Welcome everyone to the 93rd edition of Spandex and Suplexes: A Wrestling Review. I cover a week that saw AEW Fight for the Fallen and the continued build to WWE SummerSlam and NXT TakeOver 36. Let’s get started.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Damian Priest defeated Sheamus
2. AJ Styles and Omos (c) defeated The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) to retain he WWE Raw Tag Team Championships
3. Drew McIntyre defeated Veer by DQ
4. Natalya and Tamina defeated Eva Marie and Doudrop after interference by Alexa Bliss
5. Karrion Kross defeated Keith Lee by submission
6. Mansoor and Mustafa Ali defeated Mace and T-Bar
7. Bobby Lashley defeated Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin in a 2-on-1 Handicap match
8. John Morrison defeated Matt Riddle after interference by AJ Styles and Omos
9. Reginald (c) defeated R-Truth to retain the WWE 24/7 Championship
10. Charlotte Flair defeated Nikki A.S.H.
Thoughts: Who did Keith Lee upset backstage? After finally making his return two weeks ago to a massive pop after being gone for months, Lee has been booked to lose two back-to-back matches in definitive fashion with this week’s being by submission. With Bobby Lashley getting passed Drew McIntyre, dominating Kofi Kingston, and most likely defeating Goldberg at WWE SummerSlam, WWE needs fresh, legitimate opponents for Lashley’s WWE Championship in the coming months and Lee is someone who could easily be put in that position if WWE doesn’t keep having him lose every week.
Overall, this was an okay episode of Monday Night Raw with the highlights being Priest vs. Sheamus, Styles/Omos vs. Viking Raiders, and Riddle vs. Morrison.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Pete Dunne and Oney Lorcan defeated Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa after interference by Ridge Holland
2. Carmelo Hayes defeated Josh Briggs in an NXT Breakout Tournament First Round match
3. Kayden Carter and Kacy Catanzaro defeated Franky Monet and Jessi Kamea
4. Imperium (Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel) defeated Hit Row (Ashante Thee Adonis and Top Dolla) after interference by Legado del Fantasma (Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde, and Raul Mendoza)
5. Adam Cole defeated Bronson Reed
Thoughts: The biggest news coming out of this week’s episode of NXT was Samoa Joe resigning as William Regal’s enforcer and challenging for Karrion Kross’ NXT Championship to which Regal made official for NXT TakeOver 36 on August 22nd. This will be Joe’s first match since February 2020, and it is good to see him back as an active competitor. Joe vs. Kross should be a physical and brutal encounter as The Soman Submission Machine serves the biggest threat to Kross’ title reign to date. With Karrion now competing on Raw, it stands to reason that Joe will be the one to end his reign and become the first ever three-time NXT Champion.
Overall, this was a great episode of NXT with the highlights being Thatcher/Ciampa vs. Dunne/Lorcan, Joe’s championship challenge, Dakota Kai turning on Raquel Gonzalez, and the main event.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Results:
1. The Elite (Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Doc Gallows, and Karl Anderson) defeated “Hangman” Adam Page and The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver, and Alex Reynolds)
2. FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) defeated Santana and Ortiz
3. Lance Archer (c) defeated Hikuleo to retain the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship
4. Christian Cage and Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) defeated Hardy Family Office (Angelico, Isiah Kassidy, and Marq Quen)
5. Thunder Rosa defeated Julia Hart
6. Chris Jericho defeated Nick Gage in a No Rules match
Thoughts: This was the Fight for the Fallen special episode of AEW Dynamite. Personally, I feel that this is where Hangman Page should have earned his AEW World Championship match, but with AEW All Out still six weeks away, AEW must want to extent Page’s chase to earn his shot at the gold. Even though I felt Page and The Dark Order should have won, it was still a great match and is My Match of the Week.
AEW is heavily hinting at CM Punk debuting for the promotion soon, with the August 20th episode of Rampage in Chicago being the most likely place it occurs. Punk hasn’t competed in a wrestling ring in over seven and half years, so if The Best in the World really is coming to AEW to wrestle, then it will be great to see him battle it out in the squared circle once again.
Overall, this was a great episode of Dynamite with the highlights being The Elite vs. Page/Dark Order, and Hiroshi Tanahashi challenging for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Rey Mysterio defeated Jimmy Uso after interference by Dominik Mysterio
2. Reginald (c) defeated Chad Gable by DQ after interference by Otis to retain the WWE 24/7 Championship
3. Big E, Cesaro, and Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode, and Apollo Crews after interference by Rick Boogs
4. Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks defeated Carmella and Zelina Vega by submission
Thoughts: That WWE Universal Championship contract signing made no sense. This was supposed to be a championship contract signing between Roman Reigns and Finn Balor in what was supposed to set up a match between the two at WWE SummerSlam. However, as Balor was about to sign the contract, he was attacked by Baron Corbin who tried to sign the contract himself only for him to be attacked by John Cena. Cena then signed the contract and got himself a championship match with The Head of the Table at SummerSlam. What? Does WWE not know that is not how contracts work? Finn Balor’s name was printed on the contract so Corbin or Cena signing it should not make any difference. Paul Heyman even rightfully brought this up to WWE Officials, Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville, but all they did was shrug and said the match was official.
There were quite a few ways for WWE to set up Reigns vs. Cena at SummerSlam that would have worked way better than this. This was needlessly convoluted, confusing, and inconsistent with how WWE contracts have been presented in the past. Like really, if all you must do is sign your name on a contract and the match is yours, then why doesn’t everyone do this every time there is a title match contract signing so that they can get the opportunity? This also needlessly threw Finn under the bus and now I guess he is going to trade facing Reigns for the Universal Championship in the main event of SummerSlam for a feud with Corbin. What a terrible trade off. This also makes Cena look like a jerk as he just stole someone else’s shot.
Overall, this was a good episode of Friday Night SmackDown with the highlights being Sasha Banks’ return, Seth Rollins’ attack on Edge and in ring promo, and Banks’ post main event match beatdown of Bianca Belair.
That’s it for this week’s Spandex and Suplexes. While you are here on Florida Geek Scene, be sure to check out the second episode of my spin off series, Spandex and Suplexes: The Interview Series, where I interviewed veteran pro wrestler, Randy Hogan. 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.
