The Last Week In Wrestling #49 (Wrestling Round-Up)

Welcome to this edition of The Last Week In Wrestling, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we’ve got a smaller week to review, but an interesting one. The National Wrestling Alliance debuts as a regular competitor in the weekly awards race and I sound like an asshole. I’m very happy to bring you this wonderful edition of The Last Week In Wrestling…because I’m a putz.

Best Moment:

I’m Retir…Kicking Your Ass! (World Wrestling Entertainment) – Randy Orton pretended to retire from a broken leg just so he could attack AJ Styles. Trust me. This was some good s—.

Best Promo:

MJF And His Stipulations (All Elite Wrestling) – MJF agreed to fight Cody Rhodes, as long as Cody agreed to get whipped by a belt. Yeah, this crazy freak asked for it in a great promo.

Best Speaker:

Evil Uno (All Elite Wrestling) – The Dark Order is a lousy faction, but Uno is a great talker. Am I even getting his name right? Any-way, this guy has become one of the best managers around. Let’s go get some more damn managers.

Best Character:

Aron Stevens (National Wrestling Alliance) – The former Damien Sandow has turned himself into an evil Karate Kid rip-off and it’s pretty damn cool. Aron can still talk with the best of them and he can wrestle just the same, but seeing him as the lame-ass Judo teacher with an ego the size of Las Vegas is just too kick-ass to ignore.

Best Wrestler:

Aleister Black (World Wrestling Entertainment) – Black tore the house down with Buddy Murphy, who was fantastic in his own right, but not quite as spectacular as Aleister Black. Black is like a new kind of Undertaker, blending his size with a gimmick built on mystique while also offering intense, intricate transitions and clinches that are too unique to equate to any-body else. This is a hell of a guy to have as wrestler of the week and if the booking is indicating any-thing, we’ve got a lot more Black coming our way this year.

Best Performance:

Ilja Dragunov (World Wrestling Entertainment) – Ilja was a killing machine in his math against Alexander Wolfe. If he keeps up with performances like this, you might just have a great head-liner for this brand this year.

Best Move:

Ankle Lock (World Wrestling Entertainment) – Chad Gable gave Dash Wilder a reason to walk funny when he expertly wrenched Dash like a carrot’s crotch in their match against each other.

Best Match:

Cody Rhodes versus Darby Allin (All Elite Wrestling) – There were two matches with higher ratings than this one, but this just felt right. These guys went for a long time and really knocked each other around like it was going out of style.

Best Card:

AEW: Dynamite (All Elite Wrestling) – AEW had a thoroughly excellent card where every match was in the mid to high threes and offered a lot of exciting action to boot.

Best Show:

AEW: Dynamite (All Elite Wrestling) – While this show had a great card, the show itself was a bit dull. That being said, this was the best episode of wrestling TV we had this week, warts and all.

Best League:

All Elite Wrestling – AEW was pretty dominant with just one show, while the WWE had to promote several show just get half as close to AEW’s success this week. AEW is the clear winner this time.

Final Verdict: 3.4/5

This was a good, solid week, but the holiday lull may have taken its toll (although New Japan Pro Wrestling seemed to hold it together during the beginning of the new year).