WWE NXT 09/05/12
Richie Steamboat defeats Kassius Ohno by DQ when Ohno rakes Steamboat’s eyes. Ohno attacks Steamboat after the match.
Paige defeats Audrey Marie using a modified ddt.
Ricky Steamboat has an altercation with Kassius Ohno.
Leo Kruger defeats Percy Watson using a modified neckbreaker(looked more like a diamond cutter).
Brodus Clay squashes Ryan Collins.
The Ascension defeat the Usos when Cameron pins Jey Uso after a modified jawbreaker.
Jim Ross interviews new NXT Champion Seth Rollins to close the show. Rollins talks about being called a loser his whole life and using it as fuel to prove people wrong.
Thoughts: Steamboat and Ohno will be a really fun rivalry to watch. I’d love to see the dragon jump in the ring on his son’s behalf. Paige and Audrey was a solid matchup; definitely more impressed with developmental diva booking than that of Raw or Smackdown. Has Percy Watson become a developmental jobber after being an NXT standout for more than a year? I like Leo Kruger well enough, but Watson is more talented than what he was booked as this week. I don’t know what the point of Brodus Clay being on NXT is. The Ascension/Usos match was packed with action and momentum and was easily the best tag team match in wrestling this week. Rollins’ interview with Ross was full of passion, and I’m looking forward to seeing how his run as NXT Champion plays out.
WWE Superstars 09/06/12
Antonio Cesaro defeats Justin Gabriel.
Layla defeats Natalya.
Damien Sandow defeats Alex Riley with his modified neckbreaker.
Kofi and Truth defeat Primo and Epico in the main event despite Rosa’s attempt to interfere.
Thoughts: Cesaro’s run with the US Title has the potential to be epic if he’s allowed to defend against more than just two opponents. I’d love to see Gabriel get a shot at the gold on a pay per view. Can you say show stealer? Layla and Natalya have some good chemistry together; it’d be nice for the divas to make a solid comeback on tv each week. Sandow looked good against Riley, but I’m still struggling to figure out why WWE is holding onto Riley. I liked the main event, but I would have liked it more if it were new tag teams in the hunt for the gold and not just the same old matches. Bring up the Ascension!
Impact Wrestling 09/06/12
Jeff Hardy defeats Samoa Joe in a BFGS match using a modified anaconda vice.
^Throughout the entire match, Taz and Tenay talked about the different styles between these two and how Joe was the submission guy. The ending to this one was ridiculously predictable, but it was a surprisingly fast paced match from both of these guys.
Hulk Hogan is shown telling AA to break the Aces and Eights member’s leg to get information out of him tonight.
^Seems a bit extreme to talk about leg breaking, but I guess that’s part of Hulk’s new vicious barking dog gimmick.
Samoa Joe is interviewed by Christy Hemme but gets attacked by Magnus.
^Joe and Magnus to have a rivalry now? I like the potential for Joe to make Magnus a star.
Hogan is shown picking an opponent for the tag champs. He eliminates AJ Styles from the list.
^Here we go again with the Hulk Hogan picking someone to face someone else and eliminating the options one by one. This seems somewhat lame to me when it’s supposed to be a fresh,new concept.
Brooke Hogan tells Tara that she will face Brooke Tessmacher at No Surrender. Gail Kim interrupts and Brooke books her in a match with Tara tonight.
^Can I just say that I love TNA taking the knockouts divison seriously? It’s one of the few things they are doing consistently right.
Tara defeats Gail Kim with Taryn Tarrell as the referee.
^Solid knockouts match. Nothing to complain about. Kim’s losing streak looks like it might turn into a frustration storyline with Gail going after Hogan.
Al Snow offers Joey Ryan another shot at gutcheck against him. Joey tries to decline and Al Snow slaps him. Ryan runs off yelling that he will sue him.
^This was an effective segment to put over this rivalry. I was really impressed with how it was handled.
Bully Ray asks Joseph Park what he knows about Aces and Eights. Park refuses to share information with him because of attorney client privilage. Ray tells Park to be careful with the Aces and Eights.
^This appears to be a Bully Ray face turn more than anything with how he acted towards Park.
AA is shown telling the mystery guy from Aces and Eights that he’s going to make him talk.
^Can’t wait to see how this unfolds. Look up sarcasm.
Hogan is shown talking to the tag teams again and eliminates Gunner and Kash.
^Sad to say that this is the most we’ve heard from Kid Kash in awhile. Why the teaming with Gunner, anyway?
Bully Ray defeats RVD using the bubba cutter to advance in the BFGS.
^Solid match here. I didn’t expect RVD to advance in the series or be in a world title match anytime soon.
Aries is shown questioning “Mike” and trying to intimidate him. Aries goes to use pliers on Mike’s tongue and Hogan comes in. Hogan wants a piece of him too. Hogan answers a call and it’s from Aces and Eights. Hogan wants the guy that broke Arie’s arm to be sent down in exchange for Mike to be returned. Hogan wants Aries to have a match with the arm breaker at No Surrender.
^This was a bit foolish to me. The pliers were just over the top and ridiculous.
James Storm cuts a promo and selects Bully Ray as his opponent for No Surrender. This means Jeff Hardy will face Samoa Joe as the other semi final match on Sunday.
^Feels like we’ve seen these four wrestle in all possible combinations multiple times. Is anyone else growing tired of it? How about bringing in some OVW guys to lose on Impact so we don’t see the same matches over and over?
Hogan picks Chavo and Hernandez to challenge for the tag team gold. Kaz pins Hernandez after Daniels hits him with the belt. The champs retain the titles. Hogan announces that Kaz and Daniels will defend the titles against Styles and Angle on Sunday.
^I know it will be a great tag team match on Sunday, but again, it’s a match that we’ve seen repeatedly. Can’t we get a little more “creative” with the writing?
AA brings Mike to the ring. The “arm breaker” shows up and hits Mike with a hammer. Aries and the arm breaker brawl as the show ends.
^This was interesting if nothing else. I still think some of the group should have been unmasked by now, but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe TNA has some master plan for the unmasking of these members and we’ll all be in awe over who the members are. I just don’t understand the point of trying to keep it a mystery.
I guess this was a good show, but I’m just sick and tired of the same old stuff in terms of the top guys having the same matches and this Aces and Eights thing not moving forward. Yes, it’s more complaints from me than praise, but I feel like I praised the show in the areas that it deserved, and I think I’ve been more than fair overall.
WWE Smackdown 09/07/12
Otunga, Del Rio, and Ricardo open the show. Otunga and company want the brogue kick banned from WWE. Booker T comes out and says the brogue kick is still legal after taking a vote from the audience.
^I like Booker’s decision making style. I know it’s unfortunately not the last of this storyline. Anyone else remember the annoying Edge/Vickie/Dolph/spear storyline? I do!
Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara take on Cody Rhodes and the Miz. Mysterio pins Miz after a splash from the top rope. Rhodes kicks Miz in the head accidentally to setup the finish.
^Another great match from these guys! This was a fantastic tag team match. I’d love to see Mysterio and Sin Cara get a run with the tag titles if they’re going to continue having these kinds of matches.
Hornswoggle offers DBry a hug but settles for a handshake. Hornswoggle kicks DBry in the shin and runs off as DBry explodes.
^I laughed. I heard the DBry/Kane segments on Raw lost viewers. Apparently people don’t understand what humor is. DBry is something special, and hopefully everyone will start to realize it as well.
Otunga continues to harass Booker about the damage of the brogue kick backstage. Booker tells Otunga he will think about making the brogue kick illegal. Otunga says it’s not good enough and tells Booker to meet him in the training room.
^You can already see that this is going to have some effect on the match at Night of Champions with how it’s unfolding.
Daniel Bryan defeats Zack Ryder with the no-lock after tricking Ryder into giving him a hug.
^It’s too bad the match had to end this way, but I know it’s because of the ongoing anger gimmick for Bryan. Ryder looked good in this one, and I heard that Ryder had defeated Bryan clean at a live event. Perhaps Ryder could be the next major challenger to Miz or Cesaro for one of their mid card titles.
Damien Sandow runs away from his match with Randy Orton and gets counted out. Sandow comes back in when Ziggler and Orton brawl but ends up receiving an RKO as Ziggler runs away.
^I like seeing Sandow do battle with the main event guys like Orton and Sheamus. His push might be leaving some in the dust and wondering what happened to their time in the spotlight, but in WWE it’s all about timing. Sandow got the right gimmick at the right time and it’s working wonders with the WWE Universe. I’m excited for what’s to come with this guy.
Otunga shows Booker T an X-ray of Ricardo’s spine and of a normal spine for comparison. Otunga demands Booker ban the brogue kick or he will sue him. Booker tells him he will think about it but in the meantime Otunga will face Sheamus.
^X-rays? Really? Otunga annoys me. The lawyer gimmick is lame, and it reminds me too much of Clarence Mason on steroids. Name drop!
The PTP take on the Usos and Primo and Epico in a three way tag match. Darren Young pins Epico to win the match. The PTP will challenge Kofi and Truth at NOC.
^The same three tag teams that we get over and over go in a triple threat match. I’m shocked. The PTP looked good once again, and it seems inevitable that they’ll be holding the tag team gold in the very near future.
Dolph Ziggler persuades Teddy Long to talk to Booker T about making a match between himself and Randy Orton at Night of Champions.
^Orton and Ziggler AGAIN at Night of Champions with yours truly in attendance for the show? Hell yeah!!! It will have tough competition with Cena/Punk as match of the night, but I can definitely see it being one of the brighter spots to the show.
Wade Barrett defeats Yoshi Tatsu in a short match. Barrett declares himself open for business after the match.
^Finally, Wade Barrett is back on tv. I wonder where his character stands in terms of being in line for a title shot. I’m a bit surprised that he didn’t show up on Raw and go after the WWE Title with the lack of overall heel depth(besides Punk) in the main event scene. It’ll be interesting to watch Barrett work his way up the ladder back into the main event scene.
Sheamus defeats Otunga using the Texas Cloverleaf. Booker T comes out during the match and announces that the brogue kick is banned.
^I like Sheamus using the cloverleaf. It’s a far more interesting hold than just watching his boot someone’s head off their shoulders. I don’t think the banning of the brogue kick SHOULD effect the outcome of the World Title match at Night of Champions, but I have no doubt that it will.
News Items:
WWE Network: No one appears to want the WWE Network, and WWE is now revamping it and looking for partners to launch it in the future. I love the concept of it, but it’s going to take a lot of work to make it successful and it will have be given some major advertising or special promotion to gain appeal if they expect anyone to be willing to pay for it.
Bret Hart: Bret Hart will be on Raw Monday. I’d like to see him put Slater in a sharpshooter. I expect him to have words with Punk and probably get knocked out by him. It’d be even better if the hitman were booked to be the guest referee for Punk/Cena at Night of Champions.
Triple H: Triple H cut his hair. I’m not sure why this is such big news. He looks like he did in 2006 when he wore the wig and made fun of Vince and Shane with Shawn. Youtube it if you don’t remember what I’m talking about.
Morgan/Nash twitter: Kevin Nash helped promote Matt Morgan’s tease of a WWE return on twitter. Who cares? They both suck. Morgan’s big chance in TNA would’ve been to hold the World Title when he was challenging Jeff Hardy. TNA could’ve made a big star and didn’t. Depressing.
GM Angle: The new rumor is that Vince appointed Booker T and AJ to both fail so that he could bring in a bigger name later on. I suspect if it’s true that it could be either Ric Flair or Paul Heyman. It could also be the return of John Laurinaitis. I’d like to see the whole GM angle scrapped and just let the show focus more on the wrestling and superstars challenging one another like they used to.
That’s all for this one. We’ll have No Surrender predictions up by Sunday noon at the very latest. We’ll have NOC predictions up early due to my vacation and trip to the show itself. I’ll also have my top 20 superstars to never win the WWE Title up before next weekend. Until next time, thanks for reading!
facebook.com/thunderstruck11 and facebook.com/mike.lightning
^add us and join the interaction!
