Welcome back friends!
Another busy week of wrestling and your intrepid wrestling reviewer is back with what you all need. I kind of lucked out with these matches this week, the DPW x Gatoh Move show isn't quite hitting like I'd hoped and NXT didn't either, but the 2 matches I watched for this weeks reviews really delivered.
Here's what I watched this week;
Both WWE shows this weekend delivered, with Berlin being the absolute standout and No Mercy kinda falling short if I can be completely honest. If you want to get into the real reviews, scroll past these paragraphs and enjoy!
WWE Bash at Berlin
Rhodes vs. Owens opened the show and it didn't really deliver like I'm sure all of us thought a match between these two would. Good, by all accounts, but nothing great. Could have used something to push it into another gear. Unholy Union and Belair/Cargill was mostly a formality, you pretty well knew that the Union was taking the fall because they're probably gonna use the womens tag titles to help setup a Belair vs. Cargill marquee match in a few months time. Shame, Fire and Dawn are good! I would have liked them to hold the titles a bit longer. Punk vs. McIntyre laid into each other heavy in this strap match, sadly hindered I feel with the outdated "tough the 4 corners" gimmick that hasn't been good in 20 years or so. Having a stipulation that let them do whatever they wanted was absolutely necessary for how far along this feud is, and it looks like they aren't done yet. Bad Blood Hell in a Cell anyone? The Terror Twins are over like you wouldn't believe and they beat the hell out of Dom and Liv in the most entertaining and fun match of the night. Rhea and Priest are the two you need to keep building the company around, they're the stars. And the main event of GUNTHER vs. Orton proved, once again, why GUNTHER needs to be talked about as one of the best wrestlers going nowadays. Orton forced GUNTHER to really, really work to keep his title in this match and and he went above and beyond to keep his gold. Brilliant match.
NXT No Mercy
Chase U vs. Fraxiom was unreal, plain and simple. Frazer and Axiom have established themselves as a top level tag team in NXT, putting on blisteringly fast and exciting matches every time they are out these. Chase U should be the goofiest group of dudes on the planet but they keep on blowing peoples minds every single time. A tiger bomb in the middle of the opening match Andre?! You madman! Wents vs. Lee was.. a match. I dunno, this didn't really click for me. MSK was around when I was getting really really sick of NXT so this breakup doesn't mean a whole lot to me, honestly. I know its cliche to say but when Gargano and Ciampa set the bar for bloodfeud matches at the same height that NASA sends their satellites, just about everything else pales in comparison, especially when you care more about springboards and flippy offence than trying to destroy the guy you hate. But I digress. Choo vs. Jordan was dreadful, I'm sorry to say. This did not go well at all. Neither of them hit with anything close to serious effort, and there was no heat in this match. Did not enjoy. Ethan Page vs. Joe Hendry was another match that just didn't work for me. Hendry is a gimmick at best and I don't see him as a top level ring worker, and I can't say a whole lot more for our NXT Champion Page either. Trick was nice to have a guest referee even if his role was predictably predictable. Why he stopped the other ref from counting 3 on Page winning when he was forced to do so not even 5 minutes later is kinda baffling but maybe I just don't see the vision.
Roxanne Perez vs. Jaida Parker - NXT No Mercy - 09/02/2024
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| Hold onto that gold tight, Roxy. WWE |
There was a time where NXT was my go-to brand, back when it was basically WWE's premier show. 2018 was the peak of the black and gold brand and as soon as "the virus" hit, NXT was on a steady decline since. Empty arena shows were watchable at best and dreadful at worst and frequent injuries and odd booking decisions led me to watch less and less. The transition to 2.0 was a bit of a mess but having Ciampa lead the brand and get the best matches possible out of the complete rookie Breakker was a brilliant move and the best part of the rebrand. The decision to move away from hiring indie names that could get their reps in before hitting RAW or SmackDown was certainly a choice, no doubt because AEW was gobbling a lot of them up. Instead, they started plucking the stars of the future from the locker rooms of college's around America. It wasn't all bad, but by and large hiring people who more than likely never watched a single wrestling match before walking into the Performance Centre had NXT really working double time to make itself a serious wrestling brand again.
All of this is to say, NXT is doing really, really well right now. I haven't watched weekly TV for any wrestling show in a long time, but I've made an effort to keep NXT's big shows in my rotation whenever they come around. Stand and Deliver was the first NXT show I watched in full in probably a year and it was a great starting point for me to get back into the gold and white brand.
Roxanne Perez has been on a fantastic run as of late, managing to get hired right around the time the big switch was made to stop plucking top indie names. Largely due to the fact that Booker T trained her and she was the Women's Champion for the soon to be closed down Ring of Honor. Jaida Parker on the other hand was hired off the soccer field (thats football for all my readers across the pond) with no background in wrestling to speak of. If Cagematch is to believed, this is her 43'd match ever, which is kinda crazy to believe considering how well it went! Some of these college athletes are freaks, man.
The size and strength advantage goes to Parker in this match, but she's nursing a rib injury, weakening some of her offence to a degree. Roxanne has experience and tenacity on her side, doing whatever it takes in this reign to make sure she goes home with the gold each night.
Roxanne and Parker start off evenly matched, with Parker able to get the upper hand most of the time but Roxanne answering back with a counter hold or slick escape. Parker's injury is nagging her at the start, weakening an attempted head scissors and causing a knee lift to hurt more than it might this early on in the matchup.
A slap from Roxanne fires up Parker, and she keeps the offence on quick and heavy and is able to put the champion on the backfoot. A tiger suplex sends the champion to the outside and aggravates the taped ribs, which Roxanne capitalizes on with a shoulder barge and Parker tries to follow her to the ropes. She drags Parker outside and climbs back in the ring herself, hitting the ropes for a tope but Parker catches her with ease! She fireman carries her back up the steps with a cocky grin but gets caught when Roxanne starts firing off elbows and squirms down. She yanks Parker down from the steps and snatches her by the arms, driving her stomach first into the steps!
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| Gonna need to take some time to catch your breath and count your ribs. WWE |
With the ribs weakened, Roxanne goes to work, stomping, standing and kicking the bullseye to keep her opponent down. Parker has glimmers of hope, with heavy right hands rocking Roxanne but the injury is too fresh and she's dropped with relative ease. She pulls her between the top and middle turnbuckle, kicking her into the ringpost and driving the air from her lungs. The pain worsens when she ties Parker in an abdominal stretch, clamping onto the taped ribs and cranking the hold in deeper and deeper.
Parker is able to dig down and fight through the pain, willed on by a ravenous NXT crowd. She trades shots with Roxanne in the centre of the ring until Roxanne backs her into the corner and drapes her across the middle rope, setting up for and nailing Parkers own move, the Teardrop. She struts out of the corner and mocks Parker as she does so, and a fire is lit under the challenger as she turns to see. The disrespect can only go on for so long.
Roxanne charges in for a kick and Parker catches her leg, staring the champion dead in the eye as she utters the fatal phrase "you fucked up." Roxanne is pleading with her as Parker picks her up and stuffs her with a powerbomb for a close 2 count. Back on their feet again, Parker catches a rebounding Roxanne with a spinebuster this time for another close 2 count! Roxanne escapes a vertical suplex attempt and goes for the top rope, diving at Parker with a crossbody but gets caught again! Unable to escape this time, Parker drapes her across the middle rope and ascends to the top, but not before lacing her with a series of hard chops in the stomach.
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| From the heavens comes Parker. Brings a tear(drop) to you eye. WWE |
Parker stands above the champion and drills her with the Teardrop, rushing into the cover for a close 2 count of her own. She tries for another vertical suplex but she can't keep Roxanne up, clutching at the injury that can only be getting worse with each impact. With Roxanne on her hands and knees, Parker gets to her feet first and hits the ropes for her hip attack but gets rolled up and into a close 2 count again, but Roxanne latches on with a crossface and transitions into a rings of saturn, hammering on Parker's injury with elbow after elbow. Somehow, some way, Parker stands up with Roxanne on her back and plants her with a huge samoan drop.
With Parker near the ropes, Roxanne climbs over the challenger for Pop Rox but Parker stands up, hitting the ropes and runs through her with her hip attack, Hipnotic. Roxanne is too close to the ropes and falls to ringside, escaping a chance at being pinned. She stumbles around ringside and Parker follows, lining Roxanne up as she finds support on the barricade protecting the timekeepers area. Parker charges and Roxanne moves at the last second, her momentum carrying her into and through the barricade with her attempted Hipnotic!
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| A less than optimal delivery on that move, if we can be honest. WWE |
Parker is screaming in pain, rolling around on the floor and and grasping at the injury, but Roxanne gives her no time to breathe. She sets her up and drops her with a pair of Pop Rox on the broken piece of the barricade, folding Parker as the referee starts his 10 count. Both barely beat the count but Roxanne is quicker to recover, snatching Parker again and dropping her with a third and final Pop Rox for the 3 count.
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| Popped and rocked. WWE |
Like I said at the start of this post, I've been enjoying Roxanne's run as of late and its matches like these that stand out to me the most. Using her skill, cunning, and willingness to bend the rules just enough to get what she wants. Parker put on a star making performance that established herself as a real player in the womens division, I'll be making sure to watch more of her work as the weeks and months go on. The sky is the limit for someone like her, she honestly just gets wrestling. How she sells, moves, and acts in the ring feels really natural. She may still be a rookie but she handles herself like a pro, and that's half the battle.
Jon Moxley vs. Orange Cassidy - AEW All Out - 09/03/2023
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| The caged lion vs. The disinterested housecat. A battle for the ages. AEW |
This is another one of those matches that just happened to cross my twitter feed this week and remind me not only that this match happened (a year ago from the day I watched it) but also how much I loved it when I watched it live. Cassidy and Mox are two of my favourites from AEW. My fiance in particular loves Cassidy, and we were fortunate enough to be at AEW's debut show in Toronto where Cassidy beat PAC for the International Title. Unfortunately, somebody decided to bring a massive fucking sign of Jim Cornette's face to the show and held it up the majority of the night, including during Cassidy's champion celebration. Totally ruined the photos and videos we tried to take, and I know I wasn't the only person there who was furious at this guy, who was having the time of his life ruining our night. If you happen to be said guy, or think this is a great thing to do, fuck you. I mean that.
Anyways, back to the subject at hand. This match kind of seemed like an odd pairing at the time. Mox was already a 3 time AEW World Champion at this point and was firmly in the spot of AEW's ace, belt or no belt. Cassidy was on an unreal run as International Champion, closing in on a full calendar year as champion with 31 successful defences of the title, forging this titles reputation as the workhorse belt with his bare hands. It's not totally bizarre for a top guy to challenge for the "midcard" belt, but I did feel like this match up was a bit odd.
And that is exactly why this match delivered in such a major way. Its one of the greatest examples of "underdog champion vs unstoppable challenger," similar in many ways to Sting vs. Vader from Weekly Watchlist 005.
Mox comes down to the ring in his usual form, wound tight and ready to kill. He's focused, dialed in and ready to go. He's the kind of guy that drinks adrenaline to keep him steady.
Cassidy comes down the ring just about the same as he always does, backpack hanging off his shoulder, his walk barely even a walk. It's just another lazy day at the office for him.
The bell rings and nothing changes. Mox is on his toes, moving around to keep his body warm, his energy radiating off his skin. Cassidy is leaning on the top rope, looking out over the crowd as if he's not in the main event of one of AEW's biggest shows. He's done this before, defended this title more than anybody in this company has defended any title, why should he let Mox think he's any different?
Because he is.
Cassidy joins Mox in the centre and starts to move his hands into his pockets, but Mox beheads him with a forearm smash and goes to work. A tour around the ring with chops in each corner, a pair of saito suplex's and Cassidy is on the defensive already. The wear and tear from defending his gold week after week is starting to show on the champion, his back laced with KT tape that Mox treats like a target for some of his meanest strikes.
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| This looks way funnier than it should, considering the context. AEW |
Cassidy starts to get a roll going, catching Mox with the Stun Dog and a tope to the outside, but when he tries to hit the ropes for something big again, Mox catches and dumps him on his back with a vicious X-Plex. Cassidy rolls to the floor and Mox follows him, hurling him into the corner post and climbing back in the ring, until a bloody Cassidy starts to stir so he charges back out, grinding and pounding at the wound, leaving him for dead on the floor next to the announce table.
Mox paces in the ring, content with taking a count out win, watching Cassidy stir and struggle to move as blood pours from his forehead. Now, you may be asking yourself, if Mox wants to win the title, why would he be cool with taking a count out win? He wouldn't get anything if he does that? I'm glad you asked dear reader, because an important part of the promo package they played before this match talked about belief. When AEW first started up, nobody believed Cassidy had it in him to care, or be a great wrestler, but he's proved that he can be time and time again. Now, everybody believes in Cassidy, and so does Mox, going so far as to say "Orange Cassidy looks a hell of a lot like the real thing. A lot of people believe in you Orange Cassidy, don't disappoint us." A count out win may mean the title doesn't change hands, but it means that Cassidy couldn't do it. He didn't get beaten because he got bested, he got beat because he gave up. That's powerful.
But he manages to beat the count at the last second, rolling back in the ring only to get mauled by the pissed off grizzly bear that is Jon Moxley. Seriously, this match starts to turn into a mugging for a while. Mox is beating a bloodier and bloodier Cassidy from one corner to another with the champion doing very little to try and slow the near-unstoppable tide of his opponent.
Mox decides to mock the barely vertical Cassidy by putting his own hands in his pockets and going nose to nose with him, challenging Cassidy to do something, and he answers. Cassidy starts smashing Mox with forearms, rocking him with each shot until a single forearm in response makes Cassidy drop into the corner limp. Mox positions Cassidy on the top rope for a huge Paradigm Shift but Cassidy fights back, giving Mox a taste of his own medicine by digging his mails into the back of the challenger.
With Moxley stunned off the top rope, Cassidy flies with a huge diving DDT and starts to come alive, despite leaking blood. Hitting the ropes, Cassidy spins round a standing Mox for another DDT, kipping up with some effort and dropping Mox with an Orange Punch for a close 2.
Looking to take back control, Mox drills Cassidy with a Gotch style piledriver for a close 2 count of his own and decides to start squeezing whatever life is left in Cassidy out of him by force. He hooks in a nasty looking Bulldog choke, with Cassidy trying to roll Mox over for a pin but gets pulled back over into a rear naked choke this time. Cassidy is close to breaking free so Mox releases the choke and transitions into a armbar but again, Cassidy fights out, only for Mox to transition one more time into a Lebell lock and Cassidy starts to fade.
With Bryce right in the face of a barely conscious Cassidy, he begs for him to show him that he's still in the fight. With one last gasp, Cassidy forces his body up and over Moxley and is able to hook his feet in the bottom rope to break the hold, mere moments shy of a career ending injury or falling unconscious.
Cassidy rolls to the outside after the hold is broken and Mox follows him back out again after getting in the face of Bryce, unhappy that he was forced to let his prey go. Growing more frustrated by the moment, Mox starts to take the arena apart, ripping up the pads covering the concrete arena floor and dragging the limp body of Cassidy in position for a piledriver. With a burst of strength, Cassidy gets Mox up on his back and drops him instead with a Beach Break!
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| No matter how comfy the hotel bed is, you're gonna feel that in the morning. AEW |
Cassidy follows up with a quick dropkick to a downed Mox, driving him head first into the ring steps. With the tables turned, Cassidy rolls in the ring now and leaves Mox outside to get counted out, champions advantage on his side.
Mox barely beats the 10 count and slips in the ring, rising to his feet at the same time Cassidy does, but gets caught with a pair of Orange Punches! Cassidy slips out of an attempted Paradigm Shift and cracks off another Orange Punch that has Moxley staggered, so he rebounds off the ropes twice and cuts him in half with a spear!
With Mox on his feet, Cassidy puts his hands in his pockets and stalks towards Mox, hitting him with a few sloth kicks to the crowds approval. Quickly, the kicks start getting harder, and harder, and faster, until Cassidy is full on stomping Moxley, his rage boiling over as he winds up for a superkick but Mox beheads him with a lariat!
But Cassidy is back on his feet! He refuses to stay down! A second lariat drops the champion and Mox picks him up for a third crushing lariat, going for a pin with only a 2. Wasting no motion, Mox hooks Cassidy's arms and drops him with a huge Death Rider (I always saw the Paradigm Shift as being the DDT version of the move, whereas the Death Rider is a brainbuster. Semantics, I know), going in for the cover but Cassidy fuckin sloth kicks out at 2!
Moxley is livid, screaming mad that that wasn't enough to put him away. Mox is punching and flailing as he crawls to the corner as he catches his breath, crossing himself as he does so.
"Forgive me Father for what I must do."
He turns to Cassidy, struggling to his feet as he begs Moxley to stay back. His outstretched hands slowly curl into a pair of middle fingers, the universal sign of "fucking kill me, you coward."
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| The killing blow. AEW |
Moxley hooks him up one final time, drilling Cassidy's soul into the canvas with a Death Rider and covers him for 3.
And new International Champion, Jon Moxley.
What an unreal match this was. My god. Please, watch this one yourself. I know I say this a lot but I implore you, seek this match out if you've never seen it before or go back and remember how brilliant this was. It's hard to forget after he spent nearly a year on top how good Cassidy is when he needs to fight from underneath. He's an unbelievable babyface underdog, and Moxley is the perfect person to put against a crowd favourite. He'll pull no punches, he'll show no remorse, he'll make sure you're good and dead and walk all over your grave when he's had his fill of you. Just. Perfect.
Alright! That does it! Another week of wrestling in the books. Now, not to date myself, but this is being drafted on a Thursday and I can't get last night's Hangman "incident" out of my head. He set his fucking house on fire?! I'm sorry?! One of the coolest, greatest photos wrestling has ever produced. I literally haven't been able to get it out of my mind all day. I'm seriously holding back right now because I could talk about this Hangman/Swerve storyline all week long. Team #HangmanDidNothingWrong all day long. All Out can't come quick enough.
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| "I will watch your world burn" |
cliffmorganwstl@gmail.com if you've got any feedback, concerns, confessions or hate you want to send my way. I'm all ears!
Until next week, wrestling fans.
Stay safe!
Cliff Morgan
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