The Last Week in Wrestling #5 (Wrestling Round-Up)
Welcome to this edition of The Last Week In Wrestling, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have some great matches to cover, so let’s do so.
WWE Match Ratings Out Of 5:
Raw:
- Sasha Banks, Bayley & Natalya versus The Riott Squad – 3.5
- Apollo Crews versus Jinder Mahal – 2
- AOP versus Seth Rollins (Handicap Match For The Raw World Tag Team Championship) – 2.5
- Elias versus Dolph Ziggler – 2
- Nia Jax versus Ember Moon – 2.5
- Bobby Lashley versus Finn Bálor – 2.5
- Drew McIntyre versus Kurt Angle – 2.5
Final Raw Verdict: 2.5 out of 5 – On a night when Kurt Angle looked better than the guy put over, Raw proved that even when it does things right, it will likely get the rest wrong. Seth Rollins losing the titles in a Handicap Match was a bad idea that Rollins made work, but it just sets him up for another dull feud with Dean Ambrose. Having Nia and Tamina as a team is a good idea and I hope it works. Over-all, Raw was far below where it should be, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been.
Smackdown:
- The Usos versus The New Day – 3
- Becky Lynch versus Nikki Cross – 3
- Rey Mysterio versus Andrade “Cien” Almas – 3
- Samoa Joe versus Jeff Hardy – 3
Final Smackdown Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 – There wasn’t any-thing bad tonight, so that’s a good start. Smackdown has the better roster and it showed with this event, as every match and segment was populated by the best of the best. Over-all, Smackdown did pretty good this week.
NXT:
- Heavy Machinery versus The Forgotten Sons – 2
- Dakota Kai versus Taynara Conti – 2.5
- Lars Sullivan versus Velveteen Dream – 2.5
Final NXT Verdict: 2 out of 5 – This was a dull week that wouldn’t make you come on back if you had to.
NXT UK:
- “Bomber” Dave Mastiff versus Damien Weir – 2.5
- Ligero versus James Drake – 3
- Eddie Dennis versus Sid Scala – 2.5
- Pete Dunne versus Danny Burch (WWE U.K. Championship Match) – 4
Final NXT: UK Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 – I almost went quite a bit lower with this review, but the main event put this whole show up a lot higher. NXT: UK is struggling to be as good as its main events, but it hasn’t been tainted by the strange things that permeate NXT every week in its American sibling, so it has a good chance to be worth watching in the long run.
205 Live:
- Kalisto & Lince Dorado versus TJP & Mike Kanellis – 3
- Lio Rush versus Josh Morrell – 2
- Buddy Murphy versus Mark Andrews – 3.5
Final 205 Live Verdict: 3.5 out of 5 – This was a simple show that focused on wrestling and did it right. Nothing on here was the best of the best, but it all worked as well as it needed to and made the next week some-thing to look forward to.
Mixed Match Challenge:
- Bobby Lashley & Mickie James versus Finn Bálor & Bayley – 2.5
- Jimmy Uso & Naomi versus R-Truth & Carmella – .5
Final Mixed Match Challenge Verdict: 2 out of 5 – This show is usually painful to watch and half of this no different, while the other half belonged to a better league. Vince has all of this money and he still can’t make this show worth the effort to watch it. Why can’t the match just be serious? Why does mixed tag wrestling have to be an excuse to be stupid?
Ring Of Honor:
- Silas Young (representing Bully Ray) versus The Sandman (representing Flip Gordon) in a Pick Your Punishment Match – 2.5
- WOH World Champion Sumie Sakai, Madison Rayne and Jenny Rose versus Kelly Klein, Karen Q and Dr. Britt Baker – 2
- Cody versus Kenny King – 3
Final Ring Of Honor Verdict: 3 out of 5 – This was a clunky show that had a good card, but the wrestling failed to match the potential of the card itself. There’s still no sense of grandeur to ROH, which is some-thing Vince can turn on and off for his WWE, so if ROH wants to compete and succeed in the thriving market, they’ll need to get better at presenting an hour as incredible television.
Lucha Underground:
- Fenix versus El Dragon Azteca Jr. (Two Out Of Three Falls Match) – 4
- The Mack versus Mil Muertes (Death-Match) – 4
- Johnny Mundo versus Matanza Cueto (Sacrifice To The Gods Match) – 4
- Pentagon Dark versus Marty the Moth (Cero Miedo Match For The Lucha Underground Championship) – 3.5
- Jake Strong versus Pentagon Dark (Lucha Underground Championship Match) – 3
Final Lucha Underground Verdict: 4.5 out of 5 – Ultima Lucha Cuatro was a blast. This was one of the best wrestling events of the year. I still think LU should just make hardcore wrestling the default rules for matches, as the league focuses on hardcore action any-way. Look at how many stipulation matches we had and you’ll see their all the same match any-way, so why not just stream-line the standards of the show? Fortunately, this particular league, which does make some big mistakes every now and then, usually sticks the landing and has great matches. If we get another season of Lucha Underground, I hope they focus on improving the logic of the promotion and making it easier for new people to start watching and enjoying what has got to be the most unique wrestling league around.
Major League Wrestling:
- Myron Reed versus Marko Stunt – 3
- MJF versus Jason Cade and Jimmy Yuta (Triple Threat Match For The World Middleweight Championship) – 2.5
- Low Ki versus Daga (World Heavyweight Championship Match) – 3
Final Major League Wrestling Verdict: 2.5 out of 5 – The titles were on the card, but they felt second to the opening bout, which stole the thunder of the title match.
Impact Wrestling:
- The OGz (Homicide & Hernandez) w/ King versus Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr & Fenix) – 3
- Jordynne Grace versus Katarina – 2.5
- X-Division Champion Brian Cage versus Sami Callihan (X-Division Championship Match) – 2
- Moose versus Eddie Edwards – 3.5
- World Champion Johnny Impact versus Killer Kross w/ Moose (Impact World Championship Match) – 2.5
Final Impact Wrestling Verdict: 2.5 out of 5 – This was a decent show that failed to make the best of a fine card. Moose and Eddie stole the show on a night when the original LAX and the Lucha Bros. had a good night as well, but they couldn’t make this show into a real winner. Actually, Impact felt like a minor league deal tonight, which is a shame since the Final Hour promos with Killer Kross were fantastic. I still feel like I’m watching Jeff Jarrett stumble his way through the booking, rather than this renaissance that so many are praising.
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Best Moment:
Flip Is Punished (Ring Of Honor) – Flip Gordon was caned in a segment that was really well handled and made to look like some-thing that wasn’t supposed to be happening, even though you’d think that management would just cut to commercial rather than show a man be beaten to death.
Best Promo:
Shaul Is A Warrior (Lucha Underground) – Eddie Guerrero’s daughter, Shaul Guerrero, debuted with LU and had a great promo that was followed by her beating the hell out of Famous B. Shaul came across as a big deal and got a great start to her career in her new promotion.
Best Move:
Choke-Slam (Lucha Underground) – Matanza Cueto choke-slammed Johnny Mundo through the roof of Antonio Cueto’s office. You don’t see that every day and I hope we don’t see that again, but it was a jarring image and a thrilling one.
Best Match:
The Mack versus Mil Muertes: Death-Match (Lucha Underground) – This was a little bit of every-thing, but when it got mean, it got great.
Best Wrestler:
Fenix (Lucha Underground and Impact Wrestling) – Fenix had one of the best matches of the week and did a great job on Impact as well, so Fenix has got to be the wrestler of the week.
Best Card:
Lucha Underground – LU’s Ultima Lucha Cuatro was a resounding success that had numerous matches that were great on paper and in practice. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Best Show:
Lucha Underground – Ultima Lucha Cuatro was great and had twists and turns all over the place, as well as the promise of an even more exciting season 5.
Best League:
Lucha Underground – For a season finale, this was about as good as it gets. I may complain about this company some-times, but they know how to put on a great event when they put their mind to it.
Final Judgement: 4 out of 5
Ultima Lucha Cuatro made this a really great week, even with the usual mistakes from Impact and the WWE. Did I mention that Ultima Lucha Cuatro was great?
