Time to talk wrestling. Remember these aren't in depth recaps, just me rambling.

So let's talk about Raw.

I hate Stephanie McMahon, I have always hated her. I know she's a heel and I'm supposed to hate her, but it's a different kind of hate. I just want her to go away. Her voice hits that part of my brain that makes her existence almost painful to me.

In ROH I hated Maria Kanellis, but in the way they wanted me to hate her. I hated her character but, I didn't want to change the channel when she showed up.

With Stephanie it takes all of my power to not turn the show off.  She is actually one of the reasons I wasn't watching Raw, that and the absurd length of the show.

We get a segment with her and Vince talking. They are addressing the large portion of the roster standing on the ramp. Basically they tell us that one of those men will be the new champions. They point out Dolph Ziggler, Kevin Owens, and the New Day.

I need to take a moment here. They tell Dolph that this could be his chance to finally grab the brass ring. Dolph Ziggler, a two time World Heavy Weight Champion,  hasn't grabbed the brass ring yet. I know that comment was made just to anger 'smarks' but it does no favors to the roster. The guys are supposed to be stars, they refer to them as Superstars, but they are treated like losers.

Roman Reigns comes out to a good pop and delivers a decent promo. He brings up the possibility that he might win. The feeling online, you know with the 'smarks', is that he is going to win. I don't know. It's almost too obvious.


We then get the first match of the show, Dean Ambrose vs. Sheamus. I didn't really get into this match at first. There was no reason to. I knew there wasn't going to be a clean finish. Sheamus had to be kept strong and Dean, being the Intercontinental champ, also had to look good, so neither guy was getting pinned. The matched ended with a brawl on the outside and a double count out. Then something a little surprising happened. Sheamus bled. Seeing blood on Raw nowadays is almost shocking. It appeared Sheamus bled the hard way, after slamming his head in the ring post.
   

Right after that Kevin Owens came out and attacked Ambrose. I am really looking forward to their match at the Rumble. I've been a fan of Owens since I first saw him in ROH. He was on the first ROH show I saw. Kevin Steen, as he was then known, was one of the reasons I got back into wrestling and ROH became my favorite promotion. He always delivers and I know that match, if given the time, will be amazing.


Xavier Woods is great. He is one of the most entertaining men in the WWE. So seeing him, the rest of the New Day and Chris Jericho in the ring together brings a smile to my face.
 
  

 I was right.

The only down side to this segment, for me at least, was Chris Jericho referring to the Uso's as his "back of the bus brothers". I'm sure he meant that he and the Uso's ride in the back of the WWE bus together but it came off almost a little racist. The words "back of the bus" have a racial connotation to them, sure the Uso's are Samoan and not black but they are ethnic. Other than that the segment was pretty good.

The match afterward was just there. Jericho and Xavier's interactions were gold though.


Paul Heyman showed up to remind everyone why he is one of the best personalities in wrestling.


At the last Raw we saw the debut of the Social Outcast. This week they challenged the Wyatt Family to a match. I love the Social Outcast, hate the name, because seeing those guys on Raw is something different. The match didn't last very long, it was apparent that the Social Outcast were out-manned. Ryback made the save and that was that.


After that we had Kalisto versus Alberto Del Rio. This was a pretty good match with a shock ending. Kalisto wining was a great surprise. I love the idea of him as the United States Champion. The underdog Champion issuing an open chance and barely winning each time would be awesome.

There was no Diva's match this week. Charlotte was supposed to face Brie but Becky Lynch attacked Charlotte. Ric Flair called off the match, and after calling Lil' Naitch fat, led his daughter to the back.

We get a backstage segment with Becky Lynch. She really sells the story of being alone and fighting her former best friend.


The main event is the One vs. All match with Roman against everyone. This turned out a lot better then you would imagine. Your first instinct is that this will be Roman going over half the roster. Instead we got a competitive match between Roman and Kevin Owens.

When it looked like Roman was going to win Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, the New Day, the Ascension, Stardust, The Wyatt Family and Tyler Breeze began the beat down.

Roman is getting the shit kicked out of him when Brock Lesnar made his way to the ring.

I never saw Brock wrestle in his first run, that was when I had moved away from wrestling. I know him more as a MMA fighter. His return wasn't a huge deal to me. Having said that I am not blind. The guy may not love the wrestling business but he is damn good at it.

Watching him destroy people is just entertaining. The only person to get even the tiniest bit of offense on him was Sheamus. I would have liked to see Kevin Owens get a shot in, but I can let that slide.

The show ends with Brock standing over Roman's limp body.

God this show is long. I mean three hours. I love wrestling but this show doesn't have to be this long. It just drags on.

If the show was amazing that would be one thing. This episode, is episode the right word? Whatever, this installment wasn't terrible but it's such a chore to sit through.

I never saw Dean Ambrose on the Independents. My first experience with him is in the WWE. He is very entertaining. He had a great bit at the beginning of Smackdown involving a drum roll. The opening segment started with Ambrose and then Sheamus came out. I want to take a moment and talk about Sheamus.

I like the guy. He can go in the ring and can talk. I have a problem with him at the moment though. It's his look. I like the Mohawk and don't mind the nose ring, but the beard gets to me. I just can't help but imagine him in the back, braiding his beard. It kills any intimidation factor the guy might have.

The opening segment ends after a brief fight and we get our main event, Sheamus & Owens vs. Ambrose & Neville.


One of the things advertised for this episode of Smackdown was the tables match between the Dudleys and the Wyatt Family. The Dudleys are just treading water now, which is sad. This was not a great match, and the ending was a let down. Luke Harper fell through a table. He was standing on the steps outside the ring and Bubba gave him a slight push. That was it.

The brawl after the match was a hell of a lot better then the match itself. Bubba getting double choke slammed through the tables put the ending of the match to shame.


I like that Smackdown is showcasing some of the guys you don't normally see on Raw. We got a match with Goldust, Zack Ryder, Jack Swagger, Damien Sandow and the Social Outcasts. When was the last time Sandow was one Raw?

The match was super short but it had a frantic energy to it. While it was a bit of a mess that sort of works for the Social Outcasts.


On Raw Kalisto won a surprise upset against Alberto Del Rio. He got his first singles title in the WWE. It was a good match and a great ending. So they had a rematch on Smackdown. Once again it was a good match. Unfortunately Kalisto lost the match and the title. A lengthy title run could have made him. Instead we got a quick turnover. I assume Kalisto will get a rematch at raw.


For two weeks in a row the main event of Smackdown ended in a double count out. Not that I'm complaining. I assumed Neville was going to eat the pin, instead he looked like an equal the other men in the ring, which is a good thing to see.

All in all I am enjoying Smackdown more than Raw. The shorter run time, better commentary, and use of the undercard appeal to me.

Now for my favorite show from the WWE, NXT. This is the first NXT of the Year for me. The last two episodes were ‘best of’ compilations and I skipped them. There’s no need to watch a ‘best of’ when you’ve seen every episode.

William Regal opened the show and he looks good after his recent surgery. He brought out Sami Zayn to a huge pop.

I don't know why Sami Zayn is back in NXT. He should have gone right to the main roster. They could have had him as a surprise entrant into the Rumble. Instead he is back in Full Sail. That does mean we are getting Zayn vs. Samoa Joe vs. Baron Corbin, for a shot at Finn Balor. That is going to be a great match. 

Tommaso Ciampa had a good outing against Danny Burch. I had been waiting for Tommaso to show what he can do and this was it. His last match against Joe was good but this really showed off how viscous and impactful Ciampa can be.


I hate when you  have a match with the champion and he or she comes out first. That shit bugs me to no end. The next match had Dash & Dawson the NXT Tag Team Champions, who came out first, against the Ascension. This was a quick match but still entertaining. It's sad how misused the Ascension is on the main roster but they are still loved in NXT.


I don't get Elias Samson's gimmick. The drifter thing just doesn't make sense. How is he a drifter if he shows up at Full Sail every week? 


Let's move on to the main event.

Through out the episode we got little interviews with all of the women in the battle royal. You can really tell how little experience a lot of these women have delivering promos. Carmella, Emma, Alexa Snow, and Asuka shined in comparison. Peyton Royce stood out to me though, her promo wasn't bad it's just that she called herself NXT's "Venus Fly Trap". That is the worst name/gimmick I have heard in a very long time. What does that even mean? She could have said "Wild Flower". That would have been perfect. Still her and Billie Kay stood above some of the newer girls.

The match itself was entertaining enough. It was missing the drama of a Battle Royal were the competitors come out one at a time. The drama in the match came from two false finishes. First Asuka appeared to win, which the crowd loved, until Eva Marie reentered the ring and threw her out. Full Sail hates Eva Marie, in their defense she is easy to hate. Eva stood in the center of the ring celebrating until Carmella did to her, what Eva did Asuka.

This was genius. Whoever booked the match knew that anyone but Asuka would be booed. So they had Eva take the heat, which she was going to get anyway, and Carmella wins with while getting the crowd behind her. To misquote Bray Wyatt "Anyone but you Eva. Anyone but You."

Let's talk ROH. Before I get into this week's episode, I want to talk about Steve Corino. Corino has been the color commentator along side Kevin Kelly for years, he originally replaced Nigel McGuinness. I love the team of Kelly and Corino. He is currently in contract negotiations, apparently, with ROH and as such Nigel McGuinness is back with Kevin Kelly. I like Nigel but Corino and Kelly have such great charisma.

I'm hoping Steve's son, Colby, being in the Hot Prospect Tournament is a good sign. We'll just have to wait and see.


So first up we have a tag match between Roppongi Vice and the All Night Express. I like both of these teams. When I first got into ROH, ANX where on the hunt for the titles. I watched them finally overcome Charlie Hass and Shelton Benjamin and it was a great moment. Kenny King then, while holding the tag titles, jumped ship to TNA. Skip forward a few years and he's back.

When the All night Express first reappeared at All Star Extravaganza VII they were cheered. That ended quickly. At that moment the fans forgot what Kenny King did. Recently they've started to remember. Which leads me back to this match.

It seems like the ANX, or at least Kenny King, are turning heel. That's probably for the best since there aren't many truly heel teams in ROH. You had the Kingdom, but with Michael Bennett gone and Matt Taven injured that team is no more. We still have The Addiction, who are fantastic. I guess you can count the House of truth but Joey Diesel Daddiego and Donovan Dijak don't team that often. The Decade don't count since BJ Whitmore is still out with an injury and even when he was wrestling he didn't team up with Adam page that much. So the All Night Express turning heel is a welcome change.

Hey can I talk about Rocky Romero for a sec? Good. There were questions about his future. The rumor was that he was going to sign with NXT as a trainer. Luckily, for us, he instead signed with NJPW for two years. That means we get more Roppongi Vice and maybe just maybe a new version of Talk'n Shop. One can always hope.

The All Night Express won after a questionable tag to Kenny King. This was a fun, quick match. Not much to say otherwise.


Next up we got story time with the Kingdom. Matt Taven was on a single crutch, he badly hurt his knee at Final Battle. I wasn't a huge fan of Matt, I hadn't seen any of his work before the Kingdom, until I heard him on Talk'n Shop. He came off as a really likeable guy. I hope he has a quick and successful recovery. So, the Kingdom came out, and Adam Cole, still selling his arm from his amazing match against Kyle O'reily, called Bennett and Taven losers.

Before he got much farther reDRagon interrupted him. Kyle O'Reilly looked like a man on the edge as he tried to get at Adam Cole. Bobby Fish asked Nigel McGuinness for a match against the Kingdom and got it. The Young Bucks were added to the match after they came out and asked for a shot at the Kingdom as well. So next week we get reDRagon vs. the Kingdom vs. the Young Bucks. That is going to be a fun match.

Speaking of the Young Bucks they appeared in an add with Steve Corino for his new DVD. Matt Jackson gave Corino's son a super kick. which was followed by Steve Corino's trade mark "SUPERKICK" call. It made me smile.


I mentioned the House of Truth earlier, I said that Dijack and Diesel didn't tag that much, well they teamed up here. They faced the current ROH Tag champs in War Machine. This was basically a squash, as it should be considering the difference in tag experience between the teams. Even though it was a squash ,Donavon Dijack got in some offence. This included a crazy top rope corkscrew dive to the outside. For a man that is 6 foot 7 inches tall he can move. I am amazed the WWE hasn't snatched him up.

War Machine is probably my second favorite tag team in ROH after reDRagon. I am shocked they haven't been booked by New Japan. I know they worked in Pro Wrestling Noah so they're no strangers to Japan. Just imagine how those two would get over in front of a NJPW crowd.

Back to Dijack, he had a face moment after his corkscrew, when he refused to use the Book of Truth. Before he did that I was thinking how great he would get over as a face. I'm not sure if he is turning face though. Sure after the match, where he was pinned, he ended up leaving the House of Truth. Truth slapped Dijak so the big man did what anyone would do and went to wring the life out him. Diesel intervened, but ended up getting hit with a ‘Feast You Eyes‘. Truth escaped and fired Dijak. All of this sounds like a turn but when Truth was leaving we saw Prince Nana. I had forgotten that Nana gave Dijak one of those mysterious envelopes. The ones that made Caprice Coleman and Will Ferrara try to kill each other last week. So I don't know if Dijak is turning face, or just joining up with whatever faction Nana is going to be heading up. We'll see.


Our Main Event was a fatal four way between Jay Briscoe, Moose, Matt Sydal and Dalton Castle.

Dalton Castle is one of my absolute favorites at the moment. I was a big fan of him when he was Ashley Remington in Chikara, but as Dalton Castle he has really stepped it up a notch.

If I could just digress for a second. Shinsuke Nakamura was scheduled to work a few ROH dates soon, but once he signed with WWE he pulled out of those dates. One of the matches he was supposed to have was against Dalton Castle. This is something I didn't know I wanted until I heard about it. Now that I know this match isn't happening I feel deprived. Can you imagine Dalton Castle and Shinsuke Nakamura in the same ring together? I don't think the building could handle that much charisma.

Back to the match, it was a fast paced and entertaining. Some people may not like it because of the lack of psychology and selling. I get that. But sometimes a match full of moves is nice. This is one of those times.

Dalton Castle won with the pin on Matt Sydal.

Can we just take a moment to look at the talent in the ring for this match. You have unparalleled charisma with Castle, Sydal is one of the best high flyers period, Jay Briscoe looks like a legit killer, and Moose has unlimited potential. These four guys show just how deep the talent pool at ROH is.

What the fuck is wrong with Jeff Hardy? I mean the face paint is bad enough as it is, but then he comes out with paint on his fingers. Paint he applies to his face on top of the paint already there. I don't get it.

I'm jumping ahead a bit. EC3 and Tyrus started Impact. Hardy came out and asked for a match. I wouldn't bother talking about this because it wasn't that interesting. The thing is this segment led to Shynron debuting on TNA.
  
  

Shynron is an independant wrestler best known, to me at least, for his time in Chikara. He is a great high flyer and I am always excited to see him. Even in a short squash like this one.

    

When I first got back into wrestling everyone was talking about Awesome Kong. She was in the WWE at the time under the name Kharma. This was during that time when she was not on TV after becoming pregnant. She lost that baby, sadly, and left the WWE. That situation was one of the things I followed when I got back into wrestling. Ever since I've stayed abreast of her career. I even saw her YouShoot a while back, she seems like a real sweetheart.

Recently there has been news about how banged up she is. That might be why she is undergoing a bit of a character change in TNA. Gone is the silent monster and in it's place is the sassy leader of the Dollhouse. This change might be a bit jarring for people who haven't heard her speak before, but I dig it.

I bring this up because after the first match the show cut to the Dollhouse doing a promo when the Beautiful People interrupted, leading to a street fight between the two teams. The match wasn't good. Let's move on.


Eric Young is the least credible heel in wrestling. He spent all of 2015 losing feuds. So seeing him here once again facing Bobby Roode was a bit underwhelming. That's not to say I don't like the guy. He does have a great crazy guy look and can go in the ring. Having said that, I am not into him teaming up with Bram. The whole domestic abuse thing soured me on Bram. Anyway, Eric Young won the King of the Mountain title from Bobby after a low blow. Even now he can't get a clean win.
 

Speaking of the King of the Mountain Championship, that is a good looking title.


I want to take a second to talk about the abortion that was the Mr. Anderson segment. The segment itself isn't worth talking about. Instead, let's talk about Matt's kid. Who dresses a baby in a leather jacket, a onesie, and socks?

Moving on.


We got a decent multi man tag match, I am always up for one of those. This one was Tigre Uno and the Wolves vs. Jessie Godderz, Eli Drake, and DJ Z. The match was quick but fun.


Matt Hardy challenged EC3 to a title vs. career match. I'd really like to see these guys move on to other feuds.

Finally we have the main event. Drew Galloway, who I am a huge fan of (his work in Evolve has been fantastic), versus Kurt Angle.

The Main Event was the best match on the show. I would have liked for the match to be longer but I was happy with what we got.

I think it was a mistake to have Angle face Galloway in the first match of his Farewell tour. Angle will probably, hopefully, put over whoever he faces last. That should have been Galloway.

Impact was a mixed bag this week. Most of the wrestling was good, but some of the segments were just painfully bad. Still the show's not three hours long so it has that going for it.

Sticking with TNA they did an One Night Only last week. I just watched it so I figured I'd talk a little about it.

It started with a 4 man elimination match for the X division title with Tigre Uno the champ, Crazy Steve, Mandrews, and DJ Z. While I usually like multi man matches this one didn't catch my attention. It's hard to get into a title match when you know who's going to win. TNA taped a bunch of shows before this, so they weren't going to have Tigre Uno drop the title and then give that away during the tapings. If there was more to this match other than the title that wouldn't be a problem. But that was the only story of the match

The worst part of this match was Mandrews, god that is a stupid name, using his skateboard during the match. Instead of using it as a weapon he road it down the ramp into a head scissors. The entire spot was just there to elicit a "This is Awesome" chant. The thing is, there were actual moments in this match that were awesome.

After the match Gregory Helms came out and had a stare down with Tigre Uno. Helms looks massive next to the champ, how was he ever a cruiser weight?


Next up we have Aiden O'Shea vs Rockstar Spud. The first time I saw Aiden O'Shea I loved his look instantly. The next time I saw him he did something that just pissed me off. He was in a match with Crazy Steve, throughout the match Crazy Steve went after Aiden's hand. He bit it, stomped it, and slammed it into the steps. Aiden won the match and proceeded to take a boxing stance and punch the turnbuckle with that hand. It's one thing to win the match with a punch using the bad hand but to completely no sell it to that degree is just insulting.

Rockstar Spud is awesome by the way. The match he had against EC3 was my favorite TNA match of 2015. Have you ever noticed that when Spud talks he gets Stallone mouth?

The match was fine. Aiden O'shea played his part well, that of a bully, and Spud made a great firey baby face come back.
            

Michael Bennet is not the guy to save TNA. Especially when the guy gets outshined by Robbie E, who I think has a lot of charisma. I don't know who booked this match but they did a shit job. Bennett should have won a quick squash to establish himself in his debut. Instead it was mostly 50/50.

Remember when I was talking about the NXT Women's Battle Royal? Well TNA did it the way I was talking about, starting with two and then having more women come out. It didn't help. The one interesting thing about this match was that one of the women in the match, Deonna Purrazzo, also competed in the NXT Battle Royal. 


I like that TNA is using more Independent talent. Seeing guys like Shynron and Trevor Lee getting exposure is great. Trevor Lee has a bright future in front of him, but if he's staying on TNA they need to get him better music.

I'm not a huge Grado fan. The first time I heard about him a got a bad impression. I had been looking for Kevin Steen matches on Youtube and stumbled on the video above. It was a match between Steen and Dave Mastiff a British wrestler with many similarities to Steen. I instantly liked Mastiff and learned he was on the second season of TNA’s British Boot Camp, Mandrews eventually won that show. Grado was on that show. I read a review that had some very negative things to say about Grado, that resonated with me.

Later I watched Insane Fight Club, a documentary about the Scottish wrestling promotion Insane Championship Wrestling, and started to turn on him a bit. I'm not a huge fan but the guy has charisma and is working hard to live his dream. So good on him. 

I bring Grado up because he's in the next match, a Monster's ball match against Abyss. The match wasn't good. During it my mind started to wander. I began to imagine Abyss, before the event started, putting all of his hardcore plunder under the ring. He probably had to take multiple trips. On one trip he took the thumbtacks and Janice, on another the barbwire boards. Maybe he was whistling or humming to himself while doing it. Then I wondered if Abyss takes these things to the arena himself. Does that mean he has a car? If so then he has a drivers license. Eventually the image of Abyss on line at the DMV popped into my mind. It was glorious.

   
Next up was the 3 way tag match with The Wolves, who are the champs, Drew Galloway & Kurt Angle, and Jessie Godderz & Eli Drake. I was looking forward to this match. I really like Eddie Edwards, Galloway, Angle, and Eli Drake. I don't dislike Davey Richards or Jessie Godderz but I'm not high on them.

The match itself was actually a lot fun, if a bit short. There were a few great moments, like Angle suplexing both of the Wolves, the chop off, and Galloway diving over the top rope. This was the match of night.


Bobby Lashley faced Tyrus in the next match. It was slow and uninteresting.
 

The main event was a tag match between the newly reformed Beer Money and Bram & Eric Young. The match was fine on a technical level but I just couldn't get into it. I am a big fan of Tag Team wrestling and as I said before I am excited about seeing Beer Money, since I never saw them during their previous run. Still this match was just there. 
  

That was One Night Only. It was not a good show. The only matches that I enjoyed were the 3 way tag and the Rockstar Spud vs. Aiden O'Shea. Neither were great but they were fun.


That's it for this week.

Oh wait, I forgot the news. There wasn't much this week. The only thing of note is that Shinsuke Nakamura was stripped of the IWGP Intercontinental Title, which I think I mentioned last week. Aside from that there
are rumors that WWE might be trying to get the rights for Nakamura's music which is a great idea. His music is fantastic.

Now, that's it