WWE Super-Showdown 2018

Having this big WWE show take place in Australia was lovely for me, living in the UK. I got up at a reasonable time on Saturday, made some toast and a brew, and could just settle down to watch some wrestling. Lots of people called this a glorified house-show, which may not be inaccurate, but house-shows are generally great, just solid no-nonsense wrestling, so I was looking forward to this show. The end result was a show that wasn't groundbreaking, but was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning.

The Bar vs The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods)

Perfectly decent opener, solidly entertaining stuff. The New Day put forward their quickest team, and they spend the opening stages showing nice flowing teamwork until both get caught on dives by the Bar, and rammed into ringposts. Sheamus nicely stops the 10 Beats halfway through to stop the crowd singing along in a neat heat-gathering spot. Woods gets a nice flurry when he comes in off the tag, but rushes straight into an Irish Curse from Sheamus, which looked great. The Bar have some neat power spots, including Sheamus throwing Woods into a Cesaro uppercut. A Cesaro sharpshooter looks to have things won for the Bar, but Kofi saves and a fun Kofi top rope stomp onto a Woods backcracker gets the pin on Cesaro. Good stuff.

Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair

Both show some nice aggression early on, with Lynch yanking Flair from the ring by her arm (Charlotte splats on the floor, nasty bump). Loved Becky’s tilt-a-whirl into an armbar, with her cruelly torqueing back Charlotte’s fingers. This obviously is to set up the DisArmHer, but Charlotte does less work to set up for the Figure 8. She does a little – at one point stomping Becky’s leg when it’s stuck on the middle rope – but not very much, feels like it’s just being done to pay lipservice to her finisher. Flair’s spear looks like it folds Becky in half, prompting her to try and leave with the title, but Charlotte stops this with a second huge spear. The Figure 8 gets locked in, but Becky hits her in the leg with the title for the DQ. Disappointing finish aside, this was decent.

John Cena & Bobby Lashley vs Elias & Kevin Owens

Obviously, a lot of the post-match talk has revolved around Cena’s sensible dad hair and the fact he wasn’t allowed to bump because of a film he’s shooting, but I thought that kinda helped the match, made the build up to his hot tag feel greater. Lashley taking most of the heat is awkward, because he’s still not over enough to draw any sympathy from the audience, but I thought he was good here (really odd looking Thesz Press aside). He takes offence big here, bumping nastily through the ropes from a missed spear and taking a full-on Owens frog splash. Owens and Elias make a nice team, and Cena’s finally getting tagged in got a good reaction. Cena basically played the hits, finishing with the AA and his ludicrous new backfist finisher. Enjoyed this.

Billie Kay & Peyton Royce vs Asuka & Naomi

The Iiconics didn’t get as big a pop as I thought they would. This was brief, but harmless. The Iiconics are a bit patchy in ring, but Asuka and Naomi made a fun team, and there were a few neat moments. Loved Kay trying to hurt Naomi by catching a boot and throwing her to the floor, only for Naomi to land in a perfect splits, and this was paid off by Billie trying the same moments later with less impressive results. Asuka hits a weak looking German suplex on Kay after a brief Iiconics heat section, and Naomi hits a great split legged moonsault on Royce, before the pin is stopped. Kay drops Naomi facefirst on the apron, and a running knee from Royce gets the victory.

AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe

Remember when Joe fought Roman on PPV, and people claimed that Joe was being forced to work at a ponderous pace to get heel heat vs Reigns? I wonder what the excuse here was, because this was pretty plodding. It started well, both showing their aggression by fighting in the aisle and AJ quickly recovering from being thrown over an announce table to get right back into the ring. But this match goes over twenty minutes, and there’s not enough to this to keep it interesting. For a no DQ match, this is pretty pedestrian, with Joe walking through his offence at a glacial pace, though AJ tries his best to bump it into a more interesting bout. He takes a Joe standing elbow hard, bumps 360 degrees on a clothesline and takes a hard looking uranage onto a chair. AJ throwing Joe through a table looks awkward though, a really messy landing. Joe sells a leg injury from this point, and Styles zones in on it. Liked the springboard 450 he hit directly to Joe’s leg. Joe’s Kokina Clutch suplex is pretty wild looking too. Joe’s leg gives in on a muscle buster attempt, but he locks in the Kokina Clutch again, only for AJ to (clumsily) reverse it to the Calf Crusher for the tap out win. Like the fact Joe was near the ropes for this, but the No DQ stip meant that it did him no good. Other than that, this was disappointing.

The Riott Squad vs The Bella Twins & Ronda Rousey

This was a perfectly fine trios match. The early stages seemed to be setting up a “Bellas vs Ronda” scenario, as the Bellas only tagged each other and Ronda was left on the sidelines. This didn’t really play into the match though. There’s a brief Brie vs Liv section that I can’t imagine was the pairing anyone wanted to see in this match, before Nikki becomes face in peril. Lovely running knee to the face by Sarah Logan. Hot tag is made to Ronda, and she’s a great hot tag. Big judo throws to Morgan and Logan, some big strikes to Sarah and, though Liv saves Logan from an armbar attempt, Ronda soon locks them both into a double armbar for the immediate tap.

Cedric Alexander vs Buddy Murphy

Murphy is the hometown boy here, and gets a great reaction. This is a fantastic sprint, the career resurgence of Buddy Murphy has been one of the joys of 2018 WWE. Murphy hits an insane dive right from the start, and the pace doesn’t really slow from there. Both hit big spots: Cedric times a superkick perfectly and I loved Murphy constantly trying to climb to the top only for Cedric to use this momentum to hit a top rope Michinoku Driver. Cedric also hits his own big dive. For his part, Buddy gets two on a lovely sitout powerbomb (with a slightly sloppy cover, which fits the story of him being too overexcited in his hometown). There’s a neat sequence where Murphy keeps kicking out of some big moves successively, taking a standing Spanish Fly and a huge Lumbar Check. The pop on the kickout is huge. Cedric tries springboarding into the ring, takes a big knee to the face on landing, and the pumphandle driver gets the victory for Murphy. Huge pop for that, felt like a real feel good moment, and the match was really choice.

The Shield vs Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre & Dolph Ziggler

Loved the face masks that the Shield wore to the ring, looked totally badass. This breaks down really early and Rollins gets isolated as the face-in-peril after an early Shield Bomb is thwarted. Of note Ziggler’s first move of the match is the shitty backslap DDT, and we get maybe too much Ziggler vs Rollins in the ring for my taste. I did like that Ziggler’s shit talking led to him doing something feckless shortly afterwards. Strowman misses a crap looking top rope splash and Ambrose gets the hot tag. Loved Ambrose bringing out something new, hitting a fallaway slam on Ziggler. We get a tantalising Reigns vs McIntyre section that made me want to see that singles match even more. Roman muscling up Drew for a one armed powerbomb was really neat. The Shield Bomb is thwarted by Strowman plowing through the lot of them with a big spear. Roman accidentally hits Ambrose with a Superman Punch to continue the hinted dissension, and this led to the big turning point of the match, as Rollins and Reigns are left alone in the centre of the ring with the heels surrounding them. Ambrose gets on the fourth side, hinting that he may attack them too, only to take out Strowman with a suicide dive. Lovely spot where Strowman looks to be about the charge through Ambrose on the floor, but Reigns takes Strowman out with a PERFECTLY timed spear through the barricade. Back inside, Ambrose hits Ziggler with Dirty Deeds to win. Good stuff here.

Daniel Bryan vs The Miz

I’ll be honest, I only kept half an eye on this match as I was making a (shit) omelette. Luckily, this was brief, so I didn’t miss too much. I do love Bryan getting the pin super quickly by locking Miz in a small package. Keeps the Miz looking strong, shows off Bryan as talented wrestler who can win at any time, and created a nice sudden finish.

Triple H vs The Undertaker

I’ve seen this match taking a lot of abuse on line, and I can see why. It’s very long. Too long. Neither guy is in good shape, with Taker looking exhausted on several occasions, and there’s a load of smoke’n’mirrors horseshit to cover up the limitations of both men. However, I didn’t hate this. I’ve never been a big fan of either guy, and I hated their last two WrestleMania matches, but I also had no expectations going into this. For two men with a combined age of basically 100, who are only out there to give a marquee match-up to this supershow, this was ok. I enjoyed Shawn Michaels’ role in this, sneakily running interference and setting up props for use in the match (with a painfully slow Kane easily kept at bay). The fighting outside is fine, bar the blown back bodydrop Undertaker tries on HHH, with admittedly a lot Taker dragging round HHH by the head, and I enjoyed HHH putting Kane through a table by hitting an elbow drop from the apron. The ref bump where Taker punches him out doesn’t make much sense, given the match is No DQ anyway, and Taker bumps embarrassingly for a Pedigree. HHH crushing Taker’s throat by placing a chair around it and stomping it looked nasty, and Kane making the save by pulling the ref out was really well timed. The supporting hoopla includes a load of chairshots, HHH getting out the sledgehammer and spots where Michaels and HHH save each other from tombstones, before a final Pedigree eventually puts Undertaker down. Not a classic match, probably not even a good match, but for trashy nonsense with two veteran wrestlers past their prime, it was still watchable.

WWE Roman Reigns - Iconic Matches

Well, this is a fun little disc, a low budget Roman Reigns compilation that the WWE have put out. It's not a huge collection, clocking in at just over an hour, but it's decent value at £5, and contains one cast iron classic match.

Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins vs Kane & Daniel Bryan

Texas Tornado match for the tag team titles held by Team Hell No. Really fun little sprint here, with the team prevailing being the one who ultimately were a more concise unit. Loved some of Roman’s strikes here, nice body shots on Kane. The Shield have a wise gameplan here, isolating the members of Hell No, and double teaming them in turn. Bryan reverses a top rope powerbomb from Reigns into a rana to turn the tide and we get a fun little chain of finishers. This ends with all four guys down, but with Rollins down outside the ring. This means Roman has to weather the storm 2 on 1, looking like a beast in doing so. The end sees Reigns spear Kane and get Bryan in a torture rack for to hit a top rope stomp, giving the Shield the titles in a clean win.

Roman Reigns vs Mark Henry

Only goes 5 minutes, but this was fun. Reigns is selling injured ribs from the previous Raw, so Henry zones in on them with big clubbing blows. Reigns’ selling is really on here, as he’s not even able to gain an advantage when he hits a flying clothesline due to the pain. However, Henry makes a mistake in trying to hit a Vader Bomb too soon, with Roman able to get to his feet and hit a massive Samoan Drop. Really impressive power move. Spear gives Reigns the win.

Battle Royal

This is a Money In The Bank Qualifier. Even before the match, you’d probably be safe in guessing Los Matadores or Titus O’Neill weren’t going to win. Not really much to this one, though one Matador, Sin Cara and Fandango all take big bumps on their eliminations. There’s not even a gimmicky Kofi Kingston attempt to escape elimination. Reigns gets a small mid-match flurry where he hits a few moves on different guys to pop the crowd, but it’s not terribly exciting. Bo Dallas eliminating RVD is quite the turn up for the books, and the crowd do admittedly go nuts for the final two face off between Reigns and Rusev. Both were heavily pushed at the time, so this was a real clash of the Titans. Reigns gets the win with the Superman Punch.

Roman Reigns vs Bray Wyatt

Another short TV match, but to be fair they wrestle it like two guys who know they’ve only got 5 minutes, so they’re not going to take it easy. Big, hard hitting blows from both to start, and I love the way Roman hit a range series of blows to different parts of the body to escape a headlock. Bray is at his best using his body as a weapon, hitting the big crossbody and massive senton in quick succession. Nice little sequence outside the ring sees Reigns duck a Luke Harper clothesline and nail Bray with the Drive-By in one fluid motion, but the Wyatts get involved for a DQ ending

Roman Reigns vs Daniel Bryan

From Fastlane 2015, with the winner facing Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. Really great match, probably Reigns’ best singles match to this point. This felt really competitive throughout, with the early battle over a surfboard attempt setting the tone. Loved how early on Bryan realised Reigns was too powerful for him, so started to work on the leg of Reigns, and how Reigns in turn got out of a leglock by just bludgeoning Bryan in the face with forearms. Bryan manages to gain control with some nasty shots, kicking the turnbuckle viciously when Reigns has his head set on it, and then just pelting Reigns with a kick to the liver. The commentary plays up how Reigns is returning from a hernia operation, and Reigns certainly sells the blow as death. Lovely little bit where Bryan gets two from a top rope back suplex, Reigns instinctively rolls to his front to avoid being pinned, but gets put into the Yes Lock instead. Bryan hits two dives, but gets caught on a third with a sick overhead belly to belly on the floor, but Reigns misses a charge and just EATS the steel steps in a massive collision. He only narrowly beats the count out, really effective spot. Loved the spear into a small package for the nearfall, as well as Roman kicking out last second after Bryan hits Knee Plus. They again exchange some brutal blows, with Bryan hitting big kicks and Roman getting massive forearms, before Reigns hits the spear to win. Really excellent match.

WWE Payback 2013

Wade Barrett vs The Miz vs Curtis Axel

This is a triple threat for Barrett’s IC title. Never a big fan of triple threats, but there were a few bits of this that I liked as clever touches. Barrett is always looking over his shoulder, trying to be aware of where the third man is whilst attacking someone, and I like that the importance of Paul Heyman as Axel’s manager is put over by how he’ll constantly tell Axel to take his time on the outside, to pick his spots. Axel is definitely the crowd favourite here, though the portion with just him and Miz in the ring is nothing to write home about. Not bad, but nothing particularly compelling either. Barrett is the guy who feels like he’s bringing energy to the match. Axel gets a huge pop for a Perfect-Plex on Barrett (especially considering its Father’s Day), and the Miz gets booed for breaking up the pin. The ending sequence is pretty hot, and I loved the ending, with Miz putting Barrett in the figure four, only for Axel to sneak in and pin Barrett whilst Miz’s leg are still locked up. Lovely post-match look to the sky by Axel too.

Kaitlyn vs AJ Lee

The backstory to this involved AJ Lee setting up Big E as a fake secret admirer for Kaitlyn and humiliating her, so Kaitlyn is on fire to start, hurling AJ over the Spanish announce table in a hella bump. Aside from that, Kaitlyn isn’t great at expressing her intense hatred. Feels a bit stilted. Kaitlyn is still more powerful than AJ though, so things like her big clothesline and rolling through a crucifix to drop AJ with a stomach buster still look great. Also dug AJ’s chained rolling neckbreakers. Kaitlyn seems to have won the match with a spear, but wastes time blowing a sarcastic kiss at AJ, so only gets 2. Shortly after, Lee locks in the Black Widow to get the tap. This was fine.

Dean Ambrose vs Kane

This is for Ambrose’s US title. I’ve said it before, but I really miss THIS Ambrose. He’s wily, looking for openings, realising he’s not as strong as Kane and therefore trying to pick the right moment to strike. He kind of wrestles around Kane here, taking out his legs with a dropkick and slowly trying to break him down. There’s a nice moment where Dean gets a bit cocky, and tries for Old School on Kane, but he gets countered. This is actually pretty fun for a 2013 Kane singles match…then it ends abruptly, with Dean hitting (what we now call) Dirty Deeds on the floor for the count out win. I appreciate how it makes Dean look a bit cheap and weasely, but it’s a disappointing end to a surprisingly fine bout.

Alberto Del Rio vs Dolph Ziggler

So here we have, in my opinion, the greatest example of a badass, Walking Tall, babyface performance in modern WWE history. A face who, having had his property stolen by a coward who attacked him at his weakest (on one leg after a match with Jack Swagger), came to this match to wreck a singular vengeance on an unworthy champion. Here, Alberto Del Rio was the hero we didn’t deserve (especially those in the crowd who booed him, siding instead with a weak charlatan), but he was the hero we needed.

At the onset of the match, Ziggler is smug, confident, slipping out of the ring and swaggering around the ringside area. When he’s in the ring, he cheapshots Del Rio on a break, but his arrogance backfires as he misses a corner charge and instead takes a big back elbow to the face. This triggers Ziggler’s concussion, an injury which had put him out of action for a few weeks, and Del Rio is happy to repay Ziggler for the cheap shot that cost him the title in the first place. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Del Rio zeroes in on this in an aggressive fashion, cracking Ziggler’s skull with a nasty kick as he tries to enter the ring. Del Rio uses his smarts to get Big E ejected from ringside, trying to create the fair playing field that Ziggler is obviously too scared to want. This match layout means Ziggler spends most of it on defence, and that’s probably for the best, as when he does go on the offensive he hits an impossibly sloppy fameasser. His sleeperhold does look good, coiling around Del Rio and acting as a metaphor for the snake that Ziggler is. Credit where it’s due, Ziggler’s selling is phenomenal here, and the story of the match means he isn’t able to just rebound to his feet to hit his next move. Del Rio hits beautiful kidney shots with Ziggler tied in the ropes, which leads logically to a backstabber. Ziggler tries to make a few desperation comebacks, but an absolutely brutal kick from the apron cracks like a gunshot throughout the arena, vibrating off Ziggler’s head. Ziggler hits a final desperation zig zag, but it’s so weak a move that Del Rio is actually back on his feet first, and he fires a superkick at a kneeling Ziggler’s head to put the wretched champion out of his misery. An expertly crafted match, and though the crowd transferred their affection to Del Rio to Ziggler, for the virtuous among us, Del Rio brought no-nonsense justice to the world of wrestling.

CM Punk vs Chris Jericho

Punk is in his “tattooed Bradley Wiggins” phase here. This is Punk’s first match back since losing to the Undertaker at Wrestlemania and is in Chicago, so he gets a monster pop. You know how much Chicago crowds love chanting for Punk when they know he isn’t there? Just imagine how much they chant for him when he IS there. Sadly, this match is pretty terrible. The commentary team bring up how Punk might have ring rust after his time off, and I don’t know if that was something Punk was trying to play up or not, but he was terribly sloppy here. He stumbles about trying to apply an early armbar, he kind of ambles when being Irish whipped into a corner and he stumbles again trying to apply a neckbreaker. Jericho looks much crisper, though he isn’t without his flaws with some of his punches looking utterly shambolic. There’s a really nice sequence where Punk hits his corner knee, takes too long showing off and gets his bulldog reversed, followed by a Lionsault and swift cover by Jericho for two. Jericho also hits a great codebreaker to counter an attempted springboard clothesline by Punk. It’s just a shame there are too many awkward spots like Jericho trying to apply the Walls of Jericho, and bending really far down for seemingly no reason other than to let Punk clumsily pull himself up and lock in an Anaconda Vice. The end was pretty neat, with Punk hitting the GTS, which sends Jericho into the turnbuckle and bouncing back into another GTS for the win, but overall this was poor.

Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton & Daniel Bryan

Orton and Bryan are mismatched tag partner who’ve got a shaky mutual respect, which makes the tag champ Shield members the favourites. Reigns and Bryan is already a great match up at this point, loved Reigns flooring Bryan with a huge kneelift, needs to bring that back. Reigns sells the fuck out of Bryan’s kick flurry too. Orton looks great when he tags in, hitting everything so crisply, and the transition to the Shield offence looks so natural: Orton reaches through the ropes to grab Rollins and gets nailed by a Superman punch from nowhere. Rollins had a few nice moments in the match, loved Orton starting to make a comeback and Rollins hitting a standing enzuigiri to stop that momentum dead. Orton makes the hot tag after exploder suplexing Rollins into Reigns in the corner (a little too far away, Rollins had to kind of awkwardly headbutt Reigns in the arse) leading to a great Bryan hot tag run. However, Reigns pushes Rollins away from the suicide dive and Bryan wipes out Orton instead. This leads to a red hot ending, as Orton accidentally pushes Bryan into a Reigns spear, then takes Reigns out with an RKO, only for Rollins to shove him out and Curb Stomp a still groggy Bryan for the win. Good little tag sprint, with nice execution and a fun underlying story.

John Cena vs Ryback

This is 3 stages of Hell: lumberjack match, tables match and an ambulance match. This felt like an interesting challenge for Cena: partly because Ryback was unproven as a big match singles worker, partly because they’d have to work 3 different matches and partly because of our knowledge that, obviously, neither guy is going to win the first two stages consecutively, so they need to work harder to make the second stage interesting. Overall, I’d say it’s just about a win.

So the lumberjack match was pretty fun. Interesting to see who was at ringside – Ted DiBiase and Alex Riley (in his own t-shirt! I bet they didn’t sell many of those) stand out as long forgotten roster members. They both threw some big power moves at each other early doors, and Ryback seemed to enjoy throwing Cena out to the hostile lumberjacks, with Cena taking some big bumps to the floor. Loved Ryback pressing Cena onto one side of lumberjacks, but he showed his naivety when Cena throws him out, and he decides to start a fight with the surrounding mass. It led to a big schmozz which ends with Cena diving from the top rope onto the heaving mass of bodies. Really great visual. They re-enter the ring, where Ryback counters an STF by powering up into Shellshocked for three.

With Cena 1-0 down, he was always going to win the tables match. Ryback doesn’t really give the impression that he’s going to win this, as his tactic seems to be to put Cena through tables by hurling the ring steps at him, which always breaks the tables when Cena ducks. Even if I was foolish enough to believe Ryback was going to win two straight falls, I wouldn’t believe he was going to do it by blitzing Cena with a thrown staircase to the face. Ryback also doesn’t seem to take it Cena in this fall, maybe putting over his overconfidence at being a fall up. Inevitably, Cena escapes Shellshocked to hit the AA through a table to even it up.

The ambulance match finishes things off, and I liked Ryback’s tactic of battering Cena, powerbombing him through the announce table, before the match started, and then carrying Cena’s prone body up the aisle to the vehicle. Good logic, and it also meant we avoided the two unnaturally fighting their way to the entrance way. Cena recovers and we get a fun weapons brawl built around the ambulance. Cena whips Ryback into an open door, ripping it from the hinges, before Ryback rips some bodywork off to use as a weapon on Cena. The ending requires both guys to be on the roof, so I appreciated Cena climbing to the top and ripping the flashing lights off the top to use as a weapon, makes the ending look a bit more organic rather than them climbing to the top just because that’s where they need to be. Of course, when both guys seem hesitant to climb onto the roof, you know what’s up and, yep, Cena hits the AA to send Ryback crashing through the roof to win. Not very much of this lagged, despite containing three bouts, and this is an overall success.

WWE Battleground 2016

Bizarrely, this is one of the few times I've written a review of a recent WWE PPV on the blog since I did Battleground 2013 a few years back. I'm normally to lazy to write up thoughts on a show, as there's usually one match I fancy skipping, but this year, the entire show looked decent. As it turned out, it was a good show all in all.

Dana Brooke & Charlotte vs Sasha Banks & Bayley           

Huge pop for Bayley as the mystery partner. Bayley and Sasha milk the audience reaction, so the heels jump them to start, which makes sense. I also liked the ref checking with a beaten-down Bayley if she wanted him to ring the bell, made it look like she was a fighter. The match was a really hot opener, and I think all four women contributed to that. I’m not as high on Sasha as a lot of people, and there were a few sloppy moments here (including a terrible looking flying headscissors), but I think she did a good job on the apron waiting for the hot tag. Likewise, I’m not as down on Dana as a lot of others, I think here she showed she’s got a brain for how wrestling works. Loved her petty little kicks in the corner after a few stomps, and her trash talking is on point. Bayley takes a few nasty bumps here, including hitting the back of her head on the turnbuckle, and both here and Dana really collide on a double clothesline spot. Sasha nails a beautiful looking knee to the side of Charlotte’s face. It all breaks down before Bayley wipes out Dana with a nice leaping kick through the corner of the ring, and Banks locks in the Bank Statement on Charlotte for the win.

The Wyatt Family vs The New Day

A nice reminder of WWE circa 2014, where there were great 6-man tags on a near weekly basis. This was the best the Wyatt’s have looked in a long time, with Rowan and Bray both looking great. Rowan really laid in his blows here, whilst Wyatt looked dynamic, getting great height on his senton. Kudos to Kofi here, he made the Wyatts look gold, with a big bump landing him on his head off a Wyatt clothesline. Big E looks great coming in off the hot tag – he’s so athletic and his size makes him look like a missile as he runs the ropes. His overhead belly-to-belly on Rowan was superb. The match had a fun underlying story, with Xavier Woods still scared of Bray and showing signs of falling under his spell, before Kingston attacking Bray snapped him out of the trance. However, Bray does the spider walk to put Woods off his game for a second and Sister Abigail gets three. Really fun.

Rusev vs Zack Ryder

Hard not to love Rusev’s trunks having “US Champ” on the waistband. This was fought just about right for the respective levels of these two. Rusev is so good right now, he was portrayed here and the dominant force, with Ryder getting some well timed comebacks. Loved the brutality of Rusev just laying into Ryder on the mat. I thought Ryder did well to show some spirit here – for example, when Rusev caught an attempt at a boot, Ryder kept punching Rusev in the head to try and get him to drop the foot, rather than just standing like an idiot. I also loved Ryder hitting a desperation missile dropkick from the barricades after getting dumped there by Rusev. In the ring, Zack hits the Rough Ryder, but hasn’t worn down Rusev sufficiently, so the El-Bro hits knee. Ryder still looks strong in defeat as Rusev is forced to use the super-Accolade for the tap. Good filler.

Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens

It’s nice to see a feud ending match without any stipulations for a change, just two guys finally sorting out who is the best. Loved Owens immediately escaping the ring when the bell rings, suckering Sami outside to hurl him into the barricades. Owens is great at making stuff look natural – for example, after crotching Zayn on the top rope, Sami lands in the corner and Owens seizes the opportunity by quickly going for a cannonball. It’s the look he gives as if he’s just realised where Sami is, and that he can hit a big move if he just goes for it quickly. Really enjoyed how Owens worked the chinlock, including grinding his stubbly beard into Sami’s head just to be a dick. Sami takes a nasty looking spill on a moonsault press, landing on a shoulder which Owens then works on. There are some really big bombs thrown here, and a lot of stuff kicked out of, but it works here in the context of two guys who know each other so well and hate each other laying it all out in one last grudge match. Zayn hitting a brainbuster on the apron looked sick, and Owens sells it perfectly. Owens preventing the corner tornado DDT and hitting another cannonball to the back of Sami’s head was a lovely twist on a familiar move. The end is suitably climactic as well – Zayn nails the Heluva kick, but instead of trying the pin, he looks at the beaten frame of his once-best friend, and quickly nails a second knowing that one wont be enough to finish Owens off. Really great match, really felt like a suitable ending to their feud.

Becky Lynch vs Natalya

Hard not to feel bad for Becky being stuck in a feud with Natalya, whilst Bayley and Banks soak up the adoration of the crowd in the opener, especially as she’s now stuck on a show with no women’s title. Fun start to the match, with Becky outwrestling Nattie and keeping her grounded. Natalya is a bit robotic in her movements, but I enjoyed her heel work here, as well as her focused legwork. Combining the two by posing whilst standing on Becky’s leg is terrific. Hard not to love Nattie’s trash talking of “my cat is better than you”. Becky showed great fire on her comeback, still selling the legwork, and I loved Natalya just ramming her hand into Becky’s face to allow her to put on the sharpshooter. Becky escapes, but Natalya kicks her leg out from behind the official on a rope break and locks in another sharpshooter for the win. You can tell Natalya raised her game working with arguably the best woman wrestler on the roster, and this was her best match in years.

Darren Young vs The Miz

I’m so ready for this Darren Young mini-push, and it feels like he is as well. Loved him throwing some big forearms, hitting great looking overhead suplexes and still taking big bumps to the floor. Miz’s control wasn’t particularly interesting, which is a shame as he’s been good this year, but it felt a bit lacklustre here. Still, the good vibes I’ve had from the quality of the show so far meant I was into this enough that I actually cared about the outcome of a Miz/Young backslide struggle in 2016, so this did it’s job. Terrible ending though, with both men disqualified after Bob Backlund and Maryse get involved outside, but I did like Darren Young’s crazy eyes after he’d snapped.

The Club vs John Cena, Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady

Enzo cuts a decent promo before the match, followed by a pretty wretched effort from Cassady. His delivery is terrible. Luckily for the match quality, Cassady doesn’t spend much time in the ring, and when he is in there he’s mainly just throwing Enzo into their opponents. Luke Gallows may have the worst ring attire in the company, but I really enjoyed him here, hitting a nice Jackhammer on Amore and later hitting a Baldo Bomb on Cassady which looked impressive. The Club work a long heat on Enzo, and AJ in particular shows an impressive nasty streak. Loved him hurling Enzo into the barricades. There’s a great cutoff of a hot-tag as Anderson just throws himself at Enzo to prevent him reaching his corner. The match does break down a bit towards the end, with it kind of degenerating into people entering the ring, hitting a finisher, then turning around to get hit by the new guy entering the ring. Also, there’s a horribly clunky moment when Cena sort of catches Enzo in the air, and Gallows has to stand staring like a twat before Cena uses Amore as a weapon. Still, this was pretty good, Cena finishing off AJ with a top rope Attitude Adjustment

Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins vs Roman Reigns

Despite a few nice moments, this really is a match that didn’t feel like it added up to the sum of it’s parts. It starts well, with Reigns and Ambrose teaming to repeatedly eject Rollins from the ring, and I liked the work by both Ambrose and Reigns here. Roman felt like a big brick wall of an opponent, ploughing through both guys on offence and standing up to a lot of Rollins’ attacks. With this in mind, it made sense that mortal enemies Rollins and Ambrose teamed up to powerbomb him through a table to take him out of the match. Ambrose really felt like the scrappy underdog champion, and I loved the spot where the other two were so preoccupied with fighting each other that they failed to spot Ambrose running along the announce tables to hurl himself at them. Two things let the side down: firstly the typical triple threat format which required one person to be predisposed at any one time whilst the other two fight. Secondly, I didn’t enjoy Rollins’ contribution to the match as much as I did the other two. Hate his superplex which he chains into a falcon arrow, it takes away all the impact of hitting a big top rope move. He also has a dreadful looking pedigree, which he needs to bin off ASAP. The callback to the Shield split with Rollins chairshotting both guys in the back was a nice touch, but this match didn’t wow me. Still, good to see the champion put over strongly with a clean win, leaving both opponents down for the count.

WWE Main Event 08/04/2014

The Shield vs The Wyatt Family

Bit of a C-show treat to have their feud blown off on Main Event. This wasn’t as good as the Elimination Chamber match the same year, but I preferred this to the Raw match. Dean Ambrose was really good here, kicking the bout off by smacking the sheep mask off Erick Rowan’s face. As the smallest man in the match, this made him look tough as fuck. Following a brief heat section on Rollins, the main heat of the match is on Ambrose, and he excels here. Loved his facial expressions as he sold Rowan’s squeezing of his temples, and as a wild, scrappy face, it allowed him to have hope spots naturally interspersed in the bout. You can buy Ambrose as a “going down swinging” type, and it felt totally in character when he’d make his comebacks. Rather than Ambrose actually making the hot tag, things instead break down when Rollins makes a save, as if this match was a powder keg just waiting to ignite. Loved Luke Harper’s wildman tope, which sent Reigns flying over the announce table. With Reigns down, Rollins does some great work as the face saviour, hitting back-to-back dives to take out Rowan and Harper. More chaos ensures before Ambrose hits Dirty Deeds on Rowan to win. Really great match. Also worth pointing out Reigns’ post-match promo, where he’s so natural on the stick and the crowd just eat it up.

Jack Swagger vs Dolph Ziggler

Really like Swagger, so it’s sad to see him weighed down by Ziggler, who is just wretched here. This started really quickly, to the extent that we saw the Swagger Bomb in the first 30 seconds. Things go to shit as Swagger tries to do some basic leg work to set up Ziggler for the Patriot Lock. Swagger chopblocks Ziggler’s leg from under him, but then Ziggler hits a load of offence that is totally dependent on the leg – knee up to block another Swagger Bomb, dropkick, Fameasser – just totally undermining any attempt by Swagger to prepare for his finisher. Thus, when Swagger does lock it in, plucking Ziggler from midair to grab the ankle, it has less impact when Ziggler taps out. Would have been a better match if Swagger has faced literally anyone else on the roster.

Rusev vs Sin Cara

This is days after Rusev was called up to the main roster, so he’s still called “Alexander” here. Sub-one minute squash, with the leaping kick and the Accolade finishing off Cara.

WWF Main Event 18/2/2014

Reasonable edition of Main Event here. One very good match, one ok bout and one stinker is a worthwhile use of 50 minutes.

The Shield vs Sin Cara & Los Matadores

This is the logical follow-up to the Wyatts/Cara & Matadores bout from the last main event, with the Shield due to face the Wyatts at the next PPV. The Shield members aren’t as big as the Wyatt’s, so the face team doesn’t have to hit-and-run as much here, instead outsmarting Ambrose and Rollins in the early going. Loved the Total Elimination variant on Rollins by Los Matadores. The fans are well up for a bit of Roman Reigns here, and he’s the gamechanger in the match, making Fernando the face-in-peril by blasting through him. The heat section is brief, leading to a Sin Cara hot tag, but Cara soon becomes FIP, and they work a longer heat section on him. I’d forgotten how not-silly Dean Ambrose used to be on offence, as he grounds Cara with a chinlock, and hits a nasty sharp headbutt to prevent him from making a comeback. There’s a few nice teased tags before Cara tags Diego, and Ambrose is really portrayed as the weak link here (as per the upcoming PPV match), as Diego dominates and Ambrose needs saving on a few occasions. Reigns stops a double-dive by spearing Fernando and Cara, and I loved Ambrose holding Diego up for an elevated Superman punch. Curb stomp gets the win, and this was a fun trios bout, if not as good as the Wyatt’s bout the previous week.

Cameron vs Aksana

Oh fuck off! Aksana is still playing off her clumsy kneedrop to Naomi, and she drops an early knee to Cameron’s head, teasing an early countout victory. Sadly, we aren’t that lucky, as Cameron gets in and bumps around awkwardly for Aksana’s offence. Her offence is even worse, and you know things are bad if there’s a noticeable difference in quality between yourself and Aksana of all people. A roll-up gets 3 for Cameron, so at least it was quick.

Kofi Kingston vs Curtis Axel

I didn’t hate this, but that was almost entirely due to Axel. He bumps around nicely for some of Kofi’s suspect looking offence, including some big flip bumps as his leg gets taken out. Axel is accompanied by Ryback, so Mark Henry comes out midway through to even the sides, but this doesn’t become a tag match sadly. I realised here why I’m not a big Kingston fan – he’s clearly very athletic and gets a great height on all his moves, but his high-flying isn’t very impressive. He’ll get high in the air, but only to hit a sloppy legdrop or a weak looking chop. By contrast, Axel’s stuff looks really good, nice snug belly-to-back suplex. Ryback takes out Kingston on a dive attempt to draw the DQ, but Henry sends him outside for Kingston to hit a big flip dive anyway. Fine, but nothing worth going out of your way to see.

WWE Extreme Rules 2015

Dean Ambrose vs Luke Harper

This was a pretty fun deal, and I liked Ambrose’s high-energy assault to start. The kendo shots on Harper sounded really nasty, but not as nasty as the suplex onto an open chair that Harper hits. Harper lawn darting Ambrose into a chair in the corner was pretty great. I really like that Ambrose has these quick flurries of energy when on the offensive, and the quick offensive burst that ended with his diving elbow drop was fun. There was a lovely spot on the outside where Harper tried to throw Dean into the ring, only for Ambrose to pivot his body on the apron and burst out with a clothesline. Really fun spot. They brawl to the back and, as Harper tries to escape in a waiting car, Ambrose dives into through the passenger window and off they drive…

Sheamus vs Dolph Ziggler

The first few minutes of Ziggler offence were pretty meh, including Ziggler hitting a horrible “carry me round” tornado DDT to the floor. As soon as Sheamus goes on offence though, things quickly improve, as Sheamus hits a lovely knee to the temple of Ziggler. Even a Sheamus chinlock looks great with how he cranks at Ziggler’s neck whilst holding it. Ziggler gets the odd hope spot, but this match is all about great Sheamus offence. I loved him catching a superkick, hurling Ziggler down and just flipping him into the Cloverleaf. Ziggler gets the win with a fluke roll up, but it’s Sheamus who comes out of this looking great.

The New Day vs Cesaro & Tyson Kidd

Xavier Woods was incredibly annoying as a face, so he’s perfectly suited to the role of heel cheerleader here. I actually saw a version of this match at a houseshow in Nottingham, so I wasn’t surprised that this was pretty great. Loved Kidd and Cesaro stomping their opponents to the beat of “New….Day Sucks”. Kidd hits a beautiful dive through the ropes, taking him straight through Kingston. This is actually the most I’ve enjoyed Kofi Kingston, as this heel role has given him a bit more of an edge. Now, he’s using his speed for quick cut-offs, which look more effective than they did as actual match-winning offence. Cesaro whipping his opponent from corner to corner, peppered with uppercuts, is a really neat face spot, whilst Big E spearing through the ropes to send Kidd flying to the floor is an ever-impressive bump. Kingston gets the win with a handful of tights on a roll-up, and I want to see this match every month.

Dean Ambrose vs Luke Harper

….and we return to these two guys as they drive back into the arena. Ambrose hits a great elbow from the top of the car onto Harper and a celebrating New Day, before the match returns to the ring. There’s a great visual as both guys throw chairs into the ring, and suddenly make eye-contact from opposite sides. The match ends with Harper trying an ill-fated top rope move, instead getting hurled from the top onto the chairs, and Ambrose hitting Dirty Deeds for the win. Fun deal.

Rusev vs John Cena

Given the PG nature of WWE programming, this was never going to live up to my ideal of a brutal chain match, but I did hope for something a bit better than this. This was fought under touch-the-four-corners rules, with lights to indicate the scores on each turnbuckle. The problem with this stipulation is that it makes the match pretty repetitive and dull, with lots of drama-free tug of war spots. I did enjoy Cena yanking Rusev into the ring post when they were brawling outside, mainly because Rusev took an insane bump into the steel. However, the match was typified by Rusev, a man not known for his high risk moves, climbing to the top rope solely so that Cena could pull him off using the chain. The match is pretty much a spectacle of watching two talented guys slowly walk between turnbuckles that they’d normally zip between, just to try and create some drama. The end sees both guys somehow tied on three posts each, both needing the same final turnbuckle to win. Rusev goes for it, is pulled back and nailed with the AA for the Cena victory.

Nikki Bella vs Naomi

This heel turn has worked wonders for Naomi. Showing her more aggressive side has slowed her down, eliminating some of the athletic, but sloppy, moves she used to do. Also, her statuesque form makes it convincing for her to boss other women in the ring. I thought her hitting a running bulldog through the rope to send Nikki face first into the second turnbuckle was great. She also hit a slick full Nelson bomb into a pin, which looked good. Nikki’s offence looked a bit weaker than usual here, with a springboard kick looking pretty milky, and we didn’t get to see her awesome forearm smash. Nikki gets the win with the Rack Attack after Brie Bella kicks Naomi behind the referee’s back. This was pretty good.

Roman Reigns vs the Big Show

From the get-go, you could tell this was going to be good, as both guys were clearly not afraid of laying in some punches. I loved Big Show refusing to use weapons, confident enough that his size made him enough of a weapon in his own right. It also allows Reigns to get some big pops whenever he brings out the plunder. Of course, when Big Show only gets an 8 count following the KO punch, he suddenly decides to start using the weapons after all. I like how smart Big Show is in breaking the count by rolling out of the ring, as it gets him back to his feet with the least amount of effort. There is a negative part where Big Show uncharacteristically goes to the top rope, which is clearly only so Reigns can throw him off. Show chokeslams Reigns over the top rope to the floor through two tables in a massive bump. Looked great. Big Show sets up more stuff over by the announce table, giving Reigns time to recover, and even when Show returns to the ring, Reigns can only take control by avoiding a Show offensive move, rather than via his own attack. Show rolls out to his feet again, so Reigns knows he has to down the Big Show outside of the ring. A huge spear through the Spanish announce table looks to have done this, but Show is able to get up at 8. This leaves Reigns little choice but to bury Show underneath the main announce table, which finally gets him the 20 count. Really great match, logically laid out and with some massive bumps by both men. With Reigns now having the match-of-the-night for three PPV’s in a row, can we now just accept he’s actually really great? 

Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton

This is a world title match in a steel cage with the RKO banned. The problem this match has is that no-one believes they’ll take the title off Rollins already, and no-one believe the steel cage will keep anyone out of the match. In fact, most of the match is a background to the drama between Kane, the external gatekeeper, and Rollins. I mean, I love Kane’s new “frustrated middle manager” gimmick, but it shouldn’t be overshadowing your brand new world champion’s first defence. That said, a lot of the action was good here. I dug Rollins, like a chickenshit, fleeing to try and escape at every opportunity, especially from an Orton slingshot. There was another moment where Rollins avoided Orton’s snap powerslam and tried to quickly escape while Orton was regaining his bearings. It also built up the later spot where Orton caught Rollins as he springboarded into the ring with a huge snap powerslam. Orton hit a lovely looking superplex, and I loved him doing the pose for the RKO, but hitting a pedigree instead, as a “fuck you” to the Authority. Ultimately though, it built up to a shitty end, as Kane gets in, J&J Security get in, Kane flip-flops between who he’s going to help and finally Rollins nails Orton with an RKO before escaping. It’s a shame that a decent match ends with the commentators arguing semantics over whether or not Rollins was allowed to use the move.

WWE Battleground 2013

Alberto Del Rio vs Rob Van Dam
Man, RVD and Ricardo really aren't a combination that works well together. RVD starts well with a moonsault and a DDT onto a chair in opening 3 mins. Love Del Rio's aggression, with a nasty boot to RVD's face. Since turning back heel again, Del Rio's viciousness has been a joy to behold. Here, he also takes some nutty bumps to make RVD look better, hurling himself into a ladder, then to the floor. RVD's bump when Del Rio kicks him in the head with the ladder landing on him is a bit milkier. There is something a little sad about Jerry Lawler claiming you'd need a clairvoyant to guess what RVD will do next, when he's pretty much just running through his usual spots, only with a ladder involved. This does lead to a nice bump, as RVD misses Rolling Thunder onto a ladder. Ricardo, being the little shit he is, gets involved when ADR has the armbar locked on, and rightly gets kicked shitless by Del Rio. Del Rio proceed to sell a frogsplash onto a ladder (which Del Rio is under) as if his insides have been liquidated. The ending, with ADR destroying RVD's arm in a chair and forcing a tapout to the armbar is more proof that brutal sadist ADR is one of the best guys in 2013.

Jack Swagger & Antonio Cesaro vs the Great Khali & Santino Marella
I think we all know there is only one reason this got booked, but let's give it a chance. That said, I'm not sure people were hoping for an opening section of matwork between Swagger and Marella. Aside from some nice RA double teams, there is nothing here to enjoy until the inevitable moment....Cesaro giving the giant swing to Khali. That's enough for the three, but this match could easily have been dropped.

Curtis Axel vs R-Truth
I like Axel, but he's going to have to uproot trees here, as Truth hasn't been interesting in years. Axel takes a few nice bumps early on to help the challenger look good, before kicking Truth into the barricades to take over. There is a period of Axel offence before Truth starts his comeback, with an awesome glassy eyed sell of a leg lariat by Axel. Scissor Kick gets two for Truth, but Axel avoids a corner charge and hits the Axelizer for the win. Totally heatless from the crowd, but this was perfectly ok.

Brie Bella vs AJ Lee
With her leather jacket at ringside, Tamina gives good Diesel to AJ's Shawn Michaels. I like Brie showing a bit of rage at the start of this match - her offence isn't great, but at least she looks like she wants to hurt AJ. I loved AJ taking over by kicking Bella's knee on the apron whilst on defence, shows her comparative ring smarts. AJ works over the left arm pretty well, and uses it as a weak point to focus on to stop Brie getting on offence. Brie's offence looks pretty milky in comparison. AJ picks up the win with a roll-up after Brie gets distracted by Tamina choking out Nikki Bella at ringside.

Cody Rhodes & Goldust vs Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns
Going into the PPV, this was the match I wanted to watch above all others. It's been said by a lot of people online, but it's true...Goldust hasn't lost a step. He moves smoothly, his punches have real snap and his offence looks crisper than ever. His diving clothesline on Reigns here is immense. Cody also gets to show some fire, which really suits him. Meanwhile, the Shield team continue to show their skill at tag wrestling, wearing down Cody, keeping themselves in between him and his corner and generally looking good. Cody comes back with a top rope moonsault to Rollins and Goldust comes in on fire, love his sharp boot to Reigns' temple. Also got to love mid-40's Dustin Rhodes adding a diving crossbody to his arsenal. The offense run ends as a missed crossbody sends Goldust to the floor, but luckily he's also an awesome face-in-peril. He takes Reigns' awesome flying clothesline like a champ. What helps here is that the fans genuinely like Goldust, genuinely want him to win, so he gets a lot of support when the Shield members wear him down with chinlocks and other holds. Goldust's comeback snap powerslam still looks gorgeous. Hot tag Cody is great at being fired up, and a lot of his offence is better suited to being a face - the Disaster Kick in particular is a great "sudden pop" move. The ending with Dusty stopping some Dean Ambrose interference and Cody nailing the mother of all CrossRhodes is awesome. Tag matches don't get much better.

Kofi Kingston vs Bray Wyatt
Man, I really liked the Kingston gameplan early here, trying to wear down Wyatt with some tough looking kicks. When Wyatt is on offence, I quite like the air of menace he gives off, from his running corner splash to the diving headbutts he hits on a downed Kofi. You get a feel for the cruelty he's trying to dish out. Kofi's comeback is a little uninspired, but the diving crossbody Bray uses to stop it is magnificent. Wyatt's "upside down spider walk" however looks fucking terrible, and I hope he isn't planning on using it regularly. We've just enough time for an insane Kofi tope to the outside before Wyatt hits Sister Abigail for the win. This was better than I'd have hoped for.

CM Punk vs Ryback
Punk actually uses the same plan as Kingston here, wearing Ryback down with kicks, only with more success as Ryback leaves the ring several times to avoid him. It's quite fun seeing someone the size of Ryback playing chickenshit heel. Punk's plan seems to be to hit and run, which works as he gets Ryback to his knees, before peppering him with shots to the ribs. The otherside of a cat-and-mouse style match the occurs as Punk is caught by Ryback and becomes victim to Ryback's power game. Punk is viciously hurled into the corner ringpost. I like Punk trying to break a chinlock with blows to the ribs he'd already worked on. Ryback's offence is methodical, but fun, with a nasty clotheline levelling Punk. A bodyscissors/choke is broken by Punk delivering vicious blows to face. Heyman grabs the mic and distracts Punk, which makes him look like an idiot as Ryback nails him. A soppy clothesline from Punk downs Ryback, which looks a bit shit. I was starting to worry the match was going to be overlong at this point, before another Heyman distraction backfires, with Punk hitting a lowblow to win. Decent, though a few parts really dragged.

Daniel Bryan vs Randy Orton
I was looking forward to this, as I enjoy sneaky heel Orton, and I liked it early on as he went for a test of strength with Bryan, only to grab the rope and kick him in the midsection, with the rope grabbing making him look even more devious. Also, as soon as he gets on offence, he's chasing Bryan round the ring to grind Bryan's face into his boots over and over. Love it. They've got a fine line to tread between keeping Bryan looking strong and putting over the new, more violent Orton, and I think they just about get it right, with Bryan getting nice, aggressive hope spots and Orton shutting them down suddenly. Bryan's got a few set spots that get good reactions, and he's great at mixing them in. This time, he doesn't hit his usual running dropkick after flipping over Orton in the corner. Instead, Orton throws him from the ring, only for Bryan to send HIM out with a headscissors and nail the suicide dive. Little things like that keep him interesting. Orton hitting a vicious back suplex onto the barrier then throwing Bryan into the ringpost puts over his new edge perfectly. Top rope superplex by Orton looks great too. Bryan comes back with a crossbody to the floor which looks nuts, and his series of running dropkicks to the corner is fantastic. In fact, this match is really fucking good, which makes the awful ending all the more frustrating. Big Show knocking out both guys would be much less upsetting if the match had only been so-so. Slap an ending on this, and you've got a match-of-the-year contender. Instead, it just leaves a disappointing taste in the mouth.