Does Anyone Watch Wrestling? (WWE, AEW, TNA, NWA, etc)

[MUSC4EVER]

I enjoyed Smackdown too, great main event, Nakamura deservedly won, he has been booked terribly lately.

Both Raw and Samckdown have been good this week, and I expect it to continue as we build up to Summerslam.

 

[m8h3r]

I enjoyed Smackdown too, great main event, Nakamura deservedly won, he has been booked terribly lately.

Both Raw and Samckdown have been good this week, and I expect it to continue as we build up to Summerslam.

It needs to continue. The booking has been pretty 🤬 for lack of a better word lately. Only a few bright spots but maybe battleground was a wake up. Been ranked the 3rd worse ever just behind one of the king of the ring PPVS and ECW December to Dismember 2006.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Apparently the booking for Battleground was down to Road Dogg, I don't know if that's true or not as it came from Twitter.

I don't think the reason why SD has been bad lately is mainly down to the booking however, they really lost out in the Superstar Shake-up they had.

 

[m8h3r]

Rumoured to be another one soon too so RIP Smackdown if it goes the same way as the last one.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

A few bits and pieces...

Firstly, a big night on Raw tonight with a triple threat match for the main event between Strowman Reigns and Joe, Brock Lesnar will also be there. They have dropped the surname for Elias Samson so from now on it will just be 'Elias'.

Lesnar wrestled at a live event over the weekend, facing Samoa Joe for the title, he obviously won, the full match is on YouTube if you want to see it, Lesnar showed of some new merchandise in the form of a red shirt.

Over on the Blue side, Cena took on Rusev in a no DQ match over the weekend and AJ Styles took on Kevin Owens, not sure if that was for the title though.

Jinder Mahal has now held the WWE title longer than Batista, Daniel Bryan and Jeff Hardy did.

Asuka's NXT Women's title reign has now surpassed the longest tag title reign that New Day holds of 493 days.

Jobber to the stars Curt Hawkins has now racked up 100 consecutive losses, Well done Curt!

 

[Northstar]

I'm kind of disappointed that Shinsuke won since SummerSlam will pretty much be a lose/lose for him.

- If he wins, chances are Corbin will cash in his MiTB contract robbing him of an actual title run. Granted there is the chance that Corbin could cash it in and lose, but considering that's only happened twice I'm not betting on it.

- If he loses, he has to live with the fact that Jinder beat him.

Although I do have to wonder what Jinder will do for promos how since the whole "America sucks" gimmick loses even more appeal when he's feuding with a guy from Japan.

On a Raw note, I'm curious about the possible returns of The Shield and Finn Balor as The Demon. Both of those occurred during my time away from watching wrestling so I am interested to see where they go with them if they indeed to bring both back.

 

[Darla Starch]

So, let's go back in time to April or May of 2014. Tell 2014 you that the main events of SummerSlam three years later are:

• a member of 3MB defending the WWE Championship against the IWGP Intercontinental Champion
• the man who broke THE STREAK defends a title yet to exist against The Rock's cousin, a man having his potential wasted in TNA, and a man who was still training to wrestle.

EDIT:
2017 G1 Climax standings as of when I last checked:
BLOCK A:

• (8pts)

Zack Sabre, Jr.
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Tomohiro Ishii
Tetsuya Naito

• (6pts)

Togi Makabe
Hirooki Goto
Bad Luck Fale
Kota Ibushi

• (4pts)

YOSHI-HASHI

• (0pts)

Yuji Nagata
====================
BLOCK B

• (12pts)

Kazuchika Okada

• (10pts)

Kenny Omega

• (8pts)

EVIL
SANADA
Minoru Suzuki

• (4pts)

Tama Tonga
Toru Yano
Michael Elgin

• (2pts)

Juice Robinson

• (0pts)

Satoshi Kojima

 

[Niku Driver HC]

Nevermind the Intercontinental champion, we have a 3MB member fighting someone who has unified the IWGP and NWF Heavyweight titles against a man of the caliber of Yoshihiro Takayama. A man who has beaten RAW's current GM (and Jason Jordan's dad, 'cause God forbid we forget that after all ) by submission of all thing to bring two different generations of IWGP Hvy. belts together because of Mr. Universal Champion. Of all the 3MB people to be doing these kind of things, I would've sure as heck not say "Jinder Mahal"...
And well, Jinder can always say a filthy Asian is not fit to represent the great country of India, since that's what his gimmick is in my book (India Defender, Hinder Jinder!). He'll just say Japan is a speck compared to the great country that brought us Raja Lion and The Great Khali, which is certainly a claim...

Also, Nagata's last G1 is sure a sad one... I guess his loss to YOSHI-HASHI (ergh) on Day 1 was indeed a prelude to failure. It's a shame, but what can you do... And considering Okada is the only person so far to be undefeated in this year's G1, I'm really starting to get the impression NJPW wants him to win and replicate what hasn't been done in 20 decades or so. That being the reigning IWGP champion winning the G1...

 

[Northstar]

Sounds like Bayley's shoulder injury is legit and will keep her out of SummerSlam. I'm guessing either we'll see a triple thread match between Nia, Sasha and Emma (because of her "threats") for the #1 contender spot or they will go with another multi-person match.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Eva Marie was released by WWE on Friday night, thought she was gone ages ago tbh...

 

[m8h3r]

I swear they released her about a year ago too. Shortly after the suspension if I remember.

 

[Eva]

Nope. They held on to her up until last week.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Bayley is officially pulled from SummerSlam, gutted for her, hope she's back soon. don't know where that leaves the Women's Raw title, best bet would be a triple threat between Bliss Banks and Nia, guess we will find out more tonight where there will also be a big last man standing match between Reigns and Strowman.

 

[VYPA-SQUAD_Ace]

So, after Banks winning the first set of triple threat matches, that's gonna leave Nia to win the second set.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Enjoyed Raw, the Ambrose/Cesaro match and the last man standing match were both very good. 👍

 

[m8h3r]

My favourite bit from raw:

 

[VYPA-SQUAD_Ace]

My favourite bit from raw:

I laughed so hard when I seen that. My brother said "That wasn't scripted, at all. Caught Roman all off guard."

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Cena v Corbin added to SummerSlam which is now a six-hour show, four hour main presentation with a two hour pre-show.

 

[Darla Starch]

2017 G1 standings as of now:
BLOCK A

• Tetsuya Naito/Hiroshi Tanahashi (12 pts)
• Bad Luck Fale/Kota Ibushi (10 pts)
• Hirooki Goto/Tomohiro Ishii/Zack Sabre Jr (8 pts)
• Togi Makabe (6 pts)
• YOSHI-HASHI (4 pts)
• Yuji Nagata (2 pts)

BLOCK B

• Kazuchika Okada (13 pts)
• Kenny Omega (12 pts)
• EVIL (10 pts)
• Minoru Suzuki (9 pts)
• SANADA/Michael Elgin (8 pts)
• Juice Robinson/Tama Tonga/Toru Yano (6 pts)
• Satoshi Kojima (2 pts)

One match left for each participant, including Omega/Okada III. Predicting Naito/Omega as the finals.

 

[Niku Driver HC]

A part of me wants to see Ibushi vs Omega for the finals, but it'll take a damm good stroke of luck for Kota to get the lead (he needs Fale, Naito AND Tanahashi to lose)... Also, another part of me likes to think since when Omega and Okada drew when they had 60 minutes to wrestle, their 30 minute match will also turn into a draw. There hasn't been a single draw since this G1 started, so something has to give...

 

[Darla Starch]

I actually am expecting Omega/Okada to be a complete inversion of their first two matches and barely scrape ten minutes.

 

[Niku Driver HC]

Like a mad sprint? Perhaps, but given it'll be the main event, I'm not so sure NJPW will go down that path... Maybe it'll be a 15-to-20 minutes match, but I don't think it'll be any less than 10.

And I guess I should've spoken about draws after watching Night 16, because of Suzuki vs Okada... Oh well, guess the big draw has been played already.

 

[Northstar]

Apparently the only person in the Fatal 4-way that knows the outcome is Brock Lesnar as it's a part of his contract to know the result. Outside of him it sounds like only a couple people know the result.

I kind of wish WWE was always this secretive, granted half of the time you don't need to see a leak to know the outcome.

As for SummerSlam, I think it's gone from a potentially great looking card to one similar to WM33. There are several matches that could be great, but probably won't be given enough time to reach their potential.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

Its shaping up to be a good looking card, the extra hour means more time for talent to have their moment/get over....theoretically!

 

[Darla Starch]

2017 G1 update: Tetsuya Naito won Block A, faces winner of Block B (whose last show of the tournament this year begins tomorrow 5:30 AM EST).

 

[Niku Driver HC]

Spoiler: G1 Spoiler (Finals revealed)

New update about the G1: Omega has defeated Okada in their third encounter, officially making Omega the winner of Block A and sending him to the finals against Naito. There's a very strong possibility Omega could win two G1s in a row, which hasn't happened in decades... But either way, both men can add a second G1 victory to their resume, as Naito is also a former winner.

 

[Northstar]

Scott Dawson will be out until at least December with a torn bicep.

It seems like The Revival can't catch a break considering Wilder just got back, which is a shame as the tag team division needs all the help it can get.

 

[Darla Starch]

Spoiler

Everyone can be tranquilo now as Tetsuya Naito has won the 2017 G1 Climax, getting an IWGP Heavyweight Title shot at Wrestle Kingdom 12, assuming he keeps the shot until January 4th.

 

[MUSC4EVER]

The tag team division in the company is pretty dead, not much on Smackdown after The New Day and Usos, and that's getting stale. (hope Breezango get a chance), its slightly better on Raw but losing the Revival again is a blow.

The big reason for this for me is that the WWE have split up too many tag teams. American Alpha, Hype Bros, Enzo and Cass and DIY all gone..

 

[Niku Driver HC]

I have to say, I'm somewhat disappointed the G1 final wasn't Ibushi vs Omega, but I can't be mad at such a great match. The crowd was molten about 100% of the time, and both wrestlers put on an absolute clinic. A crazy final, with crazy spots, I can't ask for much more for my first G1 final in a long while...

I will say this, though; Rocky Romero's commentary is a bit too excited to me. He really hyped up all spots! But at least he's no Yoshi Tatsu, which is a major plus. 👍

In the end, how did this G1 rank as a whole for those who watched it? What was your favorite match (or matches)?