AEW Dynamite 11-24-21 - Thanksgiving Eve

Punk is out to face QT, BUT MJF INTERRUPTS! Love MJF's "no" to the shut the fuck up chants. "I'm about to verbally finish you faster than your UFC career!" - LOL  "You can drop pipe bombs all you want - I'm MJF and I drop nukes"! I kind of hope QT just runs down, gets high kicked, pinned and then they just resume this. Punk calls MJF a less-famous Miz and MJF says that Punk has struggled to beat anyone or say anything of note. He calls him a robot and his hair is going grey and based on his eyes, Punk really needs to go to sleep. 

He says he's PG Punk and he might as well be preaching hustle, loyalty and respect! He says that Punk only said he'd come back for a bunch of money, but couldn't save the business from his couch. He was too busy making comics no one read and movies no one watched. In WWE, Punk was a cult hero. God I hope MJF comes out with the Mean Street Posse at the PPV. For his whole career, Punk's been second-best. Whether it was Cena, or HHH - he was never up to snuff and now that he's in HIS ring in HIS company, he'll show him that he isn't the best in the world and MJF is better than him and he knows it. 

Punk says he won't lie - not to MJF or the fans. He didn't know if he could go or if the fans would care and he's not scared anymore. I love how Darby's two losses have more meaning being brought up now. LOL @ the Britt line! "YOU'VE BEEN REPLACED BY BRITT BAKER!" "The only way you'll be number one is if we wait around long enough for Tony to have a daughter you can marry!" This is amazing! 

Nick and Solo come out to help QT after HE TAKES A SLAM AND MORE! But they're thrown out. Christian GUARANTEES that JB and Luchasaurus will win the tag titles. His heel turn is going to be fantastic. Kingston eats some pie and gets interrupted by 2.0 and Garcia and they put over the article. Billy and Colton of the Gunn Club come out to their...kinda blah theme. Colt 45 ends it after Billy eats a press slam and gets up before his opponent could even turn around. Okay then. Darby DEMOLISHES Austin Gunn! 

Battle of the Belts is announced for 1/8 before Cole and Fish say they're best friends before THE Best Friends call bullshit on that. Dante SIGNS WIT HTEAM TAZ and also enjoys Hook's shared snack. Jamie and Rosa beat the everloving shit out of each other for minutes on end before a rope neck snap leads to a break. Corner Miz lariat by Rosa and then the shotgun knees! Hayter gets locked in the necktie, but Rebel gets on the apron and Britt takes her off and accidentally superkicks Hayter ala HBK/Diesel at Summerslam '94. Hayter loses and she's pissed! Jericho mocks 2.0 and Matt's square head. 

FRIENDSGIVING TIME and Britt tells Reba to not eat the roll - and SHE'S STILL THE CHAMP! Rampage BLACK FRIDAY is coming up and RAMPAGE BLACK FRIDAY has Riho facing Britt because Riho wasn't taken out of the Casino Battle Royal and if Riho beats her, she gets a match. Tony has RUINED HALLOWEEN AND THANKSGIVING AND HE'S NOT COMING TO CHRISTMAS AND THEY AREN'T DOING THE DMD THING EITHER! 

Colt and Bryan have COLT'S BEST MATCH IN YEARS. He's motivated here and is working like the Colt of old before landing a flying apple BUT BRYAN GERMANS HIM out of it. Arm-trap KNEELING KICKS BY BRYAN! MOONSAULT BLOCK GETS 2 FOR COLT! Trip into the arm-trap stomps! Omaplata into the LeBell Lock AND POSING! Bryan says that when he debuted in Chicago, he got a different reaction - and he wonders if it's him or the fans. There's one word for that - FICKLE and he's not fickle. HE SAID HE'D KICK HIS HEAD IN AND HE DID THAT AND KICKED HIS TEETH OUT!

He wants to know which Dark Order members are from Atlanta so he can kick THEIR heads in and it's leading to him kicking in Page's head. Page comes out and Ex says that if you say his name, he shall appear. Page says Chicago is special and he wants to defend the title now. Bryan says that HE JUST  WRESTLED and that isn't cowboy shit - IT'S COWARD SHIT! Page offers him the first shot and Bryan's insulted - so they scuffle! This is great stuff!

FTR, Malakai, and Andrade are out to face Death Triangle and Cody. The tag champs get a minimal intro while Cody gets his full intro. Cody throws his belt at the fans AND THEY THROW IT BACK. MANY KICKS FROM THE DEATH TRIANGLE TO ANDRADE! PAC RUNS WILD ON EVERYONE and snap Germans Malakai before a Fosbury flop! Cody misses Andrade on a superkick and HITS PAC after throwing the belt back to the crowd. GTR to Cody! TULLY AND ARN SQUARE OFF and then JOSE COMES IN AND GETS DECKED! Andrade hits El Idolo on Pac to win it! This ruled!

 

WWE Survivor Series 2021

WWE has done a fairly dreadful job of the buildup of the show itself - but they have some buzz around Charlotte vs. Becky and Big E vs. Roman should be fantastic. King is on the pre-show in his finest pillow case while Peter Rosenberg says the NY fans are the best in the world. Boogs and Nakamura are on the pre-show. THE ROCK TRIBUTE BATTLE ROYAL is something else. Becky and Charlotte arrive backstage. They actually cue up ads nicely for the pre-show now. 

Charlotte's UH OH stuff is unreal-annoying. SD women's team bickers backstage while Shotzi just flops all around. Her outfit tonight is a tad bit different from the norm from her. Spinkick by Priest to Nakamura off the top. Rebound lariat by Priest! Kinshasa gets 2 before an enzuiguri hits for 2 for Priest. Gogaplata by Priest leads to Boogz playing Nakamura back to life and then beating the shit out of him. Guitar shot DQ. What the fuck!? KO says he'll leave it all in the ring tonight and he wants to redeem himself. E vs. Roman video really puts E over huge. VINCE EMERGES FROM A LIMO WITH A GOLD EGG AND THE GEEKS CHEER. MARIAH CAREY acknowledged Roman. So her last big hit was what 16 years ago...that's about right for WWE now.

THE OPENER is Charlotte vs. Becky. The video for it sets the stage nicely for them being former friends turned rivals. Charlotte's out in black while Becky's out in a Scarlet Witch swimsuit getup that is form flattering and then some. They start off with a lot of strikes before Becky gets a kneeling Black Mass. Charlotte eats a knee and misses a dive to the floor. 

Flurries of forearms from each before Charlotte avoids the Bexploder and hits one into the corner before telling Becky to talk more shit. Charlotte hits Andrade's fakeout moonsault/double knees moonsault. Becky traps her in the rope for a chop and elbow combo before a second rope legdrop gets 2. Double armbar by Becky into a sunset flip for 2. European uppercut hits hard for Becky. Big boot from Charlotte gets 2. Christian-style reverse DDT by Becky gets 2. 

Manhandle slam gets 2 when Charlotte gets to the rope. Figure four by Becky before Charlotte reverses it and she breaks at 4.5. Moonsault off the top kinda hits. She's gonna blow a knee on that one day. MACHINE GUN CHOPS BY CHARLOTTE after she puts Becky in the disarmher. Charlotte cheats with an O'Connor roll with the rope, but BECKY OUT-CHEATS HER TO WIN! 5 on 5 mens match is up. Lashley is out and looks amazing. Austin Theory definitely qualifies as "some help".

KO walks out. Woods beats up Theory for a bit in the corner with some nice chops. Drew chops him up too. EVERYONE BEATS HIM UP in a Puder Rumble '04 hazing homage. Balor doublestomp takes out Corbin. Hardy hits a whisper in the wind on two guys before Lashley fireman carry slams Drew into the post. La Mistica legsweep by Woods. Woods taps to the Hurt lock. Drew vs.  Lashley is up and Lashley gets the elevated flatliner. Drew avoids the post but they fight on the floor and get a DCO. 

Seth talks shit to Drew and eats a headbutt that gets 2 for Sheamus. Peacock gets all wonky and when it comes back, Jeff's splashing Seth for 2 off the second rope. Poetry in Motion stinger splash by Jeff hits I think. JEFF AND SHEAMUS DOUBLE CLUBBER! Seth cheapshot leads to a cradle and cheating win for Theory over Sheamus. Sheamus take out Jeff. Theory tags Seth in - oh yeah, they were a team before and Jeff kicks out. Swanton to Theory takes him out! Twisto hits and gets 2. Swanton hits knees and the curb stomp ends it. 

Roman goes to Mr. McMahon's office WITH THE GIANT GOLD EGG as he plays on his phone. He tells Roman that he got THE REAL EGG from Dwayne and he came into WWE with seven bucks and look where he is now. Those USWA paydays really were shit. Vince says the egg is worth $100 million and Roman says that's his next contract. Okay then. 

Bunch of geeks battle royal to pay tribute to the Rock...and get a sponsorship deal with Pizza Hut. T-shirt wars and I'm sure NBC is happy to pay $200 million to put Fox's logo all over their streaming service. Lots of nothing beyond Pizza Hut shilling. OMOS AND SHANKY square off to nothing. Azeez is out and takes AJ out leading to Omos getting pissed. Cesaro and Dawkins taken out by Omos and then Ricochet before Omos wins it with 12 eliminations.

Usos are out in white looking slick. Jimmy talks about Orton being in more PPV matches than anyone in history tonight. Usos run wild before Matt twisting swantons. Great shine from Riddle and the Usos get a nice dive. Orton draping DDT is avoided Draping back suplex to the announce table by Orton. Middle kick combo by Riddle and a Pele. BUCE EXPLODER by Riddle. Back suplex neckbreaker by Jey. Snap German by Ridde gets 2. Pop-up Samoan drop gets 2 for the Usos. Gamenguiri and then a superkick hits Riddle. Kneeling superkick combo by the Usos. RK-Bro wins it. Diving RKO ends it.

Carmella gets schoolgirled out by Toni. Toni gets a couple of wins before Bianca has to take out the whole of Team SD - and does! Roman vs. E is every match they could have had - kinda plodding. Not much to it. E gets the stretch muffler and Roman escapes. Roman gets the choke in the rope, but E escapes. Spear to the floor has E land right on his right wrist hard. Spear gets 2, but a second spear wins it. E loses cleanly - so they told the "one man is clearly better" story, but in a way that can really hurt E in the long run.

AEW Dynamite 11-10-21

 

It's an exciting night thanks to Road to as they've teased CHAOS from New Japan - and it's the Full Gear go-home show to boot! Danielson vs. Rocky Romero starts things off. RPG Vice theme gets NO POP. He's out with the Best Friends and Yuta because they were all invited to join CHOAS today. Lots of armwork to start alongside a billion plugs on the lower-left. OC and Bryan get into a bit of a verbal scuffle before Romero suicide dives onto Bryan. Romero special by Bryan before Romero avoids the dragon sleeper  variant. Running Asai cutter hits for 2. Romero does all he can to get a cross armbar and gets stacked for 2. Arm-trap PRIDE stomps into the LeBell lock and then into a Tequila Sunrise for the win! 

Inner Circle comes out but ATT jumps them. Super Shield bomb by Lambert and goons and they promise that Lambert will pin Jericho. Jericho gets LOCKED IN THE BOSTON CRAB and Lambert calls it that and name-drops CWF. TayJay and Rosa are out in matching gear against Britt's trio. Way too much with Anna and Rebel, and Rebel forgets she's legal. Jesus. Anna snap suplexes Britt and Tay runs wild. Corner chain of pump kicks by Tay. Tay KO gets 2 thanks to Britt. NXT had half the planet to catch two people and they didn't while Rosa relied on ONE PERSON IN HAYTER to catch her and she did. Rebel eats the pin as God intended. 

Nice Ruby vs. Kris hype video with Ruby saying that respect don't mean shit. Jungle Boy's out with a bit of stubble! Caster's rap knocking Jack's promo skills was great - but it was a bit much to bring up Anna Jay being around seven guys all day. JR chats about Tony's side-piece in VA. Oh lord. Nice back and forth chops and elbows before a basement dropkick takes Bowens' knee out. Rebound lariat by Jack! SUPERKICK BY BOWENS! Lift-up sideslam gets 2 by Bowens! Dive to Caster and Jack goes for something, but eats a boot and a RAINMAKER DDT BY BOWENS IN THE ROPE gets 2. Snare trap wins it! 

Bobby Fish jumps Jack! EXPLODER INTO THE ROPE after knees to the gut! We get a bit of the Hangman Page story of him falling short and getting broken internally. Superkliq is here and Cole brings Fish in before some fun Matt stuff. "In AEW, there's no dispute - it's the era of the Elite". Fish vs. Jack is set for Rampage. Punk vs. Kingston recap before Wardlow vs. Yuta starts off. Wardlow's theme feels like something WWE would have put in a lower-budget portable version of SVR 2006. Yuta slips and eats a massive spinebuster. A pair of big powerbombs hit and the fans chant ONE MORE TIME. and a third AND THEN A FOURTH! Rising knee hits and ends it. THIS RULED.

That whole powerbomb sequence was the kind of organic thing that helped Batista get over. HFO is out to beat up the Best Friends. Twisto with the chair to OC! Kingston and Punk get separated backstage. Kingston breaks away and they get order. Lio Rush and Dante Martin are out and these two could be amazing against Sydal and Moriarty. FLOATING SUNSET FLIP BY DANTE gets 2. TOPE BY LIO TO SYDAL AFTER A FAKEOUT TO LEE AND THEN HE HITS LEE ANYWAY. Jesus this match rules! Double jump moonsault from Dante hits Lee and wins it. THIS WAS AMAZING! Can we get some TruTV Trios Titles for Lio and his emerging group?

Miro says that Bryan is a lot to many - but he's nothing to him. Is he willing to trade Miro's bad neck for yours because HE NEEDS THE TITLE and his God will give it to him because he fears him! "You have to say goodbye to your wife so I can say hello to mine!" Dax and Tully are out for the PAC match. Great corner work with chops back and forth before forearms hit. Super brainbuster by Pac! CORNER UPPERCUT AND PUMP KICK BY PAC! Floatover brainbuster gets 2 for Dax. Backslide gets 2 but Pac taps him with the Brutalizer - but he won't let go, so Wheeler comes out for a save. They set up the idea of tapping out to save yourself for the PPV in Bryan vs. Romero and paid it off here - smart world-building stuff there.

Malakai and Andrade attack before Cody saves! The PPV is hyped up a bit before the Punk-Kingston contract signing. Pac and Cody face Malakai and Andrade at Full Gear. Elite and Dark Order leave before the contract signing. Hangman's out with a Poor Penmanship tag while Omega's out ready for VC's re-release in a bold maroon suit. Kenny says he wanted Hangman in the Elite when he came back because he saw a bit of himself in Page. 

Page says that it's true he fell short - but Kenny had a partner before that he didn't measure up to as well. However now with a near-year long run, he might have surpassed HIM. Page says that Kenny was scared of him and Kenny says he cares about him! They may never be friends again - but he wants to shake his hand one last time! Callis  jumps Hangman as a fake camera man to help Kenny split him open and they sign the contract in his blood. Love it! One more great Callis promo and we're ready for PPV!

WCW Battlebowl 1993

It's time for another Watchalong - this time for Battlebowl '93, a show that is fun but not really good per se. This is a "random draw" tag partner night with Gene and Fifi doing perv comedy at the tumbler. We get Cactus and Vader on one team with STEVIE RAY AND CHARLIE NORRIS on the other. Holy fuck. Vader shoves Rip Rogers right out of his chair in the back and yells DAMMIT before Race tells him they HAVE to get along. Vader and Jack beat each other up on the ramp before Stevie Ray helps Vader out - I like heels sticking together. Vader beats the fuck out of Norris, who then seemingly sandbags him and Vader fucks up the powerbomb and falls on his ass for the win. 

"She looks good enough to eat" - crowd pop. Tremendous. ERIK WATTS teams with Roma while Johnny is out with Knobbs. Missy is by far the best thing about this match and upon closer inspection, she's wearing a thong underneath her outfit. Watts is awful. Knobbs is slightly better and Roma is paint drying. Johnny does next to nothing and Knobbs rolls through a crossbody to use the tights to beat Watts. Also,, Missy bends over on the ramp - easily the best part of the match.

We get a "don't blow on it!" from Gene before Orndorff and THE SHOCKMASTER are partnered against Steamboat and Regal. Regal's announcement cannot be heard in the slightest. Uncle Fred leads PAULA chants and those are over as fuck and he is doing no movement at all beyond just the arm-waiving for the "Paula" chant. Good. I love Regal and Orndroff shaking because they're FORCED to do battle here. I love Regal and Orndorff shaking hands like gentlemen. THE HEELS are coming off great here. On one hand, Regal and sloppy Uncle Fred writes itself - but by having him as Paul's partner, he can just stand on the apron and do "PAULA" - which is far better than him wrestling.

Regal and Steamboat are working their asses off here, as is Orndroff. Regal doesn't want to tag in - but Fred forces his hand literally. Regal ducks a corner charge and Uncle Fred gets cradled for 2. Steamboat and Dundee argue over the umbrella and Steamboat clocks Regal with it and UNCLE FRED PINS REGAL WITH A SPLASH! Gene announces that Charlotte gets Starrcade this year. Flair says he'll bring 10 World titles and Vader says he's got over 10 on four continents. Flair tells him that if he can't beat him for the World title, he's retiring. Vader says he took out Sid after running down everyone else he's taken out IN TWO YEARS.

Awesome Kong and the Equalizer against Dustin and King Kong. Jesus this roster. We get some shitty stuff with all the Kongs, which gets worse with the Equalizer before Dustin beats shit Kong with the bulldog. Sting, FORMER BATTLEBOWL CHAMPION, boy howdy teams with Sags against Simmons and KEITH COLE. Jesus. Sting is in like Bailante paint and gives no fucks while Ron stole El Matador's gear. Best part of the match is Sags short-arming Sting but ALWAYS wanting to be saved. Then Sting gets it with the Stinger splash, but Saga blind tags himself in and shitty elbow drops him to win while Ron just doesn't give a fuck and makes a concerted effort to just not get in the ring. Simmons BEATS THE FUCK OUT OF Keith Cole - great! 

Austin and Flair face off with Scorpio and Payne. Payne EVEN WITH TWO OF THE BEST IN THE WORLD, is still dreadful. Payne misses a corner charge with the knee and Flair wins it by submission - showing he can beat a big man Vader's size with the figure four! More with Gene  and Fifi as Rude is picked and Gene brings up the backdoor before Shanghai is picked as his partner. Bagwell teams with Tex! TEXICAN WARFARE! Shit-talking Rude is great. "I'M YOUR PARTNER - HE AIN'T SHIT! NOTHING!" to start. Tex goes to sunset flip his normal partner, but Rude hits the Rude Awakening for the win. Tex and Shangai beat up Bagwell and hug!

OUR LAST GENE AND FIFI bit has her "fixing his cord". Davey Boy teams with Booker T and HAWK TEAMS WITH RIP ROGERS. Rip was always a favorite of mine on this show. Hawk beats his ass on the ramp and THEN BOOKER DOES TOO. Rip keeps trying to get on the apron and gets his ass kicked again. Booker and Hawk plod around before Booker misses a diving elbow. Hawk throws Rip on Booker FOR THE WIN!

More with Gene as he assures Tony he'll get ahold of something tonight. We get some Gene and Jesse interplay as an AWA throwback - or as it would be today, the equivalent of guys from 2009 jaw-jacking. Jesus has time flown! RIP GETS TOSSED BY JOHNNY! Johnny B BOO! Flair and Harley go at it! Or at it would be now - a throwback to 2011, like Miz vs. Cena. Only people cared about Race vs. Flair. SUPLEX TO RACE and Flair eats an elbow to the balls/gut. BIG SPLASH leads to Tony going hard on the sell and I remember that vividly.

Sting and Vader go at it and these two just have unreal chemistry. Sting kicks his ass in the corner, but misses a stinger splash and Vader wins it when he sails over. THIS of all things gets a lighting rig track of pyro. Good to make it feel important I guess. This was not a good show - but it was fun and that's far more than can be said for most WWE cards nowadays.