House Show/TV tapings random happenings

[The Dart]

On 12/16/2024 at 11:34 AM, air_raid said:

She's also revealed that she'd been told for the Money In The Bank PPV Lacey Evans (who'd helped her a lot) would be the one to win the ladder match then cash in on her later that night. She left a week then told Evans, who was obviously thrilled, only to be told by Paul Heyman “Vince is just feeling Liv this week” the week of the PPV. "I was angry. Angry for Lacey. Angry that WWE had put me in this position. Angry because Lacey probably didn’t even fucking know and was out there walking around excited about a moment that would never come. Angry that this old man with our careers and legacies in his hands put no more thought into his decisions than how he was feeling in the moment. Angry that it wasn’t Liv’s years of back-breaking work, sacrifice, hard-earned fan support, or star power that made this moment happen but the whims of a geriatric billionaire who treated us like action figures. Despite the progress that had been made, our efforts were more frivolous than ever.” Some other soundbytes have included "everybody is being held hostage", "Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, Bruce Prichard, they can all suck a dick" and "But Vince being gone really changes things a lot. I love Triple H and I love Steph, I think they are fucking fantastic."

Funny reading this, because I remember at the time it being "reported" that Ronda had hand picked Liv to defeat her.  No suprise that that report was complete bollocks, I suppose.

[air_raid]

5 minutes ago, The Dart said:

Funny reading this, because I remember at the time it being "reported" that Ronda had hand picked Liv to defeat her.  No suprise that that report was complete bollocks, I suppose.

Completely. She was good mates with Liv and spoke up for her a lot, but had no say in direction. She was told she'd be cashed-in on by Evans, who she was happy for and told. Then she got it corrected on Vince's whim, and while happy for Morgan, was crushed she'd been responsible for giving Evans false hope of the win. Her and Liv also wanted to do a finish in the switch back where Rousey applied the armbar on her while she was writhing around on "thumb tacks" and ended up passing out, losing but made to look a total hard case... which of course, they gave a hard no to.

[air_raid]

FEBRUARY 2024
There as many NXT house shows as main roster this month. Which is shocking to read and to write. But welcome to a very special edition.

THE MAIN EVENT
3rd-4th in Knoxville and Corbin KY then 17th and 18th in Oakland and Fresno it’s still Cody Rhodes vs Shinsuke Nakamura, now a streetfight. Hey, I know Seth’s injured, but aren’t there supposed to be two titles?
CARDS
Weekend 1, there’s Gunther vs Chad Gable for the ICT and AJ Styles vs Austin Theory, our six-woman changes to Bianca Belair, Shotzi Blackheart & Zelina Vega vs Io Sky, Asuka & Kairi Sane, it’s Ricochet vs Jinder Mahal (Ric getting his wins back), Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa vs Ludwig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci, even more of Omos vs Akira Tozawa and Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark vs Ivy Nile & Maxxine Dupri. In Corbin we kick off LA Knight vs Solo Sikoa and continue into California where a DQ in Gunther vs Gable now leads to Imperium losing to Chad, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods, Maxxine gets squashed by Nia Jax, Asuka swaps wins with Michin, Theory does the honours for Carlito and… yes, Omos vs Tozawa rolls on.
VARIATION
Knight vs Jimmy Uso in Knoxville.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
It’s Lyra’s house! Topical. 9th in Crystal River it’s Lyra Valkyria vs Lola Vice for the title, next night the champ and Tatum Paxley fall to Shotzi Blackheart & Gigi Dolin in Venice. 16th in Tampa the champ defends against Blair Davenport then 17th in Lakeland she turns back Jaida Parker.
CARDS - HIGHLIGHTS 
Crystal River reads relatively stacked - it’s Tony D’Angelo & Channing Lorenzo vs Hank Walker & Tank Ledger for the tag titles, Josh Briggs vs Oro Mensah and Brooks Jensen vs Noam Dar, Lash Legend & Jakara Jackson vs Fallon Henley & Wren Sinclair and Thea Hail & Jacy Jayne vs Sol Ruca & Brinley Reece. In Venice Jensen again challenges Oba Femi for the NAT, Sinclair falls to Blair Davenport and there’s Ridge Holland vs Javier Bernal and Andre Chase & Riley Osborne vs Lexis King & Lucky Ali (Saquon Shugars). In Tampa Henley/Sinclair beat Kiana James & Izzi Dame, there are wins in tags/six-persons for Hank & Tank, Meta-Four and Chase U, plus Chase vs Mensah vs Jensen. Finally another decent sounding show in Lakeland sees Holland & D’Angelo Family over Wolfgang, Mark Coffey & Joe Coffey, Pillman Jr best Bernal, Roxanne Perez vs Tatum Paxley and Ruca losing to Arianna Grace.

TVs
2nd in Birmingham AL (another 10,000+ gate) is an infamous SmackDown - Odyssey Jones vs Cedric Alexander opens before the show, Rhea Ripley vs Jax vs Baszler and Sami Zayn vs Drew McIntyre are dark bonus matches, and the show proper has a pretty painful to watch confrontation between Roman Reigns and Cody where "The American Nightmare" nonsensically stands aside for The Rock - more on that below. 4th in Clarksville TN NXT puts on wonkily-named Vengeance Day where the Dusty Classic is won by Bron Breakker and - remember this guy? - Baron Corbin. 5th Raw in St Louis, during Seth's opening appearance the crowd loudly chants "Rocky Sucks" prompting our favourite parrot Michael Cole to ask "is it 1996 again?" With fans not knowing that the plans have changed, they start the not-so-subtle build to Rollins vs McIntyre. Thursday 8th at T-Mobile Arena in Vegas is the "Kickoff" show, a free non-ticketed presser. Rock said upon arrival to Vegas “I have the feeling this press conference will be talked about forever” and while forever is a long time.. it was certainly talked about for the weeks thereafter, Christ bunny. ANYWAY, plans changed. 9th SmackDown in Charlotte has Triple H, ever the shy and retiring type, invite "board member" Dwayne to "know your role" - chortle. Gable Steveson beats Cedric before SmackDown on which Knight accidentally costs Styles his Chamber qualifier to Drew, predictably - it's already obvious McIntyre will be winning it. After the show, Gunther vs Cameron Grimes and man of the hour Cody vs Solo. 16th in Salt Lake City (11,000+) there are Dragon Lee vs Alexander and Jones vs Grimes before two SmackDowns are taped. 24th, 52,500+ human beings go to Elimination Chamber at Optus Stadium in Perth to see fairly obvious results - Lynch and Drew win Chambers and extraordinarily-received Ripley retains over Nia.

NO NON TITLE WHINING AGAIN!

BONUS CHAPTER
So... the long march to a Rock vs Reigns that never happened, the plan for WrestleMania 40, and its various changes. How far back to start.... why, I fancy talking about the road back to ANY match for Rocky between Mania 29 and 40, because it's been crazy. 

The night after Mania 29 they had planned to start the build for Rock vs Brock Lesnar at Mania 30 but Rocky getting injured scuppered it, as is commonly known. On and October '14 SmackDown, they teased Rock vs HHH for a Mania verbally in a confrontation between the two. How far negotiations were with Sting at this point and if HHH vs Rock/Sting vs Taker were discussed.. not for me to say. They also pitched Rock vs Lesnar for Mania 31 (as well as 30) but Rock didnt want to risk injury. Rock knew that continuing to wrestle and risk injury was going to jeopardize him getting insured for movies, which was his real job. But this was far from the end of him and WWE talking about more matches. Meltzer said they were trying to negotiate with Ronda Rousey after Mania 31 for her vs Steph at Mania 32 and that HHH went over Sting because they thought they'd only have one match out of Sting, and Hunter was planning on working Rock the year after at that point - they decided they could build it one more year (Paul himself says). After Mania 32 Wyatt challenged Rock online to a match for Mania 33 but he couldn't wrestle anyone because in the end he was filming Ballers at the time. Rock says they pitched him/Ronda vs Hunter/Steph for Mania 34 (which would have played off 31 perfectly) but filming commitments had him unavailable (he was in Shanghai). Into Mania 35 (2019) they considered Rock vs Reigns with Rock winning the Rumble - I have no idea how far talking to Dwayne went. Reigns vs Rollins vs Ambrose was a backup plan if they couldn't get Rock back, though in the end Roman got ill so couldn't work anyone. So, this match is already 5 years in the making by the march to Mania 40. Randy Orton repeatedly tweeted in 2019 at Rock to try and persuade him to have a match with him at Mania 36 but Rocky didn't bite. They pitched Rock vs Roman for Mania 37 but allegedly covid scuppered it because Rock didnt want to return in the ThunderDome (?) and/or Vince didn't know how many fans they were going to be allowed in. WrestleTalk thinks Reigns vs Goldberg became the plan which obviously also didn't happen. They later pitched Reigns vs Rock to Rock for Mania 38 but he turned it down because he wanted to do it 39 in LA - makes sense, for Mr Hollywood. In September 23 Rock admitted it was going to be him and Reigns at Mania 39 at one point but it was scrubbed off by December 22. Depending on who you believe, the reason was that Dwayne had a confidence crisis that he would be in wrestling shape, cardio wise, in time to make it possible.

So... to Mania 40 plans and implications for Rollins, Punk etc as a consequence.

Brian Gewirtz says they discussed plans for Mania 40 the day after Mania 39 and was told that they were planning to do a year-long arc with Cody and then the Cody vs Reigns rematch. As of October 23 Meltzer said he doubts Reigns vs Rock will happen and that if Cody stays hot its planned to be Reigns vs Cody again. In November, "I don't consider (Dwayne) in my way," Rhodes told ESPN. "Maybe he is and I'm being naïve to it. Maybe he wants to get in, I don't know." [Morgan Freeman]He was being naïve to it.[/Morgan] The Rock, Gewirtz, Nick Khan, and Papa H have a meeting in December 2023 where, with Rhodes already pencilled in to win the Rumble again, Dwayne suggests to test the audience's appetite for Rock vs Reigns with the 'head of the table' line and the reaction on Day 1 Raw makes it clear to them it would be reacted to positively. In reality, they were reacting to the possibility of the fight, without realising it would be a wrecking ball to the foundations of Cody winning the big belt at the landmark Mania. Come May, Gewirtz later will say "The idea of Cody winning the Rumble, I thought, was problematic, in full transparency. I said, even in San Diego (after Day 1) in that meeting, I thought the cleanest thing to do, if we’re booking Rock and Roman, is to have Punk win the Rumble and challenge Rollins, just because there is a difference, storyline-wise, in my opinion, of Cody wanting to finish the story, and having earned the right to finish the story by winning the Royal Rumble." He's got a point, Christ!

As of Jan 24 right before the Rumble, Meltzer says Reigns vs Cody has the build but Reigns vs Rock would be better money. Sitting on the fence as ever. Cody has told the world that he was told the very afternoon of the Rumble that the plans had changed to facilitate Rock vs Reigns at Mania. Brian says "Cody and Rock side barred on this. I think Cody's attitude was, 'I don't like the decision, but I understand the business to be done here. I'll go ahead the best that I can do it'." So... what that would leave Rumble-winner Cody with? Punk has stated that he was told without contradiction before his injury and without correction that he would be challenging Rollins for the World title as the main event of night 1. Rollins vs Rhodes was never put to Punk as a possibility before he got hurt - it was never on the table. Gewirtz says that the plan was for the Bloodline to beat Cody up and write him off TV, going ahead with Rock vs Reigns and Punk vs Rollins but when Punk got injured they moved to Rollins vs Cody until DJ himself recognised the revolt was too strong. Cody wasn't even going to wrestle at Mania 40??? Chinny reckon, you'd think. But then, we are talking about plans unmade, remade and shuffled again within the space of about 6-8 hours.

What happened on SmackDown, you know. Brian has suggested Cody didn't look happy enough that Rock was coming in and steamrolling his moment (funny that). "Cody, it was supposed to be, in some form, "Yeah, Fuckin A! Go get em Rock! You’re going to get your ass kicked, Roman! Let’s do this!" and this uplifting promo. Instead, he looked like someone shot his dog in the face in the parking lot." Cody has said of that, "The moment was so real — I guess I didn’t think of myself in a performance sense of "you’re not smiling." The thing I remember is, I wanted to get out of there. I wanted to be gone." Understandable. The fanbase went insane, and so did I. "We Want Cody" trended throughout the weekend. Gewirtz says The Rock called him that weekend and pitched the idea of turning heel. Johnson has since gone on the record saying "My gut says, I don't like, even if it's a segment of fans, I don't like that they're upset, and that really bugged the shit out of me. It's not how I've operated my entire career and I don't like it, and I knew that the choice, essentially, was mine. It was either we truck through this and make this main event, or we don't. I went with the latter and told those guys, 'Here's what I believe we should do.'" Brian, in turn, says "He proposed a tag match, as the main event of WrestleMania. He liked the elements, he liked teaming with Roman, the image of badassery, the throwback to WrestleMania 1 and the tag match that main evented. I said, ‘I love the tag match too, but that can’t be the main event. That can be night one, but I don’t think there is a world that exists anymore that can’t end with Cody beating Roman for the title on night two.’ It was agreed.. Two days after the press conference, I threw out Bloodline rules or everyone is banned from ringside to Rock. Rock loved it. He called Nick (Khan), Ari (Emanuel), he talked to Triple H. I talked to Ed (Kosky) and Bruce (Prichard) on the creative team. Everyone was like, ‘Great, this is what we’re going to do now.’ We’re off to the races, and then everything started flowing."

So, that's all that. Rock nearly ruined Mania 40, but according to him and his wingman, he also saved it. The twin main events of Mania 40 will long live in my heart. It murders Mania IV in the double VHS stakes for real.

DEPARTURE
These are the last house show matches of Jinder Mahal. One month removed from breathing the rare air of sharing screen with The Rock then a televised title match, he will only wrestle twice more for the company - beating Tozawa on the Main Event taped Mania week, then in the Andre Battle Royal on the SmackDown before Mania itself. It's possible this last main event mini push was a "thanks for everything" pat on the back, hired back as he was during one regime but deemed surplus and cut loose during another. I never really came around to how useful he may or may not have been in lesser capacities because I never got over his WWE title push, the worst example of "too far, far too soon" since JBL, in my eyes. He was fairly magnanimous about it, saying in a July interview "It's time for the next generation. It's time for the Bron Breakkers and the Carmelos, it's their time. I had my time and maybe my time will come back. But it's time right now to step away and do other things, and if it works out in the future (I) come back, if not, it's all good," adding "And yeah, it's a young man's game."

a

[air_raid]

MARCH 24

MAIN EVENTS
2nd-3rd in Thousand Palms (Coachella Valley) and Bakersfield, it's fresh new main event Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre in a streetfight. Weekend after, Cody tags with former enemy Seth Rollins vs Solo Sikoa & Jimmy Uso in Alexandria and Lafayette on the way to their massive tag at Mania Night 1. Back to Rhodes vs McIntyre in Augusta (GA) and North Charleston ; more wins for Cody in WCW country! We flip-flop back to the Rollins/Bloodline tag 23rd/24th in Springfield/Rockford. Finally 30th in Manchester (NH) and 32st in Syracuse... you guessed it, Cody and Drew in more streetfights. The Big Dog : absent as always.
THE CARDS
In Cali there's good support with Gunther vs Jey Uso for the ICT, LA Knight vs Solo Sikoa and our non-stop six-woman morphs into Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair & Naomi vs Io Sky, Kairi Sane & Asuka, plus Finn Balor, Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio & JD McDonagh vs The Miz, R-Truth, Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano ahead of the Mania tag title cluster (faces win, naturally), Tyler Bate & Pete Dunne vs Ludwig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci and.... more of Omos vs Akira Tozawa. Second weekend down South, Sami Zayn vs Shinsuke Nakamura is a fine opener, we add AJ Styles vs Carlito, the six-woman has Lynch out and Zelina Vega in, Knight now beats Santos Escobar and both Gunther vs Jey and Omos vs Tozawa (obvs) continue. Weekend 3, Truth vs Dom opens the show to a DQ whereupon Truth, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods beat Dom/Balor/Priest. We add Rhea Ripley vs Nia Jax vs Shayna Baszler, it's now Belair/Naomi vs Kabucki Warriors, we're back to Knight vs Solo and there's continuation of Zayn vs Nakamura, Styles vs Carlito and... Omos vs Tozawa. In Illinois, we add Awesome Truth vs Mysterio & McDonagh going to a DQ ahead of Truth/Miz/New Day beating all of Judgment Day, we switch to Lynch/Bianca/Naomi vs Io, Kairi and Dakota Kai, SET YOUR FACES TO STUNNED - Omos starts being Odyssey Jones instead, Ripley vs Jax vs Baszler and Zayn vs Nakamura roll on. Final double shot, we have a new ICT match with Gunther vs Jey vs Nakamura vs Dom, Balor & Priest turn back the challenge of New Day, Belair/Vega/Michin beat Kairi and Kai'n'Sky, Bate & Dunne drop Pretty Deadly, still Rhea vs Shayna vs Nia, Knight vs Solo and Omos vs Jones.
VARIATIONS
Lynch beats Nia by DQ in Alexandria, it's Lynch/Kevin Owens beating Nia/Grayson Waller in Lafayette.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
1st in Dade City the last of three title matches is another round of Oba Femi vs Josh Briggs for the NAT. 2nd in Jacksonville it's the big one - Ilja Dragunov vs Tony D'Angelo for the NXT title. 22nd in Sanford Oba Femi is with Dante Chen, 23rd in Gainesville somehow Trick Williams & Carlee Bright vs Oro Mensah & Lash Legend goes on last. 29th in Fort Pierce Lyra Valkyria vs Arianna Grace (battle royal winner) main events again, next night in Melbourne man of the hour Oba Femi defends against (battle royal) Je'Von Evans.
THE CARDS
Lexis King vs Eddy Thorpe actually repeats in Gainesville and Fort Pierce. In Dade City there's Lyra Valkyria vs Lola Vice for the Womens title and Charlie Dempsey vs Riley Osborne for the Heritage Cup, plus Sol Ruca & Kelani Jordan vs Blair Davenport & Stevie Turner. In Jacksonville a busy Valkyria tags with frequent chum Tatum Paxley against Kiana James & Izzi Dame, Ridge Holland, Nathan Frazer & Axiom vs Osborne, Andre Chase & Duke Hudson, Thea Hail vs Arianna Grace, Lash Legend vs Karmen Petrovic, Fallon Henley & Wren Sinclair vs Jacy Jayne & Jazmyn Nyx and Channing Lorenzo vs Oro Mensah. In Sanford there's Lyra/Tatum/Karmen vs Vice/Legend/Jakara Jackson, Ruca vs Lainey Reid and Nyx vs Sinclair. Gainesville see Valkyria & Paxley beat Lola and Roxanne Perez, Dempsey retain against Uriah Connors and Hail vs Nyx to a DQ leads to Hail/Petrovic/Henley/Sinclair losing to Nyx/Jayne/James/Dame. In Fort Pierce Turner & Davenport lose to Ruca & Brinley Reece, Dempsey bests Dante Chen, Petrovic beats Vice and Oba Femi retains the NAT over a Drake Morreaux. Finally in Melbourne, Hail beats Jayne by DQ, Charlie loses to Joe Gacy, Jackson & Legend beat Carlee Bright & Kendal Grey and Henley & Jordan beat James & Dame.

TVs
1st in Glendale (suburban Pheonix) another great gate (near 12,500) see Cedric Alexander & Ashante Adonis drop Deadly before SmackDown and Priest vs Miz and Cody vs McIntyre after it. 5th there's NXT Roadblock where Sane & Asuka show their faces to turn back Valkyria & Paxley, and Connors loses to Shawn Spears who I already forgot they hired back. 8th in Dallas (13,000+) its Cedric & Adonis vs Edris Enofe & Malik Blade before the show and Gunther vs Jey and Lynch vs Jax in a tables match after it. 15th SmackDown in Memphis, on top of cracking promo work by our mate Dwayne, its Alexander vs Jones before the show and Ripley vs Baszler vs (trigger warning) Natalya and Rhodes vs McIntyre in a streetfight after it. 18th Raw in Raleigh (12,600) its worth noting that Lynch beats Jax in a Last Woman Standing match in an effort to prove herself equal to Ripley on the way to Mania. 22nd in Milwaukee (11,000) there's loads of dark matches - Cedric vs Odyssey and Bate vs Angel Garza are the first two matches of the night, Kofi vs Dom and Gunther vs Jey are the last two. Finally 29th at the Mohegan Sun there's Ripley vs Baszler and Zayn vs Balor after SmackDown.
NO NON TITLE WHINING

NO DEPARTURES OF NOTE

 

 

[air_raid]

APRIL 2024
Fuck off Roman, we've got a real champ now.
THE MAIN EVENTS
17th-20th it's WWE Champ Cody Rhodes vs Shinsuke Nakamura at the NEC, in Cardiff, at the O2 (near 16,500) and in Belfast - overlapping 20th/21st in Erie and Fort Wayne, where we're back to the very B show LA Knight vs Solo Sikoa (no DQ).
THE CARDS
It's Damian Priest vs Kofi Kingston (Birmingham and Belfast) or Xavier Woods (Cardiff and London) for the Silver Medal, Sami Zayn vs Ginther vs Finn Balor vs Chad Gable for the ICT, Jey Uso vs Drew McIntyre, with Rhea injured it's Becky Lynch vs Piper Niven helping out everywhere except London (LOL), Ricochet vs JD McDonagh and Tegan Nox & Natalya vs Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark.. sounds mostly reasonable. Back in the States there's Bayley vs Io Sky rematches, Austin Theory & Grayson Waller vs Tyler Bate & Pete Dunne for SmackDowns tag belts, rematches of Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair & Naomi vs Dakota Kai, Asuka & Kairi Sane, and faction rivalry galore in Bobby Lashley vs Karrion Kross and other fun (see below).
VARIATIONS
In London Nattie beats (!) Baszler in singles and Nox beats Niven and Stark in a multinational triple threat. In Erie, a DQ in Lashley vs Kross leads to Street Profits and Authors Of Pain jumping in for a six-man (won by The Pride), and there's Rey Mysterio & Dragon Lee vs Angel Garza & Humberto Carillo and Carlito vs Santos Escobar. On the shorter card in Fort Wayne, Profits vs AoP is a standalone tag and we have LWO vs LDF as a six-man.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
Bit of shine for the tag title - Nathan Frazer & Axiom vs Wolfgang & Mark Coffey main events 12th in Davenport then in Venice on the 13th, the lads retain in a fourway vs Tony D'Angelo & Channing Lorenzo, Damon Kemp & Myles Borne and Malik Blade & Edris Enofe. 19th in Citrus Springs a clash of eras has Trick Williams vs Shawn Spears, night after its the Womens title on last with Roxanne Perez vs Thea Hail.
THE CARDS - HIGHLIGHTS
Repeats! Trick Williams vs Shawn Spears main events in Citrus Springs and goes 6th out of 10 in Orlando, the Nathan Frazer & Axiom vs Wolfgang & Mark Coffey tag title match goes on last in Davenport and third to last in Citrus, Josh Briggs vs Thunder Keck (Shiloh Hill) runs the first three shows... if your first name is Thunder, why do you get a limp working name like "Shiloh"? Otherwise in Davenport there's Spears beating Dion Lennox, Joe Gacy vs Joe Coffey, Ivar, Hank Walker & Tank Ledger vs Bronco Nima, Lucien Price & SCRYPTS (formerly Reggie) and Sol Ruca vs Lola Vice. Next night in Venice our biggest matches are probably Charlie Dempsey vs Duke Hudson and Karmen Petrovic vs Jakara Jackson (ref'd by Arianna Grace). In Citrus Springs Joe Coffey beats Eddy Thorpe, Petrovic and Kelani Jordan beat Blair Davenport & Stevie Turner, there's Charlie Dempsey, Myles Borne & Damon Kemp vs Tony D'Angelo, Channing Lorenzo & Luca Crusifino, Ruca, Carlee Bright & Kendal Grey vs Kiana James, Jazmyn Nyx & Izzi Dame and - back in the saddle for the ex-champ - Lyra Valkyria vs Tatum Paxley. Finally in Orlando, Ivar/Ledger beat Price/Reggie, Ridge Holland beats an Anthony Luke, there's Noam Dar & Oro Mensah vs Malik Blade & Edris Enofe and Jackson & Lash Legend lose to Wren Sinclair & Brinley Reece.

TVs
1st Raw draws 15,500+ to the Barclays where there's that final win for Jinder Mahal on Main Event as noted previously. That Friday a monstrous nearly 20,000 turn up to the Wells Fargo to kick of the huge run of shows in Philly where as well as matches for Speed and SmackD, there's Tiffany Stratton vs Michin as a dark opener. Next afternoon a very respectable near 17,000 rock up for the NXT Stand & Deliver show where Roxi wins the belt back from Valkyria. Same night of course an insane 73,000 fans at Lincoln Field see a very good Mania night 1 show featuring a defining victory (in more ways than one) in Rhea Ripley vs Becky, a decent feelgood win for The Miz & R-Truth, a great showing for Cargill, a simply amazing payoff to Gunther vs Zayn which in terminating Gunther's reign and referring to Sami as "winning the big one" really pushed the ICT as important like it hasn't been for decades, and as an over-arcing spectacles, Rhodes & Rollins vs Roman Reigns & The Rock delivered in spades, one of my favourite Mania matches ever, believe me. Next night (another 73,000), shenanigans in the Rollins/McIntyre/Priest switches courtesy of my mate CM Punk kicks off strong, middle is much of a muchness, then Cody finally "finishes the story" and ends the mind-numbing monotony of the Reigns of terror. I loved the Attitude-style chaos at the end feating run-ins from the usual suspects, John Cena and The Undertaker, and the right man won. Really "end of chapter" stuff even if the follow up could never live up to it. Next night 20,000+ back at the Wells Fargo see - I forgot this one - Ilja Dragunov knock off Nakamura, Jade pin Chelsea Green in her first WWE singles match and Rhea sustain the injury that will postpone Becky's time off. Friday 12th we're still riding the wave, 14,500+ in Detroit get bonus dark matches of Jey vs Solo and Cody vs Dom (YES!) for the title. 19th in Pittsburgh touching distance to 15,000 see Cedric Alexander & Ashante Adonis vs Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (remember them?) in the opener, then after air Theory & Waller vs Rey & Lee for the tag belts and Lashley vs Kross in a streetfight. 22nd Raw in Columbus (OH) is where Big Time Bex wins the secondary Womens belt (not the one Tiffy has now) in a battle royal so Liv will get to win it from someone high profile later. 23rd at the Performance Center is the first of two NXT "Spring Breakin" specials where Williams wins the big belt off Dragunov and Baron Corbin does the honours for Lexis King. 26th in Cincinnati (12,700) Ricochet wins the Speed title (hmm), Sheamus vs Gable and Awesome Truth vs Balor & McDonagh follow the show. Finally, 30th on the second Spring Breakin' Ivar puts over Oba Femi, Holland pins Spears and Vice beats Natalya - quite right.
NO NON TITLE WHINING

DEPARTURES
Among the annual spring clean, as well as Jinder, notable exits are Cameron Grimes and Xia Li. Despite being the inaugural Speed champion, the tour is the last set of cheques on the road for Ricochet - his deal's coming up and he's not resigning. June 7th they'll get the title off him, June 8th he'll inform them that he's leaving at the end of the month, Monday 10th in Raw he'll get roughed up by Bron Breakker and written out. Come August he signs with AEW. Trev will later tell Chris Van Vliet "I felt like I was starting over with the Bron Breakkers and the Iljas and the Carmelos and the new guys just coming in. I feel like Ricochet was with those guys coming back in, it’s like, man I’ve already been here for five or six years, I want to be doing something else. Again, at the end of the day, I wasn’t going to go to the highest bidder, I was just going to go to whoever was going to make me feel good and ignite that spark again, because I felt like that fire that was burning inside of me was still there, but it was just like little embers that needed that gasoline on it to really make it ignite." And fair play to him.

Cody entering as champ, at the time, I lost my mind over.

Here's some matches too.

 

[air_raid]

MAY 24
There's a smell of discontent in the air this month, but it mostly smells like stale sweat masked by Lynx Africa.

MAIN EVENTS
We finish the tour 1st-2nd in Bologna and Vienna and a big third night in France after two televised shows, 5th in Aix-en-Provence (suburban Marseille) where its still Cody Rhodes vs Shinsuke Nakamura for the belt, then its Cody vs AJ Styles 11th/12th in Chattanooga and Macon.
THE CARDS
In Italy and Austria we have Becky Lynch vs Nia Jax for the Womens Silver Medal, Sami Zayn vs Ludwig Kaiser for the ICT, Randy Orton & LA Knight vs Solo Sikoa & Tama Tonga and more of the Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair & Naomi vs Dakota Kai, Asuka & Kairi Sane rematches. Down south we have new title matches in Damian Priest vs Jey Uso for the Participation Belt, The Miz & R-Truth vs Finn Balor & JD McDonagh for Raw's tag titles, Austin Theory & Grayson Waller vs Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano for SmackDown's and Bayley defending the big belt against one of Damage CTRL (Kai on 11th/Sane on 12th) before a DQ and Jade joining in for an "impromptu" tag, plus Liv Morgan beats Nia in streetfights (um, isn't that two heels fighting?).
VARIATIONS
In Bologna its Priest vs Jey vs Gunther vs Chad Gable for the belt and Awesome Truth vs Balor & McDonagh for the titles, in Vienna its Gunther vs Gable and Miz/Truth/Uso vs Judgment Day as a six-man. Marseille is unique - Orton's partner losing to The Bloodline is Kevin Owens. Bayley vs Naomi vs Tiffany Stratton goes to a no contest leading to Bayley/Naomi/Cargill beating Tiff, Piper Niven and Chelsea Green.  There's Styles vs Gargano, "A-Town Down Under" vs Street Profits for the belts and Bobby Lashley vs Santos Escobar. Finally, this is cool - opening matches in the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments have Knight beat Escobar and Tiffy beat Michin in Chattanooga, and Kofi Kingston vs Rey Mysterio and Shayna Baszler vs Maxxine Dupri in Macon. Regardless of what you think of those pairings, it's cool for house shows to see matches that will influence something playing out on TV and PLE.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
10th in Lakeland Oba Femi vs Eddy Thorpe for the NAT goes on last, Gainesville on the 11th it's Trick Williams & Je'Von Evans vs Noam Dar & Oro Mensah. 18th in Fort Pierce its a tag title main with Nathan Frazer & Axoim vs Wolfgang & Mark Coffey, 31st in Tampa with the NAT second to last, Gallus fall to Trick and Wes Lee.
CARDS - HIGHLIGHTS
Roxanne Perez vs Tatum Paxley for the belt goes on second to last in Lakeland where there's also Lola Vice vs Karmen Petrovic and - get this - Tony D'Angelo & Channing Lorenzo beating Shawn Spears and a partner that never got an intro and across multiple reports to numerous sites, nobody knows who he was. Bet Spears is glad he came back. Next night in Gainesville there's Andre Chase, Duke Hudson & Riley Osborne vs Wolfgang, Mark Coffey & Joe Coffey, Thea Hail vs Lash Legend and Arianna Grace vs Jakara Jackson. In Fort Pierce Perez vs Paxley vs Petrovic is the semi-main, Hail beats Izzi Dame, Jackson beats Wren Sinclair and there's Joe Coffey vs Ridge Holland and Wes Lee & Je'Von Evans vs Malik Blade & Edris Enofe. Finally Tampa get Oba Femi vs Holland for the NAT, Dante Chen vs Lexis King opening, Oro Mensah vs Eddy Thorpe, wins for both the D'Angelo Family and Chase U in six-mans, Petrovic beating Jackson and Legend winning a four-way vs Fallon Henley vs Kelani Jordan vs Jaida Parker.

TVs
Friday night of the 3rd in Décines-Charpieu (suburban Lyon) the first night in France has bumper added value with Rey Rey vs Carlito before SmackDown and both Jey vs Balor and Rhodes vs Nakamura after it. Next night in the same building (11,000+) it's of course a well-remembered Backlash where Tanga Loa makes his rather unfortunate debut running in (a tad mistimed) in the opener, Cargill & Belair win the tag titles from Damage CTRL in the first of a run of overseas switches, and Rhodes defeats Styles during which "The American Nightmare" kicks out of AJ's take on The Burning Hammer, sending dorks worldwide into meltdown. 6th Raw in Hartford (9500) we start the King/Queen tourneys including Ilja Dragunov beating Speed Champion Ricochet - but I'm not really counting that as Non Title Whining because he hasn't beaten Ric under the rules the title is contested. Just like pinning a tag champ in a singles match doesn't count. It IS one of those matches Trev alluded to that helps him decide to leave, however. Friday 10th at the SmackDown taping at the Mohegan Sun, Tyler Bate vs Humberto Carillo opens and Jey vs Gunther closes. 17th SmackDown in Jacksonville (near 10,000) as well as Speed taping there's Cedric Alexander & Ashante Adonis vs Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, Priest vs Kofi for the title and Awesome Truth vs Balor & JD for the tag belts. Notable this broadcast is a Cargill vs Jax QOTR match where they avoid beating either by doing a DQ - the faded Tallica t-shirts didn't like that, either. 24th they do SmackDown in Jeddah the night before the next tainted PLE where there's both Bronson Reed vs Gargano and Ciampa vs Kaiser before the broadcast and RKO/KO vs Solo & Tonga plus Rhodes & Zayn vs Gable & Otis after it. Night after, "King and Queen of the Ring" is actually noteworthy as Liv takes the Silver Medal from Big Time Bex, Cody retains the title against Logan Paul (where the MVP is actually a drone cameraman) and Nia and Gunther win tournaments that will propel them to title shots (both will end up taking and winning at SummerSlam) - the latter with a fairly big time win over Orton. 27th Raw in Savannah Ricochet beats Dragunov but only by DQ and Liv beats Lynch inside a cage match ; Becky's last WWE match to date. Finally 31st SmackDown in Albany, Karl jobs for Andrade (remember him?) and Tiffy beats Tegan Nox (really on the slope, that one) before the show and Sheamus beats Kaiser and Uso beats Drew McIntyre by DQ after it.
NON TITLE WHINING - BACK, AFTER A LENGTHY ABSENCE
Beaten on TV this month : Zayn (Intercontinental Champ) by Gable. Boo.

DEPARTURES
There's another clearout, amongst the names the only ones that stand out are the aforementioned Trey Bearhill (and that's because his name) and  SCRYPTS who I mentioned last time. They give up on Gable Steveson which is remarkable considering his gold medallist status. After not being a full-time commentator since 2020 The King finally has his contract expire without renewal ; at 74, he'd long outlived his usefulness and stood out as a relic of a bygone era for ages anyway. Also, unrepentant sexpest and nonce that got away with it. Becky Lynch wrestles her last matches before her contract expires 1/6 and she takes a break. Trust me when I say, it's only a break, and she'll be back. I'd stake my reputation on it.

You can watch all of Bologna here.

Tiffy Time.

 

[Chili]

So glad you've nearly caught up to now with this. Looking forward to seeing what follows it.

[air_raid]

25 minutes ago, Chili said:

So glad you've nearly caught up to now with this. Looking forward to seeing what follows it.

Clue : the first entry will mention Rip Rogers, Italian Stallion and The Sheepherders.

[air_raid]

JUNE 24
We reach a month where NXT house shows outnumber main roster. Makes sense in terms of who needs more matches without the pressure of cameras, but it blows my mind that the gate receipts don’t matter anymore.

MAIN EVENTS
Just four stops again this month - 1st in White Plains and 2nd in Binghamton it’s still Cody Rhodes vs AJ Styles for the title, then our hero is back with Shinsuke Nakamura 22nd/23rd in Bloomington (IL) and Kalamazoo.
THE CARDS
8 match cards in New York have Damian Priest vs Jey Uso vs Drew McIntyre for the “World title,” Sami Zayn vs Chad Gable vs Bronson Reed for the ICT, Bayley vs Tiffany Stratton (!) for the Women’s belt proper, Liv Morgan vs Shayna Baszler (Liv still working face on the road?) for Rhea’s belt, The Miz & R-Truth vs Finn Balor & JD McDonagh for Raw’s tag title, Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill vs Dakota Kai & Kairi Sane for the Women’s tag belts, and LA Knight vs Shinsuke Nakamura. Great value, I’d say. Three weeks later it’s now Priest vs Uso one on one and Liv works Zoey Stark, Bayley vs Stratton and Awesome Truth vs Judgment Day unchanged.
VARIATIONS
In Bloomington it’s Zayn vs Reed vs Ludwig Kaiser and Gunther vs Kofi Kingston, next night Gunthers off so Zayn beats Reed and Kofi drops Kaiser.

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
1st in Crystal River it’s Nathan Frazer & Axiom vs Channing Lorenzo & Luca Crusifino for the tag belts, 7th in Davenport its Ridge Holland, Andre Chase & Duke Hudson vs Wolfgang, Mark Coffey & Joe Coffey, then one night later in Sebring it’s Tony D’Angelo vs Eddy Thorpe for the Heritage Cup. 21st in Venice Joe challenges Trick Williams for the big belt, finally 22nd in Orlando it’s Roxanne Perez vs Lash Legend (battle royal winner) for the Women’s title.
THE CARDS - HIGHLIGHTS
Repeats - it's again Eddy Thorpe vs Shiloh Hill in both Crystal River and Davenport. Kelani Jordan vs Izzi Dame happens in Crystal River and in Venice by which time its for the WNAT. There's also Oba Femi vs Damon Kemp for the NAT and Tony D'Angelo vs Lexis King in Crystal River and Dame vs Wren Sinclair, Duke Hudson vs Wolfgang and the Family winning a six-man in Davenport. In Sebring Sinclair loses to Stevie Turner, the Family win a mixed six-person and there's Ridge Holland, Andre Chase & Hudson vs Charlie Dempsey, Myles Borne & Tavion Heights. Venice get D'Angelo vs Mark Coffey, Sinclair vs Lola Vice, Turner vs Sol Ruca and King vs Hank Walker, then in Orlando Oba Femi defends against Luca Crusifino, Gallus lads Mark, Wolfgang and Joe Coffey beat Trick Williams, Wes Lee & Dante Chen, Holland/Chase U beat Dempsey, Kemp & Borne, and D'Angelo beats Tavion.

TVs
3rd Raw in Hershey (9200) we need to mention the outbound Ricochet doing a job for Bron Breakker. 7th SmackDown in Louisville they get the Speed title off Ric and onto Andrade plus there's a Tegan Nox vs Blair Davenport dark match between Speed matches and after the broadcast Rey Mysterio vs Carlito to a DQ then Rey & Braun Strowman beat Carly and new ally McDonagh. 9th is NXT Battleground where Jordan wins a ladder match to become first Womens North American champ, Vice upsets Baszler, Frazer & Axiom turn back Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Roxi beats TNA's Jordynne Grace and Trick retains over Ethan Page. 10th Raw a very busy Breakker attacks Ricochet (see ya) and beats Ilja Dragunov and Lyra Valkyria turns up to lose to Io Sky. 11,000 gate for both the Glasgow SmackDown Friday 14th, and Clash At The Castle the night after where CM Punk screws Drew out of the Participation Belt again, Piper Niven loses to Bayley but Scotland does at least win one title match as Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn lift the ladies tag straps. Fantastic near 15,000 at the AllState on 21st - the Good Brothers lose to the near-invisible Street Profits before SmackDown. 24th Raw in Indianapolis is where Balor & McDonagh finally knock off The Awesome Truth, and 28th they manage to draw 17,843 to MSG for a SmackDown taping where honestly, the show didn't live up to the venue. The Bloodline ex-communicate Paul Heyman but match-wise there was fuck all to boast about and the dark matches of Awesome Truth vs Pretty Deadly and Uso vs Balor in a streetfight.. fucking hell, why didn't they get Cody to wrestle as champ at the Garden???
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten on TV this month : Logan Paul (US Champion) in a three way with LA Knight (winner) and Santos Escobar
NO NOTABLE DEPARTURES
This is from May rather than June but I reckon you'll like it anyway.

 

[air_raid]

JULY 24
It's international bunse only at the gate this month.

MAIN EVENTS
13th in Mexico City and 14th in Monterrey the card is topped by the VERY locally-influenced Cody Rhodes vs Santos Escobar, then 25th in Osaka and 27th at Sumo Hall its Cody vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs AJ Styles either side of night 1 at Ryogoku where its Rhodes/Styles one on one.
THE CARDS
Both nights in Mexico have a big six man with Randy Orton, LA Knight & Andrade vs Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa, more local interest in Rey Mysterio & Dragon Lee vs Dominik Mysterio & Carlito, as well as Damian Priest vs Jey Uso for the Silver Medal, Sami Zayn vs Chad Gable for the ICT and yet more international flavour with Stephanie Vaquer vs Isla Dawn. Repeats happening in Osaka and at least one night of Tokyo include Liv Morgan vs Io Sky for the second Womens title then later - as if this happened?? - Joshi legend Io tagging with regular partners Kairi Sane and Dakota Kai plus Tiffany Stratton to lose to Bianca Belair, Bayley, Jade Cargill and fellow Joshi legend Meiko Satomura, Zayn vs Dom for the ICT, Finn Balor & JD McDonagh vs Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods for the tag belts, and two more rounds of Priest vs Uso.
VARIATIONS
Mexico City get Bayley vs Belair for the title, Morgan vs Shayna Baszler, Rey vs Dom to a DQ before the tag and Dawn talks herself into losing to Cargill after losing to Steph. In Monterrey there's Bayley/Belair/Cargill d Morgan/Baszler/Stratton. Osaka, Solo & Tama beat Knight & Kevin Owens and Gunther pins Rey. Night one in Tokyo, spare man Shinsuke Nakamura teams with KO and LA to beat the three-piece Bloodline and a swap has Priest vs Rey for the belt and Gunther vs Uso. Finally night two, after a DQ in the tag title match Rey and Dom jump in for a six-man, Liv beats Kairi then Kai'n'Sky defeat former champs Belair & Cargill, a very successful tour for Gunther ends with him pinning Knight, Sami & Kev beat Haku's lads, Solo and Tiff get the night off and Bayley defends the big belt against Meiko (WHUT).

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
12th in Sebring its Oba Femi vs Duke Hudson for the NAT, 26th in Davenport its Tony D'Angelo vs Brooks Jensen for the Heritage Cup.
THE CARDS - HIGHLIGHTS
Highlights of 10 matches in Sebring include Roxanne Perez vs Lash Legend for the belt, Nathan Frazer & Axiom vs Wolfgang & Mark Coffey for the tag belts, Eddy Thorpe vs Lexis King, Ridge Holland, Andre Chase & Riley Osborne vs Charlie Dempsey, Myles Borne & Tavion Heights and Thea Hail, Kelani Jordan & Karmen Petrovic vs Fallon Henley, Jacy Jayne & Jazmyn Nyx. 11(!) matches in Davenport include Jordan vs Tatum Paxley for the WNAT, Frazer & Axiom vs Holland & Duke Hudson, Gallus lads Mark and Joe Coffey & Wolfgang vs Joe Hendry (topical), Je'Von Evans and Shiloh Hill, Fatal Influence going 2 for 2 and beating Lola Vice, Kendal Grey & Brinley Reece and Wendy Choo vs Wren Sinclair.

TVs
1st Raw at the TD in Boston I have to mention because its a 12,500 gate and I like attendance figures. Friday 5th we're doing SmackDown on the first of three nights at the Scotiabank Arena, Toronto which includes dark openers featuring some talents we've nearly seen the end of in Blair Davenport vs Tegan Nox and Baron Corbin vs Angelo Dawkins, on the show proper Austin Theory & Grayson Waller vs Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa ends with DIY lifting the SmackyD tag title, then after the show there's both Io vs Naomi and Zayn vs Gable for the ICT. Next night for Money In The Bank (20,000) Drew McIntyre (too good for the road at this point? He hasn't worked a house show since, either) wins the briefcase then fails in his cash in during Priest vs Seth Rollins because of - survey says - CM Punk. But far more important than that, it's TIFFY TIME. There's a briefcase won AND a confrontation with Trish Stratus to sow the seeds for the match I think they're having at Mania. Next night in the same building NXT Heatwave sees four title matches with champions retaining then Ethan Page winning the big one in a four-way. 12th SmackDown in Worcester, Dawkins & Montez Ford beat Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows plus after it Braun Strowman vs Carlito and another round of Priest vs Uso. One week later in Omaha Naomi vs Indi Hartwell opens, and they tape the week afters show too since physically most of the guys will be in Japan when it airs. Monday 29th, apparently 12,000 turn up to Raw in St Paul. I had no idea the town had that large a venue! Finally 30th NXT do their first Great American Bash show, highlight for me being main roster tag champs Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn turning back Legend & Jakara Jackson.
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten on TV this month : Balor & McDonagh (Raw Tag Team Champions) by Zayn & Uso

DEPARTURE
Tamina.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2025 by air_raid
I will wait here for my man tonight, it's easy when you're big in Japan.

[air_raid]

AUGUST 24

The Big Dog is back. He still isn't wrestling, mind. Why should he.

MAIN EVENTS
17th/18th out the back of SummerSlam its Cody Rhodes vs Solo Sikoa as a streetfight for the title in Lakeland and Fort Myers. 25th-29th we're back out on tour with Cody back with AJ Styles in Rotterdam, Brussels, Oberhausen, Stuttgart and Frankfurt.
THE CARDS
In Florida there's Randy Orton & Kevin Owens vs Austin Theory & Grayson Waller (odd use of Orton, that) plus Gunther vs Damian Priest rematches and Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa for the tag titles (Freebird rule???) plus Braun Strowman, Kofi Kingston & Odyssey Jones vs Finn Balor, JD McDonagh & Carlito, Sami Zayn vs Ludwig Kaiser and Naomi vs Chelsea Green. On tour Gunther works Ilja Dragunov on odd-numbered nights with LA Knight vs Shinsuke Nakamura vs Sheamus vs Kaiser for the UST and on even nights Sheamus and Dragunov swap, most shows have Bayley & Naomi vs Nia Jax & Tiffany Stratton, everywhere except Brussels this follows a DQ in a Jax vs Bayley title rematch. Tag title is now G.O.D. vs Street Profits vs A-Town Down Under, DIY beat Pretty Deadly and there's Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill vs Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell.
VARIATION
In Rotterdam only Jax is permitted to beat Bayley outright and later instead of the tag, Tiffy beats Naomi in singles.

NXT - MAIN EVENTS
10th in St Petersburg its Ethan Page vs Andre Chase for the title, 23rd in Fort Pierce the Womens title goes on last with Roxanne Perez vs Lola Vice vs Sol Ruca, next night in Orlando its Page vs Malik Blade vs Je'Von Evans.
THE CARDS
Repeat - Lash Legend & Jakara Jackson vs Jacy Jayne & Jazmyn Nyx goes 1-1 in St Peterburg and Orlando. St Petersburg have Oba Femi vs Mr Stone (LOL) for the NAT, Kelani Jordan vs Tatum Paxley vs Wendy Choo for the WMNAT, Tony D'Angelo & Channing Lorenzo vs Charlie Dempsey & Myles Borne, Adriana Rizzo, Jaida Parker & Sol Ruca vs Lola Vice, Karmen Petrovic & Izzi Dame and Dion Lennox vs Lexis King (Pillman Jr's win-loss record on the road is awful). In Fort Pierce its Andre Chase & Ridge Holland vs Bronco Nima & Lucien Price for the tag belts, another round of Brooks Jensen vs Shiloh Hill, the Family win an 8-person tag and Thea Hail & Riley Osborne beat Stevie Turner & Stone (LOL). A whopping 11 matches in Orlando include Oba Femi vs Borne and Jordan vs Dame for the belts, Trick Williams beating a Kale Dixon, and Wolfgang, Mark Coffey & Joe Coffey vs Joe Hendry, Hank Walker & Tank Ledger.
TVs
2nd SmackDown in Cleveland there's Je'Von vs Ashante Adonis before a show on which Tama & Jacob Fatu drop DIY for the tag titles and afterwards there's Braun vs Chad Gable and Rey Mysterio, Jey Uso, The Miz & R-Truth vs Priest/Balor/McDonagh/Dominik Mysterio. Next night at Browns Stadium a frankly insane near 58,000 attend SummerSlam where Dom turns on Rhea Ripley in favour of Liv Morgan, Zayn drops the ICT to Bron Breakker, Knight finally relieves Logan Paul of the UST, Jax wins the (proper) Womens belt from Bayley, big match Drew McIntyre drops CM Punk after shenanigans from ref Seth Rollins, Gunther wins the Silver Medal from Priest when Balor costs Damo, completing a refurb of his group, and "The American Nightmare" retains over Solo thanks to the returning Roman Reigns. I can't remember the last PLE where I considered EVERY match noteworthy! Next night on Raw there's the in-ring debut of Wyatt Sicks in the form of Erick Rowan, Joe Gacy & Dexter Lumis, beating Gable and The Creed Brothers. Next night NXT do their second night of The Great American Bash where Williams loses to Pete Dunne plus three title defences. 9th SmackDown in Tulsa has dark matches of Apollo Crews & Baron Corbin vs Angel Garza & Humberto Carillo and Liv & Dom Dom lose to Braun & Kairi Sane - MMC coming back?? One week later in Orlando there's a dark match feast - Crews & Corbin beat LDF again, Hartwell beats Green, Zayn beats Santos Escobar, Gunther drops a DQ to Jey and that becomes Uso & Priest vs Gunther & Kaiser. 23rd SmackDown in Washington (13,500) it's Morgan vs Sane and Uso vs McIntyre after the show. 26th Raw in Providence Uncle Howdy beats Gable - I can't remember the last time I had to mention Bo. Friday 30th at the Uber Arena, Berlin (12,700) a bumper SmackDown has Priest vs Dom and big favourite Gunther vs Dragunov dark, before 13,000+ squeeze in for the Bash In Berlin PLE the night after where Belair & Cargill regain the belts from Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn, Punk wins a WWE PPV/PLE match for the first time in 11 years and rather naturally Gunther retains on last, over Orton.
NO NON TITLE WHINING

DEPARTURES
Despite The Pride vs Final Testament happening at Mania and continuing on the road right up until July, Bobby Lashley has his contract expire 16th without renewal. He'd end up saying "I had a connection with Vince. Vince understood me. He looked at people that were stars. He saw that in me. There were a lot of little nuggets that Vince would give me throughout my career and tell me different things. Vince looked at me like, "I can tell Bobby works his ass off. I can send him anywhere around the country to represent the brand." He looked at me like a star. I like Vince. I haven’t really had too much of a connection with Hunter. Hunter has his guys. I’ve tried to, but we haven’t really worked enough together to get to know each other." When pushed about his departure, Papa H only gave a vague answer of "Just like any sport or business, we sign talent, their contracts run out, and we release talent. It’s part of the process. It’s ongoing." Hmm. MVP is also released. Hmm.

 

[theringmaster]

Tamina had a 15 year run with wwe and done absolutely nothing (think there was a tag title somewhere?). She may have the most unstaggering career in history for someone who had a 10+ year run.

[air_raid]

2 hours ago, theringmaster said:

Tamina had a 15 year run with wwe and done absolutely nothing (think there was a tag title somewhere?)

You are correct. I had to look up that it was with Nattie because the mix and match of the pair of them, Nia and Baszler all merges into one beige mess. Even bored me to near tears just typing.

[air_raid]

SEPTEMBER 24
This may be the briefest HSH ever.

THE MAIN EVENT
28th in Columbus (GA) and 29th in Huntsville its still Cody Rhodes vs AJ Styles for the belt.
THE CARD
It's Gunther vs Ilja Dragunov for the Silver Medal and (Freebird Rule) The Bloodline vs Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano for the tag titles; DIY beat Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa by DQ in Columbus but lose to Tama & Jacob Fatu in Huntsville. After the switch its Jey Uso vs Bron Breakker rematches for the ICT, Nia Jax vs Bayley (cheap DQ) and Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill vs Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn title rematches, fun-sounding Damian Priest & Rhea Ripley vs Karrion Kross & Scarlett Bordeaux (really) plus Raw rematches of Erick Rowan, Joe Gacy & Dexter Lumis vs Chad Gable & The Creed Brothers.
NO VARIANTS

MAIN EVENTS - NXT
20th in Sebring its Ethan Page vs Riley Osborne for the title, one week later in Davenport it's Nathan Frazer & Axiom vs Myles Borne & Tavion Heights for the tag straps.
THE CARDS - HIGHLIGHTS
In Sebring it's - new name here! - Giulia, Lola Vice & Jaida Parker vs Roxanne Perez, Jacy Jayne & Fallon Henley plus Eddy Thorpe vs Tavion Heights and Tatum Paxley vs Wendy Choo. In Davenport its Charlie Dempsey vs Dion Lennox for the Heritage Cup, Josh Briggs vs Mark Coffey, Parker, Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson beat Henley, Jayne and Jazmyn Nyx, and Giulia beats Wren Sinclair.

TVs
1st in Denver a respectable 7000 gate for NXT see No Mercy where Frazer & Axiom win the tag belts and the other champions retain including Page beating Joe Hendry (hmm). 6th SmackDown in Edmonton (10,800!) there's Piper Niven vs Indi Hartwell before the show and Kofi Kingston vs Dominik Mysterio and Breakker vs Sami Zayn in a streetfight after it. Week after in Seattle between Speed and SmackDown its an invisible men tag - Baron Corbin & Apollo Crews vs Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson - plus dark bonuses of Sheamus vs Ludwig Kaiser and Gunther vs Priest for the belt. A further week later Corbin vs Anderson opens then after the show there's tons ; Liv Morgan retains the ladies' Silver Medal over Lyra Valkyria, Uso beats Big Match Drew McIntyre and Cody retains against Carmelo Hayes (huh?). 23rd Raw is where Jey relieves Bron of the ICT, and 27th SmackDown in Oklahoma City Kairi Sane vs Chelsea Green opens, after SmackDown and Speed Liv beats Zelina Vega and Cody beats Austin Theory. NO PLE THIS MONTH.
NON TITLE WHINING
Beaten on TV this month : Balor & McDonagh (Raw Tag Team Champions) by Priest & Jey

DEPARTURE
Right when he's on the cusp of a push, Odyssey Jones is released amidst domestic violence allegations.

 

 

[air_raid]

OCTOBER 24

No NXT road gigs this month. Odd.

THE MAIN EVENT

Just one loop - a tour of wee Britain 13th-16th has Cody Rhodes vs Solo Sikoa for the belt inside a cage in Cardiff, Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester.

THE CARD

Logical uniformity has Gunther vs Chad Gable for Raw’s title, Randy Orton, Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano vs Jacob Fatu, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa, title matches of LA Knight vs Shinsuke Nakamura and Jey Uso vs Bron Breakker, the Nia Jax vs Bayley rematch is now a streetfight and the card is rounded out with Andrade vs Santos Escobar and Naomi vs Tiffany Stratton.

TVA REPORT : NO VARIANTS

TVs

4th in Nashville, after a first Speed taping there's Baron Corbin & Apollo Crews vs Humberto Carrillo & Angel Garza, the show proper has the match where AJ Styles while wrestling Carmelo Hayes gets the injury that has him out to this day, the subsequent Speed taping has Candice LeRae upset Io Sky to become first Womens Speed champ, then dark we have Sheamus vs Ludwig Kaiser and revisit Liv Morgan vs Lyra Valkyria and Cody vs Austin Theory. Saturday night 16,000+ in Atlanta turn up for Bad Blood and among the 5 match card a CM Punk vs Drew McIntyre Hell In A Cell delivered a satisfactory blow off and on last Cody and Roman Reigns beat Fatu & Sikoa with an assist from the returning Jimmy Uso, then The Rock saunters out for a pop but otherwise as I type, a seemingly pointless appearance. 7th Raw in St Louis they tape two Main Events plus the Raw that clashes with Liverpool, 11th SmackDown in Greenville there are more tapings plus Jey vs Breakker and Cody vs Dominik Mysterio for their respective belts. 18th in Columbia the SD taping has loads of bonus matches ; Corbin pins Giovanni Vinci in his last match in WWE between Speed and Downers, the show proper has Lash Legend get a look, beating Piper Niven, and the debut of one of my favourite teams from 15 years ago, The Motor City Machine Guns as they beat LDF and Theory/Grayson Waller to advance for a tag title shot, then after cameras there's a fairly jumbled Sami Zayn, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods vs Finn Balor, Carlito & Pete Dunne, then Cody beating Solo in streetfight. 21st at the Wells Fargo there's the relatively rare sight of dark matches after Raw (well, it is Philadelphia) - after a show on which Breakker regains the ICT from Jey, there's Jax vs Bayley and - here's a future PLE main - Cody vs Jacob in a streetfight which is well worth a watch. 25th at the Barclays there's Michin vs Blair Davenport before Speed and two SmackDown tapings including the Guns beating DIY then immediately after, beat Haku's lads with interference from Jey to win the tag titles in just their third match for WWE. The second show has Bayley & Naomi drop Candice and Indi Hartwell in her last match for the company. Dark, there's Seth Rollins vs Dom. 27th in Hershey there's NXT Halloween Havoc which features Trick Williams retaining over Ethan Page and Fallon Henley lifting the WNAT in a four way plus - dream team alert - Stephanie Vaquer & Giulia vs Roxanne Perez & Cora Jade. Finally next nights Raw in the same building has double Main Event tapings again, then Knight vs Escobar for the UST and Cody vs Hayes.

Author's note - I actually fell so far behind keeping up what was happening in WWE last year that by the time I realised the Guns had come to WWE, they'd won and lost the belts.

NON TITLE WHINING

Beaten on TV this month : Nia (SmackDown Womens Champion) by Naomi

DEPARTURES

1st of November is when they give up on former NXT champ Indi Hartwell and the unfortunate stop-start career of Tegan Nox who doesn't even get a last match in October.

We've already touched on the departure of Baron Corbin who simply gets told they aren't renewing his contract after a fairly watchable run tagging with Breakker in NXT, and he's an ex-employee as of 1st November. He's said a lot about it since.

On being set up to fail : "I had gone to NXT, reinvented myself and put a lot of work into it, even though I didn't agree with some of it. I had a conversation before I moved to NXT. Bruce Prichard was like, "You know, it's just not working, we want you to go down there, reinvent yourself, new moves, lose a little weight, blah, blah, blah." And I did and I think it was maybe not meant for me to succeed as well as I did down there."

On his and others' shock : "Randy's like, "Dude, I honestly thought you were gonna be here another 10 years? I don't understand it." He's like, "Do you mind if I talk to Hunter about it?" I don't know if he ever did, but he's like, "Somebody doesn't like you." I feel like I know who it is, and that's besides the point." ..and.. "A month before I'm released, Hunter's standing next to me in the ring, and he's like, "You should be really proud you are reinventing yourself. You've accomplished a lot." Then, a month later, they're not going to renew, and you're like, wait, a month ago, Hunter told me how good I was doing. I love Hunter. I don't think he's the guy (that pulled the trigger on him) by any means. That guy has helped me every step of the way."