The Last Week In Wrestling #29: Wrestling Round-Up Bumper Edition!
Welcome to this edition of The Last Week In Wrestling, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and because this one is running a bit late (an under-statement), I’m putting a whole month together into one mega-column that’ll kick so much ass you’ll…I forgot. My chest hurts. Okay, let’s cover a whole month in one article.
Best Promo:
Bray Wyatt Is Making Fun Of Vince McMahon With A PBS Rip-Off (WWE) – These FireFly Fun House vignettes are too damn funny. Apparently, these things are just making fun of Vince and his evil business practices. Maybe this is what he gets for those Billionaire Ted videos from the 90s?
Best Moment:
How To Start A Riot And Piss Off People (Major League Wrestling) – Contra Unit did another one of those violent, edgy brawls that incense the crowd so much that they practically start a riot all their own.
Best Move:
Super-Kicks (Everyone) – Let’s face it: every damn wrestler is doing the super-kick. If you’re going to cover a month that is dominated by All Elite Wrestling and any independent league out there, then super-kicks are just a part of that. There are so many great ones and they kicked all our asses this month, so there you go.
Best Personality:
Paul Heyman (WWE) – Paul is Paul and that usually is more than enough for the large portion of people. Heyman is just too convincing a personality. I said that last time and it’s even more true now, because he just keeps getting better.
Best Character:
Sami Callihan (Major League Wrestling / Impact Wrestling) – Sami is making psychotic tendencies quite normal in modern wrestling, isn’t he? Sami took the Mick Foley approach to the sport and added enough Jeffery Dahmer-isms to create a monster that most of us would pay to see. I also heard that Sami is a real prick, so that might have something to do with it.
Best Performance:
Michael Elgin (Impact Wrestling) – Elgin has been incredibly consistent in his time with Impact so far, bringing a brute strength and fierce agility that you can never have enough of. The matches he wrestles always seem to be on the higher side of the quality meter (I don’t think that’s real). Elgin has proven to be a pillar for a league that has been in danger of collapsing for some time and that is nothing to take lightly. Elgin gives great performances and if you are giving out an award for “Best Performance”, then he seems to be as strong a candidate as any other.
Best Wrestler:
PCO (Ring Of Honor) – PCO has become some other beast all together. He ain’t the youngest or the freshest, but PCO is so dynamic, that it is impossible to ignore just how much upside he brings to any card he’s on. If PCO was a buffalo in the American frontier, then you’d be hard-pressed to catch a hunter aim the rifle at his hairy ass, because it would look like it would take twice as many bullets just to wing that buffalo. I wish I had John Wayne narrating this sucker, so you could get all the rugged talk right, down to the squintiest grunt.
Best Card:
WWE Super Show-Down – While a massive failure, the card for this show was too good not to award with “Best Card”. “Undertaker versus Goldberg” may have been one of the worst matches in wrestling history, having it on a strong (on paper) card is the stuff that dreams are made of. It’s a shame the dream became a nightmare, but at least, for a time, we had a magnificent card to anticipate.
Best Show:
205 Live (WWE) – This show is just as simple and sweet as honey drizzled over a cream cheese bagel with crispy bacon sizzling on top and…I’ll stop.
Best League:
Major League Wrestling – While it hasn’t been wine and roses for this league lately, the consistency and the atmosphere they’ve got gives this league an extra appeal to it I can’t ignore.
Best Match:
Cody Rhodes versus Darby Allin (All Elite Wrestling) – Looking back, I could have given this very recent candidate for “Best Match” a higher score. This was a fantastic match that made Cody look like a true star and made Allin into one of the best prospects for wrestling glory in recent memory. This is a marvelous example of how to make one match mean so much more than just who won.
Final Verdict: 4/5
This has been a pretty strong month that we’ve had. As summer picks up steam, wrestling looks to be mustering enough momentum for this autumn, which may just prove to be one of the most important eras in professional wrestling history.
