What's new, champions of choreographed chairshots?!
What a week it has been for wrestling! This is going to be one of the most front-heavy posts in a long time, with the Weekly Roundup taking up about as much space as the review itself, but I wouldn't necessarily consider that a bad thing! When you had a week as absolutely slam-dunk full of wrestling as I had this week, you want to talk about it!
So, let's get into it, shall we?
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| WWE |
Weekly Roundup
Here's what I watched for the week;
Wrestling Day
Something that I've tried to make a more-than-once-a-year occasion is a wrestling night (really, it's a wrestling day when it starts at 12 noon) with a couple of my wrestling friends. I don't have a lot of friends that watch or enjoy wrestling, in fact, I have more friends that don't watch wrestling than do, a harrowing statistic, truly. I've been trying to get this night lined up ever since we got together last October for a wrestling day, and the stars finally aligned this month. We got through 12 matches total, with each of us getting to pick 3 matches to watch. I mean, I kinda got 2 picks each round, as the one friend hasn't watched since 2017 and really only gives a shit about Cesaro/Claudio, so whenever it was his turn, I made sure to find something with Claudio in it. That, or we let RNG decide.
I made sure to denote which matches were picked for the wrestling day on my spreadsheet, both for those reading the blog and wanting to see what we all picked, and for my own records when I need to go back and figure out why I watched a match twice in one year. We really, really stacked the card this year, with the entire back half of the day filled with matches that I have all rated 5 stars. The fact that the worst thing we watched the whole day was a Punjabi Prison match and all we did was joke about how Big Show spent all day at catering and really, really needed to take a shit during the match is a sign that we had a pretty great wrestling day. That, and I got to show off two wrestling trivia games I came up with all on my own too, cause I'm the hostest with the mostest.
AEW Full Gear 2025
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| AEW |
Full Gear 2025 ended up taking place on our Wrestling Day. Because I'm a broke bitch and wanted to make sure our Wrestling Day had some variety to it, I opted to not find ways to watch this show live and instead opted to do what I usually do, watch it later! Sunday was already booked, so that wasn't an option, so Monday morning was the designated catch up day! Unfortunately for me, I made the mistake of logging onto YouTube Sunday morning while waiting for my ride to show up. Can you guess what YouTube decided to recommend to me? Oh nothing, really, just Cultaholic's "What Happened At" video, with the spoiler of the night, of the main event front and centre in the thumbnail. I have nobody to blame but myself for that one, I'm just upset that I got spoiled, that's all.
Despite all that, I still watched and thoroughly enjoyed Full Gear. Let me give you guys a quick rundown of what I thought.
El Sky Team vs. The Don Callis Family
Another match that ranover from the kick off show, Sky Team was down a member for the opening moments but Mistico showed up to even the odds and help his team get the win. They're continuing with the "how can these two get along" story between Okada and Takeshita, with the fissure between these family members getting deeper and wider by the day. This match was fine, nothing remarkable, and was over by the time I threw together some leftovers for dinner Sunday afternoon.
PAC vs. Darby Allin
Arguable the most built up match since Darby's return, second only to Mox, Darbs and PAC went nose to nose in a straight up singles match. Darbs was bandaged to hell after getting dumped through a pair of burning tables at Blood and Guts, with PAC focusing in on the wounds to maximize damage. Yuta interfered in the end to help his boy PAC get the win in a pretty fun and entertaining match. Matches like these are important to remind us that Darby doesn't need to be in matches with lax, or even no rules, to have a compelling match.
Marina Shafir & Megan Bayne vs. Sisters Of Sin vs. Timeless Love Bombs vs. Babes Of Wrath
This match didn't do a whole lot to blow my hair back but it was still very good and entertaining. I really like the pairing of Shafir and Bayne, and maybe it's just because of how much I enjoy Shafir and getting to see her do more actual wrestling makes me happy. I dunno, but regardless, this match was fun! Each team put in a great effort here and made a great case for themselves being the first team to win this new set of gold. In the end, Storm and Shirakawa picked up the win. Good stuff all around.
Brodido vs. FTR
Running it back from their Dynamite draw all the way back on 08/20, 'Dido and FTR put on a fantastic tag team match here, I really enjoyed this one. Bandido is great at playing a babyface in peril, getting his ass beat time and time again with Brody coming in to make the save for his friend. The "don't stop fighting" trope was repeated in this match, with 'Dido doing everything they could to best one of the best tag teams to ever grace planet earth. In the end, though, FTR put Bandido away and won the AEW Tag Team Championships for a third time. Top Guys did it again.
AEW National Title Casino Gauntlet Match
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| AEW's new National Championship. AEW |
Jon Moxley vs. Kyle O'Reilly - No Holds Barred Match
The Kyle-O vs. Jon Mox rivalry comes to a close here in a No Holds Barred match, something that should favour Mox, but proves to be too much for the Death Rider to handle. O'Reilly is able to not only survive Moxley's onslaught, but give it back to him in equal measure. They keep weapon usage to a minimum here, which is to say that weapons are used, but they really lean into the concept of "no holds barred" here, with the use of closed fists and more vicious submissions to try and get the better of the other man. In the end, it's a heelhook/kneebar with the assistance of a chain that gives Kyle-O the win, proving that his ability to make Moxley tap out is not, in fact, some fluke.
Kyle Fletcher vs. Mark Briscoe - No Disqualification Match
What I would argue is the match of the night, Briscoe vs. Fletcher 6 had the highest stakes of any of their encounters yet. Not only was this a No DQ match for the TNT Championship, Briscoe would have been forced to join Fletcher in the Don Callis Family if he were to lose. As far as I'm concerned, Briscoe and Fletcher are wrestling soul mates. I have yet to see these two have a bad match against each other and I'm extremely confident in saying that I could watch these two go one-on-one every month until they both retire and I'd be perfectly content. Briscoe picked up the win here, a victory I was pretty confident in predicting, but still made for an exciting match nonetheless.
Josh Alexander & The Young Bucks vs. Jurassic Express & Kenny Omega
Another tale in the "Don Callis' attempt to take over AEW," Callis set up this tag match with $1 million going to the winning team. Obviously, the Bucks want more money, so they align themselves with the Family to make sure they walk home with the bag. They do, in the end, with all 6 men putting in a fantastic shift, but that's not the real story here. In the end, when The Bucks collect their cash and look content to walk away with Callis and co; they decide to lay it into Kenny Omega just a bit more after the final bell. The Bucks take issue with this and forego the cash to help their friend! The Bucks and Omega are friends again! All seems to be right in the world again! Great match, great bit of drama, great fun.
Kris Statlander vs. Mercedes Mone
A rematch from last year's Full Gear, a match I gave the spotlight to in Weekly Watchlist 024, a bona-fide 5 star match to boot, Mone seeks to elevate her Ultimo Mone status to even higher heights by taking the AEW Women's World Championship from Kris Stat. This is another match that I predicted right, with Stat picking up the victory over Mone to retain her title, giving Mercedes only her second loss in AEW. I don't think we'll see Mone win the big one until she loses all the other titles, and if this is the beginning of her downfall, I'm here for it. This was an excellent match between two of the very best in the women's division, with Stat as confident as ever. You love to see it. Had a lot of fun with this match.
Adam Page vs. Samoa Joe - Steel Cage Match
A match that promised to be as violent as you could possibly imagine, Joe and Hangers went to war inside a steel cage. Page has proven to be a monster when locked inside a steel cage, with this cage match bringing out a slightly more subdued violence from the cowboy. He came to the ring to Red Dead Redemption 2's "American Venom," which had me hyped as fuck, but even that fancy song couldn't give him the win. Joe's Opps homies tried to interfere in the match, with Hook coming to the resu- oh wait, never mind, he just attacked Hangman with the title so Joe could win. Oh... ok. So... that's Hangman's reign, huh? Honestly, I'm kinda disappointed in this result. I've made it no secret in saying that Hangman is my guy, his title win made me cry actual tears. So to see him lose the title this soon? I can't exactly say I'm thrilled about this decision. I won't count any chickens just yet, but I can't exactly say I'm excited to see what hatches in the coming weeks and months.
AEW Continental Classic 2025
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| AEW |
I was really worried that with the apparent absorption of the Continental Championship into the Unified Championship that the Continental Classic would be dead and buried, but that's not the case at all! They've announced the brackets for the CC as well as announcing that the finals will take place at Worlds End on December 27th.
Here are the announced brackets for the 2025 Continental Classic tournament.
Keep in mind, the Blue League only fights other members of the Blue League, and the same goes for the Gold League. Wins are 3 points and a draw gives each member 1 point. 20 minute time limits, no outside interference at all.
I am very excited for the C2 this year. Last years C2 was an absolute highlight and served as an entree for the rest of the year in wrestling. I kind of wish we saw some fresh names in the bracket like we did last year, but I think Dorada from the Blue League as well as PAC, Knight and Bailey from the Gold League are fresh enough names that will be people worth watching into 2026 as well.
This was the tournament where I realized that Garcia was in desperate need of a strong singles run, that Fletcher may be one of the best in the world, that Briscoe is everyone's favourite wrestler and that Brody King was someone to keep an eye on in 2025. I can't help but feel like this years will just be a vehicle to get the Okada/Takeshita feud to Worlds End, which is completely unnecessary, people are already invested in that feud sans title, why not use the C2 as a vehicle to give something, or someone, a bigger spotlight
Furthermore! What was the point of the International Championship and Continental Championship being officially-unofficially merged into the Unified Championship? Because surely, if Okada were to lose the Continental Championship, he’d still hold the International title and the Unified just… disappears?? Honestly, I don’t know. AEW isn’t perfect, by any means, and this whole title situation is one of my biggest issues with them right now. I shouldn’t need to draw up diagrams and charts just to understand your title lineage from the past what, 3 years?
My hope for the C2 is that we get some exciting matchups that help to show us what the next year of AEW will look like. Mike Bailey singles run? Claudio to dethrone Mox as the leader of the Death Riders? Roddy singles run? PAC as a standout Death Rider? Fletcher for AEW Men's World Champion in 2026? A lot of moving parts here that I'm excited to break down for you guys.
So why don't we do a quick breakdown here? Say, each week during the Weekly Roundup, I give some quick thoughts about the matches from this weeks C2 that really stood out to me? Yeah? Let's do it!
AEW Dynamite - Thanksgiving Eve 2025 - 11/26/2025
Kazuchika Okada vs. Kyle Fletcher
The opening match for the tournament, unfortunately, already has me confused. Excalibur mentions that if Okada does not win the C2, he’ll lose not on the Continental Championship, but the Unified as well. What, exactly, is the point of that championship then? Whatever, onto the match. A shocking way to open the C2 by having the champion win the very first match via roll up , a really good TV match that picked up quite a bit near the end into something pretty fun. Okada doesn’t dig very deep until he’s wrestling some big PPV match, so you shouldn’t go into this one expecting an instant classic. Still a good one though.
Fletcher wins, +3
Jon Moxley vs. Mascara Dorada
So was it a conscious decision to not put Mascara Dorada aka Golden Mask in the gold league? Am I the only one who thought about that? On paper, you might think that Moxley would walk all over Dorada, but when you remember that Mox has been a weekly fixture of TV since losing the Men's World Championship and has been having highly competitive matches with everyone, you start to remember that this match may be more competitive that you were expecting. Dorada puts in a solid effort to fend off Mox, but the most decorated man in AEW shows why he's in the position he is. He ramps up the violence and brutality, surviving the best of Dorada before choking him out for the win.
Moxley wins, +3
Darby Allin vs. Kevin Knight
Still nursing wounds from Blood and Guts, Darbs surprisingly comes out of the gates quick and ready to go, promising to match Knight's speed and skill head-on. This is a mirror match in a lot of ways, with both men made more of rubber than muscle and bone. The C2 is going to be a fantastic way for people to get to see what Knight is really made of, someone who is highly skilled and technical when he's given a chance to flourish on his own. Darby is a great first opponent for Knight, matching his style but also being someone that's easy to manipulate in exciting ways. Darby isn't getting completely man handled here either, he fends for himself and makes a solid argument for why he's worthy of being in the C2, but in the end, Knight picks up the win.
Knight wins, +3
Claudio Castagnoli vs. Orange Cassidy
A blast from CHIKARA's past, Double C of Swiss Money Holdings faces off against a man who once had the spark of a Fire Ant inside of him, a match that I'd be content to watch for the rest of my days. I really, really hope that Claudio comes out of the C2 with more wins than Moxley, maybe sowing the seeds for him to usurp Moxley as the leader of the Death Riders. I know, I know, I'm fantasy booking in the middle of a match review, but you guys know what's happening here. Claudio is bulldozing Cassidy, Orange has moments of hope, flurries of energy and fantastic counter wrestling, but the monstrous strength of the Swiss brute proves to be just a bit too much. A modified version of the swing wherein Claudio opts to swing Orange by his arms looked nasty as fuck, with Cassidy nursing a wounded back to try and mount any sort of comeback. In the end, Swiss Death puts Cassidy away.
Claudio wins, +3
AEW Collision - Thanksgiving 2025 - 11/27/2025
PAC vs. Mike Bailey
Let's not forget that, despite PAC being the size of a barn currently, he can fly around the ring with the same speed and ease that Bailey can. Maybe if this match happened 8 years ago, we'd have gotten to see these two take flight for two thirds of the match, but PAC leans more into his brutal bag of tricks for this match, wanting to punish Bailey at every chance he gets. For the same reasons as Knight, his tag partner, I'm very excited to see what the C2 does for Speedball, giving us a real good chance to see him wrestle some exceptional matches on his own. His striking is vicious and on point against PAC, proving he can give it just as well as he can take it. I also think this is going to be very important for PAC, giving us a chance to see him on his own again after being away with injuries so frequently over the past few years. For as slick and good as he is, Speedball proves to be no match for PAC in this match, with the Bastard cleaving him in half with a lariat before loving in the Brutalizer.
PAC wins, +3
Roderick Strong vs. Konosuke Takeshita
It's Alpha vs. Messiah for the main event of Collision this week, the final match in this set of matches. I'm very excited to be getting more of Roddy as a singles guy for the next few weeks, the match possibilities for him are very exciting to say the least. I mean, to say nothing of Takeshita, but I've spoken about him enough this year on the blog, you guys already know whats up. Surprisingly, Roddy has a pretty firm grasp on the match at the start, assaulting the back of the IWGP Champion, nearly cracking him across the barricade only for it to be countered into a Blue Thunder Bomb across the rail instead. Nasty work. Reminding everyone that he's not just a tag guy, Roddy fights out from underneath and regains his advantage, making this match far more competitive than you may think a world champion would be having in a random tournament match. But, that's just the level of talent that AEW has, just about everyone is a world-class wrestler, either bring your A game to every match or prepare to get showed out. In the end, Raging Fire puts Strong down for the three.
Takeshita wins, +3
So far, the standings for the C2 look like...
Here’s what we’re reviewing for the Watchlist;
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Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels - The Steps That Must Be Climbed to Reach Success
Seeking to prove that his unsanctioned loss was merely a fluke, the newly crowned Chris Jericho seeks to pour salt in the wound by besting Shawn Michaels in the match he helped to innovate in the WWE. One man seeks redemption, the other, validation.
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Basic Breakdown
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| An unsanctioned beat down. WWE |
Following Unforgiven, Shawn is announced as Jericho's first challenger for the gold, despite Jericho's protesting. And, to add a little bit more to the match, it's decided that this will be a ladder match for the gold, a match that Shawn Michaels helped make famous many moons ago. As a counterpoint, Jericho points out that he's won more ladder matches than Michaels has ever competed in, an interesting statistic!
Will this be another win for Jericho? Or will the innovator of the ladder match prove that he's still got it en route to winning another piece of gold? Let's find out!
Bell to Bell
A strong lockup starts this match off, with Michaels gaining the early advantage off a series of back elbow strikes before taking off the ropes. Your typical dropdown-leapfrog sequence is played out, with Michaels nearly catching Jericho off guard with Sweet Chin Music right off the hop, forcing Jericho to hit the canvas to avoid certain disaster. With Jericho in the corner, Michaels charges but eats the post shoulder first, giving Jericho the opening he needs to land a suplex on Michaels. A lariat sends Michaels over the top rope and onto the apron, saving himself from hitting the floor, but a triangle shoulder tackle from Jericho sends Michaels crashing to the outside, landing hard on the floor.
Shooting Michaels into the ladder set up at ringside, Shawn is able to nimble climb the rungs and leap off it, crushing Jericho with a body press. Retrieving the ladder from the ramp, Jericho charges in to try and drill Michaels in the face with it, but Shawn manages to avoid the shot and catch Jericho with a drop toe hold, forcing Jericho to land face first on the ladder. With Shawn laid out on the floor, Jericho tries to being the larger ladder inside the ring, pulling it in over the bottom rope. Thinking on his feet, Michaels leaps to life and slams into the ladder, teeter-tottering it into the face of Jericho to lay him out inside the ring.
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With Jericho still down, now bleeding from the mouth, Michaels sets the ladder up in the centre and begins to climb for the gold. Jericho springs to life and pulls Shawn down off the ladder, looking for the Walls of Jericho early on, attempting to cripple HBK as soon as possible. Falling back as he attempts to set up the Walls, Michaels gets slingshotted off the canvas and onto the ladder, ascending halfway before Jericho can even react. When he finally realizes what he's done, he darts for the ropes, rebounding and using his momentum to shove the ladder over, sending Michaels crashing into the ropes below.
With ladder in hand, Jericho assaults Michaels with it, a shot to the gut and across the back take him out, with a smaller ladder brought in the ring now and left in the corner. Attempting to bulldog Michaels into the ladder, Jericho gets countered and tossed into the corner ladder instead, his foot getting caught in the rungs. Dismissively, Michaels rips the ladder down from the corner, Jericho's leg still entangled and getting violently jerked to the side when the ladder hits the canvas.
With a ladder draped on the bottom rope in the corner, Michaels drops Jericho leg first on the metal, softening him up before locking in the Figure Four. The hold is quickly reversed, but the damage was done. Thinking on his feet, and using them to boot, (ha, boot) Jericho kicks the ladder, causing it to rotate against the ringpost and smash Michaels in the face. Clever spot! Setting the ladder up on the bottom rope again, Jericho slingshots Michaels into it face first, looking to destroy the features of the Heart Break Kid (is it weird to anyone else that he's called a kid for his entire career? He's a "sexy boy" in his mid-40's).
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| The jaws of death. WWE |
Draping Michael's head in the gaping maw of a ladder, Jericho smashes the steel jaws shut across his throat, with Michaels thrashing about on the canvas following the vicious attack. Jericho tries to climb the smaller ladder in the middle to retrieve his title, but Michaels shoves the ladder over with relative ease. Setting the ladder up on the top rope now, Jericho returns to Michaels as he pulls himself up in the corner of the ring. Jericho makes a solid attempt at tossing Michaels into the ladder, but Shawn is able to adjust mid-ring and send Jericho up on top of the ladder instead, with Jericho falling to the floor!
Tossing the ladder down on top of Jericho, Michaels follows him out to the floor and begins to set up more weapons of war. A large ladder is erected near the announce tables, with the SmackDown announce table getting cleared off before Jericho is placed on top of it. Michaels ascends, but Jericho meets him half-way up, snatching Michaels by the waist as he attempts to back suplex him into the table. He succeeds-kinda, with Michaels countering into a crossbody mid-flight, crushing Jericho and destroying the table on impact.
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| That table had a family, dammit! WWE |
Both men struggle to pull themselves to their feet, with Michaels climbing to the apron and bringing a ladder up with him as he ascends to the top rope. Acting more on instinct than anything, Jericho dropkicks the ladder into Michaels, crotching him on the top. Climbing the ladder leaned up in front of Michaels, Jericho rains down punches on the head of HBK before attempting a ladder-assisted superplex. Michael fends him off and shoves both Jericho and the ladder away, with Jericho crashing into the canvas below. Holding the ladder on top of his prone body, Jericho uses it to block a top rope elbow drop from Michaels. Not the smartest move to pull out at this point in the match, but at least he's a sexy boy.
⚡Move of the Match⚡
With Jericho down, Michaels lines him up from the corner and begins to tune up the band, looking for the killshot. Stepping across the ring, Michaels goes for Sweet Chin Music, but Jericho grabs the smaller of the ladders and drills Michaels in the face with it, dropping him like a shot.
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| Say goodbye to your teeth. WWE |
It's at this point in the match where we can see that Jericho has lost one of his front teeth, more than likely from the latter seesaw that happened earlier in this match. Laying the ladder across the prone body of Michaels, Jericho goes for a Lionsault, crushing him from the impact but also damaging his own gut from the harsh landing. With Michaels still down on the canvas, Jericho sets a ladder up across his torso, trapping him beneath as he begins to climb. Michaels tries to hold the feet of Jericho, but it's little use. With Jericho nearing closer and closer to his gold, Michaels begins to muscle the ladder off it's footings. Using his legs to give him the extra strength he needs, he's able to take the ladder off balance and send Jericho crashing to the floor miles below.
Setting the ladder back up in the middle, Michaels begins to climb, nearly unclasping the championship from the hanger above, but Jericho gets inside the ring in time to shove the ladder over into the ropes. Both men ascend the ladder after it's reset in the middle, with Jericho's foot slipping off a rung and getting caught as Michaels drums him with shots to the skull. Falling back, Jericho's foot, thankfully, is hooked in the rungs of the ladder, preventing him from falling to certain doom.
Suddenly, Michael Tarver, one of Jericho's buddies, hits the ring and jumps Michaels, doing whatever he can to make sure Jericho doesn't lose his gold. Michaels cracks Tarver with Sweet Chin Music, dropping him to the floor before climbing the ladder again, but by the time Michaels begins to climb, Jericho is back on his feet with his hands on the title! Both men have a firm grasp on an end of the strap, with Michaels peppering Jericho with punches that leave him teeter-tottering on a rung of the ladder, the only thing preventing him from falling is his grip on the gold. If Jericho lets go, he falls to his doom and loses his gold, and if Michaels lets go, he lets Jericho fall to the canvas, but he loses the match. A real life-or-death catch 22 they find themselves in here.
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| Fingertips from disaster. WWE |
In the end, Jericho is able to right himself before landing a shot on Michaels that rocks him enough to lose grip on the gold, allowing Jericho to unhook his championship and retain. By hook or by crook, Jericho keeps his prize.
Overview & Final Rating
🟢 - A high-ly recommended step from an instant classic.
This match often gets considered one of the best of the PG era and, while I enjoyed it, yes, I don't think it's nearly as incredible as people make it out to be. I think they could have used the ladder a bit more, maybe implemented it in some more submissions even. But overall, this match was a lot of fun and has one of the most memorable finishes to a ladder match ever, that's for damn sure. Give this match a watch and let me know where it sits in the pantheon of all-time great ladder matches. For me, Joker and Ca$h still sits at the very top of my list.
• • • • •
Wow, this was a heavy post, eh? A lot of stuff I wanted to cover in a short amount of time! I hope my coverage of the C2 is a welcomed addition for the last month of the year as its something I've been looking forward to for weeks now. Let me know what you guys think via the email below.
Until next week. Be well, stay safe, and love one another.
cliffmorganwstl@gmail.com
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