House Show/TV tapings random happenings

[air_raid]

SEPTEMBER 2021
We are slowly rolling back to normality with some repeated cards and the strangest time ever to come to Britain.

THE MAIN EVENTS
11th-12th in Washington DC (6500) and Albany (5000), we have Finn Balor & Street Profits vs Roman Reigns & The Usos, then 18th-19th in North Charleston (3500) and Augusta (3000) it's a big blokes three way with U Champ Reigns turning back WWE Champ Bobby Lashley and briefcase holder Big E. Concurrently THE MAN headlines a British mini-tour 19th-22nd - Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair is our main through Newcastle, London (13,500+ at the O2) and Cardiff though understandably Drew goes on last in Glasgow. Finally 25th in Hershey, Balor/Ford/Dawkins vs The Bloodline resumes.

THE CARDS
Early month we have repeat rounds of Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair for SmackDown's Womens title, Damian Priest vs Sheamus for the UST, Randy Orton & Matt Riddle vs AJ Styles & Omos for Raw's tag titles and Charlotte vs Alexa Bliss going to a double count-out for Raw's belt as well as continuation of Big E vs Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre vs Jinder Mahal in a streetfight plus King Nakamura & Rick Boogs vs Apollo Crews & Commander Azeez which sounds a bit like a military coup trying to overthrow a monarchy. When the rosters split, the tour features four rounds of Finn Balor, Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio vs Rollins, Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode (which in Cardiff and Glasgow come out of a DQ in Mysterios vs Dirty Dawgs). Nakamura vs Crews as singles spawns for the ICT, we get Riddle vs Styles one on one, Jeff Hardy vs Karrion Kross, Kevin Owens vs Happy Corbin (repeats in Hershey), SmackDown tag title of The Usos vs Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods, Street Profits vs Alpha Academy, Rhea Ripley vs Shayna Baszler, Keith Lee vs Akira Tozawa and some 24/7 nonsense with Reggie vs R-Truth. Also, there are continuations of Charlotte vs Bliss, Lynch vs Belair, McIntyre vs Mahal and Priest vs Sheamus.

VARIATIONS
Unique to Hershey, new WWE Champ Big E defends vs Bobby Lashley, a DQ in Lynch vs Belair leads to Belair & Bliss beating Charlotte & Lynch, Riddle/Kofi/Woods vs Rollins/Styles/Omos, Mysterios/Nakamura/Boogs/Cesaro vs Crews/Azeez/Academy/Sami Zayn, Priest & Hardy beat Retribution losers Mace & T-Bar and they add Liv Morgan, Naomi, Tegan Nox & Shotzi Blackheart vs Natalya, Tamina, Carmella & Zelina Vega. 

TVs
3rd SmackDown in Jacksonville Keith Lee vs Austin Theory and Xia Li vs Aliyah are dark openers, the show proper has Reigns vs Balor for the U belt and former two time World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler losing to Boogs in 2 minutes, then after the show Big Time Bex teams with tag champs Nattie & Tamina to lose to Belair, Nox and Blackheart. 6th Raw in Miami has no dark matches, on the show proper John Morrison does another 2 minute job, this time to Kross. 10th they're at MSG (13,000), and as well as a broadcast that includes Edge vs Rollins there are still-packed dark matches of Charlotte vs Rhea Ripley, McIntyre vs Corbin and John Cena, Rey & Dom vs The Bloodline. 13th Raw in Boston (just 8000) Doudrop beats Eva Marie in their first match and after Lashley retains over Orton but hurts his leg on the way, Big E cashes in and wins the WWE title. Mention simply must be made of the first NXT 2.0 that Tuesday which includes Bron Breakker vs LA Knight, the Toxic Attraction pair of Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne getting disqualified against Kayden Carter & Kacy Catanzaro then immediately teaming with boss Mandy Rose to beat Kayden, Kacy and Saree, and Tommaso Ciampa winning a four-way over Knight, Von Wagner and Pete Dunne to win the vacant NXT title. 17th SmackDown in Knoxville - Toni Storm sighting! She teams with Liv to beat Mella and Vega by count-out in 2 minutes. 20th Raw in Raleigh Keith vs James Alexander precedes Main Event, on the show proper Doudrop beats Eva again and Super Brutality of Ripley & Nikki ASH win the Womens tag belts. NXT Tuesday has dark matches of Ikemen Jiro vs Malik Blade, Ember Moon vs Cora Jade and Xyon Quinn vs Oney Lorcan and the show proper has Roderick Strong beat Kushida for the CWT and Bron & Ciampa beat Dunne and future Brawling Brutes mate Ridge Holland. 24th SmackDown in Philly (a healthy 11,500) dark matches include Shane Thorne vs Theory, Kacy & Xia vs Dakota Kai & Aliyah and Keith vs Stephen Azure and a dark main of Lynch vs Belair. 26th its Extreme Rules and fuck all of note happens - Reigns vs Balor goes on last. Two nights later on NXT, Toxic Attraction get turned back by tag champs Zoey Stark & Io Shirai, and champ Raquel Gonzalez beats Franky Monet (Taya Valkyrie).
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten this month : Nattie & Tamina (Womens Tag Champions) by Ripley & Nikki, The Usos (SmackDown Tag Team Champions) by Big E & Balor

DEPARTURES
After losing to Doudrop and being attacked by Shayna Baszler, Eva Marie is off TV to apparently film a movie. Come November, they'll let her go in the next round of budget cuts. I'm not sure why I need to mention her given that she's not on the road, but there you go. Samoa Joe tests positive for covid and vacates the title. While he's off, Vince decides NXT needs an overhaul, and for reasons unknown the company reassigns Joe as a trainer, a role he'll later actually describe as "invigorating" but come January the company lets him go for the second and (to date) final time. Thankfully, AEW let him wrestle.

Edited May 2, 2024 by air_raid
Milk and honey, smoke high-grade, gold and diamond, gems and jade

[air_raid]

OCTOBER 2021
THE MAIN EVENTS
2nd in San Juan is unique as even with a Bloodline six-man, Damian Priest vs Sami Zayn for the US title goes on last owing to Priest's popularity in Puerto Rico. Everywhere else - 3rd in Lexington, 9th/10th in Fresno and Bakersfield and 16th/17th in Rio Rancho and El Paso, it's still Finn Balor & Street Profits vs Roman Reigns & The Usos.

THE CARDS
Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair for the SmackDown belt continues in Lexington and California, the latter also gets a repeat of Rhea Ripley & Nikki ASH vs Natalya & Tamina for the tag straps, then in the desert it's Charlotte vs Belair vs Ripley vs Sasha Banks for the Raw title while Nattie & Snuka put over Tegan Nox & Shotzi Blackheart (which are repeats from San Juan). It's another rematch in Randy Orton & Matt Riddle vs AJ Styles & Omos for the Raw tag title in California, then in Rancho Relaxo and El Paso Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods challenge plus there's Damian Priest vs Jinder Mahal for the US title. A monster 8-man mid-month sees Rey Mysterio, Dominik Mysterio, Shinsuke Nakamura & Rick Boogs vs Seth Rollins, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode, and Lexington through Bakersfield it's John Morrison vs Karrion Kross.

VARIATIONS
Unique to San Juan, Balor/Drew McIntyre/Cesaro beat The Bloodline, it's Charlotte vs Rhea one on one, Dom beats Jinder and there's Keith Lee vs Drew Gulak and Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo vs Mace & T-Bar. In Lexington it's Big E vs Bobby Lashley for the WWE title, Nakamura vs Rollins for the ICT, New Day beat AJ & Omos and there's Liv Morgan vs Carmella. Fresno is missing E, there's Priest vs Rollins vs Kevin Owens for the UST and Nakamura & Boogs vs Happy Corbin & Madcap Moss. In Bakersfield Big E retains over Rollins, Nakamura & Boogs beat LDF and Priest & Owens beat Corbin & Moss. In Rio Rancho only, Big E vs Styles goes on for the belt.

TVs
1st Raw in Baltimore (just 7000) dark matches before the show are Dakota Kai vs Xia Li, Top Dolla vs Cedric Alexander and Keith Lee vs Steve Somerset, then after the show the Bloodline lose to Drew and the Profits. 4th Raw in Nashville (6000) the writing is on the wall for Jeff Hardy - he gets a crack at Priest but loses. Wednesday's NXT features Sarray vs Amari Miller, The Creed Brothers vs Demetri Jackson & Andrew Lockhart and Grayson Waller vs Trey Baxter before the broadcast. 8th SmackDown in San Jose (5600 - ouch) Nox, Blackheart & Aliyah beat Nattie/Tamina/Xia before the show which has quarter finals for the King and Queen tournaments - Toni Storm is spotted, losing to Zelina Vega. After the show Balor/Ford/Dawkins lose to Reigns/Usos. 11th Raw at the Chase Center in San Fran (4000 - I can only assume covid meant reduced capacity at this point, still?) Jeff jobs for Austin Theory on TV. Wednesdays NXT has Roderick Strong on dark duty against Odyssey Jones, on the show proper Sarray & Miller lose to Indi Hartwell & Persia Pirotta (Steph De Lander) and Isiah Scott retains the NAT over Santos Escobar then loses it to Carmelo Hayes. 15th a "Supersized SmackDown" in Ontario CA has Keith vs Gino Rivera and Xia vs Aliyah plus they tape Tribute To The Troops. 18th Raw in Sacramento Keith is AGAIN tryout fodder against Levi Shapiro and on the broadcast Jeff loses to Theory again. Wednesdays dark matches at the Performance Center are Amari & Valentina Feroz vs Katrina Cortez & Yulisa Leon, Duke Hudson vs Malik Blade and Xyon Quinn vs Jeet Rama. Somehow Crown Jewel on Thursday 21st in the only PPV they run this month - Edge vs Rollins in Hell In A Cell at 27 minutes sounds way too long, Zelina beats Doudrop and Woods beats Balor to become Queen and King respectively, Big E retains over McIntyre, Reigns wins his latest match with Brock Lesnar and in a No Holds Barred match Bill Goldberg beats Lashley which at 11:25 is the longest match of Bill's unretirement. Night after in Wichita Keith vs Gulak and Shotzi vs Aliyah are the dark matches before SmackDown where Hit Row of Swerve & Dolla get a squash. 25th Raw in Houston (nearly 9000) - have you noticed the gradual disappearance of JoMo? He loses to Apollo Crews for Main Event. Wednesday has NXT do Halloween Havoc with some of my favourite gimmick match names ever - Jacy Jayne & Gigi Dolin win the tag belts for Toxic Attraction by beating Io Shirai & Zoey Stark (champions) and Hartwell & Pirotta in a "Scareway To Hell" ladder match, Mandy Rose beats Raquel Gonzalez in a "Trick Or Street Fight" match to win the big one, Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel beat MSK for the tag belts in a "Lumberjack O'Lantern" match and Tommaso Ciampa retains the title against Bron Breakker. Finally 29th SmackDown Toni loses to Gonzalez and the Creeds lose to Viking Raiders dark, and after a show on which the Usos have just lost to New Day, they team with Roman to again lose to Drew and the Profits.
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten on TV this month : Becky (SmackDown Womens Champion) by Sasha, Nakamura, obviously (Intercontinental Champion) by Reigns, AGAIN by Corbin, The Usos (SmackDown tag team champions) by Woods & Kofi

DEPARTURES
I don't think so but next month there are tons.

[air_raid]

Cracking Twitter find! Have updated October 90 post accordingly but… if you can’t be bothered trawling back that far… Tornado vs Perfect then Hacksaw vs Earthquake on last ;

 

[air_raid]

NOVEMBER 2021
Can the last out the door remember to turn the light off, please?

MAIN EVENTS
We are back in the UK already after last month's mini tour - 3rd-6th its Big E vs Bobby Lashley for the WWE in a streetfight in Brighton, Sheffield, Birmingham and London, then 7th-10th Charlotte vs Sasha Banks closes Liverpool, Leeds, Nottingham and Manchester. 20th in Syracuse Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair is back on top then 27th/28th in Roanoke and Charleston E vs Lashley vs Seth Rollins vs Kevin Owens for the belt ; those three all have The Bloodline facing rotating babyfaces, which goes on last in Charleston which is remarkable considering the opposition (see below).

THE CARDS
Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair vs Doudrop for the Raw belt happens four nights on the tour, back home its Lynch vs Belair one on one. Charlotte vs Sasha Banks for SmackDown's belt recurs in London, those main events and back in the States. Shinsuke Nakamura vs Jinder Mahal for the ICT repeats every night of the tour. First half has Damian Priest vs Finn Balor vs Seth Rollins vs Kevin Owens for the US title, Reggie vs Drake Maverick in 24/7 bollocks and Randy Orton & Matt Riddle vs Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode vs Street Profits for the tag belts, month end its RK-Bro vs Dirty Dawgs vs former champs AJ Styles & Omos. Early month there are repeats of John Morrison vs Austin Theory and Liv Morgan vs Carmella which continues month end, mid month four rounds of Tommaso Ciampa vs Bron Breakker vs Sami Zayn for the NXT belt and three where Jeff Hardy vs Madcap Moss goes to a DQ leading to Jeff & Drew McIntyre vs Happy Corbin & Moss, Balor vs Sheamus in Liverpool and Leeds, three nights of Walter vs Cesaro and four of Shayna Baszler vs Natalya. 

VARIATIONS
In London only, it's Ciampa vs Breakker one on one. In Nottingham Jeff goes over Corbin in a standard one on one and Cesaro vs Walter goes to a DQ then Drew & Cesaro vs Sheamus & Walter (The Bar explodes!!). Unique to Manchester Balor & Cesaro beat Sheamus & Walter. In Syracuse Roman Reigns & The Usos beat Drew and Viking Raiders, there's a monster 8-man of RK-Bro and the Profits vs AJ, Omos and the Dirty Dawgs, Lashley beats Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio in a handicap and Nakamura & Rick Boogs beat Jinder & Shanky. In Roanoke Drew and the Profits beat the Bloodline and Corbin beats Boogs, in Charleston Drew beats Corbin and on last Roman/Jey/Jimmy beat Boogs & the Profits.
Also - 10th in Arlington there is an "On Sale Party" for Mania - Odyssey Jones vs LA Knight, Xyon Quinn vs Grayson Waller, MSK vs Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde and Raquel Gonzalez vs Dakota Kai.

TVs
2nd NXT has dark matches of Roderick Strong vs Ru Feng, Valentina Feroz vs Erica Yan and Grizzled Young Veterans vs Kushida & Ikemen Jiro. A certain Solo Sikoa wrestles on the show proper. 5th SmackDown in Evansville has Johnny Gargano vs Kyle O'Reilly and Amari Miller vs Dakota go on before the show and Drew & the Raiders beat the Bloodline after it. 8th Raw in Louisville (just 5000) Liv wins a 5-way to become top contender to Lynch.. thus starts a build that's going to have certain types spitting venom when she doesn't end up winning it. 9th NXT has Roddy vs Draco Anthony (Blake Cortez), Feroz vs Indi Hartwell and Andre Chase vs Malik Blade dark, the Toxic Attraction trio beat Io Shirai, Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter on the show proper as does Elektra Lopez beat Yan and Kay Lee Ray get an outing beating Sarray. Friday's SmackDown in Norfolk is bookended by Raiders vs Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams plus Kai vs Cora Jade, and Sasha beating Charlotte - rare win for Jeff on the show proper as he goes over Zayn. 15th Raw in Indiannapolis Bianca beats Lynch non title in the Coliseum Video main event. Wednesday's dark matches include one Tiffany Stratton going over Miller. 21st at the Barclays, Survivor Series (12,600) is 6 brand vs brand matches including 3 champion vs champion matches, two eliminators and a battle royal.... utterly inconsequential. What a crap card. Next night not even 6000 come back to the same building for Raw - Zelina Vega & Carmella beat Rhea Ripley & Nikki ASH for the tag belts and a dark lumberjack match sees Drew, Jeff, RK-Bro, Cesaro, Woods and Ricochet beat Owens, The Usos, Sheamus, Theory, Corbin and Moss. Wednesday's dark matches have Solo go over Chase, Miller over Yan and Lopez over Feroz, Friday's Thanksgiving SmackDown has a dark main of Drew/Woods/Kofi beating The Bloodline, Monday it's the same after Raw, Wednesday it's Ivy Nile vs Yan, Boa (literally just released the other day) over Draco and The Creed Brothers vs "Jacket Time" of Kushida & Jiro.

DEPARTURES - FUCK
After somehow surviving three more years in WWE after his buddy went home, Shane Thorne is let go. He’ll revert to former ring name Shane Haste, and head where everyone cast out by WWE but too good to go back to Noah does - New Japan, where he reforms the TMDK stable and eventually reunites with Mikey Nicholls/“Nick Miller”. And the world makes sense again. Drake Maverick will run out of lives and get released as a wrestler the second time - good for him, he's rehired as a writer in February, and maintains a job there today. Nia Jax, often a liability, is let go, but as is fairly obvious today, they end up giving her another chance. Having been drafted to Raw in October, Tegan Nox is released having never appeared on the show after sitting at home with Covid for a couple of weeks then finding herself an easy budget cut. Ever since Fly Kicks was disbanded she'd been been seen to be getting some traction (including a very good Thunderdome shot at Io for the belt) before missing 10 months with a THIRD devastating knee injury after one cost her being in the 2017 Mae Young and another cost her winning the 2018 edition. The return went nowhere, but after sitting around without wrestling for over a year - she'll return in December 22 and thus far has largely been met with apathy. Shame, I loved her on the indies, but something got lost in translation and for long periods of time she's just been "there" despite Hunter having high hopes for her.

After losing to Veer Mahaan on Raw, John Morrison is another budget cut, remarkably the company deciding they don't have a spot for a guy with his attributes and skillset for a second time. Fair enough he's trod water since splitting up with Miz and been jobbed out beyond the point of credibility, but that was a booking choice, and I still can't wrap my head around any of it. Keith Lee was unique but for whatever reason, they gave up. Ember Moon is probably fairly high up the list of talents released that you were surprised compared to some of the crap they kept. Karrion Kross (and Scarlett) are let go but as you know... made their way back. Likewise Mia Yim. Did you even know Harry Smith had a contract?? Others include Franky Monet, Oney Lorcan, Jessi Kamea, Katrina Cortez, Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado.

And finally..... Shane Strickland a/k/a Isiah "Swerve" Scott gets released along with the rest of Hit Row. Ashante Adonis, Top Dolla and B-Fab will eventually find their way back (even if its only temporary in the case of Dolla) but Strickland will end up in AEW where you may already know, he does OK for himself.

[Statto]

Funnily enough, I found this graphic celebrating the dearly departed of the autumn of 2021 saved to my phone the other day (I think be case I'd sent it to a mate to say "fucking hell"):

 But yeah, lest we forget or whatever. 

[air_raid]

What the actual fuck.

[air_raid]

DECEMBER 2021
Two fairly big names give themselves the Christmas present of freedom.

MAIN EVENTS
4th in Edinburg TX it's Drew McIntyre. King Woods & Jeff Hardy vs Roman Reigns & The Usos, next night Corpus Christi and unplanned shuffle (see below) sees Jeff out and Rey Mysterio in -  11th in Saginaw topped by Big E vs Kevin Owens for the WWE title and E vs Owens vs Seth Rollins next night in Grand Rapids. 18/19th in Rockford and Des Moines that same six man goes on last above E vs Owens vs Rollins vs Bobby Lashley for the title. The traditional post-Christmas fun has only two nights of double-bookings - Boxing Day at MSG (6800) it's Edge vs Owens inside a cage while 28th in Pittsburgh they put Randy Orton & Matt Riddle vs Street Profits vs Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode inside a cage. Meanwhile there's a run of Drew vs Sheamus in streetfights 26th-30th in Tampa, Orlando, Washington, Baltimore and Buffalo.

THE CARDS
The two Texas shows repeat Seth Rollins vs Finn Balor and a huge tag of Randy Orton, Matt Riddle & Damian Priest vs The Miz, Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode as well as title matches continuing in Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair and Charlotte vs Sasha Banks, plus Happy Corbin vs Rick Boogs (which repeats in Tampa). Sandwiching the month are Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio vs Alpha Academy in Edinburg and Pittsburgh. In Michigan we move to Balor vs Austin Theory, Drew McIntyre vs Madcap Moss and a surprising Angelo Dawkins vs AJ Styles where the Street Profit wins by DQ. Charlotte vs Banks continues and Lynch vs Belair vs Liv Morgan for the belt starts up in Grand Rapids - that rolls on into 18/19th, where Sasha and Toni Storm challenge for the tag belts against Carmella & Zelina Vega and there's Otis vs Dom. After Christmas we have a fair few repeats - Balor vs T-Bar, Nikki ASH vs Natalya - after Nattie wins she challenges and is promptly smashed by Rhea Ripley - Priest vs Miz for the UST, two nights of Kofi Kingston vs Sami Zayn and Ricochet & Cesaro vs Viking Raiders vs Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo and a tag title match of The Usos vs Drew McIntyre & Sheamus ending in a DQ, this being earlier on nights where Sheamus vs Drew goes on last, then for a further three nights Ricochet vs Zayn to a DQ gives way to Cesaro/Raiders vs Zayn/Lotharios, and it's Drew & Kingston that lose to the Usos (Drew still does double duty working Sheamus later). Three more instances of Charlotte vs Sasha sandwich two of Charlotte vs Banks vs Storm, which are Toni's last house shows in WWE. There are five nights each of Ridge Holland vs Mansoor and Xia Li vs Shotzi Blackheart.

VARIATIONS
Saginaw has the tag belts of Carmella & Vega vs Liv & Dana Brooke vs Rhea & Nikki for the tag belts and Belair vs Doudrop ; in Grand Rapids its Vega & Mella vs Super Brutality. Rockford is rounded off by Nakamura & Boogs vs Corbin & Moss, and Ricochet/Mansoor/Raiders vs Sheamus/Holland/Garza/Carrillo, in Des Moines its Boogs vs Moss and R-Truth vs Theory. Unique to MSG are RK-Bro vs Profits vs Rey & Dom for the tag belts, the first Styles vs Omos match, Academy vs Ziggler & Roode and Tommaso Ciampa vs Pete Dunne for the NXT title. Finally in Pittsburgh there's one more of a very familiar match - Kevin Owens vs Styles.

TVs
6th in Memphis Raw features the first crack at Lynch by Morgan - watch this space. Dark matches on NXT 2.0 are Lash Legend vs Amari Miller, Andre Chase vs Guru Raaj and Solo Sikoa vs Malik Blade. 10th SmackDown has a very healthy 10,000 gate at the Staples Center on which the dark main of Becky vs Charlotte vs Bianca vs Sasha has the sight of "The Boss" pinning "The Man" (no titles at stake) - hard to believe but that caused a bit of a stir at the time that Lynch finally dropped a fall but it wasn't on TV. 14th NXT has dark matches of Legend vs Sarry, Valentina Feroz & Yulisa Leon vs Erica Yan & Fallon Henley, and Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde vs Blade & Ru Feng. 17th in Rosemont (another 10,000) they do a live SmackDown and tape the Christmas Eve episode too. 20th in Milwaukee Becky beats Bianca and Liv dark, 21st NXT has dark matches of Ivy Nile vs Henley, Chase vs Damon Kemp and Solo vs Feng.  Week after Raaj loses to Edris Enofe, there's Dante Chen vs Draco Anthony and Miller beats the debuting Nikkita Lyons - show proper, Henley loses to Tiffany Stratton. 
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten this month : The Usos (SmackDown Tag Team Champions) in a three way with RK-Bro and (winners) New Day, AGAIN by New Day, Big E (WWE CHAMPION) by Lashley

DEPARTURES
After losing to Charlotte at the AllState, Toni Storm asks for and is granted her release on 29th. She'd later give this quote to Renee Paquette : "I didn't feel that appreciated. And I just felt like they, at times, didn't have very much respect for me. I feel like, over time, they just crushed my love for wrestling. It just wasn't even wrestling anymore. You're not even allowed to say 'wrestling'." Ouch. I felt this one pretty hard, considering Toni a bit like "one of my team" having watched her grow in stature from indy shows in her adopted home here in the North West, through NXT:UK and Progress at Wembley all the way to the main roster, but then to see her undoubted talent go squandered after winning the Mae Young in 2018. Thankfully she's recovered to become "Timeless" Toni Storm, a character for the ages in AEW.

During the six-man main in Edinburg, Jeff Hardy makes the hot tag after taking his heat, hops over the guard rail and leaves. Fan footage even shows Drew asking "Where's Jeff?" after the match - he's gone home. WWE releases him five days later. He's been feeling like he's got no direction for ages having been doing little but losing to younger guys, and they've upset him by suggesting what they see as "erratic behaviour" is because he's fallen off the wagon, and told him to go to rehab, which he's refused. Matt will later state that he'd taken a drug test which came back negative, but either way the relationship between wrestler and company abruptly breaks down. During his 90 days, they'll offer him a Hall Of Fame spot which will further confuse him, given that it's for him, not "The Hardy Boys" as he'd prefer, and given that he's eager to start wrestling for AEW. Another peculiar twist in a most peculiar career, the best of Jeff Hardy was always great, but with the knowledge that something like this is always round the corner.

 

[TheScarlettChad]

Jeff being offended that they asked if he went off the wagon is hilarious. Its a running pattern with you mate!

 

 

[air_raid]

JANUARY 2022
The plan was WHAT?

MAIN EVENTS
2nd in Fayetteville and 1 day removed from Day 1, Big E, Kofi Kingston, King Woods & Bobby Lashley vs Roman Reigns, The Usos & Seth Rollins in a handicap is a bit of a cross-title interest mix - it goes to a DQ then Bob fucks off, but New Day go on to beat the heels in a handicap. 8th in Glens Falls and 9th in Boston (<5000) it's Bloodline vs E and Viking Raiders. 15th/16th in Fargo and Sioux Falls - has Seth turned? - E/Kingston/Rollins beat Reigns/Jimmy/Jey, 22nd in Corbin and 23rd in Huntington it's E, Rollins and Kevin Owens. I'm lost as to who's face or heel by now, to be honest.

THE CARDS
In the North East there's Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair vs Liv Morgan (started in Fayetteville) for the Raw belt and Charlotte vs Naomi refereed by Trin's nemesis Sonya Deville plus Matt Riddle vs Austin Theory, Sheamus vs Rick Boogs and Xia Li vs Natalya. In the Dakotas we add Damian Priest vs The Miz (another repeat from Fayetteville) for the US title plus Bobby Lashley vs Kevin Owens, the Raw Womens belt gets Doudrop added to it (this match repeats in Corbin), and it's now Charlotte vs Naomi vs Shayna Baszler which sounds awkward, Finn Balor vs Theory, and nine-match cards are fleshed out by Riddle losing to Chad Gable (he avenges these in Huntington), Omos vs Montez Ford (which also repeats in Corbin) and Ricochet vs Madcap Moss. Priest vs Dolph Ziggler sandwiches those shows, occuring in Boston and Huntington, and month end we add AJ Styles vs Theory, Lashley vs Kofi Kingston and return to Charlotte/Naomi one on one.

VARIATIONS
Fayetteville wraps up Charlotte vs Sasha Banks, Nattie beating Nikki ASH then losing to Rhea Ripley, and Theory jobbing to Boogs. In Glens Falls it's Priest vs Ziggler vs Owens vs Seth Rollins, in Boston Priest vs Ziggler to a DQ breaks down into Priest & Lashley (huh) beating Ziggler & Rollins. Unique to Corbin, Alpha Academy of Gable & Otis beat Ziggler & Robert Roode. Finally in Huntington Omos drops "multiple time champion" Reggie (did I mention he's currently SCRYPTS?) and Becky's off so Doudrop beats Bianca and Liv in a three way.

TVs
Day 1 on Saturday 1st is an appropriate place to start - plans that involve a Heyman turn during the U title match and Rollins winning the WWE title are scuppered when Roman tests positive for covid - WWE panics by inserting Brock Lesnar into the WWE title 5-way which he promptly wins by pinning Big E. Otherwise Edge continues his comeback by beating Miz and Lynch retains over Morgan prompting hysteric bedwetting the world over. Tuesday 4th NXT has Malik Blade vs Draco Anthony, Nikkita Lyons vs Erica Yen and Ikemen Jiro vs Ru Feng as dark matches before special episode New Years Evil where Carmelo Hayes beats Roderick Strong to unify the NAT and CWT and Bron Breakker beats Tommaso Ciampa for the big belt. 7th Downers in Montville CT (suburban Uncasville) Ciampa wins a dark match against frequent opponent Pete Dunne. 10th Raw in Philly (5500) Randy Orton & Riddle lose the tag belts to the Academy. Wednesdays dark matches are Bodhi Hayward vs Guru Raaj, Ivy Nile vs Valentina Feroz and Odyssey Jones vs Saurav, plus AJ lends his face on NXT TV to beat Grayson Waller. Friday's SmackDown is notable for Aliyah beating Nattie in 3 seconds bell to bell, which WWE still recognizes as the fastest win in company history. 18th NXT there's dark matches of James Drake vs Hayward, Anthony vs Javier Bernal and Lash Legend vs Fallon Henley. 21st SmackDown in Nashville (6500) Roderick loses dark to LA Knight (yeah) and after a TV main where Kev & Rollins (heels right?) beat The Usos by DQ, the Coliseum main event has Rollins/KO/Big E beat The Bloodline. 25th NXT dark matches are Feroz & Yulisa Leon vs Legend & Amari Miller, Anthony vs Joe Gacy and Josh Briggs vs Damon Kemp. Friday's SmackDown has dark matches of Io Shirai vs Dakota Kai (Damage CTRL implodes!) and Ciampa vs Strong, on the show proper Naomi beats Sonya in a match that gets decent time and dark the Bloodline lose to Rollins & The Raiders. No, seriously, did they babyface Seth just to get him to the Rumble then turn him back? Said Rumble has Ronda Rousey win the Womens, Lashley win the WWE title from Lesnar with the delayed Heyman turn, Edge & Beth Phoenix beat "Miz & Mrs" heroes Miz & Maryse, Bad Bunny shows up, and Lesnar insert himself into the mens Rumble and win. Plan for Reigns vs Lesnar III back on, and at this point still kind of logical even though it's a bit of a waste when they could have used it towards the other belt... originally Rollins vs Lashley or Big E in mind, but with the eventual call for unification on the horizon (really fucked Seth over here) let's hope they get something decent lined up for Rollins. I mean, other than the SECOND draft which hits the wall - Shane McMahon is meant to be involved in the Elimination Chamber and then wrestle Seth at Mania, but he's cocked that up. No wonder Shane O never got keys to the Kingdom. Prior to the unification idea, and this is crazy.... they have had in their heads that Riddle vs Orton as a "feuding former partners" match is going to need a title, and after rejecting Orton winning the Rumble, the first draft has (I wish I was making this up) Matt Riddle win the Royal Rumble with Orton winning the title (which title? I have no idea) inbetween to force the title match coincidentally matching the split rivalry with the unpleasant taste of Orton/Wyatt lingering on the pallette. Maybe the unification wasn't such a bad idea.
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten this month : RK-Bro (Raw Tag Team Champions) by Alpha Academy, Priest (United States Champion) by Owens

DEPARTURE
Does this count? Shane McMahon apparently makes such a nuisance of himself backstage at the Rumble, throwing out millions of ideas and acting the big "I am" including, but not restricted to, how Bad Bunny is used, his own participation in the Rumble, that he would like to wrestle Theory at Mania, and more, that the braintrust shitcan him.

[air_raid]

FEBRUARY 2022
Fucking hell, good job I know it doesn't stay like this. Four house shows. Dark matches are about to take a hit too as NXT ones are becoming "Level Up."
MAIN EVENTS
5th/6th in Salt Lake City and Boise it's still Big E, Kofi Kingston & Seth Rollins vs Roman Reigns & The Usos. 26th in Youngstown and 27th in Rochester, Bloodline lose to New Day and Drew McIntyre. That's it.

THE CARDS
There are four nights of Charlotte vs Naomi for the SmackDown belt with a guest ref - second loop there's no shenanigans however, as Ronda Rousey vs Sonya Deville is underneath. First loop has Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair vs Liv Morgan vs Doudrop for the Raw title, Kevin Owens vs The Miz, more of Matt Riddle vs Chad Gable and Omos vs Montez Ford plus Ricochet vs Austin Theory. Month end, we get Damian Priest vs Kev for the US title, Finn Balor vs Apollo Crews, Raw tag title with Gable & Otis vs Ford & Angelo Dawkins vs Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio, Omos now beats R-Truth, plus Shinsuke Nakamura & Rick Boogs vs Sheamus & Ridge Holland.
VARIATION - ONE
With Lynch off second loop, in Youngstown Bianca wins a three-way over Liv and Doudrop. Next night Doudrop is also off, Bianca pins Liv in singles.

TVs
1st on NXT TV Kayla Inlay (Kiana James) loses to Sarry. 4th SmackDown in Oklahoma City (near 5000) dark matches have Raquel Gonzalez vs Io Shirai and Tommaso Ciampa vs Pete Dunne, on the show proper Aliyah continues her form beating Natalya by count-out and after the show Ronda & Naomi beat Charlotte and Nattie. 11th in New Orleans (5800) there are two SmackDowns - live, Nattie puts Aliyah in her place and in the can for the week after, Sami Zayn beats Nakamura for the same ICT he currently wears, but at a tenth of today's value. 15th NXT is the "Vengeance Day" (how wonky) special - champions all retain, The Creed Brothers win the Dusty. Elimination Chamber rolls around in Jeddah (ugh) - Reigns stops Bill Goldberg in what's currently Bill's last match, Bianca earns another shot at Lynch who retains over Lita (I have no memory of that match) and Brock Lesnar, already having won the Rumble, inserts himself into the Chamber and wins back the WWE title. I mean, Reigns vs Lesnar already looked fine on the marquee, making a unification at this point already felt like it was going to achieve nothing (and Reigns is still showing up far more often than he soon will be). Getting shot of the secondary title and making both title scenes all about Reigns vs Lesnar for the first quarter of 2022 was an odd diversion from getting the WWE title onto Seth and he's not really going to be helped much when they get round to creating the Silver Medal, and nobody dreading Reigns vs Lesnar III was going to care more by the presence of a second belt. 22nd in NXT new purpose for Dolph Ziggler has him beat Ciampa to earn a title shot. 25th SmackDown in Hershey Aliyah actually beats Shayna Baszler dark (Christ) and after the show McIntyre & Viking Raiders go down to the Bloodline. Finally 28th Raw in Columbus Ciampa gets on TV beating Robert Roode and Balor relieves future lieutenant Priest of the US title.
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten this month : Priest (US Champion) by AJ Styles, Alpha Academy (Raw Tag Team Champions) by Rollins & Owens

DEPARTURES
After requesting his release previously, Brian Kendrick is granted it. After losing to Happy Corbin on TV, Cesaro simply allows his contract to expire without signing the extension offered. Meltzer will claim at the time that he wasn't happy with the offer but since then the man himself has painted a different picture, that it was an artistic rather than financial choice : "I’ve been following AEW for a while, and when it came time for me to just kind of take a step back and look, I felt that I was a better fit at AEW, and there was a lot more for me to do with AEW when it comes to challenges, when it came to people I want to work with. There are just so many people there that I haven’t wrestled either at all or in a very, very long time. So, I was kind of like, 'That’s what I want to do. That’s what I’ll have fun doing.' I always kind of felt that whenever it was time to move, I’ve moved on, tt was the same before when I was in Ring of Honor. I felt like, 'Now, it’s time to take the step towards WWE.' That’s what I did, and now, I was like, ‘Okay, now I feel like it’s time to make the next step,’ and I did, and I’m very happy I did."

 

Edited May 16, 2024 by air_raid
You can't ride two bikes with one arse.

[The King of Old School]

I have no memory of Priest as US Champion and Balor beating him for it.

[air_raid]

MARCH 2022
No PPV this month but they are at MSG - can't wait to see what massive match draws the house.

MAIN EVENTS
Right before we finally get back to split rosters we're at MSG where a lone Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins U title match goes on before intermission then on last it's Brock Lesnar vs Austin Theory (LOL) - the show draws 8300 with I've derided before but its possible covid restrictions were still in place. Thereafter what appears to be a SmackDown crew is topped by Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre 6th in Laval, 12th in Jackson MS, 19th/20th in Johnson City and Hunstville and 26th/27th in State College and Charlottesville VI, broken up only by Drew, Kofi Kingston and King Woods vs Roman and The Usos 13th in Pensacola. On other words, the only night of the run that Roman's asked to lose, is in his hometown. LOL. Meanwhile the Raw shows are topped by Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair vs Rhea Ripley (oof) 6th in Allentown, Finn Balor vs Damian Priest vs Seth Rollins for the US title 12th/13th in Columbus and Savannah, then Becky vs Rhea 19th/20th in Springfield and Moline, and 26th/27th in Kitchener and Toronto (7600).

THE CARDS - RAW
Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair vs Rhea Ripley happens both at MSG and Allentown as does Finn Balor vs Damian Priest for the UST. Matt Riddle vs Austin Theory bookends the month in Allentown and Kitchener. Identical cards in Georgia get a handicap where all star heroes Belair, Ripley and Liv Morgan beat Bex, Carmella, Queen Zelina and Doudrop plus Rey Mysterio vs The Miz (rolling back the years), Dominik Mysterio vs Theory, Riddle & Bron Breakker vs Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode, Street Profits vs Alpha Academy and Omos vs R-Truth. More consistency in Illinois ; Theory is back losing to AJ Styles, Profits and Alpha now lose a three way to Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens (previously they won this one in Allentown when they were still champs), Dom moves up to losing to Miz, Liv beats Doudrop in singles (repeating from Allentown), Balor vs Priest is back on (repeating in Kitchener), Omos is still squashing Truth - continuing on short cards in Ontario as does that tag three way.

VARIATIONS
Randy Orton shows his face at MSG as he and Riddle lose to Alpha. In Allentown only - some dregs here - Omos pins Reggie and Dom jobs to Veer Mahaan. Unique to Kitchener (oddly, far superior card to Toronto) Rey & Dom beat Miz & Roode, with fewer bodies in Toronto it's Balor vs Priest vs Theory and Riddle vs Roode.

THE CARDS - SMACKDOWN
Ronda Rousey & Naomi vs Charlotte & Sonya Deville repeats at MSG and Laval - Ronda was shocked when she got cheers at the Rumble, so they've booked her as a babyface for now. Ricochet vs Sami Zayn for the ICT straddles Laval and week 2 as does Aliyah vs Shayna Baszler (more upsets). Other week 2 repeats are Happy Corbin vs Shinsuke Nakamura and Viking Raiders vs Los Lotharios - that one we meet again in Huntsville along with both week 3 shows getting Aliyah gratuating to beating Sonya, and Naomi & Sasha Banks beating Baszler & Natalya (which repeats in Charlottesville) later in the card after a DQ in the Banks vs Natalya openers. Week four our title matches are Charlotte vs Sasha vs Nattie, a return to Ricochet vs Zayn rematches and The Usos vs Corbin & Madcap Moss vs Nakamura & Rick Boogs vs Sheamus & Ridge Holland, plus more of Raiders vs Lotharios and Aliyah vs Sonya.

VARIATIONS
Unique to MSG is Drew McIntyre vs Zayn and Usos vs Big E & Kofi Kingston for the tag belts. Laval see E drop Holland, Nakamura beat Jinder Mahal, Corbin & Moss upset the Raiders and Nattie go over Shotzi Blackheart. Only in Jackson is the tag title Usos vs Kingston & King Woods vs Sheamus & Holland and there's Sasha & Naomi vs Charlotte & Sonya ; in Pensacola a DQ in Aliyah vs Baszler leads to Sasha/Naomi/Aliyah vs Shayna/Sonya/Natalya, Holland loses to Boogs and Sheamus has a night off. In Johnson City the tag title is Usos vs Raiders vs Corbin & Moss vs Sheamus & Holland with Nakamura & Boogs vs Angel & Humberto and Sami and Xavier having a night off, in Huntsville it's Usos vs Brawling Butes and Woods/Shinsuke/Boogs vs Zayn/Corbin/Moss. Finally, only in State College does Naomi beat Baszler in a singles match, next night in Charlottesville they decide far more palatable is both Sasha AND Nattie working double duty in a tag, immediately after Charlotte vs Sasha vs Nattie with Shayna interfering.

TVs
1st March NXT has Gunther vs Solo Sikoa (ouch) and Ziggler & Roode lose to Bron & Tommaso Ciampa. Friday's SmackDown sees Ricochet win the ICT from Zayn. Monday 7th in Cleveland RK-Bro regain the tag belts in a three way with Alpha and Owens & Rollins, and Ciampa & Breakker beat the "Dirty Dawgs" again. 8th NXT Ziggler wins the belt in a three way with Bronn and Ciampa, dark matches 11th in Birmingham (>9000) are Xia Li vs Shotzi before the show and McIntyre vs Theory after it. 15th NXT has a real crossover of eras as Ziggler retains over LA Knight (yeah). The week thereafter Roode loses to Breakker and the Womens Dusty sees Io Shirai & Kay Lee Ray beat Dakota Kai & Wendy Choo. Just 7000 turn up at the Barclays for 25th SmackDown where Aliyah vs Shotzi precedes the show and for some reason Raw donate RK Bro vs Academy for the dark main.
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten on TV this month : Carmella & Vega (Womens Tag Team Champions) by Liv Brutally, Balor (US Champion) by Priest, Ricochet, obviously (Intercontinental Champion) by Angel Garza (WTF), AGAIN by Theory.

DEPARTURE
Laval is the last house show match for Big E - sadly, right at his peak, five nights later on SmackDown he gets a serious neck injury taking a silly overhead bump on the floor in a forgettable tag with the Brawling Brutes, and he hasn't wrestled since.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIj0_CAj6FY

 

[air_raid]

APRIL 2022
A huge Mania in the books. The belts have been combined, old Stone Cold finally got off the ranch, and the hero we all need has returned. WOAAAAHHHHHHHHH

THE MAIN EVENTS
16th/17th in Erie and Syracuse are cross-brand megashows, Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre for the belts on last - that continues topping SmackDown shows 23rd/24th in Reading and Binghamton while over in Montgomery and Augusta it's Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch vs Liv Morgan for Raw's ladies' belt. Further supershows see Drew vs Bobby Lashley 28th in Newcastle then Reigns vs McIntyre again 29th in London (near 8000 at Municipal Hall in Tottenham... huh) and 30th in Paris (11,500) while a shorter Raw card in Lakeland is topped by Belair vs Lynch vs Morgan vs Rhea Ripley.

THE CARDS - SMACKDOWN
It's Ricochet vs Sami Zayn and Charlotte vs Aliyah (huh?) and The Usos vs New Day vs Sheamus & Ridge Holland in mid month title matches. Week 3 we add Sasha Banks & Naomi vs Shayna Baszler & Natalya for the Womens tag belts, Ricochet's with Jinder Mahal, Zayn loses to Shinsuke Nakamura, Jimmy & Jey defend against Viking Raiders, we add Kofi vs Sheamus as a singles and Gunther vs Mansoor, Charlotte vs Aliyah continues. On all three nights of the Euro mini-tour, the Usos lose a cross-brand clash to Randy Orton & Matt Riddle, plus Aliyah beats Shotzi Blackheart, and on the two bigger legs there's Ricochet vs Zayn vs Butch, Charlotte vs Ronda Rousey, Gunther vs Nakamura and two more of Naomi/Sasha vs Shayna/Nattie.
VARIATIONS
Only in Newcastle, it's Charlotte vs Sasha for the belt, Ricochet vs Butch, Guther vs Zayn, Nakamura vs Sheamus and Naomi vs Nattie. One night off for each Brawling Brute - it's Bobby Lashley vs Sheamus in London and vs Holland in Paris.

THE CARDS - RAW
WOOAHHHHH - it's Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins mid month and Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch vs Rhea Ripley (fuck) as well as Finn Balor vs Austin Theory for the UST and AJ Styles vs Damian Priest. Week 3 we add Street Profits vs Alpha Academy, Bobby Lashley vs Omos, Matt Riddle vs The Miz and R-Truth vs Veer Mahaan - still Theory vs Balor and Cody vs Seth. Those last two, Styles vs Priest and Profits vs Alpha all repeat in Lakeland.
VARIATION - ONE
The extra match in Lakeland is Omos vs Reggie.

TVs
1st in Dallas a huge Texas weekend kicks off with SmackDown in Dallas (12,000) which includes Madcap Moss surely going down as the least memorable Andre winner since Mojo Rawley. Saturday afternoon's NXT Stand And Deliver umm delivers several title changes though the invincible Mandy Rose retains in a 4-way and Dolph Ziggler beats Bron Breakker, and Gunther drops LA Knight. That afternoon a very lucky 64,500+ attending the first night of WrestleMania 38 see shit-tons of notable happenings - Logan Paul tags with Miz to beat Rey & Dominik Mysterio, Belair knocks off The Man to win THE belt, The American Nightmare returns to a huge reaction as Seth's mystery partner, Charlotte retains the SmackDown belt over Ronda (who only found out on Friday night they weren't going on last) and in the main event, one of the most universally-well received events I can recall in recent memory, Kevin Owens' KO Show that calls out Steve Austin in Texas unexpectedly results in a proper actual (13 minute) match where Stone Cold doesn't look pushed beyond his limits in the slightest and gets to go over in Texas. I hated the concept of him wrestling again beforehand as his previous last match with The Rock was one of my favourite matches ever and a fitting way to bow out, but I had to concede that this was a lovely bit of business that I thoroughly enjoyed. Next night (65,500+) Johnny Knoxville beats Zayn in one of the best non-wrestler matches ever, Naomi & The Boss win the tag titles, Edge beats AJ with help from new buddy Priest and Pat McAfee wins his scheduled match with Theory but then loses to Vince McMahon - which is an excuse for Stone Cold to lamp everyone including what will probably the last ever Stunner on The Accused. Finally, Reigns beats Brock Lesnar to unnecessarily unify the belts in a match that while only 12 minutes long, I've completely failed to commit to memory. Was it any good, anyone? Raw after Mania (another 10,000 gate in Dallas) has Veer show up, seeds of dissent sewn in Liv Brutally, the Ezekiel character debut, MVP turn on Lashley in favour of Omos, Bron win the belt back from Ziggler and dark, Cody vs Owens. Wednesday's NXT has Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez drop the tag belts back to Toxic Attraction and Breakker beat Gunther (!). 11th Raw in Milwaukee (nearly 10,000) Cody beats Miz and dark, Drew & New Day beat the Bloodline again. 12th NXT has Pretty Deadly win the vacated tag belts (see below) and Mandy retain over Kai (see below). Friday's SmackDown has MACE (better known in this thread as Brennan Williams) beat Erik Raider before the show and Cody beat Rollins again after it. 18th Raw in Buffalo (7000) Theory wins the UST from Balor and dark New Day beat Sheamus & Holland. 20th-21st at BT Studios there's another pair of NXT:UK tapings (still a thing) - nothing dark but notable events on Wednesday are Meiko Satomura (!) retaining over Isla Dawn and Ilja Dragunov beating Jordan Devlin, "Loser Leaves NXT:UK" - in reality it's "loser gets promoted" as Devlin will soon be showing up in proper NXT as JD McDonagh. On Thursday, Oliver Carter (Oro Mensah) and Ashton Smith win the tag belts (I had no idea Ashton had won a belt in the Universe) and Meiko beats Ivy Nile. 22nd in Albany they do a live and taped SmackDown, nothing dark but of note Raquel (now Rodriguez) gets a showcase squash of Cat Cardoza (Leila Grey). 
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten on TV this month : Carmella & Zelina Vega (Womens Tag Team Champions) by Banks & Naomi, RK-Bro (Raw Tag Team Champions) by Street Profits

DEPARTURES
Dakota Kai is released on April 29th, because they know she doesn't intend on renewing, so her loss to Mandy is her last... however, the winds of change are blowing over WWE and come July she'll reconsider and return under the Levesque regime. Kushida's contract expires and they don't renew. A fantastic wrestler, but never a fit. A handful of NXT guys get let go month end, the only ones of note being Dexter Lumis, Persia Pirotta (Steph De Lander) and Malcolm Bivens (Stokely Hathaway). Nash Carter gets himself Me Too'd just as he's won the NXT tag belts. At the other end of the spectrum (in one sense)... Vince McMahon's first match for 12 years is his last. To date... never say never with this mad old fuck.

 

Edited May 22, 2024 by air_raid
Woooooahhhhhh

[air_raid]

MAY 2022
It's Bus Time for the departing, amirite Michael?

THE MAIN EVENTS
1st in Leipzig it's the end of the SmackDown mini-tour of Europe with Drew McIntyre vs Bobby Lashley while in Fairfax it's the last round of Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch vs Rhea Ripley vs Liv Morgan. Some supershows have more rounds of Roman Reigns vs Drew for the belts 7th in Trenton and 15th in Roanoke either side of McIntyre, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods vs Roman & The Usos 14th in Florence, then SmackDown shows 21st/22nd in Rockford and Cedar Rapids have two more title matches on top while 21st in Canton its Belair vs Lynch vs Asuka, next night in Fort Wayne it's Belair vs Lynch vs Asuka vs Alexa Bliss.

THE CARDS - SMACKDOWN
Sasha Banks & Naomi vs Shayna Baszler & Natalya repeats in Leipzig, Florence and Roanoke before the tag belts are suddenly vacated (see below). Month end repeats include The Usos vs Viking Raiders vs Los Lotharios vs Butch & Ridge Holland for the tag belts, Ricochet vs Sami Zayn for the ICT, Shinsuke Nakamura vs Jinder Mahal in a rehash of 2017l WWE title feud, Gunther vs Drew Gulak and Aliyah vs Shotzi Blackheart.
VARIATIONS
In Leipzig only are Charlotte vs Aliyah vs Shotzi for the belt, Randy Orton & Matt Riddle vs The Usos again, Ricochet vs Butch for the ICT, Gunther vs Zayn and Nakamura vs Holland. Trenton hosts Riddle, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods vs Kevin Owens, Jimmy and Jey on the undercard plus a big name six woman of Ronda Rousey and the tag champs vs Charlotte/Baszler/Natalya and ICT of Ricochet vs Jinder vs Zayn. Usos vs New Day for the tag titles is unique to Roanoke. Raquel Rodriguez beats Nattie in Rockford and Shayna in Cedar Rapids.

THE CARDS - RAW
Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins and Austin Theory vs Finn Balor both occur in Fairfax then all three shows 7th-15th, the latter two have Balor vs Theory to a DQ then land on Balor & AJ Styles beating Theory & Damian Priest in a tag and also Becky Lynch vs Asuka ("The Empress" upsets "The Man"), Veer Mahaan vs Drew Gulak occurs three shows in a row including Trenton. Street Profits vs Alpha Academy bookends the month, happening in Fairfax and both month end shows where we also meet Theory vs Mustafa Ali for the UST, Veer upsetting Robert Roode, and Priest & Rhea Ripley beating Styles & Liv Morgan in a mixed tag - Cody vs Rollins knows no end.
VARIATIONS
In Fairfax Styles beats Priest by DQ, there's a "bonus" of Omos vs Reggie, plus Ezekiel vs The Miz. In Trenton Belair and Asuka off, Lynch wins a three-way over Ripley and Morgan. In Florence the title match is Belair vs Ripley vs Morgan, in Roanoke Belair's off again so Liv upsets Rhea in singles. Bobby Lashley vs Omos is unique to Fort Wayne.

TVs
6th SmackDown at Nassau Coliseum (7500) there's Ricochet vs MACE before the show and another of Cody vs Rollins after it. 8th it's Backlash - 8000 at the Dunkin Donuts Center (formerly Providence Civic Center, site of the 94 Rumble). 6 matches only but nonetheless eventful include Edge going over AJ again, Ronda beating Charlotte with some nice brutality in an I Quit match to finally win the Downers womens title, and Cody going 2-0 against Seth on PLE. Next night at the XL Center there's 6500 at the XL Center (formerly Hartford Civic Center where the eggxcelent 90 Survivors happened) and there's another Belair vs Lynch dark main. 13th SmackDown in Wilkes-Barre is sandwiched by Lotharios vs Raiders and Lashley vs Happy Corbin. 16th hosts a notorious Raw in Norfolk (see below) where Asuka defeats Big Time Becks to earn the next crack at Bianca. 20th SmackDown in Grand Rapids The Usos beat Raw's RK-Bro to (unnecessarily) unify the tag belts just as The Tribal Chief has the big belts and dark, Belair retains the Raw belt over Ripley. Finally, 30th Raw at the Wells Fargo, Rhodes vs Rollins is still a Coliseum dark main.

DEPARTURES
Candice LeRae's contract expires without being renewed. As you may know, she comes back. But Jesus, there's only one real story this month and it's one of the most contentious divorces of wrestler(s) and promotion of the last five years or so. 

On the 16th episode of Raw in the end, Asuka defeats Becky Lynch to earn the right to face Belair for her title at Hell In A Cell. This was originally supposed to be a six-way also involving Doudrop, Nikki ASH.... and tag team champions Sasha Banks and Naomi. This draft was a bone of contention for "The Boss" and Naomi who wanted, perhaps understandably, to have their own titles be in focus. The plan was for Naomi to win the match, go to the PPV and lose to Belair, with Sasha appearing week end on SmackDown to end up positioned as challenger to Ronda for the SmackDown belt at the PLE.. of course, with her also losing. Faced with each dropping a high profile singles match on the PLE instead of defending their tag titles, both decide "fuck this" and leave, prompting months-long individual standoffs which will lead, eventually, to both being let out of their deals. WWE, unbelievably, will end up issuing a statement when the pair are merely "indefinitely suspended" which reads ;
"They claimed they weren't respected enough as tag team champions. And even though they had eight hours to rehearse and construct their match, they claimed they were uncomfortable in the ring with two of their opponents even though they'd had matches with those individuals in the past with no consequence. Monday Night Raw is a scripted live TV show, whose characters are expected to perform the requirements of their contract."
.... Fucking hellfire!

Individually, their stories are a little more varied in terms of what lead them to collectively take their separate balls home. For Sasha/Mercedes, this has been a long time coming. After their match at Mania 35 she'd claimed she felt so tired and beaten up she couldn't even stand up and needed Bayley's help getting up and doing her hair and so on, and on a couple of occasions she'd asked for her release including personally asking Vince for it, only to be refused, while granted leave of absence for "sabbaticals" where upon she'd always come back. This is it, at last. She'll later say "I felt so sad every day and I didn’t know why. I had to take myself away from a situation and such a fast world where I had to stop and realize who Mercedes was and who Sasha Banks was. I had no time off. I never got to see myself, my family. I took that time to figure out what I loved besides wrestling.” Sasha will fight long and hard to get let go, then completely rebrand herself as Mercedes Moné, a fairly decent spin off of her real name and elements of the "Boss" bling bling persona. She'll be back in the ring in March 2023 with her new finish, the Moné Maker - great when it works, disaster when it doesn't.. a bit like her - and in the space of just 5 matches manages to fulfil her fangirl wishes and win (then lose) New Japan's womens title before getting a serious injury.. which doesn't stop her sealing a big money deal with AEW, debuting in hometown "Bo$$ton" but alas, still not ready to actually wrestle... and stagnating as I type.

For Naomi, this feels a little more spur of the moment, especially considering her hubs was working for WWE (and of course remains so throughout her absence). It feels a bit like "Radicals" solidarity. Her own statement later will be ; "Ultimately, I left that day because of the way I was talked to and handled. Everything kind of just broke me that day. It had nothing to do with anything else, anybody else. That was just it. I had to. To go through all the backlash and the negativity and the lies and the rumors and then to also kind of just feel lost, it broke me. It was probably the lowest I've ever felt in my life. But going through that made me reset and face it head on and figure out how to learn from this experience and grow from it [and] just find myself again in all of it." She'll eventually get released, be back in the ring by April 23 and come May sign with Impact/TNA going by real name Trinity, until eventually returning to WWE at this year's Rumble. She always felt 100% a WWE product so it comes as no surprise.
I'm not usually a fan of mobile ratio vids but in sequence these are a cool look at a unique six woman given how seldom Ronda was on the road, and how close this is to the tag champs going off in a mutual huff

 

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2024 by air_raid
Feel the Go.

[air_raid]

JUNE 2022
Hooray for only having one champ. Here's the month he disappears from the road so TWO crews have no title matches. What a joke.

THE MAIN EVENTS
4th in Champaign the cross-brand show is topped by Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch vs Asuka vs Alexa Bliss for the Raw title. 11th/12th in Las Cruces and Albuquerque we start Drew McIntyre vs Sami Zayn, a popular SmackDown main which also goes on last on cross branders 18/19th in Rapid City and Billings, and month end SmackDown shows 25th/26th in Abilene and Odessa it's Drew vs Jinder Mahal. Meanwhile Belair vs Lynch vs Asuka rolls on 11th/12th in Cape Girardeau and Springfield then again (both crews in Texas) 25th-26th in Amarillo and Hidalgo.

THE CARDS - RAW
Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio vs Austin Theory & The Miz starts in Champaign and continues into Missourri, likewise Veer Mahaan vs Robert Roode, and MO also starts up Matt Riddle vs Seth Rollins, Street Profits vs Alpha Academy, Ezekiel vs Tommaso Ciampa (called simply "Ciampa" at this point according to reports? Fuck Vince), Alexa Bliss vs Nikki ASH and Bobby Lashley vs Omos & MVP. Mid month on the split shows, Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch vs Asuka continues in Rapid City, both see Mahaan vs Roode. Month end we add AJ Styles vs Damian Priest in a streetfight and Veer beating Rey & Dom by himself (!) plus more of Riddle vs Rollins, Ezekiel vs Ciampa and Profits vs Alpha.
VARIATIONS
Rhea Ripley vs Liv Morgan is unique to Champaign. Theory defends against Montez in Rapid City, in Billings Ford loses to Omos and Rollins loses a cross-brand clash with Shinsuke Nakamura. Unique to Amarillo are Omos vs Roode and Miz vs Lashley, in Amarillo Lashley beats Miz & Theory in a handicap and Omos is back squashing Reggie.

THE CARDS - SMACKDOWN
Ronda Rousey vs Natalya occurs in Champaign then repeats in New Mexico where identical cards have Gunther vs Ricochet for the ICT, The Usos vs New Day vs Sheamus & Butch, an upset in Raquel Rodriguez vs Shayna Baszler (repeating in Abilene), Viking Raiders vs Los Lotharios and Shinsuke Nakamura vs Jinder Mahal. Mid month Usos vs New Day 2 on 2 picks back up from Champaign, Gunther vs Ricochet repeats in Billings only. Month end in Texas we move to Usos vs New Day vs Raiders and amidst much swapping, there's twice Nakamura vs Butch.
VARIATIONS
Another cross-brand match in Champaign has Drew McIntyre beat regular opponent Sami Zayn and Raw's Seth Rollins. Unique to Rapid City are both Gunther vs Ricochet vs Nakamura, and Aliyah vs Baszler to a DQ ends up in Aliyah & Rodriguez beating Shayna & Natalya. In Billings its a six woman where Aliyah, Raquel and unlikely babyface Lacey Evans beat Baszler, Nattie & Shotzi Blackheart (or just "Shotzi" - fuck you Vince). In Abilene it's Madcap Moss vs Angel and Lacey vs Xia Li, then next night in Odessa Moss beats Humberto, Lacey beats Baszler and Raquel drops Xia.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
FUCK! NXT 2.0 house shows! 10th in Tampa its Bron Breakker vs Grayson Waller for the belt, next night in Largo Bron tags with Brooks Jensen & Josh Briggs to beat Joe Gacy and "Dyad #1 and Dyad #2" who apparently are Grizzled Young Veterans. 24th in Jacksonville Breakker defends against Cameron Grimes, next night in Venice its Gacy and Dyads losing to Bron, Apollo Crews and Solo Sikoa. That's a rough night at the office.

THE CARDS - HIGHLIGHTS
No repeats at all! Tampa has The Creed Brothers vs Pretty Deadly for the tag belts, Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne vs Cora Jade & Roxanne Perez for the girls' tag, Carmelo Hayes vs Nathan Frazer for the NAT and Ivy Nile vs Lash Legend. In Largo there's Mandy Rose vs Indi Hartwell for the big belt, Hayes vs Solo Sikoa, Kayden Carter & Katana Chance vs Valentina Feroz & Yulisa Leon and Wendy Choo vs Tiffany Stratton. In Jacksonville the Creeds retain against Roderick Strong & Damon Kemp, all three Toxic Attraction beat Wendy, Indi and Nikkita Lyons, Roxanne & Cora beat Chance & Carter and Tiff & Grayson Waller lose to Solo and - in her first wrestling match anywhere, ever - Sol Ruca. Finally in Venice, there's Lash vs Alba Fyre, Waller vs Ikemen Jiro and Ivy vs Elektra Lopez vs Kiana James vs Tatum Paxley.

TVs
4th "In Your House" features Carmelo and the Creeds relieve Grimes and Pretty Deadly of the NAT and tag belts respectively. 5th Hell In A Cell at the AllState (12,000) is notable - without a title match, FFS - for a main where Cody Rhodes, visible a mess from a very real injury, gutting out an unbelievable win over Rollins before he hits the bench until the Rumble. Plus Balor loses a six person to the Judgment Day - next night on Raw Edge will actually introduce him as the new member and promptly the rest will kick their leader out. Friday's SmackDown in Baton Rouge features Gunther beating Ricochet to start his interminable reign with the ICT. 17th SmackDown - hooray! Some dark matches - Aliyah beats Shotzi and the Profits beat the Lotharios. On telly Roman Reigns shows up to retain the belts over Riddle. 22nd-23rd at BT Studios we're still flogging the dead horse of NXT:UK - highlights are Briggs & Jensen winning the tag belts in a four way on the Wednesday and Meiko Satomura & Sarray vs Xia Brookside & Eliza Alexander (Lizzy Evo) on the Thursday. 24th in Austin (just 6000) Gunther makes the first of a million successful title defences against former champ Ricochet and a dark main has Ronda beat buddy Natalya yet again. 
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten on TV this month : The Usos (Tag Team Champions) by Drew & Sheamus

DEPARTURE
After a face turn on 6th June Raw and spending most of the month losing, Bobby Roode hits the bench after losing to Omos in Amarillo. Come September he has neck surgery. Over the months to come he transitions into a "producer" role and very much under the radar, retires, confirming in an interview in February 24 that while he was medically cleared, he has no plans on a full time return. Understandable at the age of 47 perhaps, he was always a good hand.