs his leg to even things up. Grayson is back with a Boss Man Slam (Jericho: “It’s a Brody Slam!”) as we take a break. Back with Kingston and Uno slapping it out until Kingston misses some spinning backfists. A half and half (Brody move) hits Kingston and the hot tag brings in Archer to take over.

Archer starts wrecking people and it’s a rope walk moonsault (cool) to drop Blade. Grayson and Uno come in for an assisted Downward Spiral but Kingston makes the save and hits a DDT (with a glare at Roberts) for two. Kingston saves Blade from the Blackout and Grayson hits a running DDT to the apron to plant Butcher. The Fatality finishes Blade at 10:00.

Rating: B-. Another match where they did what they needed to do and showed off at the same time. I’m still not sure where this version of the Dark Order came from as they were one of the lamest teams around to start and then have a rather nice match like this for a change. Archer’s special gear was perfect too.

Post match Kingston gets beaten down, including a short arm clothesline from Jake.

Dax Harwood, Arn Anderson, Colt Cabana and Bryce Remsburg talk about what a great father and family man Lee was.

Hangman Page/John Silver/Alex Reynolds vs. Santana/Ortiz/Maxwell Jacob Friedman

MJF is in Puerto Rico themed gear and Silver/Reynolds throw papers at Santana/Ortiz (apparently a Brodie thing from Being The Elite). MJF gets sent outside to yell at Brodie’s son, with Jericho saying the kid has been bothering him all day. We settle back down to Santana hitting a neckbreaker on Reynolds, followed by Two Amigos. Ortiz comes in for a double Third Amigo but Reynolds gets over for the tag to Page.

The pace picks way up, including a fall away slam to MJF into a nip up into a dive onto Santana on the floor. Back in and Page gets taken down for two as we go to a break. Back with Silver coming in to clean house and kicking Ortiz off the top. Silver hits a flip dive off the apron onto Santana (JR: “What a white meat babyface this kid is!”). A sitout powerbomb gets two on Ortiz back inside but MJF makes the save.

Silver is sent into the corner but MJF comes back with something like a Code Red, with only his ankles wrapping around MJF’s head to drive it into the mat. The Heat Seeker plants Silver and Ortiz grabs a powerbomb for two with Reynolds making a save of his own. Everything breaks down and Wardlow comes in but ERICK REDBEARD (Rowan) runs in to take him out. MJF goes outside and takes the mask off of Lee’s son, earning himself a kendo stick shot to the head. The fans go nuts and it’s a discus lariat to pin Ortiz 12:38.

Rating: C+. This was the emotional match on the card and you could see everyone being very invested in what they were doing (as everyone has been tonight of course). Silver got so much out of the Dark Order so this is the kind of match that he needs to have on the show. Throw in the incredible Redbeard cameo and the whole thing was near perfect.

Redbeard comes back in to hold up a sign saying “goodbye for now my brother, see you down the road.” Jericho sounds near tears over this one. Well that was about the most emotional thing I’ve seen in years.

Eddie Kingston talks about how much he is going to miss Lee. He talks about Lee’s kids missing their dad, who was a warrior outside of the ring. Lee took care of the two of them and he loved them so much.

Tay Conti/Anna Jay vs. Britt Baker/Penelope Ford

Rebel, Kip Sabian and Miro are all here too. Jay and Baker trade arm cranks to start before it’s off to Conti to kick Penelope down. We hear about Conti’s amateur experience as Sabian offers a distraction, allowing Baker to get in a jumping knee. Conti gets sent to the floor with Baker getting in a stomp and Rebel not quite being able to get in a cheap shot.

We take a break and come back with Conti and Ford kicking each other in the face, allowing the double tag to Baker and Jay. Everything breaks down and Jay stops to point at the 99 on her cheek, allowing Baker to hit a fisherman’s neckbreaker. A Downward Spiral sends Jay into the middle buckle and Ford comes in with a Blockbuster for two. Jay is right back with the Queen Slayer as for the tap from Ford at 9:49 with Conti taking out Baker.

Rating: C. Conti and Jay have come a long way in recent months and it was nice to see them getting a win like this. They didn’t need to do anything fancy here and it’s a good example of doing something more basic at a higher level. Ford taking the fall isn’t going to hurt her as she has the big wedding deal coming up in a few weeks anyway.

Post match Baker says everything was rigged. Conti was rigged, Jay was rigged, the match was rigged. In fact everything was…..a big rig. She winks at the camera but here’s Thunder Rosa to jump her from behind, with referees having to break it up.

Here’s what’s coming over the next two weeks.

Chris Jericho talks about working with Lee 27 times, including in Saudi Arabia. When he was in the hotel room in Saudi Arabia, Jericho saw what he thought was a sticker on the ceiling. Lee came in and said it was the arrow pointing to Mecca, which blew Jericho’s mind because he shouldn’t know that kind of thing.

Jericho helped bring Lee into AEW and it meant a lot that he was able to see Lee be the kind of star that he knew he could be. All the proof you need of how good a person Lee was is the time he came to Jericho’s house and Jericho’s mean dog licked his hand. Jericho promises to take care of Lee’s family. This was great.

Cody Rhodes/Orange Cassidy/10 vs. Team Taz

This was hand picked by Lee’s son and it is billed as his dream match. Cody bounces off of Powerhouse Hobbs to start. With that not working, Cody (reluctantly) brings in 10 to suplex Starks. That’s enough for Starks to head to the floor so it’s back to Hobbs, who wants Cassidy. The hands go into the pockets and a slow motion shoulder doesn’t go well as we take a break.

Back with Cage hitting a rather delayed vertical suplex on Cassidy. It’s off to Starks, who gets caught in a suplex from Cassidy for a change. Cody comes in to pick up the pace and throw his weight belt into the crowd. Starks and Cody hit stereo discus lariats, meaning it’s back to 10 for a Brodie Bomb. A spear cuts 10 down and it’s Cassidy coming back in as everything breaks down.

Hobbs hits a spinebuster on Cassidy but walks into a superkick from Cody. There’s a Downward Spiral from Cage but 10 hits a clothesline to the back of Cage’s head. With everyone down, Arn Anderson and Taz grab chairs, leaving Cassidy to hit the Orange Punch on Starks. Cody adds Cross Rhodes and 10 hits the spinebuster to finish Starks at 11:31.

Rating: C+. This was about elevating 10 and that’s what they did here. He isn’t exactly someone who gets a lot of attention around here and odds are he isn’t going to again, but at least he got a chance here. If nothing else, it was nice to see the Dark Order complete the sweep and it’s not like the results mean much on this show in the first place.

Post match the celebration is on but Team Taz breaks it up in a hurry. Even Hook gets in a suplex on Cassidy (Jericho: “Hook just wants to get his picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone.”). The lights go out and here’s Darby Allin for the save….with Sting following. JR: “I’ve known him since the days of the Blade Runners. Google it kids.”

Post break Cody is in the ring for the final tribute. Cody gives a quote about how you can tell the value of a man based on how he treats someone who has nothing to give him. Over the last few days, we have heard one tribute after another to Lee and it is because he was a beautiful man who left a legacy. That legacy is here tonight, so here is Lee’s family, including his son, Negative One, Brodie Lee Jr.

This brings out Lee’s wife and son, with the son leaving Lee’s boots in the ring. Tony Khan hands Lee Jr. the TNT Title, declaring him the champion for life. Khan thanks the fans and gives us a tribute video to Lee set to the Eagles’ Ol’ 55, complete with quite a bit of old school footage, including some home movies and shots of him with his family. There are even some WWE photos included, with some shots of Big E., John Morrison, Bray Wyatt and more. Find this as it’s one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time.

Overall Rating: A+. The wrestling wasn’t the point of the show and there is nothing wrong with that. Tonight was all about Brodie Lee and that’s all it should have been about, as he was taken away at a ridiculously too young 41 due to something he didn’t cause. The matches were good to rather good, but this was all about saying thank you and goodbye, with the stuff with his family being outstanding. Go find that tribute though as it’s the best thing on the show. This was excellent and they nailed everything about the whole night.

Results

Young Bucks/Colt Cabana b. Matt Hardy/Private Party – Superman pin to Quen

Lance Archer/Stu Grayson/Evil Uno b. Eddie Kingston/Butcher and the Blade – Fatality to Blade

John Silver/Alex Reynolds/Hangman Page b. Maxwell Jacob Friedman/Santana/Ortiz – Discus lariat to Ortiz

Tay Conti/Anna Jay b. Penelope Ford/Britt Baker – Queen Slayer to Ford

10/Cody Rhodes/Orange Cassidy b. Team Taz – Brodie Bomb to Starks

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the paperback edition of KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews (also available as an e-book) from Amazon. Check out the information here:

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Dynamite – December 16, 2020: I Want More

Dynamite
Date: December 16, 2020
Location: Daily’s Place, Jacksonville, Florida
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross, Excalibur

The run of big shows continue as we are now on the way to New Year’s Smash in two weeks. The big story continues to be World Champion Kenny Omega, who is going to be headlining the Impact Wrestling Hard To Kill pay per view in January. That could mean an invasion on this week’s show. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Opening sequence.

Hangman Page/Dark Order vs. Matt Hardy/Private Party

Page and Quen start things off with Quen grabbing a headlock. That doesn’t go very long so it’s Hardy coming in for a kick to the ribs in the corner. Private Party both comes in but the Dark Order comes in as well for a triple big boot. The ring is cleared so Silver jumps on Page’s back to celebrate. Kassidy comes in and gets slammed down so Page drops Silver down onto him for two.

Reynolds tags himself in and it’s a double flipping faceplant to put Kassidy down again. Page adds the running shooting star to give Silver two and he knocks Kassidy into the corner. That lets Silver strike a pose, and Page isn’t sure what to think. Kassidy gets in a shot of his own and it’s off to Quen to start picking up the pace. Stereo basement dropkicks get two on Silver and Hardy comes in for a sleeper. That’s countered into a brainbuster from Silver and it’s back to Page to clean house.

The Side Effect cuts Page off but it’s too early for the Twist of Fate. Page nails a hard clothesline and it’s off to Reynolds to start cleaning house again. A neckbreaker drops Quen and Kassidy is sent outside. Page hits a pop up sitout powerbomb and Reynolds gets two off a rollup. Hardy breaks up the cover and hits a hanging Twist of Fate to pull Silver off the apron for a thud. That leaves Reynolds to take Gin and Juice, with Hardy stealing the pin at 10:48.

Rating: C+. Pretty good action and it didn’t go all that long. I was surprised by the ending too, though I could go for Less Hardy being involved in….well almost anything with some kind of a character for that matter. Private Party winning is a nice surprise and Silver continues to look more and more like a star every time he is out there. I’m curious to see where he goes and the further he gets away from the evil Dark Order, the better he’ll be doing.

Here’s what’s coming tonight.

Maxwell Jacob Friedman is given a plaque from the New York Times for Best Performance of 2020. Chris Jericho mentions that he was involved as well and MJF actually gives him credit. MJF sees the greatest of all time and his best friend when he looks at Jericho, who can only say thank you.

We go to Cody and Brandi Rhodes’ house where they are trimming the tree. Their doorbell rings and there is a box waiting for them. Inside is a Christmas ornament saying…..that they’re expecting a baby. Pharaoh has a collar saying “Baby Security In Training.” That’s great.

Cody Rhodes vs. Angelico

Cody is introduced as The Future Father in a nice moment. Angelico snapmares him down to start and wipes his hair back. Cody is right back with one of his own before they fight over a wristlock. Angelico kicks him away though and we have a standoff. With nothing else working, Cody takes him down so Angelico kicks his feet for protection. Back up and they shoves each other away, setting up a crisscross. Cody drops down into a dropkick for one and we take a break.

Back with Cody knocking him down again and hitting a few clotheslines. The powerslam gets two but Angelico ties him up in some kind of wacky double arm hold using his legs. Cody bites the rope for the escape because sometimes it’s all you can do. The Disaster Kick misses though and Angelico tweaks his knee, allowing Angelico to grab his Navaro Death Roll. That’s broken up as well and Cody is right back up with the Cody Cutter for the pin at 9:45.

Rating: C. Not too bad here and having Cody doing his thing while having to deal with Angelico’s technical/submission stuff worked….in the little amount of time that Angelico did it. That being said, the announcement before the match is going to make a lot of people smile and it’s a lot more important in the first place. Fine enough match, though I could have gone for more from Angelico.

Post match here’s Team Taz to say they don’t get why they didn’t receive their own congratulations for taking out Darby Allin. They’re about to come to the ring to put Cody on paternity leave, but here’s Sting to cut them off. Powerhouse Hobbs has to be held back as Sting stand around with the bat and Darby Allin looks on from the rafters. Sting winks at Cody and leaves so Team Taz goes to the ring and pummels Cody. Well in theory at least, but instead they stand there as we go to a break due to wrestling logic.

Miro has been fined $75,000 for attacking various production workers last week. He says it’s all about the numbers and that is money Orange Cassidy owes him. Next week he’s breaking the internet again when he faces Sonny Kiss and then next week it’s the wedding date announcement. When asked about the people being put in the hospital at Christmas, he says BAH HUMBUG because Christmas is his birthday.

Here’s Eddie Kingston to address his enemies. First up is Pac, who has been injured and left on the shelf. Where is he anyway? Then there is Lance Archer, who rushes the ring to start the fight. Butcher, Blade and Bunny come to the ring for the save but Archer fights them off. The Lucha Bros come in for the save and Pac is back to make it even worse. Death Triangle beats up all four of them with Fenix hitting the big corkscrew dive. Archer grabs Kingston by the throat but Pac kicks Kingston in the face, which Archer doesn’t like. No violence ensues as Kingston and company bail.

Dustin Rhodes says Seven was a bad idea years ago and it was a bad idea last week. Uno said Rhodes was the least important member of the Rhodes Family and that’s just not true. Last week it was Ten and next week it’s Uno going down.

Best Friends/Top Flight/Varsity Blonds vs. Inner Circle

Orange Cassidy sits in on commentary, even though his headset isn’t plugged in and his mic isn’t down. Jericho chops Pillman into the corner to start and poses in the corner while standing on Pillman’s throat. Back up and Pillman nearly slips out of the corner but manages to hit a springboard crossbody to rock Jericho. The triangle dropkick sends Jericho to the floor and a slingshot dive takes Jericho down again.

Back in and it’s off to Garrison for a slam but Jericho drives him into the corner for the tag to Guevara. Dante comes in for a leg lariat to Guevara and Darius comes in for a crucifix (despite what looked to be a bit of confusion). Guevara punches him down with a hard shot and it’s off to Trent vs. Santana for a showdown. Ortiz and Chuck come in as well and the big brawl is on with everyone getting involved. The Inner Circle is cleared out and it’s a six way hug.

Back in and Ortiz suplexes Trent a few times, allowing Santana to come in with a top rope double stomp to the arm. Trent gets sent outside and we take a break. Back with Jericho and Guevara running Trent over and stopping for the double pose (that still works). Sammy misses the shooting star press so Trent nails the running knee. A suplex to Ortiz allows the tag off to Darius to pick up the pace.

The standing Spanish Fly hits Ortiz and Dante hits the big running dive to take out Santana and Ortiz. Pillman adds the springboard shoulder to Ortiz and Hager is low bridged to the floor. Garrison forearms Ortiz but Jericho gets in a baseball bat shot from the floor. Hager is in and hits Wardlow’s F10, allowing MJF to get the pin at 14:09.

Rating: C+. What we got was good enough, but they really could have cut this down to about eight people so there weren’t so many people standing around without much to do. They booked the match well though and the good guys got to showcase themselves rather well before going down. Garrison taking the fall doesn’t hurt him as he got to show off a bit first. Good enough here, and they didn’t get too messy for their own good.

Post match Top Flight clears the ring and we get the big staredown.

Thunder Rosa blames Britt Baker for costing her the NWA Women’s Title and doesn’t like her saying Rosa doesn’t belong here. Rebel comes up for a distraction and it’s Britt Baker jumping Rosa from behind. Baker traps the arm and Rebel pours water on Rosa to mess up the paint. With Rosa out (From what?), Baker looks at the camera to make sure it still works after looking at Rosa’s face.

SCU vs. Acclaimed

Acclaimed raps their way to the ring, including saying that Daniels is an out of date format like a CD and Kazarian’s back must be hurting with the carrying. Kazarian and Daniels rhyme right back, saying the Acclaimed suck. Daniels chops away at Bowens to start but gets backdropped down for his efforts. Castor comes in and hammers away in the corner as commentary talks about Castor’s father’s NFL career. Daniels knocks Castor down for a slingshot lariat to give Kazarian two.

Kazarian grabs an armbar to keep Castor in trouble but he gets sent outside, allowing the beating to be on as we take a break. Back with Kazarian in trouble until he uses the ropes to take Castor down. Bowens gets kicked away and it’s Daniels coming in with some clotheslines to take over. The Blue Thunder Bomb gets two on Bowens and a high crossbody is good for the same. Daniels rolls Bowens up but gets kicked away, allowing Castor to hit him in the face with the boom box. Bowens hits a Rock Bottom slam for the surprise pin at 8:17.

Rating: C+. If there is one thing AEW is good at, it is using its younger talents to put people over. The match worked rather well for the Acclaimed, as the tag division continues to grow by leaps and bounds with all of the additions the make seemingly every month. SCU are a made team so this doesn’t hurt them whatsoever. Good match too.

Post match the Acclaimed rap a challenge to the Young Bucks for next week.

Top Flight challenge Chris Jericho and MJF for next week. They can either accept or run away like b******.

Ivelisse/Diamante vs. Big Swole/Serena Deeb

Swole and Diamante slug away to start and Swole suplexes her down over without much effort. Diamante jumps Deeb on the apron and takes Swole into the corner as we take a break. Back with Deep fighting both of them off at the same time, including an Indian Deathlock to Ivelisse while she suplexes Diamante.

A neckbreaker over the ropes puts Ivelisse down again and a Figure Four goes on. Diamante makes the save and it’s a double slam for two on Deeb. Swole is back in with a headbutt to Diamante and it’s a Clearwater Cloverleaf (with Swole not even stepping over) to make Diamante tap at 9:21.

Rating: C-. Deeb is so far ahead of Swole and Diamante it’s not even funny. Ivelisse can do some things well enough but there’s a polish to Deeb that just isn’t there with her. Diamante and Ivelisse do work well together though and it’s nice to have a team that means a little something. That being said, at least step over to make the Cloverleaf work.

Post match it’s Nyla Rose and Vickie Guerrero coming in to help beat down Deep and Swole. Red Velvet makes the save with a chair. Can we just not with Rose and Guerrero?

The Best Friends are going to be at the Holiday Bash (next week) when Miro announces the wedding date.

Video on the Jurassic Express. They’ve kind of disappeared in recent weeks.

FTR and Tully Blanchard storm the broadcast booth and complain about not getting any time while a grown up Tarzan and a wannabe dinosaur are featured. This is how Harwood feeds his family and these two men are his family. Top guys out, after a heck of a fired up promo from Harwood.

Here’s what’s coming next week.

Kenny Omega vs. Joey Janela

Non-title and no DQ with Don Callis/Sonny Kiss as the seconds. During Omega’s entrance, Tony says he’s glad that Omega took Impact’s numbers from one to six. Not so much on the second week but it did work the first time. Janela throws a trashcan at Omega to start and Callis goes to commentary to take Tony’s headset. Tony tells him what to kiss as Janela whips Omega into the barricade.

Omega is right back with a Kitaro Crusher onto an open chair. There’s a baseball slide into a running flip dive to send Joey into another chair, allowing Callis to praise Kenny on his mic. Hang on as Omega gets the mic and blasts him with a cookie sheet, making sure to show off the extra sound. Back in and a moonsault with a trashcan crushes Janela for two.

Omega is annoyed at the kickout so he beats on Janela some more, setting up a springboard double stomp onto the trashcan. The One Winged Angle is countered with a reverse hurricanrana, allowing Kiss to whip out a table. The top rope legdrop sends Omega through the table but the moonsault misses back inside. Omega hits some V Triggers and the One Winged Angel finishes Janela at 7:01.

Rating: B-. This wasn’t about the action and that’s the way it should have gone here. There was no reason to believe that Janela was going to be a threat here and Omega dealt with him as such. The trash talk and Callis doing commentary were great heel touches and the kind of thing that fits them perfectly. It wasn’t a good match, but it was perfectly put together.

Post match Callis says all of the loose ends have been tied up and now there is no one left with a complaint. Cue Death Triangle with Pac saying that Fenix never got his shot against Omega in the tournament. Callis offers to teach him a lesson, because Pac has no authority. Wrestlers don’t tell the champ what to do, but Pac has talked to Tony Khan and Fenix is getting his title shot on December 30. Omega is livid to end the show.

Overall Rating: B. The wrestling wasn’t exactly the point tonight as this was all about setting things up for the next few big shows. There are going to be three straight big weeks coming up and that could be some very good news for AEW. I’m not sure what to expect out of those shows, but dang they are making me want to see what they have coming. Another good show this week, and it has me wanting to see more, which is the more important result.

Results

Private Party/Matt Hardy b. Hangman Page/Dark Order – Gin and Juice to Reynolds

Cody Rhodes b. Angelico – Cody Cutter

Inner Circle b. Top Flight/Varsity Blonds/Best Friends – F10 to Garrison

Acclaimed b. SCU – Rock Bottom slam to Daniels

Serena Deeb/Big Swole b. Ivelisse/Diamante – Clearwater Cloverleaf to Diamante

Kenny Omega b. Joey Janela – One Winged Angel

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Dynamite – December 2, 2020: Good, Very Good, And WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT

IMG Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Dynamite
Date: December 2, 2020
Location: Daily’s Place, Jacksonville, Florida
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross, Excalibur

Winter is coming and….or wait is Winter here now? Anyway it’s a huge show with a mega main event of Kenny Omega challenging Jon Moxley for the World Title. That would have seemed to be a pay per view main event level match but I can see why they couldn’t wait until late February. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Battle Royal

Shawn Spears, Scorpio Sky, Luther, Matt Hard, Joey Janela, Kip Sabian, Miro, Orange Cassidy, Serpentico, Isaiah Kassidy, Marq Quen, Hangman Page, John Silver, Alex Reynolds, Sammy Guevara, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, Wardlow, Matt Sydal, Jungle Boy, Lee Johnson

The final two standing will face off for the diamond ring next week, so we see a quick promo from MJF, who says the ring belongs to the Inner Circle. Hardy throws Kassidy out from behind as there are several people on the floor but not eliminated. The Dark Order helps Page get rid of Serpentico before knocking Luther out. Spears tosses Sydal but gets eliminated as well, drawing Tully Blanchard out of his seat in the crowd.

The fans give Spears the Goodbye Song as Blanchard gives him the slug to load up the glove. Spears decks Sky with said glove and Sky is tossed in a hurry. Reynolds and Quen are sent to the apron with Silver being tossed into Reynolds for the elimination. Silver is eliminated a few seconds later, with Hardy being very pleased with his work. Hardy sends Page to the apron and Quen knocks Page….right into the Dark Order to catch him. Back in and Hardy gets rid of Page, followed by Cassidy getting rid of Sabian.

That makes Sabian pull Cassidy to the floor and Miro takes him out (not eliminated) for a bonus. With the Inner Circle standing in the corner, Miro gets rid of Johnson and spikes Janela with the swinging Rock Bottom. Hardy goes after Miro and gets sent to the apron, with Miro getting rid of Hardy, Kassidy and Janela in a row. That leaves with with Miro, Jungle Boy, Wardlow, MJF and Guevara, plus anyone still active on the floor.

The Inner Circle goes after Miro, who shrugs them all off. That gives us the Wardlow vs. Miro slugout until Sammy and MJF save Wardlow from the big clothesline. Wardlow hits a clothesline and the trio gets rid of Miro. Boy and Guevara wind up on the apron for a rather spiffy gymnastics routine with a bunch of flips and shots to the head but no eliminations.

MJF shoves them both off the top and out but Orange Cassidy is still in. Wardlow drags him back in and loads up Cassidy but MJF goes to try and eliminate Wardlow instead. That lets Cassidy make the comeback with Orange Punches and Wardlow is tossed, leaving Cassidy and MJF to win at 12:13.

Rating: C+. They kept this moving and there was enough stuff building towards the future to make it that much better. It also helped that they gave the annoying ending a bit of a twist by having Wardlow bring Cassidy back in rather than having him pop back in. Not a classic or anything, but it was effective and I’ll take that.

Post match the Best Friends come in to celebrate as referees have to hold Miro back.

Here’s what’s coming tonight.

Chris Jericho vs. Frankie Kazarian

The Inner Circle is here with Jericho. Kazarian grabs a headlock to start and then scores with a right hand to stagger Jericho. An Oklahoma roll gets two and we’re right back to the headlock to keep Jericho frustrated early on. Jericho manages to send him to the apron but the triangle dropkick is broken up, allowing Kazarian to hit a springboard clothesline. They fight outside with Jake Hager’s interference earning himself a trip to the barricade. Back in and Jericho scores with a Codebreaker before knocking Kazarian right back to the floor.

We come back from a break with Kazarian hitting some running clotheslines and forearms. Kazarian’s dropkick misses but the Lionsault only hits knees. They head up top with the Flux Capacitor (Spanish Fly) connecting for two on Jericho. Kazarian puts on his own Walls of Jericho with Hager telling Ortiz not to interfere to avoid the DQ. Cue MJF to tease throwing in the towel but Guevara runs in to cut him off. Kazarian grabs a rollup for two but charges into the Judas Effect for the pin at 11:04.

Rating: C. Kazarian is someone who can get a good match out of anyone and it’s not like it takes much to do so with Jericho. At the same time, throwing in more of MJF vs. Guevara in the battle to be Jericho’s best friend is a great idea as the story is already gaining legs. Nice job here and I could go for more of Kazarian.

Post break Guevara and MJF are ready to go but Jericho cuts him off. He’s tired of this and says either they get this together next week or the Inner Circle breaks up next week.

The Young Bucks are asked about facing the Hybrid 2 next week but ask Alex Marvez if he remembers when they superkicked him in the face. Another superkick doesn’t ensue but they do say if the Hybrid 2 can win next week, they can have a title shot. The Acclaimed comes in to insult the Bucks’ book with Max Castor rhyming about how it should be in the adult section because of where the Bucks are looking. Cue the Hybrid 2 to jump the Bucks until SCU makes the save.

Britt Baker vs. Leyla Hirsch

Rebel is here with Baker, who insults Thunder Rosa before the match.. Hirsch takes Baker down to start and Baker is certainly not pleased. A headlock takeover makes it worse and Baker’s reversal attempt just earns her a cross armbreaker. That’s broken up and Baker hits a low superkick into a DDT. We take a break and come back with Hirsch hitting a kick to the face and a bicycle kick to send Baker outside.

Hirsch hits a suicide dive onto Rebel, with Baker pulling her in the way. Baker gets in a cheap shot and sends her face first into the apron. Back in and a jumping knee to the face looks to set up a cross armbreaker but Baker reverses into Lockjaw, which is reversed into the armbreaker as Rebel wasn’t ready with the glove. Baker slips out again but gets caught with a knee to the head. Rebel offers a distraction though and it’s a fisherman’s neckbreaker to set up the Lockjaw for the tap at 8:45.

Rating: C+. Hirsch continues to impress every time she’s out there but at the same time you have Baker, who is as good of a female heel as there is today. There’s just something about her that makes you want to see someone knock her head off and that’s not something you can easily see. Throw in her chemistry with Tony Schiavone and it’s one more layer of awesome.

Post match here’s Thunder Rosa for the brawl, with agents and referees having to break it up.

We look at Team Taz vs. Cody Rhodes/Darby Allin, setting up the tag match.

Cody Rhodes/Darby Allin vs. Team Taz

It’s Powerhouse Hobbs/Ricky Starks here with Taz at ringside. The brawl is on to start and we take a very quick break. Back with Allin being sent outside for a big running charge from Hobbs. Allin gets sent hard into the barricade and it’s time to go back inside for some shots to the ribs. Starks hits a few shots of his own and it’s back to Hobbs for a waistlock.

Allin gets in a shot to Starks’ face but Hobbs still isn’t ready to allow the hot tag. Hobbs sends Allin flying with a suplex but Allin flips out of back to back belly to back suplex attempts, allowing the hot tag to Cody. House is cleaned but Cross Rhodes is blocked. Instead it’s the Cody Cutter to Starks with Allin tagging himself in. Cody dives onto Hobbs, leaving Allin to hit the Coffin Drop for the pin at 11:14 (even though Starks’ shoulder was so high up that it almost has to be a plot point).

Rating: C+. Pretty much a formula tag match here but it worked out perfectly well for what they were doing. Team Taz continues to be worth seeing almost every week and they did give them an out with the ending. Good enough match here and I could go for more of it so another well done moment.

Post match Team Taz goes after Arn Anderson but it’s Dustin Rhodes coming in for the save. Brian Cage comes out to give both Rhodes Brothers the F5. The lights go out though and it’s STING making his debut for the save. After a quick staredown with Arn Anderson, Sting looks at Cody in the corner and then glares at Allin. That’s certainly a cool moment and the video/music were excellent. I don’t need to see Sting wrestle, but if you put him in an eight man tag or something like that, it should be fine. Awesome surprise though so nice job.

Hikaru Shida isn’t scared of Abadon because she is just a zombie cosplayer. Something falls off camera and Shida gets shaken up and leaves in a hurry.

Next week: Sting speaks.

Jon Moxley says things felt a little different when he landed in Jacksonville last night. It was finally time for two warriors to go to battle because the contracts have been signed and the promos have been cut. Now all that is left to to is make the crowd go banana (that made me smile).

AEW World Title: Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley

Moxley is defending and Don Callis joins commentary. Omega gets backed into the corner to start but comes out with a wristlock. Moxley’s headlock takeover gets him out of trouble and it’s Omega hitting some chops in the corner. Moxley doesn’t seem to mind and drives him into the other corner. A hurricanrana puts Moxley down but the Rise of the Terminator takes way too long, allowing Moxley to hit a Boss Man Slam.

They head outside with Moxley being whipped into the barricade but Moxley sends him in as well as we take a break. Back with Moxley favoring his knee and Omega hitting the Kitaro Crusher for two. The leg is bent around the middle rope for a running dropkick but another attempt is cut off by Moxley’s running clothesline. Omega is right back up with a series of chops but YOU CAN’T ESCAPE is escaped, with Moxley snapping off a German suplex.

Another shot to the knee cuts Moxley down again though and we take another break. Back with Omega hitting the big flip dive to take Moxley down on the floor. Omega tries to springboard back in though and dives right into the Paradigm Shift. Instead of covering though, some chairs are brought in so they can sit down and slap it out. Then they switch to right hands until Omega gets knocked out of the chair, only to come back with the V Trigger.

There’s the Snapdragon into a second one to rock Moxley. The V Trigger misses though and Moxley snaps off a German suplex. Omega pops back up with another V Trigger but Moxley blasts him with a clothesline for the double knockdown. There’s another Paradigm Shift for a delayed near fall so Moxley sends him outside. The suicide dive is cut off by another V Trigger, followed by a missile dropkick to the back.

The fourth V Trigger connects to the back in the corner and a Tiger Driver 98 gets two more. Some hard knees to the face look to set up the fifth V Trigger but Moxley blocks, only to have Omega hit another V Trigger. The One Winged Angel is countered but neither can hit the Paradigm Shift. Omega scores with a dropkick and a ripcord V Trigger connects. Moxley slips out of another One Winged Angel but Omega hits a wheelbarrow suplex for two. Omega goes up top but jumps down to the floor before Moxley can shove him down (smart).

Moxley grabs another Paradigm Shift on the floor and that’s enough for the doctor to come over to check on Omega. Referees and Callis go down to check on Omega but Moxley isn’t having any of this. He throws Omega back inside and hammers away so Callis grabs the mic. Moxley knocks him down so Omega grabs the mic to hit Moxley in the head. The champ is busted open so Omega hits four V Triggers in a row and it’s the One Winged Angel to make Omega champion at 28:28.

Rating: B+. They beat the heck out of each other here and that is the kind of match they needed to have. Omega almost had to win the title sooner or later because he is treated as one of if not the top stars in the company so this was something they had to do. That being said, I’m not sure where they are going with the Callis stuff and that was something that probably didn’t need to be there. Still though, what we got was rather great and that’s more than you can ask for here.

Post match Callis and Omega run off with everyone in the back yelling at them for cheating. They run to the car with Callis saying they’ll tell you about it on IMPACT Wrestling next week. Working with Impact sounds like one of the worst ideas I can think of for AEW and really not something they should be doing, but maybe we can get more Tommy Dreamer on Dynamite.

In a very, very quick closing line, Eddie Kingston runs out to say he wants Lance Archer next week to end the show.

Overall Rating: A-. This show was all about the main event and while I’m almost terrified of the idea of Dynamite and Impact working together, the match itself and the title change felt like a big deal because AEW has done a great job of protecting their titles. You don’t see title changes take place around here very often and it was special as a result. The rest of the show worked out really well too, making this the big time feeling that they have been needing for a bit. Just please don’t let the Impact thing be a long term thing. AEW is better than that.

Results

Maxwell Jacob Friedman and Orange Cassidy won a battle royal last eliminating Wardlow

Chris Jericho b. Frankie Kazarian – Judas Effect

Britt Baker b. Leyla Hirsch – Lockjaw

Cody Rhodes/Darby Allin b. Team Taz – Coffin Drop to Starks

Kenny Omega b. Jon Moxley – One Winged Angel

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Dynamite – November 18, 2020: I’m Sure But I’m Not Sure

IMG Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Dynamite
Date: November 18, 2020
Location: Daily’s Place, Jacksonville, Florida
Commentators: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross

We’re on the way to the December 2 showdown with World Champion Jon Moxley defending against Kenny Omega but we have a few weeks to go before we get there. Tonight we have a contract signing, but we also have the Young Bucks facing Top Flight in a match that seems designed to elevate the newcomers. Let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

Opening sequence.

Young Bucks vs. Top Flight

Non-title and Top Flight is Darius/Dante Martin. Before the match we get a video on Top Flight talking about growing up and being influenced by the Bucks and the Motor City Machine Guns. They’re young, but if they can beat the Bucks then they know they can make it. Darius trades kicks with Matt to start and it’s off to Dante for a big dropkick. A slingshot hilo hits Matt and the Bucks bail to the floor, allowing Top Flight to tease some dives but moonsault back in.

Back in and the Bucks start hitting their kicks to take over. A slingshot dropkick through the ropes puts Darius down and there’s a dropkick/bulldog combination to drop Dante. The Sharpshooter has Dante in trouble until Darius makes the save. Nick ties Darius in the ropes so Dante can buckle bomb Dante into him for a crash. There’s a Backstabber to pull Darius out of the corner but Dante is back with a headscissors. The hot tag brings in Darius for some clotheslines and a standing Spanish Fly gets two.

Nick grabs a waistlock on Darius, who grabs Dante, who jumps over both of them to show off a bit. A running hurricanrana out of the corner gets two on Matt, who pops right back up with a spear to Dante. Nick kicks Darius in the face in the floor and it’s a powerbomb/Sliced Bread combination for two with Darius making the save. Darius gets sent outside in a help, leaving Dante to get superkicked. The BTE Trigger finishes Dante at 9:01.

Rating: C+. I liked this rather well and it makes sense after some of the good things I’ve heard about Top Flight. They already looked like a better version of Private Party so hopefully they are able to maintain some momentum after a good first big match like this. Nice start here and now they need to keep it going.

Post match the Hybrid 2 runs in to jump Top Flight, setting up their next match. The Bucks make the save and praise Top Flight.

Here’s what’s coming tonight.

And now, the Inner Circle is in Las Vegas. First up is a blackjack table, where Sammy Guevara doesn’t quite know the rules. MJF wins at craps but Ortiz isn’t interested in celebrating, mainly because Santana and Sammy lose their money. They like the dancing girls a bit more but then it’s off to the bar, where MJF and Chris Jericho get back into their Can You Top This game of harder drinks. They finally go with 100 proof Everclear alcohol and shout “SON OF A B****” at the same time.

It’s time to take this to the next level, so here’s Konnan to take them into a limo. A lot of smoke comes out of said limo when they open the doors and Konnan sees a dragon. As in a person in a dragon costume but close enough. It’s off to another bar, where Wardlow and Jake Hager take turns showcasing their abilities to beat up various patrons (that was funny). To be continued, as this could be a very long night.

We see the History of Revolution video from Director X, talking about the first year of the company and how far they have come. Now imagine what they are going to do in the second year. This is a cool video with some cool visuals so check it out on full on their YouTube page.

Jon Moxley talks about how it all makes sense now. After everything that has taken him here, he finally understands what got him here: his dad. His father was 6’3, 250lbs and would smack you upside your head if you did wrong. One day his dad picked him up from the police station and told him what they were the good guys. That has always stuck with him, even now that he’s banged up with a pregnant wife at home (there’s some breaking news) and he’s a champion on two continents. He’s still going though and no matter what, he’s the good guy and he’ll do his father proud.

Kip Sabian vs. Orange Cassidy

Miro is on commentary and Penelope Ford is at ringside. Cassidy puts on his elbow pad and loads up the pockets but Sabian goes after the arms. An armbar goes on so Cassidy tries to put one hand in his pocket, which earns him a takedown. Cassidy’s headscissors is blocked as well and it’s back to working on the arm. The hands in the pockets block a drop toehold and Cassidy dropkicks him down into a nip up. There’s a hands in the pockets backdrop to the floor and a suicide dive takes Sabian down again. Ford offers a distraction though and Sabian hits a fireman’s carry gutbuster for two.

Back from a break with Cassidy getting in his own shot and hitting a high crossbody. There’s the spinning DDT for two but Cassidy’s diving DDT is countered. Cassidy sends him into the corner though and now the diving DDT connects for two. Sabian blocks a suplex though and hits a brainbuster, followed by something like a Falcon Arrow for two. The hanging swinging neckbreaker is countered into a small package for two from Cassidy and it’s the Mouse Trap to pin Sabian at 10:57.

Rating: C. I’m still not sure if I like Sabian or not and it’s kind of a frustrating situation. He has a good deal of talent and the stuff with Ford is good, though the gaming stuff isn’t exactly thrilling. He goes from feeling like he’s ready to break through to the next level and then just being around. The match was just there and it’s a better place for Cassidy than near the main event.

Post match here’s Miro to kick Cassidy in the face but the Best Friends run out for the save.

It’s time for the contract signing for Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley for December 2. Omega’s entrance is now focused on everything Moxley is NOT, which is a rather amusing twist. Hold on though as we cut to the back where Moxley is out with his nose bleeding (this company REALLY likes that trope). The doctor says to stabilize his neck but Omega says he isn’t buying this again. Last time it was an elbow and now this, so he signed the contract with Moxley still out.

It’s back to Vegas, where the Inner Circle, including Elvis, seems to be drunk. Elvis joins them in a Little Bit Of The Bubbly but MJF wants to talk about being part of a wolfpack. Sammy is ready to cut his hand to become a blood brother but everyone else stops him. It’s a full moon so they all howl….and then wake up in a hotel. Elvis and Jericho are next to each other, MJF is in the bathtub and Sammy is in a fountain. He and MJF yell at each other, with MJF having a bunch of things like SAMMY WUZ HERE written on his face.

Sammy goes over to find what appears to be three wedding photos (with three different women) from the night before, plus Ortiz in a BRIDE shirt. Jericho and Santana go into another room and find Swoggle in a diaper. I haven’t seen the Hangover so you’ll have to fill in the jokes yourselves.

Chris Jericho, with a heck of a headache, joins commentary.

Pac vs. Blade

Eddie Kingston has already replaced Jericho on commentary. Pac kicks Blade down to start and takes it outside for a whip into the barricade. Back in and the missile dropkick has Blade in more trouble but a Bunny distraction lets Butcher get in a cheap shot. Blade sends him into the barricade and hits a chop, followed by a hard drop onto the top rope. Pac tries a slingshot DDT, though it’s more a slingshot armbar takedown instead. Bunny grabs Pac’s foot though and Butcher gets in another shot, setting up the Doctor Bomb for two on Pac.

We take a break and come back with Pac getting the better of a slugout. A superkick into a powerslam gives Blade two but Pac is right back with a top rope superplex for the same. Pac goes up top so Bunny offers a distraction, allowing Butcher to come in….and get superkicked down. The shooting star into the Brutalizer makes Blade tap at 11:22.

Rating: C. There were some moments where Pac looked a little shaky here but it’s his first match in over six months so you can only get on him so much. He hit the important stuff and the finisher still looks good. It was a bit longer than it probably should have been, but just getting Pac some ring time is what matters most here and he was hardly a disaster.

Post match Pac grabs the mic to yell at Eddie Kingston but Butcher jumps him from behind and the beatdown is on. Rey Fenix comes in for the failed save but here’s Penta with a chair…..to chase off Kingston (though he didn’t swing). Either way, the Death Triangle seems to be back together.

We go to the back where Jade Cargill has Pillmanized Brandi’s arm with Nyla Rose and Vickie Guerrero running interference for her.

NWA Women’s Title: Thunder Rosa vs. Serena Deeb

Deeb is defending after taking the title from Rosa about three weeks ago. Rosa takes her to the mat in a hammerlock but gets reversed into an armtrap rollup for two. Back up and Deeb hits some uppercuts but gets armdragged down. A running backsplash gives Rosa two and the running crotch attack to the back of the head has Deeb down again. Rosa takes too much time going to the apron though and gets her leg twisted around the middle rope.

We take a break and come back with Rosa hitting a running dropkick in the corner into a suplex for two. Rosa gets caught on the apron though and Deeb hits a spear on said apron for two. Rosa goes up top for a missile dropkick but here’s Rebel for a distraction, allowing Britt Baker to hit a fisherman’s neckbreaker on Rosa on the ramp.

Deeb hits a heck of a powerbomb for two and they go into a pinfall reversal sequence. That earns Rosa a Rings of Saturn with the legs but the Serenity Lock is countered. Back up and the slug it out until Rosa hits kind of a reverse World’s Strongest Slam (with Deeb over her back and going face first down) for two. Deeb fights up again and hits something like a Neutralizer with the arms pinned back (the Swiss Special) to retain at 13:35.

Rating: B. They beat each other up here with some hard hitting violence, though going for a few more minutes after Baker interfered was a little odd, especially if Deeb was going to get the pin anyway. What we got was good though and Baker beating Rosa on the way to the going after one of the Women’s Titles is a good idea.

Post match Rosa pulls Baker over the barricade and the fight is on until referees break it up.

John Silver hypes up Anna Jay’s Women’s Title match next week because she has come a long way since she was a rookie. Jay says she is going to reintroduce herself next week and take the Women’s Title from Hikaru Shida.

Here’s what’s coming next week.

Team Taz vs. Cody Rhodes/Darby Allin

Taz is on commentary and Arn Anderson is at ringside. Allin front facelocks Starks to start but gets slammed down for his efforts. The grappling continues with Starks getting him into a hammerlock on the mat. Allin can’t hit the high angle springboard armdrag but he can get a hammerlock of his own. Starks goes to the ropes so Allin slaps him in the face for a knockdown. Even Taz has to admit that was a good shot as it’s off to Cody vs. Cage.

Cody gets the better of things in a hurry and knocks Cage into the corner, wetting up the top rope moonsault press for two. That’s enough to get Taz to head to ringside and we take a break. Back with Anderson having been ejected due to some interference and Starks pulling Allin off the apron to break up a tag attempt. Cage hits a German suplex and hands it back to Starks to stomp away in the corner. Cody finally gets in a shot of his own and the hot tag brings in Allin to clean house.

Everything breaks down and Cody hits the Disaster Kick to knock Cage down on the apron. Starks spears him down but gets dropkicked into the corner by Allin. Cage is back in for a powerbomb on Allin but a Code Red gives Allin two of his own. Cody hits Starks with Cross Rhodes and Cage blasts Allin with a discus lariat. Something like an Angle Slam puts Cody down, leaving Cage and Allin to fight on the ropes. That lets Cage hit a super Drill Claw (DANG) to finish Allin at 11:15.

Rating: B-. Good main event style tag match here, though I’m not sure how much Allin needs to be taking a fall, even in a tag, so soon after winning the title. I like where it’s leading but I don’t really care for how they are getting there. The match worked on its own though and the super Drill Claw did look great. If this sets up Team Taz getting into the title picture, the good outweighs the bad.

Post match the beating stays on Cody until Will Hobbs makes the save. Hobbs holds up the FTW Title….and knocks Cody out with it to join the team to end the show. I’m not sure they needed to do that but a two wrestler Team Taz did feel a little odd.

Overall Rating: B. This was an interesting one and I’m curious to see where things go. They opened up some doors tonight and there are a few different paths that they could take on their way to the December 2 show. There is a real chance that gets built up as a near pay per view level show and I’ve heard far worse ideas. The wrestling was mostly good tonight and I like where they’re going with some things, making this a rather entertaining and promising two hours.

Results

Young Bucks b. Top Flight – BTE Trigger to Dante

Orange Cassidy b. Kip Sabian – Mouse Trap

Pac b. Blade – Brutalizer

Serena Deeb b. Thunder Rosa – Swiss Special

Team Taz b. Cody Rhodes/Darby Allin – Super Drill Claw to Allin

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Survivor Series Count-Up – 2013 (2014 Redo): Let Them (W)in

IMG Credit: WWE

Survivor Series 2013
Date: November 24, 2013
Location: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
Attendance: 13,500
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, John Bradshaw Layfield

Pre-Show: Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz

Miz turned on Kofi in a tag match on Raw to set this up. He offers a handshake to start but Kofi is too smart for that. We get a surprisingly fast start with Kofi trying to get a grip on Miz but settling for a rollup for two. They trade about three rollups each for three in a very nice chain wrestling sequence until we reach a stalemate. Miz goes for the Figure Four but has to duck Trouble in Paradise. Kofi sends him to the floor for a nice dive and we take a break. Back with Kofi holding a chinlock before getting two off a cross body.

The opening video talks about how survival is a must before transitioning to your usual hype video for the World Title matches.

Rey Mysterio/Usos/Goldust/Cody Rhodes vs. Real Americans/Shield

Elimination rules of course and the Real Americans are Jack Swagger and Cesaro. The Usos are twin Samoan high fliers. Ricardo Rodriguez is on Spanish commentary. Colter (a VERY proud American who wants all non-Americans to leave the country) does his usual routine before the match before attempting to twerk because what would a wrestling show be without that?

Cody comes in with a missile dropkick followed by the moonsault press for two on Rollins. Cross Rhodes connects but Reigns made a blind tag, allowing him to spear Cody in half for the elimination, leaving us at 3-2. Jey comes in and takes Reigns to the floor, sending him into the barricade and post. Back in and Rollins makes a quick tag to set up the Black Out (running one foot curb stomp) to eliminate Jey, leaving us with Reigns/Rollins vs. Goldust/Mysterio.

Intercontinental Title: Curtis Axel vs. Big E. Langston

Langston, defending here, is a powerlifter and incredibly strong. This is the rematch from when Axel lost the title on Monday before why change the title here? Axel grabs a headlock to start but Langston easily powers out. They trade leapfrogs until Langston runs him over with ease. Axel sends him to the apron and forearms Langston down to the floor for his first advantage.

Post match Langston cuts a promo that would make Mick Foley proud, mentioning Boston three times in about 20 seconds.

Team AJ vs. Total Divas

AJ Lee/Tamina Snuka/Summer Rae/Alicia Fox/Rosa Mendes/Kaitlyn/Aksana

Bella Twins/Funkadactyls/JoJo/Eva Marie/Natalya

Rating: D-. Other than their looks, nothing was good about this. The whole thing was a way to show us that Total Divas are AWESOME while making it clear that most of them are models who look good in little outfits but have no business EVER being in a ring. AJ continues to be exactly right about everything she says but WWE has decided that the reality “stars” are the heroes, no matter what.

Orton tries to get Charles Robinson on his side to no avail.

Mark Henry vs. Ryback

Now the panel talks a bit.

We recap Cena vs. Del Rio. Nothing special to say here: Cena won the title last month and this is the rematch. Cena opts for no arm brace despite having to take a few months off for elbow surgery.

World Heavyweight Championship: John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio

Santino and R-Truth play with toys. Los Matadores (Primo and Epico as bullfighters), Fandango and John Laurinitis come in for some unfunny comedy. Ok Ace was funny at least.

Wyatt Family vs. CM Punk/Daniel Bryan

A missile dropkick gets two and there are the YES Kicks. The running dropkick in the corner staggers the big man but Harper counters a top rope hurricanrana into a super sitout powerbomb for two. The fans think this is awesome as Bray yells at the Family. Rowan splashes Bryan for two and the second heat segment begins. Harper comes in with some forearms to the back but Punk kicks him in the back of the head to give Bryan a breather.

Bray teases getting in but stays on the floor.

Cena is talking to the Authority about something when Orton comes in to glare at them. The Viper sounds jealous.

WWE Championship: Randy Orton vs. Big Show

Orton is defending and is on the floor about a second after the bell rings. He trips getting back inside to show how confused he is tonight and gets chopped LOUDLY by Big Show. More slow offense sets up more chops by Big Show but Orton comes back with a dropkick and some kicks to the head. A knee drop gets two for the champion and we hit a sleeper. Big Show loudly says “two clotheslines” before hitting two clotheslines and calling for the chokeslam, sending Orton running to the floor.

Back in and Big Show slams him down before going to the top rope, only to be crotched on the top rope. The Elevated DDT out of the corner puts Big Show down and Orton poses a lot. Show grabs a chokeslam out of nowhere for two and loads up the KO punch but Orton bails to the floor. The big man follows him to the floor and throws Orton at the ropes, taking out the referee in the process. Randy finds a chair but gets it slapped out of his hands before they go into the crowd.

That goes nowhere so they head back to ringside where Orton tries the Elevated DDT again, only to have Show escape and hit the KO punch. Back inside and the Authority comes out for a distraction, allowing Orton to hit a quick RKO. The annoying crowd chants for Daniel Bryan as Orton hits the Punt to retain.

Ratings Comparison

The Miz vs. Kofi Kingston

Original:B-

Redo: C

Real Americans/Shield vs. Cody Rhodes/Goldust/Rey Mysterio/Usos

Original:B-

Redo: C

Curtis Axel vs. Big E. Langston

Original:D+

Redo: D+

Total Divas vs. True Divas

Original:D-

Redo: F

Mark Henry vs. Ryback

Original:D

Redo: D

Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena

Original:D+

Redo: B

Wyatt Family vs. CM Punk/Daniel Bryan

Original:B

Redo: B-

Big Show vs. Randy Orton

Original:D-

Redo: D

Overall Rating

Original:D+

Redo: C-

Dang I hated Del Rio back then.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2013/11/24/survivor-series-2013-they-had-me-for-a-bit/

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Survivor Series Count-Up – 2013 (Original): Hold Them Up

IMG Credit: WWE

Survivor Series 2013
Date: November 24, 2013
Location: TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
Commentators: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, John Bradshaw Layfield

Pre-Show: Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz

The opening video talks about how survival is a must before transitioning to your usual hype video for the world title matches. Nothing special.

Rey Mysterio/Usos/Goldust/Cody Rhodes vs. Real Americans/Shield

Intercontinental Title: Curtis Axel vs. Big E. Langston

This is the rematch from when Axel lost the title on Monday. Axel grabs a headlock to start but Langston easily powers out. They trade leapfrogs until Langston runs him over with ease. Axel sends him to the apron and forearms Langston down to the floor for his first advantage.

Post match Langston cuts a promo that would make Mick Foley proud, mentioning Boston three times in about 20 seconds.

Team AJ vs. Total Divas

AJ Lee/Tamina Snuka/Summer Rae/Alicia Fox/Rosa Mendes/Kaitlyn/Aksana

Bella Twins/Funkadactyls/JoJo/Eva Marie/Natalya

Orton tries to get Charles Robinson on his side to no avail.

Mark Henry vs. Ryback

Now the panel talks a bit.

We recap Cena vs. Del Rio. Nothing special to say here: Cena won the title last month and this is the rematch. Cena opts for no arm brace.

World Heavyweight Championship: John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio

Santino and R-Truth play with toys. Los Matadores, Fandango and JOHNNY ACE come in for some unfunny comedy. Ok Ace was funny at least.

Wyatt Family vs. CM Punk/Daniel Bryan

A missile dropkick gets two and there are the YES Kicks. The running dropkick in the corner staggers the big man but Harper counters a top rope hurricanrana into a super sitout powerbomb for two. AWESOME spot there. The fans think this is awesome as Bray yells at the Family. Rowan splashes Bryan for two and the second heat segment begins. Harper comes in with some forearms to the back but Punk kicks him in the back of the head to give Bryan a breather.

Bray teases getting in but stays on the floor.

Cena is talking to the Authority about something when Orton comes in to glare at them. The Viper sounds jealous.

WWE Championship: Randy Orton vs. Big Show

Results

Shield/Real Americans b. Cody Rhodes/Goldust/Rey Mysterio/Usos – Spear to Mysterio

Big E. Langston b. Curtis Axel – Big Ending.

Total Divas b. Team AJ – Sharpshooter to AJ

John Cena b. Alberto Del Rio – Attitude Adjustment

Daniel Bryan/CM Punk b. Wyatt Family – GTS to Harper

Randy Orton b. Big Show – Punt Kick

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Survivor Series Count-Up – 2007 (2012 Redo): It’s A Little Different

IMG Credit: WWE

Survivor Series 2007
Date: November 18, 2007
Location: American Airlines Arena, Miami, Florida
Attendance: 12,500
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross, Tazz, Joey Styles

The opening video talks about how this started twenty years ago, as you would expect it to. It also talks about the main event matches tonight, as you would expect it to as well.

ECW Title: CM Punk vs. John Morrison vs. The Miz

Miz and Morrison double team Punk but Miz is the first of the heels to go extra heel, dumping Morrison out to the floor. He hooks a chinlock on Punk but has to let go to knock Morrison back to the outside. Punk kicks Miz in the head but Morrison comes back in with a backbreaker to CM followed by a cobra clutch (called a Japanese sleeper by Joey Styles).

Miz pulls Punk to the floor and rams him into the concrete to get us down to the challengers fighting. Morrison sends him into the corner chest first and hits the yet to be named Starship Pain for two. Punk comes back in and hurricanranas Morrison off the top into a powerbomb from Miz in a SWEET looking move. That only gets two but it got a BIG reaction from the crowd.

With Morrison pretty much dead, Punk kicks Miz in the face for two and hits the knee/bulldog combo for the same. Punk hits a backbreaker on Miz but Morrison grabs a rollup and trunks on the champ for two. Morrison escapes the GTS but gets knocked to the floor, allowing Punk to hit the GTS on Miz for the pin to retain.

We recap MVP turning on Matt Hardy and taking out his knee. They had been partners for a long while before this but everyone thought MVP was evil the whole time, and this was the not very shocking turn.

Mickie James/Maria/Torrie Wilson/Michelle McCool/Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix/Melina/Jillian Hall/Victoria/Layla

Thankfully Beth comes in to flatten Maria before handing it right back to Layla. Actually make that Melina, who misses a charge at Maria and crotches herself, allowing for the hot tag to Mickie. James beats up everyone in sight, has her partners take out Beth, and hits the Long Kiss Goodnight (spinning kick to the face after a kiss) on Melina for the pin.

Shawn is here for revenge tonight because Orton has tried to hurt him and take his livelihood. Therefore tonight, Shawn is going to take the title.

Raw Tag Team Titles: Lance Cade/Trevor Murdoch vs. Hardcore Holly/Cody Rhodes

Team HHH vs. Team Umaga

HHH, Kane, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio

Umaga, Mr. Kennedy, MVP, Finlay, Big Daddy V

V almost immediately belly to belly suplexes Kane down for two but Kane comes back with some clotheslines in the corner. A top rope clothesline puts V down again but Kane has to chokeslam Finlay. V hits a Samoan Drop and a big elbow on Kane for the upset elimination. HHH comes in and hits the facebuster on the monster but gets caught by a clothesline to shift the momentum right back.

Hornswoggle vs. Great Khali

Alfonso Soriano, a baseball player, is here.

We recap Shawn vs. Orton. Shawn had the title won in a previous match but Orton intentionally got himself disqualified and then punted Shawn to the shelf for a few months. Shawn admitted he wanted revenge but Vince banned the superkick for no apparent reason other than being evil.

Raw World Title: Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton

Shawn fights back but walks into a dropkick for two. He catches another dropkick in mid air and slams Randy down a few times before hitting the top rope elbow for two. By instinct, Shawn tunes up the band but he fakes Orton out by making him duck and grabs a rollup for two. Brilliant psychology there.

Cole is talking about the main event and SAVE US. For those of you unfamiliar, this was a series of videos that popped up at random on shows with what looked like the Matrix announcing that someone was coming to SAVE US. It would be revealed the next night that it was the return of Chris Jericho.

The Cell is lowered.

We recap Batista vs. Undertaker. Batista lost the belt to Undertaker at Wrestlemania and they feuded for the title on a few PPVs. After a cage match on Smackdown, Edge cashed in the MITB contract and won the title from Undertaker. Later, Edge was hurt and had to vacate the belt, which was won by Khali. Batista eventually beat Khali for the belt and Undertaker came back to challenge him for it.

Smackdown World Title: Batista vs. Undertaker

After the Cell is raised, Edge beats on Undertaker some more to end the show.

Ratings Comparison

CM Punk vs. John Morrison vs. The Miz

Original: B-

Redo: C

Mickie James/Maria/Torrie Wilson/Michelle McCool/Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix/Melina/Jillian Hall/Victoria/Layla

Original: D

Redo: D

Lance Cade/Trevor Murdoch vs. Hardcore Holly/Cody Rhodes

Original: D

Redo: C-

Team HHH vs. Team Umaga

Original: C-

Redo: B-

Great Khali vs. Hornswoggle

Original: N/A

Redo: N/A

Randy Orton vs. Shawn Michaels

Original: D+

Redo: B

Batista vs. Undertaker

Original: A-

Redo: B+

Overall Rating

Original: B-

Redo: B

The main thing I’ve learned about myself from these redos is that I was a lot looser with my grades back then. The redo grades here are a lot more toned down and it’s a bit harder to please me now.

Here’s the original review if you’re interested:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2011/11/16/history-of-survivor-series-count-up-2007-batista-vs-undertaker-in-the-cell/

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Survivor Series Count-Up – 2007 (Original): Monsters In The Cell

IMG Credit: WWE

Survivor Series 2007
Date: November 18, 2007
Location: American Airlines Arena, Miami, Florida
Attendance: 12,000
Commentators: Tazz, JBL, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross, Joey Styles

With another year comes not a lot of change. Orton is world champion here having taken out HHH for the belt at No Mercy in their first last man standing match. Tonight he takes on HBK in another of his random filler feuds before Cena gets back from injury. The Game is the other major player on Raw (shocking isn’t it?) as he’s feuding with Umaga for your Survivor Series match of the night.

Over on Smackdown, we only have one big match, but it’s a major one as Taker is challenging Batista for the world title in a Hell in a Cell match. If nothing else they’re keeping it big. Oh and one other thing: Hornswoggle is Vince’s son now.

Yes, that painfully stupid and bad storyline has finally begun as he’s already dropped the Cruiserweight Title because Vince doesn’t like small wrestlers. Finally, we have my boy Punk defending his ECW Title against the newly crowned tag team champions of Miz and Morrison. That should be good. Let’s get it started.

Hey, take a wild guess as to what the opening video is about. If you guessed Survival, you’re of about average intelligence as the show is called Survivor Series. If you guessed that it sucked, then you’ve been paying attention to my reviews. Yep, this is nothing of note. We’re starting with the ECW Title match, so the first two voices that we hear are Joey and Tazz. Surprisingly we don’t hear their colleagues yet, which is odd indeed.

ECW Title: CM Punk vs. John Morrison vs. The Miz

Punk took the belt off of Morrison and Miz said he wanted it. That’s about all I’ve got for you here as far as a backstory since ECW back then was even less developed than it is now if you can believe that. Oh yeah. And they were thrown together on Smackdown (literally) and given a tag title shot because two guys that are thrown together that hate each other are light years ahead of all the other great tag teams on Smackdown right?

See what kind of shape the division was in around this time? Somehow this wasn’t even the worst it would be. However, these two would be pretty much the best team in a good long while and will likely be that for a good long while. Also, around this time there was a big thing about how Miz couldn’t wrestle. A buddy of mine and I said just give him time. I’m writing this in mid-October, two days after being completely blown away by a segment these two did at a Smackdown taping I was at.

Now as of this writing, it hasn’t made air in America yet. I’ll be most interested in seeing how many people are saying how awesome he is after that. Styles goes through all of the combinations that could result in Punk losing his title which is somewhere between interesting and filler. You might think that this is a handicap match, but it really isn’t. These two don’t get along yet and while they’ll double team for awhile, it’s usually very short indeed.

I’ve always loved that suicide dive that Punk does. He does the WHAT’S MY NAME thing that worked so well in ROH but never caught on in WWE. To be fair though, the crowd starts a big CM Punk chant. My goodness this guy was over. After beating on Punk as a team for awhile, Miz and Morrison break up again, maybe over one of them not doing the dishes or something. Good night Morrison does some amazing stuff out there.

He still does the same kind of stuff today but dang this was impressive stuff back then too. We get a glimpse of Miz vs. Morrison her but it’s nothing really that special. Punk hits a backbreaker that used to be called Welcome to Chicago M’Fer which has been changed for obvious reasons. Following some miscommunication from the new tag team, Punk hits the GTS on Miz for the pin.

Rating: B-. It got the crowd going a bit, but at the same time there was never any real drama in this at all. That’s fine though, as I don’t think there was really supposed to be. Sometimes you need to just have a match to get some ring time for the champion and have a decent match out of it. It makes the champion look stronger and saves the showdown for later on. This was just fine.

We get a recap of MVP hurting Matt’s leg and putting him out of the Survivor Series match later tonight. MVP had a big C on his outfit back then. He was CMVP. Oh that’s just awesome. Anyway, now we go to the back where some interviewer that I don’t recognize is talking to him. He’s REALLY bad on promos at this point.

Face Divas vs. Heel Divas

Faces: Mickie, Maria, Torrie, Michelle, Kelly
Heels: Beth, Jillian, Melina, Layla, Victoria

This is your token Diva match of the night. Torrie has what is now Tiffany’s music. Basically, around this time the only face Diva that can wrestle at all is Mickie. There’s no story here at all as this could just as easily have been on Raw. Thankfully this isn’t elimination style. We start with the almost too hot Victoria against Michelle. Ok, the Divas yelling at each other is REALLY annoying. Kelly is in essence in a swimsuit with sleeves.

To show the brilliance on display here, Torrie has Victoria down and leaves her there to run across the ring and get a tag. That’s tag wrestling 101 there and she can’t get that right. Even trying to pull Victoria back to Torrie’s corner would have worked. Whatever let’s just get this over with. Jillian is in now and for some reason rubs Kelly’s face in her chest. Wow. Anyway, we get the obligatory handspring elbow, which is the most impressive athletic maneuver there is.

It’s so impressive that nearly every Diva does it. Dang will you STOP WITH THE FREAKING SCREAMS? CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW FREAKING ANNOYING IT WOULD BE TO HAVE SOMEONE THAT SCREAMED EVERY TIME THEY OPENED THEIR FREAKING MOUTH? IT WOULD BE SO FREAKING….never mind. JR actually makes a bit of a comparison of Kelly and the Great Muta. I’m at a lost for keystrokes. All of the heels are wearing some form of red. Is that some messed up team unity thing?

Mickie comes in and attempts to save this match. Mickie hits the sexiest move in wrestling history, The Long Kiss Goodnight, to get the win. It was a move where she grabbed the other girl’s hair and actually bent her back and kissed her before kicking her in the face. Why do I have a feeling that’s Norcal’s dream date? Oh and Michelle fell out during the match. Nothing special.

Rating: D. That’s half of what this match was all about. The other letter is also D. Yep, this was all about looks here. If you don’t believe me, look at Kelly and Maria’s outfits. They’re just there for looks and nothing more. This was just bad and showed how awful the majority of the women were at the time. At least it was short and the girls looked good.

Orton says he’ll win.

Shawn says he’ll win. Well I’m glad they’re in agreement that he’ll win. Shawn looks stoned here and actually swears. That’s surprising.

Raw Tag Titles: Cade and Murdoch vs. Holly and Rhodes

Please…make it short. This was the token title feud of the month as the faces were thrown together over respect or something and instantly were number one contenders. The problem with the tag title picture was simple: Miz and Morrison were thrown together and won the tag belts. Holly and Rhodes were thrown together and won the tag belts. Do I need to explain why this was such a complete and utter failure for so long?

The reunification has helped a good bit lately, but they’re still in desperate need of help. With a roster as big as they have, it really wouldn’t be hard to get a few teams together and put some stories out there. Think of all the guys on the roster that never do anything but could have decent matches. The stuff is there, trust me.

Could Cade be any more generic? Hey! Buy Armageddon so we can validate our completely stupid PPV schedule. Holly and Rhodes won a triple threat vs. Londrick and the Highlanders to get here on Heat of all places. DAng it’s weird to see Rhodes as such a rookie like this. Rhodes and Cade start us off. Rhodes has bulked up a bit since this.

Rhodes literally slaps Murdoch on the back. That sounded sick too. Holly in now who takes down Murdoch. Holly does his low kick that isn’t really low but really looks like it is while the other guy is on the ropes. The champions are in trouble here. Double teaming gets the advantage back to the rednecks.

Cade takes Holly down to prevent he tag as this is just DRAGGING. There’s no reason for this to be on PPV but it is anyway because that’s how tag wrestling in this company works. There’s your heel miscommunication so that Rhodes can come in. And then that doesn’t work as he hits a missile dropkick for two and walks into Melina’s finisher (the sunset bomb thing) from Murdoch to retain.

Rating: D. This was just bad. Just like the match before it, there was no need to have it on PPV. Neither team stands out at all and there’s just nothing special about it. It’s not any good at all so there’s no way to say it’s anything but bad by default. Horrible match and everything that’s wrong with tag wrestling in this era. Holly and Rhodes would get the titles a few weeks later.

Team HHH says that they’re going to do some terrible things to the other team. In a very funny bit, Kane and Jeff mention all the things that HHH has done to them over the years. That’s just amusing. Jeff is taller than I thought he was.

After a too short to tell what’s going on recap of the Survivor Series match, we’re ready to go.

Team HHH vs. Team Umaga

HHH, Kane, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio
Umaga, Big Daddy V, Kennedy, Finlay, MVP

Matt is injured remember, so it’s starting as a handicap match.

I love the way Justin Roberts talks. In what cracked me up, Kennedy comes out to do his standard intro and the mic doesn’t work. About halfway through it kicks on mid word. That’s just hilarious. Big Daddy V is in desperate need of a shirt. MVP needs to bring back the counting part of his music. It’s so much better that way. Let’s see: the most successful heel here is….MVP I guess? Maybe Umaga?

On the other side, we have four former/future world champions. Oh yeah this is going to be a great contest here. Kane’s pyro is some of the loudest stuff you will ever hear in your life. It’s insanely loud. Rey’s song really is catchy when it’s all you’re hearing in the arena. Jeff has his old music here. The start of his singles run would be in less than two months as he would fight Orton for the title at the Rumble. He’s IC Champion here.

Oh yeah the feuds. HHH vs. Umaga, Kane vs. BDV, Jeff vs. no one in particular, Rey vs. Finlay, Matt vs. MVP so I guess Jeff gets Kennedy and MVP by default. We’re now at ten minutes of entrances. We start off with Kennedy and Rey, so an overrated guy that’s good but nowhere near as good as he is made out to be vs. Kennedy. This is pretty decent stuff here as Kennedy for once gets to show what he can do, which isn’t bad.

He’s not the next Austin but he’s not bad at all. Rey does in essence the same move that Murdoch won with earlier, using that pesky thing known as the right way. JR says that Hardy has D. Wade like hang time. That just doesn’t sound right at all. BDV comes in to beat on Hardy for awhile since we need jobbers out there for awhile.

We move on to Kane vs. BDV which was a feud at the moment, so look for a big pinfall here. Kane hits the big clothesline from the top to put him down for a bit as this is really just no sell theater.

Following a little interference from Finlay the Samoan Drop ends the Big Red Machine to make it 5-3. Again, Kane jobs. Some things never change. The facebuster from HHH simply couldn’t miss more than it does here. We get HHH vs. Umaga here, which I guess was supposed to be a big deal? It’s just coming off as weak to me, but whatever.

After HHH (which I accidentally spelled as HGH for a bit there in a funny moment) gets beaten down, Rey comes in and after making Umaga look ridiculously bad, goes out to the Spike, leaving us with 5-2. I can smell the comeback coming from a mile away. We start this part with Jeff vs. Kennedy, which would have been an interesting feud had various things not happened. After a missed Drive By, Jeff gets a quick Twist of Fate to make it 4-2.

Kennedy is taken out after something that looks like it came out of a Three Stooges short with all of the blunders by the heels. HHH gets the pin. We move on to Viscera vs. HHH since I guess the fat man had to get something done that night. A double DDT takes him out to get us to 2-2 and you can see the ending coming from here. In probably the biggest thing of his career, Finlay beats on HHH for awhile before the tag to Hardy brings the crowd back a bit.

Once the terrible twosome were all that was left, this match started going downhill fast. This needs to end, like now. After a lot of token offense from Finlay, HHH comes in and takes care of Finlay. Cole tries to build Finlay as an equal to HHH. That’s just amusing. About 44 seconds later, the Pedigree leads to the Swanton which leads to the end of this way too long match. The face team of the gods celebrate for awhile before we’re done.

Rating: C-. This is a tale of two grades here. Before we got down to the final two faces, this was pretty good. After that, the whole thing just fell apart because there was zero chance that the faces weren’t both going to survive. Kane and Rey were just filler out there and everyone knew it. The first part is good, the second part is just bland. It got Jeff over though, which was the main goal of the whole thing.

Vince tells Horny not to die. That’s just funny.

Hornswoggle vs. Great Khali

You know the story so let’s get this over with. Vince and Shane are with Horny here. When I grow up, I want to be one of Runjin Singh’s sideburns. They do the rule thing just to add more hijinks to this. The fans chant We Want Shaq. Ok then. Oh yeah this is Miami when Shaq was on the Heat. That makes sense now. Oh and Shaq is in the front row. See what happens when I pay attention? Vince grabs a mic and says he doesn’t care what the fans want.

At least he’s honest. Horny runs once Khali screams at him. For some reason he spits mist at Singh who doesn’t do anything but stand there with a what the heck look on his face. Well thanks for that buddy. The club that Horny grabs is knocked away and then Khali smacks him. This needs to end like now.

The joke is over and has been for a long time. Just as I say that, Finlay runs out and hits Khali with the club to make the save for the DQ. The fact that Finlay would be revealed as the real father was about as obvious as possible at this point.

Rating: N/A. It was a joke, not a match.

We hit the recap button on HBK vs. Orton. This is pretty simple. Orton was on a punting spree and one of his first targets was Michaels. The night after Orton beat HHH at No Mercy there was this big ceremony for him which ended in Shawn returning in what was a cool moment. They had a match at Cyber Sunday where Orton got himself disqualified. That led to this, where Shawn can’t use the superkick and Orton can lose the belt via DQ. That’s about it.

Raw World Title: Randy Orton vs. Shawn Michaels

Lillian looks great with her hair pulled back. Ross takes a small shot at FOX News, so at least some things never change. Orton hasn’t started hearing voices yet. Oh and the belt still spins. This is Shawn’s second PPV in 5 months. Shocking isn’t it that he more or less took the summer off after Mania. He would never do anything like that again would he? Dang that spinning belt looks like crap. It’s scary that today the belt looks about 100x better.

We get the old school ceremony of the referee checking the boots and pads etc. I love the little things like that because they can enhance a match so much. Shawn starts off with a lockup known as a Crevate. Now most of you have likely never heard of that. It’s a European style headlock but not quite. More or less you look like you’re setting for a snapmare but you grip like it’s a headlock. It’s really a cool idea and there’s a lot of stuff you can go with from that position.

Chris Hero is well known for using a ton of varieties of things like it. They go to a LONG headlock/front chancery sequence that has the crowd on the edge of unconsciousness. Finally we hit the floor for a bit where Shawn hits a picture perfect Asai Moonsault to knock Orton down. The commentators try to argue that Shawn is using a different style here because he’s not allowed to use the kick. That makes ZERO sense.

Think about it. Shawn’s finishing move is a kick to the head. What kind of setup does that require? All it takes is one second and some accuracy and he’ll knock you out. It’s not a wear down move like a figure four where going for it immediately makes no sense. It’s a move that can be hit from nowhere. Think of the Iron Man match.

He hit back to back kicks from nowhere to win his first world title. Here’s your “it’s Survivor Series so Shawn has to reference Montreal with a Sharpshooter” Sharpshooter. This has been all Shawn so far. Say it with me: as I type that Orton takes over.

Orton is very boring. That’s all there is to it. However, since he looks like a statue and can cut decent promos, Vince decides to keep putting him in big matches with this ridiculous Viper gimmick which more or less consists of him sliding around the ring before the RKO. It’s an excuse for not having to come up with something creative. Orton vs. Cena and HHH is about as boring of a pair of feuds as you’re ever going to find.

JR then has the nerve to say that this is a pure wrestling match. No Jim, it’s really not. This is a match that has an extra gimmick added to it because no one in their right mind believed that HBK would lose to Orton without it. Orton is just flat out awful in this gimmick of his and something needs to be changed, fast. Naturally, that means that Orton will be the same guy going into Mania 30. Oh look it’s a chinlock. What is the appeal of this?

To be fair, Orton is a bit better now, but around this time he was just flat out boring. Now he’s just mostly boring. Ok, for the love of goodness, WE GET THAT ORTON’S DAD IS IN THE HALL OF FAME! He was a horrible character and did nothing of note, ever. He’s another great example of the Hall of Fame being a complete joke. Anyway, Shawn initiates the ending sequence but gets dropkicked with one of three moves Orton can actually do really well.

In what’s a pretty cool move, Shawn sets for the superkick and fakes Orton out to get him to drop down so Shawn can hook a small package. That was really smart and makes perfect sense. In something that really surprises me, Shawn uses a crossface. This is a mere four months after Benoit and in the middle of the investigation into his death. I guess that this was before the whole thing came out. Michaels goes even crazier by putting on an ankle lock. Man he’s going nuts here.

He gets the heel hook but Orton gets out. DAng , Orton is better with submission than Lesnar is. Something occurs to me. If Orton gets disqualified, HBK gets the belt right? Why doesn’t Shawn get one of his buddies to come out and blast him with a chair or something? Man this face thing getting in the way of something that makes sense.

As he goes for a figure four, Shawn is kicked into the post. After a very brief counter, the RKO ends it. Afterwards Orton yells at Shawn and picks him up, naturally getting kicked in the head before Shawn leaves. Well that was a pretty basic ending.

Rating: D+. I get that some people would like this match, but I just could not get into it at all. There’s no drama, there’s one decent looking spot with the moonsault, there are tons of dead spots, and the whole thing just falls short. There just was no reason at all to watch this, plain and simple. They weren’t going to put the belt on Shawn so quick. Earlier tonight in the Punk match you had a good match that was a token defense.

This is the same, but this was far more boring. It’s a great example of a good match like this and a bad one. Jericho would come back in less than a month to save Raw and have more bland matches with Orton. Vince, get it through your head: two surefire hall of fame wrestlers in Jericho and Shawn can only pull ok matches out of Orton. That simply can’t be a coincidence.

Recap of Batista vs. Taker: they’ve fought a bunch of times and split most of them, but they just think the other is a swell guy. Yep, that’s about it.

Smackdown World Title: Batista vs. Undertaker

Remember this is Hell in a Cell. Taker is the challenger here. JBL actually does some good analysis of what both guys need to do to win. He then ruins that by saying “oh that’s a clothesline!” Well thanks for that great brilliance there Johnny boy. Naturally Batista isn’t afraid of Taker. Less than three minutes in we have a chair brought in from under the ring. Or would it be out from under the ring? Whatever. Taker controls the majority of the opening part of the match.

Batista takes a chair shot to the throat and has some faint blood from his mouth. I know there’s not much being said here but the opening to this is solid which makes it difficult to make fun of. They’re trying to play up the experience/skill of Taker vs. pure power of Batista. That’s not a bad idea at all. As usual the rules of where you can pin someone here change per match, but I’d assume that it’s only in the ring. Cole implies it’s falls count anywhere.

They’re focusing a lot more on wrestling here than violence, which is fine. There’s certainly more than one way to have a good cell match and this is one of those options. Taker gets the Triangle Choke and Batista starts waving his arm and slapping the mat which looks a lot like tapping to me. He gets the ropes which apparently is a rope break. Even the announcers say that’s not correct. Batista is bleeding horribly.

After Batista gets some weapons shots in to take control, he gets caught in the Last Ride for two. This is a good match. The chokeslam gets two. He goes for the Tombstone but Batista does the leg wiggle of doom to get out and hit a spinebuster to take over again. A table is brought in as I begin to think: do those really help? I mean think about it. They kind of break your fall.

When you’re in a move like a powerbomb or something, the impact of the move is based on the amount of momentum built up when you’re coming down right? Well if there’s a table there blocking your way, doesn’t it stop a lot of the momentum? The impact of going through the table would hurt, but since you keep going anyway, it’s not going to hurt that much. Think of it like this: what hurts worse, taking a short ride and falling through a table, or taking a long ride and landing on something solid?

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but I guess it can look good or something like that. Now we get to something else that’s kind of stupid. Batista sets up the table and hits a regular powerbomb through it (they call it the Batista Bomb but I can let that one go). If he had Taker that weakened, why not just hit the regular Batista Bomb and not give Taker the extra recovery time? Batista kicks out of the Tombstone, which makes him the second guy ever (Shawn at Mania 25) to kick out of all three finishers.

Shawn took it a step further though as he got out of Hell’s Gate as well. A Tombstone of the stairs should do it but the cameraman pulls the referee out and of course it’s Edge, returning from whatever injury he was out with. A camera shot to the head of Taker followed by a conchairto and Batista keeps the belt. Seriously, that’s the ending? Edge posing takes us out.

Rating: A-. This was a very good match until the ending. These guys have some solid chemistry together and showed it off tonight. Most Cell matches have zero story to them but this one did, which goes to show that you can have good wrestling and storytelling in a match like this and include weapons and blood.

That’s a big flaw in a lot of gimmick matches today: they forget they’re wrestling and just have high spots. Edge interfering really brings this down though as I wanted a clean win for someone. This was very good though and easily the best match at Survivor Series in a good while.

Overall Rating: B-. This is another example of a show where the grades don’t give an accurate representation of the whole show. I know I graded a lot of them low, but at the same time the whole show turned out to be pretty good I thought. The main event helped a lot as it was an excellent match. It goes to show you what a main event is capable of.

I know some people are going to think I’m an idiot for my Shawn vs. Orton grade, but the issue I have is simple: it was overbooked. Seriously, does a guy like Shawn need gimmicks in order to get over? You tell him how long he has and the finish and let him take care of the rest. The show certainly isn’t bad, but it’s hardly a classic. Batista and Taker is worth going out of your way to see, but while the rest is certainly good, it’s not must see. Recommended though.

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

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Full Gear 2020: It Was A Misstep

IMG Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Full Gear 2020
Date: November 7, 2020
Location: Daily’s Place, Jacksonville, Florida
Commentators: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross

It’s time to go back on pay per view and that’s quite a good thing around here. This company has been around for about a year and a half with pay per views and has almost as good of a track record as you can get. This show has a stacked card too and hopefully we get something that lives up to its potential. Let’s get to it.

Buy-In: NWA Women’s Title: Allysin Kay vs. Serena Deeb

Deeb is defending and drives Kay into the corner to start. A top wristlock takes Kay down but she’s right back up, only to get dragon screw legwhipped. Serena ties their legs together and bridges them into the air while pulling on Kay’s arms for a move that looks great and makes you try to figure out what is hurting more. That’s broken up and they slap it out with Kay taking her into the corner. Deeb rolls her up for two but walks into a hot shot for the same.

The straitjacket choke goes on but Deeb switches around into a Backstabber. Kay is right back up with a chokebomb for two and a spinebuster is good for the same. A double clothesline gives us a double knockdown though and we get a breather. Back up and Deeb hits a swinging neckbreaker for two but Kay is back up with the AK47 (spinning Big Ending) with Deeb rolling out to the floor. Back in and Deeb twists the knee down again, setting up the Serenity Lock (Tequila Sunrise) for the tap at 10:26.

Rating: C. This was a perfectly fine way to open things up as they had a completely watchable match with the leg being worked on earlier in the match to set up the ending. Deeb is a great addition to the roster and Kay would be a nice signing if they can get her. Nice choice for the opener here and they both looked completely comfortable on this kind of a stage.

The opening video looks at the bigger matches, as opening videos tend to do.

Commentary runs down the card.

Impact Wrestling’s Don Callis joins commentary for the opener.

#1 Contenders Tournament Finals: Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page

Dang I thought this had a chance at headlining. Omega gets a big hype introduction of course, including listing off various tournaments he has won and talking about his experience edge. With dancing girls of course. Page on the other hand is a “Focus Yeehaw Man” and doesn’t shake hands. Feeling out process to start with Page getting dropped by a shoulder but avoiding a dropkick. The sliding clothesline misses so Page goes with some chops instead.

Omega knocks him to the floor to set up the Rise of the Terminator but Page is right back in with a big boot. A superplex gives Page two and they head to the floor with Page chopping away against the barricade. Omega gets whipped into the barricade but he’s right back up with a moonsault off the same barricade. Back in and the Regal Roll sets up a middle rope moonsault for two but Page hits a heck of a clothesline to send him outside.

The slingshot dive misses and it’s a baseball dropkick to keep Page on the floor. Omega hits the big running flip dive and they’re both down for a bit. Back in again and neither can hit the One Winged Angel so Omega goes with the V Trigger to knock him to the ramp. A powerbomb on the ramp is blocked so Page whips him into the ropes for a pop up powerbomb to drop Omega onto the ramp instead.

Another pop up powerbomb gives Page two back inside and they both need a breather. The slow motion forearm off sets up a rolling forearm to rock Omega. He’s right back with a knee to the face and a tiger driver 98 gives Omega two. The V Trigger misses though and Page hits a discus forearm. Omega hits one of his own into the Snapdragon but Page is right back with a shot to the face of his own.

The Deadeye gives Page two so it’s time for the Buckshot Lariat. That’s countered into a crucifix, which is countered into a cradle for a crazy close near fall on Omega. Back up and Omega twists the knee around the ropes and after a missed Buckshot Lariat, Omega hits a pair of V Triggers. The One Winged Angel finishes Page at 16:26.

Rating: B+. Yeah that worked and you knew it was going to. Page is someone who is going to be a big star for a long time to come as he had a heck of a match here, though there wasn’t much doubt about the winner. Omega seems ready to ascend to the next level but I’m more interested in seeing where Page and his collapse under the pressure goes from here.

AEW Games is doing something on Tuesday.

Orange Cassidy vs. John Silver

Kind of a drop off for Cassidy after the co-main event last time around. They stare each other down with Silver talking about how jacked he is and yelling at Cassidy for putting his hands in his pockets. Tony: “If you don’t want him to do it, stop him.” Cassidy takes him down and teases a headlock but gives him a thumbs up instead. The slow motion kicks to the legs set up the dropkick into the nip up but Silver slams him down.

Silver takes Cassidy’s hands out of the pockets and RIPS OUT THE POCKETS. He eats one of them too. Some big tosses send Cassidy flying across the ring as this is mostly one sided. Cassidy tries the tornado DDT but Silver muscles him up with a suplex, followed by the kicks to the chest. Cassidy gets sent out to the apron and it’s time to send Silver head first into the buckle over and over. A high crossbody sets up the tornado DDT for two and they’re both down for a bit.

Silver is back up with a one armed gorilla press drop onto the top rope but Cassidy snaps off a headscissors. The Michinoku Driver gives Cassidy two but the Beach Break is broken up. The Orange Punch misses as well so Cassidy settles for a Stundog Millionaire instead. Silver is back with a pump kick and the Spin Doctor gets two. The discus clothesline misses though and Cassidy is back with the Orange Punch. Cassidy hits the Beach Break for the pin at 9:42.

Rating: C+. This was a total showcase for Silver and he stepped up to make it work. He can go in the ring and I’ve heard nothing but good things about his stuff on BTE. Silver got something out of this and that was the idea. Cassidy was fine here too, though he doesn’t have as much momentum as he had just a few months ago. It’s still there, but he needs to do something to get back up to where he was.

We recap Cody Rhodes (yes the Rhodes is back) vs. Darby Allin for Cody’s TNT Title. Cody got squashed to lose the title but came back with a vengeance to regain it. Then Allin stepped up to get the next shot and wants to be the next face of TNT. Cody agrees….but not right now. Darby is different though and has given Cody a run for his money before.

TNT Title: Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin

Cody is defending and has Brandi and the rest of the Nightmare Family with him. Allin comes in the banged up car that says FACE OF TNT, which he bangs up even more with the skateboard. Feeling out process to start as the fans give us a BOTH THESE GUYS chant. Cody takes him to the mat to start and they go to some standing switches off a waistlock. Allin sends him outside but comes back in with a crucifix for two but Cody runs him over without much effort.

A short armscissors goes on before Cody shifts to a regular armbar. Darby fights up but gets pulled down into a Rings of Saturn to stay on the arm. Back up and Cody takes him up top for a super hammerlock slam, only to miss the moonsault. Darby strikes away and hits a running Code Red for two. Allin goes up to but gets caught with a forearm to the back, setting up a super Cross Rhodes for two as the arm is underneath the rope.

Cody goes up again but Darby jumps on his back, only to have Cody drop back down for a big crash. Allin gets planted again as commentary is wondering why Cody isn’t going back to the banged up arm. Instead Cody grabs the weightlifting belt but Allin scoops the legs for two off a rollup. The Last Supper gives Allin two more and the Coffin Drop gets two more. Back up and Cody goes for another Cross Rhodes but Allin reverses into a pinfall reversal sequence with Allin managing to get the surprise pin and the title at 16:50.

Rating: B. They got me with that one as I didn’t think Cody was going to drop the title so soon. That being said, they have been needing to make new stars around here and that’s what they did here with a clean pin to make Allin the champion. Good match too, but the important thing was elevating someone to another level and that’s what they did here, just as they should have.

Post match Arn Anderson is STUNNED. Cody hands Allin the title and raises his hand as Anderson isn’t pleased. Cue Taz to say enough of this already. He’s sick of the emotions because Allin won the title. Taz would say act like you’ve been there before but he never has been.

Cue Brian Cage and Ricky Starks to post Anderson and jump the other two. Cage and Starks both pick up the TNT Title and get in a bit of a tug of war until Taz takes it away. Cage picks Allin up and, after dispatching Cody again, drops him on the floor for a toss through….it looks like a Full Gear sign. They take Allin over to the car and go to crush the arm but Will Hobbs makes the save with a chair. Perfectly logical progression of the story, but I’m not sure they needed to do this immediately after the title change.

The Natural Nightmares don’t think much of Allie infiltrating the team but Dustin Rhodes is ready to take care of the Butcher and Blade on Wednesday. We’re even going to make it a Bunkhouse Match so they can make it even worse. Were they doing a sound check when Cody was getting mauled???

We recap Hikaru Shida vs. Nyla Rose. Shida has won the title and beaten up all of her challengers so we’ll have her face Rose again.

Women’s Title: Nyla Rose vs. Hikaru Shida

Rose, with Vickie Guerrero is challenging. They slug it out to start with Shida ducking some big shots and hammering away. Rose easily blocks a suplex attempt so Shida hits a pair of running dropkicks into the ropes. The running knee gives Shida one but she knocks Rose outside without much effort. Shida loads up her chair but takes a little too long, allowing Rose to blast her with a clothesline. The referee won’t let Rose use a chair so Shida knocks her over the barricade and hammers away.

Vickie gets in a kendo stick shot to Shida’s knee though and the champ is in a lot of trouble. The knee is bent around the ring structure and Rose cuts the leg out again with a chop block. A splash onto the legs gets two and Rose grabs a half crab to stay on the knee. Rose misses a backsplash though and Shida hits a basement clothesline for her own two. Shida manages a slam for two but Rose is back with a claw onto the knee of all things. That doesn’t last long (thankfully) so Rose slams her down for two instead.

Shida gets draped across the top rope and Rose comes off the top with a knee to the knee for two more. It’s Rose heading up again but this time Shida catches her with a pump kick onto the ramp. A middle rope dropkick puts her down again and a regular missile dropkick gets two back inside. Rose blocks the running knee though and it’s a powerbomb (not the Beast Bomb) for two, but she pulls Shida up.

Instead Rose hits her own running knee for one and Shida manages a backdrop. Back up and a super Falcon Arrow gets two on Rose so they head outside, with Rose accidentally running Vickie over. They head inside again and Shida hits a regular Falcon Arrow for two more. Shida hits a pair of running knees to finish Rose at 13:57.

Rating: C. It was hard hitting but it kind of kept going from move to move without the most coherent match. There was something there with Rose getting too cocky to follow up and go with the pin, but it was kind of meandering after that. Granted it needs to be a matter of time before Britt Baker wins the title and if that’s what happens, everything is going to be fine. This was nowhere near a bad match, but it wasn’t all that good.

Post match Vickie screams at Rose and seems to end the partnership. It wasn’t exactly some epic team in the first place.

We recap the Young Bucks vs. FTR. This has been a dream match for a long time now and there is no reason to believe it won’t be great in practice. FTR have the titles but the Bucks are the best team in the world, or so they say. Matt Jackson has a bad knee/ankle coming in thanks to the champs, Tully Blanchard is banned from ringside and if the Bucks lose they can never challenge for the titles again.

Tag Team Titles: FTR vs. Young Bucks

The Bucks are challenging. Wheeler goes straight for Matt’s bad leg but gets kicked to the leg with Matt saying he’s fine. Back in and everything breaks down for a second until we settle down to Nick vs. Harwood. Commentary explains that Tully was banned for cheating (JR: “What do pro wrestling managers do?”) as Nick kicks Harwood down into an armbar. That’s broken up and Harwood takes him into the corner to hammer away but Nick dropkicks his way to freedom. Matt comes back in for stereo hurricanranas into right hands to the head (ala the Rockers), with the champs being sent outside.

The Bucks follow him out with Harwood punching the post by mistake to put him in trouble for a change. Back in and the hand can barely do anything but Wheeler takes Matt down by the leg. The referee checks on Harwood’s hand and bandages it up as the leg work continues. Matt gets away for a bit but Nick and Wheeler are fighting on the apron. The PowerPlex is cut off by raised knees though and Matt grabs a small package for two. Matt goes old school with the Arn Anderson head fake into the DDT and the hot tag brings in Nick to clean house.

The champs get beaten down on the floor but Wheeler rolls through a high crossbody. A Hart Attack gets two on Nick but Matt makes a blind tag to spear Wheeler. The running knee to the face gives Matt two but it’s a Steiner Bulldog for two more despite Wheeler cutting Nick off. Nick is back in with a superkick and a 3D into a Twist of Fate into a Swanton gets two on Wheeler. Matt gets a crazy hot near fall off a crucifix before slugging it out with Harwood.

A right hand rocks Matt but aggrivates the hand again again. FTR goes back to NXT’s days with the Meet In The Middle for two on Matt but the Mind Breaker is countered with a kick to the head (Excalibur: “Broken up with the gamenguri!” Somewhere Bobby Heenan is shouting “HE KICKED THE MAN IN THE HEAD!”) and the Bucks grab stereo Sharpshooters. Those are broken up so Nick goes after Harwood’s hand, setting up the BTE Trigger for two with Wheeler making a very diving save.

Nick dives onto Wheeler so Matt grabs a chair, with Harwood begging him to use it. Matt doesn’t, but the delay lets Wheeler break up the Meltzer Driver. The Mind Bender connects but Matt gets a foot on the rope for the break. FTR takes off Matt’s boot and ties up the leg for the middle rope stomp. The inverted Figure Four goes on but Nick makes the save with a 450 for two more. Wheeler is back in to kick Matt down but misses a springboard 450 (seriously) of his own. Matt uses the bad leg for the superkick for the pin and the titles at 29:50.

Rating: A-. Yeah that worked, mainly because they slowed things down to start with the Bucks not doing as many flips as they could. In other words, they actually built things up and got to the big moment at the end, which is what often works best with these things. Really good stuff here, though they might have done one too many old school moves to avoid being cute. Still though, heck of a match and the kind of match where you can see the praise for the Bucks being earned.

Post match Omega comes out to celebrate as we can see someone (seemed to be Page) lurking in the shadows.

Sammy Guevara vs. Matt Hardy

It’s a cinematic match with Sammy riding up to the Hardy Compound in a golf cart (labeled Spanish God of course). We cut to Matt on the phone saying that if he gives the signal, someone needs to show up here ASAP. Sammy arrives and is greeted by NEO1, who projects Broken Matt. Cue the real Matt in a monster truck (labeled Strait Jacket) to run over the golf cart. Matt calls that orgasmic and says it was a squash job. Sammy jumps Matt with a trashcan as the bell rings, followed by a moonsault off of the truck.

They send each other into some trees and Sammy is whipped into another trashcan. A suplex on the yard gives us a bad thud but Matt gets over to a fountain to pull out a scepter (Excalibur: “It’s the Scepter of Mestophocles! JR: “WELL OF COURSE IT IS!”). Some shots to the ribs have Sammy in trouble and they head over to the ring waiting for them. Cue Santana and Ortiz to jump Matt so he reaches underneath the ring and grabs a walkie talkie, saying come on. We cut to Private Party in a car and they’re on their way for the save.

Cue Private Party, with JR saying they’re dressed like “funky….uh…..superheroes!”. The teams brawl in the ring as Matt busts out some Roman candles and runs off. Matt starts singing A Hunting I Will Go and fires them over the ring while shouting for Sammy. Hold on though as Sammy finds a well placed torch and his own Roman candle to fire right back. We cut over to Private Party and Santana/Ortiz having a mini match before going back to Matt unloading on Sammy with more fireworks.

Sammy winds up in a mud pit so Matt can get in a mud show line for your Jim Cornette reference. Hold on though as here’s a masked man to say he’s Matt’s mentor. It’s Gangrel, so Matt unleashes Hurricane Helms (who he put there in a previous match at the Compound) for the save. Helms asks what took Matt two years so Matt says it’s long form storytelling and he had to go to AEW to actually finish this. Sammy is back up to throw Hurricane in the Lake of Reincarnation and he counters the Twist of Fate into a low superkick.

Cue ace reporter Gregory Helms to question Sammy, earning himself another trip into the water. They get back in the ring with Hurricane joining them again. Sammy goes off into the woods as Gangrel, Hurricane, Private Party Santana and Ortiz fighting in the ring. Sammy and Matt go into the Dome of Deletion and Matt shuts the door, allowing music to start and Sammy to get in a chair shot to the back. The turnbuckle is unhooked as they head into a ring, where a ladder and table are waiting.

Sammy chokes him with the rope and then lays him on the table. It’s time to climb the ladder, setting up a huge Swanton….for two. Matt is back with a Twist of Fate and sends Sammy through a table at ringside. A chair to Sammy’s head is your next call back to months ago and Matt shouts that Sammy made him into what he is. Matt hits the Conchairto on the floor as commentary gets all serious and Sammy is done at 19:38.

Rating: D. I get that some people are going to have a good time with this and I won’t argue anything about it, but dang this didn’t do it for me. It was way too long, they got too goofy (as usual) and then Matt wins. I’m not sure how in the world this was seen as the best idea but I’m really not sure I want to know what their bad ideas were. I really don’t need to see this kind of match again and I certainly don’t need to see Matt winning over someone like Sammy.

Post match Matt lets Private Party in and they put Sammy in a trash can (which was quite the fit) so Private Party can throw him into the back of a truck.

Jake Roberts sings about watching Captain Kangaroo and Lance Archer says he’s going to end everyone. You’re not supposed to throw rocks in glass houses but he’s throwing boulders.

We recap Chris Jericho vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman. MJF has been trying to get into the Inner Circle but Jericho has not been thrilled with the prospect. They had a big song and dance number and then a town hall but now it’s time for a match, where MJF gets in if he wins.

Chris Jericho vs. Maxwell Jacob Friedman

If MJF wins, he’s in the Inner Circle. MJF, with Wardlow, comes out in the light up jacket and does the old Jericho pose on the stage. Jericho pounds him down to start and gets in a hard forearm, followed by a belly to back. Some shots in the corner are cut off by MJF’s clothesline and it’s time to rip at Jericho’s face. They head outside with Jericho taking over the camera, as he has been known to do. The Judas Effect hits the post though and the arm is in trouble. Excalibur: “Well MJF, despite the fact that he’s an arrogant p****, is an excellent pro wrestler.”

Back in and Jericho hits a backdrop but gets his arm snapped down onto the rope to put him in trouble again. The cocky MJF slowly hammers away in the corner but Jericho pokes him in the eye. The top rope ax handle sets up the Lionsault for no cover as Jericho takes him up top instead. A super hurricanrana plants MJF for two but he grabs the wrist and sends Jericho flying by the arm. Jericho crotches him on top, only to have MJF pull him by the arm into the corner.

They slug it out with Jericho using the left hand, as he would logically be doing here. MJF is right back with the Salt of the Earth but Jericho slips out and puts on the Walls. A crawl gets MJF over to the ropes for the break, with the referee having to tell Jericho he didn’t win. MJF pulls him throat first into the ropes and snaps the arm over the ropes again. A Codebreaker over the ropes sets up the Heatseeker for two and they’re both down.

MJF misses a Lionsault and gets caught with the Codebreaker for two more. The Judas Effect is countered into the Salt of the Earth but Jericho makes the rope this time. Wardlow slips in the Dynamite Diamond but Jericho ducks the big right hand. Jake Hager throws in Floyd the bat so MJF drops down and plays dead. The referee yells at Jericho, allowing MJF to grab a rollup with tights for the pin at 16:24.

Rating: B-. This was a good back and forth match where I wasn’t sure how they were going to end things. They did something clever by having MJF outsmart Jericho, which could go a long way if MJF is ultimately going to have MJF take Jericho’s spot as leader (assuming they go that way). Rather good match and it’s not like Jericho losing is going to hurt him (as has been the case for the last fifteen plus years at least).

Post match the monsters stare at each other so Jericho shakes MJF’s hand, welcoming both he and Wardlow to the team.

Revolution is on February 27, promising an alternate reality.

Orange Cassidy has no thoughts on his win but here are Miro, Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford to demand an apology. Cassidy says he’s sorry but that’s not good enough for Sabian, who slaps him. Cassidy and the Best Friends walk away, leaving the three of them confused.

We recap Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley. They have been friends for fifteen years and now Kingston being eaten alive by jealousy. Kingston talked about how he gave his life to this business and it’s why he never got married or had kids. Moxley talked about the promise he made to Kingston’s mom to watch his back. Tonight it’s I Quit as Kingston has his big chance.

AEW World Title: Eddie Kingston vs. Jon Moxley

Moxley is defending and it’s I Quit. They slug it out to start and they trade the chops until Moxley picks the ankle. That doesn’t last long and it’s time to chop it out again. They head outside with Moxley hitting a suicide dive and throwing a chair at Eddie’s face for a bonus. It’s time to go beyond the barricade with Moxley suplexing him onto the concrete. Moxley goes for the choke but Kingston bites the arm to escape.

It’s back to ringside with Moxley being sent into the barricade. Kingston throws in the chairs but the now bleeding Moxley pulls out a barbed wire baseball bat. A shot to the ribs and back have Kingston in trouble and Moxley kicks the chairs over. The barbed wire is raked over Kingston’s forehead but he’s right back with some belly to back suplexes. Moxley punches away from the mat but Kingston hits him with the chair.

After taking some barbed wire off the bat and wrapping it around his hand, Kingston hammers away at the head for some extra brutality. Kingston grabs a Kimura with Moxley having to bite the leg for the break. The chairs are set up again but this time Moxley gets in a suplex onto them for another double knockdown. Kingston is still up first and pours out a bag of thumbtacks but Moxley gets in a hard clothesline for a breather. It’s Kingston up first to knock Moxley down onto the tacks and then raids the doctor’s bag….to find rubbing alcohol.

A low blow keeps Moxley down and Kingston pours the rubbing alcohol into the wounds on Moxley’s back. Screaming ensues, though it isn’t enough to make Moxley quit. Instead Moxley fights back up gets the bulldog choke, which still isn’t enough to make Kingston quit. With that not working, Moxley gets up and hits the Paradigm Shift. That’s not enough either so Moxley wraps the barbed wire around his arm and puts on the bulldog choke to retain at 19:02.

Rating: B. The opinion on this is going to be the most back and forth you’ll see for a main event you’ll see for a bit as it’s going to depend on your taste. I’m not a fan of this kind of stuff, though for what they were going for, it worked well. It was violent and brutal, but the Abyss in TNA and various other people in other promotions have taken away any impact this might have. Kingston wasn’t exactly a major threat to win and that’s ok in a spot like this. The point wasn’t the ending but rather how they got there and that worked, though this really isn’t my style.

Post match Moxley shouts that it was blood and guts. Cue Kenny Omega for the staredown to end the show.

Overall Rating: A-. The women’s match was longer than it needed to be (while still being find enough) and the Hardy vs. Guevara match was just bad but the rest of this was a smash with nothing resembling bad throughout the night. You have some great stuff here like the opener, the Tag Team Title match and depending on your taste, the main event. AEW is right back where they usually were and All Out seems to have been just a misstep, which is going to happen to everyone. Check this one out as it’s one of the better shows of the year.

Results

Kenny Omega b. Hangman Page – One Winged Angel

Orange Cassidy b. John Silver – Beach Break

Darby Allin b. Cody Rhodes – Rollup

Hikaru Shida b. Nyla Rose – Running knee

Young Bucks b. FTR – Superkick to Harwood

Matt Hardy b. Sammy Guevara – Conchairto

Maxwell Jacob Friedman b. Chris Jericho – Rollup with tights

Jon Moxley b. Eddie Kingston – Bulldog choke with barbed wire

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6

Summerslam Count-Up – 2013 (2019 Redo): That’s A Hot One

IMG Credit: WWE

Summerslam 2013
Date: August 18, 2013
Location: Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
Attendance: 17,739
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield

It’s a double main event tonight with a pair of smaller guys vs. big powerhouses with CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar and Daniel Bryan challenging John Cena for the World Title. This is remembered as one of the best shows in a very long time for WWE and it should be interesting to see how well it holds up. Let’s get to it.

Kickoff Show: United States Title: Dean Ambrose vs. Rob Van Dam

Ambrose is defending and there’s no Shield with him to start. Some standing switches go nowhere and Ambrose continues to look moderately displeased by the whole thing at worst. Rob is right back up with a spinning kick to the chest, meaning he can hit those finger pokes. You don’t do that to Ambrose, who chops away in the corner and stops a charging Rob with a kick to the face.

The neck crank goes on, followed by a running dropkick against the ropes to keep Rob in trouble. It’s back to the chinlock with the microphones picking up the spot calling. Rob is right back up with a kick to the face and the split legged moonsault out of the corner for two. A kick to the head breaks up the original Dirty Deeds (headlock driver) but here are Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. That brings out Mark Henry and Big Show and we take a break. Back with everyone standing at ringside and Dean dropping an elbow for two. The ECW chants bring Rob back to life but Dean sends him outside.

That means a staredown between the four on the floor with Rob managing a suplex on Dean. The spinning kick to the back on the apron has Dean in even more trouble and it’s a top rope cannonball for two back inside. Dean is right back with a spinebuster for two of his own but misses his top rope elbow. Rob has to go after Rollins instead of trying the Five Star so he kicks Dean down again. The Five Star connects but Roman Reigns comes in with a spear for the DQ at 13:40.

Rating: B-. This worked rather well and is one of Van Dam’s last good matches either in WWE or anywhere for that matter. He looked like his old self here and made Ambrose look good, even when he got the DQ win. This was still before Shield had reached their peak and they were far better as a team anyway. It got the crowd going and happened to be a good match in the process. Not bad for the Kickoff.

Here’s the Miz as your host for the evening. His task at the moment: tell us about the main events we already know. How TNA of him. We’re about to hear our first match but Fandango and Summer Rae cut him off with some dancing. Miz: “Really? Really? WELCOME TO SUMMERSLAM!”

The opening video focuses on Los Angeles and how big things happen here. Like Summerslam. That’s a nice motif and it moves into the double main event, which is indeed sounding great. Future note: the music during this video would become Akira Tozawa’s theme (not sure if that’s a Network edit or not).

Dig that pyro. Seriously with all the money they have, we can only get it at Wrestlemania and the Saudi shows?

Jojo from Total Divas sings the National Anthem. This was a plot point on Total Divas because that she needed to stretch for plot points.

Kane vs. Bray Wyatt

This is a Ring of Fire match, meaning an Inferno match with pins and submissions only. It’s also Bray’s in-ring debut, which is almost weird to imagine. Harper and Rowan are in Wyatt’s corner, as tends to be the case. The bell rings and the flames come up, going all of six inches high. Kane slugs away to start and the flames do go higher as someone lands on the mat.

Harper and Rowan get closer to the ring and the flames go WAY up to make things look a lot better. Kane hits a suplex to pop the flames again and avoids a big boot, sending Bray close to the fire. Bray’s running splash in the corner connects and he hammers away as the fans aren’t exactly thrilled so far. Back up and Kane sends him into the corner and the side slam makes the flames go up again. The chokeslam is broken up and Harper tries to throw in a kendo stick but the flames cut it off.

Cue the fireman to put the stick out, allowing Kane to hit the chokeslam. Rowan grabs the fire extinguisher to try and put out the flames but they come right back up as Kane hits another chokeslam. For some reason there’s no cover so Kane hits a third chokeslam, meaning it’s Tombstone time. Hold on again though as Harper and Rowan put a blanket over the flames and get in for the beatdown. The fans want Undertaker but settle for Sister Abigail to finish Kane at 7:49.

Rating: F. Well that was dumb. You have Wyatt getting destroyed until the goons saved him, the flames not lasting seven minutes before someone figured a way around them, and the match being dreadful until the ending. Pick two of them and you can figure out what was wrong with this one. It was a good idea on paper but the execution was a nightmare, which sums up Wyatt’s whole career.

Post match Wyatt puts on his hat and sits in the rocking chair as Harper and Rowan put Kane’s head on the steps. They pick up the other steps and crush his head for the big knockout, which looked better than most of the match. Harper and Rowan carry Kane out.

The Kickoff Show panel talks about the Wyatt Family.

On the Kickoff Show, Paul Heyman talked about how the real story of David vs. Goliath is that Goliath took the best shot and then destroyed David. Heyman has gotten both sides to agree that tonight can be No DQ so Lesnar can finish Punk for good.

Damien Sandow vs. Cody Rhodes

Sandow is Mr. Money in the Bank and cost Cody the briefcase to break up their team. Before the match, Sandow talks about how there have been great pairings throughout literary history, with each pair having a lackey. Tonight, Sandow proves that he was the leader by sending Cody back to the land of clowns. Cody starts fast and hammers away before getting two off a backdrop. Sandow is right back with a suplex and a double arm crank as this is already feeling like a TV match.

An early Cross Rhodes attempt is blocked and Sandow hits the Russian legsweep into the wind-up elbow for two. Something like Edge’s Edgecation goes on but Cody kicks away without much effort. Cody catches him on top with a MuscleBuster of all things and that gets the fans into things for a change. A missile dropkick gives Cody two more and the Disaster Kick knocks Sandow silly for another two. Cody misses a charge into the post to give Sandow two but Cody snaps off Cross Rhodes for the pin at 6:39.

Rating: D. This was a case where Cody should have won the briefcase and moved up to the World Title scene but instead they went with Sandow and the whole thing flopped because no one bought him in that spot. Maybe they were planning on having Cody take the briefcase from him, but the damage was already done. It’s a case of putting too much thought into things as WWE screwed up something else.

We recap Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio for the Smackdown World Title. Alberto had put Christian on the shelf late last year and now Christian is the challenger of the month. Actually saying this is recapping Christian vs. Alberto is a little misleading as Alberto is neither seen nor mentioned in the video. I know he’s not interesting but come on now.

Smackdown World Title: Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio

Alberto is defending. They circle each other a few times until a loud kick to the leg has Christian in trouble. A headlock doesn’t do much for the champ as Christian comes back up with a right hand and a toss over the ropes. Back in and Christian gets caught on top for the running enziguri into the running kicks to the chest. It’s time to go to the arm, as tends to be Del Rio’s style.

The armbar doesn’t last long so Del Rio throws him into the air for the big crash to the mat. A top rope double stomp to the arm gets two but Del Rio misses a charge and goes crashing out to the floor. That lets Christian hit a dive off the top and they’re both down. Back in and Del Rio goes right back to the arm, because it’s a plan that works well. He deviates from said plan by going up and diving into raised boots though, allowing Christian to hammer away in the corner.

The high crossbody gets two on the champ but the Killswitch is countered into a Backstabber. Another running enziguri in the corner rocks Christian for two more but he’s fine enough to hit a middle rope elbow to the jaw. A super hurricanrana gives Christian another two and it’s time for the spear.

Since the idea of selling Christian’s spear makes anyone cringe, Del Rio dropkicks him in the face for two instead. There’s a low superkick for another two, with the fans dubbing this awesome. Eh…..it’s close but I don’t know about that. Christian hits the spear out of nowhere but the arm is banged up, allowing Del Rio to slap on the armbreaker for the tap at 12:29.

Rating: B. I can’t go all the way to awesome but this was a rather fun match with Christian throwing everything he had. That being said, I wasn’t buying a lot of the near falls as Christian never hit the Killswitch and Del Rio never won with anything but the armbreaker. Christian’s career was more or less done at this point, as he would be put out of action again in a few months and have his last comeback with his final match in March.

Post match Del Rio says he’ll be the hero Los Angeles needs. Someone get this man a big bus!

Video on Summerslam Axxess earlier in the day, complete with a women’s tag match including Marina Menunos.

Maria is here and talks about the Bella Twins freaking out about Maria saying Natalya did well on Total Divas. Cue Fandango and Summer Rae to dance but Maria and Miz do just the same, leaving Fandango and Summer looking annoyed.

Natalya vs. Brie Bella

Cameron, Naomi, Eva Marie and Nikki Bella are here because this is the Total Divas match of the night. It’s weird seeing Natalya in regular gear instead of the leather she’s worn for years now. You can tell this is serious as they exchanged SLAPS on Raw. They fight over failed hiptoss attempts to start and it’s time for another slapoff. Brie has to bail to the floor to avoid the Sharpshooter so Nikki and Eva get in some cheating to take Natalya to the floor. The fans chant for JBL instead of this mess before quickly shifting over to the other announcers. Or maybe it’s an old Jerry Graham fan club.

Brie grabs the chinlock as the fans want tables. Egads the idea of the Total Divas crew trying to do something that complicated. The chinlock goes on again because that’s their best idea at the moment. Natalya fights out without much trouble but the Sharpshooter is countered with a rollup into the corner. The other four get in a fight on the floor and it’s a THIRD CHINLOCK in less than five minutes. Natalya breaks it up and, with the fans saying they want Ryder, slaps on the Sharpshooter for the win at 5:21.

Rating: D-. Any match that involves three chinlocks in less than five minutes is pretty self explanatory. There was no story here other than they were arguing about a reality show and that’s enough to get us here. The wrestling was pretty awful with the talented Natalya not being good enough to carry Brie. At least it was short, but this really had no business being on Summerslam.

Ryback, currently a bully, yells at catering about the soup being cold. It’s supposed to be, which Ryback knew of course. The soup goes down the chef’s shirt and then over his head. Ryback: “Feed me moron.” Make sure you catch his podcast so he can tell you how he came up with that entire idea and how it would have been a classic if WWE supported him.

We recap CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar. Punk was about to win Money in the Bank but Paul Heyman turned on him because Punk was nothing without him. Heyman brought Lesnar back in to destroy Punk, who had been Heyman’s friend and client for a long time. It’s a pretty easy tagline: The Best vs. The Beast. This was better than the UFC version: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion vs. The Miserable Failure.

CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar

No DQ. I know I say this a lot, but a fired up Lesnar is a terrifying human being. Punk shrugs off the shoulders in the corner to start so Lesnar just does them again. The CM PUNK chants begin and you can feel the energy in this one. A heck of a beal across the ring rocks Punk and it’s time for some choking in the corner. Punk manages a kick to the head and Lesnar is rocked, followed by some running knees to put him outside.

The suicide dive connects as I can’t help but look for the baseball sized growth on his back (it’s just hard not to). Punk tries the steps but Brock knocks them right back into him without much effort. Lesnar posts himself though and Punk scores with a top rope dive to stagger him again. The clothesline off the announcers’ table connects as well but Punk makes the mistake of going after Heyman. Lesnar LAUNCHES him over the table and Cole is declaring this one over already.

Back in and Punk starts kicking at the leg so Lesnar hits him in the face (don’t make it complicated). The bearhug stays on the ribs as you can’t fault Lesnar’s plan. Punk’s escape plan: hit Lesnar in the face. See? He’s learning too. Lesnar goes right back to the ribs and the slow pace continues. Another bearhug goes on and gets broken up by more shots to the face. Punk kicks him in the ribs and goes up, only to dive into a World’s Strongest Slam (giving us a great OH DANG IT face).

Some backbreakers get two as Punk’s ribs are being destroyed and we hit the chinlock. Punk bites the ear to escape and starts striking away, setting up a top rope knee to the face to FINALLY put Lesnar down. Some running knees in the corner connect and a kick to the head sets up the Macho Elbow (almost a splash) for a hot two. The GTS and F5 are both countered so Punk kicks him in the head again.

Another GTS attempt is countered into the Kimura but that’s reversed into a triangle choke. You just don’t do that to a power guy like Lesnar though, as he turns it over into a powerbomb….which doesn’t break anything. Lesnar powers up again though, this time into a heck of a running powerbomb for the real break. The delayed cover gets two and a ticked off Lesnar rolls some suplexes for two more.

Lesnar takes his sweet time going outside so Punk can get up top for a dive. That’s blocked by a raised chair, but Punk still drives it into Lesnar at the same time. That means Punk can beat the heck out of Lesnar with the chair and it’s Punk getting fired up this time. Back in and Punk hits him low, meaning it’s time to go up top for the Macho Elbow with the chair. Lesnar can’t get up (that’s a rare shot) so Punk hits him again, leaving Heyman to take the chair.

Brock is back up and grabs the F5 but Punk grabs Heyman’s tie for the block. Punk slips out and hits the GTS with Heyman having to make a save. The chase is on and Punk runs into the F5, which is countered into a DDT for two. The Anaconda Vice goes on, but since Lesnar’s legs aren’t kicking you know it’s not a finish. Heyman tries to come in with a chair….but Punk steps onto it. A right hand drops Heyman and Punk puts him in the Vice (like an idiot). Lesnar gets in the chair shot to Punk and the F5 onto the chair is good for the pin at 25:17.

Rating: A. Oh I loved this one all over again. The one part holding it back was Heyman getting involved once too often and Punk getting stupid by putting him in the Vice (he’s way too smart to get that caught up no matter what). Other than that, this was an incredible display of the underdog (who happens to be a multiple time World Champion) going after the unbeatable monster and getting dangerously close to stopping him. I was getting into the near falls here and that says a lot given that I knew how it was ending. Awesome stuff and the blueprint for how to have a smaller guy fight Lesnar.

Punk gets the big hero’s sendoff in what would be his last great match.

A fan took a Mark Henry splash for Summerslam tickets. I’d do it too. The fan and his friends will be ringside for the next match.

Dolph Ziggler/Kaitlyn vs. Big E. Langston/AJ Lee

Langston and Lee turned on Ziggler so he got Kaitlyn, who lost the Divas Title to AJ, on his side for this. It’s so strange seeing Big E. as his old self. The guys start and Big E. goes straight to an abdominal stretch to take over. It’s already off to the women with AJ kicking Kaitlyn in the face for two. The sleeper on Kaitlyn’s back keeps things slow and we look at the fans eating Doritos (sponsor).

Kaitlyn fights up and brings Ziggler back in for the dropkick and rapid fire elbow drops to Big E. Since they’re just elbows, Big E. is right back up with an over the shoulder backbreaker for two with Kaitlyn making the save. A hard running shoulder in the corner only hits post, leaving Kaitlyn to hit a heck of a spear to AJ on the floor (AJ always sold that perfectly). Big E. is fine enough to try the Big Ending but Ziggler reverses into the Zig Zag for the pin at 6:45.

Rating: D+. This was nothing but a way to let the crowd calm down a bit after the instant classic and there’s nothing wrong with being in that spot. Kaitlyn’s spear looked awesome and it was always cool to see Big E. throwing humans around like they were toys. The Ziggler push was already dying around this time but somehow he would still be kicking around in big spots six years later. WWE is funny/stupid in that way.

Fandango interrupts Miz one more time so Miz lays him out. Cole: “It’s Fan-DOWN-Go.” No Cole, it isn’t.

The Kickoff Panel does what Kickoff Panels do. In this case that means picking Daniel Bryan to beat John Cena for the title.

We recap Cena vs. Bryan. Cena was given the chance to pick his challenger for this show and selected Bryan, who had worked his way up the card like few others in recent years. Management hated the idea because Bryan wasn’t good enough and tried to give Bryan a corporate makeover. Bryan refused to cut his beard though because he was going to be himself. HHH, who has seemed to favor Bryan, is guest referee. Bryan and Cena have played up the sports entertainment vs. wrestling deal, which is exactly what this match should be about.

Raw World Title: John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan

Bryan is challenging with HHH as guest referee. Cena is also sporting a massive growth on his elbow, which was leaving him desperately in need of surgery because it’s the size of a baseball. Bryan isn’t getting the superstar pops yet but he’s cheered more than Cena. We get the Big Match Intros and I had forgotten about Bryan’s THE BEARD IS HERE shirt. Cena grabs a headlock to start as they have a ton of time here.

Bryan rolls out with no trouble and it’s an early standoff. Back up and Cena tries a test of strength, which is blocked by a bridge. The YES Lock attempt sends Cena bailing to the floor and he tells the doctor that his arm is fine. Back in and Bryan takes him down into the surfboard knee stomp as Cena is in way over his head with the wrestling. Therefore, he runs Bryan over for a knock to the floor because power is his best bet. Cena follows him outside but gets sent into the steps, only to manage a suplex off the steps to put Bryan down again.

Back in and Cena whips him hard into the corner as Bryan has no answer for the power game just yet. A Batista Bomb gives Cena two and the chinlock goes on. Bryan fights up and forearms away, setting up some kicks in the corner to put Cena on defense again. The running clothesline drops Cena and you can feel the fans’ energy picking up. The YES Kicks connect but, as usual, the big one misses and Cena fires off the shoulders.

Cena takes too long with the Shuffle though and gets kicked in the head, only to come back with the ProtoBomb. Now the Shuffle connects but the AA doesn’t work just yet. Instead Bryan hits a missile dropkick for two as they’re going back and forth very well here. Over ten minutes in, Bryan finally goes after the BIG FREAKING BULGE on his arm to take over. Cena tries the STF but Bryan kicks away and grabs one of his own. The rope is grabbed so Bryan hits a pair of German suplexes for a pair of twos.

Now it’s off to the YES Lock but Cena slips out, earning himself a guillotine choke instead. That’s countered with a backdrop into the corner (cool) and they’re both down for a second. Cena grabs the AA out of nowhere for two and they’re down a bit longer. With nothing working, Cena goes up but Bryan catches him with the running forearms to stagger him. Bryan superplexes him down but hangs on to stay up top for a cool visual.

The Swan Dive connects for two so Cena runs him over with the clothesline for two of his own. Cole mentions that HHH is referee, marking the most significant HHH portion of the match over twenty minutes in. Cena’s super AA is blocked by elbows to the head but Cena blocks the super hurricanrana. That means jumping down and dropping Bryan on top of his head in a botch I had forgotten about so the cringing is strong. The STF goes on with Bryan rolling over to take off some of the pressure.

Bryan manages to reverse into the YES Lock until Cena makes the rope. The running corner dropkicks have Cena in more trouble so he comes out of the corner with the hard clothesline to turn Bryan inside out. The slugout it on until they both hit flying shoulders for another double knockdown. Bryan wins the next slugout but the moonsault out of the corner is caught on Cena’s shoulders. That’s countered into a DDT and they’re both down again. Bryan tries a high crossbody but gets caught in the AA. It’s reversed again and Bryan kicks him in the head, setting up the debuting running knee for the pin and the title at 26:54.

Rating: A+. I go back and forth on which of the two big matches I like more and this time around I liked the story that much more. Bryan debuting the running knee to win is still one of my favorite things in a long time as it came out of nowhere and makes the move look devastating right off the bat. They had a great battle of styles here with both guys sticking with their respective specialties until Bryan broke down the machine through heart and determination, plus some awesome strikes. I had a great time with this one and it was one of the best matches I’ve seen in a good while.

Raw World Title: Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan

Bryan is defending as well as out so Orton wins the title in eight seconds. There’s your major story over the next eight months and yes I still believe that Bryan winning the title at Wrestlemania was the plan all along (details to be determined).

Overall Rating: A-. This is one of those shows where the good is excellent and the rest just exists. That being said, with the two awesome main events and a rather good Del Rio vs. Christian match, you have a seven match card (leaving out the cash-in match) with three of them receiving some rather high praise. That’s about as good as you can get and it’s one of the better shows in recent memory. Yeah the other four matches range from bad to rather bad, but their times combined are about equal to the main event. Excellent show and worth your time (as in less than three hours) to see.

Ratings Comparison

Rob Van Dam vs. Dean Ambrose

Original: B-
2014 Redo: B-
2017 Redo: D+

2019 Redo: B-

Bray Wyatt vs. Kane

Original: D+

2014 Redo: D

2017 Redo: F+

2019 Redo: F

Damien Sandow vs. Cody Rhodes

Original: C

2014 Redo: D+

2017 Redo: C+

2019 Redo: D

Alberto Del Rio vs. Christian

Original: B+

2014 Redo: B

2017 Redo: B

2019 Redo: B

Brie Bella vs. Natalya

Original: F

2014 Redo: D-

2017 Redo: D-

2019 Redo: D-

Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk

Original: A+

2014 Redo: A+

2017 Redo: A+

2019 Redo: A

Big E. Langston/AJ Lee vs. Dolph Ziggler/AJ Lee

Original: C-

2014 Redo: D+

2017 Redo: D+

2019 Redo: D+

Daniel Bryan vs. John Cena

Original: A+

2014 Redo: A+

2017 Redo: A+

2019 Redo: A+

Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan

Original: N/A

2014 Redo: N/A

2017 Redo: N/A

2019 Redo: N/A

Overall Rating

Original: A-

2014 Redo: A

2017 Redo: A-

2019 Redo: A-

Was I in a really bad mood when I watched the Kickoff Show in 2017? And I’m all over the place with Cody vs. Sandow. Other than that, it’s pretty much the definitive set of ratings here.

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2019/08/26/new-book-and-e-book-kbs-complete-2004-monday-night-raw-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6