Welcome everyone to the 57th edition of Spandex and Suplexes: A Wrestling Review! I cover a week that saw the AEW Full Gear PPV, the continued build to WWE Survivor Series, and three NXT championships on the line. Let’s get started.
FTR vs. The Young Bucks for the AEW World Tag Team Championships
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Results:
1. Serena Deeb (c) defeated Allysin Kay by submission to retain the NWA World Women’s Championship
2. Kenny Omega defeated “Hangman” Adam Page in the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament Finals to earn a future AEW World Championship match.
3. Orange Cassidy defeated John Silver
4. Darby Allin defeated Cody Rhodes (c) to become the new AEW TNT Champion
5. Hikaru Shida (c) defeated Nyla Rose to retain the AEW Women’s World Championship
6. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) (c) to become the new AEW World Tag Team Champions
7. Matt Hardy defeated Sammy Guevara in The Elite Deletion match
8. MJF defeated Chris Jericho (As a result, MJF and Wardlow were allowed to join The Inner Circle.)
9. Jon Moxley (c) defeated Eddie Kingston in a “I Quit” match to retain the AEW World Championship
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Thoughts: This was a great PPV with every match ranging from good to excellent. With Kenny Omega winning the #1 contender tournament, it seems likely that he will be the one to end Jon Moxley’s AEW World Title reign. Should Omega succeed in winning the title, it is my hope that Adam Page will go after the championship and eventually win it himself. While I felt that Page was not ready to win the AEW World Championship back when he faced Chris Jericho at last year’s All Out, the massive improvement he has seen since then, both as a competitor and as a character, has proven that he is more than ready to be the top guy in AEW.
The Elite Deletion Match was a lot of fun and a worthy chapter in the crazy Broken Universe anthology. The match saw references and call backs to all the previous battles that took place on the Hardy Compound that where featured in both Impact Wrestling and WWE. The cameos by The Hurricane and Gangrel were nice touches as well.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
On one last note, it is awesome that Cody can now officially use the “Cody Rhodes” name again after WWE chose to give up on keeping the copyright to the name.
Overall, this was a fantastic show with the highlights being Omega vs. Page, Allin vs. Rhodes, The Young Bucks vs. FTR (which is My Match of the Week), Hardy vs. Guevara, and Moxley vs. Kingston.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Matt Riddle defeated Elias and Jeff Hardy in a Triple Threat Raw Men’s Survivor Series Team Qualifying match
2. Shayna Baszler defeated Lana by submission
3. Matt Riddle and Keith Lee defeated Sheamus and Braun Strowman
4. Bobby Lashley (c) defeated Titus O’Neil by submission to retain the WWE United States Championship
5. Asuka defeated Nia Jax by DQ after interference by Shayna Baszler
6. Akira Tozawa defeated R-Truth (c), Erik, Tucker, Drew Gulak, Lince Dorado, and Gran Metalik in a 7-Way match to become the new WWE 24/7 Champion
7. – 14. All WWE 24/7 Championship matches: Erik defeated Akira Tozawa (c), Drew Gulak defeated Erik (c) at ringside, Tucker defeated Drew Gulak (c), Drew Gulak defeated Tucker (c), Tucker defeated Drew Gulak (c), Gran Metalik defeated Tucker (c), Lince Dorado defeated Gran Metalik (c), R-Truth defeated Lince Dorado (c)
15. Mustafa Ali defeated Ricochet by technical submission
16. Drew McIntyre and The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) defeated Randy Orton, The Miz, and John Morrison
Thoughts: I found the Raw Men’s Survivor Series team meeting to be entertaining, mainly due to AJ Styles charisma promo work, though Matt Riddle did make me chuckle a couple of times with his facial expressions. The tag match that came after was also good. Speaking of Riddle, WWE decided to axe his first name for some bone headed reason. As with the other ridiculous WWE’s name edits that have been done over the years, I have elected to ignore it.
The WWE 24/7 Championship segment was so chaotic and crazy that I found it to be fun to watch. It was nice to see different wrestlers going after and winning the championship rather than just the same three or four guys we see every week.
Two championship matches were announced for next week as The New Day will defend their WWE Raw Tag Team Championships against The Hurt Business (Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin) and Randy Orton will defend his WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre. Both matches could go either way. While Orton has not held the WWE Championship long, the idea of McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns is an intriguing one, especially after the confrontation between Drew and Roman would have on SmackDown later in the week.
Overall, this was a great episode of Monday Night Raw with the highlights being Riddle vs. Elias vs. Hardy, Riddle and Lee vs. Sheamus and Strowman, Ali vs. Ricochet, and the main event.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Leon Ruff defeated Johnny Gargano (c) after interference by Damian Priest to become the new NXT North American Champion
2. Santos Escobar (c) defeated Jake Atlas to retain the NXT Cruiserweight Championship
3. Candice LeRae defeated Toni Storm
4. Timothy Thatcher defeated Dexter Lumis after interference by Cameron Grimes
5. Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan (c) defeated Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango) after interference by Pat McAfee and Pete Dunne to retain the NXT Tag Team Championships
Thoughts: Leon Ruff winning the NXT North American Championship from Johnny Gargano was truly a shocking moment. We have seen many times over years where the heel champions picks someone much lower on the card like Ruff to challenge them for their title in order to get an easy win, but WWE swerved us by having Leon win the gold. The question is now how long will the unlikely champion hold on to his newly won title?
Overall, this was a good episode of NXT with the highlights being the shocking NXT North American Championship change, LeRae vs. Storm, Thatcher vs. Lumis, and the main event.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Results:
1. Brian Cage defeated Matt Sydal
2. The Natural Nightmares (Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall) defeated The Butcher and The Blade in a Bunkhouse match
3. Shawn Spears defeated Scorpio Sky after interference by Tully Blanchard
4. Tay Conti defeated Red Velvet
5. Penta El Zero Miedo defeated Rey Fenix
Thoughts: The biggest news from this week’s Dynamite was the long-awaited return of “The Bastard” Pac. After an epic encounter between Penta and Rey Fenix that saw the two brothers destroy each other, Eddie Kingston, the man who created the division between The Lucha Bros., walked down to the ring and tried to convince El Zero Miedo to discard Fenix. It was then that the returning Pac made his presence known. Pac made it clear to Kingston that he has not forgotten the disrespect that Eddie had shown The Bastard when he took away his Death Triangle teammates, Penta and Fenix, away during Pac’s forced absence. Pac tried to start a fight with Kingston, but they would be separated by AEW referees and officials as the show went off the air.
It was great to see Pac back and having his first feud back be with Kingston makes perfect sense. Eddie was the one who took shots at Pac when he was trying to recruit The Lucha Bros. to his side, so it is natural that Pac would want to return the favor. This should be a great feud that could see The Lucha Bros.’ loyalty split with Penta siding with Kingston and Fenix siding with Pac. It was announced in the closing moments of the show that Pac will make his in ring return next week against another one of Eddie’s men, The Blade.
Overall, this was a great episode of Dynamite with the highlights being Cage vs. Sydal, the Bunkhouse match, Penta vs. Fenix, and the return of Pac.
Between NXT and AEW this week, I am going to have to give the win to AEW due to the overall match quality and Pac’s return. This brings my personal 2020 WNW rankings to: NXT – 15 and AEW – 30.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Sami Zayn (c) defeated Apollo Crews by count out to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship
2. Otis defeated Dolph Ziggler
3. Rey Mysterio defeated Seth Rollins after interference by Buddy Murphy
4. Liv Morgan defeated Tamina, Natalya, and Chelsea Green in a Fatal Four Way SmackDown Women’s Survivor Series Team Qualifying match
5. Drew McIntyre defeated Jey Uso in an Unsanctioned match
Thoughts: The labeled “Final Chapter” between Rey Mysterio and Seth Rollins was a fitting end to this seven-month blood feud between The Messiah and the Mysterio family. Rey managed to get the final win over his hated foe and Murphy cemented himself as his own man when he cost his former mentor the win. Afterwards, the Mysterio family accepted Murphy and gave him their blessing to be with Aalyah. An irate Rollins went backstage and demanded that WWE Official Adam Pearce give him the chance to destroy Murphy. It was announced soon after that Rollins and Murphy will face off next week. Next week’s match should be the opportunity for Murphy to complete his retaliation against the self-proclaimed Savior of SmackDown.
WWE did an excellent job of making people want to see a future match between Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns after their confrontation on this week’s episode. Whether this match ends up happening at Survivor Series, should McIntyre win the WWE Championship on Monday, or somewhere else down the road, these two men have built themselves up to the point that whenever they do end up clashing, it will be seen as an epic encounter.
Overall, this was a great episode of Friday Night SmackDown with the highlights being the confrontations between McIntyre and Reigns at the beginning and ending of the show, Sami Zayn’s clever way of keeping his WWE Intercontinental Championship, Otis choosing to get more serious and aggressive, Mysterio vs. Rollins, and the main event.
That’s it for this week’s Spandex and Suplexes. I am looking forward to the two championship matches on Raw this Monday and the final build to WWE Survivor Series. While you are here on Florida Geek Scene, be sure to check out the first episode of my spin off series, Spandex and Suplexes: The Interview Series, where I interviewed 17-year veteran pro wrestler, Alex Chamberlain. Until next time, I’ll see you at ringside!
Nicholas Slade
Nicholas grew up reading J.R.R. Tolkien's books, watching Disney and Studio Ghibli films, and reading Marvel comics and Japanese manga. The superb storylines and characters ignited his passion for writing. He graduated from Full Sail University in 2015 with a BFA in Creative Writing for Entertainment. During his writing career thus far, Nicholas has had numerous short stories and articles published in an array of literary magazines and websites.
