The Last Week in Wrestling #1 (Wrestling Round-Up)

Welcome to the debut of The Last Week in Wrestling, right here on Nerdly. We’re combining the WWE Week In Review and the Nerdly Wrestling Awards into one weekly column that will perform the function of both. With Phil covering Raw, Smackdown and Impact, this will give me the chance to get all my stuff out in one sitting. I’ll give you my ratings for all of the matches before I give you my thoughts on the each league.

As for the Nerdly Wrestling Awards, that’s getting moved to just the end of the year and maybe we’ll have some goofy looking trophies to hand out then… to no one. Also, I apologize for all of my bad reviews last week… because they sucked. If you don’t remember, they were pretty much just obnoxious for the sake of being so. I liked the Wendy Williams eye joke, though. Wendy is cool. Wendy should wear a wig that looks like the state of Nevada. Anyway, I don’t wanna sound too professional. Let’s get started.

WWE Match Ratings Out Of 5:

RAW:

• Bobby Lashley versus Kevin Owens – 2.5
• Ronda Rousey & The Bella Twins versus The Riott Squad – 2.5
• Finn Bálor & Bayley versus Jinder Mahal & Alicia Fox – 2
• Global Battle Royal To Qualify For WWE World Cup – Winner: Kurt Angle – 2
• Ember Moon versus Nia Jax – 1.5
• Bobby Roode & Chad Gable versus The Ascension – 1.5
• Braun Strowman & Raw Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre versus The Shield – 4

Smackdown:

• SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch versus Charlotte Flair – 3
• Jeff Hardy versus Samoa Joe to qualify for the WWE World Cup – 3
• AJ Styles versus Shelton Benjamin – 3
• Randy Orton versus Big Show to qualify for the WWE World Cup – 2

Mixed Match Challenge:

• Braun Strowman & Ember Moon versus Finn Balor & Bayley – 3
• AJ Styles & Charlotte Flair versus R-Truth & Carmella – 1.5

Mae Young Classic:

• Io Shirai versus Zeuxis – 2.5
• Deonna Purrazzo versus Xia Li – 3
• Tegan Nox versus Nicole Matthews – 2.5
• Mia Yim versus Kaitlyn – 3

205 Live:

• Lio Rush versus Lince Dorado – 3.5
• Tony Nese versus Cedric Alexander – 3.5

NXT:

• Keith Lee versus Kona Reeves – 1.5
• Ricochet versus Pete Dunne and Adam Cole – Triple Threat Match For The NXT North American Title – 4

Final Verdict: 2/5

This was a rough week for the WWE, with several excellent matches being unable to redeem Vince’s weekly pity party.

Lucha Underground Match Ratings Out Of 5:

• Matanza Cueto versus Taya Valkyrie – Sacrifice To The Gods Match – 2
• Mil Muertes and Fenix versus El Dragon Azteca Jr. and The Mack – Tag Team Match – 3
• Ricky Mundo versus Famous B – 1.5
• Pentagon Dark versus Reklusa – 3.5

Final Verdict: 3/5

Over-all, this was a good episode that had a better main event than the solid one from last week.

Impact Wrestling Match Ratings Out Of 5:

• Trevor Lee versus Jack Evans versus Puma King versus Petey Williams – Four-Way Match – 3
• Grado versus Maximo – 1.5
• Rohit Raju versus Gursinder Singh – 1.5
• World Champion Austin Aries, Moose & Killer Kross vs. Johnny Impact, Eddie Edwards & Fallah Bahh – Six-Man Tag Team Match – 3.5
• Knockouts Champion Tessa Blanchard vs. Keyra – Non-Title Match – 3

Final Verdict: 3/5

I didn’t like this as much as Phil did, nor did I feel like this was as good of a card to build to Bound For Glory, but it was solid and offered the best action in about a month from Impact.

Major League Wrestling Match Ratings Out Of 5:

• Jimmy Yuta versus El Hijo de LA Park – 2.5
• Brian Pillman Jr. versus Vandal Ortagun – 2.5
• Teddy Hart versus Rich Swann – 3.5

Final Verdict: 3/5

This was a good week that didn’t really feel like it was a part of the bigger picture.

Ring Of Honor Match Ratings Out Of 5:

• Coast 2 Coast versus The Kingdom – Tag Team Match – 2.5
• Shane “Hurricane” Helms versus Marty Scurll – 3
• Cheeseburger beat Will Ferrara – Fight Without Honor Match – 3

Final Verdict: 2.5/5

This was a decent night of action, but it did feel like amateur hour.
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Best Moment:

Shawn Michaels Is Back (WWE) – It may have been ruined by Triple H and the whole Crown Jewel controversy, but the return of Shawn Michaels was a great moment.

Best Move:

Canadian Destroyer (Petey Williams – Impact, Teddy Hart – Major League Wrestling) – Both men did a great job making that move look incredible and important, especially its creator, Petey Williams.

Best Promo:

Cease-Fire Ends (Impact) – The LAX/OGz promo was quite good and did a good job in making the Concrete Jungle Match look like a big deal.

Best Card:

205 Live (WWE) – It may have been only two matches, but they were two excellent matches.

Best Show:

Impact – Between our two reviews, both Phil and I agreed that Impact had a good week in terms of how the show was structured. This was a good final pitch for Bound For Glory and was the most match-friendly that Impact has been in some time.

Best League:

Lucha Underground – The card was good, but it was the atmosphere that got LU this award. Every card from LU, whether good or bad, feels like it is leading to the Ultima Lucha card, no matter what is booked and this week’s card was no different.

Best Wrestler:

Ricochet (WWE) – This guy is some-thing else. If Vince doesn’t give him a chance on his roster, then he’s an idiot.

Best Match:

Ricochet versus Pete Dunne and Adam Cole – Triple Threat Match For The NXT North American Title (WWE) – This 4 out of 5 match was great stuff and blew away every-thing else this week, including a great Raw main event that featured The Shield fighting The Monkees, or what-ever the name of Braun Strowman’s trio is meant to be called.

Final Judgement: 3/5

This week in wrestling was good, over-all. I liked a good deal of the wrestling that we had. The shows were not always the best they could have been, but they got the job done.