We need to talk about this weekend

With the amazing level of content this past weekend, I think we should have a chat about why WWE exploiting their indy partners for counter-programming is the BEST POSSIBLE outcome for the industry.

Just sayin’: Shota Umino… I’m endlessly entertained by What NJPW has been doing with Moxley and that guy.

NJPW- Dallas

The past two weekends have been the highlight of the year for me. New Japan kicked off their G1 tournament in Dallas and out on a show that was well worth watching. Just a nugget like the Ospreay/Archer match is the type of surprise that you typically only get a few times a year. It’s also really cool that a Japanese company can come into a big market like Dallas, run something like Okada/Tanahashi #475,000 and sell some tickets. Just for shits and giggles, we got Ibushi and KENTA on the SAME NIGHT.

MLW -Kings of Colosseum

The very next night, even MLW had a strong showing with their title switch from Tom Lawler to Jacob Fatu. When it comes to old school, well-thought-out booking and storylines, there just very many promotions that do it as well as MLW. Every person on the show has a direction and every segment has the purpose of getting someone over. For instance, if you follow the product, rather than having enhancement guys put over Low-Ki in pointless squash matches that wouldn’t communicate anything to the audience, they’ve been having Ki putting people down with pseudo-shoot, KO finishes. Not everything they do is a home run, but at least when there is something like a Ladder match on the show, someone makes an attempt to explain why the situation is being utilized

Impact Wrestling – Slammiversary XVII

The next day was Slammiversary. Can you believe that TNA/Impact has been around THIS LONG?! What did they do? They had a pretty kick-ass show considering their roster is damn near a ghost town. Rich Swann has been wrestling like twice the performer he ever showed in WWE. Elgin and Cage came to WORK! Again, it’s not often that we get nice surprises like this in a given year and we’re just talking about a very small window of time.

WWE – 205 LIVE

Biff Busick has always been good. It’s easy for me to appreciate his work. However, I’ll be damned if he didn’t have a crazy-ass match with one of the most boring acts in WWE. Not only that, but 205 Live has been delivering on the WRESTLING end of things on a very consistent basis. It just reminds me of when I was highlighting the raw DEPTH of talent WWE sits on during this awkward period since WrestleMania where Shane McMahon has been getting put over the entire world.

NJPW – G1 Climax Night 2

Then we get to the 13^th and we are knee-deep in the shit because G1 night 2 is on. I didn’t think there was anything that blew me away, but I felt that it was a very watchable show. I wouldn’t consider myself a huge Ishii fan. We get it, you hit people with elbows really hard, but magically, they stop selling forearms and elbows just to facilitate the dumb “elbow each other and scream at each other” spots. I did enjoy the match with Cobb significantly more than I thought I would though.

AEW – Fight for the Fallen

By the time we got to AEW’s charity show, we had already more great wrestling in a week than had been available in the past for months on end! The opening 6-man was a lot of fun. Can someone PLEASE get Darby Allin some actual gear? I’m not so sure that I believe in the utopic ideals of allowing everyone to take 20 minutes or so to tell their stories and “express their art”. The Women’s tag disaster ran over 15 minutes. What story was being told exactly? There wasn’t even a heat or a hot tag. The show ran long, some of the matches ran too long, and why in God’s Name would the Lucha Brothers challenge the Young Bucks to a Ladder match while there isn’t anything to be climbing a ladder to reach for? You don’t book Young Bucks vs. Lucha Bros in a Ladder Match just because “it would be cool”. That’s right out of Chapter 3 in the Big Book of Indy Nonsense. On the other end of the spectrum, Omega/Cima was REALLY good and Cody is major money on the mic. I know everyone is all excited about getting Adam Page as the next big thing, but Cody will be THE GUY in AEW as long as he wants to be. Sometime during his excursion to the indies and Japan, Cody found IT. The show, in general, had a great deal to offer. This is a good thing.

EVOLVE – 10 Year Anniversary WWE Network Special

At the end of the show, Cody cut a promo on how AEW’s revolution could not be stopped and could not be counter programmed. Obviously, the elephant in the room was the Evolve Anniversary show as presented on the WWE network. I’m not sure everyone understands how valuable a chunk of WWE talent showing up to prop up a card can be. I try to teach people all the time, “Someone may decide to do something for a bad reason, but that doesn’t mean it was the wrong thing to do.” I’ve said before, Matt Riddle is a good wrestler, but I don’t get his act and I’m not particularly invested in his character’s success or career arch. Also, I much preferred Gulak’s work as a manager in the early days of 205 Live. Yet they both put on the kind of match that caused me to take notice of what they can do. That IS the work part of being a worker and I really enjoyed being taken on that ride. I understand that there may have been some malicious intent behind the “coincidence” of running the Evolve special on the same night as AEW’s show. This is ultimately a good thing. The Evil Empire drew attention to someone like Austin Theory that otherwise would not have received it otherwise. It was almost creepy watching Corino’s son selling an ass-kicking like it was 1999 all over again. Many people toil away in the indies for dozens of years and never get eyes on them like they did on 7.13 (Eddie Kingston would be a prime example). That’s a win for the promotion. That’s a win for the hardcore fans that appreciate something different occasionally. That’s a win for wrestling.

NJPW- G1 Climax Night 3

The next day, the G1 shows continue. Firstly, there is the genius tag team of Ambrose and Umino. That’s just great stuff. All kidding aside, Umino is the real deal. Osprey and Sanada was even a bit underwhelming according to my expectations of being a huge mark for both of them AND IT WAS STILL GREAT! Again, Main Event was great. At this point, we’re getting to an obscene level of quality of wrestling. Now, I’m aware that the G1 Climax tournament happens every year. I’m aware that the tournament often produces great matches and provides an opportunity to spotlight some of New Japan’s best in big-time, meaningful matches. This year is different as NewJapan has been able to sell a grip of tickets in the US, and convergence of talent available for dream matches like Ambrose, Ibushi, KENTA, Cobb, Okada, Sanada, and Ospreay.

WWE – Extreme Rules

This is all capped off by WWE’s Extreme Rules PPV. I know that WWE creative is required to write storylines and pitches based on internal metrics and analytics, I would LOVE to look at what spreadsheet anyone is using to conclude that Lacey Evans is over by any stretch of the imagination. At least the Undertaker match wasn’t the same horror fueled, fever dream that the Goldberg match was. There is a part of me that feels that the AJ/Ricochet could be happening 2 years too late. There are some people that really enjoyed the Styles/Samoa program, but that was the 1^st time I started to feel like AJ Styles wasn’t the same type of kick-ass, spot monkey, show-stealer kind of wrestler anymore. I was hoping it was just a fluke. Bex took that EOD like a CHAMP! Again, there were very few things about Extreme Rules that knocked me out of my chair. Rather, the show was good enough and entertaining enough to keep me in my chair for the 4 hours to watch the show.

Of course, the ride didn’t end on Sunday night and there was more great wrestling on the 15^th as early as 5:30am EST. There was an amazing volume of great wrestling in the past week. Of course, I could sit here and bitch and moan about all the things that irritated me on each show, but I do believe that requires some context. Much of what occurred over the past 8 days was historically special. At least for the past 30 years, I can attest to you that we’ve never had a week that good.