Welcome everyone to the 98th edition of Spandex and Suplexes: A Wrestling Review. I cover a week that saw the AEW All Out PPV, the continued build to WWE Extreme Rules, and two NXT Championships on the line. Let’s get started.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Results:
1. Best Friends (Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor, and Wheeler Yuta) and Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus) defeated Hardy Family Office (Matt Hardy, Isiah Kassidy, Marq Quen, Angélico, and Jack Evans)
2. Miro (c) defeated Eddie Kingston to retain the AEW TNT Championship
3. Jon Moxley defeated Satoshi Kojima
4. Britt Baker defeated Kris Statlander by submission
5. The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fenix) defeated The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) (c) in a Steel Cage match to become the new AEW World Tag Team Champions
6. Ruby Soho won the Casino Battle Royale last eliminating Thunder Rosa to earn a shot at the AEW Women’s World Championship
7. Chris Jericho defeated MJF by submission
8. CM Punk defeated Darby Allin
9. Paul Wight defeated QT Marshall
10. Kenny Omega (c) defeated Christian Cage to retain the AEW World Championship
Thoughts: This was an amazing PPV event and is a clear contender for My Event of the Year. There were so many special moments. Minoru Suzuki making his AEW debut by attacking Jon Moxley was an unexpected and cool moment. The Lucha Brothers vs. Young Bucks Steel Cage match was phenomenal and is not just my clear Match of the Week, but also a major contender for My Match of the Year. Ruby Soho (FKA Ruby Riott in WWE) made her surprise AEW debut by winning the Casino Battle Royal. She is a great addition to AEW women’s roster. CM Punk proved he still had it in his match with Darby Allin. The night would end with the epic, surprise debuts of Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson. This was not just a great show, but potential a major game changer for AEW in becoming serious competition for WWE.
Overall, as I said, this was an awesome PPV with the highlights mentioned above.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Sheamus defeated Drew McIntyre in a #1 Contender’s match to earn a shot at the WWE United States Championship at WWE Extreme Rules
2. Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley defeated Natalya and Tamina
3. Karrion Kross defeated John Morrison by submission
4. Charlotte Flair (c) defeated Nia Jax to retain the WWE Raw Women’s Championship
5. Reggie (c) defeated Akira Tozawa to retain the WWE 24/7 Championship
6. The Hurt Business (Bobby Lashley and MVP) defeated The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar), The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods), Jinder Mahal and Veer, Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado), Mace and T-Bar, Mustafa Ali and Mansoor, and AJ Styles and Omos in a #1 Contenders Tag Team Turmoil match last eliminating Styles and Omos to earn a shot at the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships
Thoughts: Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley make a fascinating oddball tag team that could work with the right booking and writing. It is still too early to say whether this team will work out, but time will tell as their victory over the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, Natalya and Tamina, should make them next in line to get a shot at the titles.
The Tag Team Turmoil match was a lot of fun with the first four match ups kicking off the night. Due to Mace and T-Bar attacking The New Day and Mustafa Ali and Mansoor after losing their match with Kingston and Woods, the last three matchups had to be pushed back to main event of the show. Bobby Lashley and MVP would be the final entrants in the match and would win the whole thing by defeating AJ Styles and Omos to earn another shot at RK-Bros’ titles. After the match, Randy Orton came out of nowhere to hit Lashley with an RKO to finish the show. It will be interesting to see if The Hurt Business manages to take the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships away from Orton and Matt Riddle before The Viper takes on The All Mighty for the WWE Championship at WWE Extreme Rules.
Overall, this was a good episode of Monday Night Raw with the highlights being Sheamus vs. McIntyre and the Tag Team Turmoil matches.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Kay Lee Ray defeated Ember Moon
2. Santos Escobar defeated Carmelo Hayes after interference by Legado del Fantasma (Joaquin Wilde, Raul Mendoza, and Elektra Lopez)
3. The Creed Brothers (Julius Creed and Brutus Creed) defeated Chuckie Viola and Paxton Averill
4. Io Shirai and Zoey Stark (c) defeated Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter to retain the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships
5. Mei Ying defeated Virginia Ferry
6. MSK (Nash Lee and Wes Carter) (c) defeated Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan to retain the NXT Tag Team Championships
Thoughts: NXT GM William Regal announced this past week that there will be a Fatal Four Way match between Kyle O’Reilly, LA Knight, Tommaso Ciampa, and Pete Dunne to determine who will be the next man to challenge for Samoa Joe’s NXT Championship. This should be an excellent match between four of the best wrestlers on the NXT roster. While any of these men would be believable winners, I am still going with Pete Dunne to be Joe’s next challenger, especially with the impact he made at the end of the show when he and Ridge Holland turned on and destroyed Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch.
Overall, this was a great episode of NXT with the highlights being Ray vs. Moon, the two championship matches, and Dunne and Holland’s betrayal of Lorcan and Burch.
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Dynamite –
Results:
1. Malakai Black defeated Dustin Rhodes
2. Will Hobbs defeated Dante Martin
3. Ruby Soho defeated Jamie Hayter
4. The Pinnacle (Shawn Spears, Dax Harwood, and Cash Wheeler) defeated The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, and John Silver)
5. Jon Moxley defeated Minoru Suzuki
Credit: All Elite Wrestling
Rampage –
Results:
1. Andrade El Idolo defeated Pac after interference by Chavo Guerrero
2. Ruby Soho, Kris Statlander, and Riho defeated Britt Baker, Rebel, and Jamie Hayter
3. Brian Pillman Jr. defeated Max Caster
Thoughts: The Dynamite segment between Bryan Danielson and The Elite was great as Bryan delivered a great promo against Kenny Omega and teased an absolute dream match between himself and The Cleaner. While that is certainly a match I want to see, I feel it is too soon and I do not see that match happening until next year’s AEW Double or Nothing. I am hoping that with the major signings of Bryan, CM Punk, and Adam Cole that AEW does not forget about Hangman Page as I believe he should still be the man to dethrone Omega from a storytelling perspective.
Overall, this was a great episode of Dynamite with the highlights being CM Punk’s promo, Danielson confronting The Elite, and Moxley vs. Suzuki. Rampage was also great with the highlight being Andrade vs. Pac.
Credit: WWE
Results:
1. Big E, Shinsuke Nakamura, Rick Boogs, and The Mysterios (Rey Mysterio, and Dominik Mysterio) defeated Robert Roode, Dolph Ziggler, Apollo Crews, Otis, and Sami Zayn
2. Seth Rollins defeated Edge
3. The Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins) defeated The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (c) by DQ in a WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship match after interference by Roman Reigns (The Usos retain)
Thoughts: On this week’s episode, Brock Lesnar made his return to SmackDown. The Madison Square Garden crowd was red hot for The Beast as he interrupted Roman Reigns and The Usos at the start of the show. Lesnar created descent between Reigns and Paul Heyman by claiming that Heyman knew he was going to be at WWE SummerSlam. Brock then demanded that Paul accept his challenge for a match against The Tribal Chief for the WWE Universal Championship. Before Heyman could answer, Reigns and The Usos tried to jump Lesnar, only to be taken out by the former nine-time World Champion.
Later in the night, a frustrated Reigns interfered in the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship match between The Usos and The Street Profits. He then grabbed a mic and accepted Lesnar challenge only to be interrupted by “The Demon” Finn Balor. Balor then confronted Reigns as the show went off the air. It was later announced that The Head of the Table will defend his championship against The Demon at WWE Extreme Rules.
While it was cool to see Balor’s Demon persona after so long, it is highly doubtful he will be the one to dethrone Roman as the clear money match in WWE’s eyes is Reigns vs. Lesnar. This is troubling as Finn has never lost while wrestling as The Demon. Having him lose to Roman under these circumstances does no one any real good as Reigns is already established with wins over the likes of Daniel Bryan, Edge, and John Cena and a loss for The Demon will hurt the character’s mystique. As for Brock, he was more over than ever with the opening segment being one of the best all year.
Overall, this was a great episode of Friday Night SmackDown with the highlights being the opening segment, Rollins vs. Edge, The Street Profits vs. The Usos, and the return of “The Demon”.
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.
