#there were 2 middle aged women nxt to me

[alukaforyou]

oh em geeee i went to a nail salon for the first time ever and got a cat eye mani pedi woooo

[anxiety-trademark]

The week in review:

Raw 11/09 NXT 11/11 NXT UK 11/12 Smackdown 11/13

Raw:

Shayna vs Lana?? God poor Lana. Preemptive “rip”

Lmfao Lana is so damn extra.

Okay but WHY is Asuka facing Nia later? And where has Asuka even been the past few weeks?

Yikes. Lana is so friggin useless in kf.

Rofl Nia mocking Dana’s voice, I cannot with her.

Did Dana and Mandy actually save Lana from #8?? They got half a point. I get why they’re reluctant to help Lana, but they’re nearly coming off as the mean, popular girls, and I know that’s not their personas. I get she fucked them over, but it was inadvertent. Buy some goodwill guys.

Are they the Gucci girls now? Honestly flashforward to current times, Charlotte fits right in with them. If you were gonna have Charlotte head a stable, Dana and Mandy are the perfect people to put with her.

“We totally saved your butts... Lana.” :/ Dana. Dana plz. With all the work you put into your craft, HOW are you still the weakest promo in the division?

“Okay listen, thank you, you’re welcome,” just let Mandy and Dana practice wrestling cuz their promos are fucking painful.

Lana No-Friends.

Why is Alexa happily destroying flowers??

Lol has no memory of seeing Nikki the week prior. Yikes. Are we still sure it’s not drugs???

“Lexi I’m not playing.” “That’s too bad, Nikki.” What she means, Nikki, is there are 2 options: play or pain. You should just play. Actually side note; wasn’t that Nikki’s whole damn character when she debuted? ‘Nikki wants to play’? ‘Play with Nikki’??

Omfg Alexa is god damn stellar. Nikki tells her to choose either Fiend/Bray or [Nikki]. Alexa thinks about it for a moment, “okay. I choose... *blows the flower petals in Nikki’s face* him!” Then fucking claps, giggles and walks away. Imagine if you had a whole damn roster that could be this entertaining.

Also Nikki is really talented in her own right. Working with Alexa did wonders as far as promos and acting go.

Survivor Series team is supposedly at ringside because Asuka is about to go one on one with Nia. I’m not seeing the correlation.

Shayna officially playing the role of henchman now, I see. That’s interesting.

Asuka does a lot of things worth praising. Her Octopus is not one of them.

It’s always nice seeing Nia bump like she does for Asuka.

Oh that kickout into an armbar by Asuka was BEAUTIFUL.

Asuka said “fuck all y’all we’re busy rn”

I hate Shayna’s hammerfists SO much.

This Survivor Series team is a fucking disaster in kf.

aaaaand there’s number 8. Jeeeeze. “You don’t belong here, you’re gonna drag us down. Just quit.” This is a bullying story done right tbh. No personal petty bs insults, no body shaming. Just straight up physically assaulting the weakest link that has zero friends. It’s a good story. I feel sympathy for sure.

Highlight: Alexa & Nikki backstage segment

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NXT:

See I don’t mind Shotzi’s backstage promos at all. She exudes passion. I can feel her emotions. But 9 times out of 10 she ends it in a howl and I want to scream.

Weak final thought though. There was really nothing better you could end it on? Okay.

So Xia calls out Raquel and then doesn’t show. Not sure if it’s for kf or meta reasons.

I like Raquel speaking Spanish while brawling. She should incorporate that more, especially with Zelina gone. We need more Latina talent (no disrespect to Bayley or Sasha, if they wanna start speaking Spanish then good on them)

“Everybody better take their-- my name out of their mouth.” SIGH can I get a non-awkward speaker that isn’t Nia? Anyone? Anywhere? Hello??

What the hell does any of this Xia stuff mean? Fine I’ll be patient.

So is Toni a face? I thought she was a heel. Did I misinterpret the heel turn pre-covid era? That’s even worse, she’s even more the same now.

Ugh rough day when I’m here cheering for Toni. God I hate Candice.

Do you really have the right to call anyone a ‘punk rock poser’ Candice? I mean... REALLY?

It’s not that I hate Toni’s headbutt, I just hate it when people take themselves out delivering a headbutt.

Anticlimactic sequence. Toni says fuck your second rope neckbreaker to Candice, then Candice says fuck your second rope leg drop to Toni, just to follow up with a mere kick to the jaw and a pinfall attempt. Missed opportunity to really get something going.

Sad attempt at putting her feet on the ropes by Candice.

Good let Toni be a “sore loser” fuck Candice.

So the masked figure is Indi, right? Why are they keeping her masked? What’s the purpose? Yeahhh that’s really not a surprise. Anyway.

It’s a damn shame what happened in 2020, the whole world has felt it. And it’s a damn shame that you didn’t get to show out in front of 80k people. I truly feel for you. Your loss, however? In kf I can’t feel bad because you sought HER out on HER show. In a meta sense? She did you a favor taking that title. You were 5 seconds from being called Charlotte 2.0, and you deserve better. You deserve the opportunity to grow and make a name for yourself without being handed everything before the age of 25, and you’re SO much better off for it.

The downfall of “nxt’s hottest new act” was a great story. It sucks to be her, but it was a great story. Rhea’s gonna be a fucking STAR on the main roster. She will thrive. She will exceed expectations. She will make a name for herself. She had to eat that humble pie first, though. Obviously I know how this match ends already, and rightfully so. 

Highlight: I guess the Io/Rhea Prime Target

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NXT UK:

Kind of a bummer that there’s only ever one women’s match/segment every week on UK. I want to ponder whether it’d be different sans a pandemic, but I’m not certain it would be.

Xia Brookside is too animated in her moves, and her moves are always too slow for it to mesh well.

They compliment Xia’s “technical work” but she just comes off as someone who has learned the absolute basics and has no idea how to utilize them in a match.

Interesting to note that they seem to be building up 2 heels in Nina and Jinny, yet the champ herself is a heel. Not quite making me believe either of them have a chance at defeating her in the future.

Nice I always love a good codebreaker. Points to Xia.

That was a nice cartwheel off the turnbuckle using the ropes. One would assume the tweak to the knee was a farce.

Stupid small package. Stupid result. At least Nina got some heat back, but she should’ve won, lesbireal.

Side note: I see UK does in fact have a pc. No excuse for these women to get gassed so quickly then, get it together.

Highlight: The network exclusive video package for KLR vs Piper

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Smackdown:

What a racy outfit. I don’t hate it, Sasha wears it well.

There’s like a million things you can do with Sasha that doesn’t involve a live promo in the middle of the ring. Explore them plz.

Carmella’s not a technical master by any means, but having her superkick and then finish with a facebuster is super weak.

What’s also weak: where the fuck did Bayley go?

What’s even weaker than that: Carmella had like the best theme music and now it’s gone. Tragic.

Lol why is Nattie stomping her feet like she’s throwing a tantrum? She’s hilarious tbh.

“If team Smackdown is going to win,” lmao let me cut you off right there. Imagine the SD women actually winning at SvS. Good joke.

Omg Chelsea is alive? We gave her a tag match in nxt with the women’s champion Charlotte Flair... Charlotte fucking Flair... and then kept her off tv for like 6 months for this? Is this her grand debut?? Is she even ready for the main roster???

Wait hold on. Back up. So Chelsea touched Adam’s shoulder and had some off camera conversation to make her way into this triple threat match? *sigh* okay.

I don’t quite remember who this team consisted of, but if I had to guess, I’d assume Liv wins this match since Ruby is already on the team.

Love Chelsea’s theme music, love that a giant picture of herself is no longer her titantron... HATE the flowy wedding dress veil that she wears on the bottom half of her outfit.

Should stick Chelsea with Nattie tbh.

What the hell was that by Liv? A fake out standing crucifix turned into a ddt? Fucking beautiful.

Nattie and Liv work together nicely ngl. Liv really does have a lot of potential, but she’s god awful on the mic. Tag team wrestling is best for her for the foreseeable future.

“This is a fatal 4way,” Cole reminds us, because Chelsea and Tamina have seemingly died.

Should’ve just made this a singles match between Liv and Nattie, jesus.

Lmfao Liv pinned Tamina. What took Chelsea out? A dropkick off the apron. A dropkick off the apron took Chelsea out for 3 minutes, and she got maybe 3 moves of offense. Yikes, what a debut.

So when does Bayley get added as captain?

Highlight: The match that totally wasn’t a singles match between Liv & Nattie

---

*Bad week in wrestling, but yet again, Raw shines the brightest because as small as their roster may be, they’re being utilized decently well.

[womenswrestlingforum]

Story Time: Bayley vs Sasha Banks

I’m creating this story based off of a post I made earlier regarding Wrestlemania 33 and my prediction for that. If you want to see the full post, you can go down a bit or I can pull it up for you guys to view here.

Long story short, Sasha Banks uses Nia Jax to become RAW Women’s Champion. She is not teaming with her, Nia was upset that Bayley eliminated her, so Sasha used that to her advantage. Sasha would retain the title the next night on RAW against Nia and Bayley, throwing Bayley out the ring after Nia was primed for defeat. Bayley would then defeat Nia in a Steel Cage to become rightful #1 contender for the RAW Women’s Championship. This is where Sasha attacks her, leaving her lying in the middle of the ring.

Now that you are all caught up, I’ll finish the story:

Sasha explains her actions were of that of a true BOSS: she took care of business for herself. Bayley comes out and says that their whole friendship was a lie and that Charlotte and Stephanie were actually right about her, she was using Bayley just to reclaim the Women’s Championship. Now she’s going to take it back at Payback in front of her family and friends. Sasha tells her she has no more friends, that she was the only friend she had and that she’s going to embarrass her aging, in front of her pathetic family. Bayley runs to attack, but Sasha leaves, saying that she’s not going to worry about her until Payback, she’s not worth getting dirty over.

They then have sit-down interviews with both of them for their match at Payback. Sasha states that she’s doing what anyone else would do and she’s not to blame for the loss of this friendship, but she is to blame for Bayley losing the RAW Women’s Championship at Wrestlemania and she’s going to do it again at Payback.

Bayley says her payback is going to be soon and sweet. Sasha betrayed her for the Women’s Championship. She hopes that it was worth it because when she wins it back in San Jose, it’s going to be because she’s the better woman.

They then have the o so great contract signing, where Sasha slams Bayley’s back against the table and does the double knee and then her jumping knees down on her back. Softening her up for the proceeding Sunday.

Payback happens and it’s a barnburner. These two should probably main event the show, if permitting to the level of stories there are on RAW. At the end, Bayley back can’t handle the pain, and Sasha makes her tap out to the Bank Statement.

The next night on RAW, Bayley says she let everyone down, her family saw her lose yet again. Sasha is bragging about her win calling Bayley a loser and pathetic. She remembers the fire she had in NXT, but it seems that she lost it, just like she lost her Championship.

Stephanie McMahon walks to Bayley and says that she always knows and she told Bayley that Sasha was up to use her and she didn't listen. She says that she felt bad at first, but now she says that she deserved it.

A #1 contender tournament is set up for Extreme Rules. Nia Jax, Charlotte, Emma, Dana Brooke, Liv Morgan and Bayley are in this. The three winners will meet in a Triple threat to be #1 contender. Nia defeats Dana, Emma and Charlotte go to a draw, and Bayley defeats Liv, with Sasha watching from commentary. With this, the match is now just between Nia Jax and Bayley. The match seems to be going Nia's way until she misses a splash. Bayley gets a chair and starts wailing on Nia. She then hits a huge Bayley to Belly for the win. It's Sasha and Bayley at Extreme Rules and Bayley wants an Extreme Rules match

The next week, Bayley is talking to Chris Jericho who is also scheduled to face Kevin Owens at Extreme Rules. He tells her that he knows how some best friends will stab you in your back and that she has his support at Extreme Rules. That brings Sasha to the mix, calling Bayley a "loser" and Jericho a "geriatric has been". it seems that Jericho will respond to her, but Kevin Owens comes to attack, so a mixed tag team match is set up for RAW. Kevin and Sasha win when Bayley knocked into Jericho and Sasha hit Bankrupt.

Sasha continues to banter about how Bayley won't beat her and how she is never going to get this title back, so she wants tk save her the embarrassment on Sunday and tells her to give up now. Bayley tells her that she forgot who she was. Yes, she's beaten her and embarrassed her, but she will never admit defeat to anyone and she won't be beaten this Sunday. Sasha misses hitting her with the belt and Bayley hits a Bayley to Belly on Sasha.

At Extreme Rules, it's as violent as you can expect with a rivalry as intense as theirs is. Sasha is down after Bayley hit her with chair shots. Bayley seems that she wants to do more, so she puts Sasha on top of a table and climbs a ladder. She goes for her Macho Man elbow, but Sasha moves and she crashes through. Sasha then puts on the Bank Statement with a Kendo Stick and Bayley submits.

Bayley is dejected at the fact that she can't beat Sasha, so much as that she needs time to herself and leaves her headband in the ring (a la John Cena from Summerslam 2016).

Sasha says that she took the Life out of Hug Life because that's not how champions really are. She hits Bayley with a dose of reality, these little girls can't look up to someone who loses and hugs to drown others in her sorrows. She's a true winner, a champion, and that's why she's the Boss. She says she is now done dealing with her.

So weeks goes by and Liv Morgan earned a shot at the title. Sasha defeats her on an episode of RAW to retain the title. After that, Bayley made her return and Sasha says that she's not giving her another opportunity and Bayley stops her. She says since Wrestlemania, she has been on a downward spiral and she's been the cause of her pain. She says that she wants 1 more match for the RAW Women's Championship, and if she loses, she's gone from RAW. She doesn't care that the draft is in the next few weeks, she wants to either be happy again or out of here. Sasha accepts, saying she caused her the pain and is more than willing to put her out her misery. The match is set for Bad Blood.

Sasha says that as a boss, she knows that there are times for hiring and times for firing. She will send Bayley out of RAW for good.

At Bad Blood, these two put on their biggest match yet, which most definitely has to main event. In the end, Bayley and Sasha are on the top turnbuckle and then Bayley goes for a Bayley to Belly from the very top. Sasha pushes her off and tries for a frog splash and misses. Bayley then hits 2 Bayley to Bellys for the pin and the win.

Bayley says that it's great to feel like herself again. Sasha comes and says she's not wasting anytime. She challenges Bayley to a rematch on the Draft episode of RAW, and the loser has to leave RAW, no questions stated. Bayley wants to up the ante and says that she wants a 2 out of 3 Falls match. Sasha says that she doesn't even want that, she wants to do the match that made their rivalry famous: a 30 minute Ironman match. The match is set for the July 24th edition of RAW.

This match is insanely close as its tied between the two. Bayley seems to replicate their NXT Ironman match with a submission, but Sasha reverses to a pin, which is reversed to a pin by Bayley to get the win. Bayley retains and Sasha is gone from RAW and is going to Smackdown Live. Such an epic rivalry to me because I thought of it. These two could make this happen and it would highly assist the RAW Women's Division in terms of lackluster stories.

I hoped you enjoyed!

[the1stmjc]

Top 5 WWE Matches of 2016

Lists! People love lists and with 2016 in the books I have decided that my first WWE related write-up will be a Best of 2016 list. I spent the first week of 2017 on the WWE Network watching matches that left an impression on me and I think I am ready to make a Top 5 WWE Matches of 2016.

Why 5 and not 10? I struggled to find 10 matches that deserved to be next to each other. The Top 5 or so are all matches that I felt were fantastic and I did not want to have the last two or three matches on the list feel like they were just thrown in to reach 10. Plus, having a smaller list means I had to really think about the matches I choose and decide if I found them worthwhile.

So without further ado here is my Top 5 Matches of 2016

Number 5:

Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Fall Count Anywhere for The Women’s Championship (RAW, Nov. 29th)

The Women’s Revolution found its footing in 2016, but it still struggled somewhat. The brand split did the movement no favors and despite the best efforts of Sasha Banks and Charlotte they had opportunities to put on classics only for those chances to just miss the mark.

The WrestleMania triple threat was solid, but it relied too much on roll-ups to be exciting and Ric Flair’s interference left me annoyed. Charlotte and Sasha had a decent match at Summerslam only for the match to be overshadowed by some cringe worthy botches that concerned me for the safety of Sasha Banks. And then we had that awkward ending to the Hell and the Cell match and the questionable Iron (Wo)Man Match.

In between all that there was a genuine classic that took place on  Monday Night Raw when the two women faced off in a Falls Count Anywhere match. From the start of the match there was a level of intensity not really seen in the other matches. The match felt like a fight with the Banks and Flair brawling more than stringing together highspots.

The went from the ring to the stage to the crowd and it felt like there were stakes. Charlotte got to show off her athleticism with some high spots that were not overdone and did not require a lot of setups while Sasha was able to show off her aggressive side and scrappiness.

And most importantly they nailed the finish. The finish was believable with the on the rails Bank Statement looking vicious. It was the first time since their main roster debut that I felt like they had a near flawless match.

Number 4:

DIY vs. The Revival for the NXT Tag Team Championships (NXT Takeover Brooklyn)

I love The Revival and I needed to acknowledge them somewhere on my list, they are what makes tag team wrestling great. They are old school fighters that do not rely on flashy moves to get them over and are a cohesive unit.  

The Revival defended their titles at6 NXT Takeover Brooklyn against indie darlings Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa, who had a match at the Cruiserweight Classic against each other that I considered for my list. This match-up was a perfect mesh of talents with two contrasting styles, The Revivals no thrills fighting versus the more flashy indie style of DIY.

The match had everything you’d want from a tag team match, a mix of fast paced action and classic tag team isolation. The isolation of an opponent is done perfectly by The Revival, they work an opponent so well that when that person finally makes the hot ag you cannot help but jump out of your seat and cheer.  And this match had plenty of those moments.

And my god were all the false finishers earned and executed perfectly. One thing I notice with WWE matches is the over reliance on false finishes and how quickly I get annoyed by them, but these false finishes had me hooked and I had no idea who was going to end up the winner and neither did the crowd who were on their feet most of the match.

The ending was emotional and The Revival walked away the champs while DIY sat in the ring disappointed, but more over than ever. There were so many twists and turns in the actual match that I almost expected Ciampa to turn heel and I was so happy that it didn’t happen.

Number 3:

A.J. Styles vs. John Cena (Summerslam)

A..J. Styles had one hell of a year and it was the passing of the torch from John Cena that was the perfect way to crown his year. It is rare that John Cena puts someone over multiple times, he always gets his revenge, but not this time. Sure he did not get his revenge due to his busy schedule and sure passing the torch from one 39 year old to another 39 year old is not ideal, but damn if it wasn’t spectacular.

The previous bouts between Cena and Styles ended with outside interference and that is what I expected here and instead I got a classic Summerslam match.

From the start Styles worked the match like a cocky heel out to prove himself to the WWE Universe that he was a legit star and a better wrestler than John Cena. He didn’t have to prove himself  of course though he still needed to get a clean win to show that this was his company now.

This was just a great match with both stars pulling out their best moves. Styles can work with anyone and made Cena look like a better wrestler. It’s not that Cena is a bad wrestler in fact he is a fantastic wrestler, he just sometimes feels like he is going through the motions. At Summerslam Cena was on fire and Styles matched that fire and set the tone for how the rest of his year would go.

It is important that the match had a clean finish and I was happy Cena was willing to put Styles over clean. Now we have Styles on the top of Smackdown Live and it all started at Summerslam.

Number 2

Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens (Battleground)

Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens is a feud that will go down in history as one of the greatest feuds of all time. Their time in the WWE has been short and the WWE have been able to tell a great story from NXT to the main roster without the ability to call back too much of their history thanks to the Generico aspect.

Their WWE feud came to its climax in great fashion at one of WWE’s less important PPV shows Battleground. I have to admit that I am a huge Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens fan and this was a great way to end their feud for now. I still think they deserve a blowout at one of the marquee shows, but I’m fine with waiting for that.

At Battleground though they put on a show stealer in the middle of the card. From the video package to the closing bell, these two put on what I consider perfect wrestling storytelling. The match started with intensity and only settled down briefly for Owen’s to do his heel chin lock routine. After they broke out of that, the match felt like a legit battle and fight.

I almost thought for a second that these men were trying to kill each other. I still have no idea if that fall Sami Zayn took on the apron was a botch or intentional and that is AMAZING. That is when wrestling is at its best, when they blur the lines of reality. I would assume based on how fast Owens worked Zayn after the botch that it was a work, but I still don’t know.

Other amazing spots was the Suplex/Brainbuster Zayn did to Owens which felt way more brutal than anything I would expect to see on WWE programming. Owens did some cool things like the superkick block of Zayn’s through the ropes Tornado DDT that immediately was followed by a cannonball.

It was the final sequence though that made this match special and should have catapulted both superstars into the main event picture. It starts with the two Exploders Zayn gives Owens followed by the Helluva Kick. When Zayn is holding a knocked out Owens in his arms and you think maybe Zayn is feeling remorse only for him to go for one more kick! That is when this match jumps to another level. They put on one hell of a match, but this singular moment is the most memorable thing from the match and is storytelling at its best.

Number 1:

Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (NXT Takeover Dallas)

If Zayn vs. Owens is storytelling at its best then Zayn vs. Nakamura is  pure wrestling at its best. This match had no story to tell and the two competitors had no history for the WWE to build from. It was just two of the best wrestlers in the world doing what they do best.

NXT crowds outside of Full Sail (sorry) are the best and they treated this match like it a classic even before the bell rung. There was something in the air that night that made this match feel like the biggest match of the year despite no real stakes involved, no title no stipulations, nothing.

Shinsuke Nakamura could not have asked for a better debut opponent and Zayn could not have asked for a better opponent for his final NXT match.

Nakamura is a heavy hitter and he was able to go at Zayn without holding back. It did not feel like a WWE match it felt like something else, something special. Zayn showed his ability to do any style by matching Nakamura’s Strong Style. There were times when I was concerned for Zayn with some of Nakamura’s stikes looking brutal, but Zayn at certain points would strike just as hard.

I do not even think this match was flashy, it was just an amazing pure wrestling match. The competitors left it all in the ring and the “Fight Forever” chants were well deserved. I could watch these two fight every week till the end of time and I cannot wait for a rematch in the future.