House Show/TV tapings random happenings

[air_raid]

SEPTEMBER 19
Let's throw some more shit at the wall. Except this time, let's make him King.

MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN
That tour we started last month rolls through Santiago and Buenos Aires 5th/6th with Kofi Kingston vs Randy Orton and then Kofi vs Daniel Bryan 20th-22nd in Quezon City (Philippines), Shanghai and Honolulu. Then they're off for a well-earned rest. Butlins for everyone, I assume.

THE CARDS
Still Roman Reigns vs Samoa Joe in the Americas and Bayley vs Charlotte for the belt, Aleister Black vs Sami Zayn and Ember Moon vs Zelina Vega are on both shows plus Asuka & Kairi Sane vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville - three womens matches out of 7/8 is very progressive. In Asia Reigns beats Zayn, we add The Revival vs Big E & Xavier Woods for the tag belts, Shinsuke Nakamura vs Mustafa Ali for the ICT, Kevin Owens vs Andrade and Chad Gable vs EC3 ; Bayley vs Charlotte is non-stop.

VARIATIONS
Santiago get Apollo Crews vs Andrade. In Buenos Aires Andrade is off so Zayn loses to Crews as well and Asuka vs Mandy to a DQ precedes the tag. Quezon City has Carmella vs Mandy, in Shanghai Carmella & Xia Li beat Fire & Desire, in Honolulu it's Mella vs Sonya.

MAIN EVENTS - RAW
1st in White Plains Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin no DQ is back on, 6th in St John the champ Seth Rollins is back for another depressing streetfight with the Baron. After a break, Seth starts up with The Fiend 20th/21st in Calgary and Edmonton to a DQ finish (ugh). 27th/28th in El Paso and Prescott Valley ZA Strowman vs AJ Styles for AJs US title goes to a DQ then Strowman & Viking Raiders beat AJ, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson - not names I expected to see on last again. 29th in Tucson Rollins vs Fiend continues, still with a DQ.

THE CARDS
The only match common to both White Plains and St John is Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs Natalya & Dana Brooke for the tag titles. Cedric Alexander vs Mojo Rawley in White Plains and Ricochet vs Cesaro (repeats in Tucson) in St John both continue into Alberta where Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks is underway (and returns in Tucson), Bliss & Cross beat Brooke & Tamina, Nattie now beats Lacey Evans (also repeats in Tucson), there's Braun Strowman vs Robert Roode and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs Viking Raiders vs Kalisto & Lince Dorado. 27th/28th we have Banks vs Evans vs Natalya, King Corbin vs Ricochet, Alexander vs Cesaro and through month end Raiders vs Club 2 on 2 and an 8-man opener of Dorado/Kalisto/Sin Cara/Titus O'Neil vs EC3, Eric Young, Drew Gulak and Tony Nese.

VARIATIONS
Wrapping in White Plains are The Miz vs Dolph Ziggler, Raiders vs The Revival vs Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder and Ricochet beating both Good Brothers in back to back singles. Unique to St John are the last of Lynch vs Evans, Cedric beating Roode one last time, O'Neil vs Rawley and Revival vs Club vs Hawkins & Ryder. Finally Tucson is the only city that sees Corbin vs Alexander and a streetfight of Roman Reigns vs Erick Rowan.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
5th in Lakeland - is this the worst NXT main ever? - Street Profits vs Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake vs Rinku Singh & Saurav Gurjar vs Chase Parker & Matt Martel. 6th in Tampa it’s Kushida & Jordan Myles vs Raul Mendoza & Angel Garza vs Dorian Mak & Riddick Moss, 7th in Gainesville Kushida beats Roderick Strong on last. 13th in Cocoa it's again Velveteen Dream vs Strong for the NAT, 19th in Daytona Beach there's a hard-hitting sounding Blake, Cutler & Jaxson Ryker vs Walter, Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner. Next night in Jacksonville the Sons recover against Rik Bugez & the Profits which was probably a little gentler, then 21st in Melbourne Rod defends his new belt against Kushida. Month end they’re back exploring Missouri - 27th in Independence it’s Pete Dunne & the Profits beating Strong, Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish, setting up next night in Lake Charles with Strong vs Dunne for the NAT.
B shows - as the rest of the crew head to Missouri, 26th in St Petersburg it's Tyler Breeze, Fandango & Rik Bugez vs Jaxson Ryker, Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake. 27th in Seminole, even though Cutler's wrestled a tag underneath, on last is him vs Dango vs Fabian Aichner vs Rinku Singh. 28th in Fort Pierce said tag goes on last ; Cutler & Blake vs "Ever-Rise" - Chase Parker & Matt Martel (a/k/a Angelo Parker & Matt Menard).

THE REPEATS
Io Shirai vs Mia Yim recurs in Daytona Beach, St Petersburg and Fort Pierce. Tyler Breeze vs Shane Thorne repeats in Lakeland and Cocoa. Keith Lee vs Ridge Holland, Matt Riddle vs Dominik Dijakovic, Damien Priest vs Bronson Reed and Thorne vs Denzel Dejournette all happen both nights in MO. Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake vs Ever-Rise repeats the last two shows in Florida as you read above.

RANDOM OTHERS OF NOTE
Lakeland - Priest vs Angel Garza, Rhea Ripley vs Marina Shafir, Raul Mendoza vs Cameron Grimes, and Mia & Jessi Kamea vs Deonna Purrazzo & Chelsea Green. Tampa - Riddle vs Kona Reeves, Keith vs Thorne, Breeze vs Roderick Strong, Tegan Nox vs Taynara Conti, Xia Li & Monique Jenkins vs Vanessa Borne & Aliyah, all three Forgotten Sons vs Babatunde Aiyegbusi, Reed & (Big) Boa. Gainesville - Riddle vs Bobby Fish, Priest vs Boa, Lacey Lane vs Chelsea. Cocoa - Priest vs Reeves, Kushida vs Killian Dain, Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel vs Reed & Danny Burch, Bianca Belair vs Jessamyn Duke, Kamea & Nox vs Deonna & Chelsea. Daytona - Kassius Ohno vs Burch in a "British Rounds Match" I assume for their own fun, Street Profits vs Dorian Mak & Riddick Moss, Belair vs Borne, Reed vs Austin Theory, Grimes vs Tehuti Miles (Ashante Adonis). Jacksonville - Priest vs Miles, Kay Lee Ray vs Taynara for the UK title, Kushida vs Thorne, Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Aichner & Barthel, Io vs Reina Gonzalez. Melbourne - Garza vs Mendoza, Lee & Myles vs "the Outliers," Reed vs Dain (ouch), Rhea Ripley & Reina vs Shayna Baszler & Marina Shafir, Borne/Green/Purrazzo vs Nox/Kamea/Jenkins. St Petersburg - Ohno vs Babatunde, Burch vs Aichner, Theory vs Miles, Green & Purrazzo vs Kamea & Santana Garrett. Independence - Belair vs Conti, Candice LeRae/Rhea/Reina vs Baszler/Shafir/Duke after a DQ in Shayna vs Candice for the belt. Seminole - Ohno vs Mansoor, Theory vs Isiah Scott, Io vs Santana, Nox & Dakota Kai (Fly Kicks reunited) vs Chelsea & Deonna. Lake Charles - Kyle O’Reilly & Fish vs Profits, Candice vs Taynara, Belair/Rhea/Reina vs Baszler/Shafir/Duke. Finally in Fort Pierce, Garza vs Theory and Chelsea vs Catalina Garcia - who will get another look as Katrina Cortez in 2021 but is better known today as a regular in CMLL as simply "Catalina."

TVs
1st they tape NXT:UK in Cardiff with the usual mix of the talented and the below-marginal, Dunne vs Aichner sounds a good dark main but I bet they were knackered after 14 TV matches. 3rd SmackDown in Norfolk they open with the endless Heavy Machinery vs Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas but the night finishes with 205 Live instead of a dark main - wow. Also Rowan reveals he's behind the attacks on Reigns and divorces himself violently from Danny Bry. 9th Raw they're at MSG (12,500) where Steve Austin officiates the contract signing for Rollins vs Strowman at the PPV and for Main Event they tape R-Truth swapping the 24/7 title with Enes Kanter of the Boston Celtics - LOL. Next night only 7000 come to the Garden for SmackDown - Ali beats Buddy Murphy dark, on the show proper for some reason Gable beats Shane McMahon in a 2/3 falls semi-final of the King of the Ring ref'd by KO, then dark The Fiend beats the B team in a handicap match. 15th its Clash Of The Champions - tag champions Rollins & Strowman lose the tag belts to Ziggler & Roode on first then wrestle for the U belt last, inbetween the first Lynch vs Banks match goes to a DQ, Luke Harper returns to assist Rowan against Reigns and Revival win the SmackDown tag belts from New Day. Next night on Raw in Knoxville Corbin wins King of the Ring over Gable in his latest reinvention and in a fun if random ending, Rollins vs Rusev sees the champ get attacked by Ziggler, Roode, Styles, Gallows & Anderson, then when Kane ("the mayor," LOL) makes the save, he's overwhelmed by The Fiend. Next night in Atlanta Black beats future lieutenant Murphy before SmackDown, Machinery vs B-Team finally graduates to the show proper, and Bayley vs Charlotte resumes its status as regular dark main. Wednesday night at Full Sail NXT starts going out live - Garza vs Mendoza and Priest vs Reeves both go down just for the live crowd before it airs and Strong wins the NAT from Dream. 23rd Raw at the Chase Center in LA, The Fabulous Truth explodes over the 24/7 title and dark, the Horsewomen collide as Charlotte & Lynch beat Bayley & Sasha. Next night in the same building Crews vs Murphy opens, Bryan loses to Rowan on TV when Harper interferes, and between SmackDown and 205 Reigns beats Zayn. 25th before NXT Theory beats Holland and there's another look at Garrett, losing to Gonzalez. Finally 30th Raw, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair both show up to set the table for their pointless team vs team match at the blood money show, and Rollins vs Rusev goes to a no finish again when Bobby Lashley distracts Rusev by revealing that Lana is now HIS "main squeeze" (because reasons) allowing Rollins to get attacked by The Fiend again.
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten on TV this month : Bliss & Cross (Womens Tag Team Champions) by Fire & Desire, AGAIN by Banks & Bayley

DEPARTURES
None that I caught.

Bants!

 

Edited April 12 by air_raid
That oughta hold the little SOBs.

[air_raid]

OCTOBER 2019
"Out of nowhere..." the brand split seems to have disappeared!! Probably makes sense, star power is a bit through the floor. Reigns is treading water again, AJ is fucking around with the US title, Bryan isn't wrestling much, and they've bitch-slapped Kofi back down to the midcard in favour of putting THE belt on a part-timer. Anyone would think Lesnar vs Reigns was the plan again! Don't worry, there's a pandemic round the corner to save us from some of this shit.

MAIN EVENTS
5th in San Diego a very cross-brand card has no title match so Roman Reigns & Daniel Bryan vs Luke Harper & Erick Rowan goes on last. It's once again Seth Rollins vs The Fiend 12th/13th in Odessa and Amarillo and 19th in Trenton - 20th in Rochester there's a return to the AJ Styles vs Braun Strowman US title match that goes to a DQ and transforms into Braun and Viking Raiders (doing double duty) beating Styles, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows. The SmackDown lads head to Oz - 21st in Sydney its a tag team main in the cage before 22nd/23rd in Brisbane and Melbourne Bryan vs Harper opens and Reigns vs Rowan in a streetfight or cage match closes. 25th in Sunrise (suburban Miami) its actually Rollins vs Styles in a cage, 26th in San Juan we're back to Rollins vs Fiend to a DQ in Seth's final successful defence of any World title until 2023.

THE CARDS
Roman Reigns vs Erick Rowan happens before intermission in Texas. AJ Styles vs Braun Strowman for the US title also occurs in San Diego and San Juan as well as Rochester, Viking Raiders vs Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows repeats in Texas and Sunrise (by which time it's for the Raw tag belts), in San Diego and San Juan there's the impromptu six man too. There's The Revival vs New Day for the SmackDown tag belts in Texas and Sydney, plus Kofi Kingston vs Randy Orton in Sydney, a six-man of Kofi, Big E & Buddy Murphy vs Orton/Revival in Brisbane then one leads to the other in Melbourne. Bayley vs Charlotte for SmackDown's belt continues in San Diego and Oz, in Texas it's Charlotte & Becky Lynch vs Bayley & Tamina because reasons. Shinsuke Nakamura vs Mustafa Ali for the ICT repeats in both Texas and Australia and all three nights in Australia have Asuka & Kairi Sane vs Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose vs The Iiconics. There's Shorty Gable vs King Corbin in Texas, Ricochet vs Andrade in the North East and Ric upsets Drew McIntyre month end.

VARIATIONS
In San Diego we have Nakamura vs The Miz, all 3 New Day vs Orton & Revival and Ricochet vs Cesaro. Trenton it's Strowman vs Corbin, Aleister Black vs Cesaro, Lynch vs Lacey Evans vs Natalya, Raiders vs Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode and No Way Jose vs Mojo Rawley. In Rochester, Cesaro vs Jose, Nattie vs Lacey, Black vs Corbin, Raiders vs Ziggler & Roode and Rawley & Shelton Benjamin vs Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins. Sydney get a one off Murphy vs Sami Zayn. In Sunrise we have Lynch vs Charlotte, Andrade vs R-Truth, Humberto Carrillo vs Shelton and Nattie vs Sarah Logan, finally in San Juan it's Lynch vs Evans yet again, Nattie & Nikki Cross vs Logan & Tamina and Corbin loses (only by count-out) to Rey Mysterio.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
Some fairly weak cards at the traditional small Florida venues - 3rd at Sanford it's Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake vs Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak on last, 4th in Bartow Dakota Kai & Tegan Nox vs Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir. 5th in Largo Keith Lee vs Dominik Dijakovic sounds OK, 10th in Largo its Sons vs "Outliers" Mak & Moss vs Rinku Singh & Saurav Gurjar, 11th in Coral Gables the real starts turn up, Cutler, Blake and Jaxson Ryker lose to Roderick Strong, Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish and next night in West Palm Beach with reDRagon defending underneath it's Strong vs Keith on last for the NAT. They spread their wings for some bigger shows - 17th in Portland and 19th in Vancouver Strong defends against Matt Riddle, either side 18th in Seattle Cole's three lieutenants lose to Finn Balor & Street Profits then 20th in Kelowna reDRagon defend against Riddle and Pete Dunne. Back in Florida its Riddle vs Austin Theory 24th in Dade City, Dunne vs Marcel Barthel 25th in Jacksonville, Strong vs Danny Burch 26th in Lakeland and 31st in Seminole though a ridiculously weak sounding battle royal (won by Bronson Reed) goes on last Keith vs Theory stands out.
B shows - while the big guns are getting rained or snowed on in Washington and British Columbia, 17th in Tampa its Angel Garza vs Shane Thorne, Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake vs Marcel Bathel & Faiban Aichner 18th in Fort Pierce and Imperium losing to Keith Lee & Jeet Rama 19th in Daytona Beach.

THE CARDS
Damien Priest vs Pete Dunne kicks off in Coral Gables and West Palm, then identical crackers in Portland and Vancouver see Kassius Ohno vs Isiah Scott then when Ohno wants another match he's beaten by Finn Balor (Balor also beats Ohno in Kelowna - he's back down in NXT at management's request), Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish vs Street Profits for the tag belts, Shayna Baszler vs Candice LeRae for the ladies' (which started in Coral Gables), Dominik Dijakovic vs Bronson Reed, and three matches that repeat in Seattle - more of Priest vs Dunne, Dakota Kai & Tegan Nox vs Vanessa Borne & Aliyah (recurs in Jacksonville) and Tyler Breeze & Fandango vs Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak (all four nights). Shuffles on the other two shows that week have Ohno vs Reed (recurring from Cocoa), Baszler vs Kai and Tegan/Candice vs Borne/Aliyah. Other repeats this month - and there seem more than normal - have Keith Lee vs Austin Theory early month in Bartow and later in Seminole, Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake vs The Outliers in Sanford and Lakeland, Fly Kicks vs Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir in Bartow, Coral Gables and Lakeland, Mia Yim vs Taynara Conti in Cocoa and Dade, Arturo Raus vs Tehuti Miles in Sanford, Largo and Daytona, Dexter Lumis vs Jeet Rama in Sanford, Cocoa and Jacksonville, Keith vs Dijak in Largo and Coral Gables, Mansoor vs Theory in Largo, Tampa and Fort Pierce and Catalina Garcia vs Santana Garrett in Cocoa and Daytona.

VARIATIONS - SOME
SANFORD - Angel Garza vs Kona Reeves, Yim vs Deonna Purrazzo, Cameron Grimes vs Mansoor, Jessi Kamea & Kayden Carter (Lacey Lane) vs Borne & Aliyah. BARTOW - Lio Rush vs Scott, Killian Dain vs Garza, Bianca Belair vs Kamea. LARGO - Io Shirai vs Reina Gonzalez, Grimes vs Scott, Belair & MJ Jenkins vs Borne & Aliyah. COCOA - Scott vs Raul Mendoza, Belair & Carter vs Borne & Aliyah. CORAL GABLES - Baszler vs LeRae, Riddle vs Garza, Scott vs Shane Thorne, Fandango vs Kona. WEST PALM - reDRagon vs Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner for the belts, Scott vs Kona, Dijak vs Garza, Candice & Fly Kicks vs the Horsewomen. SEATTLE - Scott vs Dijak. KELOWNA - Roderick Strong vs Scott for the NAT, Priest vs Dijak. TAMPA - Belair vs Taynara, Yim vs Chelsea Green, Duke & Shafir vs Reina & Rhea Ripley. FORT PIERCE - Ripley vs Belair, Shafir vs Conti, Garza vs Brendan Vink, Kamea vs Jenkins. DAYTONA - Dain vs Vink, Yim/Carter/Kamea vs Io/Deonna/Chelsea. DADE - Carter vs Kamea, Santana & Xia Li vs Jenkins & Garcia. JACKSONVILLE - Theory vs Thorne, Io vs Rhea (!), Reina vs MJ. LAKELAND - Conti vs Kamea. Finally SEMINOLE - Xia vs Taynara and the opening Womens battle royal is (unsurprisingly) won by champ Shayna.

TVs
Wednesday 2nd NXT has Scott vs Lumis as a dark opener for a big time show where Adam Cole, Baszler and reDRagon turn back challenges from Riddle, LeRae and Street Profits respectively. 4th SmackDown is a monster 20th Year Anni show - Ali vs Murphy is the dark opener, Kevin Owens upsets the incredible Shane McMahon in a "loser leaves" ladder match, and Brock Lesnar smashes Kofi in seconds to win the WWE title and send Kingston back to meaningless tags where he belongs. Sunday 6th in Sacramento is Hell In A Cell, which Meltzer declares one of the worst PPV of all time. Reigns & Bryan drop Harper & Rowan, Becky beats Sasha inside the Cell, Orton halts the momentum of Ali dead in its tracks, Asuka & Kairi beat Nikki & Alexa for the tag belts, Gable upsets Corbin, Charlotte depressingly beats Bayley for the SmackDown belt and a Hell In A Cell between Rollins and The Fiend has a fucking awful finish - with Rollins already losing favour from fans with whom the Fiend character has caught on, he's not permitted to actually beat Wyatt's new character, rather the ref "stops the match" without a winner when Seth uses a sledgehammer. Having not won, after some spooky bollocks "the champ" is then left lying. Oops. Next night in Bakersfield Cesaro vs Miz is an odd dark main for Raw, Wednesdays NXT has Moss vs Reed and Carter vs Purrazzo before a show on which Rush beats Drew Gulak for the CWT, Friday in surburban Vegas Heavy Machinery beat Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel YET AGAIN before the show, and in a confusing mess Bayley rips up her waving inflatable mascots like a heel, pins smug cunt Charlotte (still a heel, I think) CLEAN to win the belt back then smirks like a heel in celebration. Umm... who am I supposed to cheer for here? Monday's RAW in Denver has the Raiders win the tag belts from Ziggler & Roode and dark Rollins beats The Fiend but again, only by DQ. Wednesday at Full Sail the dark matches are Garrett & Li vs Chelsea & Deonna and Rush vs Theory, Fridays SmackDown has Crews vs Kalisto before the show and Cesaro vs Miz after it. 21st Raw has Rollins vs Fiend in a cage dark, Wednesdays NXT is preceded by Conti vs Kamea and Mendoza vs Vink and on the show proper Fly Kicks earn a shot at the (main roster) tag titles. SmackDown has Apollo Crews vs Drake Maverick before it, on the show Evans beats Camron Connors (Amari Miller). Raw in St Louis has Mike Sydal appear in a tag loss to the Raiders and dark another Rollins vs Fiend cage match, NXT has Reina vs MJ and Breezango vs Theory & Mendoza dark, the Kabucki Warriors appear to turn back Fly Kicks plus Tyler Bate sighting - he loses to Grimes. Finally the last day of the month has a rare Thursday PLE - the blood money Crown Jewel has debacles I don't even care to touch on with Strowman vs Tyson Fury and Lesnar vs Cain Velasquez, and on last the companys oldest title actually changes hands in Saudi Arabia as Wyatt drops Rollins in a falls count anywhere match. Apparently there were designs on a Lesnar vs Velasquez rematch at Mania before this match in which Cain sustained an injury which put the mockers on it. Imagine that.
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten on TV this month : Roode & Ziggler (Raw Tag Team Champions) by Viking Raiders.

DEPARTURE
Whoops, jumped the gun on one....

 

Edited April 16 by air_raid
Crowd is here, about to blow.

[air_raid]

NOVEMBER 2019
Tour time! Fucked if I can keep track of who's on what show here. It's a bit of a chore, hope people are still reading!

MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN
Roman Reigns vs King Corbin (what a fucking waste of time) hits Brighton on 7th then 9th-13th in Minehead, Dublin, Vienna, Lille and Zurich - no, "The Man" was not booked in Dublin this year. After a draft lands the Universal title on the blue brand, 16th in Washington its The Fiend vs Braun Strowman in a Last Man Standing match, 23rd in Grand Rapids Bray goes in a cage with Daniel Bryan, 30th in Mexico City its still a cage match atop what I think is a cross-brand supershow and (LOCAL INTEREST) Rey Mysterio challenges.

THE CARDS
It’s most often Shinsuke Nakamura vs Mustafa Ali for the ICT, tag title is usually either The Revival vs New Day (repeats in Washington) or a three way with Luke Harper & Erick Rowan and there are three instances of Daniel Bryan vs Harper, plus Bryan & Ali vs Nakamura & Sami Zayn in Dublin and Lille after a DQ in the title match (repeats in Washington). Four instances too of Sin Cara vs Andrade, Bayley vs Charlotte continues. It's Carmella & Dana Brooke vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville in the British Isles, then vs The Iiconics in mainland Europe. There's also Apollo Crews, Shorty G & Heavy Machinery vs Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode, Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel before they board the plane to Vienna.

VARIATIONS
In Brighton Dana vs Mandy goes to a DQ in a wholly unnecessary extra singles match before the tag. Minehead get Nakamura vs Ali vs Rowan. In Vienna - (LOCAL INTEREST) Walter vs Jordan Devlin for the UK belt, Gable wins a battle royal vs other potential participants in the Lucha House Party tag clusterfuck (and Andrade) and later is involved in the ICT - Nakamura vs Ali vs Rowan vs himself. Lille see Crews, G, Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado beat Dallas, Ziggler, Roode & Cesaro. Zurich it's Nakamura vs Ali vs Crews, Rowan vs Sin Cara, Kalisto/Dorado/Shorty vs Dallas/Ziggler/Roode and (LOCAL INTEREST) Cesaro goes over Andrade. Washington has Bayley vs Nikki Cross, Lio Rush vs Angel Garza for the CWT, Dana vs Tamina, Crews, G, Dorado & Kalisto beat Ziggler, Roode, Cesaro & Harper. Grand Rapids - Nakamura vs The Miz for the ICT, Ricochet upsets Randy Orton, Revival lose to Machinery, Charlotte vs Kairi Sane, Drew McIntyre vs Akira Tozawa, Cross vs Lacey Evans, Rusev vs Bobby Lashley and Andrade loses to Humberto Carrillo. Finally Mexico City, Seth Rollins vs Kevin Owens, Braun beats Nakamura & Zayn in a handicap, Aleister Black vs Andrade again, Asuka & Kairi vs Bayley & Sasha Banks vs Alexa Bliss & Nikki vs Becky Lynch & Charlotte and - huh??? - Gallows & Anderson lose to Humberto and Cain Velasquez.

MAIN EVENTS - RAW
Its The Fiend vs Seth Rollins for the U belt in a cage match 9th-13th in Leeds, Aberdeen (Becky on last for some reason) and Glasgow, a streetfight Amsterdam and Erfurt before Bray heads to SmackDown and now without a champion on the brand (realistically) 14th/15th its Seth vs Drew McIntyre (topical) in Mannheim and Regensburg, then 16th in Dusseldorf Rollins beats AJ Styles by DQ leading to - you guessed it - Rolins & Viking Raiders vs Styles, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows. 29th in Little Rock its Rollins vs Kevin Owens on last.

THE CARDS
On British legs of the tour there's AJ Styles vs Braun Strowman for the US title which ends up breaking down into Braun & Viking Raiders vs AJ, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows. There's Rey Mysterio & Ricochet vs Randy Orton & Drew McIntyre, Womens title is still Becky Lynch vs Sasha Banks, tag title with Asuka & Kairi Sane vs Nikki Cross & Sarah Logan, every night the grudge match of Rusev vs Bobby Lashley plus R-Truth vs Drake Maverick and Cedric Alexander vs Shelton Benjamin, after which Shelton also loses to Angelo Dawkins. In continental Europe we frequently see Kevin Owens stepping into Braun’s spot for the AJ match and six man. Lynch is often back with Lacey Evans and Logan loses to Natalya. Ricochet vs McIntyre repeats to mixed results. Shelton vs Titus O’Neil is also even and sometimes is followed by Shelton losing again to someone else/getting brought back down to Earth. Dawkins & Montez Ford vs Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins repeats too - still Rusev vs Lashley every night.

VARIATIONS 
Drew nor Ricochet wrestle in Aberdeen ; it’s Mysterio vs Orton and Profits vs Benjamin & Maverick vs Truth & Cedric. In Amsterdam a unique six man has Braun, KO and Rey drop the Bullet Club. In Mannheim Doc & Karl do double duty and work a three way with the Profits and former Edgeheads, and Ricochet pins Shelts after his win over Titus. A unique swap in Regensburg has Ricochet do the DQ with AJ followed by the six-man, underneath after Shelton loses to Titus he complains his way into another match and loses to Kev. Little Rock has Lynch vs Charlotte to a DQ followed by the pair of them teaming to beat Asuka & Kairi non title (boo!), Drew vs Cedric, Aleister Black vs Buddy Murphy, Humberto Carrillo vs Andrade and a three way of Raiders vs Profits vs Club.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
Calming down a bit, all the shows are in Florida this month. Most of them look awful too. 1st in Largo it's all the Forgotten Sons, Wesley Blake, Steve Cutler & Jaxson Ryker vs Pete Dunne, Dominik Dijakovic & Nick Ogarelli (Nick Comoroto in ROH today). 2nd in Venice Dunne and Danny Burch beat Riddick Moss & Dorian Mak, 7th in Ocala "The Outliers" and Brendan Vink lose to Tyler Breeze, Fandango & Babatunde then next night in Tampa (University Area Community Development Center ) Breezango beat the Outliers in a straight tag, 9th in St Augustine it's Dakota Kai & Tegan Nox vs Io Shirai & Bianca Belair. 13th back in Tampa (Amalie Arena) Breezango beat Blake & Cutler, 15th in Citrus Springs Dijak & Matt Riddle beat Cutler & Ryker. What an underwhelming crop! Hardly anyone of note is booked for house shows including none of the champions.

REPEAT - ONE!
Deonna Purrazzo vs Xia Li in Largo and St Augustine.

ASSORTED OTHERS
Largo - Cameron Grimes vs Austin Theory, Mia Yim vs MJ Jenkins, Kayden Carter & Santana Garrett vs Vanessa Borne & Aliyah. Venice - Theory vs Ridge Holland, Io Shirai vs Borne, Deonna vs Kayden, Santana & Jessi Kamea vs Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir. Ocala - Keith Lee & Matt Riddle vs Wesley Blake & Jaxson Ryker, Theory vs Angel Garza, Raul Mendoza & Catalina Garcia vs Denzel Dejournette & Carter, Jenkins vs Borne, Garrett & Kamea vs Reina Gonzalez & Indi Hartwell. Tampa (I) - Bronson Reed vs Mendoza, Io vs Xia, Tegan Nox vs Borne. St Augustine - Isiah Scott vs Tehuti Miles, Taynara Conti vs Catalina. Tampa (II) - Theory vs Mansoor, Danny Burch vs Miles, Reina vs Monique (MJ), Garrett & Carter vs Purrazzo & Conti. Citrus - Scott vs Blake, Xia vs Deonna vs Taynara, Kayden vs Chelsea Green.

TVs
1st in Buffalo has some very interesting results as NXT invades SmackDown - in particular Danny Bry challenges Adam Cole for the NXT title and loses. 4th Raw at the Nassau Coliseum Zelina Vega gets a match tagging with Andrade to beat Sin Cara and Catalina, Rollins beats Cole by DQ and dark, loses another cage match to The Fiend. Wednesday night at Full Sail the main roster returns the favour as the OC goes to a no-contest with Keith, Riddle and Tommaso Ciampa. 8th in Manchester they tape a massive 13 matches for SmackDown and Raw including Revival dropping the SmackDown straps to New Day, Reigns dropping a fairly fateful televised pinfall to Corbin, Sin Cara doing possibly his final TV job to Drew, and Soner Durson (who I once considered a future star in the making) losing to Rowan. Wednesday at Full Sail, dark matches have Dexter Lumis vs Daniel Vidot and Chelsea vs Catalina. Friday's NXT:UK taping at Kingston upon Hull has Mark Andrews vs Kassius Ohno on top of 12 televised matches, meanwhile in Philly there's Cesaro vs Crews before SmackDown and both Reigns vs Corbin and Fiend vs Bryan after it. The only thing you might like to know about Saturday's NXT:UK taping is... Pretty Deadly lose to Amir Jordan & Kenny Williams. 18th Raw in Boston, Fiend vs McIntyre inside a cage is an odd dark main. Wednesday at Full Sail Carter vs Borne and Mansoor & Mendoza vs Outliers are the dark matches, and several ex NXT main roster guys come for a fight (including the first Lynch vs Rhea Ripley match). Friday 22nd at the Allstate Cesaro vs Crews is dark again and on the show proper Ripley wins a three way with Charlotte and Sasha and Undisputed Era (Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish & Roderick Strong) beat Heavy Machinery & New Day. next night in the same building a well-received TakeOver has Kev go back to his roots and team with Ciampa, Keith and Dijak to beat the Era in War Games, and Rhea's team beats Shayna Baszler and friends. Survivor Series next nighth (11,500) has NXT beat the main roster in three ways between the Womens teams, midcard champions and (on last) Womens singles champions, plus a fairly decent Brock Lesnar (remember him?) defence against Rey no DQ (Dominick gets involved and takes a good bump in a great finish). On Raw next night, fourth night in Rosemont, Matt Hardy does a job for Murphy, Rey wins the UST from Styles and dark Bray beats Drew in another cage match. Finally Friday in Birmingham AL, Revival vs Metalik & Dorado occurs before SmackDown and Fiend beats Miz after it.

NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten this month : Kabucki Warriors (Womens Tag Team Champions) by Charlotte & Natalya

DEPARTURES
Jordan Myles aka ACH is released from his WWE contract on 11/21. He posts a video to socials stating that he quit WWE, explaining he refused to “work for racists” over an apparently contentious t-shirt design, and that the name Jordan Myles is a “slave name” he no longer wished to be known as. Huh. Sin Cara also requests and receives his release from WWE, stating he felt under valued in the promotion, and wanted to continue his career elsewhere. This being decent Sin Cara who was Incognito/Hunico, not Mistico/original Sin Cara who botched a lot. He goes to AAA and goes by Cinta de Ora to honour one of his late mentors. Having been denied his release as long ago as April, and despite being somewhat featured for the last couple of months, Luke Harper's appearance in Washington is his last match for the company and he's released in December. He trademarks "Brodie Lee" for his own use, you probably all know the rest of his story.

 

 

[HarmonicGenerator]

I don’t recognise the name Soner Durson at all. Who was he? (He?)

[Statto]

1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

I don’t recognise the name Soner Durson at all. Who was he? (He?)

A Britwres fella. He was never a WWE guy (not even NXT:UK IIRC), the appearance noted here was a 60 second "local competitor" job (in the early days of the mysterious cage gimmick for Rowan).

As for ACH - it was a pretty racist t-shirt, TBF. 

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

I don’t recognise the name Soner Durson at all. Who was he? (He?)

Cruiserweight lad who I saw a fair few times in Stockport/Prestwich… probably not known much outside Greater Manchester but I saw him come on leaps and bounds and thought he was in with a shout at cracking the level of a Kris Travis/Joey Hayes/Noam Dar “national recognition” position. Then I stopped going to shows, lost track of the scene, the pandemic happened, and four years later I’m learning he didn’t quite make it.

[air_raid]

DECEMBER 2019
There’s occasionally a sense of what brand you’re supposed to be watching but with no rhyme or reason to much of it (Fiend tops a Raw show, Rollins supports a Reigns main) I can’t be bothered to divide them for so few shows. Well, there will soon be far fewer, but you know.

MAIN EVENTS 
7th in Jacksonville there’s another of The Fiend vs Drew McIntyre for the U belt in a cage atop a mixed up but mostly Raw card, next night in Augusta GA has Seth Rollins vs Erick Rowan in a streetfight while Fiend vs Shinsuke Nakamura (huh?) in the cage goes on before intermission in Daytona Beach (Reigns on last), 12th in Ashwaubenon (suburban Green Bay) and 14th in Cedar Rapids The Miz goes in the cage with the champ. After Christmas things are slightly more settled - Boxing Day at MSG (12,000 only) it's Rollins vs Kevin Owens, and the Rollins heel turn really is rolling, 27th in Pittsburgh he's teaming with Authors Of Pain to beat Kev and Street Profits, before 28th/29th Rollins vs Owens "No Holds Barred" tops Baltimore and Hershey. Meanwhile, it's Fiend vs Daniel Bryan vs The Miz inside a cage 26th in Cincinnati, 28th in Toronto (7000 but its the Coca-Cola Coliseum, an ice hockey ground, not one of the big ones), 29th in Laval (Quebec) and 30th at the Staples Center - although everywhere except Cincinnati "The Big Dog" is still closing the show.

THE CARDS
Roman Reigns vs King Corbin continues 8th/12th. Seth Rollins vs Erick Rowan repeats Jacksonville and Cedar Rapids undercards as well as Augusta and both pre PPV Raw-heavy shows repeat Becky Lynch vs Charlotte going to a non finish then the pair of them beating Asuka & Kairi Sane non title. There’s New Day vs The Revival for the SmackDown tag belts on both Jacksonville and in Cedar Rapids sandwiching two rounds of a three way with Heavy Machinery, and both Green Bay and Cedar Rapids get Shinsuke Nakamura vs Mustafa Ali for the ICT and Bayley vs Lacey Evans (recurs in Cincinnati) - umm, aren’t both heels? Aleister Black vs Buddy Murphy also shows up on Augusta and Cedar Rapids and mid month Shorty G vs Cesaro (also repeating in Cincinnati) are not losses I’d expect for the “Swiss superman” and similarly Elias vs Dolph Ziggler straddles Christmas in Ashwaubenon and Cincinnati, both won by "The Drifter." Month end, Randy Orton vs AJ Styles is a belting match to go to intermission on the Raw shows, we're back to Becky vs Charlotte vs Asuka for the Raw Womens title, there are three rounds each of Viking Raiders vs Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs Street Profits for Raw's tag belts, Braun Strowman, Kofi & Big E vs Nakamura, Cesaro & Sami Zayn, Ziggler vs Gable (more upsets), Bayley & Sasha Banks vs Evans & Dana Brooke vs Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross, Revival vs Gran Metalik & Kalisto, Carmella vs one or the other of Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, four nights of Drew McIntyre vs No Way Jose, and a few instances of R-Truth vs The Singh Brothers (one or both) in 24/7 shenanigans. Ricochet vs Bobby Lashley at MSG and in Pittsburgh feels like a big scalp for Trev, on the same nights as Andrade vs Rey Mysterio for the US title (the Garden sees a clean switch) - in Baltimore and Hershey it's Andrade vs Ric vs Bob. Finally, still Reigns vs Corbin in streetfights and Black vs Murphy.

VARIATIONS 
In Jacksonville Andrade loses back to back to Humberto Carrillo then Kev. Augusta get a rerun of Ricochet & Raiders vs AJ & chums, Humberto & Owens beating Andrade & Drew and Street Profits vs Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins. In Daytona upsets ahoy in Cross vs Banks and (to my mind) Ali vs Cesaro, plus there’s Bayley vs Carmella and Gable vs Drew Gulak. Ashwaubenon has a sole singles match of Cross vs Brooke. Cedar Rapids, Reigns vs Ziggler goes on last and Corbin and Elias are off. Pittsburgh its a straight Raiders vs Club 2 on 2. Unique to Cincinnati it's Strowman beating Nakamura by DQ in an ICT match, New Day vs Metalik & Kalisto vs Dawson & Curtis Axel for the tag belts (Dash must have missed his flight) and the womens 3way sees Bliss & Cross beat Mella & Dana and Fire & Desire.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
5th in Jacksonville its Shayna Baszler vs Reina Gonzalez for the Womens belt on last atop an all-female card(!), next night in Dade City it's Keith Lee, Matt Riddle & Dominik Dijakovic vs Cameron Grimes, Dorian Mak & Killian Dain, then 7th in Tampa Keith wins a four-way over Marcel Barthel, Danny Burch and Ridge Holland. Big guns are indeed back on the road and they're out in Cali - 12th in Riverside and 14th Santa Cruz Riddle and Keith face Adam Cole & Kyle O'Reilly, 13th in Visalia and 15th in San Jose Keith vs Finn Balor is on last.
B shows - 12th in Largo it's Kushida vs Austin Theory, next night in Fort Pierce Kush is with Shane Thorne, 14th in Orlando Tony Nese vs Joaquin Wilde vs Raul Mendoza goes on last.

THE REPEATS
Early month Taynara Conti & Briana Brandy vs Catalina Garcia & Rita Reis repeats in Jacksonville and Dade City - the names you don't recognize are better known as B-Fab and Valentina Feroz. In California there are several repeats - two rounds of Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne vs Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake and Bronson Reed vs Killian Dain, or Dunne vs Dain and Reed vs Kona Reeves, Womens title with Shayna Baszler vs Candice LeRae and Rhea Ripley vs Io Shirai or Mia Yim vs Dakota Kai with Ripley & LeRae vs Baszler & Shirai, Isiah Scott vs Cameron Grimes goes 1-1 and there are three nights of Angel Garza vs Lio Rush for the NXT CWT. 

SOME OTHERS
In Jacksonville the incredibly progressive all-girl show has LeRae, Ripley & Yim vs Kai, Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke, Io vs Santana Garrett, Bianca Belair vs Monique Jenkins, Deonna Purrazzo vs Kayden Carter, Chelsea Green vs Shotzi Blackheart, Xia Li vs Jessi Kamea and Vanessa Borne vs Indi Hartwell. Dade follows with Kayden & Xia vs Deonna & Chelsea, plus Mansoor vs Austin Theory, Scott vs Ridge Holland and Kushida vs Dexter Lumis. Tampa has Rita lose to MJ, mixed tag action of Ripley & Riddle vs Shafir & Roderick Strong, Dunne vs Reeves, Dominik Dijakovic vs Jaxson Ryker and Scott & Mansoor vs Blake & Cutler. Largo see Belair vs Carter and Blackheart vs Purrazzo plus Raul Mendoza vs Joaquin Wilde and Mansoor vs Brendan Vink while in Riverside there's Tyler Breeze vs Blake. In Fort Pierce there's Jenkins vs Hartwell and a six woman of Vanessa/Jessi/Deonna vs Brandy/Garrett/Blackheart plus Travis Banks vs Lumis, same night in Visalia it's Breeze vs Grimes. In Orlando it's Conti vs Carter, Green vs Jenkins, Indi vs Reina Gonzalez and Danny Burch vs Shane Thorne, in Santa Cruz there's Breeze vs Ryker. Finally in San Jose - Garza vs Scott for the belt, Breeze vs Reeves, Rush vs Grimes.

TVs
1st in Duluth is Starrcade and there's a whopping 6 extra matches on top of the hour streamed live on the Network - Nakamura vs Miz, Black vs Andrade then Ricochet also beating Andrade, Orton vs Styles, Reigns vs Corbin and Fiend vs Strowman(!) inside a cage(!) - everything except the WWE Champion was thrown at that one. Next nights Raw, Lynch vs Kairi is the dark main. 4th at Full Sail Wilde vs Chase Parker and Carter vs Kamea are the dark openers. Nothing dark happens at Tribute To The Troops, the same night in Fayetteville Carmella vs Tamina and Fiend vs Miz bookend the taping. Monday 9th Raw Matt Hardy shows his face to lose to Drew. Wednesday at Full Sail Roddy vs Theory for the NAT is a remarkably strong dark opener, there's also Thorne vs Sean Maluta and for TV Garza beats Rush for the CWT. Friday 13th SmackDown in Milwaukee has Kalisto vs Gulak just for those in attendance and fuck all of note. 15th in Minneapolis TLC is a baffling card on which <iz (miscast as a babyface again) faces Bray in his "Firefly Funhouse host" persona non title, there's no ICT or UST match (yes, they did a PPV without ANY of the four major mens singles titles at stake), Corbin beats Roman in a ladder match (ick) and on last the Kabuki Warriors beat Lynch & Charlotte in another... no wonder only 8500 turned up. Next night in Des Moines they tape two episodes of Raw so everyone gets a break, Titus O'Neil vs Erik Young curtain jerks, Matt wrestles in a gauntlet match and Purrazzo and Green actually get on Raw (losing to Asuka and Charlotte respectively). Wednesday at Full Sail Rhea beats Baszler to win the belt. 20th they do SmackDown and tape an NXT at the Barclays, Lince Dorado vs Gulak opens. Friday 27th in Detroit there's a SmackDown, Revival vs Kalisto & Metalik dark, and they tape Reigns vs Ziggler for a New Years Eve special on Fox. Finally 30th Raw in Hartford is one of the most beige sounding shows of all time - if you held a gun to my head, I'd say Profits vs Gallows & Anderson or McIntyre vs Hawkins & Ryder in a handicap are the most interesting sounding matches. Imagine.

NON TITLE WHINING
None. Fairly typical of an awfully boring sounding month of TV.

DEPARTURE
The Ascension last worked Main Event on 8th April, and have not been used since, and finally get their papers this month. Don't worry, plenty more coming.

 

[air_raid]

JANUARY 2020
Welcome to the last "normal" post of these for a while. Well, I say that, at first glance there may be more NXT house shows than main roster ones, so I'm not sure it qualifies. Anyone would think covid had already struck!

THE MAIN EVENTS
4th in Cape Girardeau The Fiend vs Daniel Bryan vs The Miz for the U belt goes on before intermission with a Big Dog multiman on last, next night in Springfield Bray's off so Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Big E & Kofi Kingston vs King Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura & The Revival closes. 10th/11th in Fairborn (Nutter Center, suburban Dayton) and Corbin KY Wyatt vs Miz is underneath, Reigns vs Corbin continues on top in - is this real? - the dreaded Loser Eats Dog Food match. In 2020? Piss off! Some semblance of normaly sees Raw shows headlined by Samoa Joe, Aleister Black & Street Profits vs Seth Rollins, Buddy Murphy & Authors Of Pain 17th/18th in Lafayette and Jackson then 19th it's Joe, Ricochet and Kevin Owens vs Seth/AoP in Topeka. Meanwhile 18th-19th - Bloodline represent! - Reigns and The Usos knock off Corbin, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode in Knoxville and Chattanooga atop Fiend vs Bryan underneath.

THE CARDS
In Missourri it's Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins, both Womens titles with Becky Lynch vs Natalya and Bayley vs Lacey Evans on the same shows, Viking Raiders vs The Revival for the Raw tag belts and continuation of Aleister Black vs Buddy Murphy. In the Mid West, we add back Randy Orton vs AJ Styles, it's Braun Strowman, Big E & Kofi Kingston vs Revival and Shinsuke Nakamura, and a 3-way of Charlotte vs Asuka vs Nattie (just 6 matches in Fairborn). In the Deep South Raw shows, Becky, Charlotte and Nattie team to beat Sarah Logan, Asuka and Kairi Sane, and there are two nights each for Raiders vs AJ & Luke Gallows (Karl's injured), Rusev & Liv Morgan vs Bobby Lashley & Lana, Andrade vs Cedric Alexander for the US title, Drew McIntyre vs No Way Jose and a couple of nights 24/7 nonsense that always starts as R-Truth vs Mojo Rawley, plus three more rounds of Black vs Murphy (which preceeds those 8-man mains). In Tennessee there's Braun & New Day vs Nakamura, Cesaro and Sami Zayn, Bayley vs Evans vs Alexa Bliss, Heavy Machinery vs Dash & Dawson, Mustafa Ali vs Drew Gulak and - he's back! - Sheamus vs Shorty G.

VARIATIONS
With no Fiend in Springfield its Bryan vs Miz. In Corbin but not Fairborn there's Rusev vs Lashley as a singles match. Exclusive to Lafayette are  McIntyre vs Cedric and Andrade vs Ricochet. In Topeka only there's a match for Street Profits, added to the tag title to make a three way. Only in Knoxville does Nakamura vs Strowman to a DQ precede the six-man.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
Judgment Day!! 10th in Pittsburgh it's Matt Riddle & Tommaso Ciampa vs Finn Balor & Damien Priest, then 11th in Warren OH and 12th in Buffalo it's Ciampa tagging with Dominik Dijakovic. 17th in Melbourne its Keith Lee vs Kona Reeves, next night in Largo Priest vs Shane Thorne goes on last. They're back on tour next - 23rd in Memphis it's Adam Cole vs Pete Dunne for the big belt, next night in Shreveport Dunne, Dijkak, Keith and Riddle beat Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish and Roderick Strong. Finally 31st in Citrus Springs Dunne vs Priest goes on last.
B shows - 10th in Venice Austin Theory vs Dorian Mak sure doesn't sound main event, next night in Fort Pierce it's Theory vs Kona Reeves. 

REPEATS
Holy shit! In Pittsburgh and Warren, it's Kushida & Alex Shelley vs Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake! In Pittsburgh and Buffalo its both Rhea Ripley vs Shayna Baszler in a title rematch and Bianca Belair & Taynara Conti vs Mia Yim & Kayden Carter, plus Raul Mendoza vs Danny Burch all three nights. Plus there's also Austin Theory vs Dorian Mak in both Venice and Melbourne.

OTHERS
Pittsburgh - Dominik Dijakovic vs Shane Thorne. Venice - Monique Jenkins vs Marina Shafir and Reina Gonzalez & Briana Brandy vs Deonna Purrazzo & Indi Hartwell. Warren - Keith Lee vs Thorne, Bronson Reed vs Cameron Grimes and Rhea/Mia/Kayden vs Baszler/Belair/Conti. Fort Pierce - Io Shirai vs Catalina Garcia, Reina, Shotzi Blackheart & Rita Reis vs Purrazzo, Hartwell & Jessi Kamea and Santana Garrett vs Vanessa Borne. Buffalo - Matt Riddle vs Thorne, Lee vs Grimes and Kushida vs Arturo Ruas. Melbourne - Chelsea Green vs Carter, Kacy Catanzaro vs Borne and Garcia vs Shafir. Largo - Kush & Isiah Scott vs Mike Kanellis & Tony Nese, Theory vs Chase Parker, Mia vs MJ and Shotzi vs Jessi. Memphis - Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish & Roderick Strong vs Keith/Reed/Dijak, Rhea vs Reina for the Womens title, Angel Garza vs Mendoza for the CWT, Riddle vs Jordan Devlin, Moustache Mountain vs Blake & Cutler, Ilja Dragunov vs Grimes and Belair & Kay Lee Ray vs Yim & Carter. Shreveport - Rhea & Mia (heh) vs KLR & Belair, Garza vs Scott, Walter & Marcel Barthel vs Blake & Cutler, Trent Seven vs Grimes, Tyler Bate vs Mendoza, Dragunov vs Reed and Reina vs Kayden. Finally Citrus Springs - Gonzalez vs Garrett, Carter vs Purrazzo and Kamea/Borne/Hartwell vs Garcia, Reis and.. here's another look at Mercedes Martinez, who I always rated.

TVs
3rd in Memphis (6500) Ali vs Curtis Axel is the dark opener. 6th Raw in Oklahoma City (5500) Akira Tozawa gets on TV losing a short match to AJ and dark Asuka wins a three way over Becky and Charlotte. Wednesday night in Full Sail Garrett vs Hartwell and Mansoor vs Brendan Vink go one before they air live. 10th SmackDown in Evansville, Ali vs Gulak and Fiend vs Bryan are the dark matches. That Sunday in Blackpool there's a second UK TakeOver but nothing dark or especially notable. 13th Raw in Lexington, Big Show sighting! He teams with Joe and Kev to lose to Rollins and AoP in a "Fist Fight Match" which I'm not looking up what it means. Wednesday's NXT is in Bedford TX, Reed vs Ruas and Grime vs Burch are dark and Belair wins a contenders battle royal. Friday is the first of two nights UK tapings in York, Brian Kendrick is on hand to lose to Travis Banks. Meanwhile in Greensboro Ali beats Gulak again, look who's back - John Morrison pins Big E - and its Fiend vs Bryan again after cameras. Next night in York Kendrick loses to A-Kid (Axiom) and Toni Storm continues treading water losing an I Quit match to KLR. Monday 20th Raw in Wichita, Rollins & Murphy become my most-forgotten tag team champions ever by beating the Raiders and Andrade retains over Rey Mysterio in a ladder match - nothing dark. Wednesday's NXT has Mountain vs Reeves & Vink plus Grimes vs Babatunde before the show, Keith beats Roddy for the NAT. Friday before SmackDown Ali beats Apollo Crews and after it Fiend beats Bryan yet again. 25th in Houston a very decent card for When Worlds Collide sees Devlin lift the CWT, Ripley retain against old rival Toni and all four Imperium beat all four Undisputed. Next nighht a 42,000 gate must have been relief for the Royal Rumble - there's a lot of inconsequential rubbish, Charlotte wins the Women's Rumble and Drew wins the mens, despite WWE Champion Brock Lesnar (remember him?) entering himself. Next night on Raw MVP returns too, losing to Rey. Kamea vs Kacy and Joaquin Wilde vs Parker are dark before Wednesday's NXT on which Dunne & Riddle win the Dusty Classic against Grizzled Young Veterans, and finally 31st SmackDown in Tulsa it's again Ali vs Crews, Miz & JoMo become top contenders, Braun wins the ICT and apparently the Bloodline beat Corbin/Ziggler/Roode in a Loser Eats Dog Food match. I'm not watching it to see if they followed up. Fuck sake.

NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten this month : Nakamura, obviously (Intercontinental Champion) by Strowman, Bayley (SmackDown Womens Champion) by Lacey.
DEPARTURE
I probably wouldn't mention someone as marginal as Vanessa Borne usually but she's been showing up for ages... this is the last month she gets a match.

[air_raid]

FEBRUARY 2020.... and the rest.
Look, the world comes to an end in March, cancelling house shows and the entire concept of "dark match" for the foreseeable future. So.. there's no point in anything BUT condensing the rest of 2020 into one entry.

THE MAIN EVENTS
8th-10th in Oakland and Fresno, 15th/16th in Eugene and Kennewick then 23rd in Brandon, there are three rounds on top for Roman Reigns vs King Corbin and Drew McIntyre vs Seth Rollins, which also headlines 01/03 in Salisbury - and the first three shows of Feb also have The Fiend vs Daniel Bryan for the U belt which actually goes on first in Cali. Leap Day in Elmira and 1st March in Syracuse (yes, two shows on one night) Reigns tags with The Usos (Bloodline represent!) to beat Corbin, Sheamus & Robert Roode, 7th in Allentown our last house show for bloody ages still has Fiend vs Bryan without the title, supporting Drew vs Randy Orton.

THE CARDS
New Day vs The Revival vs The Miz & John Morrison for the SmackDown tag belts repeats in California and again in New York after the switch to MNM2. There are six instances of Bayley vs Lacey Evans for the SmackDown Womens title and four of Becky Lynch vs Charlotte vs Asuka for the big one, Lynch vs Asuka repeats in Kennewick and Brandon. Common to both West Coast shots are Samoa Joe & Kevin Owens vs Authors Of Pain and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs Viking Raiders, mid month we get AoP & Buddy Murphy going over Ricochet & Street Profits plus Rusev & Liv Morgan vs Bobby Lashley & Lana. In New York there's also twice Shorty G vs Drew Gulak.

VARIATIONS
In Eugene Big E beats Miz in singles, in Kennewick he knocks off JoMo. Elias vs Cesaro is unique to Eugene. Brandon see Owens, Ricochet & Ivar vs Murphy & AoP, Morgan vs Lana in singles, Alesister Black vs Erick Rowan, R-Truth vs Shelton Benjamin, Street Profits vs Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins and Angel Garza vs Humberto Carrillo. In Elmira Braun Strowman & Elias beat Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro ; in Syracuse its split into Braun retaining the ICT over Cesaro and Nakamura vs Elias (no contest). In Salisbury, Asuka & Kairi Sane drop a DQ to Charlotte & Becky but retain the belts, Andrade retains the UST over Humberto, KO & the Profits beat Murphy & AoP, Morgan beats former buddy Sarah Logan and Shayna Baszler beats Natalya (obviously). Finally in Allentown AoP get an upgrade but with new partner Seth Rollins still lose to Kev/Dawkins/Ford on first, a DQ in Aly vs AJ Styles leads to Black & the Raiders beating the Bullet Club, Ricochet upsets Lashley and Baszler drops Morgan.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
1st in Orlando it's Kushida & Isiah Scott vs Shane Thorne & Kona Reeves vs Tony Nese & Mike Kanellis, then they're off around the country again ; 7th in Phoenix it's Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish vs Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa for the tag belts, next night in Vegas DIY, Pete Dunne and Matt Riddle beat Adam Cole, reDRagon and Roderick Strong, 9th in Riverside the babyfaces are DIY, Keith Lee and Velveteen Dream. Back in Florida, 14th in Tampa Kushida vs Ridge Holland goes on last, next night in Fort Pierce, somehow, it's Joaquin Wilde vs Dexter Lumis. 21st in Milwaukee Cole vs Ciampa for the big belt is the main, next night in Oshkosh Ciampa/Dunne/Riddle beat Cole & reDRagon, 23rd in St Paul it's Ciampa, Dream and "The Broserweights" beating the four-strong Era. 28th in Largo is a dreadfully weak card - Isiah Scott vs Shane Thorne 5th of 8 matches is the strongest sounding, Leap Day in Jacksonville Riddle & Dunne defend their newly won tag belts against Imperium lads Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel. 5th March in Columbus Keith & Ciampa beat Cole & Strong, next night in Cleveland Ciampa vs Austin Theory is an odd choice to go on last, 7th in Detroit the "Sicilian Psychopath" is with Damien Priest.
B shows! 21st in Ocala it's Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel vs Tony Nese & Mike Kanellis, next night in Cocoa Nese & Kanellis lose to Lio Rush & Dio Maddin. 6th March in Melbourne Rhea Ripley vs Chelsea Green for the belt in our main, next night in Orlando Kushida vs Bobby Fish was probably very watchable.

REPEATS
In the deserts we've got Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne vs Austin Theory & Dorian Mak and Angel Garza vs Shane Thorne in Phoenix and Riverside, Rhea Ripley vs Bianca Belair (repeats in Oshkosh) and Candice LeRae & Tegan Nox vs Dakota Kai & Jessi Kamea in Phoenix and Vegas, Jordan Devlin vs Kushida for the CWT in Vegas and Riverside, Damien Priest vs Cameron Grimes happens in Riverside and repeats in both Ohio cities. February week 3 has Belair vs Kayden Carter in both Milwaukee and St Paul and Priest vs Dominik Dijakovic in both Oshkosh and St Paul and Tino Sabbatelli vs Denzel Dejournette in both Cocoa and Largo. Other early March repeats have Adam Cole vs Dio Maddin as an oddball title match in Cleveland and Detroit with a DQ finish that leads to Maddin & Keith Lee beating Cole & Roderick Strong and three nights of Riddle & Dunne vs Shane Thorne & Brendan Vink for the tag belts plus Theory vs Bronson Reed and both Mia Yim, Tegan & Kayden vs Dakota, Raquel Gonzalez & Santana Garrett and Candice vs Aliyah in Cleveland and Detroit. Other repeats see Grimes vs Rik Bugez in Tampa and Milwaukee, Rhea vs Chelsea Green both on St Paul's undercard and on last in Melbourne, and Shotzi Blackheart vs Taynara Conti in Ocala and Melbourne.

OTHERS
Orlando (1) - Theory vs Dexter Lumis, Garrett vs Indi Hartwell, Reed & Shotzi vs Grimes & Gonzalez and MJ Jenkins & Kamea vs Rita Reis & Briana Brandy. Phoenix - Keith vs Priest for the NAT, Kushida vs Roddy, Grimes vs Babatunde. Vegas - Keith vs Grimes, Priest vs Babatunde, Garza vs Theory. Riverside - Garza vs Thorne, Belair vs Nox, Rhea & Candice vs Kai & Kamea. Tampa - Joaquin Wilde vs Vink, Xia Li vs Garrett, Reed & Thorne vs Pretty Deadly, Aoife Valkyrie vs Aliyah, Killian Dain vs Babatunde. Fort Pierce - Ridge Holland vs Bugez, Carter vs Green, Shotzi vs Marina Shafir, Deadly vs Raul Mendoza & Jorge Bolly (Santos Escobar), Isiah Scott vs Kona Reeves, Yim/Valkyrie/Rita vs Jenkins/Kamea/Conti. Milwaukee is stacked - Riddle & Dunne vs Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish for the tag belts, Keith vs Priest vs Dijakovic for the NAT, Finn Balor vs Kushida (ooosh), Roddy vs Velveteen Dream, Ripley/Yim/Nox vs Kai/Gonzalez/Green. Oshkosh - Keith vs Roderick, Balor vs Bugez, Kushida vs Lumis, Nox/Yim/Carter vs Kai/Gonzalez/Green. St Paul - Lee vs Balor, Kushida vs Grimes, Nox & Yim vs Kai & Gonzalez, Lumis vs Bugez. Ocala - Deadly vs Reed & Thorne, Garrett vs Kamea, Bolly vs Vink and Deonna Purrazzo/Indi/MJ vs Reis, Catalina Garcia and Emily Andzulis (Ivy Nile). Cocoa - Sabbatelli beats Rocky, then Daniel Vidot (Xyon Quinn) before finally falling to Dejournette, plus Mercedes Martinez vs Marina. Largo - Xia vs Indi, Gonzalez vs Kacy Catanzaro, Carter vs Brandy. Jacksonville - Bolly vs Bugez, Yim vs Shafir, Deonna vs Emily, Reis & Blackheart vs Taynara & Aliyah and Thorne & Cal Bloom vs Holland and (last NXT house show) Kassius Ohno. Cleveland - Nox/Yim/Carter vs Kai/Gonzalez/Aliyah, LeRae vs Garrett. Melbourne - Garcia & Reis vs MJ & B-Fab. Finally Orlando (2) - Bugez vs Sabbatelli, Tyler Breeze vs Mak, Chelsea vs Shafir, Hartwell vs Andzulis, Kacy & Shotzi vs Brandy & Jenkins.

TVs
3rd Feb Raw in Salt Lake City has - do you remember this? - Ricochet win a top contenders match for the WWE title. Wednesday's NXT has Carter/Hartwell and Thorne/Theory dark matches plus Martinez gets back on TV pinning Catanzaro and Breeze does a job for Devlin. 7th SmackDown has Mustafa Ali vs Gulak and Fiend vs Miz bookend the taping. 10th Raw, Rhea shows up and beats Logan, Akira Tozawa loses to Black and dark Orton beats R-Truth. Two nights later at Full Sail Mansoor vs Artturo Ruas and Mercedes vs Xia are the dark matches. 14th SmackDown in Vancouver there's Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik vs Gulak & Drake Maverick opening, a fun sounding TV main of Reigns & Bryan vs Miz & John Morrison, and for some reason Fiend vs Corbin for the belt as a dark main. Saturday 16th in Portland sees Keith, Rhea and Cole retain their titles at TakeOver but Riddle & Dunne relieve reDRagon of the tag belts. 17th Raw MVP gets a match and loses to Drew like it's 2009 all over again. NXY has dark openers of Priest vs Grimes and Candice & Kacy vs Taynara & Deonna and on the TV proper Kona loses to Keith. 21st SmackDown in suburban Phoenix, Apollo Crews vs Metalik is a dark opener and Reigns vs Corbin goes on last. Monday night in Winnipeg McIntyre vs Rollins (topical) is the dark main, Wednesday night Charlotte shows up in NXT in response to Ripley and beats Belair, Grizzled Young Veterans beat our old friends Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake and dark matches are Shotzi vs Aliyah and the new tag champs vs Mak & Thorne. Thursday (WTF) has a blood money PPV in Riad chock full of happenings, for better or for worse. MNM2 beat New Day for SmackDown's tag belts, Brock Lesnar (remember him?) retains over Ricochet, The Undertaker shows up unexpectedly in his last legitimate in ring action, pinning AJ to win some gauntlet, and with plans off for Fiend vs Reigns, Bray's new character is sacrificied to Bill Goldberg who - earmarked to put over Reigns at Mania - lifts the Universal title for the second time. 28th SmackDown has Reigns vs Corbin after John Cena Appreciation Night which kicks off the build for John's match with The Fiend at Mania. 2nd March Raw at the Barclays (just 9000) the Street Profits win the tag belts from Rollins & Murphy then Drew beats Rowan dark. 4th at Full Sail, Priest vs Liam Gray and Bolly/Mendoza/Wilde vs Kushida/Breeze/Tehuti Miles are the bonus matches - plus both Strong vs Dream and Nox vs Kai are blown off in cage matches for broadcast. 6th at the Coventry SkyDome 700 fans brave the apparent coronavirus dangers for the first night of NXT:UK tapings, and Balor shows up to beat Alexander Wolfe. Next night Toni Storm vs Isla Dawn, Walter vs Ridge Holland and Ilja Dragunov winning a contenders battle royal are the highlights. Same night in Buffalo (a healthy 10,000 - not that they will all have stayed healthy!) SmackDown has a dark Fiend vs Bryan main event. Near 15,000 stupidly turn up for Elimination Chamber where Sami Zayn wins the ICT in a handicap and Shayna whitewashes the Chamber, a win originally meant for Lacey Evans but she's with child. Next night's Raw has no dark matches and that's the last show in front of fans. For some reason 13th SmackDown at the Performance Center has a Team NXT vs Team 205 match which is dark, even though no fans are there, so literally nobody ever saw it - Breeze, Scott, Kushida, Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan go over Brian Kendrick, Nese, Kanellis, Jack Gallagher and Ariya Daivari - the darkest match of all time. Thus ends my interest in TV tapings for the rest of 2020 because, with no fans in attendance, they don't tape any matches that aren't going to air.
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten on TV this month : Miz & Morrison (SmackDown Tag Team Champions) by The Usos - just one day after winning them on their first TV after winning them. Fuck.

DEPARTURES
Losing to Keith is Kona Reeves' last match of any kind, he's eventually released in 2021 and as recently discussed on here, now works as a German Mechanic at Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. These are the last matches for Tino Sabbatelli. He's not been long back from his injury and they tried and tried, especially in his team with Riddick Moss, but some things are not meant to be. Don't feel bad for him, he's with Mandy Rose. Coventry has the last of Kassius Ohno a/k/a Chris Hero in his second go-round with the company ; one might suggest he was lucky to get another turn. Great wrestler, not a fit for WWE in reality. Melbourne is the last match for the lovely Taynara Conti. The pruning for covid budget cuts went deep. Syracuse is the last gig for The Revival. They start the process which will end in them being granted their release by 10th April. Chief among their concerns is that they think they're one of the best tag teams in the world and have essentially not had chance to prove it since leaving NXT and they hold no hope that tag team wrestling will be taken more seriously in WWE. They point to Braun beating the whole division by himself and winning the tag belts with a ten year old and the only tag match at SummerSlam (womens tag title) being on the pre-show as examples. Apparently the final big pitch in a face to face meeting with Vince, on top of pretty good money to stay, was a repackage including (according to leaked concept sketches that the pair have confirmed as what they were shown) bright colors, tassels, glow sticks and lipstick. They've said they weren't sure if this was genuinely an idea with a future in Vince's head, or designed to convince them leaving was right for them, but either way, they turned it down. Words fail me.

There are no house shows until July 2021 so effectively that would put us on hiatus - the roster will go through a lot of changes so I've cherry picked a few from the rest of 2020 ; Big Show wrestles his last match for the company on the Mania tapings for airing the Raw after Mania - we've discussed him previously. April 20 covid budget cuts - Primo & Epico, Mike Bennett ("Kanellis"), Maria, No Way Jose, Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, Eric Young, Heath Slater, Drake Maverick, Erick Rowan, Sarah Logan, Lio Rush, Aiden English, Curtis Axel, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Kurt Angle. Except Maverick stays, you may know the story. What can you possibly say about how much they missed the boat on Rusev? That they were idiots to not do more with Rusev Day? That the Lashley/Lana thing was a disaster and should never have been green-lit? Well, the biggest gripe that the man himself had wasn't really creative, but personal ;

“After I had my shoulder surgery I heard about, you know, Hunter’s got all his boys and they’re texting every day. They’re best friends and after my shoulder surgery, after I give up my life for this freaking company, like not even one person reached out, you know what I mean. Not Vince, not Hunter, not Carano, nobody was man enough to be like, ‘Hey bud, are you ok? Do you need anything? I know you’re in the hospital, you’re by yourself because your wife is at freaking work.’"

June 20 - Mojo Rawley. It was a one note joke at its peak, Hype Bros was as good a chance as he was going to get, I'm stunned he stayed employed so long after they were split up. Those 24/7 title reigns didn't save him. Aug 20 - Sonya Deville takes a leave of absence from WWE after losing her Loser Leaves WWE match to Mandy at SummerSlam - originally scheduled as Hair vs Hair, which she would lose, her lawyers advised against getting her cut ahead of her court appearance regarding her stalker. Which is the reason for her time off. She's back in a non-wrestling authority capacity in January, and excluding brief handicaps and non starts finally returns to full time wrestling in January 22. December 20 - Velveteen Dream wrestles his last match for the company - he'll be released in May. Let's just say, there were accusations about him and it rhymes with brooming underage toys.

Edited 20 hours ago by air_raid
Houston is calling me back to her

[HarmonicGenerator]

What was the last house show card before the Covid shutdowns? And was this the longest gap between house shows they ever had? (I know it must be, but it’s interesting all the same)

[Donald J Trump]

Resuming drunken rage noise? 

[air_raid]

2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

What was the last house show card before the Covid shutdowns?

That would be Allentown.

https://www.wrestlingdata.com/index.php?befehl=shows&show=483773
 

[Chili]

Will you be covering WCW or pre 87 WWF when you get to speed because I still love this thread Raid!

[air_raid]

7 hours ago, Chili said:

Will you be covering WCW or pre 87 WWF when you get to speed because I still love this thread Raid!

This has been on my mind a lot. I will probably do a poll because there are many options - revisit previous ones and refresh to the more detailed format (I.e the bi annual or quarterly ones, do them monthly instead), go back to 84 and the return of Hogan, go back further and see what a Bruno schedule looked like… or do the NWA or WCW. And where’s a good starting point there? Flairs first title reign? 83 to lead to Starrcade? 1990 and the Turner buy out of JCP?

It’s definitely more fun to be deeper in the past. I mean, it IS fun to think (example) “I wonder what they’ve done with Cody on the road since he came back?” (Spoiler - Rollins for months, Solo for months, Balor for a bit) But it was more fun spotting jobbers that became stars on old Challenge tapings or counting down until the last time they book Jim Brunzell.

[air_raid]

JULY-AUGUST 2021
... and we're back! Jesus, much has changed. Major players have been created from NXT, returned from retirement, or departed. In some cases departed and returned. Title changes, drafts, all sorts. But they're back on the road, that's all that matters. And Big Match John is back. I mean, so is Eva Marie, but she's not on the road.

THE MAIN EVENTS
Jesus Christ. Over a year has passed since house shows last happeninged, meaning we are nearly a year into the Neverending Story that will be Roman's reign as the Undisputed, Undefeated WWE World Heavyweight Champion of Life, The Universe And Everything. July 24th/25th in Pittsburgh (7700) and Louisville (6000) then 31st in Milwaukee, it's John Cena, Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio vs Roman Reigns & The Usos. We continue into August 1st in Detroit (10,000+), 7th in Estero and 14th/15th in Charlotte and Columbia. Finally 22nd in Denver, Roman/Jimmy/Jey beat Rey, Dom & Finn Balor.

THE CARDS
July's return to audiences has two rounds of Bobby Lashley vs Kofi Kingston for the WWE title and three of Nikki ASH vs Charlotte vs Rhea Ripley for the Raw Womens title and Sheamus vs Drew McIntyre for the UST ; Pittsburgh and Louisville also repeat Matt Riddle vs AJ Styles, Bianca Belair vs Carmella for the SmackDown belt and the worst-sounding match ever for the Womens tag belts - Natalya & Tamina vs Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler. Milwaukee into August we see shifts to Big E vs Seth Rollins, Lashley & MVP vs Kofi & Xavier Woods, Apollo Crews vs Kevin Owens vs King Nakamura vs Sami Zayn for the ICT and Belair vs Sasha Banks, Nikki vs Charlotte vs Ripley rolls on except by Denver Charlotte's already won it back. In Charlotte and Denver its Damien Priest vs Sheamus for the UST and both shows in the Carolinas get Drew & Priest vs Sheamus & Jinder Mahal, Finn Balor vs Baron Corbin, Nikki vs Rhea, Styles & Omos vs Riddle & Randy Orton for the tag belts and more of E vs Rollins and Kofi/Woods vs Hurt Business. 

VARIATIONS
Estero has Balor vs Zayn, Drew vs Veer Mahaan and Crews vs Owens vs Nakamura. In Denver, McIntyre vs Mahal (street fight), Nakamura vs Owens, Lashley vs Woods and Belair vs Carmella vs Zelina Vega.

TVs
16th in Houston fans are finally allowed back in full force and 15,000 of them are rewarded with NXT dark matches of Odyssey Jones & Xyon Quinn vs Austin Theory & Harry Smith (WTF) and Xia Li vs Aliyah (well, some things don't change), a show proper where The Bloodline drop the Mysterios and Edge (hello you!) and then a dark battle royal won by Big E, who then promptly beats Rollins in the main event. Two nights later near 10,000 in Fort Worth see Money In The Bank, where Charlotte wins the Raw belt from Rhea (booo), Nikki and Big E win briefcases, Reigns retains over Edge and The Usos beat Rey & Dom for the SmackDown tag belts on the pre-show. Next night on Raw Nikki cashes in (yay). More than 10,000 come to Cleveland for the next SmackDown - Aliyah beats Indi Hartwell and Jones beats Theory before the show, Big E/Cesaro/Nakamura beat Dolph Ziggler/Bobby Roode/Crews in a match taped for SmackDown but not used, show proper has Toni Storm vs Zelina, and the dark main has Cena/Rey/Dom beat Reigns & The Usos. 26th Raw in Kansas City Cena & Riddle beat Retribution nobodies Mace & T-Bar even though they just lost on the live TV to Mustafa Ali & Mansoor so were hardly going to lose to Big Match John. 30th SmackDown in Minneapolis has Jones vs Theory and Aliyah vs Indi again, and Cena and the Mysterios beat Reigns/Jimmy/Jey again dark. 2nd August Raw at the AllState (>12,500) Kofi & Woods beat Lashley & MVP in the dark main, 6th SmackDown in Tampa Keith Lee vs Theory and Dakota Kai vs Aliyah go on early, and Cena and the Mysterios beat the Bloodline again in the Coliseum Video main event. Monday's Raw in Orlando has Lee beat Chico Adams (who literally just worked ROH this month) as well as what's taped for Main Event, on the show proper amazingly Jeff Hardy does a job to Karrion Kross, then after the show Cena & Priest team to beat Jinder & Veer. 13th SmackDown in Tulsa, Ridge Holland vs Theory and Aliyah & Xia vs Dakota & Kacy Catanzaro are the early dark matches, on the show itself Nakamura relieves Crews (surely the least-remembered holder ever) of the ICT and dark Cena/Rey/Dom beat Reigns/Jimmy/Jey yet again. 16th Raw in San Antonio, Jeff loses to Kross again in less than a minute and New Day beat The Miz & John Morrison in the dark main event. 20th SmackDown in Phoenix (10,000+) has an interesting story dark, New Mexico's Andy Palafox (Awesome Andy) comes out of retirement for his first match since 2013 (and last match) to do a job to Keith - plus Holland vs Theory happens again. Regulars may also be amused to read Nakamura & Rick Boogs beat Crews & Commander Azeez on the show proper. The very next night it's SummerSlam and an unbelievable 45,500+ squeeze inside Allegiant Stadium in Vegas. The show got slated online for WWE "making calls" to Brock Lesnar and Becky Lynch to rescue a stale product, and the reliance on part-timers and the formerly retired all over the show is stark - Lynch shows up unannounced to return from her mat leave, pins Belair in seconds to win the SmackDown belt and continue her unbroken chain of wrestling as a champion that stretched back to Mania 35 (which seemed senseless to treat Bianca like that at the time), Edge goes over Rollins, Bill Goldberg falls to WWE Champion Lashley, and Cena puts over Reigns, after which Lesnar trots out to resume hostilities with Roman. Because we hadn't seen enough of that by 2021. Otherwise, RK-Bro beat AJ & Omos for Raw's tag belts, Priest wins the UST from Sheamus and Charlotte annoyingly gets her title back in a three-way with Nikki and Rhea. Next night at a Performance Center TakeOver we need to mention - Cameron Grimes wins the revived Million Dollar Belt (what??? This happened??? Ted DiBiase was there and everything!) from LA Knight (yeah!), Ilja Dragunov liberates Walter from the meaningless UK belt, and Samoa Joe beats Kross to win the NXT title for a record third time. The next night in Raw is notable for Miz turning on JoMo, 27th SmackDown in North Little Rock have our next and final dark matches - Cal Bloom vs Theory, Xia & Kacy vs Kai & Aliyah and Balor & Street Profits vs Reigns & The Usos. Though I should mention 30th Raw - pity Morrison, he's crushed in 2 minutes by Omos.
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten on TV this month : Nattie & Tamina (Womens Tag Team Champions) by Tegan & Shotzi (unbelievable, the first TV I get to after fans are back..) Sheamus (United States Champion) by Priest, Nikki (Raw Womens Champion) by Charlotte (FUCK SAKE), AGAIN by Ripley, CHARLOTTE (Raw Womens Champion) by Nia. Fucking hell.

DEPARTURES
A scattered few interesting ones while we were on hiatus ; Feb 21, Steve Cutler - I didn't find out that as Steve Maclin he'd won Impact's World title until March gone. April 21 - having not wrestled since December 2020, Bray Wyatt as "The Fiend" loses to Randy Orton at Mania 37 and will soon thereafter be released, not wrestling against until December 2022. Having been wrongly separated as a tag team, The Iiconics are nonetheless released at the same time as a cost cutting measure. An utter nonsense, the whole was definitely more than the sum of the parts. They sit out their 90 day no competes, do six months for Impact than retire from wrestling altogether. Both have since had babies, which is nice. June 21 budget cuts - Killian Dain, Bollywood Boys, Ariya Daivari, Tony Nese, Tyler Breeze, Fandango, Marina Shafir.

As for August, we might as well include John Cena again, he's going to work an MSG TV in September but these are his last matches on the road to date.