Welcome everyone to the 97th edition of Spandex and Suplexes: A Wrestling Review. I cover a week that saw the final build to AEW All Out, the continued build to WWE Extreme Rules, and the WWE Universal Championship on the line. Let’s get started.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Rhea Ripley defeated Shayna Baszler
2. The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) defeated Jinder Mahal and Veer
3. Damian Priest (c) defeated Drew McIntyre and Sheamus in a Triple Threat match to retain the WWE United States Championship
4. Karrion Kross defeated Humberto Carrillo by submission
5. Nia Jax defeated Charlotte Flair
6. Omos defeated John Morrison
7. AJ Styles defeated Xavier Woods by submission
8. RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Matt Riddle) (c) defeated MVP and Bobby Lashley to retain the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships
Thoughts: WWE shook things up in their Raw title pictures by adding Drew McIntyre to the Damian Priest vs. Sheamus WWE U.S. Title feud and had Bobby Lashley and MVP take on the WWE Raw Tag Team Champions, RK-Bro. In the U.S. Title match, Priest surprisingly pinned McIntyre clean. This could be an indication that Drew will be on his way to SmackDown in the upcoming WWE Draft in October. Lashley and MVP getting involved with RK-Bro could lead to Randy Orton taking on The All Mighty at WWE Extreme Rules for the WWE Championship.
Overall, this was a great episode of Monday Night Raw with the highlights being the two championship matches and Styles vs. Woods.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Sarray defeated Mandy Rose by countout
2. Kyle O’Reilly defeated Duke Hudson by submission
3. Imperium (Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel) defeated Drake Maverick and Grayson Waller
4. LA Knight defeated Johnny Gargano
5. Raquel Gonzalez defeated Jessi Kamea
6. Roderick Strong defeated Ikemen Jiro
7. Tommaso Ciampa defeated Ridge Holland
Thoughts: This week continued to build up potential challengers for NXT Champion Samoa Joe with Kyle O’Reilly and LA Knight picking up wins this week. While Pete Dunne was busy dealing with Tommaso Ciampa in the main event, I still feel he is most likely the next challenger for Joe. As for Knight, he really needed a big win to be seen as a legitimate challenger for the NXT Championship after his loss to Cameron Grimes at NXT TakeOver 36. He got one this week with his victory over Johnny Gargano. The NXT Championship scene is very exciting right now and it will be interesting to see who ends up ending the reign of The Samoan Submission Machine.
Overall, this was a great episode of NXT with the highlights being Knight vs. Gargano and the main event.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Dynamite –
Results:
1. Santana and Ortiz defeated FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood)
2. Orange Cassidy defeated Jack Evans
3. Powerhouse Hobbs defeated Brain Cage after interference by Team Taz (Ricky Starks and Hook)
4. Tay Conti defeated Penelope Ford
5. The Elite (Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson) defeated The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix) and Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus)
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Rampage –
Results:
1. Malakai Black defeated Lee Johnson
2. Kris Statlander defeated Rebel and Jamie Hayter in a 2-on-1 Handicap match by submission
3. Darby Allin defeated Daniel Garcia
Thoughts: These were the go home shows before tonight’s AEW All Out PPV. As of this writing there are ten matches scheduled for tonight’s show. My predictions for All Out are as followed: Best Friends and Jurassic Express will defeat Hardy Family Office, Thunder Rosa will win the Casino Battle Royal, Jon Moxley will defeat Satoshi Kojima, Paul Wight will defeat QT Marshall, Chris Jericho will defeat MJF, Miro will defeat Eddie Kingston to retain the AEW TNT Championship, The Lucha Brothers will defeat The Young Bucks to win the AEW World Tag Team Championships, Britt Baker will defeat Kris Statlander to retain the AEW Women’s World Championship, CM Punk will defeat Darby Allin, and Kenny Omega will defeat Christian Cage to retain the AEW World Championship.
Overall, this was a good episode of Dynamite with the highlights being Santana and Ortiz vs. FTR, the CM Punk segment, and Chris Jericho’s interview. Rampage was also good with the highlight being Allin vs. Garcia.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. The Street Profit (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins) defeated The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) by DQ
2. Rick Boogs defeated Dolph Ziggler
3. Cesaro defeated Seth Rollins by DQ
4. Sami Zayn defeated Dominik Mysterio
5. Roman Reigns (c) defeated Finn Balor by referee stoppage to retain the WWE Universal Championship after interference by The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso)
Thoughts: Roman Reigns’ WWE Universal Championship reign is once again in danger as he had to cheat to defeat Finn Balor and has the looming specter of Brock Lesnar looking over his shoulder. There is also Big E waiting in the wings with the Money in the Bank briefcase. With the way Balor lost this match, which is My Match of the Week, I can see him making an argument to have a rematch at WWE Extreme Rules with Reigns most likely retaining again. The Tribal Chief would then go on to face Brock Lesnar at WWE Crown Jewel. Lesnar is a serious contender to end Roman’s run as WWE Universal Champion. This would be interesting as that would mean we could see the dream match of Bobby Lashley vs. Brock Lesnar at WWE Survivor Series assuming Lashley is still WWE Champion by November and Survivor Series is once again Raw vs. SmackDown.
Overall, this was a good episode of Friday Night SmackDown with the highlights being the Becky Lynch/Bianca Belair confrontation, Cesaro vs. Rollins and the aftermath with Edge, the Kevin Owens Show segment with Baron Corbin and Logan Paul, and the main event.
That’s it for this week’s Spandex and Suplexes. I am looking forward to tonight’s AEW All Out PPV. 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.
