The Last Week In Wrestling #12 (Wrestling Round-Up)
Welcome to this edition of The Last Week In Wrestling, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have a lighter edition of the column, but no less important. So, by the powers of Mandy Moore, I now pronounce thee…probably better looking than I am. $#!@.
Best Promo:
Subtle Manipulation – Tommaso Ciampa (NXT): Tommaso Ciampa used sycophancy and suggestion to goad Johnny Gargano into challenging for the NXT North American Title, rather than competing for the NXT World Title. Ciampa did a fine job talking like a devious mind and it added more to his character. Ciampa is really good at this kind of promo and he should get to do more of it.
Best Moment:
Women Get The Gift – Vince McMahon and the Women of the WWE (Raw): Vince McMahon finally gave the women their tag team division, complete with the tag titles themselves.
Best Move:
Machka Kick – Rusev (Smackdown): Rusev won the United States Title for the third time with the kick and did so in spectacular fashion.
Best Personality:
Vince McMahon (Raw and Smackdown): If I didn’t know better, I’d say I was trying to kiss Vince’s ass by giving him this award to weeks in a row, but he deserves this one. Vince gave the women their tag titles and provoked AJ Styles to kick his ass to make AJ vicious when he challenges for the WWE World Title. Vince has done really well at staying fresh now that he will all over TV, once again.
Best Character:
Tommaso Ciampa (NXT): Ciampa played the part of the cunning manipulator this week and it makes his run as champion more intriguing, because he is willing to do more to remain champion than just wrestle the next opponent.
Best Performance:
Low Ki (Major League Wrestling): Low Ki looked like he was trying to kill Konnan in a match that was almost a fight to the death for the MLW World Title. Low Ki was so convincing here that you are tempted to call the cops on him before the bout can even finish.
Best Wrestler:
Ronda Rousey (Raw): Ronda wrestled the best match of her career so far and, if Dave Meltzer is to be believed, called the whole match in the ring with Natalya. Ronda is coming close to being the total package in such a short amount of time and it’s just what she needs to make this run stick.
Best Card:
Raw (WWE): I’m in the Twilight Zone. Raw was good two weeks in a row and it’s about time. The matches for Raw were an excellent bunch that were wrestled quite well.
Best Show:
MLW: Fusion – Christmas Special (Major League Wrestling): The matches were all excellent and the show was short and sweet. There was no filler or garbage, which made this half an hour fly by.
Best League:
WWE: Remember when Richard Lewis was told by Roger Rees in Robin Hood: Men In Tights that his mole was in the wrong spot and he said “I have a mole!?”? I feel like giving the WWE the big award two weeks in a row is like me having a mole on my face I don’t know about. I can’t believe that I’m giving Vince so much praise. I might have to chop my head off.
Best Match:
10. Mustafa Ali vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas (Smackdown) – 3
9. Samoa Joe vs. Jeff Hardy (Smackdown) – 3
8. Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin (Raw) – 3
7. MJF vs. Puma King – Flag Match (Major League Wrestling – Christmas Special) – 3.5
6. Rhea Ripley vs. Deonna Purrazzo – NXT UK Women’s Championship Match (NXT: UK) – 3.5
5. Rusev vs. Shinsuke Nakamura – United States Championship Match (Smackdown) – 3.5
4. PCO vs. Brody King – No Disqualification Match (Major League Wrestling – Christmas Special) – 3.5
3. Undisputed ERA vs. Heavy Machinery – NXT Tag Team Title Match (NXT) – 3.5
2. Finn Bálor vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Drew McIntyre – Triple Threat Match (Raw) – 3.5
1. Ronda Rousey vs. Natalya – Raw Women’s Championship Match (Raw) – 4.5
My Take: I thought this was a massive success, both for the wrestling and the spectacle of it all, being that two friends were fighting for the title while also representing the eternal battle of teacher and student. Besides my pompous write-up of this match, these two had a fantastic main event that ought to do both athletes some favors for 2019.
Final Verdict: 3.5/5
The WWE had a strong week and MLW really took advantage of the fact that Vince was the only televised competition to fight against, since Impact and Ring of Honor just ran review shows.
