Week in Review (6/10/12) - (6/16/12)

[Chris]

TNA Slammiversary X​

Chris's Thoughts: We started with Hogan, this promo did absolutely nothing, waste of time. First match of the night was Joe/Aries for the X Division Championship. Holy hell this match was good. One of the hardest hitting matches I've ever seen, every shot looked like it hurt like hell. Great way to start this PPV, hope to see more from these two. Kid Kash vs Hernandez is next. Decen match, a notable botch at one point, but it didn't hurt anything, fun to watch, but the whole time I was asking myself, "Why in the blue hell is this match happening." It would have been better suited to open the PPV...or be the dark match...or not even happen. Devon/Garett (with 1 "R") vs The Robbies was next. My expectations being so low for this match is probably the reason it exceeded them, but it wasn't half bad. Terry's ring time was cut to the minimum, which was nice. It was short and decent. Did not do any harm whatsoever. Hardy/Anderson/RVD is next, expected it to be later in the show. Another very good match, with some nice spots and in-ring action. Ending was kind of weak, and I don't see the point of Anderson winning, but still a damn good match. PPV is shockingly great so far. Crimson's open challenge is next. He cuts a promo before his opponent comes out. Crimson is actually growing on me now, he's better in the ring and on the mic now than he was when they were shoving him down our throats. His opponent is revealed to be the returning James Storm. Nice surprise there, didn't expect it at all. Match was a dud, but Storm returning was the big story here. Glad that joke of a streak is over now as well.

Dixie Carter comes out and announces Sting as the first HOF inductee. Not a bad choice, bullshit that it wasn't one of the Jarrett's though. Sting's promo was nice. KO match was next and it was decent, a little sloppy, better than their Sacrifice match I think though. Brooke is definitely improving in the ring, she actually looked the best in the four way last week, so I'm okay with her winning. Do I like that she ended Gail Kim's forever and a day long reign? No. Does it bother me that she's the champ? That one would also be no, however. Bully vs Park is next and the only bad part of this otherwise great PPV in my eyes. Match was a joke, reminded me of Cena/Ace at OTL, but not that much of a joke. Crowd really saved this one with some hilarious chants like "Let's go Ranger; Yankees suck!" since Bully is from New York. Ending was hilariously stupid with Abyss coming from under the ring. Couldn't make it anymore obvious he was Park. Bully deserves so much better than this, he should be the damn champion. Christian Cage came out next and man he could not look more depressed. It was so obvious that he didn't want to be there, he cracked a smile maybe once. It was pretty cool seeing the WWE IC Champion in a TNA ring though. Very short appearance, no real point however.

The tag title match was next and holy shit what a match this was. This is easily match of the night, probably will be match of the week as well. Some absolutely sick spots and all around great action. Didn't expect AJ and Angle to win, but I'm fine with them as champions. I can't stress this enough, if you didn't watch the PPV and you can't bring yourself to watch the whole thing (though you should), please watch this match at least. Finally we're at our main event. Pretty good match between Sting and Roode actually, best one I think the two have had. Roode looked especially good on offense, though Sting wasn't so great. His Scorpion Deathlock looked like my 8 year old brother could get out of it easily. Ending was as expecting...not clean, but I'm fine with it, wasn't too bad. Looked like Roode hit him with the wrong bottle as well, this one wasn't gimmicked, just had a sickening thud as it hit the Stinger's head and didn't break. Busted him open pretty badly too. Afterwards, Sting went crazy and ended up hitting a cool looking Scorpion Deathdrop off the stage. Even though you hear them talking to each other at the end, it was a pretty cool and different way to end a PPV. Very hot crowd tonight as well. I'm still kicking myself for not going to this show, I passed it up because the card looked weak.

Match of the Night: A.J. Styles & Kurt Angle vs Christopher Daniels and Kazarian

Segment of the Night: I guess Sting's HOF promo, can't give it to Cage because that really wasn't a good promo by him, you could tell he just didn't care.

Overall Rating: 8.0/10

WWE Raw (6/11/12)​

Chris's Thought: We open up the show with a Big Johnny/Mr. McMahon promo. Some great stuff, especially from Vince. The crowd is so hot here, and they stayed like this for most of the show too, which was definitely a blessing. After some pretty good and funny back and forth, Sheamus comes out to add his two cents. He didn't really add much, but it was a way for him to come out and be somewhat relevant in all this before he had a match. Sheamus vs "The Lordless One" Tensai was our first match, and this was surprisingly one of the best TV matches in the past few weeks. It completely took me off guard, was so hard hitting, had an ending that was out of nowhere, though a bit anti-climatic. Very enjoyable match, can't remember the last time a 3 hour Raw started off this good. Afterwards, Tensai attacked Sakamoto and boy did this drag. Absolutely killed the hot crowd. Santino and Layla vs Beth and...are you ready for this? Ricardo Rodriguez is teaming with Beth Phoenix tonight folks. This match was pretty funny, Layla and Beth had some nice in-ring stuff. Ricardo is just all around entertaining no matter what he does. Crowd was mostly dead for this though, which made me think that Tensai really did kill them and they wouldn't be very hot for the rest of the night, but after this, Daniel Bryan came out and cut one of the best promos of his life, no lie. Crowd became hot as hell again.

Punk came out, and he was pretty good in his promo, but Danielson blew him out of the water with his, that was just great. Kane and AJ also came out to complete the segment and make this feud even more awesome than it already is, although AJ doesn't need to talk so much, just be crazy as hell in as few words as possible. Up next we find out the replacement for Alberto Del Rio and who will take on Sheamus this Sunday. It's Dolph Ziggler vs Christian vs Jack Swagger vs The Great Khali. Match was boring as hell until Khali was eliminated a few minutes in, and then it really picked up. Crowd made this one by chanting "Lets Go Ziggler." Once it got down to just Ziggler and Christian, this mach really got good, and so did the crowd. Ziggler is so over, and I'm so glad to see him get the win. I've been pushing him down people's throats for three years now, the dude just has "it," he's damn good. It's about damn time. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he got the belt Sunday either. WWE needs to build new guys as fast as possible, slap the belt on him and bam, you got a main eventer for at least a few months. Ryback gets another squash next. Same old, same old. Kofi vs Show in a cage is next, very boring match until the very end with Kofi started making a comeback and I honestly thought he was going to win. Ending moments were amazing, but overall the match wasn't very fun to watch. Sin Cara vs Curt Hawkins is next (if the regular 3 hour Raws are going to have this many matches, I'm going to be a happy Chris), and this was probably Cara's best match since returning. Hawkins sold all his moves beautifully, especially La Mistica at the end. Good, short match.

Vince and Daniel Bryan exchanged a few word backstage, and that was just surreal to watch, good stuff. Next we have Heath Slater vs a former Raw main eventer. Slater gave it away, but in a good way as he was screaming "It's Slater time!" I was marking the hell out at this point, great to see Vader back. This was the hottest I think the crowd got all night. Amazing moment. Now we're at our main event for the night, CM Punk and AJ vs Kane and Daniel Bryan. Obviously this wasn't going to be a five star classic, but it did it's purpose. AJ kissing Kane was shocking as hell, this buildup for the WWE Title match could not be any better. Only gripe I have is Bryan losing to a top rope elbow. Really, the fuck? Nothing can even make that make sense. Finally we're at our ending segment where we find out if Big Johnny gets fired. Some more good stuff from Vinny Mac, love seeing him again. Show and Cena come out, and they really didn't do much. Wacky Cena is hit and miss with his promos, he hit this week. Ending to this was pretty stupid, probably would have been better if Show hadn't of so obviously missed Vince with that punch, but that couldn't even ruin how great of a show this was. Easily the best Raw since the one right after 'Mania. A must-see.

Match of the Night: Sheamus (2nd Raw MOTN in a row) vs Tensai

Segment of the Night: CM Punk, Daniel Bryan (his was the best), AJ (2nd Raw SOTN in a row), & Kane promo

Overall Rating: 8.3/10

WWE NXT (6/13/12)​

Chris's Thoughts: This is the last NXT Episode of Season 5, which has went on 66 freakin' weeks. Next week will be the first show from Full Sail, featuring FCW talent as well, should be fun. It's also worthy of note in my eyes that as I'm typing this at 10 PM Central Time, Wednesday night, both #YellowRopesForever & #NXT are still trending on Twitter, as they have been for almost four hours, pretty cool. Our first match tonight is Curt Hawkins & Tyler Reks vs Derrick Bateman and Percy Watson. Great match to start the show, all four men looked good, especially Hawkins, who I think stuck out in the match a bit more than the others. Finish looked real nice as Reks finished with the move he calls the "Killjoy." NXT has a habit of finishes being anti-climatic and weak-looking, this definitely wasn't one of them. Kaitlyn vs Natalya was next and this was a nice divas match, not as good as I would have hoped, but better than the one last week. I love both of these girls, and I thought it was funny that even though Nattie was the heel, she was getting some pretty loud cheers. I like Kaitlyn getting the win, but only if they are actually going to give her somewhat of a push, if they aren't then Nattie should have gotten the win, but I've given up on the 'E pushing her. Promo for the New NXT next week looks awesome. I can't wait to see some of these guys and gals. Our final main event on this season of NXT is The Usos vs Johnny Curtis and Michael McGillicutty. I honestly wouldn't mind Curtis and Hennig starting a full-time team, they've worked extremely well the few times they've teamed recently, very fun to watch. This was the second great tag match of the night. All around, a very fun show to watch, though for it to be the last of this season, you'd think they'd have a little more, even for NXT's standards. It seemed just like a regular show.

Match of the Night: The Usos vs Johnny Curtis (2nd NXT MOTN in a row) and Michael McGillicutty

Segment of the Night: Once again, no segments, just wrestling.

Overall Ratings: 6.0/10

WWE Superstars (6/14/12)​

Chris's Thoughts: We start off the show this week with Michael McGillicutty vs Zack Ryder. This was a great match that the crowd was very much into. Ryder and McGillicutty both looked good. Ryder got the win as expected, but I really think if WWE would use McGillicutty to the best of his ability, he'd be a star. Great opener, though I don't think I could care less about Ryder anymore, and I was big on this guy last year. Next up we have The Usos vs The Primetime Players, which consists of Darren Young and Titus O'Neil. My expectation for this one were pretty low, but it exceeded them, probably because Titus had very little ring time, which was the best thing they could do. Usos and Young were great though, some real good stuff here, and while I definitely don't agree with the PP getting the win because they suck, the ending was pretty cool, they didn't botch the Demolition Decapitation this time. After the match they did they're stupid little dance, almost got a chuckle out of me, this team is starting to grow on me, and if they have more matches like this one, I may stop bashing them so much. Our main event is next and they give this one some good time. It's Justin Gabriel vs Hunico and this was a great match to close the show, both guys looked very good here. Shocked to see Hunico getting the win against Gabriel who's probably the most over Superstars regular other than Ryder, but maybe they're actually doing something with Hunico. I don't mind, even if his gimmick has been done too many times. Great match though, I'd say it's worth checking out. 3 damn good matches tonight to tell you the truth, watch the whole show.

Match of the Night: Hunico (2nd Superstars MOTN in a row) vs Justin Gabriel

Segment of the Night: N/A

Overall Rating: 6.9/10

Impact Wrestling (6/14/12)​

Chris's Thoughts: We start right off the bat with an Ultimate X 3 Way. This was good for the most part, kind of boring, but overall a fun way to open the show. Sabin messed up his knee though, and I just found out he tore the ACL in the other leg, not the same one from last year. The guy can't catch a break, back to back knee injuries, only good thing is that it was a different knee, but he still may be done. Anyway, after the match, Hogan came out and he put over Austin Aries, and I mean PUT HIM OVER more than I think I've ever seen Hogan put some one over. He said Aries can have a World Title shot at Destination X if he gives up the X Division title, which is a great way to get Aries into the main event scene without having him lose it. Up next we have our weekly TV title match with Devon defending against Hernandez. Decent enough match, Hernandez looked real good except for one funny spot where he could not get on the turnbuckle to save his life. Nice ending, Devon still getting a nice push for some reason. Now we get a Gauntlet with all the BFG Series guys minus the loser of the main event tonight. Glad they're doing this again, but I hope it's better executed than last year. Anyway, this is not the match I was expecting, I thought it would be a traditional gauntlet, where when one guy gets pinned the other comes out, but no, it's basically just an 11 Man Royal Rumble. Very fun to watch though, and some nice entrants to it. Storm winning was very predictable, but I liked Joe being the last one out here.

Storm cuts a nice little promo afterwards, it's so obvious he's winning and facing Roode at BFG, but I'm not complaining by any means. That's what NEEDS to happen, and it better. Madison Rayne vs Brooke Tessmacher is next, decent little match, don't really remember much other than Brooke's ass though. The ending was cool, Brooke did an Eye of the Hurricane like finisher, much better than the weird slam she's been doing. Now we have our main event tonight, Bobby Roode defending against Mr. Anderson, and this one was great, everything executed perfectly. I'm also fairly sure this was Roode's first clean title retention as he made Anderson tap out to the Crossface. Great stuff. Sting is out next to talk about his HOF thing I guess, only five minutes left in the show at this point. He thanks Jeff and Jerry Jarrett (the two who SHOULD have been in the HOF first), but before he can say anything else, three guys who's faces are covered attack him. Very cool cliffhanger ending, haven't seen too many of them recently. I have no clue who the three guys are, but they were pretty big, at least two of them were, and the third definitely wasn't small. Pretty good Impact tonight, much better than last week. After one of the best PPVs of the year in Slammiversary and a good Impact, TNA seems to be on the right track.

Match of the Night: Bobby Roode vs Mr. Anderson

Segment of the Night: Hulk Hogan (2nd SOTN in a Row) & Austin Aries

Overall Rating: 7.0/10

WWE Smackdown (6/15/12)​

Chris's Thoughts: We open the show with a mass promo between AJ, Vickie Guerrero, Dolph Ziggler, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan & Sheamus, and good Lord was this promo awesome. Each person got in some good stuff in a short amount of time, every bit of this was just damn good to watch. AJ going crazy at the end was super hot too. First match is what should be the main event, but nonetheless Ziggler/Bryan vs Sheamus/Punk commenced. This was a great tag match with Ziggler getting the win over Sheamus being the best possible thing they could do at the moment. Loved this. Segment afterwards was weird as hell. Kane came out and saved AJ, but Punk attacked Kane and Kane ended up Chokeslamming both Punk and Bryan in the ring. AJ then dropped to her knees on the ramp and started laughing. Weird as hell, but I'm loving this WWE title feud. WWE is booking this to perfection.

Brodus Clay is out next and apparently Big Johnny promised him real competition in the form of...Heath Slater. I laughed out loud when Slater came out and Cole started screaming "It's Slater Time!" This was about as quick as a squash could be, nothing much to say here, started a trend of squashes tonight. Beth Phoenix defeated Alicia Fox in another squash, nothing to say here. Big Johnny and Big Show then came out and Big Show continued his string of cutting some of the best promos of his career, he's almost making me care a little about this heel turn. First hour was pretty good, but it dropped off, not by much, but it definitely drops here. Christian beat Swagger in another one you could consider a squash, should have gotten more time. Ryback beat two guys in another squash...4th one tonight. In our "Main event" Damien Sandow beat Tyson Kidd in the 5th squash of the night. Kidd got in a good bit of offense for this one to only last like a minute, damn he's talented, this one should have at least went 5. Cena then came out and he cut a damn good pseudo-shoot promo on Johnny Ace. Ending was kinda' stupid with Cena KO-ing Johnny, but I get why it happened, either way, Cena's promo was pretty good, alright way to close and alright show, WAY TOO MANY SQUASHES though. First hour > Second by a mile.

Match of the Night: Daniel Bryan & Dolph Ziggler (2nd Smackdown MOTN) vs CM Punk & Sheamus

Segment of the Night: Opening segment with AJ, Vickie, Ziggler, Punk, Bryan, & Sheamus

Overall Rating: 6.1/10

Ring of Honor Wrestling (6/16/12)​

Chris's Thoughts: We open this show with Mike Bennett, along with Maria looking HOT. He's against a 20 year old newcomer by the name of Adam Page. Very good match to start the show, Page impressed the hell out of me, and he looked much better than Bennett in this match. I wouldn't mind seeing some more of him. Afterwards Eddie Edwards vs Brutal Bob was confirmed for next week! Up next, we have an in-ring segment with Kevin Steen, Steve Corino, and Jimmy Jacobs. Great stuff from Steen and Corino, despite it not lasting very long. Jacobs didn't say anything, but he was hilarious in the background. The Briscoes vs two guys making their ROH debut is next. Their names are Sam Shaw & QT Marshall. Pretty good tag match here, both of the unknowns were impressive, especially Shaw. Mark Briscoe is starting to get a little too over-the-top for me though, oh well, still a fan of the Briscoes. Afterwards, the Briscoes vs Truth Martini's Guardians of Truth was confirmed for Best in the World. I can't wait for that one, I have a feeling they'll really surprise us. Our main event tonight is Roderick Strong defending the TV Title against Tommaso Ciampa. Weird turn of events during this one. Truth Martini said that the fix was in before the match, and Strong ended up winning by DQ after a decent match. It bored me somewhat, but wasn't horrible. Afterwards, Ciampa and Nana had some problems since Nana caused the DQ and cost Ciampa the title. Weird turn of events that I really don't know what the think of. Not a very good episode overall, main event was a let down and the other two matches were good, but when you know who's winning 100% before the match starts, it's kinda' hard to get into them.

Match of the Night: Briscoes vs Sam Shaw & QT Marshall

Segment of the Night: Steen/Corino/Jacobs segment

Overall Rating: 5.9/10

The Week's Best​

Match of the Week: A.J. Styles & Kurt Angle vs Christopher Daniels & Kazarian

Segment of the Week: Smackdown Opening segment with AJ, Vickie, Ziggler, Punk, Bryan, & Sheamus

Top Shows of the Week: 1. WWE Raw (2) 2. Impact Wrestling (6) 3. WWE Superstars (5) 4. WWE Smackdown (1) 5. WWE NXT (3) 6. Ring of Honor Wrestling (4)

 

[PHX]

Good stuff and kind of curious to check out Joe vs Aries if it is truly as good as you made it out to be since it's been a while I've heard about Joe having a match that was really good. Then again haven't watched TNA in a while.

 

[Chris]

I would probably only rate it ***1/2 stars, but it was just so hard hitting. Every move had me wincing, I'd definitely check it out, hell watch the whole PPV. It's one of the best of the year actually.

 

[We Are Legion]

Are you going to keep doing this every week? This is pretty sick, man. Really like how you cover so much in these reviews.

I like how you rate the shows, too.

 

[Chris]

Yeah, with it being summer, I have time to do it every week. ROH may be the only problem because I don't get it on TV here, so I have to rely on someone else to upload it on YouTube or something because I really don't feel like downloading it. It's usually on YouTube Sunday's at the latest though.