Best Of 2020: Title Reign Of The Year

We’ll jump right into a weird one as a lot of the title reigns were extended this year due to the Coronavirus (expect to hear that word a lot). There were several champions who never had the chance to defend their titles for several months and as a result, I’m going to be a bit hesitant to include them. That isn’t the case for everyone though and some of these reigns are worth looking at fondly.  Let’s get to it.

As usual these are in no particular order until the winner at the end.

Bayley – Smackdown Women’s Title

I’ve been a big Bayley fan for a long time now and I’m in awe of what she has been able to do with this new heel run. Seeing her turn was like seeing the Easter Bunny become a monster and I can’t believe how well the whole thing has worked. She is great at what she does and it’s so easy to hate her on sight, but at the same time you want to see how great she is at everything. This might be more for the turn itself, but holding the title for over a year (plus an extra 140 days only broken up by a five day Charlotte reign) is more than worth a mention.

Drew McIntyre – WWE Title (First Reign)

If there is one thing that WWE needs to work on, it is making a new star. That is partially what makes McIntyre’s rise and victory at Wrestlemania all the more frustrating: they clearly know how to do it and yet they just don’t for so long. McIntyre won the title at Wrestlemania and held it for about six months before getting it back a few weeks later. His opponents were not the strongest (not his fault) but he comes off like the World Champion in everything he does and that’s a heck of a trick to pull off.

Io Shirai – NXT Women’s Title

You might not have noticed it, but Shirai held the title for more than half the year and has been champion for over seven months. By the end of this week, she’ll have the fifth longest reign in the title’s history and could very easily go even further. There is such a natural grace to her movements in the ring and that moonsault is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. This has been a surprisingly long reign but she has been awesome throughout.

Street Profits – Raw Tag Team/Smackdown Tag Team Titles

This is cheating a bit but they literally didn’t lose the titles in between reigns so I’m calling it the same one. Outside of the New Day, it has been a LONG time since WWE truly established a team and it’s great to see someone as charismatic as the Street Profits getting the chance. They completely hit their stride this year and the entrance with the full crowd is one of the best going today, just due to the high levels of energy alone. They deserve credit for such a reign and they’re a heck of a team who have moved up a lot during their reign.

Jon Moxley – AEW World Title

AEW was one of the few promotions to not really be hurt by the pandemic as far as their on-screen product went and Moxley was champion for the majority of the year. He also had some awesome, hard hitting matches while coming off as a major star. It was kind of inevitable that he would lose to Omega in the end, but what he got to do was great and made him look like a star throughout.

I went back and forth with McIntyre and this one for the win but there was something that pushed the other over the edge.

Roman Reigns – Universal Title

Reigns is going to come up a lot this year and there is a good reason for that. This is the kind of run that WWE has not seen in a long time as Reigns feels like someone who could be champion for years (plural) without missing a beat. He’s that great at the moment and the thing that pushes this over the edge is how they’ve made it work. Reigns got two pretty excellent pay per view title matches out of JEY USO. Someone being able to bring a career tag wrestler with nothing as far as singles experience up to that level is worth the pick and the more I think about it, the more interested I am in seeing how far Reigns goes with this.

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:

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




Well That Blew Up In A Hurry (Sexual Assault/Harassment Allegations)

This might be sticking around for a long time.Earlier this week, various allegations were made against independent wrestler David Starr, who said that while some of them weren’t true, he did some things that he shouldn’t have and acknowledged that his career might be over.  That is a horrible thing to hear, but it was the tip of a really big iceberg.

 

Since then, wrestling’s version of the MeToo movement has taken place, with all kinds of allegations of both sexual assault and harassment coming out in droves.  There are more people accused than I can name and I’m not going to try to cover everyone involved.  It started as mainly a list of UK based wrestlers (several of them being part of NXT UK) and has since spiraled out to all kinds of names around the world, including Jim Cornette in a matter almost entirely separate from most of this.

 

I have no idea what happened here but it is clear that there is something very, very wrong in this whole thing.  With so much being said and so many stories coming it, it is ridiculous to believe that there isn’t a good bit of truth to a lot of them.  They should all be investigated thoroughly, but you can almost guarantee that a lot of people are either going to be fired or pretty much never heard from again as a result.  That would be a major blow to wrestling, but cleaning it up is a lot more important than having wrestlers around.  This shouldn’t have happened in the first place and it’s amazing to see so many people having the gut to come forward.  It is a lot harder than it sounds and good for them for fighting back against something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

 

Thoughts?  I’m sure there are going to be several of them.




This One Hits Home A Bit

411’s Larry Csonka has passed away.

I didn’t know Larry on a personal level but I was a member of the 411 staff a bit back in the day.  I would regularly read his reviews and while I didn’t always agree with him, I understood how he came to most of his conclusions.  He was a machine at reviewing material and it’s sad to see that he’s not here anymore.  There was no cause of death given but he’s had some health issues over the years, including losing a leg.




Back On The Mouth Of The South Shore Radio Show

I haven’t been on the show in awhile but it was a lot of fun as always.  We talk the goings on in wrestling today, including the problems with Raw, some of the upcoming stars of WWE, some of the smaller stories in wrestling that might be going under the radar and Kenny Omega.  Check out this one, plus check out the show every week.  You’ll find the links to everything below and please subscribe to/rate it and like their Facebook page.  In other words, press some buttons to help out a good show that has been incredibly nice to me over the years and gives you an awesome wrestling discussion at the same time.

Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mouth-of-the-south-shore-radio-show/id1510186486?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/7s8JdTf6kIDKyBLNxNqFzA

Google Podcasts:
https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3ByZWFrZXIuY29tL3Nob3cvNDM1NDgwNi9lcGlzb2Rlcy9mZWVk

Spreaker:
https://www.spreaker.com/show/mouth-of-the-south-shore-radio-show

Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/MouthOfTheSouthShoreRadioShow

Twitter and Instagram:
@motssradio




THAT! WAS! THE XFL!!!

Yeah it’s gone again.https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/breaking-xfl-ceases-operations-not-returning-next-year/

 

Your interest in football may vary, but I wasn’t big on the idea of a spring league.  To be fair though, this has very little to do with the football or anything else, as the Coronavirus spreading took away every sporting league.  That being said, I really hope this is dropped for good now as it has failed twice, for various reasons.




An Amazing Wrestling Sale

You might want to get in on this.

Highspots is the company that presents WrestleCon but since that went under, they are in need of some money. Therefore, they are offering a CRAZY sale on everything they sell at the moment, which includes everything from wrestling gear to rings to authentic pay per view banners to DVDs to videos on demand to memorabilia and more. Right now, everything on their site is 36% off and all DVDs/video downloads are 50% off. Some of their DVDs and videos are $5 and under, meaning you can get full wrestling DVDs for $2 each and under in some cases.

As a result, I’ve dropped almost $200 and picked up:

8 Books

1 Old Magazine

15 DVDs (5 PWG, 5 Wrestling Revolver, 2 ROH, 2 FIP, 1 WWE)

12 Downloads (8 PWG, 2 Pro Wrestling Superstars, 1 Five Dollar Wrestling, 1 WrestleCon Supershow, 1 New England Wrestling, all full shows)

2 Documentaries

1 DVD Set

You need to check this stuff out and, as you might have guessed, you’ll be seeing a lot of PWG stuff in the near future (and all of the other DVDs I’ve gotten in the Wrestling Loot Crates/from Jim Cornette’s site as I’m running out of space for them). This is perhaps the best sale I’ve ever seen and you would do yourself a favor to check some of them out.




Checked Out The Chris Benoit Episode Of Autopsy

It aired on the Reelz channel on Sunday and we may have a new winner for worst documentary(ish) look at wrestling I’ve seen in a good while.

The idea of the show is kind of a medical investigation deal with a doctor looking over an autopsy report and trying to figure out what happened. In other words, a guy who has nothing to do with wrestling looking at it from an outside perspective with some wrestling people included. That’s where things fall apart.

There were three main wrestling people involved with the show: Les Thatcher (fine), Greg Oliver (wrestling writer who named Bret Hart as the fourteenth best Canadian wrestler of all time) and a guy who wrote a book on Benoit that Lance Storm trashed in an amazing way. That’s it. No other wrestlers, no more wrestling journalists, nothing else.

There were the usual wrestling errors, including the following:

  • Referring to Nancy Benoit a “wrestling Diva”

  • Saying Benoit fought through injuries to get to the end of the season

  • Talking about Benoit getting hurt and coming back from injury to win the World Title “not long after his return to the ring”. It was almost two years later.

  • They talked about Benoit getting hurt at King of the Ring, while showing footage of a Raw match. They showed various other pay per views, so why not show the right clip there?

You learn to live with those things, but the problem is the show wasn’t all that good. They talked about Benoit having issues with alcohol, steroids and head injuries and called it a big mixture of factors that caused the incident. What gets annoying is the host saying he discovered things like Benoit having certain drugs in them. By discovered, he means read in the report, which makes me wonder why he needs to be on the show.

Finally though, his big conclusion is that Nancy was the victim of domestic violence. I’m not sure why that’s a conclusion, but that’s what he says as one of his big points. The other thing is that he implies that Benoit snapped because he lost the World Title. While he never flat out says that, he says that Benoit was losing everything he had worked for while showing a picture of Benoit with the title.

Maybe he didn’t mean it this way, but he sounded like he meant Benoit went over the edge because he lost the title. Benoit was probably close to retirement around this time, but that was never mentioned anywhere on here, making it seem like Benoit’s title loss was considered a factor. Sometimes I’ll give people the benefit of the doubt, but not on a show that says a wrestler made it to the end of a season.

All in all, this feels like a very formula based show that was made in about a day. Just wait for Dark Side of the Ring next week and see something with a good bit more effort put into it by more people who know what they’re talking about.




2019 Wrestling Observer Awards Announced

Believe it or not, they like these AEW and New Japan guys.

It’s that time of year again. Dave Meltzer and his minions have voted on their End of Year Awards for 2019 (which makes me feel better for only getting mine done the day after the Rumble). I’m sure there are going to be a lot of AEW/New Japan stuff in here and that’s fine enough. I’ll throw in a few thoughts on each but some of them aren’t going to have much need. I’ll so be skipping the MMA awards because they’re not wrestling and I still have no idea why they’re included here.

Wrestler of the Year – Chris Jericho

Jericho was a nominee for me so it’s far from out there. I’m not sure I could go with him as he only wrestled a dozen times last year, but he carried AEW on his back for the first three months of Dynamite so I can see where this would make sense.

Outstanding Wrestler of the Year – Will Ospreay

I’m still not sure why this needs to be two awards (I’ve had it explained to me every year, still don’t see the need) but Ospreay had a heck of a year and some outstanding matches so I can see this. There are a lot of people with some great matches this year so you could pick from a bunch here. Ospreay is fine enough though.

Tag Team Of The Year – Lucha Bros

That breaks a six year run for the Young Bucks and it should. The Bucks are good but the Bros are on another level every time they’re out there. WWE’s tag teams are nothing for the most part so it’s not like there was much competition. I went with Undisputed Era but I consider stables as well.

Best on Interviews – Chris Jericho

The only person in his league is Maxwell Jacob Friedman but Jericho’s stuff has had me cracking up multiple times. I can’t bring myself to argue against Jericho’s talking so no complaints here.

Promotion of the Year – New Japan Pro Wrestling

They had a down year but there isn’t anything that jumps off the page for this one. It kind of amazes me that WWE has won this award twice in the nearly forty years they’ve been running. I’m not saying they should win it, but you would think they would sneak in a win here or there.

Best Weekly TV Series – Dynamite

I couldn’t go with a show that was on the air for a fourth of the year. NXT was its usual self for most of the year and better than Dynamite most weeks, but you knew AEW was going to get some major accolades this year.

Match of the Year – Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi (Best of the Super Juniors)

Didn’t see the match so can’t comment on it, though I did hear great things.

US/Canadian MVP – Chris Jericho

Japan MVP – Kazuchika Okada

Mexico MVP – Rey Fenix

Europe MVP – Walter

Non-Heavyweight MVP – Will Ospreay

Women’s Wrestling MVP – Becky Lynch

I’m going with a collective “uh, sure” on these as I’m not sure how much need there was for individual MVP awards by continent and weight class. Lynch winning was as much of a layup as you can get, as it should be.

Best Box Office Draw – Chris Jericho

I’m assuming there are numbers to back this up so sure.

Feud of the Year – Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano

Same for me.

Most Improved of the Year – Lance Archer

I didn’t see much of him this year but I heard this over and over so fair enough.

Most Charismatic – Chris Jericho

One question: how in the world has he never won this before???

Best Technical Wrestling – Zack Sabre Jr.

Six in a row and like it could be anyone else.

Best Brawler – Tomohiro Ishii

Six years in a row as well.

Best High Flying Wrestling – Will Ospreay

Only four years in a row for him. Pick up the pace man.

Most Overrated – King Corbin

I’m torn here. On the one hand, yeah. On the other hand, anything involving Corbin receiving praise is too much for me.

Most Underrated – Shorty G

I think you can call this “Wrestler We Feel Most Sorry For” and it would apply just as well.

Rookie of the Year – Jungle Boy

Normally I would say I don’t know how you can be a rookie in 2019 when you started in 2018 but I gave it to Ricochet as newcomer of the year so I can’t complain much. And yeah Jungle Boy has been rather good.

Non-Wrestler of the Year – Paul Heyman

This is your safe default pick and I didn’t have anyone jump out in front so that’s fine.

Best Television Announcer – Kevin Kelly

It was him or Mauro Ranallo and I can see why Mauro isn’t the biggest favorite.

Worst Television Announcer – Corey Graves

It’s going to be whomever has the most Vince McMahonisms in their ear but Graves can get especially annoying in a hurry. As long a she doesn’t have Renee Young there to bicker with, things are at least looking up a bit.

Best Major Wrestling Show of the Year – Double Or Nothing

I’m not sure if Takeovers are eligible in this one (they very well may be) but I had Double Or Nothing nominated so it’s not a big stretch.

Worst Major Wrestling Show Of The Year – Super ShowDown

This was one of my three nominees but WOW that’s an upset over Hell in a Cell. My goodness I’m actually surprised by this one.

Best Wrestling Maneuver – Storm Breaker (Will Ospreay)

Really? I mean….it’s fine but…..really? There’s nothing better? Not a 630 or anything else?

Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic – WWE’s Relationship With Saudi Arabia

Could it be anything else?

Worst Television Show – Monday Night Raw

Not only is it not even the worst WWE show, but am I really the only person who watches Ring of Honor? This feels like a bunch of people who don’t watch Raw voting for it as the worst show because they don’t watch it. It’s bad, but there are multiple worse shows out there.

Worst Match of the Year – Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend – Hell In A Cell

That’s going to be an all timer so it was going to run away with this one.

Worst Feud of the Year – Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend

Like it could have been anything else.

Worst Promotion of the Year – WWE

Ring of Honor was literally drawing a few hundred fans a year and had people falling asleep during a World Title match at a major show, with the year capped off by PCO winning the World Title. But yeah, it’s WWE, because WWE SUCKS AND IT ALWAYS WILL! Give me a break.

Best Booker of the Year – Gedo (New Japan)

They might as well name it after him anymore.

Promoter of the Year – Tony Khan (AEW)

Again: you might want to wait until they’re running for the full year before calling it the best thing around. But that’s not fair to AEW or something I’m assuming.

Best Gimmick – The Fiend

Like it could have been anything else.

Worst Gimmick – Shorty G

It takes something special to actually make me mad in wrestling and that’s what they did here. Easy win.

Best Pro Wrestling Book – 100 Things A WWE Fan Should Know Before They Die – Bryan Alvarez

I’m sure the author has nothing to do with this.

Best Pro Wrestling DVD/Streaming Documentary – Dark Side of the Ring

Given how much people have been drooling over the second season trailer, this was a pretty easy pick.

So yeah, not as many annoying ones but it was the AEW/New Japan love fest that you knew it would be. The Worst Promotion of the Year award though is rather ridiculous




Best Of 2010s: Match Of The Decade

IMG Credit: WWE

We’ll wrap it up with this, which is as important of an award as you can have. The name on the marquee says wrestling and at the end of the day, it all comes down to the big wrestling matches that people are willing to watch (preferably after paying to do so). With so many matches over the last ten years, I have a pretty long list of options as there are just so many to pick from.

Honorable Mention

John Cena vs. Daniel Bryan – Summerslam 2013 – Cena was a big part of making Bryan by selecting him for this match, but what mattered more was Bryan going over Cena completely clean. It set up everything until Wrestlemania and was an instant classic in the process. Not bad all around for a dream match.

Ten Man Tag – WrestleCon SuperShow 2017 – I saw this one in person and it changed the way I look at wrestling. Check out the review of the show and then check out the match itself because it’s some of the most fun you’ll have with ten guys going completely insane.

Revival vs. DIY – Takeover: Toronto – It might be the most entertaining tag match I’ve ever seen with DIY working together and FINALLY beating the Revival to win the titles. The last shot of the match is awesome and this is as feel good of a moment as you’re getting this side of the Harts beating Demolition.

Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada – Dominion 2018 – I’m still a bigger story/promo guy so I don’t have the connection to this one that some people might. That being said, it’s incredible and one heck of a showdown. It’s not seven stars or whatever it was because that match doesn’t exist, but it is more than worth the lengthy time.

Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne – Takeover: Chicago – Sometimes you see stars made before your eyes and these two did just that. They went out there and showcased themselves on the big stage with a match for the ages. What else could you ask for from two people who had only been alive for about 45 years between the two of them? And then THEY GOT BETTER!

CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar – Summerslam 2013

A lot of people, myself included, have criticized Lesnar since his return to WWE. He does a lot of things that get on a lot of people’s nerves, but that doesn’t mean he can’t do great things when he’s given the chance. Lesnar was feeling it on this night though and they did a great job of making me care about everything that was going on in the match. It’s an amazing story and that’s what you need in something like this.

What mattered most here was Punk looked like the kind of hero who could take down the Beast once and for all. It took Paul Heyman to stop Punk and when Lesnar finally took him out with the F5, it wasn’t a feeling of dread but rather a feeling of you just saw something special. That’s the kind of thing you don’t get very often and it was an incredible performance on all sides.

John Cena vs. CM Punk – Money In The Bank 2011

I don’t remember the last time I saw a match that made me wonder just how things were going to go. There were so many things going on every step of the way and I didn’t know what was going to happen in the match. The fact that the match worked so well and was an instant classic from bell to bell made it even better. There were so many things going on at once though and there was no stopping this one.

The drama is what made this work so well though, as there was this real feeling of not knowing what was coming. Punk’s stunned face when he won the title and the famous shot of Punk blowing a kiss to Vince McMahon before left with the title are the kind of things you’re never going to forget. It’s a special moment and that isn’t going to be topped for the better part of ever.

Undertaker vs. HHH – Wrestlemania XXVIII

There aren’t many matches that are the culmination of a four year feud and yet they managed to make it happen here. This was the fourth straight match between Undertaker and HHH/Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania, and this time it was technically against both of them at once. It was clear that Undertaker had to take himself to a new level to win and that’s exactly what he did.

There are two spots here that showed you what was going on. First was the spot of the decade with Undertaker kicking out of the superkick into the Pedigree, which is as good of a kickout as I’ve ever seen. Later in the match, HHH reached for the sledgehammer, the only thing that he could use against Undertaker, and Undertaker just stepped on it, showing that it was over. Another beating ensued and it was the Tombstone for the pin. It was an incredible ride and it had the moments to make it work throughout. Incredible stuff, and you have to react to it in some way.

Bayley vs. Sasha Banks – Takeover: Brooklyn

I was tempted to put this on the top as it might be my favorite match of the decade. The storytelling here is top notch, with Banks coming in at the top of her game and having all of the confidence in the world. By the end though, she was barely standing and throwing wild right hands because it was all she had left. Bayley finally put her away with the Bayley to Belly but Banks was dead where she stood before then. It was Bayley not just winning, but rather defeating Banks, which is what they were going for here.

What mattered was making a new star. Bayley had been chasing the title forever and needed to prove that she could hang at this level. That’s what happened here and it’s one of the best performances either of them have ever seen. It’s a great match and a great moment with Bayley moving to the top of the division (and arguably the top of the promotion at the same time). Watch this one again, as I do every now and then just because I love seeing it.

And now, for the final listing of the decade, it’s an old favorite.

Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa – Takeover: New Orleans

What else is there to say about this? It’s one of the best displays of hatred and storytelling in recent years and the match that had been nearly a year in the making. Ciampa turned on Ciampa in May 2017 but tore his ACL, meaning he was gone for the better part of a year. That didn’t stop him from haunting Gargano the entire time though, and there was only one solution for the two of them when Ciampa got back: a fight. Not a match, but a fight.

That’s what we got too, with Gargano and Ciampa beating the fire out of each other. The fans made this even better, as Ciampa came to the ring to no music, thereby allowing him to be booed even louder. Later, Ciampa bounced off of the concrete and the fans told him that HE DESERVED IT. The fans wanted to see Ciampa get what was coming to him and that’s what happened after an incredible fight. This is what they had built to and then they gave the people what they wanted to see. It’s great, and there was nothing better in ten years.

 

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:

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




Best Of 2010s: Worst Match Of The Decade

IMG Credit: WWE

As much as people are going to remember the best matches, these are the ones that are going to get people talking more than anything else. The wretched, terrible matches are the kind that stick in your head because you wonder how bad things can possibly get. Sometimes it’s the whole match and sometimes it’s one thing, but these are the matches that you’ll remember for all the wrong reasons.

Honorable Mention

Sting vs. Jeff Hardy – Victory Road 2011 – I’m not putting this as an official one as I don’t consider it a “real” match. Instead, we have another mess where TNA managed to make it even worse, because that’s what they did back then. There’s a reason this keeps getting brought up and it’s not getting topped for a long time.

Kaitlyn vs. Maxine – NXT – October 19, 2010 – Just watch it and try not to cringe.

Royal Rumble 2015

It takes something special to have the fans booing the Rock out of the building. This is one of those horrible ideas that could not have been much worse and it’s a big part of why Roman Reigns never reached the point they were wanting him to achieve. They missed every single point of this whole thing and it could not have gone much worse.

The entire idea of this match was to make Roman Reigns look like a star. They managed to turn it into the biggest disaster imaginable with one mistake after the other. Reigns looked like he had no business being in the ring and was little more than a big WWE logo. His big opponents were Big Show and Kane, plus a surprise Rusev at the end. That’s their big idea to get him to face Lesnar? No wonder he was a failure for so long.

Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole – Wrestlemania XXVII

I named this worst feud of the decade and I’d say that gives it a fast pass on to this list. The match itself wasn’t any good in the first place, including Cole being way too dominant and having Steve Austin and Jack Swagger there to try and make it interesting. Lawler can have a watchable match with a bag of wet mice but for some reason this is the best thing that they had for him to do.

And then he lost, because WWE felt the need to keep the story going on and on. Why should Wrestlemania be the blowoff for some big feud? This was a complete misfire and the crowd just dying as a result shows you how bad it really was. The show never recovered from this because WWE set it up for one possible ending and then we got the complete opposite, presumably just for the sake of messing with us. How lucky we are.

Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton – Wrestlemania XXXIII

I was in the stadium for this one and I’m still not sure what I watched. After a pretty decent build with Orton infiltrating the Wyatt Family to take them down from within and possibly destroying Sister Abigail, we wound up with some bizarre mind game where Wyatt put gross images on the mat to get in Orton’s head. Orton’s response? RKO for the pin and the title….which he lost to Jinder Mahal.

What were they thinking with this mess? It was a bunch of bad wrestling in between their weird ideas. If you want to do Wyatt vs. Orton at Wrestlemania then just do the match. Instead we got something that I’m sure WWE found to be very clever and it wound up being a disaster of other level proportions. How Wyatt survived this is beyond me, but he managed to make it work despite this disaster.

Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal – Battleground 2017

This is the Punjabi Prison match and MY GOODNESS it still manages to get on my nerves. Mahal got to go out there for nearly half an hour before Great Khali came in to save him. The only highlight of this was seeing Orton torture the Singh Brothers, who deserved a big raise after everything they went through with the whole Mahal story.

The problem with this match is the length (in addition to Mahal just being there, because there is little reason for him to be anywhere near the top of the card), as the match just went on and on for WAY too long. It was Orton getting close to winning and then the Singhs interfering and then Orton getting close to winning and then the Singhs interfering over and over and it just never stopped. I hated this match and it was the last straw after Mahal would not go away no matter how much people rejected him.

Those made me mad. This one was mad and sad.

Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend – Hell In A Cell

Over the years, there are very few matches that I’ve seen that actually made me mad. It takes something special to misfire on every point while damaging your hot new character and wrecking your big gimmick match. WWE managed to do this while also getting fans to chant for the competition at the end of the show. Rollins was in a bad place already and this shoved him to the point of no return.

I still can’t fathom how bad this really was. Fiend was the unstoppable monster and while Rollins didn’t completely destroy him, it was one of those nights where you had to wonder how bad things were when they were setting it up. This was the best thing they could do with their monster? In the Cell? I’ve used a lot of words to talk about this one in the last few months and I could continue doing so for a long time to come. The match was another level of awful and I don’t see it being topped anytime soon.

 

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:

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