In this week of wrestling we saw Ring of Honor wrapping up its Final Battle Pay-Per-View which closed out 2017, while the WWE transitions into the Road to Wrestlemania by hyping the upcoming Royal Rumble. Meanwhile TNA, Impact, Anthem, whatever they are calling it now is just hanging in limbo still.
I have to be honest. Lately I have been fast forwarding through a lot of Impact Wrestling. The show has gone way downhill, and I just don't have a ton of interest in a lot of their storylines, or lack of storylines. The usual highlight of the show is the Knockouts Division and this week they didn't even get a match, just a brief interview with Allie so Laurel Van Ness could attack her.
They did have four title matches this week which for the most part were unexciting.
X-Division Title Match
Champion Trevor Lee vs. Taiji Ishimori
Ishimori managed to overcome interference from Caleb Konley to become the first Pro Wrestling NOAH wrestler to win the X-Division Championship. He pinned champion Lee after hitting a 450 Splash from the top rope.
Grand Championship Triple Threat Match
Champion EC3 vs. Fallah Bahh vs. Matt Sydal
Bahh dominated round one, EC3 took round two, and Sydal had EC3 pinned when time ran out. The judges gave round three to EC3 who retained his title.
Career vs. Career Match
Dan Lambert vs. James Storm
American Top Team interfered right at the start of the match. Lambert pinned Storm after the others smashed three beer bottles over his head. The crowd thanked Storm with a chant, and then in the back the entire locker room was clapping for him and hugging him. He was then on the phone saying he was coming home.
Joseph Park's brother Chandler made his debut and won with help against John Bolen.
Global Impact Championship Match
Champion Eli Drake vs. Alberto El Patron
This match was taped at a Wrestle Pro show in Rahway, New Jersey. J.B. was sure to point out that the weather in the area was bad the day of the show in an attempt to explain why there were maybe 200 people in the crowd. Drake brought the belt into the ring, dropped it, and Patron drove his head onto it on the mat. Drake pushed him into the referee and then hit him in the head with the belt and got the pin to retain his title.
Tag Team Title Match
Champions OVE vs. LAX
I was totally uninterested in this match up until the point that Santana of LAX tried to jump from the top rope to hit a splash on Dave Crist. At the same time Jake Crist leaped from the other corner and intercepted him by hitting a Super Diamond Cutter. In the end though LAX hit a Street Sweeper on Jake and got the pin to win back the titles.
As I said from the start, it was yet another lackluster show. No Knockouts, the X-Division has lost all of its mystique, and there AREN'T judges in wrestling so the Grand Championship is annoying. Do they even have another actual tag team on the roster? I don't mean two people they just throw together for a match, but an actual tag team.
The show started off with some results from Final Battle 2017.
Final Battle Results:
Silas Young beat Marty Scurll for the ROH Television Title.
The Briscoes apparently won their match against Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer. All they showed was the carnage left in the ring at the end and Bully was laid out after being put through a table. Later in the show they showed some still shots from the match and in the end Bully took his boots off and left them in the ring.
Jay Lethal broke a few rules in his win over Marty Scurll
This week's show then opened with new ROH Champion Dalton Castle coming to the ring with The Boys to a crowd chant of "You Deserve It!" As he was wrapping up in the ring Jay Lethal's music started to play and out he came. After some banter and a congratulations Lethal pointed out that he wants his shot. Castle has the boys assume the position so he and Lethal can sit down and discuss things. Lethal didn't like sitting, so Castle used the other boy as an ottoman. Lethal says he wants his name at the top of the list and Castle said "Deal."
After Lethal left in came Punishment Martinez to chokeslam Castle. Martinez does have a title shot coming at some point because he won the 2017 Survival of the Fittest tournament.
ROH Television Championship Match
ROH TV Champion Silas Young vs. Simon Grimm
It was a title match. Grimm might better be known by his WWE name Simon Gotch. The announcers kept referring to him as having been a televised wrestler for some time now, rather than saying the letters W-W-E. At one point later in the match they did mistakenly use the name Gotch though.
The match was too telegraphed, slow, and sloppy. At one point Young connected with a knee to the face while Grimm was on his knees. Grimm fell back while remaining on his knees and Young pinned him. The problem was his shoulders weren't on the mat so the ref tapped him to tell him to put his shoulders down. Young got the pin a few minutes later.
Before Young could leave the ring out came Kenny King. King spit beer in Young's face as he entered the ring and security broke it up before it started.
The Briscoes vs. "Already in the Ring"
Yep that is all I am going to say about this squash match. After the match they called out the ROH Tag Team Champions, The Motor City Machine Guns.
Main Event
Flip Gordon vs. Marty Scurll
A bit of an exciting match, but it did drag on way too long with three or four commercial breaks. Gordon hit many high-flying moves as expected and came close a few times, but in the end Scurll got the pinfall.
Roman Reigns was in the ring talking about Samoa Joe at the start of the show. Jason Jordan interrupted, Seth Rollins came out soon after. Jordan called them the greatest trio on Raw. This of course brought out the newly reunited Balor Club. Kurt Angle was out next to put them all in the main event.
Bayley and Sasha Banks with Mickie James vs. Mandy Rose and Sonya DeVille of Absolution with Paige
Banks put the Bank Statement on Rose for the win.
In the back Goldust did his best Mick (from Rocky) impersonation to hype Cedric Alexander up for his match with Enzo Amore.
Then there was a segment showing Goldust and Alicia Fox would be a team in the Mixed Match Challenge.
Woken Matt Hardy made his entrance with new music and graphics. It was pretty cool, but Woken is annoying. Just let the guy be Broken again. WWE's obsession with owning everything is overly annoying. The man reinvents himself, the fans embrace the gimmick so much so that he gets the WWE's attention. They get him back and outlast Anthem in the court case and then they still want to take it and twist it so it is their property now.
Matt Hardy vs. Curt Hawkins
Not surprisingly Hardy won.
Bray Wyatt appeared in the ring and they had a face to face laugh off this time.
Sister Abigail and Brother Nero were somewhere loving it. I am curious to see if Jeff Hardy does resume his role as Brother Nero when he returns, or if Matt will remain on his own.
Elias was in the ring to sing and introduce The Miz who was returning.
It was time for Miz TV with his guests The Miztourage.
The Miz made his challenge to Reigns for title and talked about everything he will do in 2018.
Cruiserweight Championship
Champion Enzo Amore vs. Cedric Alexander
Enzo got busted open above his eye with a kick to the head. Then his ankle appeared to buckle under him as Alexander flipped over the top rope and down onto him. Enzo's reaction when it happened leads me to believe it might be a real injury. He was counted out of the ring and retained his title. Still not clear if the ankle injury was just to get counted out and save his title, a real injury, or a faked one to simply end the match so they could check on Enzo's eyes and clean up the blood.
In the back Nia came to check on him. That storyline is annoying and I hope it ends soon.
More Mixed Match Challenge teams were announced:
Miz and Asuka
Balor and Sasha Banks
Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss
The Bar vs. opponent Angle just picked for them after letting them know they will get their return title match at the Rumble, Titus Worldwide - Titus O'Neil and Apollo Crews with Statistician Dana Brooke
Dear WWE, Please stop. Dana Brooke is no Ms. Tessmacher. Move on from the gimmick.
Titus Worldwide managed to steal a victory with Titus rolling up Sheamus from behind after Apollo distracted him.
Out came Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman to talk about the Triple Threat match at the Rumble.
Rhyno with Heath Slater vs. Samoa Joe
Joe choked him out. Joe was then interviewed in the ring.
Asuka vs. Nia Jax
During Asuka's entrance Nia came up from behind her while she was standing on the ropes in the corner and put her on her shoulders and then drove her down into the mat. She then hit the ropes and rolled/flipped down onto her. No match took place.
Main Event Six Man Tag Team Match
Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Jason Jordan vs. Finn Balor, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson
With every mistake seeming like it was Jordan's fault throughout the match, Balor hit the coup de grace on and then pinned Rollins.
The Miztourage then came out and attacked Roman Reigns. The Miz hit the Skull Crushing Finale and then 3 man Power Bomb.
The show started off with Renee Young interviewing AJ Styles in the ring.
Out came Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Shane McMahon later came out and made match for main event.
It would be Shinsuke Nakamura, Randy Orton, and AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in a handicap match.
Becky Lynch vs Ruby Riott
Lynch got the win after putting on the Disarmer.
More teams for the Mixed Match Challenge were announced -
Sami Zayn and Becky Lynch
Bobby Roode and Charlotte
The Ascension vs. Bludgeon Brothers
Here is EXACTLY what happened in the entire match - Viktor attacked Harper, Harper put a stop to it instantly and hit a Superkick on both he and Konnor. Harper tagged Rowan, then tagged himself right back in, and smacked Rowan before slingshoting him into the corner. Rowan grabbed him from behind, turned and lifted him onto Harper's shoulders.Power Bomb, pin.
Bobby Roode came down to ringside to get a closer look at whoever his next opponent would be.
Zach Ryder vs Mojo Rawley
Mojo won the match.
Shinsuke Nakamura and Natalya named as another Mixed Match team.
Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin come out to talk and turn themselves into heels.
Daniel Bryan comes out and twists Gable's words to then put them in a 2 out of 3 falls match against the Usos.
To the back with Styles and Orton talking strategy, Nakamura joins in - Good Talk!
Rusev and Aiden English vs Breezango
Fandango wound up pinning Rusev who had a bad day.
Main Event Handicap Match
AJ Styles, Randy Orton, and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
As Orton was about to hit an RKO Owens hit him with a chair causing the ref to call for the disqualification.
Shane came out to restart the match, this time with no count out, no disqualification, and anything goes.
Styles attacked Oeens on the ramp with a chair to get it started back up. Meanwhile Nakamura and Orton worked over Zayn. Orton wound up pinning Zayn after an RKO for the win.
Next week I might actually get this posted on Wrestling Wrap Up Wednesdays, and even add in NXT. Hopefully it will be a bit of a more exciting week.
Worst Match of the Week: ROH - Silas Young vs. Simon Grimm
Best Segment of the Week: TIE - Bray Wyatt - Matt Hardy Laugh Off AND Dalton Castle - Jay Lethal Chat
Best Move of the Week: Jake Crist Super Diamond Cutter on Santana
Best Match of the Week: Raw Main Event Six Man Tag Match
What did you think of this week in wrestling? What was your favorite match?
#thewrestlingwrapup
#wrestlingwrapup
#raw
#smackdown
#roh
#impactwrestling
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