I must say, I’m loving R-Truth with his 24/7 European championship, and Bray Wyatt with the Firefly Fun House.
These have been the only things worth consistently watching, due entirely to R-Truth and Bray Wyatt. Samoa Joe is consistently good, but he’s given far too little. I was discussing this with friends the other day, and the problem isn’t the writers. It’s the writers writing to an audience of one, who’s going to rewrite things anyway, and fearing for their jobs because they know they’ll be the scapegoats.
I don’t know what it is about Baron. He’s doing everything on the heel checklist, but he doesn’t have the chutzpah.
Drew McEntyre and Bobbie Lashley are good heels because they’re big and scary. KO and Zayn are good heels because they’re obnoxious weasels. Corbin is a tattooed mannequin who recites scripts.
Yeah. Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens, and/or Sami Zayn should be the ones competing for Seth Rollins’ Universal Title; not Corbin.
Sign that LU is dead…
Jeff Cobb, formerly Matanza of LU, was making his entrance for the 4 Corners match in the latest ep of RoH. Matt Taven, world champ of RoH and Cobb’s future opponent, was guest commentator. Main commentator Ian Riccaboni said “Here comes your opponent for <insert PPV here>.” Taven replied “Aw, he’s adorable. He’s my little Hawaiian Buddha.”
OK, so Matanza was officially killed in LU, he was a village-slaying mad beast who had to be locked in a prison underneath the Aztec temple between matches. Now he’s a little Hawaiian Buddha.
I am such a wrestling continuity nerd.
Yeah, well last weekend at House of Hardcore 55, Lucha Dragon was just 2 tables away from Johnny Mundo and Taya Valkyrie, who had killed LD. LD was sharing a table with Joey Ryan, who was jealous (work) when I told Luchasaurus his was the best match that show.
In other news no one cares about, Melissa Santos is really short, like Selina Vega short or shorter. And she was sporting a knee brace and couldn’t wear heels. The size difference between her and Cage is huge.
It’s the suit and the authority backing thing. The took the Lone Wolf, stripped him of his gear and turned him into Corporate Lackey #614. Just another bald guy in a suit standing in the way of [Current Champion].
I think his voice doesn’t help. He just doesn’t have the right timber of voice. He always sounds like the guy who is telling you he’s going to kick your ass - to get you to back off - while hoping you don’t call his bluff and hurt him.
Its certainly obvious by now that he’s not helping anything in the ratings. He needs to go back to the midcard, get tweaked and built back up.
If anything, farking pull the trigger on McIntyre now. Give him the run against Seth Rollins and something of a coherent, non-authority driven story and see what they can do with it.
Happy Father’s Day!
World of Sport wrestling has been making its appearance in cable sports channels. It’s a UK fed that was brought back a few years ago. Jeff Jarrett is executive producer, and it does resemble TNA in its prime. The first season was put together in 2018, and they’ve been showing reruns.
Stu (formerly Wade) Barrett poses as the (mostly) heel owner/authority figure, and he does commentary along with SoCal Val (formerly of TNA) and Alex Shane, who sounds exactly like Drake Maverick. I recognized British Bulldog Jr. and Grado, as well as Kip Sabian, who’s now in AEW. Piper Niven, who’s now in NXT UK, wore all black and went as Viper.
It’s pretty good. They don’t mention “British Strong Style” like they do in NXT UK. It’s meant to be family friendly, but it doesn’t overdo the smarminess. There’s plenty of action and good booking. One wrestler who stood out was Crater. He’s a big fat dude in a mask, but he acts like a horror movie villain. He stays absolutely still until he makes his move. He had a handicap match against two smaller guys, but he didn’t enter the ring at first. He stood outside the ring while the other two opponents worked, then when they both went down, he reached in, pulled one out, and smashed him on the floor. He then slipped inside the ring and threw the other one around until both opponents finally got to team up on him. He grabbed them both in a double chokeslam and then stacked one on top of the other and splashed them for the win. He didn’t try to prove himself by making lucha moves or anything. I googled his real name and found out he works as an investment banker in his other life.
Another bloke I liked was Joe Hendry. He poses as a Michael Bubly-type pop star and sings his own entrance music. He worked a submission match against the villainous Martin Kirby, who had betrayed him in a tag match the week before. It was a classic dirty cheating heel vs the by-the-rules babyface, and they pulled it off.
The commentary team was excellent. Bennett knows how to tell a story, Alex Maverick called all the action crisply, and SoCal Val did color and didn’t take any of Bennett’s crap. I hope they get to make another season.
Here’s an interesting article about Nyla Rose, the first openly transgender wrestler signed by a major U.S. promotion, who participated in AEW’s first women’s match, a fatal four-way also involving the legendary Awesome Kong.
Stomping Grounds predictions, because you know, no one really gives a shit about this show.
Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin
Are you serious? Is there anyone who wants to see Baron win or any purpose that it would serve? What is even the point of this match? Baron is an occasional upper midcarder at best. The guy who only has IC and US title reigns to set up to drop it to a different face.
Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler
Same here. No real purpose by having Ziggler win and it doesn’t help either of them to pull the belt off Kofi.
Becky Lynch vs. Lacey Evans
Notice the repeating pattern here? Lacy isn’t taking the title and I give it a 50-50 that there’s a finish to the match at all. Charlotte is going to come in and beat up Becky when Becky has Lacey beaten.
Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss
Can’t put the title on Bliss, who has concussion issues and no reason to take it off Bayley. Bayley wins or gets close to winning in a match that protects Bliss and then Nikki Cross interferes, setting up a Bayley-Nikki feud with Bliss involved.
Samoa Joe vs. Ricochet
Joe kills Ricochet, who fills the Rey Mysterio spot of the high flyer who can occasionally win the big one but frequently gets dropped by monsters. I’d love to see Joe beat down Ric until Black comes out and kicks his ass, leading to a Aleister Black - Samoa Joe feud for the title. But I don’t have any expectation of that happening.
Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre
Romanwinslol. But I’d rather McIntyre win and get a run. Unfortunately, he’s associated with Shane and that means his title reign would be dominated by other people’s stories and promos.
Daniel Bryan & Rowan vs. Heavy Machinery
Bryan & Rowan. Vince has reduced Heavy Machinery to the Comedy B Squad, not a credible threat.
The New Day vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
Pre-show match. KO & Sami win.
If AoP are back, it is possible they interfere in one of the two matches above and kill everyone to make a big impression.
Tony Nese vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Drew Gulak
Dunno. I’m going to go with Nese retaining.
I skipped it.
This was literally my first opportunity ever to attend a WWE PPV. This was the first PPV they ran in the Seattle metroplex since 2011, and the first since I started following wrestling again as an adult. Even though I don’t have a car right now, I could’ve literally just hopped on the bus that stops three doors down from my house, rode to the downtown transit center, hopped on the Tacoma express, ridden to the Dome, seen the show, got back on the bus, and been home before 10.
I didn’t bother, because the card was that uninteresting to me and so predictable to boot. The sad thing is that the Crazy Old Man will probably blame the local audience for the low attendance, and it’ll be another 10 years before we get another PPV up here.
In better news, AEW Fyter Fest is this Saturday! It’s going to be streaming live for free on B/R Live, and I presume the replay will also be free.
Here’s the card;
- The Elite (Kenny Omega & the Young Bucks) vs. Pentagon Jr., Fenix, & the Laredo Kid
- Jon Moxley vs. Joey Janela
- Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin
- Fatal 4-way; Hangman Page vs. MJF vs. Jimmy Havoc vs. Jungle Boy
- Triple threat: Nyla Rose vs. Riho vs. Yuka Sakazaki
- Christopher Daniels vs. CIMA
- Hardcore rules: Michael Nakazawa vs. Alex Jebailey
- Triple threat tag, winning team gets a first-round bye in the AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament; SCU (Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) vs. Private Party (Marq Quen & Isiah Kassidy) vs. the Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta)
I’ve had the opportunity to see Darby Allin live in our local indy, and he’s a freak of nature, so his match with Cody ought to be amazing. Oughta be a good show overall.
I saw Darby too this past fall at an EVOLVE show, but he didn’t exactly wow me. It might have been the way the match was booked, because he was up against Adam Cole and acted more the victim jobber role. Maybe it was tour burnout. I’m sure he’ll step it up with Cody.
Stomping Grounds was better than expected. Not good, but the crowd was hot even with the half empty arena, and the matches were okay. I hope they concluded some feuds. Time to retire the Corbin, Evans, and Ziggler feuds. They did their jobs of establishing the champions post-WrestleMania. Now we can set up SummerSlam with feuds where there is an actual chance of a title change. I just hope that it isn’t Shane.
I agree that the event was a solid B or B- at worst. If the show seemed worse than it was it’s because the crowd was absolutely abysmal. I hate wrestling fans sometimes because no one knows how to ruin a good thing like a wrestling fan.
It’s been said before, but the constant nicknames are driving me up the wall. The Sassy Southerner? Give me a break…
I just heard that anybody who thinks that KO has any business being in a wrestling ring has to hand in their Jim Cornette Burger Towel. Apparently, the Louisville Limp (“Big Bubba, you had one job at Starrcade '86 - catch Cornette when he falls from the scaffold”) has a problem with Omega from when he wrestled a 9-year-old girl and a blow-up doll.
I like Cornette, but he needs to get his mind out of the 80’s. He’s probably frustrated that all the things he busted his ass to do for wrestling are no longer necessary. He’s done his fair share of silliness, like getting his face shoved into wedding cakes and getting beat up by women. I guess today’s silliness isn’t old school enough for him.
You’d certainly think so given the ratings and fan reactions, right?
You’d be wrong. They’re going to drag out the Corbin/Evans thing another month. 
And Reigns/McIntyre. Who’s Wheaties did Drew piss in? When was the last time he got a significant win?