Only watched the clip of Copeland’s return, and not gonna lie, I got goose pimples. Seemed weird to turn baby babyface Nick Wayne heel, but they had to balance the two factions out. Christian has become a major Machiavellian heel, and it makes sense that he’d corrupt Wayne and do everything to make Darby break.
So certain I was that Ciampa’s goading of Gunther into making the I-C Title match take place tonight would be unsuccessful, that I actually said to my mother and landlady in the room (who never watch wrestling) that that tired old trope never works.
AND THEN IT DID. What a brilliant surprise.
I remember watching the entire Cruiserweight Classic on WWE Network, my first exposure to Ciampa. And now he’s main-evented RAW. I’m so proud.
I’m flying out to Yakima today for DEFY’s lucha libre supershow at the Sun Dome tomorrow night. The main event is Swerve Strickland challenging Hijo del Vikingo for the AAA Mega Championship, along with a six-man tag featuring Ultimo Dragon (who I’ll get to meet at the pre-show meet & greet), Nick Wayne, and Classic Cody Chhun (who you may have seen jobbing in ROH) taking on a local trios team. I’ll share a recap after the show.
ooohh’m jealous… one of my favorites as older kid
Sovereign!
Aye, couldn’t remember the name of the team.
It’s gonna be interesting to see what kind of heat Nick Wayne gets, what with having turned heel in AEW so recently. At Wrestledream the crowd cheered for Swerve even though he’s a bad guy, but Wayne got nuclear boos from the local crowd after he turned on Sir Not-Appearing-On-This-Show Darby Allin.
(To Swerve’s credit, Prince Nana is an amazing manager and plays the lovable heel role almost as well as the late great Bobby Heenan.)
Nick Aldis has great comedic timing as the GM of SmackDown.
As he’s shaking Dominik’s hand: “Dominik! Great to meet you. I’m a huge fan. Of your dad.”
Unfortunately Ultimo wasn’t at the meet and greet, but I was able to get some signed 8x10s of Juventud Guerrera (his being an old scholl photo with the WCW Cruiserweight Championship), Hijo del Vikingo, and Super Crazy, along with local favorites Schaff and Gringo Loco, along with a Blue Demon Jr. keychain charm to addnto my increasingly unwieldy and impractical keychain.
Enjoy this rare photo of Juvie with his mask pulled up;
You wouldn’t know from looking at him that he’s almost 50. What is it with badass luchadors having baby faces?
And here’s me and Vikingo (who also suffers from baby face syndrome);
@Smapti , how did Ultimo Dragon look in the ring after all this time?
The show hasn’t started yet. Will report later.
So, Kevin Owens is back on SmackDown, but they didn’t trade for Sami Zayn. I wonder what they’re planning on doing with Zayn alone on RAW without KO.
Is Juvi wrestling tonight?
He and Super Crazy and Guillermo Rosas are in a trios match against a PNW trios team.
Jealous! You get to see Ultimo Dragon, Super Crazy, and Juventud!
UPDATE: Ultimo showed for the meet & greet after all, and he wasn’t doing photos, but I did get a signed 8x10 of him holding the J-Crown.
In making Nick Aldis the SmackDown General Manager, Triple H made Adam Pearce the RAW General Manager, and played it off as a promotion for Pearce. I fail to see how that’s a promotion. Pearce was running both shows.
I just spent half an hour typing a recap of the show on my tablet, then accidentally hit the wrong button and deleted the entire draft, so I’ll wait until I’m back home tomorrow to try writing it up again. For now, enjoy a few photos I took that weren’t ruined by the spotlight shining right in my face;
I thought it was weird that WWE didn’t do a more proper introduction of Nick Aldis. Usually, they have more fanfare, like entrance music and a spotlighted walk to the ring. They just had him coming out from the audience like he was no big deal.
At least one benefit to SD moving back to USA is not having to see those ads for Faux News.
Same pay, less work?