Paid Members air_raid Posted March 12 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 12 OCTOBER 2018 Well, this is an odd month in more ways than one. With Hell In A Cell brought forward to September there’s no “traditional” PPV this month, but there’s one in Oz and the big Evolution all women show. With a further eye on Crown Jewel coming up, house shows are all over the place. There are fewer than normal, four are cross brand and only two feature exclusively Raw wrestlers. Plus, having finally won the belt, Reigns is in for a bigger fight. MAIN EVENTS 1st in Kennewick WA it's still AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe for the WWE title, 8th in Louisville Styles tags with mates Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows against Joe and, for some reason, Eric Young & Alexander Wolfe. 12th in Syracuse is a Raw show, it's Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose vs Drew McIntyre & Elias, just three days before Roman's last Raw match before his diagnosis.13th in Raleigh its back to one on one Styles vs Joe for the WWE title, 15th in Richmond we're back to AJ vs Shinsuke Nakamura. 19th in Bangor we have the other Raw show, Ambrose and Seth Rollins challenge Dolph Ziggler & Drew for the tag belts. 20th in Hartford and 21st in Boston (a frankly nutty show with 10 official matches and one impromptu) are cross brand and there’s a frankly astonishing AJ vs Nakamura vs Daniel Bryan main, then 22nd it’s back to Styles vs Nakamura in good old White Plains. 28th we’re already back in North Carolina and a local-pleasing Styles vs Nakamura vs Jeff Hardy in Asheville, and finally back to one on one next night in Macon. THE CARDS It's Becky Lynch vs Charlotte for the belt and still R-Truth vs Shelton Benjamin in Kennewick and Louisville and a tag title match of New Day vs The Bar repeats in Louisville and Raleigh ; these being the only repeats in two weeks of few but inconsistent cards. Becky vs Naomi for the belt, Rusev vs Shelton and Asuka & Lana vs The Iiconics recur in Raleigh and Richmond as does the tag title match. Asuka & Naomi vs Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose recurs in Louisville and month end in Macon. Ronda Rousey & Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss & Mickie James is a big one in Bangor and Hartford, and both Drew McIntyre & Dolph Ziggler vs Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose and Sasha Banks, Bayley & Dana Brooke vs Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan & Alicia Fox repeat in Bangor and Boston. Finn Balor vs Bobby Lashley with a DQ finish repeats in Syracuse and Boston as does Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel vs The Revival in Syracuse, Bangor and Asheville. It’s again Becky vs Charlotte for the rest of the month, Asuka and newly babyfaced Carmella vs Peyton & Billie repeats in Hartford and White Plains, still Bar vs New Day week 4 after the switch, Jeff Hardy vs Andrade in Boston and White Plains and Rusev vs Aiden English that week and in Macon. In Asheville and Macon it’s Bar vs New Day vs Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows. VARIATIONS - WHAT IS THIS, NXT??? Kennewick has a UST match of Shinsuke Nakamura vs Jeff vs Randy Orton, New Day vs The Usos vs Eric Young & Alexander Wolfe, Luke Harper vs Tye Dillinger, Rusev & Lana vs Andrade & Zelina Vega and Asuka, Naomi & Nikki Cross vs Carmella & The Iiconics. In Louisville it's Jeff & Rusev vs Nakamura & The Miz and Orton vs Dillinger. Syracuse looks really bland without Rollins, Ziggler and any of Ronda, Alexa, Sasha or Bayley - there's a 9 match card but much of it is Main Event fodder ; Baron Corbin & Jinder Mahal vs Bobby Roode & Chad Gable, Authors Of Pain vs Heath Slater & Rhino, Tyler Breeze, Titus O'Neil & Apollo Crews vs Mike Kanellis & The Ascension, Nia, Natalya & Dana vs Ruby, Liv & Sarah Logan, Ember Moon vs Fox and No Way Jose vs Mojo Rawley. Raleigh has Nakamura vs Hardy, Dillinger vs English, Club vs Young & Wolfe and Mella vs Zelina - three womens matches on one show, how progressive! In Richmond it's Hardy vs English and "The Fabulous Truth" vs Andrade & Vega, plus Club & Dillinger vs Young, Wolfe & Killian Dain. Bangor have Balor vs Corbin in a straight match (won by Balor) then an immediate no DQ rematch ordered by and won by Corbin, Gable vs Jinder and Jose vs Elias. In Hartford - here's a big one, after months of tease he's finally back - Rey Mysterio & Jeff vs Orton & Andrade, plus Braun Strowman vs Ziggler. Boston's gigantic card has these unique matches - Lynch vs Flair is followed by an impromptu Charlotte/Asuka/Mella vs Becky & Iiconics, it's Ronda & Nia vs Mickie & Tamina, and a 10-man to get as many talents a cheque as possible ; Corbin, Jinder, Elias & Revival vs Gable, Breeze, Jose and The B-Team - sounds a mismatch to me. White Plains has one exception but it's a big one - Daniel Bryan vs Miz. In Asheville there's Rusev vs Andrade, Lashley vs Zack Ryder, Corbin vs Breeze, Buddy Murphy vs Cedric Alexander for the CWT and Strowman beating Drew & Dolph in a handicap . Finally in Macon it's Hardy vs Orton (!), Usos vs Young & Wolfe, Dillinger vs Benjamin and Truth vs Andrade. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 4th in Sebring Johnny Gargano vs Dominik Dijakovic goes on last, next night in Citrus Springs its again Ricochet vs Velveteen Dream for the NAT, 6th in St Petersburg it's Ric, Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong. 11th in St Charles MO and 13th in Owensboro KY it's Tommaso Ciampa vs Dream for the belt either side of Gargano/Burch/Lorcan vs Era on top in Southaven MS with Ciampa vs Kassius Ohno underneath. 19th in St Augustine it's Kairi Sane, Io Shirai & Mia Yim vs Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke, night after in Venice Ricochet and Street Profits face O'Reilly, Strong and the returning Bobby Fish. 26th in Largo Dream vs Lars Sullivan goes on last, finally 27th in Casselberry Ricochet defends against (battle royal winner) former NCAA gymnast Stacey Ervin Jr whose brief wrestling career I've not had reason to mention before. B shows - Io Shirai, Lacey Lane & Jessie Elaban vs Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke goes on last 12th in Ocala, next night in Tampa it's Keith Lee & Heavy Machinery vs Kona Reeves & TM61 - Christ, I feel sorry for the HawAussie combo there. THE CARDS Repeats in St Charles and Owensboro are the entire card! It's Ricochet vs Adam Cole for the NA title, Kairi Sane vs Lacey Evans for the Womens title, Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong vs Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan, more of Johnny Gargano vs Lars Sullivan with a DQ finish, Kassius Ohno vs Raul Mendoza, Candice LeRae & Dakota Kai vs Reina Gonzalez & Aliyah and Street Profits vs Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker which goes all three nights. Criss-crossed, Ricochet vs Velveteen Dream repeats in Citrus Springs and Southaven. Aliyah vs MJ Jenkins in Citrus Springs and Venice are rare wins for Aliyah, Candice vs Aliyah repeats in Southaven and St Augustine, Matt Riddle vs Luke Menzies recurs in Tampa and Venice. (SOME) VARIATIONS In Sebring, War Raiders vs Heavy Machinery has strong "LOD vs Smash & Crush" vibes for me, There's Candice & Dakota vs Baszler & Marina Shafir, Riddle vs Kona Reeves, Mendoza & Humberto Carrillo vs Blake & Ryker and Jessie Elaban & Lacey Lane vs Reina & Kavita Devi. In Citrus Springs it's Machinery vs Blake & Ryker, Io Shirai & Nikki Cross vs Gonzalez & Evans, Mendoza & Carrillo vs Burch & Lorcan and EC3 vs Dominik Dijakovic. St Petersburg see Gargano & Riddle vs Cezar Bononi & Adrian Jaoude, Raiders vs TM61, Lars vs Dijakovic, Dakota & Mia Yim vs Baszler & Shafir and Aliyah vs Xia Li. In Ocala, Riddle vs Dijakovic, MJ & Taynara Conti vs Deonna Purrazzo & Devi, Yim vs Vanessa Borne and Keith Lee & Menzies vs Jaoude & Bononi. Southaven get Sane & Kai (Damage CTRL!) vs Evans & Gonzalez and Lars vs Mendoza. In Tampa it's Io & Mia vs Jessamyn Duke & Shafir and Borne vs Lane. St Augustine, Ohno & Dijakovic vs Mendoza & Carrillo, Dream vs Menzies and a really odd sequence... Riddle beats Mars Wang, then he beats Big Boa, and when Rocky stick his nose in, the three Chinese lose a six man to Riddle, Burch & Lorcan. Venice have the gift of Rhea Ripley defending the UK belt against Purrazzo, Blake & Steve Cutler win what's announced as a top contenders 4way over Machinery, Burch & Lorcan and Jaoude & Bononi, Keith loses to Hanson in singles for some reason and Ryker & Evans beat Rinku Singh & Kavita. Largo see Lee vs Ryker, EC3 vs Ohno, Dijakovic vs Menzies, Brennan Williams vs Kona, Deonna vs (hello you) Chelsea Green, MJ & Jessie vs Reina & Aliyah and for reasons unknown, Montez Ford vs Nick Miller vs Raymond Rowe vs Tucker Knight in a singles four way. Finally in Casselberry it's Dream vs Reeves, Borne vs Purrazzo, Aliyah vs Lane and EC3 vs Shane Thorne. TVs 1st Raw in Seattle we've got another TV outing for Ronda, beating Ruby. That Saturday, >70,000 show up in Melbourne to see Ronda and The Bella Twins go over The Riott Squad at Super Show-Down among other happenings such as big wins at home for The Iiconics and Murphy (winning the CWT) as well as The Shield beating enemies Braun/Drew/Dolph, Bryan earning a title shot (hmm), John Cena showing his face in a throwaway tag, and the last Triple H vs The Undertaker singles match which sadly is going to lead to far worse. Raw has Braun turn face on his mates after they lose to The Shield again, 16th Smackers in DC have The Bar relieve New Day of the tag belts and Rey return to telly to beat Nakamura then a dark main of Becky vs Charlotte. 22nd Raw has Reigns relinquish the Universal title because his leukaemia has come back then the peculiar events of Ambrose and Rollins winning the titles from Drew & Dolph then Deano immediately turn on Seth. Next night on SmackDown a collective groan greets The Big Show waddling out to equalize the numbers disadvantage for The Bar in their run with New Day. Rey beat Miz and dark Becky again beats Charlotte. 28th at Nassau its the Evolution PPV - dark, Ripley retains the UK title against Dakota then personally speaking, a very enjoyable PPV has Trish Stratus and Lita win a tag over Mickie and Alicia (Bliss injured), Nia win a battle royal full of one off returns (even though the building was passionately in favour of Zelina winning), Toni Storm win the Mae Young final over Io, Shayna stop Kairi to regain the NXT belt, Ronda beat Nikki Bella in the main and what SHOULD have been the main sees the increasingly popular Lynch beat Charlotte in the rarity of an exciting Last Woman Standing match - in the aftermath Becky refers to herself as "The Man" for the first time and in an emotional interview sheds herself of the transparent criticism of the fans that "being the heel" had been demanding, suggesting the writers have woken up to the fact it's not working. Next night on Raw a forgotten match has Trish, Lita, Sasha, Bayley and Nattie beat Mickie, Fox and the Riotts, and dark Braun & Rollins beat Drew & Dolph. Finally, 30th SmackDown in Atlanta Bryan fails in his first crack at AJ - it won't be his last. DEPARTURES Still none. You've really got to want to see what Styles, Nakamura and Bryan achieved together to watch this mobile footage recorded in portrait from distance, but here it is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 13 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 13 (edited) NOVEMBER 2018 What a month this is. A blood money PPV, the chaos of brand vs brand bollocks and chopping and changing as always that approaches Survivor Series, and a tour right at the peak of excitement over “The Man” self-actualising as the face of not just SmackDowns women’s division but for a while the whole company, and having missed the boat on AJ winning the belt last year, I finally attend a TV taping - as of today, the last time I went to WWE. MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN It's still AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe for the belt 3rd-5th in Cardiff, Aberdeen and at the NIA, after TVs in Manchester 7th-11th its again, remarkably, Styles vs Joe vs Daniel Bryan (for the WWE title! Imagine!) in Nottingham, London, Brighton, Minehead and Glasgow. 25th/26th in Madison and Cedar Rapids are the only house shows post-Survivors ; Bryan's won the belt but is off, it's Styles vs The Miz on last. THE CARDS Randy Orton vs Jeff Hardy occurs as a one-off in Cardiff to resume month end in the States. In Aberdeen and Brum it's Rey Mysterio & Jeff vs Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura then Orton and Rey go home so for the rest of the tour it's Nakamura vs Hardy for the UST. Month end, the title match is Nakamura vs Samoa Joe vs Rusev. Similar to Orton's month there are three nights of Daniel Bryan vs The Miz (popular winner there) before Miz goes home too. The Bar vs New Day for the tag belts in a sandwich month bookending the month both late and for the first three nights on tour (plus The Usos vs Primo & Epico) ; its Bar vs New Day vs Usos inbetween. Becky Lynch vs Charlotte for the Womens title goes every night while it's Asuka & Naomi vs The Iiconics before TVs and the faces beating Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose after them. Month end, Charlotte beats Asuka as she did at Mania. After Manchester its Andrade vs Shelton Benjamin swappings wins, and I bet it was smooth, plus Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs Killian Dain & Alexander Wolfe, which sounds like a wreck. Month end another bizarre three match series has Shelton lose to Aiden English, beat him in an immediate rematch, which triggers a six man where Shelts teams with Gallows & Anderson (Suzukigun X Bullet Club???) to beat English, Primo & Epico. Rusev & Lana beat The Fabulous Truth almost every night on tour, back home Lana tags with Nikki Cross to beat the Iiconics while Truth & Mella beat Andrade & Zelina Vega. In Brum and Aberdeen Trent Seven & Mark Andrews beat Joe Coffey & Mark Coffey, thereafter Trent wrestles Zack Gibson which is occasionally recognized as for the Progress (boo, hiss) Atlas Championship. VARIATIONS In Cardiff only it's Nakamura vs Mysterio vs Andrade. In Aberdeen only before Andrade picks up Shelton, he does a job to Rusev, Truth has the night off and Lana & Mella tag to join in the Iiconics match. In Nottingham only Naomi vs Mandy goes to a DQ when the partners interfere leading to the old "and now a tag match playa" - they probably realize the card is long enough and don't repeat it. Local interest for the Brits has Andrews pin sometime tag partner Mike Hitchman (Wild Boar) in Cardiff and Wolfgang vs Kenny Williams in Glasgow. MAIN EVENTS - RAW We have Seth Rollins for Baron Corbin for the ICT 3rd/4th in Madrid and Barcelona, 6th-10th Rollins defends against old mate Dean Ambrose in Leeds, Cologne, Frankfurt, Bologna and Rome even though everywhere except Leeds, Corbin and Braun Strowman go on last (extraordinary). THE CARDS In Spain and Leeds it's Braun Strowman vs Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre in a handicap. Italy is remarkable for Braun - he beats Drew & Dolph, then Baron Corbin joins in for a 3-on-1 which they win, then Braun beats Corbin one on one. Three Braun Strowman matches back to back!!.. Drew and Dolph don't go to Germany. It's Finn Balor vs Bobby Lashley everywhere except Leeds (they're in Manchester taping for the MMC). Authors Of Pain vs Bobby Roode & Chad Gable after TVs is not a tag title match I expected, before hand AOP were tagging with Jinder Mahal to beat Apollo Crews, Rhino & Heath Slater. Ronda Rousey vs Nikki Bella for the Womens title happens in Spain and Italy ; in Leeds and Germany Bella pins Natalya. Guess Ronda's picky about where she holidays. In Spain it's Sasha Banks, Bayley, Nia Jax & Dana Brooke vs Alexa Bliss, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan, inbetween is muddled, in Italy it's an 8-woman where The Boss, Bayls and Ember Moon pick up Nattie to beat Riott, Morgan, Mickie James and (ugh) Tamina. Oddly Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel beat The Revival in Spain and Leeds which makes me a bit sick. From Leeds onwards it's Curt Hawkins vs Zack Ryder and in Germany and Italy Hawkins isn't done so then loses to Titus O'Neil as well - astonishingly this follows an 8-man where the B-team tag with Tyler Breeze and No Way Jose to beat The Ascension, Hawkins and Mojo Rawley. Meanwhile Jinder jobs to Elias. VARIATIONS In Leeds only, Hawkins' three losses are all singles to Ryder, Jose and Elias, plus local interest has Yorkshireman El Ligero lose to Scouse bastard Zack Gibson. In Leeds Sasha, Ember and Dana beat the Riott Squad (Bayley's in Manchester), in Cologne the squad lose to Banks, Bayley and Moon, in Frankfurt Tamina's in for Logan. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 1st in West Palm Beach its Tommaso Ciampa vs Aleister Black for the belt, then its Ciampa vs Velveteen Dream 3rd in Coral Gables, 9th in Tampa and 16th in Visalia, around the virtually forgotten Stacey Ervin Jr & Heavy Machinery vs Steve Cutler, Jaxson Ryker & Wesley Blake 2nd in Fort Pierce, Forgotten Sons vs Black & War Raiders 8th in Cocoa and Ricochet vs Kona Reeves for the North American belt 10th in Daytona Beach. 29th in Ocala its Ciampa vs (battle royal winner) Keith Lee, next night in Jacksonville Keith's with Johnny Gargano on last. No B shows. THE CARDS - WHAT ITS WORTH... Ricochet vs Kona Reeves for the belt happens in both Coral Gables and Daytona Beach for the North American title. Reeves is with Velveteen Dream in West Palm and Ocala. Matt Riddle vs Luke Menzies repeats in West Palm and Coral Gables likewise forgotten Horsewomen Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke vs Kairi Sane & Dakota Kai. VARIATIONS - FUCK In West Palm only Roderick Strong & Kyle O'Reilly vs Street Profits for the tag belts happens, in Jacksonville the Era beat Saurav Gurjar & Jeet Rama. Ricochet defends his belt against Adam Cole in West Palm. Rhea Ripley defends her UK belt against Nikki Cross in Fort Pierce, Candice LeRae in Tampa and Reina Gonzalez in Ocala. Aleister Black drops Reeves in Visalia, Johnny Gargano beats Humberto Carrillo in Daytona, Keith Lee beats Kassius Ohno in Fort Pierce and loses to Lars Sullivan again in Visalia (WTF), Cole beats Stacey Ervin Jr in Cocoa, Ohno beats Rick Boogs in Jacksonville, Riddle beats Luis Martinez (Punishment Martinez a/k/a Damian Priest) in Tampa, Dominik Dijakovic in Dayton Beach and Riddick Moss in Jacksonville. EC3 loses to Lars in Fort Pierce and beats Marcel Barthel in Visalia. Martinez loses to Nick Miller of TM61 in Fort Pierce and beats Brennan Williams in Dayton. In tags, War Raiders beat Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan in Jacksonville, TM61 lose to Carrillo & Raul Mendoza in Cocoa and to Burch & Lorcan in Visalia, Burch & Lorcan beat Carrillo & Mendoza in Fort Pierce, for reasons unknown Burch loses a handicap to them in Tampa. In six-mans, Black & War Raiders vs Undisputed Era (Cole, O'Reilly and Strong) happens midcard in Coral Gables, the Era lose to Ricochet & the Raiders in Visalia, the Era (Cole, Kyle and Bobby Fish) beat Gurjar & TM61 in Daytona Beach, and Riddle, Martinez and Ervin Jr lose to Steve Cutler, Jaxson Ryker & Wesley Blake in Ocala. There's Bianca Belair vs Taynara Conti in Palm Beach, the lost cause Kavita Devi vs Reina in Cocoa, Chelsea Green jobbing to Xia Li in Tampa and Mia Yim in Daytona Beach, Cross vs LeRae and Kairi vs Vanessa Borne in Visalia and Aliyah vs Jessie Elaban in Jacksonville, in tags Yim & Lacey Lane beat Aliyah & Borne in Fort Pierce, Belair & Lacey Evans beat Tay & Candice in Coral Gables, Kairi & Io Shirai (Damage CTRL, hooray) beat Chelsea & Lacey E in Cocoa, Io & Conti beat Aliyah & Reina in Daytona and Kai & Yim beat Aliyah & Green in Ocala. Mixed tags have Ricochet & Kacy Catanzaro mysteriously lose to Kona & Borne in Cocoa and Xia tag with compatriots Big Boa and Rocky to lose to Elaban & Heavy Machinery in Daytona. Pretty funny to me, and forgive me if I've said this before that Lacey Lane later has gone by "Kayden Carter" (which is even MORE of a pornstar name) because they didn't want to confuse her with the other Lacey.. which isn't her real name either. Otherwise.... Lars beats Menzies in Tampa, in Jacksonville, Fabian Aichner vs Barthel goes double count-out. If I didn't mention it before, Aichner is really impressive in real life TVs Blood money PPV Crown Jewel has so much to laugh at, it's untrue. Shane McMahon takes part in and wins the "World Cup" final despite not having wrestled in three previous rounds, which makes him look like a heel. Brock Lesnar easily batters Braun to win back the vacant Uni belt, which makes Braun look a loser. And Shawn Michaels returns to the ring for one night to tag with Triple H and beat The Undertaker & Kane in a near 30 minute match which gets Hunter a serious injury and makes everyone involved look like slaves to the dollar, even on a show like this. As for HBK, let's never speak of it again. 5th in Manchester Raw has literally no dark action but AOP relieve Rollins of the tag belts he was holding with now-enemy Ambrose, in a handicap. Next night in the same building (I was there), there's a brief AJ & Bryan vs Miz & Orton dark main where Orton barely gets involved (his vest doesn't even come off) until Miz taps to both babyface's holds at the same time. No dark matches 12th/13th either but 13th in St Louis has Danny Bry take the big belt from AJ and turn heel in the process. 15th at Full Sail they tape one episode of NXT TV but to give the fans value there are four extra matches - Ciampa retains the big belt over Black, Strong & O'Reilly get DQd to save the belts against the War Raiders, Duke & Shafir beat Sane & Kai as they have on the road, and Velveteen Dream beats Gargano. No dark matches at Survivor Series or Raw, though we do need to make reference to Brock Lesnar vs Daniel Bryan being a fucking belter even if the heel vs heel dynamic was iffy. 20th SmackDown taping at the Staples Center new heel WWE Champ Bryan loses by DQ to perennial rival and fellow heel Miz.. I can't imagine what the dynamic was there. 24th at the Liverpool Olympia (love those golden elephants) NXT:UK tapes, Xia Brookside vs Nina Samuels is the perfect curtain jerker for the locale. Same night Starrcade goes down in Cincinnati with several matches that don't air on the Network ; McIntyre pins Balor, Dallas & Axel beat Revival again (ew), The Bar retain over New Day, Bray Wyatt beats Corbin, Charlotte beats Asuka yet again, and dark after the Styles/Joe cage main event, Rollins and Ambrose go in the cage too. 26th in Milwaukee there's a pretty cool Coliseum Video main - Ronda, Sasha, Bayley, Ember and Nattie beat Nia, Tamina and the Riott Squad. Finally 28th at Full Sail they don't quite get the feast they did last time - Menzies vs Mansoor precedes 14 matches taped for 5 episodes of TV. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : AOP (Raw tag team champions) by Roode & Gable, The Bar (SmackDown tag team champions) by the Usos. ON A PERSONAL NOTE So, I attended SmackDown in Manchester with a mate. Looking back I might have gone to Raw if I'd known Angle vs McIntyre was going to happen but in fairness I'd seen Kurt quite a few times over the previous 15 years, including, funnily enough, his last TNA match taped January 2016 in Birmingham against Lashley, a night that featured McIntyre/Galloway so many times between matches and segments that my mates and I agreed the promotion should have been renamed Total Nonstop Drew. I digress. It was absolutely awesome to see Becky right as she was becoming the big deal - Cross was a great opponent for the local crowd, Usos and New Day delivered, and Hardy vs Joe and Rey vs Andrade were both good TV matches. Even the MMC taping was worthwhile, as we got to see Balor despite him being a Raw talent, and he got a great reaction. Though it was a bit exhausting watching 2 B shows after a SmackDown for the dark main. DEPARTURE After TM61 have quietly plodded along seemingly forever in NXT, Mikey Nicholls a/k/a “Nick Miller” asks for and is granted his release to go back to Australia and spend time with his family. Shane will carry on, including a forgettable stint as Slapjack in the equally forgettable Retribution, before TMDK are eventually reunited in - where else? - New Japan. The finish to that epic 3-way in London ; This is pretty cool to relieve - this is essentially the same view I had. Edited March 22 by air_raid Can I offer you a nice egg in this trying time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 14 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 14 DECEMBER 2018 I'm not going to lie, when they get all the pieces into place they can still put on a hell of a show at this point on either brand even with one champ absent, the other only working every second show, Roman fighting cancer, AJ having a few nights off, Strowman seeming to need a break too and Ambrose working his way towards the exit. Thank fuck for Ronda and The Man. MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 1st in Mexico City a cross brand show has 10 matches topped by AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe, then after Tribute To The Troops and other TVs Styles is on last with The Miz again 8th in Winnipeg before WWE Champion Daniel Bryan defends against Miz in apparently heel vs heel mains 9th/10th in Calgary and Ontario CA - surely that was a mistake and they meant to book somewhere in Ontario CANADA, not the opposite end of the continent?? 15th in Oakland its again Styles vs Miz, 17th in Stockton Styles teams with Rey Mysterio & Rusev to beat Bryan, Shinsuke Nakamura & Randy Orton - electic. We've then got the traditional Christmas shows and they're fucking monsters! 11 matches 26th-28th at the AllState, Nassau and in Baltimore. Boxing Day is an oddity as a certain bloke is at MSG for Raw instead so after a no contest in the opener Daniel Bryan vs The Miz vs Mustafa Ali is the most random cage match for the WWE title you can imagine, but for the next two nights it's John Cena challenging Danny Bry although on all three THE MAN goes on last. A more conservative 9 matches 30th in Tampa still wraps with Bryan vs Styles, also in a cage. THE CARDS Jeff Hardy vs Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura vs Rusev run three nights in a row, likewise The Bar vs New Day for the tag belts, Charlotte vs Asuka (repeats in Oakland) and Lana winning consecutive matches over Billie Kay and Peyton Royce plus Shelton Benjamin, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs Andrade, Primo & Epico in Calgary and Ontario ; Club vs Colons repeats as a straight tag in Winnipeg and Oakland. Either side of TLC there's Bar vs New Day vs The Usos, Lana & Naomi vs The Iiconics and R-Truth vs Shelton immediately followed by Truth & Carmella vs Andrade & Zelina Vega (which goes 1-1) ; Hardy vs Joe continues. After Christmas, Asuka vs Charlotte vs Becky Lynch for the belt continues, having kicked off in Stockton. Those three huge shows all have Rey Mysterio vs Randy Orton and Mustafa Ali vs The Miz, plus Shelts/Anderson/Gallows vs Aiden English and the Colons AND then also beating Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain, Nassau/Baltimore and Tampa all have Lana & Naomi vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville - still Bar vs New Day vs Usos, Rusev vs Nakamura, Jeff vs Joe and Fabulous Truth vs Andrade & Vega. VARIATIONS In Mexico City Nakamura vs Rey goes non finish followed by Rey & New Day vs Shinsuke, Primo & Epico, it's Charlotte vs Mandy and one more of Rusev & Lana vs Andrade & Zelina. Oakland has the only occurrence of Nakamura vs Orton vs Rusev. At the AllState only, Naomi & Lana win a three way over Fire & Desire and The Iiconics. In Tampa with AJ back, John Cena faces Miz, Ali goes over Andrade and Dain loses to Raw's Titus O'Neil in Titus' kayfabe hometown. MAIN EVENTS - RAW It's Seth Rollins vs Dean Ambrose for the ICT 2nd in Bossier City, top Raw match in Mexico City then on last 5th in Santiago and 6th in Buenos Aires, and again 14th-15th in Nashville and Bakersfield. 26th at MSG (a monstrous 11 matches with a certain Doctor of Thuganomics underneath) and 27th in Columbus Ronda Rousey vs Nia Jax goes on last, then 29th at the United Center (just three days after they ran the AllState) and 30th in Buffalo Ambrose defends against Seth inside the cage. THE CARDS It's a bit of a mess but Finn Balor vs Drew McIntyre repeats in Bossier City and Mexico City as does Buddy Murphy vs Kalisto for the CWT and its Murphy vs Gran Metalik plus Ronda Rousey vs Nia Jax for the belt three nights in a row, an on loan Rey Mysterio vs Andrade and Apollo Crews vs Curt Hawkins as well as Crews, Titus O'Neil, No Way Jose & Heath Slater vs Jinder Mahal, Rhino & The Revival in Chile and Argentina. Much crossing over of feuds all over the place! It's Drew vs Dolph Ziggler in Buenos Aires and Nashville, Drew vs Dolph vs Finn in Santiago and Bakersfield. In Buenos Aires, Nashville & Bakersfield Elias beats ALL THREE of Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley and Drew (regardless of Drew wrestling earlier) by himself in a no DQ match handicap - in the States these immediately follow Elias beating Corbin and new ref Slater refs the handicap matches. Mid month its new tag champs Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs Revival vs Authors Of Pain plus two rounds of Crews & Bayley beating Jinder & Alicia Fox (MAHALICIA) and Sasha Banks, Ember Moon & Natalya vs Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan. After Christmas Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins for Deano's ICT is in a cage all four nights even when not the main event, four nights of Elias vs Lashley all won by Bobs except at MSG where it's Guitar On A Pole (LOL!) and four battle royals won by "Poundland Lashley" Apollo. The three nights that follow NYC we add Bray Wyatt vs Corbin, it's Jax vs Moon in Chicago and Buffalo, plus we have four more nights of Roode & Gable vs AoP vs Dash & Dawson for the tag belts and Balor vs Ziggler vs McIntyre. VARIATIONS In Bossier City - after Balor loses to Drew, later him and Elias beat McIntyre, Corbin and Lashley in a handicap. Plus AoP vs Roode & Gable, Crews, Zack Ryder and still-together Slater & Rhino vs Jinder, Mojo Rawley & Revival, Ronda & Ember vs Nia & Tamina and Bayley & Nattie vs Ruby & Liv. In Mexico City Elias beats Corbin & Lashley by himself. In Santiago Elias & Crews beat Drew, Corbin & Lashley ON TOP of those other two Crews matches mentioned above!! Plus Bayley/Ember/Nattie vs the Riotts. In Buenos Aries after Ronda beats Nia by DQ, she beats Jax and Tamina in a handicap. Japes. Unique to Nashville, Ryder, Titus, Jose & Tyler Breeze beat Hawkins, Mojo & The Ascension then Hawkins talks himself into another match and is flattened by Rhino. After Christmas, not sure if Liv is carrying an injury but she doesn't wrestle two nights in a row. At MSG it's Nattie & Ember vs Morgan & Riott and Sasha & Bayley vs Mickie James & Alicia, in Columbus Natalya/Moon beat Ruby & Sarah and The Boss and Bayley beat Mickie & Dana Brooke. At the United Center Sasha/Bayley/Nattie beat Riott/Logan/Dana, in Buffalo the Squad is back to full force. The extra meat on the bones at MSG are what the Japanese would call an "NXT Offer Match" - an all-star 10-man tag of Aleister Black, Ricochet, Velveteen Dream, Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne vs Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong, and after Corbin beats Braun Strowman by count-out, he then has to face (and lose to) John Cena. BOXING DAY I feel compelled to point out exactly how much wrestling WWE put on for the fans of NYC and suburban Chicago who got off their sofas on 26th. I mean, there's "old fashioned Mania" then there's THIS feast. SMACKDOWN at the AllState ; Mustafa Ali VS The Miz Jeff Hardy VS Samoa Joe Naomi & Lana VS The Iiconics VS Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville Shelton Benjamin, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson VS Aiden English, Primo & Epico Shelton Benjamin, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson VS Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain Rey Mysterio VS Randy Orton R-Truth & Carmella VS Andrade & Zelina Vega UST : Rusev VS Shinsuke Nakamura TTT : New Day VS The Bar VS The Usos CAGE MATCH/WWE TITLE : Daniel Bryan VS The Miz VS Mustafa Ali WT : Asuka VS Becky Lynch VS CharlotteRAW at MSG Finn Balor VS Dolph Ziggler VS Drew McIntyre A BATTLE ROYAL GUITAR ON A POLE : Elias VS Bobby Lashley Natalya & Ember Moon VS Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan Aleister Black, Ricochet, Velveteen Dream, Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne vs Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano & The Undisputed Era CAGE MATCH/ICT : Dean Ambrose VS Seth Rollins TTT : Bobby Roode & Chad Gable VS Authors Of Pain VS The Revival Sasha Banks & Bayley VS Mickie James & Alicia Fox Braun Strowman VS Baron Corbin John Cena VS Baron Corbin WT : Ronda Rousey VS Nia Jax MAIN EVENTS - NXT 1st in Tampa Heavy Machinery vs Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong goes on last, then it's another of those "two pairs of shows" - 6th in Milwaukee and 8th in St Paul its again Tommaso Ciampa vs Velveteen Dream for the belt either side of Aleister Black & Ricochet vs Ciampa & Kona Reeves in Ashwaubenon (suburban Green Bay) and Des Moines. 13th in Casselberry it's a big 8-man - Machinery, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs Adam Cole, O'Reilly, Bobby Fish & Roderick - to my knowledge the first time the four man Undisputed Era wrestle as a unit. Next night in Jacksonville its Ricochet vs Johnny Gargano, 15th in Largo Black vs Riddick Moss goes on last. B shows! Babatunde Aiyegbusi & War Raiders vs Wesley Blake, Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker goes on last 6th in Dade City, next night in Fort Pierce its Rowe & Hanson vs Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch, 8th in Fort Pierce the Sons lose to Keith Lee & Street Profits. THE CARDS Those early month near identical cards mean two rounds of Aleister Black vs Johnny Gargano and Ricochet & Heavy Machinery vs Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong or Era vs Machinery for the belts, Velveteen Dream vs Gargano and Cole vs Humberto Carrillo. We also alternate Matt Riddle vs Kassius Ohno (repeats in Casselberry) and Dominik Dijakovic vs Kona Reeves or Riddle vs Dijakovic and Ohno vs Dan Matha and Carrillo losing to Bobby Fish. Mid-month, Punishment Martinez vs Ric Boog (Damien Priest vs Rick Boogs) repeats in Casselberry and Largo VARIATIONS In Tampa Martinez loses to Babatunde Aiyegbusi, it's Dream vs Luke Menzies, Fabian Aichner vs Riddick Moss, Nikki Cross & Mia Yim vs Lacey Evans & Vanessa Borne, Keith Lee vs Dijakovic and Deonna Purrazzo vs Xia Li. Those big four shows feature a right jumble - Milwaukee has a title match of Shayna Baszler vs Candice Le Rae and Kairi Sane & Dakota Kai vs Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke. Ashwaubenon it's Candice/Kairi/Dakota vs Baszler/Marina/Jessamyn. St Paul, Baszler vs Kairi and Jessamyn beating Candice, then in Des Moines Shayna & Marina vs Candice & Kairi. Dade City has Lee vs Aichner, Evans vs Xia, Lacey Lane & Kacy Catanzaro (they like to party) vs Deonna & Vanessa, Street Profits vs Moss & Boog and Aliyah beats (!) Chelsea Green. Fort Pierce it's Evans vs Mia Yim vs Io Shirai, Lee vs Martinez, Profits vs Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker, Brennan Williams vs Menzies, MJ Jenkins vs Deonna, Reina Gonzalez & Aliyah vs Jessie Elaban & Chelsea. Venice - War Raiders vs Martinez & Williams, Xia vs Borne, Shane Thorne vs Moss, Cross vs Purrazzo and Reina & Aliyah vs Jessie & MJ. Casselberry - Lane vs Reina, Black vs Ryker, Aichner & Marcel Barthel vs Raul Mendoza & Carrillo and Yim vs Duke. Jacksonville - Barthel vs Aichner (lumberjack match), Rowe vs Williams in singles, Deonna vs Chelsea, Dream vs Martinez and Baszler & Jessamyn vs Candice & Kacy. Finally in Largo it's Machinery vs Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch, Riddle vs Lee (Progress dream match), Ryker vs Williams, Kairi & Mia vs Baszler & Duke, MJ vs Aliyah and Lane & Chelsea vs Reina & Borne. No bookings on any shows on any brand for the Mae Young winner, again? TVs 3rd Raw in Houston has Slater and Rhino forced to fight each other, "loser gets fired," won in 66 seconds by Heath after a neckbreaker. Hum. Plus Drake Maverick gets in the ring helping AoP beat Roode & Gable in a handicap, Ronda tags with Ember to beat Nia & Tamina and dark, Elias, Ziggler & Balor beat Corbin, McIntyre & Lashley. Day after they're at Fort Hood to tape Tribute To The Troops, then later in Austin its another dark main of heel Bryan defending the belt against heel Miz. 10th Raw in San Diego another handicap with the titles at stake sees them won by Roode & Gable, and Elias loses by pin to Lio Rush when new ref Heath is too scared to disqualify Rush because of interference by Lashley. Next night in suburban Vegas Mysterio vs Orton is the dark main. A huge 10 match card at TLC features Ambrose relieve Rollins of the ICT, Fabulous Truth win the MMC and on last, Asuka wins a ladder match to lift the SmackDown Womens belt after Ronda interferes on Becky and Charlotte... hmm. Next night in Sacramento they do a live Raw (including Kurt Angle booking Corbin to lose a handicap to himself and others) and they tape Christmas Eve's episode, there's also a dark Ryder vs Mojo opener. They do two SmackDowns the next night too including Rusev winning the UST from Nakamura. 28th in Detroit they tape New Years Eve Raw with Ambrose vs Rollins in a cage dark, finally 29th in Pittsburgh they tape New Years Day SmackDown with Bryan vs Styles in the cage dark, and on the show proper a match you forgot - Becky & Cena vs Andrade & Zelina. Given up on Becky as a baddie for real now. NON TITLE WHINING Merry Christmas, raid - none. DEPARTURES Merry Christmas, roster - none. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted March 14 Paid Members Share Posted March 14 Those Boxing Day cards - I know they are traditional big shows for the company going way back, but they also strike me of having an element of "If some of you have to work at Christmas, ALL of you have to work at Christmas" so every fucker going gets shoehorned onto the card? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 14 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 14 54 minutes ago, Statto said: Those Boxing Day cards - I know they are traditional big shows for the company going way back, but they also strike me of having an element of "If some of you have to work at Christmas, ALL of you have to work at Christmas" so every fucker going gets shoehorned onto the card? Except Gods favourite, AJ Styles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 15 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 15 (edited) JANUARY 2019 I can't believe how settled these cards are. NXT aside, obviously. MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 5th-7th in Greensboro, Fayetteville and North Charleston, 12th/13th in Johnson City and Lexington and 19th-21st in Sioux Falls, Omaha and Topeka it's still Daniel Bryan vs AJ Styles for the WWE title but on all but Greensboro our consistent Womens title match of Asuka vs Becky Lynch vs Charlotte is going on last, as it did for three of the post-Christmas shows ; The Man is the main event. THE CARDS Much of week 1 is as you were - it's still Jeff Hardy vs Samoa Joe, US title rematches of Rusev vs Shinsuke Nakamura, (both repeat in Johnson City) the seemingly never-ending The Bar vs New Day for the tag straps, The Fabulous Truth vs Andrade & Zelina Vega and Mustafa Ali vs The Miz, with an addition of Lana & Nikki Cross vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville. Week 2 Lana partners Naomi instead, we're back to Shelton Benjamin, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs Aiden English, Primo & Epico, the tag title match has The Usos added (repeats in Topeka), still Miz beating Ali. In both Lexington and Topeka there's added Rey Mysterio vs English when losing the six-man isn't enough for Aiden ; in Sioux Falls and Omaha it's Jey Uso. Said six-man now has English tagging with a rotating two of Sanity, Truth vs Andrade is now one on one, it's twice Bar vs New Day, still Rusev/Nakamura, Hardy/Joe and Naomi & Lana vs Fire & Desire. VARIATION - ONE! Joe misses Lexington where it's Rusev vs Nakamura vs Hardy. MAIN EVENTS - RAW 4th-6th in Columbus (6000 is OK, they get 7000 for TVs), Tallahassee and Estero, 11 match bumper cards have Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins for the ICT on last with Big Match John underneath. 11th-13th in Charleston, Knoxville and Huntsville John Cena vs Baron Corbin no DQ goes on last, 18th-20th in San Antonio, Abilene and Wichita Falls Rollins gets revenge on Ambrose in lumberjack matches. THE CARDS Consistency! Week 1 John Cena vs Baron Corbin goes on before intermission after Corbin upsets Braun Strowman by count-out (which in isolation repeats in San Antonio), Finn Balor vs Dolph Ziggler vs Drew McIntyre is our opener, Bobby Lashley vs Elias rolls on as does Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs Authors of Pain for the tag belts. Sasha Banks vs Mickie James is followed by a six-woman where The Boss, Bayley and Ember Moon beat Mickie, Alicia Fox and Dana Brooke, plus there's Apollo Crews vs Jinder Mahal, a six man of Heath Slater, Rhino & Titus O'Neil vs Mojo Rawley, Curt Hawkins & Viktor, and a rotating two of Lucha House Party vs The Revival which sounds very much like The Rockers vs Tully & Arn for a new generation. Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins continues mid month as pre-intermission on Cena's shows, Elias is now losing to McIntyre, womens jiggery-fuckery has Natalya beat Ruby Riott by DQ then Nattie, Sasha and Bayley beat Riott, Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan, Buddy Murphy vs Cedric Alexander is back on for the CWT, we add Tyler Breeze, No Way Jose, Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas vs Jinder, Mojo, either Viktor or Konnor and one or the other of the Singh Brothers, House Party vs FTR continues. In Texas we get Ronda Rousey vs Nia Jax for the belt, Roode and Gable now with Dash & Dawson, Lashley vs Elias returns but now Bobby has the Intercontinental title, so is Balor vs Drew vs Dolph back on, it's Sasha/Bayley/Ember/Nattie vs Mickie/Riott Squad, and two nights or Corbin losing to Crews. Fun fact - in Knoxville Rollins introduces Knox County Mayor Kane, to receive a $100K cheque from WWE to the Knoxville Public Safety Foundation. Apparently a thank you for the office allowing him to wrestle at that Saudi disaster vs DX! Was it worth it?? VARIATION - ONE! Unique to San Antonio after Corbin beats Strowman by count-out, he's forced to wrestle Kurt Angle - but sadly, he beats him. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 4th in Atlanta and 6th in Durham NC its Aleister Black & Velveteen Dream vs Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano ; inbetween its Dream & Ricochet tagging in Spartanburg with Aly vs Adam Cole underneath. 10th in Largo it’s Ochet, Matt Riddle & Keith Lee vs Gargano, Kassius Ohno & Shane Thorne, 11th in Fort Pierce it's EC3 & Heavy Machinery vs Steve Cutler, Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker, 12th in Casselberry it’s a tag team gauntlet with a mix of teams you might care about (Machinery, Burch & Lorcan, Mendoza & Carrillo) and some you definitely don’t, won by Cole & Bobby Fish. 17th in Venice Ric, Keith and the Dream down Fish, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong, next night in Tampa (Freebird rule, ugh) Bob and Rod defend the tag belts against Raul Mendoza & Humberto Carrillo, 19th in Citrus Springs 7 out of 9 matches are something called the Unleash The Universe tournament - it has an international flavour and features mostly guys you haven’t heard of or don’t care about, with a Stacey Ervin Jr vs Mansoor final. We get to California for the Rumble weekend, Thursday 24th in San Diego its Black vs Gargano, Friday in Riverside it's Dream vs Cole. B shows - 4th in Jacksonville its Street Profits vs Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Adrian Jaoude & Cezar Bononi vs Rinku Singh & Saurav Gurjar, next night in Crystal River Io Shirai & Candice LeRae vs Shayna Baszler & Jessamyn Duke. 25th in Phoenix we might as well call the first Axxess show a house show as only two matches get used for NXT:UK - Heavy Machinery vs Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel on first is likely the biggest match, it's damn sure not what went on last. THE CARDS Twice in week 1 it's Ricochet vs Shane Thorne for the NAT, EC3 & War Raiders vs Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish & Roderick Strong, (oof) Matt Riddle vs Adam Cole, (oosh) Bianca Belair vs Rhea Ripley, another Progress wet dream in Keith Lee vs Dominik Dijakovic and Kairi Sane & Xia Li vs Lacey Evans & Aliyah plus Brennan Williams vs Kona Reeves three nights in a row. Shayna Baszler vs Belair for the belt has a DQ win for Bianca in Venice, but Shayna beats her in San Diego. Riddle vs Kassius Ohno comes round again on both Cali shows. It’s Punishment Martinez vs Reeves in Largo and Casselberry and Dijakovic vs Reeves in Tampa and Riverside, Lacey Lane & Kacy Catanzaro vs Vanessa Borne & Aliyah in Fort Pierce and Casselberry and Taynara Conti vs Reina Gonzalez in Crystal River and Venice. VARIATIONS, HIGHLIGHTS Spartanburg is loaded with EC3/Keith/Riddle vs Strong & reDRagon, Ripley vs Kairi vs Belair vs Aliyah for the UK belt, Evans vs Li and Dijakovic vs Thorne. In Jacksonville it's Heavy Machinery vs Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake for the millionth time, Candice LeRae vs Jessamyn Duke, Marcel Barthel vs Riddick Moss and Mia Yim vs Deonna Purrazzo. Crystal River get Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Raul Mendoza & Humberto Carrillo, Martinez vs Fabian Aichner and Chelsea Green vs Jessie Elaban. Largo see Candice vs Deonna and Jessie & Kacy vs Borne & Aliyah. In Fort Pierce there's Riddle vs Martinez, Deonna vs Xia and a mixed tag of Lee & Mia vs Moss & Green. Casselberry, Stacey Ervin Jr & Street Profits vs all Forgotten Sons of Cutler, Blake and Jaxson Ryker, Chelsea vs Reina and Riddle vs Thorne. In Venice it's Riddle vs Moss and Williams vs Thorne. Tampa get Ricochet & Kacy vs Aussies Thorne & Ripley, Cole vs Mansoor, Dream vs Ric Boog, Martinez vs Williams and an elimination tag of Kairi & Io Shirai (winners) vs Borne & Aliyah vs Mia & Xia vs Baszler & Marina Shafir. Citrus Springs only additions to that tournament are Dream vs Barthel and a modicum of revenge for Bianca - her and Kairi beat Shayna & Marina. In San Diego O'Reilly & Strong vs Raiders has a DQ win for the challengers, Cole actually loses to Tyler Bate, plus Dream vs Dijakoivc, Kairi & Io vs Shafir & Duke and Profits vs Cutler & Ryker. At the Phoenix Convention Center on the Friday the rest of the matches not used are a mix of domestic and UK guys - Burch & Lorcan vs Joe Coffey & Mark Coffey, Moss vs Dave Mastiff, Catanzaro vs Gonzalez, Travis Banks vs Aichner (I bet that was good), Tony Nese vs Mark Andrews and, oddly, the last match is Chelsea losing to Kavita Devi. Sounds like punishment for those who stayed to the end instead of doing something else with their afternoon. Finally Riverside get Johnny Gargano vs Bate, Ricochet & Raiders vs Roddy & reDRagon, Profits vs Blake & Cutler and Candice/Kairi/Io vs Baszler/Shafir/Duke. TVs 4th at Full Sail Ervin beats Thorne before the tapings, interestingly Kairi & Io beat Amber Nova and Tanea Brooks (you may remember her as Rebel in TNA), and the dark main has Black, Ricochet and War Raiders beat all four of the Era. 7th in Orlando they have a look at Lacey Evans losing to Nattie and EC3 beating Curt Hawkins before Raw, next night in Jacksonville Heavy Machinery beat the Colons and then AJ beats Danny Bry by DQ in two dark matches. 12th at Empress Ballroom in Blackpool... well, I had a ticket to this but sold it to one time keffer iamtheman because cancelled trains on the way back to Manc made it feel more ballache than it would be worth to get home.... and I regretted it. Grizzled Young Veterans beat Moustache Mountain to become first UK tag champs, Toni Storm (remember her???) wins her rematch with Ripley for the UK Womens belt and much to my dismay Balor shows up unadvertised to beat "Poundland Balor" Jordan Devlin. Sunday 13th there are more NXT:UK TV tapings, still in Blackpool, including unused matches in Luke Menzies vs Flash Morgan Webster and Amir Jordan & Kenny Williams vs Saxon Huxley & Tyson T-Bone (beige alert) plus they film matches for some new names on top of the usual suspects including Lana Austin, Candyfloss and Jason Melrose (Primate). 14th Raw Ronda tags with Rumble challenger Sasha to beat Jax & Tamina, Lashley wins the ICT in a three way with the feuding Shield lads and (deja vu) Balor wins a four way to go to the Rumble for a title shot with what might have been a stature-enhancing pinfall on Cena under different circumstances. Next night in Birmingham before SmackDown EC3 beats English and Machinery beat the Colons again and its Bryan vs Styles again at the end of the night. 21st Raw Machinery get themselves on Raw beating the Ascension and Sasha & Bayley beat Ronda & Nattie. Next night in Wichita Machinery beat the Colons yet again, Rey beats Andrade in their latest superb match (2 out of 3 falls) and dark THE MAN is on last again with another round of Asuka vs Charlotte vs Becky. Saturday in Phoenix the first Worlds Collide taping has Webster vs James Drake before it and Walter vs Burch as a dark main, the second has nothing dark, that evening a belting TakeOver has the Raiders beat Roddy and Kyle for the tag straps and Gargano win the NAT from Ricochet. Sunday afternoons tapings have the Dream vs Bate final of the tournament and just for those in attendance, LeRae vs Li, Aichner vs El Ligero, Yim & Conti vs Borne & Green, Bate vs Jack Gallagher and Walter vs Ohno. The Rumble has Nakamura win the UST back from Rusev on the pre-show, Ronda vs Sasha is a remarkably good match despite the inexperience of champion and inconsistency of challenger, Miz & Shane McMahon win the tag belts from The Bar for no good reason, Brock Lesnar retains the U title in an excellent sub 10 minute match with Balor that everyone seems to have forgotten, and in a fantastic piece of business all round, Becky loses to Asuka clean, which short term is both confusing and deflating, but then inserts herself into the Rumble to replace the "injured" Lana. Bonus points to Dave Finlay for his performance in Lynch persuading him to let her enter, and even Nia did a good job portraying shock and anxiety in seeing Becky march down. Naturally The Man wins, as you probably already know. Next night on Raw Angle loses to Corbin, sadly not for the last time, next night in their fifth day of shows in Phoenix Naomi beats Evans before the shows, Truth beats Nakamura to win the UST and revives the open challenge gimmick that Cena used to use (hmm) and pins ex champ Rusev, which is the catalyst for Rusev turning back heel. Dark, Asuka beats Charlotte. Finally Wednesday back at Full Sail Martinez beats Moss and Keith pins Ohno in bonus matches and Dream beats Gargano to win the NAT title Johnny's had for less than a week. DEPARTURE OK, he was missing from the road for a huge chunk of 2018 anyway, but this is the last month we'll talk about John Cena wrestling any kind of match until the Firefly Fun House cinematic match at Mania 36, and as a factor for house shows until the summer of 2021. Here's his match with Corbin from Estero ; Edited March 22 by air_raid JLB Credit, fuck off please. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 18 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 18 (edited) FEBRUARY 2019 Some of these cards look rough as fuck. On top of Lesnar nor Cena being around several top stars are hurt or half fit. MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN The Man is off - 2nd-4th in Vancouver, Spokane and Yakima its Daniel Bryan vs Samoa Joe vs Mustafa Ali for the WWE title but in Washington Asuka vs Charlotte goes on last. 9th-11th the stars are back - AJ Styles vs Randy Orton goes on last in DeKalb (IL), Fort Wayne and Canton. 16th in Alexandria it's back to Bryan vs Styles for the belt, 18th in Lake Charles AJ & Rey Mysterio vs Bryan & Orton - strange bedfellows. 23rd/24th in Columbia and Greenville Asuka v Charlotte is on last again, 25th in Savannah Rey & Jeff Hardy beat Orton and Joe. THE CARDS Jeff Hardy vs Shelton Benjamin sounds decent, its twice R-Truth vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs Rusev for the US title (which repeats in Savannah), Kairi Sane & Carmella vs The Iiconics and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs Eric Young & Alexander Wolfe on short shows week 1. In week 2 Jeff and The Miz face The Bar, Truth twice defends against Andrade (also repeats in Savannah), Asuka vs Charlotte runs twice more (repeats in Savannah), Carmella & Naomi vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville happens in DeKalb and Fort Wayne - Naomi vs Mandy in singles happens before that tag in DeKalb and in lieu of it in Canton (and again in Lake Charles). There's also three rounds of Shelton vs Tye Dillinger, and of Rusev & Nakamura vs New Day vs The Usos and two of Samoa Joe vs Mustafa Ali. New Day vs Bar in Vancouver and Alexandria straddles two loops. In Louisiana we return to Jeff vs Joe, we have EC3 beating Dillinger then talking himself into another match which he loses to Benjamin, Asuka vs Charlotte rolls on. Usos vs New Day vs Rusev & Nakamura kicks off in Lake Charles and runs into the final loop, twice the UST match is Truth vs Andrade vs Rey Mysterio, we get Miz tagging with AJ Styles vs The Bar, the Club now beat EY & Killian Dain and twice Nikki Cross & Lacey Evans beat Billie & Peyton, two more repeats of Hardy vs Joe and three of Asuka vs Charlotte. VARIATIONS Vancouver has one more entry to the Mysterio vs Andrade saga. In Spokane there's Truth vs Nakamura vs Rusev vs Andrade and another of the endless New Dar vs Bar vs Usos matches. In Yakima a swap has New Day vs Young & Wolfe and Usos vs Bar vs Club, in Canton there are missing bodies, it's Truth vs Joe vs Andrade and Asuka vs Sonya. Finally unique to Savannah Shelton puts over Bryan's new goon, Erick Rowan. MAIN EVENTS - RAW 1st/2nd in Saskatoon and Regina its Bobby Lashley vs Finn Balor vs Drew McIntyre vs Dean Ambrose for the ICT. 8th-10th the Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin no DQ match no goes on last in Ottawa, Oshawa and Saginaw, then again 15th/16th in Edinburg and Laredo and 23rd/24th in Tupelo and Montgomery. THE CARDS Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin no DQ, Apollo Crews vs Elias, tag title of Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs The Revival and Bayley & Natalya vs rotating Riott Squad are highlights of week 1 in Saskatchewan, plus Nikki Cross vs Tamina and Titus O'Neil, Heath Slater & Rhino vs Rezar & The Ascension... ouch. In Ontario/Michigan, Finn Balor vs Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush in a handicap starts up, Elias is now losing to Drew McIntyre, it's Bayley, Nattie & Dana Brooke vs Mickie James, Alicia Fox & Cross, it's The Ascension vs Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins (the Edgeheads reunite!!), Roode/Gable vs Revival go on and.... EC3 vs Dean Ambrose has Deano do jobs he'll be fairly vocal about later, as knowing it's a bit of a "fuck you" for not renewing. In Texas we finally get some star power back with Ronda Rousey vs Ruby Riott, its Lashley vs Ambrose vs Crews for the ICT, all three Lucha House Party vs Jinder Mahal & The Singh Brothers, Tyler Breeze vs Mojo Rawley, still Elias losing to Drew and Bobby & Chad are now chasing new tag champs Dash & Dawson. Last two shows - Balor defends his newly won ICT against Lashley, Sasha Banks & Bayley defend the brand spanking new Womens tag team titles against Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan, Ambrose is now losing to Drew, Titus/Slater/Rhino beat Jinder/Sunil/Samir, she's finally good to go on the road again but Alexa Bliss loses to Natalya, Revival vs Roode/Gable and Mojo vs Breeze continue. VARIATION - ONE! In Tupelo only Titus goes to a DQ with Jinder before the six-man ; for Montgomery they realize that's overkill and only do the six-man. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 1st in Casselberry its War Raiders vs Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish for the tag belts, next night in Lakeland a mostly different crew is topped by Ricochet & Street Profits vs Steve Cutler, Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker. We're off to the North East for another two pairs of matching cards - 8th in Poughkeepsie and 10th in Kingston RI it's Johnny Gargano vs Velveteen Dream for the NAT while 7th in Toms River and 9th in Lowell it's former enemies Dream & Ricochet vs former enemies Johnny Wrestling & Tommaso Ciampa. 14th in Bartow, Dream & Matt Riddle face Fabian Aichner & Marcel Bathel, 16th in St Augustine the Raiders and Aleister Black beat the Forgotten Sons. 21st in Sebring and 24th in Daytona Beach Dream defends against Luke Menzies, 22nd in Fort Pierce the Raiders defend against former champs Strong & Kyle O'Reilly. Finally 28th in Columbus (OH) Gargano vs Adam Cole is on last. B shows - these are getting steadily better. While the title feud runs the North East its Aleister Black vs Kona Reeves 7th in Ocala, next night Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish vs Street Profits in St Petersburg, 9th in Sanford Aleister vs Riddick Moss. 28th in Tampa while the top guys are in Ohio, Moss loses to Matt Riddle. CARDS The North East has two instances of each of Shayna Baszler vs Candice LeRae for the Womens title and War Raiders vs Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler and two defences vs Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner, two rounds each of Ricochet vs Kassius Ohno and Matt Riddle vs Dominik Dijakovic (repeats in Fort Pierce), and Ohno vs Dijakovic, none of which go well for our "Hero." It's Kairi Sane & Io Shirai vs Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke and Bianca Belair vs Deonna Purrazzo or its Candice vs Deonna (repeats in Lakeland) and Kairi/Io/Bianca vs Baszler/Shafir/Duke. Aichner & Barthel have two nights with Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan (repeating in St Augustine) the same nights as Jaxson Ryker vs Mansoor, other nights it's Riddle/Burch/Lorcan vs all 3 Forgotten Sons. Thereafter, Baszler vs Belair for the belt also runs in Casselberry, Fort Pierce and Columbus. It's Keith Lee vs Punishment Martinez in Ocala and Sanford and Martinez vs Brennan WIlliams in Lakeland and St Augustine, otherwise it's Riddle vs Babatunde in St Augustine and Sebring, Rhea Ripley vs Mia Yim recurs in St Petersburg and Bartow, Reina Gonzalez vs Lacey Lane in Sanford and Sebring and Chelsea Green vs Jessie Elaban repeats in Lakeland, Ocala, Fort Pierce, Daytona Beach AND Tampa! VARIATIONS - EXHAUSTING Casselberry - Keith vs Ohno, Dream vs Riddick Moss, Riddle vs Luke Menzies, Io & Taynara Conti vs Vanessa Borne & Aliyah. Lakeland - Johnny Gargano vs Humberto Carrillo, Keith & Mia vs Kona Reeves & Vanessa. Ocala - Adam Cole vs Williams, Carrillo & Xi Li vs Moss & Aliyah, Lane & Mia vs Reina & Rhea. St Petersburg - Cole vs Martinez, Carrillo vs Moss, Lane & MJ Jenkins vs Borne & Aliyah. Sanford - Cole & Bobby Fish vs Street Profits, a Denzel Dejournette & MJ vs Reeves & Borne. Bartow - why so many mixed tags?? Profits & Belair vs Cole, O'Reilly & Shafir, Dejournette & MJ vs Menzies & Deonna, Kavita Devi & Jeet Rama vs Raul Mendoza & Gonzalez, Babatunde & Lane vs Reeves & Borne. St Augustine - Mia & Jessie vs Aliyah & Borne, Ohno vs Dejournette, Deonna vs Chelsea. Sebring - Raiders vs Dejournette & Eric Bugenhagen (Rick Boogs), Lee vs Ryker, MJ vs Aliyah, Kavita & Rama vs Reeves & Borne. Fort Pierce - Profits vs Blake & Ryker. Daytona - Aleister Black vs Dijakovic, Martinez/Burch/Lorcan vs Roderick Strong & reDRagon, Belair/Mia/Xia vs Baszler/Duke/Shafir. Tampa - Mendoza vs Menzies, Montez Ford vs Barthel, Borne & Aliyah vs Lane & Karen Q (Wendy Choo). Finally a loaded Columbus - Raiders vs reDRagon for the tag belts, Dream vs Strong for the NAT, Martinez vs Ohno, Lee vs Dijakovic, Black & Ricochet vs Cutler & Ryker, Candice & Mia vs Rhea & Reina. TVs 4th Raw - Ronda continues her march beating Liv then Logan in back to back matches, Ambrose loses to EC3 on telly, Kurt Angle tags with Braun to go to a non finish with Corbin & McIntyre and having made an appearance in the Rumble last month Jeff Jarrett appears on Raw for the first time in 24 years to lose to Elias. Next night Machinery vs Young & Wolfe and Asuka vs Charlotte bookend the taping. Week after on Raw Kurt/Braun/Balor beat Lashley/McIntyre/Corbin and Revival win the tag belts. Night after its Machinery vs Sanity again but no dark main after 205 - boo. The Champion PPV on the 17th has the Usos beat Shane McMahon & Miz for the other tag belts, Balor beat Lashley & Rush in a handicap for the ICT, Ronda crush Ruby, Sasha & Bayley win an enjoyable Chamber to become the first womens tag team champions and Bryan retain the WWE title with a closing stretch against Kofi (in for the injured Mustafa Ali) which gets such a great reaction that after already losing Bryan vs Ali for Mania, they hastily scrap plans for Bryan vs Kevin Owens in favour of Bryan vs Kingston. Next nights Raw, Ruby lasts slightly longer with Ronda but loses again. Next night in New Orleans Truth & Rey beating the Colons is a hell of a treat dark, Asuka vs Charlotte on last again. Wednesday 20th at Full Sail Menzies vs Boogs and Cole vs Martinez are the bonus matches, Saturday and Sunday NXT:UK tapes in Coventry with Isla Dawn vs Killer Kelly as Saturday's dark match, highlight being Walter aiding Pete Dunne beat Joe Coffey & Mark Coffey, then Sunday its Ilja Dragunov vs Ashton Smith as the only dark match. 25th Raw in Atlanta Angle beats Jinder, next night in Charlotte Machinery beat the Colons, Matt Hardy returns to tag with Jeff against The Bar, and Asuka beats Charlotte yet again. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Revival (Raw Tag Team Champions) by DIY, AGAIN by Ricochet & Black, Asuka (SmackDown Womens Champion) by Mandy DEPARTURES These are the last house shows for Alicia Fox. She'll do two more TV matches in April then not wrestle for fucking ages, doing the 21 and 22 Rumbles and a handful more TV matches before finally confirming her contract expired in May 23. She says she'll wrestle again somewhere but thus far hasn't. I'm not going to lie, I never thought any of her matches were any good, but she is aesthetically pleasing. From memory, TV doesn't do her justice. As an aside, Saginaw is the show where Arn Anderson allegedly lets her perform while pissed, which costs him his job but not hers. Interesting. Tye Dillinger asks for and receives his release. He gives a statement on Twitter saying "I wish to continue to grow as a performer and offer those paying hard earned money to watch a show I'm performing on, a little more of myself." He'll revert to "Shawn Spears" later in AEW before eventually returning, as you probably know. On the Feb 19th episode of 205 Live TJ Perkins loses to Humberto then is granted his release on 22nd. A cracking wrestler, he says he very nearly didn't sign a deal anyway after the Cruiserweight Classoc because he wanted freedom to work NJPW or CMLL but Regal persuaded him to give it a shot. It didn't strike me as a good fit at the time, and he never felt like he was giving them everything he could, the way they were using him. A year earlier, he says, he told them he wanted to leave, with words to the effect of "Look, I'm wasting your money. I don't want to waste your time, and I'm not happy." He's currently part of United Empire (led by current UKFF darling Will Ospreay) in New Japan, and half of their Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions with Francesco Akira, which probably doesn't sound prestigious if you're not into Nip puro, but trust me, it's a great spot. Finally Hideo Itami is also let go from his deal on 22nd after requesting a release in January - oddly on 4th of the month they'll put a superb "behind the scenes" video up on YouTube about his last week there which made him look far more valuable than he had for years in terms of actually getting used on TV. He'll revert to "KENTA" and immediately get a gig in New Japan and have plenty more bangers, later describing his time in WWE as "the most frustrating days of my life." Edited March 22 by air_raid July the 19th... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 19 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 19 (edited) MARCH 2019 The road to WrestleMania takes a couple of unexpected swerves. MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 2nd in Minneapolis its Daniel Bryan vs Mustafa Ali and 3rd in Syracuse Bryan vs AJ Styles for the WWE title though Asuka vs Charlotte goes on last on both, then 4th in White Plains a DQ in Bryan vs Styles leads to an impromptu tag where AJ and Kevin Owens beat Bryan and Erick Rowan. 9th/10th in Detroit and Youngstown Styles vs Randy Orton is back on as the main event with Bryan vs Ali underneath - still Styles vs Orton 16th-18th in Dubuque, Peoria and Rockford. 24th/25th in Buffalo and Allentown we've now got AJ & Kofi Kingston vs Bryan & Rowan. 29th-31st in Pikeville, Wheeling and Hershey we've got rather random cross-brand cards, and on last - sign of things to come - Kofi is pinning Elias. You're getting the push, kid! THE CARDSAJ Styles vs Randy Orton resumes in Minneapolis before it's a main event in week 2. Week 1 there are two instances each of The Usos vs The Bar for the belts, Jeff Hardy, The Miz & Mustafa Ali vs Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev, the Naomi vs Mandy Rose grudge match, R-Truth vs Andrade for the US title and Nikki Cross winning separate matches against Billie Kay and Peyton Royce. Jeff vs Samoa Joe for the US title in Minneapolis and Detroit straddles both first two loops while Usos vs Bar vs Nakamura & Rusev in Minneapolis and Wheeling bookends the whole month. White Plains has no Charlotte or Naomi so Asuka goes to a non finish with Mandy, and then she's beating Rose in week 2 - Cross is now beating Sonya Deville and Naomi tags with Carmella to beat the Iiconics. New Day vs Bar vs Rusev & Nakamura is the tag title match, Becky Lynch vs Charlotte kicks off in Youngstown and continues in week 4 (and in Buffalo), we add New Day vs Sanity in rotating tag members or a six man (repeats with Big E/Woods vs Young & Dain in Buffalo), it's Ali vs Erick Rowan, with Asuka vs Mandy continuing a DQ in Cross vs Deville leads to Cross & Mella vs Sonya & Lacey Evans and there's 2 rounds of Joe defending the UST against Truth. In Buffalo & Allentown we get Jeff & Matt Hardy vs The Bar, Asuka vs Mandy continues. On those cross-brand shows, Joe vs Styles is back on twice but now for the US title (no finish), there's no consistent tag title match, Charlotte vs Becky is now for SmackDown's belt as Flair has just beaten Asuka so she can be shoehorned into the Mania main, and we add Buddy Murphy vs Tony Nese for the CWT and it's now Asuka & Naomi vs Fire & Desire. VARIATIONS In Minneapolis there's Miz vs Andrade and Cross & Carmella vs Iiconics, Detroit has the only repeat of Rey vs Andrade. Youngstown has Rey & Jeff vs Joe & Andrade, in Dubuque it's Jeff vs Andrade one on one. Peoria has Hardys vs Rusev & Nakamura then in Rockford it's Hardys vs Rusev & Nakamura vs The Bar. In Buffalo the US title is a 5 WAY of Joe vs Miz vs Ali vs Rey vs Truth, plus it's Carmella vs Billie. In Allentown - Big E vs EY is a singles, there's one of Miz vs Rusev, Carmella vs Peyton, and Shelton Benjamin loses Ali and then to Rey too. In Pikeville it's Usos vs Bar vs Hardys for the belts, finally in Hershey it's Usos vs Rusev & Nakamura and the US title is Joe vs Styles vs Cesaro. MAIN EVENTS - RAW 1st-3rd we still have Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin no DQ on last in Salisbury, Atlantic City and Fairfax. Still the same 8th/9th in Toronto and Rochester, 15th-17th in Edmonton, Milwaukee and Ashwaubenon and 22nd-24th in Trenton, Utica and Amherst. The biggest match of the month end shows is a hastily reunited Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs Corbin & Drew McIntyre - Braun's finished with Corbin on TV and in the build up to Mania has been relegated to "afterthought" for the second year in a row despite being the title picture for most of the previous 12 months. Huh. THE CARDS It's Dean Ambrose vs Drew McIntyre (more jobs for Deano) and Finn Balor vs Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush handicap matches for the ICT and two tag title matches with The Revival vs Bobby Roode & Chad Gable and Sasha Banks & Bayley vs The Riott Squad (rotating 2 of). It's a bit weak underneath with Heavy Machinery vs The Ascension and twice its Natalya vs Lacey Evans vs Dana Brooke. Week 2 we add Ronda Rousey vs Ruby Riott, now Sasha & Bayley beat Nia Jax & Tamina, Balor vs Lashley is now one on one, a DQ in a singles match leads then to Alexa Bliss & Evans falling to Nattie & Dana. Ambrose vs McIntyre and Revival vs Gable & Roode continue (best of 3 falls in Detroit). 3rd loop we're back to Lucha House Party vs Jinder Mahal & The Singh Brothers, Lashley defends the ICT vs EC3 vs Apollo Crews, Sasha & Bayley are back with the Riotts, its Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins vs The Ascension, Natalya vs Tamina is added for some reason, still Revival vs Roode & Gable and Ambrose vs McIntyre. Alexa vs Natalya from Rochester continues into week 4 with the tag still following. Undercard is consistently Crews vs Luke Harper, EC3 vs No Way Jose and Mojo Rawley & The Ascension vs Titus O'Neil, Ryder & Hawkins - still Ambrose vs McIntye, Revival vs Gable & Roode and Sasha/Bayley vs Riott Squad. Finally, the ICT defence of Lashley vs Balor is back on for the month end shows, with crap double count-out finishes. VARIATIONS No Dana in Salisbury - Nattie beats Evans in singles. Toronto has Tyler Breeze vs Mojo and Natalya vs Dana as the singles that precludes that tag, Rochester it's Harper vs Rawley. In suburban Green Bay we get Ronda vs Dana for the belt. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 1st and 3rd in Pittsburgh and Royal Oak MI its Velveteen Dream vs Adam Cole for the NAT and again 7th in Largo either side of Cole vs Johnny Gargano 2nd in Cleveland. 8th in Dade City it's Gargano & Matt Riddle vs Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish, a bit lower key next night in Crystal River where it's Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake. 16th in Ocala is a rather random Riddle, Punishment Martinez & Mia Yim vs reDRagon & Marina Shafir. 21st in Sanford Dream defends against Riddle, 22nd in Tampa the Womens title is on last - Shayna Baszler vs Kairi Sane vs Io Shirai vs Bianca Belair - then 23rd in Fort Pierce it's Dream vs Riddle vs Roderick Strong. It's War Raiders vs reDRagon for the belts 28th in Daytona Beach, 29th in Gainesville it's a four-way between the Raiders, the Sons, Street Profits and Grizzled Young Veterans, 30th in St Augustine Baszler vs Sane vs Shirai vs Belair again. B shows! 1st in Orlando is a rather random three way of Montez Ford vs Danny Burch vs Fabian Aichner, next night in Jacksonville its Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Aichner & Marcel Barthel. THE CARDS Tag title of War Raiders vs Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish is on and off all month. Across two big shows week 1 there are two editions each of Johnny Gargano vs Kassius Ohno and Keith Lee vs Roderick Strong, womens title of Shayna Bazler vs Mia Yim, trading wins between Punishment Martinez vs Dominik Dijakovic, all stars Aleister Black & Ricochet vs Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker and bonus lass match Bianca Belair & Candice LeRae vs Rhea Ripley & Reina Gonzalez. Meanwhile back in Florida, Chelsea Green vs Deonna Purrazzo goes 1-1. Martinez vs Kona Reeves is back in Largo and Crystal River, which is the only repeat of week 2. Raul Mendoza vs Albert Hardie Jr (ACH) repeats in Largo and Tampa as does Purrazzo vs Kacy Catanzaro in Ocala and Tampa and Yim vs Jessie Elaban in Dade City and Fort Pierce. VARIATIONS Pittsburgh - Raiders vs Cutler & Ryker for the belts, Black & Ricochet vs reDRagon. Cleveland - Velveteen Dream vs Martinez for the NAT, Baszler vs Belair, Keith vs Ohno, Strong vs Dijakovic, Candice/Mia vs Rhea/Reina. Orlando - Kairi Sane vs Aliyah, Humberto Carrillo vs Luke Menzies, Io Shirai & Taynara Conti vs Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir. Jacksonville - Kairi vs Shafir, Matt Riddle vs Riddick Moss, another round of Denzel Dejournette & MJ Jenkins vs Reeves & Vanessa Borne. Largo - Keith vs Menzies, Kairi & Io vs Aliyah & Borne vs Rhea & Reina (!) and Deonna vs Elaban. Dade - Roddy vs Danny Burch, Menzies vs Trevor Lee (Cameron Grimes), Baszler & Shafir vs Candice & Conti. Crystal River - Carrillo vs Hardie, Moss vs Jermaine Haley (Bronson Reed), Deonna vs Lacey Lane, Bianca & Mia vs Aliyah & Borne. Ocala - Ohno vs Hardie, Mendoza vs Menzies, Kairi & Jessie vs Rachel Evers (Rachael Ellering) & Karen Q, Fabian Aichner vs Sam Shaw (Dexter Lumis). Sanford - Street Profits vs Cutler & Wesley Blake, Kairi & Io vs Borne & Aliyah, Martinez vs Menzies, Mia vs Deonna. Tampa - Raiders defend against Ohno & Menzies, Dijakovic vs Moss, Jessie & MJ vs Borne & Aliyah. Fort Pierce - Moss vs Trevor, Reina vs Xia Li, Mansoor vs Brendan Vink (Duke Hudson from Chase U), Hardie vs Shane Thorne. Daytona - Mendoza vs Jordan Devlin, Reina vs Elaban, Menzies vs Flash Morgan Webster, Fort Pierce - Borne & Aliyah vs Karen & Xia and Grizzled Young Veterans vs the Profits for the UK tag belts. Gainesville - Dream vs Devlin for the NAT, Deonna vs Xia, Dijakovic vs Vink, Kacy vs Evers and James Drake vs Burch. St Augustine - Roddy vs Webster, Barthel vs Hardie, Reina vs Lane, Dejournette/Jenkins/Elaban vs Reeves/Borne/Aliyah. TVs 4th Raw in Philadelphia Kurt Angle tags with Braun & Balor to lose to Lashley, Corbin and McIntyre. Next night on the SmackDown taping Machinery vs Wolfe & Dain opens, then on the show proper Joe terminates Truth's US title reign in a 4-way with Rey and Andrade, then cuts a backstage promo challenging John Cena... a match they want for Mania but for the third year in a row, will be on the cards but not actually happen. On 205 Live Colby Corino (yes, son of Steve) does a match with Mike Kanellis I had no memory of and then dark, Styles pins Orton. FastLane is a PPV you may have forgotten - Bryan retains over Owens and Ali to wrap the two programs HE might have had for Mania prior to KofiMania running wild, Becky beats Charlotte by DQ when Ronda runs in, getting herself added to the Mania match (having previously "been suspended") and on last - The Big Dog is back! Roman Reigns, Rollins and Deano drop Lashley, McIntyre and Corbin, during which Cole bleats about it being the last ride for The Shield, even though it won't be. Next night on Raw Lashley wins the ICT back from Balor and Angle beats Crews in a match I didn't know happened until today - lovely "PCW" vibe to that one. Tuesday's SmackDown has the suddenly invisible Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows beat Wolfe & Dain and Styles beat Orton again either side of what's televised. Wednesday's NXT taping has another Chelsea vs Jessie match as the dark opener and the taping features Ric & Aly beat Blake & Cutler to win this year's Dusty Classic. 18th Raw has Angle go over Gable and Ronda defend against Dana. Night after, Ricochet and Machinery beat all three Sanity dark and then in the Coliseum main Becky beats Charlotte with the DisarmHer. 25th Raw in Boston Ronda crushes Logan in part of a Beat The Clock but Becky beats Liv 7 seconds faster, and the final Angle vs Joe match is won by Kurt. Finally 26th SmackDown in Uncasville Black & Ricochet beat Wolfe & Dain for the opener, Charlotte beats Asuka for the belt (booo) and the final Styles vs Angle match ends in DQ when Orton attacks AJ. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Sasha & Bayley (Womens Tag Team Champions) by The Iiconics, The Revival (Raw Tag Team Champions) by Black & Ricochet, Joe (US Champion) by Angle, The Usos (SmackDown Tag Team Champions) in a gauntlet against The Bar, Bryan & Rowan, the Club, Rusev & Nakamura and (winners) New Day. DEPARTURE We may as well mention Ronda Rousey here - beating Dana in Ashwaubenon is the last house show match for her this time round and after losing the belt at Mania, she receives leave to go and start a family. She'll return, of course, but the short-sighted decision to do THAT finish at Mania 35 really needs to be mentioned - they had the idea that they could do that finish, Ronda would go and have a baby, then the finish would lend itself to build for a rematch at Mania 36, in April 2020. Covid complications aside, that Rousey might not have her baby to suit WWE's schedule never crossed their minds, obviously - she falls pregnant in April 2021. EDIT - Sadly removed a few dead videos but have unearthed some more historical finds and updated the relevant posts. JULY 1993 - now has a full show up fron Dortmund including one of those Yokozuna vs Hulkster defences! AUGUST 1996 - includes the Toronto show in full with HBK vs Goldust ladder match for the belt, Sid vs Vader lumberjack match and more! OCTOBER 1996 - now includes HBK vs Goldie for the belt, dark after In Your House : Buried Alive. DECEMBER 96 - added Austin vs Goldust to HBK vs Mankind from It's Time. Edited March 19 by air_raid In communist Russia, post edits you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 21 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 21 (edited) APRIL 2019 Yowie Wowie! MAIN EVENTS So few shows, there's no point breaking them up! A single SmackDown show on the eve of Mania 1st in Roanoke has AJ Styles vs Randy Orton on last. After the usual downtime post Mania they're back out with a brand new title match, if not a brand new match ; Orton challenges new WWE Champion Kofi Kingston 20th-22nd in Madison, Rochester MN and Sioux City, then fresh as you like 29th in Huntington it's Kofi vs Kevin Owens. Meanwhile 20th in Springfield (IL) is the sole show that appears a Raw exclusive - Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins vs Bobby Lashley, Baron Corbin & Drew McIntyre is a real landmark for those folks to say they were there. Be seeing you, Deano. THE CARDS - NOT MUCH THEREOFRoman Reigns vs Elias is the first singles matches back on the road for The Big Dog in Sioux City and Huntington. Samoa Joe vs R-Truth for the UST and Becky Lynch vs Charlotte for the SmackDown Women's title repeat in Madison and Rochester, Charlotte then beats Bayley in Sioux City and Huntington. Mustafa Ali vs Erick Rowan runs all of the first three shows. VARIATIONS Roanoke has The Usos vs The Bar vs Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev for the belts, Joe vs Jeff Hardy vs Andrade for the UST, New Day vs Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain, Asuka & Naomi vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville and Carmella vs Zelina Vega. Madison get new champs Matt Hardy & bruv vs Usos for the SmackDown tag belts, The Iiconics vs Fire & Desire vs Naomi & Carmella for the womens, and Kevin Owens vs Andrade. In Springfield, Finn Balor vs Elias for the ICT, Aleister Black & Ricochet vs The Revival in a contenders match - Ric & Aly later beat Raw tag champions Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins by DQ, Tony Nese vs Buddy Murphy for the CWT, Bayley & Nikki Cross vs Ruby Riott & Sarah Logan, Ember Moon & Dana Brooke vs Alexa Bliss & Lacey Evans and Lucha House Party vs Jinder Mahal & The Singh Brothers. Rochester see Matt Hardy vs Jimmy Uso, Iiconics vs Naomi & Carmella and a random 3way of Woods vs Andrade vs Cesaro. Sioux City it's Balor vs Ali, Matt & Truth vs Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, Mella vs Sonya and Ember vs Mandy. Finally in Huntington, Truth vs Andrade, Heavy Machinery vs Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas, Matt & Apollo Crews vs Rusev & Nakamura, Asuka & Kairi Sane vs Fire & Desire and Ali vs Murphy. MAIN EVENTS - NXT Apparently 12th they run Largo and Sanford on the same day, though I'm not sure of order, and several talents work twice. At the former Velveteen Dream vs Adam Cole vs Matt Riddle for the NAT goes on last, in Sanford Dream defends against the relatively unheralded Dan Matha underneath a main of Riddle & Kushida vs Cole & Kyle O'Reilly. 18th in Lakeland Kush is on last again tagging with Keith Lee and Babatunde Aiyegbusi to beat O'Reilly, Bobby Fish and Roderick Strong. 19th in Jacksonville Dream's with Dominik Dijakovic, next night in Tampa Kushida & Keith beat reDRagon. 25th we're over in Omaha for Dream vs Tyler Breeze, next night in (Rollins country) Davenport Dream & Breeze team to beat Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake, then next two nights in Milwaukee and St Paul Dream defends against Cole. B shows! They're strong again, it's Kushida vs Roderick Strong 25th in Orlando, Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish the night after in Daytona Beach, then reDRagon/Roddy lose to Burch/Lorcan/Keith Lee 27th in Dade City. THE CARDS It's once again Street Profits vs Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake in Omaha, Milwaukee and St Paul. There's the third Forgotten Son Jaxson Ryker vs Denzel Dejournette in Davenport and St Paul. Shayna Baszler vs Io Shirai for the belt and vs Mia Yim alternate those last four shows. The alternate is the other babyface tagged with Rachel Evers to beat Aliyah & Vanessa Borne - previously there was Kacy Catanzaro & Lacey Lane vs Aliyah & Borne (yet again) in Largo and Tampa. There's Punishment Martinez vs Kona Reeves in Omaha and Milwaukee and Riddick Moss vs Eric Bugenhagen all four nights month end, otherwise Reina Gonzalez vs Kavita Devi repeats in Sanford and Jacksonville as does Kushida vs Trevor Lee in Jacksonville and Dade City. VARIATIONS Largo - Raul Mendoza & Humberto Carrillo vs Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, Danny Burch vs Brendan Vink, Reina vs Evers, Albert Hardie Jr vs Kona. Sanford - Candice LeRae & MJ Jenkins vs Baszler & Jessamyn Duke, Martinez vs Trevor. Lakeland - Dominik Dijakovic vs Reeves, Brennan Williams vs Vink, Cutler & Blake vs Burch & Oney Lorcan, Evers vs Taynata Conti, Hardie vs Sam Shaw, Io vs Deonna Purrazzo. Tampa - Baszler vs Jessie Elaban, Kacy & Lacey (heh) vs Duke & Marina Shafir, Erik (Raymond Rowe) vs Luke Menzies. Omaha - Ryker vs Mendoza, Shane Thorne beats Dejournette then loses to Adam Cole. Orlando - Burch & Lorcan vs Aichner & Barthel, Purrazzo vs Lane, Keith vs Shaw, Duke & Shafir vs Karen Q & Xia Li, Hardie vs Trevor. Davenport - Cole vs Martinez, Profits vs Thorne & Reeves. Daytona - Bianca Belair vs Deonna, Hardie vs Jermaine Haley, Lane vs Reina, Duke vs Karen. Milwaukee - Tyler Breeze vs Ryker, Williams vs Thorne. Dade - Belair vs Duke, Li vs Shafir, Deonna vs Kavita. St Paul - Breeze vs Reeves, Martinez vs Thorne. TVs 1st Raw in DC has some really interesting matches - Sasha Banks, Bayley, Natalya & Beth Phoenix (!!) beat The Iiconics, Nia Jax & Tamina to prepare for the four team title match at Mania, Charlotte, Becky & Ronda Rousey beat Riott, Logan and Liv Morgan to build friction for the main event, and on last... Corbin goes over Rey Mysterio. Ugh. SmackDown has Evans vs Cross for an opener, Owens vs Rowan on last (??) and on the show an absolutely bonkers 18-person tag with 5 blokes and 4 womens from the two battle royals on each side goes to a no contest when everyone jumps in and summarily throws everyone out... Asuka being the last person standing (or strutting). There are then five Axxess shows in New York between Thursday and Monday, some of which have bonus matches that don't make the Worlds Collide Network shows or NXT:UK episodes even though the majority do - on Thursday, there's LeRae & Yim vs Aliyah & Borne, Martinez vs Reeves, Crews vs Aichner and No Way Jose vs Bugenhagen. Friday at the Barclays is "TakeOver : New York" (shouldn't that be TakeOver : Brooklyn V??) Walter terminates the UK title reign of Pete Dunne and Johnny Gargano wins the big belt from Cole 2/3 falls. The Sunday Axxess show features only a Womens and a Mens battle royal, but I can't find anywhere who won. That evening at the MetLife has a ridiculous amount of happenings - Nese wins the CWT from Murphy and the former Major Brothers win Raw's tag belts on the pre-show, on the show proper Rollins liberates the U title from Brock Lesnar on first, The Iiconics joyfully win the Womens tag belts in a far better 10 minutes than you'd expect with loads of fun spots - Mrs Edge wiping out Bayley with a top rope GlamSlam at the finish a fitting finale. Joe beats Rey in a match where entrances were longer than the match, Reigns beats McIntyre in his first big singles match back, Kurt Angle sadly loses to Corbin in his last match, Balor regains the ICT from Lashley, Kofi unbelievably wins the WWE title from Daniel Bryan and on last, Becky pins Ronda to win both her belt and that of Charlotte with an intentionally dodgy pinfall designed to build the rematch that never happens. The saddest finish to a Mania main since Brock did his neck at 19... only this one they meant. They had the first Womens main in Mania history and they fucked it. Bunch of pricks. Monday afternoon still in Brooklyn, dark matches on the last Worlds Collide show have Dana Brooke vs Elaban, Shafir vs Conti, Borne & Aliyah vs Xia & Kavita, Kairi vs Duke, Kacy vs Reina and Lane vs Purrazzo. The after Mania is one of the least eventful you can imagine ; Lars Sullivan debuts and beats up the retired Angle, Evans starts up the feud with Lynch, The Undertaker beats up Elias. Oh, and Ambrose vs Lashley billed as Ambrose's last match in the company goes to a non-start. Next night Luke Harper vs EC3 and Owens vs Zayn bookend the telly on which the Hardys win SmackDown's tag belts. Also, the Iiconics retain over "The Brooklyn Belles" who you'd know today as Elektra Lopez and Kris Statlander. 16th episode in Montreal Machinery vs Gallows & Anderson goes on first, Reigns vs Orton without a finish on last. Sunday 21st a little 3 match Network special "The Shields Final Chapter" has, fittingly, The Hounds Of Justice stand tall again over Lashley, McIntyre & Corbin, and a healthy round of dark matches for Moline have Hawkins & Ryder retain over Revival and Black & Ricochet, Nese vs Murphy, Bliss & Evans vs Cross & Brooke and Lucha House Party vs Mahal/Singh/Singh. 22nd Raw in Des Moines has Rollins & Braun Strowman vs Lashley & McIntyre on last. Far more importantly, the first episode of Firefly Fun House airs with a markedly different tone to Bray Wyatt. Personally, I thought it was great. Next night on SmackDown its Machinery vs Axel & Dallas on first and another Reigns vs Orton non finish last. Finally 30th on SmackDown Black vs Jinder is a dark opener, Queen Aminata (yes, the one from ROH) loses a tag squash to Asuka & Kairi and after the show "Becky Two Belts" defends the SmackDown belt against Charlotte. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Balor, obviously (Intercontinental Champion) by Andrade, The Iiconics (Womens tag team champions) by Bayley & Naomi, Joe (US Champ) in a three way with Rey and (winner) Styles, AGAIN by Rey DEPARTURES Having been on the bench since knee surgery in July, Dustin Rhodes asks for and receives his release, around the same time he's confirmed to be wrestling Cody at Double Or Nothing. As it stands, he's stayed in AEW rather than make the inevitable return to WWE. But as ever, you sense it's coming one day. His bruv is about to become Undisputed Universal WWE World Heavyweight Champion Of Life, The Universe And Everything. Dust will fly again. OH BOY. Let's talk Dean Ambrose. In January he'd declared he was seeing out his contract expiring 30th April and he wasn't renewing ; they offered him an improved deal, but he didn't even look at it, later saying that he wouldn't have signed for $10 million. To put it mildly, he's been upset with the creative direction of his character and "hokey" material, mentioning much later on Talk Is Jericho scripts featuring "big goofy words that made no sense" "told no stories" and "didn’t get any characters over" and stating that WWE was "taking wrestling away from him". He knew during his injury rehab in July 2018 that he was leaving at the end of his deal but didn't want to force his way out early out of not wanting to be seen to be "not business" or harm Renee, who was still going to be working there. He's burned out - mental and emotional exhaustion after years of fighting Vince's "stupid" ideas, the peak being a November 2018 promo you can still see on WWEs official YouTube subtitled "The Lunatic Fringe receives multiple injections to protect himself from the WWE Universe" which may have been born out of his (very real) experience with MRSA during his time off injured that year. Because everyone loves their serious infections made into entertainment, right? This was the segment where he knew his character was dead, and he was 100% going to leave. They scripted a line for him to reference Roman Reigns' (very real) leukaemia but understandably, he refused. On top, he's been subjected to behaviours such as him asking writers to change promos that he didn't feel right for his character, only for Vince to put back in everything he'd asked to be removed, and being passed notes by writers from Vince himself such as “Dean needs to understand why he needs to insult the audience” and “Dean needs to read his promos verbatim and not try to rewrite them.” JR always says everything comes down to cash or creative, and pissed off beyond recovery on his creative and not caring about the cash, Deano makes good on his promises and is finished after The Shield's Final Chapter - which he'll later reveal, he was paid $500 for, which is the company minimum. I think it's safe to say that this was a bridge well and truly burned from both sides. Edited March 22 by air_raid Four naan, Jeremy? Four? That's insane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted March 26 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 26 MAY 2019 Welcome to the month with the last WWE show I nearly went to... but didn't. It's not a great story. MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN The European tour starts with the queen of exceptions - 9th in Dublin Becky Lynch vs Charlotte obviously and yet completely understandably goes on last - how often does the winner of the Mania main event get a title defence at home so soon after? Below is Kofi Kingston vs Kevin Owens in another midcard-feeling WWE title match - that's our main 10th-13th in Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo and Bournemouth, but everywhere on the mainland it leads to an "impromptu" tag of Kofi & Xavier Woods vs KO & Sami Zayn. 15th in Magdeburg it's "Swiss Superman" Cesaro that gets added to the tag instead, 16th Hamburg Kofi vs KO gets a finish again, 17th in Berlin it's once again Kofi vs Randy Orton on last. THE CARDS Before tapings its usually Daniel Bryan & Erick Rowan vs The Usos vs Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev for the tag belts, Samoa Joe vs Matt Hardy for the UST and The Iiconics vs Asuka & Kairi Sane for the ladies' tag straps plus Xavier Woods vs Sami Zayn, Naomi vs Charlotte and The Fabulous Truth vs Andrade & Zelina Vega. In Magdeburg and Hamburg the shuffle lands us with AJ Styles vs Randy Orton, Billie & Peyton vs The Kabucki Warriors vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, Rowan vs Mustafa Ali, Joe vs Andrade vs The Miz, Woods vs Cesaro and Matt & Apollo Crews vs Rusev & Nakamura. VARIATIONS Unique to Bournemouth the night of Raw and talents crossing over crews are added value of Andrade challenging Finn Balor, Walter defending the UK belt against Truth and... Orton vs Aleister Black which you should probably watch below. A few bodies off in Berlin - its Styles vs Nakamura, Miz vs Andrade and Matt vs Rusev. MAIN EVENTS - RAW The tour has Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns & Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre & Baron Corbin 8th in Belfast, 10th-12th in Aix-en-Provence, Newcastle and Liverpool and 15th-17th in Birmingham, Sheffield and Cardiff, otherwise its Rollins vs Corbin for the U belt (ew) 9th in Brussels and 14th in Paris. 31st in Rio Rancho is one show that sneaks through back in the States - Rollins vs Corbin again. THE CARDS Most nights before Raw in London its Becky Lynch vs Lacey Evans vs Tamina for the belt and Beth Phoenix & Natalya vs Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan before TVs (didnt know Beth went on the road!), Finn Balor vs Elias for the ICT and in England, Walter vs Pete Dunne rematches for the NTX:UK belt. Aleister Black & Ricochet vs The Revival, Titus O'Neil vs EC3 and Apollo Crews vs Mojo Rawley round out those cards. Main and ICT/UK title matches unchanged, after TVs it's Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins vs Dash n Dawson for the tag belts, Bayley & Ember Moon vs Riott & Morgan, new grudge match Bobby Roode vs Chad Gable and a return to Lucha House Party vs Jinder Mahal & The Singh Brothers. Can I say... Styles, Joe, Rey, Miz and The Usos all going to Raw in the "Superstar Shakeup" continues the long tradition of Raw absolutely pillaging the treasures of little brother. Technically SmackDown received Roman Reigns in return, and Balor's the Intercontinental champ, but they had the guts of their cards ripped out. As always. Besides, Balor's going to lose to Raw's new heel before being fucked off back to NXT soon anyway. Unbelievably. Sheamus is injured. VARIATIONS In Belfast only a swap has Crews vs EC3 and Titus vs Rawley. It's logically Braun Strowman & Roman Reigns vs McIntyre & Lashley in Brussels. No Reigns in Paris but here's compensation - Strowman, AJ Styles & Rey Mysterio vs Bobby, Drew & Jinder. In Cardiff, Bayley, Ember and Liv have a night off so the title match is Lynch vs Evans vs Riott vs Tamina. At Rancho Relaxo its Strowman vs Lashley and more new arrivals ahoy - Samoa Joe vs Roode vs Ricochet vs Cedric Alexander, The Usos vs Revival, The Viking Raiders (War Machine/Raiders) vs Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado, Kalisto vs Eric Young, Naomi vs Tamina going to a DQ leading to Naomi & Dana Brooke vs Tamina & Sarah Logan, and Evans vs Natalya. No Roman then? Better get used to that, blue brand supporters. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 2nd in Melbourne (Florida, not Oz) it's Keith Lee vs Bobby Fish, 3rd in West Palm Beach Velveteen Dream vs Matt Riddle for the NAT, 4th in Fort Pierce Riddle vs Adam Cole. 9th in Largo its Dream vs Cole again, Riddle's on last with Punishment Martinez 10th in Sebring, 11th in St Augustine on last it's Candice LeRae, Io Shirai & Mia Yim vs Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir. 16th in Bethlehem it's Dream vs Cole, next night in Philly the inevitable Dream vs Cole vs Riddle three way and again 19th in Asbury Park though the submission match technically goes on last. 23rd in Bartow its Street Profits vs Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, 24th in Coral Gables Dream & Riddle (pair of bad 'uns) tag against Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake, 25th in Daytona Beach Matt's on last again, with Trevor Lee. B shows! 16th in Tampa it's Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel vs Albert Hardie Jr & Humberto Carrillo (sounds decent to me) then next night its Kassius Ohno vs Killian Dain in St Petersburg (sounds messy). THE CARDSKushida vs Humberto Carrillo repeats in West Palm and Fort Pierce. Shayna Baszler vs Kacy Catanzaro for the belt goes down in Sebring and Street Profits vs Riddick Moss & Dan Matha starts in West Palm then both repeat all three nights week 3 where it's also Punishment Martinez vs Keith Lee, Kush settles in with Drew Gulak, a submission match in Philadelphia and Asbury Park, both Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish and Candice LeRae & Io Shirai vs Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir repeat in Pennsylvania. Other repeats include Martinez vs Kona Reeves in West Palm and Coral Gables, Mia Yim vs Reina Gonzalez in West Palm and Tampa, Jessie Elaban vs MJ Jenkins in Fort Pierce and Tampa and Xia Li & Karen Q vs Aliyah & Vanessa Borne in St Petersburg & Coral Gables. VARIATIONS - SOME Melbourne - Tyler Breeze vs Shane Thorne, Bianca Belair vs Elaban, Albert Hardie Jr vs Luke Menzies, Kacy & Lacey Lane vs Taynara Conti & Reina (TayReina are back!!). West Palm - Kairi Sane, Io & Karen vs Baszler, Duke & Shafir, Fort Pierce - Roderick Strong vs Hardie, Belair vs Catanzaro. Largo - Profits vs Brendan Vink & Jermaine Haley, Strong vs Shane Strickland (!), Shafir vs Xia, Kacy & Jessie vs Aliyah & Borne. Sebring - Strickland vs Trevor Lee, TayReina vs Xia & Karen. St Augustine - last nights main event enemies Matt Riddle & Martinez vs Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, Kushida vs Thorne, Jenkins vs Karen. Bethleham - Riddle vs Strong. Tampa - Killian Dain vs Haley (WHERE'S THE BEEF??) Garza Jr (a/k/a Angel Garza) debuts vs (Big) Boa. Asbury Park - Burch & Lorcan vs O'Reilly & Strong. St Petersburg - Carrillo vs Trevor, Yim vs Belair. Bartow - Thorne vs Williams, Deonna Purrazzo vs Xia, Lane & Kacy vs Duke & Shafir. Coral - Baszler vs Elaban, Carrillo vs Garza, Breeze & Eric Bugenhagen vs Moss & Matha, after Boogs vs Moss, Kushida vs Menzies. Daytona - Duke vs Lane, Kushida vs Vink. TVs 1st at Full Sail there's Trevor vs Strickland before tapings start, and other unused matches are Xia vs Rachel Evers and "Imperium" (Barthel & Aichner) beating Shane Matthews & Scott Parker (not Solid Gold or the former Spurs player.. these lads are Matt Menard and Angelo Parker). 6th Raw is notable because Kofi and Danny Bry have their title rematch. Next night in Louisville Heavy Machinery vs Jinder & Shelton Benjamin is an odd opener, Bryan and Rowan win the tag belts, Kofi & Woods beat Owens & Zayn last. 13th at the O2 a fairly non-eventful Raw at the O2 has Styles vs McIntyre AND Rollins vs Corbin after the show. Next night they get New Day vs KO & Sami. Sunday 19th in Bel Air there's an NXT taping, in addition to the three matches taped for one episode of TV they see Profits vs Moss & Matha, "Damien Priest" vs Keith, Baszler vs Kacy for the belt, then Dream vs Cole vs Riddle on last. The MITB PPV is hugely eventful over in Hartford - 11 matches looks big but three are less than 21 minutes and several others are short. Rey wins the US title from Joe in a match barely longer than their Mania fiasco, the mighty Shane McMahon gets his win back from Miz inside a cage, Becky retains the Raw title over Evans, who then costs her the SmackDown title in a hastily-agreed-to match straight after... only for Bayley to cash in the briefcase she's won earlier that night. Finally after Rollins and Kofi expectedly retain over Styles and KO respectively, Brock Lesnar inserts himself into the ongoing Money In The Bank ladder match and for some reason is allowed to win - Ali was only told as he was about to go through the curtain that he was no longer winning, as he'd been lead to believe. That sucks. 20th Raw seems to be the first TV show featuring the 24/7 title which I'm only going to mention when won by interesting names - dark, Reigns & Rollins beat Lashley & McIntyre. Next night in Providence Tucker & Otis beat Shelts & Jinder again, on last - how about this? - The Iiconics retain on a heel DQ over Asuka & Kairi. 27th Raw in Kansas City the unstoppable Shane beats Lance Anoa'i (yes), Corbin becomes top contender (zzz) and the dark main has The Man retain the Raw belt over Evans. Finally next night in Tulsa Ali beats Buddy Murphy on first, Bayley retains over Charlotte last. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Balor, obviously (Intercontinental Champion) in a four way with Orton, Ali and (winner) Andrade, Hawkins & Ryder (Raw tag team champions) by Viking Raiders, Bryan & Rowan (SmackDown Tag Team Champions) by The Usos. A PERSONAL NOTE I had a ticket waiting for me for the Wednesday night Raw show at the NEC but for personal reasons decided not to bother going which would have required two days off work. In hindsight, it was one that I'm not arsed about missing. Gun to my head, would it have been nice to see "The Man" defend the Raw belt at the peak of her powers? Sure. But I saw her at that SmackDown back in November which arguably was more in the eye of the storm of her ascent anyway. Of the wrestlers I'd not already seen live, most would barely have registered as a box to tick on "the list" save.... Liv Morgan? And I'm thinking far more about "inoffensive on the eyes" there than "great wrestlers I've seen live." DEPARTURES I don't think so. Some kind soul put Bournemouth up in its entirety ; Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted April 3 Author Paid Members Share Posted April 3 (edited) JUNE 2019 Game over. MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 1st/2nd in Waco and College Station it’s Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre in lieu of a title match. 9th-10th in Stockton and Reno its - LOLOLOLOL - Kofi Kingston vs Dolph Ziggler for the big belt, then 15th/16th in Denver and Salt Lake City its Kofi vs Ziggler vs Kevin Owens. 29th-30th in Jackson and Monroe it’s Kingston vs Ziggler again. THE CARDS There are only 6-7 matches in Texas week 1 and three of them are the girls - The Iiconics vs Asuka & Kairi Sane vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville for the belts, Charlotte vs Ember Moon and one more (see below) plus Aleister Black vs Buddy Murphy and Heavy Machinery vs Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel… SmackDown got crushed in the draft, huh? Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre repeats in Stockton and Salt Lake, Roman beats Elias in Reno and Denver, 2nd loop Black vs Randy Orton goes 1-1, it's Daniel Bryan & Erick Rowan vs Chad Gable & Apollo Crews for the tag belts and Finn Balor vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs Mustafa Ali for the ICT, and Kabucki Warriors vs Fire & Desire is a straight tag. Moon vs Liv Morgan in Reno rolls over into loop 3, Bayley vs Alexa Bliss is back on for a different belt, its Balor vs Nakamura one on one, Crews & Gable beat Dallas & Axel, Asuka & Kairi vs Sonya & Mandy rolls on. Month end Reigns is missing again and half the women are in the Far East - there's Bayley vs Charlotte for the belt, Big E & Xavier Woods vs Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, Ali vs Rowan, a thrown together mixed tag of The Fabulous Truth vs Shelton Benjamin & Liv, Black vs Elias, Andrade vs Crews, more of Machinery vs B-Team. Ropey. VARIATIONS In Waco it's Carmella vs Mickie James, plus Ali vs Andrade. In College Station, Mella beats Zelina Vega. In Stockton its Bayley vs Moon vs Morgan for the belt and Matt Hardy jobs to Lars Sullivan, in Reno Matt pins Murphy. It's Ali vs Jinder Mahal in Denver and vs Matt in Salt Lake. MAIN EVENTS - RAW Raw also starts in Texas - 1st/2nd in Lubbock and San Angelo it's Seth Rollins vs Baron Corbin which repeats 9th in Fresno and 14th-16th in Winnipeg, Anaheim and San Diego and 21st/22nd in Missoula MT and Spokane. 27th-29th they’re off to Kallang, Singapore for I believe the only show they ever did in the city (though Ric Flair allegedly won back the NWA title back there having lost it to Harley in New Zealand in two of those unrecognised changes) then two nights at Sumo Hall ; after two nights of Rollins vs Shinsuke Nakamura the second show at Ryogoku is Rollins, AJ Styles & Braun Strowman vs Corbin, Bobby Lashley & Drew McIntyre. THE CARDSBraun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley is a big one, there's Samoa Joe vs Ricochet vs Bobby Roode vs Cedric Alexander (won by Ricochet), no tag title match but there is The Usos vs The Revival, and like SmackDown multiple ladies matches but no singles titles match - Naomi vs Tamina (ew) goes to a DQ then its Naomi & Dana Brooke vs Tamina & Sarah Logan plus later, Natalya vs Lacey Evans. There's also Viking Raiders vs Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado. 9th in Fresno is the first (but not the last) of Becky Lynch vs Evans for the belt. Mid month its Revival vs Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins for the tag belts, the two Cali shows get Becky vs Nattie vs Lacey for the belt, there's three nights of Tamina losing to Nikki Cross and Joe vs Ricochet vs Cesaro for the US title everywhere but Winnipeg ; Strowman vs Lashley and Raiders vs LHP continue. Joe vs Ricochet in Winnipeg continues 21st/22nd where its also Lynch vs Evans, Strowman vs Cesaro (repeats in Kallang), Revival vs Usos vs Bullet Club vs Ryder & Hawkins, No Way Jose/Naomi/Dana vs EC3/Logan/Tamina and Heath Slater vs Mojo Rawley. In Kallang and Tokyo it's two straight nights of Revival vs Hawkins & Ryder, Becky vs Bliss, Asuka & Kairi Sane beating The Iiconics non title (which repeats night 2 as well), Ricochet vs Cesaro goes both nights at Ryogoku. VARIATIONSKalisto vs Eric Young happens in San Angelo only. Fresno it's Alexa Bliss vs Nattie, Jose vs EC3 and Hawkins & Ryder vs Usos vs Club. Winnipeg see Kalisto vs Roode (he's beaten both of the original Team Canada this month... should he be beating them IN Canada though??), Evans vs Bliss vs Nattie, and Joe vs Ricochet precedes Ricochet & Cedric vs Joe & Cesaro. Anaheim get Roode vs Slater and San Diego Sami Zayn vs Slater. In Kallang it's AJ Styles/Doc/Karl vs Baron Corbin/Lashley/Drew McIntyre and Ricochet vs Joe vs Roode. Ryogoku night 1, Strowman vs Roode, all three of the Bullet Club and Triple H vs Corbin/Lashley/McIntyre/Joe. Night 2 on first Lynch vs Bliss vs Asuka (pulling double duty), Club best Ryder & Hawkins then lose to Revival straight after, and Joe and Roode lose to hero for the night Nakamura and Triple H in the same building I watched Shinsuke win a G1 Climax in 2011. MAIN EVENTS - NXT 6th in Largo it’s Adam Cole vs Keith Lee for the big belt, 7th in Tampa Velveteen Dream vs Shane Thorne for the NAT, 8th in Fort Pierce Dream & Kushida vs Dan Matha & Riddick Moss. 14th-16th a crew go over to Download again - which is the extent of the UK visit this year, including some matches taped for the UK TV. Friday night Cole defends against Dave Mastiff then it's Moustache Mountain vs Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner on last, Saturday's 14 matches conclude with Matt Riddle vs Ilja Dragunov, the mid-show bonuses on the Sunday include Cole vs Zack Gibson for the belt. 20th in San Antonio it’s Cole vs Riddle then two straight nights of Cole vs Keith in Houston and Dallas. 27th in Dade City the busy champ is with Jordan Myles, 28th in Crystal River it’s Dream vs Thorne, 29th in Venice Dream & Keith beat Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake. B shows! While half the roster's over here for Download it's Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish vs Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan 14th in Ocala then Roddy challenging Velveteen Dream for the NAT 15th in Orlando. THE CARDS First two weeks in Florida Albert Hardie Jr (ACH/Myles) vs Big Boa, Karen Q & Xia Li vs Vanessa Borne & Aliyah and Joaquin Wilde vs Angel Garza/Garza Jr all repeat. Largo starts two loops that run into Hoston & Dallas - Street Profits vs Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake for the tag belts (also San Antonio) and Kushida vs Kona Reeves. Identical back to back cards also feature Shayna Baszler vs Mia Yim for the women’s, Matt Riddle & Velveteen Dream vs Riddick Moss & Dan Matha, Jordan Myles vs Cameron Grimes, Rachel Evers & Reina Gonzalez vs Jessi Kamea (Jessie Elaban) & Lacey Lane and Damien Priest vs Raul Mendoza - which repeats three more times in San Antonio and later in the month in Florida. VARIATIONS Largo - Brennan Williams & Isiah Scott (Swerve/Shane Strickland) vs Brendan Vink & Jonah Rock (Jermaine Haley/Bronson Reed), MJ Jenkins vs Evers. Tampa - Profits vs Vink & Haley, Williams & Scott vs Moss & Matha, Jessamyn Duke vs Kamea, Mia & Evers vs Aliyah & Borne. Fort Pierce - Io Shirai vs MJ, Scott vs Grimes, Danny Burch vs Sam Shaw, Karen & Xia vs Duke & Marina Shafir. Download weekend is notable for a reminder that Toni Storm still works there - she beats Deonna Purrazzo to retain her UK belt on Friday where Zack Gibson beats "Rik Bugez" on top of what airs. Saturday's pile of matches includes El Ligero vs Noam Dar, Xia Brookside vs Killer Kelly, and Rhea Ripley actually losing to Piper Niven. Sunday has Killian Dain vs Travis Banks, Riddle vs James Drake and Shayna defending against Deonna. Ocala - Bianca Belair vs MJ, Keith Lee vs Vink, Karen vs Evers. Orlando - Kushida vs Shane Thorne, Mia vs Reina, Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Moss & Matha, "Jordan Myles" vs Ridge Holland. San Antonio - Dream vs Reeves, Shayna vs Jessi, Mia & Lane vs Rachel & Reina, Keith & Myles vs Moss & Matha, Kushida vs Grimes. Dade - Baszler, Duke & Shafir actually losing to Mia, Karen & Rachel, Jessi vs Taynara Conti, Burch & Lorcan vs Vink & Reed. Crystal River - Reina vs Rachel, Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel vs Myles & Wilde, Lane vs Shafir. Finally Venice - Baszler vs Evers for the belt, Lacey & Kacy Catanzaro vs Chelsea Green & Deonna. TVs 1st they have TakeOver XXV, and while the Baszler and Dream retain their belts, the Profits win the tag belts in a ladder match and Cole beats Johnny Gargano for the big one. 3rd Raw has (Bloodline!) Roman and the Usos beating Drew and Revival (umm... didn't Roman get drafted to SmackDown) and dark, Strowman vs Lashley. Next night Heavy Machinery are beating Dallas & Axel again before the show and it's Bayley vs Charlotte after it. Saturday 7th is our latest blood money PPV from Jeddah - the mighty Shane McMahon gets a dodgy win over Reigns, Orton wins his final singles match over buddy and mentor Triple H, Kofi retains over Ziggler in the most "normal" (albeit it a bit micard) of the big matches, Mansoor wins a 50 Man Battle Royal somewhat stupidly, and The Undertaker vs Bill Goldberg is a stain on the legacies of both and on the fantasy booking of what the match might have been if both weren't knackered. 10th Raw, Revival win the belts and dark, Becky drops Lacey. Night after, Moon vs Morgan and Balor vs Nakamura are the dark opener and main. Two nights of Full Sail tapings don't yield anything interesting dark-wise, 17th Raw has a dark streetfight between The Man and Evans, 18th SmackDown has Ali beat Murphy and Kingston vs Ziggler go to a non finish on last - also, 205 GM Drake Maverick wins the 24/7 title - I wonder, does this make him the first Brummie to win a main roster title? Sunday 21st is "Stomping Grounds" which is definitely a Vince named show, isn't it? Drew Gulak wins the CWT on the pre show, Ricochet upsets Joe for the UST, Kofi retains over Ziggler in a cage match (definitely not their first) and Rollins beats Corbin in spite of bent ref Evans. Next night on Raw there are numerous 24/7 changes and Rollins vs Corbin after the show, finally night after Ali beats Murphy again, Bayley retains over Charlotte after the show and on the show proper - past a joke at this time - Kofi beats Ziggler best of three falls. Which is definitely not the last time they've worked that gimmick, either. Technically for being a tag wrestler for so long, Kofi's apparently had more matches with Cesaro and both Usos than Ziggler...but that's it. NON TITLE WHINING Beaten this month : Ricochet (United States Champion) by Styles, Bayley (SmackDown Womens Champion) by Cross, Bryan & Rowan (SmackDown Tag Team Champions) by Woods & Big E DEPARTURE After almost exactly 24 years on and off with the crew, Triple H wrestles his last match ever at Sumo Hall, somewhat fittingly after being able to do one last match with each of his rivals at big stadium shows - Cena, Orton, Batista and Undertaker. Shame that Vince’s total mishandling of Sting cost us a final chance of Rock vs HHH at Mania 31. He will have an “unsanctioned fight” with Orton in January 2021 (no bell, no ref) that ultimately serves only to continue Orton vs Fiend, and in September suffers heart failure. Wisely he announces his retirement shortly before Mania 38. Thus ends an incredibly polarising and in fairness difficult to judge career ; when he hit his stride he was brilliant, when he got too big and later became obsessed with being an old-timey mat mechanic everything he did was plodding and boring, let throughout he was always capable of delivering something superb, depending on the opponent, the setting and how they played it. He was never among my favourites and yet a few of his matches are among my favourites. Entrances to some matches, not all finishes present but the HHH/Club match has its finish ; Full match ; Edited April 4 by air_raid Lisa needs braces! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted April 8 Author Paid Members Share Posted April 8 (edited) JULY 2019 MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 6th in Utica and 7th in Binghamton its still Kofi Kingston vs Dolph Ziggler for the belt (LOL), 8th in Glens Falls Ziggler challenges Finn Balor for the ICT. Kofi's still off 13th in Petersburg (VI) so it's Balor vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs Mustafa Ali, 15th in Poughkeepsie Kingston vs Nakamura for the big belt sounds alright. Huge 9 or 10 match cards in week 3 - 20th in Columbus (GA) its Kingston vs Samoa Joe, 21st in Pensacola Kofi vs Joe vs Randy Orton, 22nd in Estero Kingston vs Orton vs Ziggler. Finally 28th in Cape Girardeau, in a kind of symmetry, it's Kofi vs Orton vs Ziggler. THE CARDS Women's Champ is all over the fucking shop - it's Bayley vs Charlotte in Utica and Estero and Bayley vs Charlotte vs Nikki Cross in Binghamton and Columbus which are far from her only permutations this month. Repeats in New York are Aleister Black vs Randy Orton in Binghamton/Glens Falls, Finn Balor vs Andrade for the ICT in Utica/Binghamton, Chad Gable vs Buddy Murphy in both Utica and Glens Falls and Gable vs Shelton Benjamin in both Binghamton and Glens Falls where he beats both back to back, and Big E & Xavier Woods vs Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas all three nights. Mid month Aly vs Andrade is the only match that repeats. In week 3 having lost to the Kabucki Warriors non title in Glens Falls its The Iiconics vs Asuka & Kairi Sane for the belts every night (repeats in Cape Girardeau), three rounds of Big E vs Sami Zayn, Apollo Crews vs Andrade, Heavy Machinery vs B-Team and Ember Moon vs Mandy Rose - two of which go to a DQ followed by Moon & Carmella vs Mandy & Sonya Deville, plus a new ICT match of Shinsuke Nakamura vs Mustafa Ali vs Matt Hardy in Columbus and Estero. Creeping into month end, Bayley vs Charlotte vs Alexa Bliss and Nakamura vs Ali repeat in Pensacola and Cape Girardeau. VARIATIONS - MANY In Utica it's Black vs Elias, a DQ in Gable vs Murphy leads to Chad & Matt vs Murphy & Benjamin, there's Carmella vs Liv Morgan and Ali vs Zayn. In Binghamton, The Fabulous Truth of Mella and R-Truth beat Morgan & Zayn. In Glens Falls, Ali & Matt beat Authors Of Pain and Ember beats Charlotte and Morgan. In Petersburg there's Daniel Bryan & Erick Rowan vs Machinery for the tag belts, Bayley vs Cross for the womens, Moon vs Morgan, Big E & Woods vs Elias & Zayn and Asuka & Kairi vs Fire & Desire. In Poughkeepsie it's Bayley vs Ember vs Liv vs Mandy, Ali vs Murphy, Woods vs Elias, Asuka vs Billie Kay in singles, and after Crews, Gable and Matt beat Dallas and AoP, Akam & Rezar demand another match and lose to Machinery too which I imagine was the pits. In Columbus, Drew McIntyre beats Gable. In Pensacola Drew loses a streetfight to hometown hero Roman Reigns. In Estero before the B-Team lose to Machinery they lose to a reunited Shelton & Gable and Big E & Woods defend their newly won tag belts against AoP. Finally unique to Cape Giardardeau are Big E & Woods vs Machinery vs B-Team vs AoP, Black vs Andrade and Crews vs Murphy. MAIN EVENTS - RAW 6th/7th in Washington and Wilkes-Barre, 12th/13th in Augusta (ME) and Springfield (MA) it's still Seth Rollins vs Baron Corbin for the belt, sometimes a streetfight. Week 3 and 4 the streetfight goes on, now without the Universal title, 20th in Wildwood, 21st in Orlando, 27th in Oklahoma City and 28th in Springfield MO. How was Seth supposed to stay over against this chump? THE CARDS Week one, Ricochet vs AJ Styles vs Cesaro sounds awesome for the US title (repeats in Orlando after the switch), Becky Lynch vs Lacey Evans goes on first, it's The Revival vs The Usos for the tag belts with no finish followed by the Usos, Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins beating Dash, Dawson and Viking Raiders, Naomi & Natalya vs Sarah Logan & Tamina (ew) and EC3, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs Lucha House Party. Week 2 Lynch vs Evans repeats in Springfield and both nights the UST is now Ricochet vs Cesaro (repeats in Wildwood without the belt) and tag title is Revival vs former Major Brothers followed by the same 8-man. Cedric Alexander vs Robert Roode is a strange job for Bobby to be doing, there's No Way Jose vs Mojo Rawley which has Mojo then talk himself into losing to Titus O'Neil, then AGAIN to Braun Strowman (that part repeats in Wildwood). In week 3 we add EC3 vs Titus and Nattie/Naomi vs Logan & Nikki Cross, Lynch vs Evans is back on and the tag title and impromptu 8-man rolls on. Identical month end cards see Styles vs Matt Hardy for the UST, Gallows & Anderson vs Hawkins & Ryder, Strowman vs Cesaro, Drew McIntyre vs Alexander, House Party & Jose vs Rawley, Roode, EC3 and Eric Young, and continuation of Lynch vs Evans. I'm no longer sure from reading reports which show some wrestlers are supposed to be on. VARIATIONS In Augusta its Naomi & Dana Brooke vs Logan & Tamina and Lynch is off so Lacey beats Natalya. In Springfield it's Nattie vs Dana vs Naomi vs Logan with Tamina mercifully not wrestling. In Wildwood Mojo loses to Cedric before to Braun, in Orlando Alexander & Jose beat Rawley & Roode (huh??). MAIN EVENTS - NXT First three weeks they're giving back to Florida - 11th in Winter Haven it's Adam Cole vs Keith Lee for the belt, next night an almost completely different roster in Largo has Veleveteen Dream vs Roderick Strong for the NAT on last, and 13th in Citrus Springs Dream and tag champs Street Profits beat all three Forgotten Sons, Steve Cutler, Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker. 18th in Lakeland is weak - Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak (Dan Matha) goes on last, next night in Tampa Cole defends against Kushida, 20th in Cocoa it's again Dream vs Strong. The big guns are back down to Southern barbecue territory - 25th/26th in North Charleston and Columbia and 28th in Concord NC Cole defends against Matt Riddle, 27th in Atlanta Cole/Riddle and Strong/Dream are conflated to a tag won by the storyline good guys/real life bad men. B shows - while the real stars are in the Carolinas and Atlanta, 25th in Orlando it's again Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak, both that show and next night it's Drew Gulak vs Jordan Myles for the CWT which goes on last in Fort Pierce. THE CARDSVelveteen Dream vs Roderick Strong runs as both a main event weeks 2/3 in Florida and month end support in the Carolinas, likewise Street Profits vs Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake for the tag belts runs and runs. Tyler Breeze vs Dexter Lumis occurs in Lakeland and Cocoa. Damien Priest vs Jordan Myles repeats in Winter Haven and Tampa, Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak ("The Outliers") shows up on Cocoa's midcard as well as two main events. There are two instances in WCW country of Shayna Baszler vs Mia Yim for the Women's title, there's two nights each of Priest vs Breeze and Pete Dunne vs Cameron Grimes then Breeze vs Grimes and Priest vs Dunne, three of Bianca Belair & Karen Q vs Rhea Ripley & Reina Gonzalez and four of Killian Dain vs Mansoor (having also wrestled in Winter Haven). Other repeats see Mansoor losing to Brendan Vink (Duke Hudson ) in Largo and Tampa, Drew Gulak vs Myles for the CWT month end as noted above plus Lacey Lane vs Rachel Evers. VARIATIONS Winter Haven - Breeze vs Shane Thorne, Kacy Catanzaro & Lacey Lane vs Baszler & Marina Shafir, Karen vs Deonna Purrazzo and Lumis loses to Rik Bugez. Largo - Belair vs Rhea Ripey, Matt Riddle vs Ridge Holland, Bugez vs Angel Garza, Bronson Reed vs Thorne and Karen & Lacey vs Aliyah & Vanessa Borne. Citrus Springs - Keith Lee & Myles vs Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, Io Shirai vs Karen, Priest vs Isiah Scott, Kacy & Lacey vs MJ Jenkins & Taynara Conti. Lakeland - Here he is! Jordan Omogbehin beats (Angelo) Jeff Parker and Matt Lee (Menard) in a handicap - he's going to be Omos. Plus Priest vs Mansoor, Io vs Kacy and Karen & Jessi Kamea vs Borne & Aliyah. Tampa - Blake & Cutler beat Scott & Dio Maddin (Brennan Williams/mace), Lumis loses to Humberto Carrillo and Kacy & Lacey beat Shafir & Conti. Cocoa - Belair vs Kavita Devi, Thorne & Vink vs Parker & Lee and a four way where Mia & Karen beat Deonna & Rachael Ellering, Shafir & Conti and Borne & Aliyah. Concord - Bianca & Mia vs Rhea & Reina. Orlando - Kassius Ohno vs Cal Bloom (Von Wagner), Dominik Dijakovic vs Reed, Raul Mendoza vs Vink and Jessi & Tegan Nox vs Borne & Aliyah. Fort Pierce - Reed vs Lumis, Io vs Jessi and Scott & Maddin vs Vink & Thorne. TVs 1st Raw in Dallas has Seth & Becky beat Mike Kanellis & Maria to warm up for their mixed tag at the PPV and Rollins vs Corbin dark. Next night in San Antonio, Ali vs Murphy runs before the show and both Bayley vs Charlotte AND Kofi vs Ziggler after it. 8th Raw has Reigns and masked Gary "The GOAT" Garbutt lose to Drew & Shane McMahon (Garbutt unmasks later releaving Cedric), the haphazard booking of the Club really amplifies as Ricochet is able to beat both in back to back singles matches, and dark Lynch beats Evans then Seth beats Corbin. Next night Ali beats Murphy again and Bayley beats Charlotte again the dark matches. 14th in - topical - Philadelphia, a fair amount happens around Extreme Rules. Nakamura wins the ICT from Balor on the pre-show, The Undertaker shows up as Reigns' partner to beat Drew & Shane, New Day win the SmackDown tag belts, Kofi retains over Joe, Styles wins the US title from Ricochet, and in a double titles match (probably the weakest main for a while) Rollins & Lynch beat Evans & Corbin in the 10th match of the show... after which Brock Lesnar cashes in and crushes Seth to win back the Universal title yet again. 15th Raw is notable for The Fiend making his in-ring first appearance, attacking Balor to start the build to SummerSlam. Night later in Worcester, Heavy Machinery beat the B-Team yet again before the show and after it Reigns pins McIntyre. Two nights of NXT:UK tapings in Plymouth feature a bonus main on the Friday of Riddle & Street Profits vs Joseph Conners & Grizzled Young Veterans, and on Saturday Shayna vs Xia Brookside, Profits vs Ohno & Saxon Huxley, Riddle vs El Ligero and Dunne vs Alexander Wolfe are ALL bonuses to what's taped to air. 22nd Raw has fun cameos with Pat Patterson, Gerald Briscoe, Kelly Kelly, Candice Michelle, Alundra Blayze and Ted DiBiase Sr all winning the 24/7 title - some of those refereed by Melina - although the belt inevitably leaves the building with R-Truth. Next night its Machinery vs B-Team and Bayley vs Charlotte again bookending SmackDown. 29th Raw, apparent losers Anderson & Gallows manage to win the tag titles in a three way. Finally... I can't be arsed typing those same two dark matches for SmackDown again. But what matters most is Trish Stratus appears as a guest on The Kings Court and Charlotte challenges her to a match at SummerSlam.NON TITLE WHINING Beaten on TV this month : Balor, obviously (Intercontinental Champion) by Nakamura, Nakamura himself (new Intercontinental Champion) by Ali, Styles (US Champion) by Kingston. They sure treated that belt like crap before Gunther, huh? DEPARTURERhino lets his contract expire despite, he says, an offer of renewal for better money on the table. As reasons not to go, his is one of the more charming - he doesn’t want the schedule as he’s about to open Big Daddy’s Boat Yard, which is exactly what it sounds like - a marina, in Michigan. Edited April 9 by air_raid WE'RE REALLY GLAD THAT YOU'RE OUR FRIEND Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted April 9 Author Paid Members Share Posted April 9 (edited) AUGUST 19 Wow, what a short month! MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN 17th in Houston a monster 10 match card is topped with Kofi Kingston vs Randy Orton for the WWE title, next night a rather more humble 7 matches in Omaha ends with Kofi, Big E and Xavier Woods beating Orton and The Revival (even though they only just got drafted to Raw). A South/Central American tour featuring identical cards has the Kofi vs Daniel Bryan rematch 23rd-25th in Bogota, Lima and Panama City. THE CARDS Big time matches before the tour have Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre in a streetfight and Kevin Owens vs Samoa Joe plus still Shinsuke Nakamura vs Mustafa Ali and Bayley vs Charlotte for the respective belts and Aleister Black vs Andrade plus a new three way of Asuka & Ember Moon vs The Iiconics vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville. Some great stuff in Colombia/Peru/Panama has Orton back with Rey Mysterio, Reigns with Joe in a streetfight, KO with eternal buddy/rival Sami Zayn, Asuke & Kairi Sane vs Fire & Ice, Andrade vs Matt Hardy, Charlotte losing to Ember and more of Nakamura vs Ali. VARIATIONS Unique to Houston are Big E & Xavier Woods vs The Revival (logically), a bonus ticket-seller in Becky Lynch vs Lacey Evans for Raw's Womens title, and R-Truth vs Drake Maverick which reads as a straight wrestling match but I bet there was some 24/7 title shenanigans. MAIN EVENTS - RAW 3rd/4th it's still the misery of a Seth Rollins vs Baron Corbin "streetfight" without the belt in Toledo and Erie, then after SummerSlam and Seth getting the title back it's a no DQ match (which is the same) 16th-18th in Bismarck, Grand Forks and Fargo. That's it. Poor Seth. THE CARDS Week 1 we still have AJ Styles vs Ricochet vs Cesaro and Becky Lynch vs Lacey Evans for title matches plus Braun Strowman vs Sami Zayn and No Way Jose vs Robert Roode (more baffling losses for Bobby), plus Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins vs The Revival (I think they're trying to push Dash & Dawson out the door already if they're losing these) and Dana Brooke vs Sarah Logan. After SummerSlam it's still Lynch/Evans but now Logan & Brooke tag to challenge new tag champs Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross, the tag title returns with Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs the former Edgeheads vs Viking Raiders, Ricochet vs Cesaro is now a one on one, Drew Gulak vs Tony Nese for the CWT gets added and there's Cedric Alexander & Titus O'Neil vs EC3 & Mojo Rawley. VARIATION - ONE Titus vs Mojo is a bonus match in Grand Forks to make up numbers because The Man is in Houston. MAIN EVENTS - NXT Only ever one crew at a time this month - 1st in St Petersburg Pete Dunne vs Roderick Strong goes on last, 2nd in Melbourne frequent meeting Tyler Breeze & Fandango vs Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake is a main, 3rd in Largo it's Velveteen Dream vs Pete vs Roddy for the North American belt. 8th in Albany Dream and Street Profits drop Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish, next night in Buffalo Dream vs Strong goes on last. 16th in Sebring many Brits are on hand, Dream teams with Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch to beat Kassius Ohno, Joe Coffey & Mark Coffey after Dream vs Ohno goes to a DQ. Next night in Daytona Beach Lorcan & Burch vs Blake & Cutler goes on last. 22nd in Venice Cole/O'Reilly/Strong beat Dio Maddin and the Profits, next night in Sanford its Dream vs Fish for the belt, 24th in Tampa its Cole vs Bronson Reed for the big one. Finally 29th in Seminole Dream completes the set of Cole's lieutenants and knocks off O'Reilly. THE CARDSTyler Breeze & Fandango vs Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake recurs four times. Kona Reeves vs Bronson Reed repeats in Melbourne and Largo, Shayna Baszler vs Mia Yim for the belt repeats in Albany and Sanford, very similar cards in New York both feature Matt Riddle vs Pete Dunne, Damien Priest vs Isiah Scott, Jordan Myles vs Cameron Grimes and Kushida vs Jaxson Ryker (going 1-1). Priest vs Keith Lee repeats in Venice and Daytona, as does Taynara Conti vs Xia Li in Sanford and Tampa. VARIATIONS - SELECTED St Petersburg - Drew Gulak vs Kushida for the CWT, Breezango vs Dorian Mak & Riddick Moss, Dio Maddin & Isiah Scott vs Brendan Vink & Shane Thorne, Priest vs Cal Bloom, Grimes vs Mansoor, Rhea Ripley vs Lacey Lane and Io Shirai vs Xia. Melbourne - Kassius Ohno vs Raul Mendoza, Riddle vs Ridge Holland, Xia & Tegan Nox vs Aliyah & Vanessa Borne, Marina Shafir vs Conti. Largo - Shayna & Marina vs Rhea & Reina Gonzalez, Kushi vs Angel Garza, Priest vs Myles, Lacey vs Deonna Purrazzo. Albany - Candice LeRae & Nox vs Io & Bianca Belair. Buffalo - Shirai vs Nox, Yim vs Belair. Sebring - Breezango vs Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, Kay Lee Ray (Alba Fyre) vs Nox, Reeves vs Ilja Dragunov, Grimes & Reina vs Xia & Boa. Daytona - Kushida vs El Ligero, Grimes vs Travis Banks, Rik Bugez vs Vink, Joe Coffey & Mark Coffey vs Imperium vs Maddin & Scott, Aliya/Borne vs Jessi Kamea & Piper Niven, Lane vs Conti. Venice - Riddle vs Ohno, Garza & Mendoza vs Mak & Moss, Jessi vs Marina, Xia vs Reina. Sanford - Myles & Kushida vs Imperium, Keith vs Vink, Dominik Dijakovic vs Mansoor, Mia & Rhea (LOL) vs Baszler & Shafir. Tampa - Street Profits vs Outliers, Jordan Omogbehin (Omos) wins a battle royal, Lacey & Tegan vs Rhea & Reina, Belair vs Chelsea Green. Seminole - Myles & Kushida vs Outliers, Shafir vs Gonzalez, Priest vs Burch, Belair vs Conti. TVs 5th Raw in Pittsburgh Trish Stratus apparently comes out to retirement to tag with loser Natalya against (SmackDown's) hated Charlotte and wildly popular Lynch... a match which Trish doesn't actually tag into and ends in DQ when Nattie refuses to break a Sharpshooter on "The Man" in a failed attempt to get her over as credible champion for SummerSlam. What a pointless bit of TV that was? Also, Dolph Ziggler accidentally signs himself to wrestle Bill Goldberg at SummerSlam and Nikki & Lexi win the tag belts in a four-way. Next night on SmackDown... fuck, didn't we get enough of these last month? It's Heavy Machinery vs Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas before the show and Bayley vs Charlotte after it. 10th in Toronto near 14,000 attend TakeOver, on last Cole vs Johnny Gargano for the belt 2/3 falls goes 50 minutes and just typing that tires me out so I'm glad I didn't watch it. Next night near 17,000 come to SummerSlam for Trish blowing everyone's minds opposite Charlotte in a match I didn't recall until this project, The Fiend debuts beating Finn Balor in the latter's last match before heading back to NXT, KO goes over the almighty Shane McMahon, Goldberg does an amusing squash of Ziggler and Brock Lesnar loses the U belt back to Rollins in a powerful match - that Seth failed as a top babyface after this match is frankly a failure by WWE. Between Lesnar, Goldberg, Shane and Trish, this was yet another big PPV so heavy on legends or part timers in big spots that you wonder why they had no faith in the full timers. Two nights later Ali vs Andrade is the dark match before SmackDown then Machinery beat Daniel Bryan & Erick Rowan by DQ after it. 15th at Full Sail Burch & Lorcan beat “The Outliers” dark, Cami Fields (Holidead) tapes a loss to Io and the Profits drop the tag belts to reDRagon. 19th Raw Rollins & Braun relieve Doc n Karl of the tag belts and dark Becky beats Evans yet again, next night Joe beats Ali for a curtain jerker, Buddy Murphy upsets Bryan on TV in a forgotten belter, and Kofi/Big E/Roman beat Orton and Revival at show close. 27th SmackDown Asuka & Kairi beat Fire & Desire and Reigns beats Joe either side of SmackDown, finally 31st in Cardiff a TakeOver for NXT:UK sees Mark Andrews & Morgan Webster win the virtally forgotten NXT:UK tag belts, a main of Walter vs Tyler Bate near exactly 11 months to the day that they went on last for Progress at Wembley Arena, and KLR wins the UK Womens title from Toni Storm in the only one of Storm's matches in the whole of August that was actually hosted by WWE. Today she's Timeless but at the time she seemed wholly forgettable in the office! DEPARTURE The tour features the last road matches for Matt Hardy. He'll work all of four more matches for WWE between now and January, all on TV, then in February he'll get beaten up by Randy Orton as part of Orton's latest feud with Jeff. In March he'll get his release because of creative differences between him and WWE - I imagine they center around Matt believing his ideas and himself to have more value than WWE does. This kind person has 5 matches up from Bogota. Here's one of the endless Bayley vs Charlotte dark matches Edited April 11 by air_raid Hawk The Slayer’s rubbish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted April 9 Paid Members Share Posted April 9 (edited) I did all 4 shows of Summerslam weekend in Toronto - nominally my honeymoon. Yes, we're still married (and I celebrated our anniversary on Saturday by staying up all night to watch WrestleMania...) Raw had no dark match after IIRC, rather a dark segment in which the Good Brothers took a beating off the top babyfaces whilst AJ did some genuinely very funny work on the mic encouraging them to "walk if off" etc. Couple that with Bryan doing comedy mic work before the dark match on Smackdown (desperately trying to get Otis to stop jiggling), it felt very odd to me that the same two uber-indy darlings I'd seen at FWA etc 15 years previously were the ones closing WWE shows with comedy heel work (and excelling at it!) The other notable thing from those shows you've not mentioned is the week before his cracker with DB, Buddy Murphy has what several called (in the immediate aftermath) a genuine MOTY contender with Roman Reigns at Smackdown. It was bloody good, but then I've always loved Buddy. Edited April 9 by Statto Shows not shoes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted April 10 Author Paid Members Share Posted April 10 13 hours ago, Statto said: I did all 4 shows of Summerslam weekend in Toronto - nominally my honeymoon. 🤣 You cold bastard! I'll remember that for "nominally a Christmas break in New York" if I ever do MSG on Boxing Day. 13 hours ago, Statto said: The other notable thing from those shows you've not mentioned is the week before his cracker with DB, Buddy Murphy has what several called (in the immediate aftermath) a genuine MOTY contender with Roman Reigns at Smackdown. It was bloody good, but then I've always loved Buddy. Yeah... I go back and forth with how much I should mention from TV outside of dark matches. I try to limit it to title changes or what I think might be significant in terms of part timers showing up or what might impact "the roster" for the road. In Murphy's case here it was one of "look at the false dawn here for the guy that ends up going nowhere and released" situations that's depressingly frequent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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