So… Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens, live from Tokyo, anyone?
I believe they’re airing the entire show as well, which ought to be a treat - I don’t think WWE’s ever done a live broadcast from Japan before due to the time zone difference. (It’ll be going on at 6 AM Eastern/3 AM Pacific.)
If The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Devitt wins the title in Japan the crowd is going to absolutely tear the roof off the joint.
On a side note, I recently upgraded my Comcast DVR to the newest model, and the UI has custom cover art for most TV series that pops up on the menu screen as you’re scrolling through your recordings.
Whoever designed the graphic for Ring of Honor must have been working from old material, because it features a great big picture of former ROH world champion Tyler Black.
You know, this guy.
Just got around to watching this week’s Lucha Underground, and it just keeps getting better and better. At this rate, the season finale will be a disappointment if it doesn’t conclude with a pre-taped empty arena match between Black Lotus and Matanza that results in the Temple itself being physically destroyed when Drago returns in his true form and sets it on fire.
Seriously, though, to address two points from Knowed Out’s review;
I’m not sure if they did or not, but they were in the right places in the right times for it to happen.
I didn’t notice it before, but Evans is billed as hailing from Parkland, WA, not half an hour from where I live. Parkland is a suburb of Tacoma best known as the home of Pacific Lutheran University, so I guess billing him from there (he’s actually from Orange County) is supposed to represent his being a middle-class white guy putting on lucha airs.
48, for the record, and while his best days are behind him, he can reportedly still go - he most recently wrestled in JCW (Juggalo Championship Wrestling, the promotion run by Insane Clown Posse) a few years ago and even had a run as world champion. Apparently, he’s going to be in a match at Lucha Ultimo, though I didn’t look to see who it was against or who wins.
:D:D:D
Like a certain devoted family man in that promotion out of… <cueto>Connett-ee-cut</cueto>, Evans has to lay the heelish tricks on thick to keep people from falling in love with him due to what he does in the ring. That Connecticut-via-Florida guy is mostly pulling it off when he’s not feuding with heels like John Cena, but Evans is on the edge. As Our Homeboy pointed out, there wasn’t really a lot of rooting interest in this fight past just basic face vs. heel, so I went in fairly neutral… but I was cheering for Evans by the end. Doesn’t help that Argenis doesn’t have a whole lot of a character past “guy who gets his arm broken by Pentagon Jr.”.
I could be wrong, but I think this is the first time we’ve had guys throwing down in a backstage segment. (There’ve been occasional cinematic fight sequences, but this is as close as we’ve come to the classic, WWE-style backstage ambush.) Not surprisingly, they did it really well. I don’t want to see this stuff every episode, obviously, but I’m glad they’ve got it in their toolbox now.
Also: Poor Willie Mack. 
I hope he’ll find a storyline soon; dude is too good (and too against his body type) not to. Also, he should really find some ring gear that doesn’t just look like satin tighty-whities.
Which is fine. WWE has given distraction finishes a bad name through overuse, not to mention that these alleged professionals can completely lose focus due to nothing more than a few bars of a rival’s theme song. (Also, is it physically impossible to run down to the ring without someone playing your theme song? Anyway.) But if [del]Dario[/del] Lucha Underground wants to keep the belts on The Awkward Squad for a while and keep them from turning into Cenesque chronic odds-overcomers, you’re going to have to have somewhat screwy finishes. Until Ivelisse is fit again, every title defense is a handicap match, amplified by the fact that they don’t really work together until the chips are down. ANY Trios team should have a legitimate shot at beating them, so you’ll need interference/etc. to have it be credible that they keep winning.
In an otherwise mostly forgettable episode of NXT, that Gore stood out. I swear, Rhyno sent Finn flying at least–at LEAST!–and no exaggeration here, I am just reporting the facts as I see them–AT LEAST! 100 feet across the stage.
Hunchback of Notre Full Sail Marcus Louis is best Marcus Louis. I hope we get to see more of him, and that they pick up his feud with Prince Pretty again (particularly as PP is pretty much consigned to perpetual upper midcard as they push the latest indie darling over him).
On either Cageside or Uproxx, Sean or Brandon noted that the VVs have a problem, which is that they’re over only because Simon Gotch is over. I dunno if it’s that much of a problem–he’s definitely way MORE over than Aiden English, but I figure the VVs are a rising tide that lifts both boats. Nice to see them working more face–I mean, how are we not supposed to cheer for old-timey strongmen? Also, it’s a shame NXT doesn’t do the intergender thing, as I understand Mr. Gotch to be quite a fan of the puns. He and Becky Lynch could make quite the BEXtellent partnership (and her steampunk goggles would fit right in with his old-timey strongman gimmick).
It was an average/filler episode of NXT. Nothing crazy, but still Better Than Raw.
Because I’m a football fan and American, Finn’s bandanna always has me thinking of the American Outlaws, the US football team’s supporters’ group. I’m totally down with him becoming The Outlaw Finn.
As long as it doesn’t result in losing him on commentary, I’m all for this. The Striker/Vampiro partnership take a lot of stick out in the IWC. Some of it is justified, even in my opinion–they’re not great at dealing with the women, though IMO they’re still better, at their worst, than the day-to-day treatment of women by announcers in the E. But in general, I really enjoy them. I like that Matt Striker is a wrestling geek who knows all the holds and isn’t afraid to tell you (or ask Vamp) why a certain move is effective. I like that Vampiro has veteran experience that he brings to the table, plus an unbridled enthusiasm–he isn’t afraid to “mark the fuck out” when its called for. (I also dig his physical mannerisms, aka mugging for the camera, usually only seen at the start of the show, and Vampiroisms, which are only for those of us who watched the LLWC.) They’ve got a really good chemistry together–colleagues who respect each other professionally, but who probably also hit the bar for a couple beers after the show. There aren’t many I’d give them up for–maybe not even the Great JR, who I’m not sure would fit the gritty atmosphere of the show.
Meanwhile… Apparently I’m the only one who watched Ring of Honor’s DA debut, which was just a basic RoH show on cable. Still, my first RoH in some months, so!
Jay Lethal is just as entertaining as I remember.
I dig the Briscoes’ ring work (hillbilly kung fu FTW!), but am not a fan of their characters. That said, I’m fairly sure it’s just them turned up to 11, so that’s pretty much what you’re going to get.
I love the Decade as a heel stable. Hell, I love that RoH has a bunch of stables. But the Decade are just great–they’re basically a big ball of every heel trope they can find rolled up into one very booable package.
Chris Daniels/Frankie Kazarian–The Addiction. Bobby Fish/Kyle O’Reilly–ReDRagon (not appearing in this episode). I didn’t realize how much I was missing the RoH tag team scene until The Addiction came down and got on the mics.
MOOSE! arm pump MOOSE! arm pump MOOSE!
No ACH makes me sad, but did I mention that Jay Lethal is awesome?
LawMonkey: I don’t get that Gotch is more over than English. They both seem the same amounts of over to me. The gimmick has lasted a lot longer than I thought it would. Maybe it’s because they revived “old school” wrestling holds as part of their act. Headlocks do seem to have come back in style. On RoH, Kyle O’Reilly kept putting Jay Lethal in headlocks, and Steve Corino said it was because they were in Minnesota, where the AWA and mat-style wrestling originated. “They love their headlocks in Minnesota.” Roman Reigns and Sheamus both used it last night on SD, iirc.
I ripped the Rhyno Gore of Finn so I could watch it couple hundred more times. 
So Kane is the also in the MiTB match? I guess that truly and finally shoots down my theory of Dean winning it. And since he’s not going to win the [Lillian] CHAMPIONSHHIIYYAAPPP [/Lillian] at the event he is succumbed to…nothing? I guess?
That being said, a ladder match between Dean and Rollins will be AWESOME
I love MiTB, my favorite PPV by far
I’m so excited that 2 weeks from today I am going to be loading my moving truck to finally finally finally go down and be with my beloved Ms. Cups.
And how are we celebrating us finally being together? By going to an NXT house show of course! That following Friday, she and I are going to Cocoa Beach to see the show.
Full report will follow.
Arglebarg. Arglebarg, I say, sir; argle bard indeed.
So due to recent events in Lucha Underground*, I’ve become intensely curious about Vampiro’s in-ring career. I am pretty sure there was a post with a few recommended matches somewhere I hang out, but I haven’t been able to find it.
So, I ask you, SDWFW**, give me a few top-notch Vampiro matches to get a feel for him as an in-ring performer. Bonus if you can point out some key matches from his feud with Konnan, but that’s certainly not necessary. If there’s some English-language work from him in promos that’s worth seeing (I know he did a few years in WCW), I’d be happy to see that too–though I"m pretty well convinced of his worth on the mic already.
I love him to death as it stands; I just want to see what he was like as an in-ring performer, rather than just a commentator and fan.
** Straight Dope Wrestling Federation of the World!!!
I only remember him from WCW, and when he first burst on the scene, he took everybody by surprise. His hair reached halfway down to his ass and he was covered in tattoos. He wore long black tights and moved like a dancer. He used a martial arts style and just looked cool as hell.
WCW was using (and abusing) a lot of Mexican wrestlers at the time. They frequently put on awesome matches and lost to the stars. Vampiro was no exception. When Vince Russo took over, his #2 Ed Ferrara came with him and decided to mock Jim Ross in an angle. He was Dr. Death Steve Williams’s manager (who was supposedly a close friend of Ross, but apparently has 0 integrity where dollar signs are concerned). Ferrara called himself “Oklahoma,” and came out wearing a cowboy hat and grimaced half his face to mock Ross’s Bell’s Palsy. In probably the most egregious and obnoxious example of promoter self-promotion, he booked himself winning over Vampiro in a match. Ferrara was fat fat fat fat fat and gasping for air during the match, while Vampiro just mainly laid on the mat and stomped his feet. It was the suckiest of all things that suck ever. I stopped watching WCW after that, but I heard Vampiro got in a pretty good feud with Sting.
I don’t remember if he ever feuded with Konnan in WCW, which is why I wonder why he has so much heat for him in LU. Here’s an excerpt from his Wikipedia page:
I was looking for Vampiro matches in YouTube. Looks like he got tight with Insane Clown Posse and became champion of their own promotion, Juggalo Championship Wrestling. They did an invasion angle with WCW and it looks like much insanity ensued.
Great Khali now training wrestlers (two signed by NXT), making excuses for being released and wanting to return to WWE. :smack::smack::smack:
Dude, you can’t MOVE. You can’t even walk to the ring without looking like you might collapse at any second. If you were stupid enough to get in the ring with me (and I’m NOT a professional wrestler), I’d spend my time dodging your hammy fists and drop kicking you in the knees until you begged for mercy.
I shudder to think of what Khali’s legs must look like under those baggy pants he wears to try and disguise the fact that he can’t bend his knees. Watching him wrestle reminds me of watching Andre the Giant in the final years of his life, and it’s just sad - Big Show may not have been the greatest wrestler even in his prime, but he’s the same age as Khali and he’s clearly in much better shape.
On a lighter note, here’s Brendon Burns talking about the time he got Khali to break character.
“I had racial approval”
I sometimes wonder if WWE gave him all those humiliating angles to get him to quit on his own, because they didn’t want to outright fire him and risk losing a huge Hindu audience.
If you’ve ever seen the doc WWE did on him it shows that he’s really understanding of his condition and knows what to do to keep his body the best it can be
Apparently Tyson Kidd got hurt in a dark match with Samoa Joe last week, and it’s a supposed spinal injury and he is out for who knows how long.
Sucks because he’s such a good performer, although I guess Cesaro is getting that singles push
So, guessing we had a real barnburner of a RAW last night, huh?
I missed the first half and didn’t think the second half was very good.
I was bored to tears by RAW, but it was ok because Soccer and Hocky were both on and I was good with that
