#women getting ppv time is not an issue this year

[zedxspacess]

I’m seeing people say Forbidden Door is too AEW focused this year, but when you objectively look at the card, it really isn’t.

Mercedes v Vaquer

Toni v Mina

Danielson v Shingo

Mox v Naito

Orange v ZSJ

MJF v Hechicero

AEW only matches:

Ladder match (so far)

Swerve v Ospreay

That is only 2 out of 8 matches, like what are you saying. And there's a high chance there will be more cross promotional matches revealed later this week, since Gabe Kidd and El Phantasmo showed up to Rampage pretapings last week.

There’s less multimans this year, so numbers wise, it feels like there’s less representation from other companies. BUT I counter that the downside to the multimans is not everyone can share the same amount of spotlight--you have some wrestlers getting more shine while others mostly hang out on the apron. These singles matches can have more focus on the individual wrestlers of other companies. Tho I do anticipate the inclusion of more multimans on the pre-show.

I think the mistake on both AEW and the fan's part is marketing FD as a NJPWxAEW event moving forward. NJPW is still getting most of the representation (they're half of the outside talent), but this is definitely an AEWxThe World type of ppv now. And the downside to opening the door to more companies collaborating is that the spots and plots that would've gone to NJPW are now going to CMLL or Stardom. The shows are already 5+ hours long, and you can only fit so many matches on the card. People were complaining on the lack of interpromotional women's matches or lucha libre rep in past years, and now we have two title defenses from two different companies! And while I don't think the MJF-Hechicero match is the best combination, it's still something for CMLL along with Stephanie Vaquer. The optimal FD card is having 0 AEW v AEW matches, but I believe we can get there.

Personally, I don't think there should or can be separate ppvs for the different promotions ie, a FD just with NJPW or a FD just with CMLL. Logistically, it sounds like a nightmare considering implementing build time, working out visas and travelling. I don't think it's a coincidence Fantasticamania Mexico and USA are happening in close proximity to FD--all the relevant NJPW talent are in the same continent so travel between the states and Mexico is easier than if they're going back and forth from Japan. The moment I saw Hiromu Takahashi on the Fantasticamania MX card for a week, I knew there's no way TK could resist booking him for AEW while he's in the same hemisphere. Hiromu, Titan, and ZSJ were on Tuesday's CMLL show in Mexico City and they're literally showing up on Dynamite in Buffalo, NY the day after.

Now the interesting question is: why are fans feeling like it's AEW-focused when on paper, it's the opposite? I think it partly falls down to the aforementioned issue of the expectation of more NJPW presence on a program where there's two other promotions sharing the spotlight now. CMLL doesn’t have a big presence in ENG speaking circles as compared to NJPW, so there’s less familiarity/hype when a CMLL wrestler shows up in a guest spot vs when a NJPW fan fav shows up on AEW. But I also think the other part of the problem lies on the plots/build leading up to the show and how unbalanced it is.

I'd argue the builds that have the most presence on AEW programing are Swerve v Ospreay, Toni v Mina, Ladder Match and the rest following suit in varying degrees. You get the occasional appearance from TMDK or Shingo or a luchador but those top three matches are given the most promo+match time until the couple shows before the ppv. Hechicero has shown up a lot lately but his match up against MJF felt last minute and not the direction they were headed with his character. Naturally, AEW talent have more free time to promote the matches in ways the outside talent can't due to travel, visas and scheduling--NJPW are still doing their tours in Japan and Fantasticamania Mexico this week, CMLL do shows 4 days a week every week plus some of their talent had visa issues earlier this year. Mina is the only exception to this as she's been reliably flying in and making appearances even before Double or Nothing, which I consider a plus and how AEW should book for FD moving forward. She's been so seamlessly integrated into the show and the story with Toni and Mariah having been such a constant presence, she doesn't feel too much like an outsider. I think the issue with FD in previous years is that most of the ongoing plots in AEW have to take a pause for FD season, or they have to awkwardly insert NJPW talent into it somehow or the build only starts a couple weeks before the show. Mina's handling has avoided that, but you can't say the same for the Ladder Match and Swerve v Ospreay which has the opposite problem of not involving outside talent at all. I'm not entirely too happy with Swerve v Ospreay main eventing but I don't hate it either. I can see why AEW chose to do it and how it's probably more beneficial to their long term plans. But at the expense of downplaying the interpromotional focus of the show for TWO their biggest titles is :/ and something I hope they won't repeat again in the future.

And speaking of titles, there's the whole discourse of Moxley being the iwgp champ and questioning the relationship between the promotions that's skewed people's perception of FD. I'll say Mox deserves to be world champ and its unfair to say he's unworthy or his defenses are meaningless; the guy was in the G1 and appeared in NJPW before joining AEW, plus it's also up to NJPW to approve of the title defenses in the first place. I think half of this problem lies with NJPW's struggle in pushing new main eventers from their already talented roster and the other half is AEW protecting themselves too much in the booking. There’s an existing story of a full on AEW vs NJPW war the wrestlers and fans talk about but the companies don’t want to play into it to protect the image of their partnership. I originally wrote a whole thing explaining this point further, but it kinda got off topic and too lengthy so I'll just say this: regardless of what your thoughts are about the title reign, the discourse around it and how the match most likely isn't main eventing is not a good look on AEW's part and has swayed some fans' opinion of the representation of the card. I don't think this assessment is entirely fair to knock the whole ppv down or doom write about how AEW is screwing over NJPW, but I understand how a fan's frustration of it can taint their perception of FD.

[missprincesse345]

Evp!Matt Jackson x Secret wife Reader

Summary: For some reason Matt has been in a very foul mood most of the day & no one knows what or why has him moodier than normal?, But nick has a gut feeling which leads to an interesting & shocking interaction between the Older Jackson sibling & the roster’s Sunshine?

Y/n’s ring name: Bambi tricks

Y/n’s face claim:

Let’s begin!!❤️❤️😈

• “ Okay what’s going on with him?” Jack asked walking into the locker room where nick,okada,Kenny and hangman were chilling out minus a moody Matt Jackson who was in a worse mood than usual when he was annoyed, ever since Matt woke up this morning he’s been more snappy and snarky than he usually was which was odd.

“ don’t know just as confused as you” Kenny shrugs as the others agreed “ maybe he didn’t get his hands on the new pair Air Forces or something my brothers just being bitchy as always he’ll be fine” nick said brushing it off living & traveling with Matt for this long he’s gotten used to Matt’s antics, but throughout the day he just got more snappy which led to yelling at everyone even arguments over small ridiculous things what the actual heck was going on ? “ nick…man you got to talk to Matt and fix whatever is bothering him” daddy magic said pulling him to the side.

Nick sighed knowing he had to before things got worse “ I will…I will”

Time skip to the rampage

• As nick was coming back from checking over promo pictures for the upcoming ppv he heard Matt yelling and from what he can hear it sounds like the other voice belongs to Roderick strong “ Damn it matt..” he muttered running over to where the issue was going on after hearing a chair crash, eventually he found the source of where the yelling was coming from which was over by catering taking in the scene before him “ you stupid prick!!! The only reason you’re relevant is because of us!!! We built this company!!!” Matt snapped eyes flaming with anger while being held back by kenny,jack and hangman.

Meanwhile Roderick was being held back taven & Bennett “ At least I have a woman to go home to!! Any woman would be dumb wanting to be with you!!!” That’s when a light bulb went off Nick finally figured out what was going on with Matt. Quickly he intervened and shot Roderick a death glare that even make the devil shiver “ don’t the two of you move…” he said sternly knowing that he didn’t have to turn around knowing Matt was still silently fuming, Nick walked away pulling out his phone to call someone “ who’s he about to call?” Jack said looking at the others who just shrugged just as clueless.

Y/n’s outfit:

45 minutes later…

• After Nick made the mysterious phone he and set mystery person walked back to catering where Matt and Roderick were still going at it making the mystery person laugh at Matt’s furious state nick and her both knowing she was the only person to calm Matt down, stepping forward heels clicking she made herself known “ Matt!!!” She yelled over the caos.

His eyes immediately soften and his voice cuts out as he stares at the mystery woman who was giggling at him “ y/n… hey baby” Matt said immediately smiling walking over to her while everyone except Nick watches with jaws on the floor, yep Matt didn’t stutter he meant what he said y/n was Aew’s sunshine that always made everyone around her happy or defuse situations no matter how crazy not to mention former Aew women’s champion with a title reign of 2,834 days. But to Matt she was his beautiful ebony goddess who’s currently pregnant with their first child “ hi” she replied kissing him back missing her husband “ are you okay ? Nick told me you were moody all day” she said rubbing his chest meanwhile everyone was trying to process the scene in front of them.

• “ Okay what the hell?! Since when were you guys a thing?” Kenny said finally recovering from shock as everyone look at the couple in curiosity meanwhile Nick smirks “ 12 years” y/n says proudly and it’s true during the elite’s new japan & roh days matt met y/n when she was a wrestler in stardom “ she’s my little chocolate drop and she’s been through everything with me” Matt chuckled looking down at her smiling softly as she blushed at the nickname while rubbing her bump. “ soon a family of three with our little princess on the way” she giggled her wedding ring glittering “ you’re engaged?!” Jack said “ married actually have been for eight years” y/n giggles, everyone couldn’t believe that the company’s sunshine an matt where married let alone husband & wife impressed by how well they were able to keep it hidden.

• "'Come on" Y/n whispers grabbing his hand and drag him back into his private locker room She giggles as he pulls her into his lap behind closed doors matt was extremely affectionate. "What's wrong bubbas?” She asked softly while running her fingers through his hair as he just burries his face in the crook of y/n’s neck her natural smell of coconut & vanilla filling his nostrils.

"I missed you" he mumbles, a small smile now on her face giggling at her husbands clingy behavior

"I was only gone for three days visiting my parents remember?” She laughed replying as he pulls back looking at y/n with his boo boo eyes

"Yeah and it was fúcking torture" he whispers while pouting pulling her even straight into his lap so he can bury his face in between her breast or as he likes to call them his special pillow, y/n smiles softly sure her husband could be a prick at times but when it’s just the two of them nothing else mattered.

Queenbambi_34

Queenbambi_34 Goodnight from the sunshine and evp… soon to be a family of 3 ❤️❤️

67,890 likes 2.5k comments

[theanticool]

Ranking UFC 301 fights by my level of interest. It's not a great PPV card but there are match ups that do interest me.

Alexandre Pantoja (C) vs Steve Erceg - the UFC constantly does bs to undermine the flyweight division. Remember when they had John Moraga fighting on the facebook prelims before being thrust into a title fight against DJ? Well, Erceg is only getting slightly better treatment. But at least Erceg has shown himself to be a unique and diversified threat. He's got some really clean boxing and a solid wrestling game that pair well together. Will that be able to lift him up despite his limited experience against elite flyweight competition? We will see. Pantoja is nothing if not consistent. He will find his way to his dangerous grappling game, even if it involves starting firefights to do it. Should make for an exciting fight.

Joanderson Brito vs Jack Shore - We got two interesting 29 year old featherweights on the rise. I really like both fighter's games. Brito is a dangerous man who has finished his last four opponents. He's not the most technically sound but he's an athletic, aggressive and a fantastic opportunist when given the chance to finish. Jack Shore is a workman. He's crafty and skilled everywhere. Not as much of a danger as Brito but has a more cohesive approach to fighting. Should be a banger fight.

Jose Aldo vs Jonathan Martinez - The dire state of this PPV called for the UFC to ask for Aldo to come back. And they're giving him a fantastic leg kicker, which should be interesting. Martinez is on a big run. He's won 6 straight, where he's won two fights by leg kick KOs. He's got a Nurmagomedov on the resume (Said), Yanez, and Swanson. If there was a time to get a big win and establish himself as a true bantamweight contender, this is the fight to do it. Especially against an Aldo that has been retired for 2 years and only doing boxing in the interim. But Aldo has never had issues with kickers.

Elves Brener vs Myktybek Orolbai - Brener has built himself a ton of momentum. The Brazilian 155er knocked off a couple of former highly regarded prospects in Zubaira Tukhugov and Guram Kutateladze to kick off his UFC career and then knocked off fellow Brazilian Kaynan Kruschewsky. Orolbai came into the UFC and neck cranked the hell out of Uros Medic. This should be a good one!

Iasmin Lucindo vs Karolina Kowalkiewicz - After losing 5 straight fights, Kowalkiewicz has managed to rebuild her career. Brick by brick. She has rattled off four straight wins. And while I wouldn't call any of the women she has beaten elite, the fact she's still adapting as she is pushing 40 is impressive. Lucindo has also been impressive. The 22 year old has been putting on impressive performances in the UFC from the jump and has started looking like a legit prospect to watch out for at strawweight.

Michel Pereira vs Ihor Potieria - Michel Pereira was always too much of a meme fighter to not be a middleweight. And while the crazy flips and capoeira kicks are gone, he has just turned to knocking people out instantly since moving up. Ihor Potieria is coming from the opposite direction, moving down from 205lbs. And he looked good in his debut in the weight class. Not a world beater but he's looking more and more like a complete fighter. This should be good. Plenty of potential for a mess.

Alessandro Costa vs Kevin Borjas - Costa is a guy that is athletic enough to be UFC flyweight champion. He's got dynamite in his hands and is extremely fast. He turned Erceg into a wrestler with his physical advantages. With some direction and more cage time, guy could be a legit challenger. I just hope to see him active. I don't have much to say about Borjas, so down the ladder this goes.

[eiy-lei]

Royal Rumble 2024:A review (1/2)

Overview

The 2024 Royal Rumble has just wrapped up and I'd like to state that firstly, I believe that social media really affected people's perception on the event as a result of the rumours flying around during this rumble season.

They really gave people unrealistic expectations of what was to come in the rumble, preventing most of the IWC (internet wrestling community) from actually enjoying the event as a whole, which was unfortunate, and I'll further elaborate on this in my discussion about the respective rumble matches.

I did enjoy the enjoy the show quite a lot though, as it was my first time watching a rumble PLE/PPV live.

Women's Royal Rumble

This match was absolutely incredible and was the most fun I've ever had watching a women's royal rumble as, bias aside (since this was my first live rumble experience after all), the match was a good showcase of WWEs women's roster.

On that note a big complaint of this match was the fact that they used mainly mid-card/tag team talent in the rumble which, to counterpoint, is how you showcase your women's division, as in most of the previous women's rumbles, they were over reliant on old talent, with them taking a majority of the slots which, had people complain about WWE not showcasing their women's division, and now that they did that the IWC switched up.

This is unfortunate but goes to show how fickle wrestling fans are, which is unavoidable, however this shouldn't result in this great rumble getting a bad rep, as the surprises were genuinely great choices and all played a significant role in the rumble.

One thing I will agree with though is that a majority of the newer wrestling themes aren't that recognizable at a glance to most wrestling fans as either they aren't on TV enough or are just genuinely unmemorable (Tegan Nox, Indi Hartwell, Candince LeRae and a few others unfortunately) and as a result, to the average viewer (which is the majority of the Royal Rumble watchers each year) won't recognize these wrestlers by the initial note of the song.

However, this has always been an issue in every royal rumble since it's conception and I don't think it's advisable to ignore that every generation of royal rumbles have had unrecognizable participants to most viewers.

I don't like using the New Generation as an example as I usually consider it an anomaly, but in this case it's warranted as in the 1994, 1995 and 1996 rumbles, the majority of it's entrants were jobbers or house show regulars, and to provide further evidence, the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2015, 2016 and 2022 men and women's rumbles all suffer from this same problem but to an even greater extent, and the fact that people trust dirt sheets to determine their expectations and enjoyment of a rumble really is something I find questionable.

Excuse me for the rant, however I felt as though those issues must be discussed before we proceed any further, now onto the actual content within the rumble.

A returning Naomi brings the glow from no. 2

Naomi's return was electric. I figured she'd be returning after she lost at TNA Hard To Kill, however I didn't expect her to return so early into the match, let alone at no. 2. I'm so glad she did though as we got to witness her full length entrance, which admittedly, really set the tone for the match and provided the crowd in attendance with a high energy start to the event.

Natalya was a weird choice for no. 1 but I take no issue with it as thanks to this, it gave the crowd an opportunity to really appreciate and welcome Naomi back to the company, so in retrospect I think it was a smart choice to have someone neutral to the crowd like Natalya to enter alongside Naomi.

Naomi didn't just return, but she put on a record breaking performance (only to be broken on the same night by the eventual winner Bayley) and was showcased very well throughout the match, with the biggest highlight being her elimination of Becky Lynch, which shows that Triple H has big plans for her, and I'm excited to see where she goes from here.

Jordynne Grace knocks out the forbidden door

I'm so glad I didn't read the dirt sheets as Jordynne Grace coming in was quite possibly the biggest surprise out of any possible entrant, more so than a returning AJ Lee or Mercedes Mone/Sasha Banks.

Unlike Mickie James who previously did this same feat, Jordynne Grace has no prior relation the WWE and furthermore, is signed full-time to TNA while Mickie James wasn't, making her entrance even more ground breaking as this wasn't a deal between the WWE and the individual superstar, but a deal between WWE and TNA.

The landscape of wrestling has changed quickly after Vince's resignation and I'm eagerly awaiting what this WWE x TNA relationship is going to bring to the table.

Now, about Jordynne Grace, she may have had no eliminations but man did she look phenomenal out there. They made her look really strong, as a champion from a rival promotion should, however they didn't have her overshadow the top women in the company, preventing the women of WWE from looking too weak, and instead, allowed Jordynne to go toe-to-toe with the top stars, most notably Bianca Belair, leading to an absolutely gnarly apron KOD elimination.

Overall, A+ performance from Jordynne Grace and I'm happy that they gave her a strong showing.

AURA

Jade Cargill's debut has been anticipated for months, as time went on the more concern grew about her star power waning once she actually arrived, with many questioning why she was M.I.A after the initial widespread promotion of her signing.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for those worries to be washed away as the moment Jade's music hit, she received a thunderous reaction from the crowd, the loudest of the night.

The moment Jade walked out onto the ramp, the whole complexion of the match changed; her poses, her music, her attire, they all contributed into making her presence felt throughout the arena, a storm had truly swept across Tropicana Field that night.

When mentioning Jade Cargill in this rumble you've got to mention how Nia Jax was built throughout the rumble and how without this narrative built around Nia, Jade's debut wouldn't have been as spectacular as it was.

Nia was an absolute wrecking ball in this rumble, the moment she came out every woman stopped in their tracks and had set their sights on getting her out. I loved how they tried to recreate last year's spot where they had everyone in the ring gather round to eliminate Nia, but rather than it succeeding like last time, Nia powers out and punishes everyone in the ring, which emphasizes just how much more of a threat Nia had become in the past year to the entire women's division.

So by having Jade not just throw around Nia like she's nothing, but eliminate her singlehandedly when the entire ring couldn't do it together was a star making moment for Jade and solidified her as the baddest woman on the entire roster, and a legitimate threat to every top star in the company.

The little detail of her flexing as she holds Nia in the fireman's carry is immaculate and an amazing way for her to show off just how powerful she is, and Becky Lynch's reaction the Nia's elimination really adds to the moment, with her standing in awe of Jade's power.

They also managed to set up a mania match between her and Belair by having the two face off while both carrying Liv and Becky respectively, which again, helped elevate Jade to a main event star in just her debut appearance,

With Jade lasting till the rumble's final 3 and playing a part in the ending sequence in her debut alone, really solidified her as a main event player going forward and is the best possible way they could've debuted her without her actually winning the rumble.

Jade Cargill get's an A+ for her performance in the royal rumble.

Liv Morgan returns from injury at no. 30

Liv was not a bad choice for no. 30, personally it would've been more fitting for Jade to have this spot but I'm not upset about how it turned out.

The backlash behind Liv's return is a result of the aforementioned expectations fans had going into this rumble in regards to returns, and it's unfortunate that a major return was hindered as a result, and it's not like Liv didn't do much either, she was in the final 3 of the rumble and eliminated Jade Cargill, setting up a potential program between the two, most likely at the elimination chamber.

The Role Model triumphs

Saving the best for last; leading up this rumble I only had one wish, for Bayley to finally get her moment. Bayley has always felt like the odd duckling of the four horsewomen.

She carried the women's division in the pandemic era, a part of the first ever women's PPV main event and Iron Woman match at NXT Takeover Respect against Sasha Banks in an all time classic, an amazing worker both on the mic and in the ring, and so much more.

Despite all of her achievements Bayley has always felt underappreciated, with her body of work often being overshadowed by her peers, even now she's carrying the Damage CTRL storyline and elevated the group to new heights.

So seeing her finally win the rumble, punching her ticket to mania and potentially (now that CM Punk is injured) main eventing Night 1 against IYO, I couldn't be happier for Bayley (and IYO of course but that's just personal bias)

When Damage CTRL was eliminated early on in the rumble, it set the stage for the ultimate underdog story for Bayley, leading to her eventually breaking Rhea Ripley's iron woman record from the year prior.

With all these factors in mind, Bayley's win ticked all the right boxes, with it feeling well deserved, hard fought and most importantly, continuing the long term story that's been established over the past few months, all of which point towards an eventual Bayley face turn.

This little snippet of uncertainty from IYO after Bayley's win further adds to the moment, as without a single word being said it speaks volumes of what is to come.

Overall, I believe that this rumble is the greatest women's royal rumble of all time, with it having the ideal amount of surprises, action and story telling befitting of an amazing royal rumble.

I proudly give this match a 5/5 *****

Thanks for reading gang, I'll be reviewing the rest of the matches in a subsequent post coming soon, til then, have a good eve-after-morning :)

(author's note:- one issue I did have with this rumble was the whole tilt-a-whirl head scissors spot with Maxinne, I like to be fair when evaluating her as she is really green in the ring and only really began training last year but unfortunately that whole spot was painful to watch. I hope she improves from that going forward).

[wrestlingisfake]

Hard to Kill preview

Jordynne Grace vs. Mickie James - On September 1, James announced her "last rodeo," where she vowed to retire if she lost even one match before winning the Impact Wrestling women's world title. In effect, Mickie has been putting her career on the line for over four months, and she's gone undefeated that entire time. Now she finally gets her championship match, so this is title versus career. If she wins, it'll be James's fifth Impact title reign, and her eleventh world title overall.

The stakes in this one make it worth the price of the whole show, so I'm glad they positioned it in the main event spot. Grace is 26 and ought to be at the top of the division, but it might benefit her to lose to a top veteran and chase her for a while. James is 43 and has a lot left in the tank, but nothing left to prove. Something has to give, but I don't know what it will be.

Josh Alexander vs. Bully Ray - Ray returned to Impact Wrestling on October 2 to win the annual Call Your Shot match, earning him the right to challenge any champion at any time. On November 18, Bully issued the challenge to Alexander for the Impact men's world title at this show. Ray then immediately turned heel, viciously attacking the champion and his wife.

This is billed as a "full metal mayhem" match, per the demands of Alexander after Ray attacked him again on December 22. Sometimes "full metal mayhem" is a souped-up ladder match (anything goes until a participant retrieves a prize suspended above the ring), and sometimes not (anything goes until a participant scores a pinfall). But the main idea is that tables, ladders, chairs, chains, and possibly other stuff will be placed at ringside to use as weapons. The stipulation plays to Ray's strengths as a pioneer of hardcore wrestling, and works against Alexander's emphasis on mat-based offense.

To put it mildly, I'm disappointed that Impact brought in Bully, let alone for a world title program. I got bored with his how-low-can-he-stoop heel work back in Ring of Honor. Pro wrestling has younger, better stars innovating on that formula while Ray, 51, is just recycling the same old shit. I'd be more interested in seeing Alexander wrestle Jeff Jarrett, and brother that's saying a lot. I sure hope Josh retains and Bully quickly disappears, but I don't have a lot of faith in Impact right now.

Jonathan Gresham vs. Eddie Edwards - This match was originally scheduled for April 23 last year, back when Gresham was the ROH men's world champion and Edwards was the leader of the anti-ROH faction Honor No More. The match was scrapped when Gresham was sidelined (possibly due to a concussion). Since then Gresham has fallen out with Tony Khan's version of ROH and finally ended up signing with Impact. In the meantime, Honor No More has disbanded, but Edwards is still a dick, so these two are back on a collision course. I think Gresham needs to win, but I can't rule out Edwards pulling shenanigans.

Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley vs. Matt Cardona & Brian Myers vs. Heath Miller & Rhino vs. Ace Austin & Chris Bey - The Motor City Machine Guns (Sabin and Shelley) are defending the Impact men's tag team title in a four-way, so the first man to score a fall on any opponent will win the match and the title for his team. Sabin and Shelley are also the STRONG tag team champions in New Japan, but that title isn't at stake.

As usual with four-way matches, I don't expect this to settle any feuds, and whoever wins will probably still be feuding with at least two of these teams right up until the next PPV in April. I guess Sabin and Shelley retain, since double champions seem to be a hot trend these days.

Trey Miguel vs. Black Taurus - This is for Miguel's Impact X division title. I am so relieved this is not a three-way or a four-way match. Keep up the good work, Impact.

I'm out of the loop but I heard Miguel turned heel and tagged the title belt with his graffiti. I'm not sure how Miguel really works as a hell, but I'll give it a try. Taurus has been with Impact for years and he's always just sort of...there. I expect some good big man/little man spots, but nothing to write home about. Miguel should retain.

Deonna Purrazzo vs. Killer Kelly vs. Masha Slamovich vs. Taylor Wilde - This a four-way to determine the next #1 contender for the women's title, so whoever scores the first fall will win the match and be slated to challenge the winner of Grace vs. James.

Assuming James wins the title, any of these four make sense as her first challenger. If Grace retains though, I think it's too soon to run back Grace-Purrazzo or Grace-Slamovich. Kelly would be my pick as a fresh face in the title picture.

The x-factor in this match is Wilde, a veteran from the 2000s who was retired for ten years, returned in 2021, and then took a year of personal leave. Now she's back with some kind of witchy/tarot reader gimmick, which I haven't seen much of yet. If they're serious about this new direction, she should get to shine a lot in this match; otherwise I don't have a lot of faith it'll work out.

Joe Hendry vs. Moose - Hendry is putting the Impact digital media title up for grabs. Last time I looked this title barely existed outside of PPV pre-shows and such, so I'm surprised Hendry made it on the main card and Moose has sunk this low. I guess if Moose won this belt he could elevate it. On the other hand, if Hendry retains I have to wonder if Moose is on his way to greener pastures...

Rich Swann vs. Steve Maclin - This is a falls count anywhere match, so the participants cannot be disqualified or counted out of the ring, and the deciding fall does not have to be scored inside the ring.

Ever since Maclin debuted with Impact his gimmick has been that he's a big mean guy who beat everybody up because he's pissed. For some reason this never translates into enough wins to put him in the title picture, so he just gets into feuds like this one where a babyface tries to shut him down. Maybe this time Maclin can just win the feud and start chasing Josh Alexander. On the other hand, if Bully Ray actually wins the title, Swann's the guy you'd want to push as the next challenger. So I could see this going either way, depending on the men's world title bout.

KUSHIDA vs. Mike Bailey vs. Yuya Uemura vs. Alan Angels vs. Bhupinder Gujjar vs. Mike Jackson - This is a six-way match scheduled for the pre-show. As usual, the first wrestler to score a fall wins.

Kushida is a top junior heavyweight in New Japan. Bailey is a key guy in Impact's X division. Uemura was a Young Lion in NJPW but he's on excursion here, so hopefully that goes better than it did for Okada. Angels was in AEW's goofy fun cult but now he's Cody Deaner's mean serious cult. Gujjar is stuck in the spot where a wrestling promotion puts a token Indian guy on TV and just expects everyone in India to turn into wrestling fans. "Action" Mike Jackson is 73 years old and regularly works in matches like this for GCW.

This isn't officially to determine a #1 contender for the X title, but you'd have to think the winner of this match would move to the front of the line. Since I don't expect Trey Miguel to drop the belt for a while, I'd have Uemura or Gujjar win to give them a little mini-push before putting over the champion.

Taya Valkyrie & Rosemary & Jessicka vs. Tasha Steelz & Savannah Evans & Gisele Shaw - Another pre-show match. The Death Dollz (Valkyrie, Rosemary, and Jessicka) collectively hold the Impact women's tag team title, but since this isn't a two-on-two match the title is not at stake. I assume the heel team is gunning for a title shot, but I'm not sure which of them will end up being the challengers. I guess Steelz's team should win to keep the story going.

[danwhobrowses]

Wrestle Kingdom 17 Quick Thoughts

So it's January which means Wrestle Kingdom day, singular this time though having strangely swapped mentality with WWE on forgoing a 2-Day main PPV

Nevertheless, we'll see what the show has to offer, I'm not gonna go in full depth like previous ones, just general thoughts I had during the show

Spoilers for those who didn't wanna know

I must admit I hate the KOPW Ranbo, it often just feels like the 'this is all the talent we don't have anything for right now' rumble and then you have to watch the likes of KENTA, Cobb, Great O Khan, Shingo Takagi, Ishii fight for it. There's some bright spots for comedy like ELP eliminating someone via a nipple cripple but overall it is something I could do without

Junior Tag Title was fun, but I probably would not have had the opener with cheering officially back end in a heel win via roll-up

I am also fuming that NJPW only gave KAIRI and Tam 6 minutes, sure there'd be aftermath but given how past Exhibition and Dark matches for Stardom went longer it's a huge disservice that the first Title Match (for the IWGP Women's Championship made to establish a stronger relation between Stardom and NJPW) is also Stardom's shortest entry in Wrestle Kingdom

Mercedes had a great look side for the fire hair which looked weird at angles, honestly I think her debut could've been done better; she was geared up but didn't wrestle, she botched that Gory Special/DDT move (which through experience watching the Tay-KO from Tay Melo is not easy to synchronize anyway) and her promo was a tad on the basic side, not bad but below expectation

FTR losing already felt like writing on the wall given how they dropped the ROH and AAA tag titles already, it was a decent match and Bishamon are a great tag team but we could've gone with a more refreshing choice, shame to hear that FTR had travel issues too

I will say though that dropping their titles is not 'clear indication' that they're going to WWE, they've had a busy as hell year so now they can rest up, Dax has noted that he's closer to the end of his career than the middle so they may prefer a lighter schedule, I've said it before but just because Triple H is doing okay in WWE does not mean every ex-WWE member is frothing to come back

ZSJ won the gingerbread biscuit title to nobody's surprise, but him replacing JONAH in TMDK is a strong choice

Makes me wonder who else will join now that Suzuki-Gun is no more, Archer and Despy are TMDK material but I could also see them in Bullet Club, a huge curveball would be Despy to LIJ

I actually really liked the Muta six-man, it had a good pace and showcase which still allowed Mutoh to shine, but in the end they used it to put over the younger talent by having Shooter get the pin

LIJ vs Kongoh has the potential to slap hard again, I did panic when they were saying 'backstage altercation' that there would be some shoot activity going on, flashbacks of All Out had me worried

I like Hiromu, but this win really started to grind on the 'nothing changes' critique I get every time I watch WK; the title always makes its way back to him, we did well to get people behind Master Wato and his Crucifix Hip Toss thing is actually pretty cool, but again we do need fresher faces in the title picture

Kenny out with the Sephiroth gear was cool but then Ospreay whipped out Elevated just when I was thinking 'I miss Will's old theme'

To nobody's surprise, the match was among the best, probably the best, it did start out like an Omega showcase but after the table spot it came to life, the ending was great as well; Ospreay bloody and defiant and Kenny using an absolutely brutal Kamigoye and OWA to win

You're best to bet on Death Triangle winning the best of 7 in AEW now that Kenny's US champion

*sigh* Okada's great we get it but god damn why does it always end with Okada winning? Jay's great too you know? Honestly I think Gedo needs help. Shingo challenges next but we all know this won't really end well for him.

It just never changes, I can go back to WK11 - when the era of the Rainmaker had its last WK defense before losing to Kenny at Dominion - and since then Okada had only lost twice at Wrestle Kingdom, and that was WK13 to Jay, right on the end of his red dye balloon phase, and WK14's Double Gold Dash - where he had beaten Ibushi for the world title on Day 1 just to lose correctly to Naito on Day 2.

It goes deeper too; since WK11 Hiromu has been in 6 out of 7 Junior Heavyweight title matches, he's only lost twice (to Despy at 16 and Ospreay at 12). Bishamon are 2 for 2 in winning the tag titles at WK having beaten Dangerous Tekkers last year, you have to go back to WK13 for Ospreay's last singles win (at least this time the United Empire wasn't swept this time), WK14 since Jay's last win (and it was a consolation win since he lost the IC title in the Double Gold Dash). Even just comparing to WK16 there are similarities in booking.

A lot of the time I watch Wrestle Kingdom and compare where wrestlers are now compared to last year, and each time I find that the ones I liked last year fall down while the ones who can take losses to put people over remain on top, of course there are exceptions - Master Wato and Shota Umino for instance - but most of the time it ends this way

The show was okay, I feel like a lot of things could've been better, if they did 2 days they'd have had more time for other things as well

[darkesttimelinejeffparker]

how do you manage to meet so many wrestlers??

Hi Anon!

So I am really lucky in that not too far from me there is a promotion that has a convention a few times a year called CelebFest. It is 95% wrestlers. I only found out about it in February when Daniel Garcia shared it on his Instagram Story. I went and wound up meeting a bunch of them and go back every time now.

The tickets to the convention itself are cheap, 20-35$ and most of the guests at the con charge less than you'd think for a full meet and greet, or I have gotten to know the promoters who will let me know when they are running a special package or discount (Ie once I was able to meet 8 of them with one promoter for a couple hundred bucks because they gave me a heads up they were having a flash sale on the full package for them, when normally individually it would be 3-4x that). It's all about being friendly once you become a regular and making conversation with the vendors -- like thanking them for being so organized and always bringing great guests, asking them about any other kind of work they do like figure sales and online meet and greets etc -- so they think of you/interact with you just as much as the talent imho. (Please note, some con prices are more expensive but some cons also include having your photo taken professionally, at Celebfest, the vendor just uses your phone to take your pics.)

The pre-weekly show meet and greets are also cheaper than cons or the PPV meet and greets (IE, at All Out, Orange Cassidy was $100, before a Dynamite he's $60, at a con he was $55). I was really fortunate this past week because I didn't have the income to even pay all my bills, but my ticket had actually been a gift from my dad to congratulate me on my new job, so he also decided to give me the money to see Ethan, Eddie and Ortiz.

I am also an AEW Heels member. It is $50 a year and while I do have some issues with the premise of a pay-to-participate platform for women fans, what I will say is that it has paid for itself. All women's meet and greets before weekly shows are free to heels members, so using it to once meet Toni and then Skye paid for itself, if I were ever able to get to a PPV, the meet up with wrestlers there would also be free. I don't participate in their monthly zoom calls much, but I think just the events perks are nice.

[blackpoolcombatwriter]

Thoughts on Becky/Trish getting pulled off the SS card?

This got long so I put it under a cut to not annoy people.

Oh boy, I just really want one day, one day, where there is no drama happening in any of the women's divisions. Is that really so much to ask? I don't think I remember Becky/Trish ever getting announced officially for SS(but I could be wrong) so I guess I wouldn't consider them getting pulled off it, but they deserve to be there. I do think Triple H is better at the "make good" matches when this happens. Seth was pulled last year, the Becky/Bayley cage match, but the bigger issue is there shouldn't have to be a "make good" match.

If my only choices are to get a 5-7 minute match with Becky/Trish on the PPV or a 15-17 one on RAW, I think their story needs time. They would put on a great match in 5-7 minutes, I know they would, but I think the storyline they have going needs a longer match. If their time constraint is they can't go past a certain time because of noise restrictions or airing time, I do think if they looked at the card, there's places you could easily makes some time cuts to fit Becky/Trish on the card.

Personally, there's a couple matches I would have cut instead but I know that's not an option. The battle royal needs to happen because it's sponsored and dollar bills, but I bet it could be trimmed by a few minutes with the same results. Not everyone needs an elimination spotlight. Roman's matches tend to be long to fit all the interference and ref bumps and storyline elements but I think they could probably trim it by like five minutes and no one would know. If Brock/Cody are a real match, probably could be trimmed by a couple minutes, but that's assuming it's a match and not some fuckery of they attack each other before the bell and there's no match. Trim some time from Ricochet/Paul too. That makes me feel bad for Ricochet to say that because dude has a singles match on a PPV instead of being in the battle royal, but if we're honest, the only reason for this match is so they can do some big viral moment which will be the only part that's talked about. Gunter/Drew I would leave alone, and Seth/Finn too. I'm thinking those are probably timed well. I think the women's triple threat is likely to be one we'll want to see more of so I'm definitely not taking time away from them. The Shayna/Ronda I'd personally trim a minute or two(assuming it's not a squash or five minutes) but if it's Ronda's big send off, they won't trim it.

Wow that got long. I think that's all the time I can save and maybe I made the card a lot worse by trimming time to add a decent length match for Becky/Trish but I'm not a booker.

[nickgerlich]

Generation XX

There’s a revolution going on, and the way we watch TV will never be the same. The change has been going on for decades, although the pace of change has accelerated greatly in the last decade.

I suppose you could say I was lucky to grow up in the Chicago area, where we had about ten over-the-air stations that our rooftop aerial could pick up. That’s a lot better than some areas limited to only the Big Three networks. I can’t even.

Through the last 50-60 years, we have gone from only over-the-air to cable TV, followed by satellite TV, and now, primarily this century, a variety of streaming services. These include AVOD (Advertising Video On Demand) to SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand), PPV (Pay Per View), and now FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming). All of these fall under the umbrella of OOT (Over The Top), meaning they are available only via the internet.



Feel free to ponder the alphabet soup if you need to, not to mention how we could ever watch all of that content on top of what was already available.

Given the inflation of the last two years, it is understandable that people have to cut corners, not to mention the cable that binds them. Although the practice of cutting that cord was already firmly entrenched before COVID, it is picking up steam. Cable and Satellite providers have lost 25 million customers since 2012, and it is expected to increase to 50 million by 2025.

And yet the content keeps coming, this time in the rapidly growing FAST-TV platform commonly found on Roku, Tubi, and dedicated proprietary channels on some smart TVs. The latest offering is WomenSports Network which launched last November, and Michelob Ultra has jumped on board as its first major sponsor.



FAST-TV is actually little different from linear television on cable, satellite, or over-the-air. You must tune in synchronously, or you miss it, and advertising keeps it free. Technically, it is OTT, because you can only get it on a handful of internet-based platforms. And, by virtue of all of this, FAST-TV is a true hybrid combining elements of both old and new schools of home entertainment.

You only thought that broadcasting had morphed into narrowcasting by the 90s. That pie can still be sliced into smaller and smaller pieces.

As for Mich Ultra, it’s a darling right now in AB-InBev’s portfolio. It is an extremely light beer, clocking in at only 4.2% ABV. It is particularly popular among female beer drinkers, most likely because it is not bitter like the hearty IPAs their male counterparts slam down. There are only 95 calories in one 12-ounce serving, compared to 150-200 calories in one of those IPAs. Can you say beer belly, Dad?

The question that must be asked is how many eyeballs will each station or service generate? Women’s sports has long been a non-contender in the ratings game, although it is showing signs now of erasing that history. Still, it only receives about five-percent of media coverage. And never mind all that negative publicity over a female basketball player stuck recently in a Russian prison, charged with drug possession. I’m pretty sure that didn’t help.

A big part of the disparity is culture. While we in the political west enjoy a much more fair array of opportunities for women compared to some Middle Eastern nations, it’s still far from perfect. Thanks to Title IX, though, universities offer equal numbers of sports to men and women. Oddly enough, “athletics” was not even mentioned in this act that addressed discrimination, although it has been interpreted as such.



Out here in West Texas, there are some women’s sports that pack in the fans, notably basketball and volleyball. That’s great, and I have had numerous undergrads through the years who were part of national championship teams from WT.

A related issue is would-be viewers not knowing about the network, as well as where to find it. My Vizio TV in the Man Cave has the proprietary OTT streaming service, so I could find it there. The only problem is that I seldom if ever go there to watch anything. I also have Roku on several TVs, but once again, that is an under-utilized platform in my household. It’s great to be available as well as free, but if your audience is just crickets, this won’t end well.

Still, hats off to Mich Ultra for hitching their wagon to women’s sports. I hope they can get the eyeballs necessary to make this pay off for everyone, especially the female athletes. Because guys aren’t the only ones who should be running, shooting, passing, throwing, or kicking.

That alone is a revolution, and I’m glad to see it.

Dr “You Go, Girls“ Gerlich

Audio Blog

[deathtriangles]

I don’t wanna see womens wrestling discourse, this is an aew x njpw show, njpw doesn’t have a womens division, stardom has a ppv the same day before people mention that, tjpw will not participate because they’re a competitor and we are STILL getting a women’s title match.

rosa, for anybody interested, is facing miyu yamashita in tjpw on july 9th (a match that the company specifically wanted to run so they’re running it there) and is likely also facing taya valkyrie in aaa soon too. as the representative for the company

[staticnerd]

STATIC THOUGHTS #1

Time for my post on things I think AEW could improve in this year. With Dynamite premiering on TBS tonight I couldn't think of a better time for it.

Giving the women more time. This is something I think they're working on and hopefully will get better this year. This is probably AEW most talked about issue and I don't need to dwell on more than saying we should probably have more than one women's match on Dynamite.

Feud ending timing. This isn't a horrible issue, but some feuds are way to long while others could be longer. While the Best fiends and HFO feud started off okay, it went on what felt like forever and never really ended. On the other hand I for one believe they could have benefited from making Eddie and Punk a little longer.

Let the Inner Circle do more things without the group. I know most people here would rather see Jericho and Hager not be on TV for legit reasons, but they get a usually positive response on TV and make a pretty penny in merch money so unless something major happens they're here to stay. However in the Pinnacle members are able to do things away from the group and I think this could benefit Sammy, Santana and Ortiz. Letting them ride solo for a bit could help them refind their footing they lost.

Rotating their focus. This was something I liked about NXT before it moved to TV. They had a lot of talent to showcase and help develop so some weeks some stories weren't covered. I think with the size of AEW's roster they could benefit from this. Some weeks we wouldn't see certain feuds but they could be the main focus on the next show. This would allow for more feuds and maybe help get them from PPV to PPV without extending things longer than nessicary.

Here's hoping to a successful 2022 for all of wrestling. And remember it's just a show. Have fun and dont ruin it for anyone else.

[cousinmarcustalkswrestling]

The Five WWE MVPs of 2020

5

Asuka

It feels like WWE views Asuka as a skilled utility player instead of one of the elite talents in their company. There’s a level where that’s disrespectful and indicative of their problems, but also with a company this size it’s not the worst idea to have an elite talent bounce around different positions. No matter what was going on, Asuka approached her role with the same quirky intensity and she was a joy to watch throughout the year. She gave Becky Lynch two great matches to further legitimize her year long title reign, then had one of the best moments of the year when Becky announced her pregnancy and relinquished the title to her. She became the main opposition to the Golden Role Models in the summertime and had great matches with both Bayley and Sasha. She even gave a lot to a motivated Zelina Vega in their Clash of Champions match. Very few people are ready for Asuka.

4 

Drew McIntyre

Talk about bad timing. Imagine the biggest moment of your professional career happening at the biggest show of the year without any fans there. McIntyre had probably the biggest starmaking moment of the year when he eliminated Brock at the Royal Rumble. But instead of the epic showdown they should’ve had at Raymond James Stadium, they had a 4 minute finisher fest in front of no fans. Ay it is what it is. But even with the up and down quality of Raw throughout the year, not an iota of blame can be placed on Drew. His charisma and strong talking was on display nearly every week and he never really had a misstep the entire year. He had a great match against Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank and an underappreciated brawl against Bobby Lashley at Backlash. His Orton feud suffered from Orton problems and a stupid title switch, but their Ambulance match was great. His epic clash against Roman Reigns was one of the best matches of the year and he ended the year with a great TLC match against AJ Styles. Great job, Drew!

3

Bayley

DING DONG!! WHAT A YEAR!! Bayley really didn’t have a lot of quality opposition for her Smackdown title all year. Lacey Evans just isn’t at that level and booking didn’t put enough effort behind her feuds with Naomi and Nikki Cross. But it didn’t matter because Bayley (with Sasha) was a one woman army of entertainment this year. She was brash, enthusiastic, and almost maniacal in her heeldom. Honestly, she didn’t even need a murderers row of talent and great matches to get her over, just put a microphone in front of her and let her go. Once her and Sasha won the tag titles, they were given free reign to go to all three shows and they were the clear highlight of the company in the Summer. Her match against Asuka on the July 5 Raw is one of the best TV matches of the year and shows how refined her heel game has become in contrast to her being one of the best pure babyfaces in history. Her attack on Sasha added a brutal edge to her character and it resulted in two of the best matches of the year. Her booking post Sasha has been a little so-so, but she’s begun a fun feud with Bianca Belair to carry over into the new year. Great job, Bayley!

2

Roman Reigns

Forget everything that happened before Summerslam. He was in a terrible feud with Corbin and then he was set to face fucking Goldberg at Wrestlemania before he went on his COVID vacation. He returned at Summerslam looking super jacked and super mean. On the Smackdown between Summerslam and Payback, Roman revealed his partnership with Paul Heyman and I knew we would be getting something special from there. Roman’s cousin, Jey Uso, becoming #1 Contender for the Universal Title unleashed the Tribal Chief and he’s been a blast to watch ever since that moment. He’s a brutal dictator driven by the survival of his family which is completely dependent on his success and his reign as Universal Champion. He and Jey had two of the best matches of the year that were driven by Roman’s determination in Jey acknowledging him as the Tribal Chief of the family.

Roman really deserved this character. For the years and years that he was treated with inexplicable scorn from “fans”, he deserved to have a character arc that is treated with tremendous care and precision. Every segment involving him shows perfect characterization in how he reacts to whats going on in his world like members of Jey Uso’s survivor series team not respecting him or Kevin Owens having the unmitigated gall to have no fear in challenging him. In the ring, Roman is a brilliant blend of the vicious Shield Roman and the more dynamic Big Dog Roman. He’s brutal and mawling, but he’s still a tremendous seller and never looks unstoppable. His interpromotional match against Drew McIntyre was one of the best matches of the year and just a great display of two great modern talents locking horns and his TLC match against Kevin Owens is one of the best one on one TLC matches we’ve seen. He’s on the run of his career and we should be grateful. I acknowledge you, Roman, I acknowledge you.

1

Sasha Banks

The year started very weird for Ms. Banks. She didn’t participate in the Women’s Royal Rumble and she was absent from the Elimination Chamber card. She was just kinda floating along being Bayley’s primary support until it felt like creative actually flipped the switch and decided to A) give them more time to be the hilarious obnoxious tag team of the year and B) subtly show Sasha constantly saving and sacrificing for the team to build to an inevitable break up and feud. This rub really breathed life back into Sasha’s career which wasn’t dead at all, but was too stagnant for a talent of her caliber. They captured the tag team titles and spread their ridiculous heel joy all over the company, even returning to NXT where Sasha showed some instant electric chemistry with a future star in Shotzi Blackheart.

 The moment everything changed was the Monday Night Raw where Sasha issued a challenge….to Raw Women’s Champion Asuka. It instantly became one of the most highly anticipated matches of the year and it was Sasha’s first solo PPV match of the year. On the way to that, she returned to NXT and had a banger with the NXT’s top dog Io Shirai. They main evented that night and to date is one of only nine nights where NXT defeated AEW in total viewers. Despite the terribly booked finish, her Extreme Rules match against Asuka was one of the E’s best straight up wrestling matches of the year and ended with her as Two Belt Bankz. Her world came crashing down as she was once again unable to successfully defend the title and lost it right back to Asuka. The Golden Role Models also lost the women’s tag titles and after an unsuccessful rematch, it finally happened; Bayley snapped and assaulted her best friend, attempting to break her neck and end her career.

 Their split instantly made Sasha the biggest babyface in the company and everything from that point seemed like good old fashioned catharsis from being held back and misused through the years. She ended Bayley’s year plus reign as Smackdown Women’s Champion in one of the best Hell in a Cell matches in history. For the first time in her main roster career, she successfully defended her title and defeated Bayley in one of the best TV matches of the year. At Survivor Series, she finally cleanly defeated Asuka in a great champion vs champion match and she ended the year by having Carmella’s best match ever at TLC. This final quarter of the year was just all around tremendous for her as she had classic matches, exorcised some of her booking demons, displayed her aptitude for making anybody look great in the ring and even outside of the subjective realm of wrestling, becoming one of the primary reasons for Smackdown’s ratings surge and arguably the face of the company. This was the year of the boss, where the E finally realized the star that they had and put the power of the machine behind her. The sky is truly the limit.

[blueonwrestling]

Since these names are usually the most talked about, in which order do you think these women have made the biggest impact on women’s wrestling: Chyna, Trish, Ronda, Becky.

1) Ronda Rousey, because they literally have never booked a women better than Ronda's 1 year, it was the most exposure WWE and women's wrestling ever got, there was a PPV built around Ronda, she literally was the most legitmate and over WWE (Face or Heel) at her time, and they have struggled without her since, and even outside of WWE she made Women's MMA/UFC a massive draw, she is without a doubt the biggest female draw in combat sports history.

2) Becky Lynch, because she was able to get over by herself against what the company wanted and was over enough to win at the wrestlemania main event with women in it for the first time, constant high level performer even before the WWE, took years off wrestling from concussion issues came back and was just as good if not better than before.

3) Trish, extremely beautiful women probably the most gorgeous women in wwe history, who did also want to wrestle and not just be T&A unlike many of her other divas, got pretty decent got the diva era in ring product, had a good showing against Charlotte in her return,

4) Chyna, terrible wrestler, egomaniac, refused to fight the women because "they were too small", politicked her way to the women's belt then quit the WWE.

Chyna is a rose tinted glasses women and that's as much as i'll say about her.

[wrestlingisfake]

AEW Fake Rankings, 9/25/2021

Men's singles division - babyfaces

CM Punk

Bryan Danielson

Jon Moxley (GCW world champion)

Chris Jericho

Cody Rhodes

Darby Allin

Christian Cage (Impact men's world champion)

Eddie Kingston

Orange Cassidy

Brian Pillman, Jr.

Men's singles division - heels

Kenny Omega (AEW men's world champion, AAA mega champion)

Miro (AEW TNT champion)

MJF

Malakai Black

Adam Cole

Andrade El Idolo

Matt Hardy

Powerhouse Hobbs

Shawn Spears

Daniel Garcia*

Unranked: Brian Cage, Dante Martin, Dustin Rhodes, Frankie Kazarian, Feugo Del Sol, Jake Hager, John Silver, Lance Archer, Lee Johnson, Matt Sydal, PAC, QT Marshall

* Not listed on official AEW website roster

A big talking point lately is that AEW's roster has gotten pretty huge. One effect of this expansion is that it's a major pain in the ass for me to keep track of all the wrestlers who mainly compete on the YouTube shows. Going forward, I'll be focusing on the performers who have wrestled in the past 30 days on television or pay-per-views.

There's concern that the big stars from other major-league companies (mostly WWE) will crowd out the wrestlers who came up from the minors. That issue became more clear to me when I put together the above list. Twelve of my men's top 20 came to AEW best known for their WWE runs, and Omega made his name in New Japan. So if you expected AEW to be "the best of the rest," you're left with Darby, Eddie, Orange, Pillman, MJF, Hobbs, Garcia, and a bunch of guys in the background.

We'll have to see if this becomes a problem. I'm optimistic that AEW knows what they're doing, and wrestlers will be regularly cycled into and out of the spotlight. But WWE has conditioned wrestling fans to think that if a wrestler only appears on the C-show, then the bookers have totally given up on them. So I don't blame fans for being skeptical that AEW can find a better way. It's on AEW to prove that guys like Brian Cage, Pac, John Silver, Dante Martin, and Lee Johnson will get their day in the sun. And that's not even getting into the dozens of wrestlers that aren't listed above.

Men's tag team division - babyfaces

Lucha Bros. - Rey Fenix & Penta El 0M (AEW tag team champions, AAA tag team champions)

Santana & Ortiz

Jurassic Express - Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy

Evil Uno & Stu Grayson

Chuck Taylor & Wheeler YUTA*

Men's tag team division - heels

The Young Bucks - Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson

Men of the Year - Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky

FTR - Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood

The Butcher & The Blade

Private Party & Marq Quen & Isiah Kassidy

2point0 - Matt Lee & Jeff Parker

TH2 - Jack Evans & Angelico

* Not listed on official AEW website roster

At any given time, AEW has about 16-20 active tag teams, but a lot of them are mainly on Dark and Elevation. Limiting the rankings to teams that have been on real TV in the past month gives us just twelve men's teams. Then again, that's still more than you'll see on most other wrestling shows.

I think it's important that three of the heel teams (Butcher/Blade, Quen/Kassidy, Evans/Angelico) are in Matt Hardy's stable, so it feels like Matt is begging for one of those teams to break away and turn face. The Dark Order also features three teams (Uno/Grayson, John Silver/Alex Reynolds, Alan Angels/Preston Vance), but their storyline about internal problems could break up one or more of those pairings, if not the entire faction. Interestingly, they've started to set up a feud between the entire Hardy Family Office and the sort-of reunited Dark Order, which may be where they blow off a lot of these issues.

Women's division - babyfaces

Ruby Soho

Kris Statlander

Thunder Rosa

Anna Jay

Tay Conti

Hikaru Shida

Big Swole

Riho

Red Velvet

Leyla Hirsch

Women's division - heels

Britt Baker (AEW women's world champion)

Jade Cargill

Nyla Rose

The Bunny

Penelope Ford

Jamie Hayter

Abadon

Diamante*

Unranked: Emi Sakura, Kiera Hogan*, KiLynn King*

* Not listed on official AEW website roster

AEW doesn't do a lot of women's matches on Dynamite and Rampage, but because of the battle royale on the 9/4 pay-per-view some of the overlooked ladies managed to make the cut.

We've seen some alliances forming in this division, which has stoked talk of introducing a women's tag team championship. However, it looks like AEW has other plans, involving a new women's TBS title to complement the men's TNT title.

I don't think the women's roster is deep enough to support any new belts. That doesn't mean I don't want a secondary title or a tag title. I do. But I'm not convinced that introducing a new title will commit AEW to actually push more wrestlers and expand the roster. That commitment is what I really want; new belts are just gravy.

Part-time/semi-retired: Chavo Guerrero Jr., Homicide, Karl Anderson (Impact men's tag team champion), Luke Gallows (Impact men's tag team champion), Mark Henry, Minoru Suzuki, Rebel, Sting, Tully Blanchard, Paul Wight

I don't get the impression that Homicide and Suzuki will be sticking around for very long. Aside from them, all AEW is getting from the "forbidden door" these days is Gallows and Anderson, and all they do lately is stand in the back of Kenny Omega's entourage. These crossovers have been fun and all, but they've been more like Green Lantern/Silver Surfer than JLA/Avengers, if you get my drift.

The Dan Lambert/American Top Team storyline appears to be setting up some kind of match involving Junior dos Santos, Jorge Masvidal, Paige VanZant, and a bunch of other MMA jagoffs I can't be bothered to remember. We'll see if that actually happens, or if they just jerk around about it for another two months.

No TV or PPV matches in 30 days: Aaron Solo, Alan Angels, Alex Reynolds, Anthony Bowens, Austin Gunn, Billy Gunn, Colt Cabana, Colten Gunn, Griff Garrison, Joey Janela, Luther, Marko Stunt, Max Caster, Nick Comoroto, Peter Avalon, Preston Vance, Ricky Starks (FTW champion), Shawn Dean, Sonny Kiss, Wardlow

This doesn't include people like Julia Hart and Serpentico, who regularly appear for AEW but aren't on the official roster and apparently aren't under contract. Regardless, this gives you a good sense of which wrestlers would be the "AEW Dark roster," if we treated it like a separate brand or something. It'll be interesting to check in a few months which of these names are still stuck in this category.

No matches in 30 days: Anthony Ogogo, Brandi Rhodes, Brandon Cutler, Christopher Daniels, Leva Bates, Michael Nakazawa, Sammy Guevara, Yuka Sakazaki

As huge as AEW's roster is, it's impressive that only eight wrestlers are listed here. Guevara has a match set for 9/29, and Daniels is doing a little crossover thing on Impact Wrestling. Brandi just got back from maternity leave, and while I assume she plans to get back in the ring, that remains to be seen. As for the others, it's possible some of these people have injuries or are taking time off, and the details just haven't gotten out.

Inactive

Darius Martin (knee - unspecified ACL injury)

Hangman Page (paternity leave)

Kip Sabian (undisclosed injury)

Serena Deeb (left knee - unspecified injury)

Trent Beretta (neck - herniated intervertebral disc)

The big story here is Page, who was being set up for a major run for Kenny Omega only to suddenly lose his title shot and disappear from the show. That left everyone pretty anxious for Page to get back, especially since a wave of big new stars could crowd him out of his spot. I'm sure AEW knows when Hangman is scheduled to return, but there's no way for any of us to figure it out, which is frustrating.

Trent had neck fusion surgery, which has a notoriously slow recovery time; I don't expect him to be on TV until the middle of 2022. I haven't seen any kind of timetable for Sabian or Martin, probably because there are so few details available about the extent of their injuries.

Deeb had knee surgery in March, returned to the ring in May, and went back on the shelf in July. Evidently she came back too soon, and she's still rehabbing the original knee injury. I worry about that kind of thing when I see Britt Baker (or Impact's Chelsea Green) working through a broken wrist.

[omegatheunknown]

AEW Revolution 2021

Super fun night at Daily's Place, all told, but if all you're going to remember about a big card is how it ended, well...

-Production continues to be a bit of an issue. AEW PPVs tend to be closer to ROH than to WWE, which I imagine is largely preferable to the core audience, minus the hiccups that include continued ill-timed (but not gratuitous) camera cuts, sound mixing absolutely drowning theme music and uh, evidently the crucial pyro, whether they're going to spin it on Dynamite or not. - I haven't done a full-sized review for a long while. I sorta dipped a few months into the crowd-less/small, masked-crowd era out of watching Dynamite and NXT regularly. Though I did watch the Royal Rumble. For some reason. Anyway I miss hot crowds, I miss surprise pops. - I would like a straight answer out of anyone 'disappointed' by Christian. Who were you holding out for that wouldn't be a disappointment? Punk? On what planet was that actually happening? At least it wasn't Angle, or Foley, or someone unable to actually go. Christian's got gas in the tank, and let's not pretend he isn't one of the best to ever do it, in terms of his actual wrestling.

*Pre-Card Britt Baker & Maki Itoh v Riho & Thunder Rosa (*) - Star largely awarded for Maki Itoh's stateside AEW debut and implied continued presence, which is undoubtedly cool and good. Outsized personalities are something the women's division can definitely work with, even if this was not much of anything, as random pre-show tag matches go.

*Main Card The Young Bucks (C) v Chris Jericho & MJF for the AEW World Tag Team Title (***) - Wasn't going to be the usual high-octane Bucks tag match against this pair, though MJF's grappling is perfectly suited to what he's doing and Jericho, despite his abject (and okay, supposedly irrelevant, but man is hard to enjoy him on screen these days...) clownery on social media, remains perfectly willing to lionsault and work real snug. - Don't know what would've put this one over the top, a hot crowd? Outcome wasn't super in doubt for me? Casino Tag Team Royale Match (***) - I'm not a big fan of matches with more than three teams, or more than six competitors, or... I mean these are always slogs and if you're going to derive any satisfaction it's going to be from surprise eliminations or unlikely teams showing up or who ultimately wins. - In which case, two out of three ain't bad. QT Marshall's renaissance continues, the depth of the division is entirely out of hand (Bear Country? Good! Varsity Blonds? Good! The Pretty Picture? Also good! Sons of a Gunn? Probably good eventually!) and of course, fucking Death Triangle is absolutely who you want winning. Hikaru Shida (C) v Ryo Mizunami for the AEW Women's World Title (***1/2) - Shida is locked in. Early days in AEW she didn't look much more talented than any random STARDOM mid-carder, but she's found her comfort zone as a character for an anglo audience, and she's kicking ass in the ring. - Mizunami obviously knows Okada's tailor, entrance robe-wise, and a little touch like that imparts so much gravitas to a performer you don't necessarily know the most about, outside of her tournament run. - This was a very good match but the finish lacked for oomph. Post-match angle was... clumsy. Silly? Good on Rosa for chasing a crowd out of the ring singlehandedly I suppose. Kip Sabian & Miro v Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy (*1/2) - Literally all I wanted here was for Miro to unleash the beast and we started in that direction and I was pretty hype, 'Charles' got taken to the woodshed and OC could barely crawl to the ramp. - 8 minutes with back and forth seems a little unnecessary, though Orange has beaten Jericho among others. Still, he could've been a non-factor and Miro could've sent Chuckie T into the shadow realm. Hangman Adam Page v Matt Hardy (**1/2) - Well this was going one way. Always have to remember that Matt has walked that way pretty much his whole career and is still quite capable in the ring, some really nice counter sequences ending with reliably crisp twist(s) of fate. - Should probably bump this up a whole star if not two for the triumphant finish. I mean... that's awesome. The Dark Order are a wholesome face cult that's there for *you*, Adam.

Ladder Match for the 'Face of the Revolution'/TNT Title Contendership/A literal giant brass ring (**1/2) - AEW's set the bar for ladder matches a little higher than the likes of Cody and Lance Archer could possibly reach, no slight on them but this is not their wheelhouse. Caster's in a weird place, push wise... some 'fire' bars, though. - Lance could've won though. Or Penta. Though, Scorp deserves title shots, overdue for some gold, I can't even think of the most significant singles belt he's held... AWS? RevPro? - Ethan Page is a kickass get, though unavoidably I think about the possibility of getting Jordynne Grace (among others in Impact's women's division) onto the program. - Weird highlight of the match just seeing Jake getting attended to on the bottom corner of the ring for a couple minutes. How much has Jake the Snake done to establish the credibility and value of Lance Archer? So. So much. Sting & Darby Allin v Brian Cage & Ricky Starks in a Street Fight (****) - Sting, in 2021, having the match of the night. 61 years young. Well. He had some explosive looking stinger splashes, and looked pretty game for most of it. - Darby, as is tradition, was thrown at or through or threw himself at or through most of the big spots, and that's worth the price of admission for this whole cinematic digression. Plus, Sting. - Commentary should've... stopped? Taken a different tone? I'd like to see future Sting cinematic matches go further into the Lucha Underground aesthetic. Kenny Omega (C) v Jon Moxley in an Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match for the AEW World Title (***1/2) - It's a shame. We watched Onita v Funk before the PPV and this was obviously light years better in every single way, there was actual wrestling, Kenny did a springboard maneuver in an exploding death match, everything looked pretty vicious, the pace was solid, even the Good Brothers stealing Kenny's valour by helping him was totally fine because they were all leaving Mox to get written off for the foreseeable future. - But uh. - Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom! - You cannot tell us that the ring is going to explode and then the ring does not explode. You cannot ask poor Eddie Kingston to sell like death for some sparklers. You cannot end your show with a wet fart. Air out of the room like the end of... well, any WWE PPV.

[cbwalive]

SUPER ESTRELLA Ep. 2

Super Estrella, Christmas Eve Bash

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Live on Univision 

 We start the show of the recap from last week when @TheEyeOfGibson and AuZZtin won the tag titles and Head of Creative John Schneider saying this is far from over.

Here comes @TheEyeOfGibson strutting down to the ring.

Gibson has his own fan section. About a dozen women in their mid- 50’s. One woman has a sign that reads, “Gibson Rats 4 Life”.

Roberto acknowledges them and blows them kisses off his butt before taking the mic.

The Eye starts off by saying “you know last week felt pretty damn good. For the last 5 weeks I didn’t know what I was going to do -- yeah sure living in my van in Pensacola was great but I’m full of steam - I’m a fighter and also a lover ain’t that right Ladies?” 

Gibson’s Rats start screaming “I knew I had to get back in The CBWA and when Schneider called me out of the blue to help him in his War Games match.

I knew something was up so I made him sign a stipulation which says if I showed up to Time to  Pay PPV and help Schneider’s team, then I will get my shot, my rightful shot at the CBWA World Heavyweight Title” 

 @gator_AuZZtin music hits to a huge pop. 

AuZZtin grabs the mic “Listen Bobby we all know the damn story so quit boring these people to death.Even the Gibson’s Rats dried up during your story.

One of the Gibsons Rats yells, “I’m never dry baby”, AuZZtin looks rather disturbed.

The fact of the matter is I helped you win these damn tag titles.

Roberto stops him and says “you helped me? Correct me if I’m wrong but who kicked The Fiend out cold?” 

AuZZtin says, “it doesn’t matter you followed my lead and look here we are the tag champs, something you and buddy Ricky couldn’t do”.

Roberto snags the mic “you leave Morton out of this, he’s still in the hospital and no one knows who took him out, maybe I’m looking at the SOB right now”

AuZZtin grabs the mic “like I said last week if I wanted to take out little Ricky Morton, I would do it in front of his pretty face so he can see who’s whooping his ass, how do I know I’m not looking at the sob that took him out?” 

Roberto looks disgusted by that remark “are you kidding me? Now you’ve gone too far thinking I would take my friend of 40 years out”

It looks like they are about to go to blows when John Schneider’s music hits. 

 John comes down to ringside and  interrupts both men “excuse me gentlemen I don’t mean to break up this love fest but I have important business to attend to both of you, starting with you AuZZtin.

Now I imagine you wanna whoop somebody’s ass, so tonight you will go one on one with BS Service member @BrayWya29193609.

Now as far as you go Gibson, you can take your so called disgusting ring rats over there and take them back to your van because you have the night off as a matter of fact you are banned from the arena.

These nice fine Bogota Security guards will see fit that you exit the arena with no problems” 

 The guards start to make their way to the ring and ask Roberto to come on down. The guards enter the ring, AuZZtin turns one of the guards around, flips him off a stunner, the other guard tries to get AuZZtin but is met by a super kick by Roberto.

Schneider angered tells more guards to get them, bam one stunner another super kick, more guards this time it’s around 6 or so of Bogotá’s finest, tasers are out and Roberto puts his hands up and is getting cuffed -- The same with AuZZtin.

They’re both exiting the ring when all of the sudden, The Miz comes out and nails a handcuffed AuZZtin.

We need to take a break - we’ll be right back folks. 

 We are back.

Backstage we see Roberto being put in a police car and AuZZtin into another.

John Schneider comes to the cars and says “big tough guys huh? Big tough guys.” He goes to the window where Roberto is and says “I hate your stinking guts and you have no idea how much joy this is to me right now seeing you where you deserve to be, you and your partner over there better start following orders around here or I swear I will make both of your lives miserable” 

He then tells the Bogota cop to take this bum out of here, the car drives off as Gibson laughs hysterically in the back. .

Schneider then goes to the car AuZZtin is in, “now as for you, I’ll get you out of the car but you lay one finger on me and you will join your bum partner.” 

He tells the cop to get him out, AuZZtin tells Schneider as he is being handcuffed “tell your boy Miz one way or another I’m going to get his ass tonight.”

Schneider says “You need to worry about @BrayWya29193609 because it is now a no disqualification match and Foot Von Erich is going to be the special ring announcer.” 

We’ll be right back. 

Welcome back to CBWA  Super Estrella, let’s go down to the ring. 

UNDERFAKER vs BOGOTA BRAWLER

We go to the ring lights go out and it’s @UnderfakerBL.

His opponent, The Bogota Brawler looks terrified. 

The bell rings and Underfaker starts to walk slowly to his opponent, uppercut thrust to the throat, whips his opponent into the ropes, flying closeline, picks his opponent up and scoops him up for the tombstone piledriver, this one is over 1, 2, 3.

The Underfaker gets on one knee and holds his arm up towards the entrance.

There’s smoke -- and here comes a long black hearse. 

The hearse pulls right up to the ring and out comes Bogota Blake from Ox Rent-A-Car.

@BogotaBlake holds up and urn and summons the Underfaker.

The Underfaker leaves the ring and crawls into the back of the Hearse. Bogota Blake backs up and almost takes out a section of the crowd but is able to regain control of the wheel. 

We’ll be right back. 

  We’re back and we see a sit down interview set up with Kenny Resnick and he’s joined by @FrankConverseMO and his alleged son @BoltsyAmsterdam.

Welcome back to Super Estrella, I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

“I’m here with the former CBWA World Heavyweight Champion @FrankConverseMO and a former champion and Hall of Famer himself @BoltsyAmsterdam.

Frank you asked me to get this together because you have something to say and wanted to be sure your alleged son @BoltsyAmsterdam was here, now that he is the floor is yours.

Frank says “thank you Kenny and a Merry Christmas to you and your herpies.

I wanted this gathering here today because I have something to say, you know the last 6 months of my life have been up and down, a lot of ups, I got in the best shape of my life, I won the CBWA World Heavyweight title from a Hall of Famer. I was featured in Action Hollywood movies, but there were also a lot of downs.

My bestfriend Claude Akins Gibson has been busy campaigning to become the next Mayor of Bogota and that meant that I was constantly alone. 

I spent all my money -- I blew it on booze and drugs. I pawned a brand new CBWA World Heavyweight title belt Mr. Schneider made for me, but the lowest I was is when my son, my flesh and bone @BoltsyAmsterdam refuses to talk to me because of the shame he has for me.”

Boltsy cuts him off, “what are you talking about son? Boltsy gets up to leave, “for the last time you idiot, I’am not your damn son!!!!! I hate your guts because of the human being you are. You’re a bum, but one thing you are not is my father.”

Kenny steps in and says, “Boltsy, now Frank is admitting a lot of stuff here tonight but why would you say he is not your father?” 

Boltsy screams, “because he’s not!!! I know who my father is. 

Frank says, “it’s ok Kenny, the one thing I want everybody to know out there and especially my son” -- Boltsy yells again, “I’m not your....” 

Kenny cuts him off, “let him talk.” 

Frank says, “I just want everybody to know that you are looking at a new Frank Converse. I will no longer rely on drugs and alcohol but only rely on love from my son.” Boltsy whispers “you gotta be F’n kidding me.” 

Frank continues “2020 was a great year for me but also a terrible year for me but 2021 will be the best year yet.” 

Kenny jumps in and says, “Wow Frank, I’m very impressed with you and coming out with all your issues and recognizing it and having your alledgedson here to hear this is the topping on the cake.

Frank and I wish you nothing but the best, Boltsy do you have anything to say?” 

Boltsy obviously irritated at this point says, “are you guys high right now?” 

Frank says, “no son that’s the old me.” 

Kenny says, “Boltsy I don��t understand --  I thought you would be thrilled to hear that your alleged dad is getting his life together and back on track for you.” 

Boltsy says, “I don’t even know what to say at this point, this man is not my father, I grew up in Pittsburgh - he was in LA and we don’t look alike.” 

Kenny cuts in, “I’ll have to disagree with that one.” 

Boltsy gives Kenny a stare of death, “shut your face, look Frank if you’re going to change your life around and go down the straight and narrow then good for you, I hope you really do it, because you have burned a lot of bridges and I hope you can mend them.” 

Frank says “Thank you son that means a lot, would you like to go play catch?” 

Boltsy gets up and leaves….

Kenny then says, “well there you go a father and son’s relationship, I believe has been mended. Good luck Frank and we’ll be right back after these messages.”

We are back.

We’re inside Mr. Schneider’s office where it looks like The BS Service is having a Christmas party.

The Miz comes in and starts gloating that he whooped the so called, toughest S.O.G (son of a gator) AuZZtin’s ass and he’s about to do the same thing later tonight when he faces Greg Gagne. 

Bolin interrupts and says, “Gentlemen let’s raise our champagne glass and toast the man that brought all of this to us and in the future the leader that will lead us all into dominance, Mr. John Schneider.” 

They all toast.

Back in the ring -- 

The Masked Assassin vs The CBWA Intercontinental Champion Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert 

The bell rings and he locks up with the Masked Assassin and whips him into the ropes. Gilbert  delivers a beautiful drop kick followed by the Hot Stuff piledriver, 1, 2, 3. Easy work for the IC champion. 

 WINNER: @HotstuffINT007

Gilbert is at the interview table with Kenny Resnick. Please welcome the man with the longest winning streak in CBWA history, Hall of Famer and the new CBWA The Intercontinental Champion -- Eddie Gilbert. 

Eddie says, “Thank you very much Kenny. It’s great to be back in Bogota. It’s great to be a champion again. I fought hard to win this belt again, I went through some of the very best that The CBWA can offer and I can promise you I will be a fighting champion, as I’ve always been.”

At that moment, Hollywood Foot Von Erich walks out, “you know baby you say you went through the best but never faced the best because you are looking at the best baby” and points at the belt and walks off. Eddie laughs and Kenny throws it to break.

We are back and we are outside of the Bogota Mayor’s mansion.

Kenny Resnick is at the front door and @BigBubbaBogo answers. 

Bubba tells Kenny to beat it. “The Mayor does not want to talk to anybody.” 

Kenny said “well he asked me to be here for an exclusive.” 

Bubba says, “well maybe you should check your emails because his assistant has rescheduled it for next week, now beat it before I have the hounds released on you.” 

Kenny tells the camera man we better leave. 

THE SOUTH AMERICAN CHAMPION MIZ vs GREG GAGNE

We are back in the ring and here comes Greg Gagne. All the little boys and girls are super excited to see Greg.

Gagne is feeling the Christmas spirit as he is gives each kid an exclusive Greg Ganja action figure which you can also pick up on the CBWA online shop! 

Next, here come the CBWA South American Champion The Miz.

Miz takes one of the action figures that Ganja gave to one of the kids and breaks. 

The Miz starts mocking the kid, and throws the pieces into the crowd. 

This match is NOT for The CBWA South American Championship, which you can also purchase your replica South American Title belt at http://CBWAshop.com.

The bell rings and Miz starts mocking Ganja with the crybaby face but wait -- wait -- it’s AuZZtin.

He is behind The Miz and Miz has no idea, Ganja sees AuZZtin and tells The Miz to look behind.

The Miz all of sudden knows what’s coming, he turns around and AuZZtin flips him the bird and starts whooping on The Miz. He goes for the stunner but Miz escapes and runs away.

Ganja extends his hand at AuZZtin and receives a stunner.

All of a sudden, Bray Wyatt’s music comes on and here comes @BrayWya29193609 with @FootVonErich.

The fans are letting them have it. 

It’s Bray vs AuZZtin right after these messages.

We are back and it’s main event time.

BRAY vs AUZZTIN

Foot grabs the microphone and starts announcing Bray Wyatt but is cut off by a vicious closeline by AuZZtin and here we go. AuZZtin stares down Bray but Bray is trying to play peek a boo with AuZZtin.

AuZZtin says ok and plays peek a boo back with a middle finger and starts whooping Bray in the corner, stomping a mud hole and walking it dry.

He grabs Bray by his dreadlocks and is about to set him up for a stunner but The Miz comes out and delivers a low blow.

Referee Nick Patrick calls for the bell and Foot Von Erich comes in its 3 on 1.

Mr. Schneider then comes out with the rest of the BS Services. 

The Prototype, Bob Lashley, Rico and Renee Dupree. 

John grabs the mic and says, “You see what happens when you don’t fall in line? Let this be a lesson to anyone in the back to not cross the boss.”

All of a sudden, Santa Clause music hits and it’s jolly old Saint Nick himself.

He’s giving all the boys and girls toys and candy, and he stops off at the Gibson Rat’s section and hands out sexy lingerie.

Mr. Schneider addresses Santa, “Hey Fat man, this is my arena who the hell do you think you are? Boys get him.” 

The BS Service starts making there way to Santa Clause and all of a sudden  -- 

Goldberg’s music hits --  It’s the CBWA World  Champion

Goldberg hits the ring and he spears The Miz!

He spears Foot Von Erich and he spears Bray.

Schneider is looking scared the rest of the BS Service tries to stop Goldberg but is met with a spear.

Goldberg grabs Bob Lashley and picks him up for a jackhammer and down goes Lashley.

My god what strength.

Schneider cant believe what he is seeing. 

He is now face to face with Santa Clause.

Santa takes his beard off and it’s @TheEyeOfGibson

He tries to swing at Santa Gibson but Santa ducks and nails him with a super kick. 

OMG Schneider is out cold.

As the camera pulls back from the ring, we see Santa Gibson, AuZZtin and Goldberg celebrating with some cold ones.

WAIT -- The Miz is back in the ring and --  AuZZtin STUNS HIM!  

From all of us at the CBWA -- We wish all of you all a Merry Christmas!

Next week it will be the CBWA Super Estrella New Years Revolution

Plus find out more about The Great Bogota Bash coming in January 2021.

We’ll see you next week folks, Merry Christmas from Bogota.