Another Week of Wrestling #20 (4th October 2021)

Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, Bron Breakker, Cody Rhodes, wrestling news, and more!

Sports

I discuss Brock Lesnar, CM Punk, Bron Breakker, Cody Rhodes, wrestling news, and more! Welcome, and thanks for joining me at Geeks + Gamers!

<—Last week’s installment of Another Week of Wrestling!

As well as previously bringing you That’s Not Wrestling and ranting about PPVs on YouTube, I’m here to mouth off on a Monday about wrestling news, results, and events that catch my eye, ear, and sometimes my nose. I’m Danny Damage, writing for Geeks + Gamers, and this is Another Week of Wrestling for October 4th, 2021!

WWE Raw

With just 24 hours’ notice at Extreme Rules the night before, WWE advertised a Big E vs. Bobby Lashley championship match to kick off the night. The match was thrown out midway and was re-booked as the main event. If you were still awake at the end of WWE’s three-hour, flagship advertising juggernaut, you’d have seen Big E retain his title.

Karrion Kross still has his Demolition mask and Conan the Barbarian stripper costume. It’s almost a matter of time before his Mrs. powerbombs him in front of the world.

WWE: “We need to stop stereotyping people, especially since we’ve got that big Saudi show coming up. Someone go find Mansoor, fill him with happy pills, and tell him he’s got some more work to do.”
(also) WWE: “Mustafa Ali sounds too foreign not friendly enough. Let’s drop the Ali part and pronounce his first name ‘M’st’fa’ (so it almost sounds like Christopher) and sometimes ‘Moooostafa,’ and no, we don’t recall a time where he got over as a face on SmackDown with both names intact.”
WWE: “Stop stereotyping people from certain places and grouping them together.”
(also) WWE:

Vince McMahon and Goldberg look forward to WWE Blood Money in a couple of weeks, as Goldberg appeared on camera to remind us of that time Bobby Lashley crushed Goldberg’s son.

Shayna Baszler has turned into a face now… I think… maybe. Last week, Shayna made sure that Nia Jax would be off our screens for a little while, and this week, she’d take out Eva Marie in the same manner. Sarcasm aside, I’m under the belief that WWE is trying to get over that Baszler is the heel and that we should disapprove of her actions. Why WWE has picked people that annoy the fans to try and portray this is anyone’s guess.

NXT 3.0 (2.0 was it first going to TV 2 years ago)

The “Index” (Indi Hartwell & Dexter Lumis) storyline is fucking stupid, as is turning every pairing’s collective name into a portmanteau; learn to be more creative with the English language, you dumbtards.

Joe Gacy and his safe space are back. At first, I thought he looked like a dollar store version of Kevin Owens that had exhumed the Right to Censor’s corpse and given it a modern spin. After this week’s promo and Gacy’s use of “obsolete,” I’m expecting him to lose his marbles and become WO-KEN at some point in the future.

Bron Breakker looks like a Steiner, sounds like a Steiner, and acts like a Steiner. WWE/NXT, that’s a Steiner, we all know, so deal with it and fix that ridiculous name. I’m reminded of WWE’s whole “We’re not just cashing in on their family name” bullshit when both Charlotte Flair and Michael McGillicutty/Curtis Axel first started up, and their entrance songs were remixes of songs we knew from their fathers. They wanted to kick off some more tribute acts but just didn’t want to admit it.

MSK is lame AF. When Impact Wrestling was somewhat tolerable for a brief period last summer, anything to do with MSK (then The Rascalz) was a piss-break for me. I love a smoke as much as the next guy, possibly more so, but when the references, gags, and puns about weed are constant, it does get really old, really quick. Remember how Stone Cold’s glass-shattering would grab your attention? Well, The Rascalz used a bong hit as the initial sound on their entrance theme; it’s not quite as impactful. They make Matt Riddel look like Dan Severn. Anyway, in WWE/NXT, these guys are yet to impress me. They’re fluent in the kind of amateur tag team wrestling we’ve seen on AEW for the last two years; all flips and no fists.

Franky Monet is a great lass, a great wrestler, and it’s just a shame about the shit name she got from the WWE personality rinsing machine. Many like myself know her previously as Taya Valkyrie, and she is a great addition to the NXT roster, don’t get me wrong. When she first announced she was going to be working for the same company as her husband, John Morrison, I thought that was a good shout, and it’ll be nice for them both. However, WWE is chewing up people and spitting them out quicker and even more aggressively than what we’ve seen before. I’m not convinced people like Valkyre/Money that had a large amount of experience should be going anywhere near WWE’s “Scrub ’em clean and treat ’em green” mentality. Monet took Raquel González to her limit but was stopped by the champ’s powerbomb.

AEW Dynamite

A Comicsgate sign was spotted on Dynamite as CM Punk made his (detoured) way to the commentary table.

https://twitter.com/BluntDamage/status/1443539801442033664

Dynamite opened with Adam Cole vs. Jungle Boy. It was another hot opening match for an AEW show, and thankfully, it remained rather sensible and believable. My only issue came after Cole took a bump from the ring apron onto the floor. Ten seconds after his body took the brutal blow onto the concrete, Cole was up on the top rope, hitting the Panama Sunrise for a 2.9999 count that the crowd bought hook, line, and sinker. This wasn’t far from being over, however, as Cole soon sneaked in a low blow and KO’d Jungle Boy with a running knee. A post-match beat-down secured a nice bit of heat on Cole too.

I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence or not, but I may have caught CM Punk responding to something Jim Cornette said a week or so ago on one of his podcasts. While Cornette was discussing the lack of standout talent in AEW, he made reference to not seeing another Tiger Mask situation occur, as in someone showing up and amazing people with an entirely fresh style/move set. While on commentary during Dante Martin’s match, Punk made reference to Martin bringing something new, as Tiger Mask did.

During the 16-man tag team match, Jim Ross said that having one referee to deal with all those people was stupid. CM Punk agreed and suggested Aubrey “The Mime” Edwards may as well leave the ring and join them on commentary. The Dark Order settled their differences due to the show being in honor of Brodie Lee, and they celebrated with Brodie Jr. afterward. Due to the potential of Bray Wyatt showing up, part of me was expecting the lights to go out and for Brodie Jr. to vanish into thin air.

The Bunny and Penelope Ford have a bit more going for them than people realize. I made an observation during Carmella vs. Liv Morgan last week at Extreme Rules, and it echoed in my head when watching this match. Bunny is like Carmella in that she knows what she’s meant to do, but the execution ain’t that great. Ford, on the other hand, like Morgan, is greener but is showing improvement and will continue to do so if surrounded by people that know more than her… even if they’re not as good at doing the moves themselves. Oh yeah, they lost their match against TaiJay, who aren’t as good as their Instagram followers would have you believe.

Cody Rhodes is not happy about how the crowd continues to treat him and the rest of The HemorRhodes Family. I bloody love it, and I’m with them on this one! Cody worked one summer on the indies with Nick Aldis and immediately behaved like he’d worked the territories for 20 years. Then he began booking himself as the life-long, working man’s babyface (with his needy Mrs. latched on too) whenever he didn’t have something more lucrative to do, but thankfully, people soon saw through it and turned on Cody the Climber.

As per usual, Maxwell Jacob Friedman absolutely killed it. In fact, he was too good for his opponent in their promo segment. Yes, people were behind Darby Allin when he finally showed up to confront MJF, but the volume at which the crowd was cheering for Darby, was so much quieter than the virulent verbal abuse MJF was getting from the crowd just moments before.

I really enjoy Dan Lambert and what he’s saying on air, even if Tony Khan is intentionally booking Lambert to come across as a mean old man that’s shouting at clouds. Given enough time, onlookers who don’t see the truth in what Lambert (and, by extension, other veterans like Jim Cornette, Jim Ross, etc.) has to say initially will see it and process it in time. At that point, Tony Khan will only be convincing himself that all of his ideas are flawless, and anyone saying otherwise is a hateful, out-of-touch, old fuddy-duddy. One thing I do notice with Lambert’s promos is that he rushes through them. What he says is spot on, but it’s like he’s busting for a piss and can’t get his part out of the way fast enough. Ethan Page is holding his own in that faction too.

Sammy Guevara defeated Miro for the TNT title. The match was okay, but I think Miro being thwarted so soon and on television was a bad move. Sammy has only just gotten involved in this feud directly, and Miro has been battering the piss out of Luchabama Man for the last few weeks.

I’ve often enjoyed playing a game when watching AEW Dynamite; it’s called “Passive Aggression with Jim Ross.” Every time JR says something with the same spice as “a wrestling match may break out,” I sing the name of the game, and my heart warms ever so slightly. Ross seems to be more comfortable in his role at the moment, as he’s been thrown constructive criticism out there in a more direct fashion. Again, this, too, is probably because of CM Punk’s new supervisory/quality control role.

WWE SmackDown

Fans of SmackDown were treated to Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns… but just the tip. If you want to see their match, you’re going to have to tune in to see WWE Blood Money.

Does anyone else find it a huge coincidence that WWE has this huge Draft Kings advertising deal at the same time that Baron Corbin went from being a bum to a millionaire instantly, thanks to gambling? It’s made his life, and now he’s literally changed his name to “Happy Corbin” as a result. Nobody? Just me? Fair enough.

Just like that time he held the Money in the Bank briefcase, it looked like Brock Lesnar’s drink had been spiked again when he cut his backstage promo. Brock is similar to Randy Orton with his attitude and work ethic. Both of their boredoms diffuse through the TV screen when they’re not in the mood, but when they’re having fun, they sink their teeth into something, and it’s enjoyable for all. It’s just a shame that, you know, the highest bidder gets to host the payoff for this at WWE Blood Money.

Bianca Belair once again showed off her strength against Sasha Banks in their main event. The only problem with this is that she hasn’t nailed the technique with some things 100%. It’s not the first time I’ve pointed out how green she is, but someone needs to tell her to give her gorilla press slam a time-out. I’m not sure which part of the lift she can’t get her head around, but she loses confidence so far up and then almost drops her opponent headfirst onto her own head. Nothing bad’s come out of it yet, but I tense up most of the times she does it.

Sasha Banks’ frog splash could also do with being knocked on the head. I understand that there’s a sentimental attachment to the move, but that’s the same story for so many other wrestlers too. Also, considering Sasha throws herself around with such reckless abandon with 99% of her repertoire, it’s strange to see her jump off the top so gingerly. It’s almost like she’s convinced she’s going to hurt herself every time and doesn’t really want to do it. She barely weighs anything and doesn’t throw herself up and at her opponent as she does with her other dives, so why bother?

Becky Lynch is naturally obnoxious and is playing the role of arsehole brilliantly. I think she’s been watching tapes of old-school heel Rocky.

AEW Rampage

Rampage opened with Bryan Danielson (again) facing the better younger of The Young Bucks, Nick Jackson. Although he’s not very convincing, Matt Jackson is definitely better suited outside the ring, cheering someone on. May I suggest he goes and gets his manager’s license and a few lessons in how to make non-comedic facial expressions? People will pay to see that little prick get what he deserves if done properly.

I was genuinely interested to see Hairline Jackson in a one-on-one match against someone that knows what they’re doing, and Bryan Danielson delivered. Despite leading Jackson through a good match, Danielson still stood levels above everyone else involved. Nick Jackson looked impressive compared to usual, but at this point, he looked no better than a poor man’s John Morrison. Matt Jackson just gave me budget store Matt Hardy vibes. In the end, Danielson scored a tap-out win, thanks to the Cattle Mutilation.

Jade Cargill won a mixed triple threat match when she smashed the utter hell out of Thunder Rosa with a steel chair.

Malakai Black joined AEW with just a slight bit of makeup on one of his eyes. This black eye was an “injury” carried over from Black’s feud with Buddy Murphy in WWE. With each appearance that Black makes, his eye injury gets worse; this is represented by the makeup covering a little more of his face each time. I’m not 100% sure where this is going, but he’s almost got half of his face painted now.

Is Murphy going to show up once Black’s transformation is complete? Or are we going off in a different direction? Either way, I’m enjoying the creativity and attention to detail, even if I found Black’s “Escape From the Psych Ward” video to be a little “too much, just for the sake of it.”

CM Punk wasn’t live on the show, but there was a nice little video package that we got to see instead.

FTR cut a belting promo like I’ve said they could for a while. Watch this space.

I’d completely missed the wrestling news that AEW had signed Bobby Fish until we saw a graphic saying that Fish will take on Sammy Guevara for the TNT Championship on the next episode of Dynamite; nice! Fish is fantastic, and there are a lot of people that can learn from him. Yet another trainer in waiting that AEW has snatched up.

Mark Henry has been taken off the overcrowded commentary table for Rampage and has been left solely with the task of hosting the pre-main event interview. These have been terrible, disjointed back-and-forths so far, but not because of Henry. Henry does his best and makes the segment somewhat enjoyable at the end with his “It’s time…for the main event” line.

Orange Cassidy vs. Jack Evans in a hair vs. hair match is not the main event myself or many others would book on TV. So far on AEW, Cassidy has just been the same bad joke, told over and over again. Jack Evans hasn’t been presented as much better, either. Although, I will give credit where credit is due: this match appears to have also been held under “best behavior” rules and wasn’t as dumb as one would expect from the match on paper. Whether they’ve only just been trained, or they knew how to do it all along, the pair had a non-train wreck that ended with Evans getting his head shaved. Cassidy even made his winning pin look convincing, as he had his hands on both of Evan’s shoulders and applied as much of his weight on him as possible. Well done, kiddo; have a cookie!

That’s it for this week. Digest and discuss! If you’re interested in a quick natter, or just to throw a passing insult, feel free to get in touch down below or over on Twitter.  Thanks for reading about wrestling news, take care, and I’ll see you next Monday to discuss #AnotherWeekOfWrestling!

The amazing black and white background artwork that I’ve mucked around with was designed by Rachael Hope!

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