Reverse Hipster’s Highlights
9. (Impact Wrestling) PCO!
Eddie Edwards has come to fight PCO in the desert once more but this time PCO kicked his butt and nearly killed him. However, Edwards was saved by a mystery aly in a car. I look forwards to seeing who helped him. Also, I love the way Impact filmed the desert fight. PCO especially put on a truly maniacal performance.
8. (Impact Wrestling) Devils and Witches
The current Impact Women's Champion the Death Dollz has started a feud with Taylor Wilde and her Coven. I love the idea that Rosemary would have a problem with a human practicing magic and look down on witches. The Death Dollz has excellent lore and it keeps expanding. I’m excited to see what they can do with Wilde.
7. (Impact Wrestling) Mixing it Up with Mickie
Mickie started off the show hot running in to save Tommy Dreamer from Masha and Bully Ray. I love that Mickie’s feud with Masha has bled into the Bully Ray feud. Also seeing Mickie take on the men is just making her look more badass. Later that night she also defeated Giselle Shaw thanks to Deonna Purrazo. Mickie was facing an uphill battle with all of Shaw’s minions on the outside causing problems but the Virtuosa evened the playing field. Maybe Mickie could help Deonna return from the dark side?
6. (NXT) Bron Breakker & Creeds vs. Indus Sher
This was the perfect match. Indus Sher is one of the biggest and most physically dominant teams in NXT, and Bron and Creeds are three of the most athletic babyfaces in NXT. So the match had tons of wow moments, like Julius pulling out a 450 splash or lifting one of the members of Indus Sher so that Brutus could hit a cannonball Dooms Day Device. Bron was spearing everything in sight. Indus Sher played their role perfectly. It really seemed like they might pull off the win multiple times. Indus Sher has raised their profile with this match despite the loss.
5. (AEW Dynamite) Blackpool Combat Club
Moxley lost his Texas Death Match to Adam Page. He is not taking on the chin, and neither is the Combat Club. After defeating the Dark Order, the Combat Club just kept beating up the Dark Order to bait Hangman. Claudio really sold this turn the most. He has been a fan-favorite good guy in AEW, and seeing him unrepentantly beat down the Dark Order and gang up on Page, really drove the message home that the Combat Club has changed. The Combat Club is like the Wutang Clang, they have had major success on their own, but they are even greater together. We really haven't seen the Combat Club unite like this in a while.
4. (NXT) Tony D vs. Dijak Jailhouse Streetfight
Jailhouse Street Fight is a creative match that ends when you put your opponent in a cage and close the door. This match was really intense, and Tony and Dijack put together an exciting thrill ride of violence. This match showcased the most aggressive side of Tony D that we have ever seen. Tony's underboss Stacks Lorenzo did everything for Tony D. Stacks threw his body in the way to stop the cage from closing on Tony and slipped him a crowbar. Stacks took punishment from Dijak, and every time Dijak messed with Stacks, Tony D beat the crap out of him. In the end, Dijak got beaten so badly with a crowbar he probably would have crawled into the cage himself if he could move his limbs.
3. (Raw) Jey Uso Turns on Sami
The moment we have all been waiting on. On Raw, Jey Uso finally made his decision on what he was going to do. When Sami interfered in Bloodline business again, he had to face Jimmy in a match. Sami beat him, and after the match, Jey left his brother in the ring and hugged Sami telling him he trusted him. The crowd erupted, but it was a ruse. Jey superkicked Sami and said it's family over everything and then brutally beatdown Sami with the rest of the Bloodline til Cody came out and saved him.
First off, I loved Cody coming out to save Sami it positions Cody in a very good light and keeps him strong as a babyface hero. I think WWE should have done this turn weeks ago during Sami’s Title match. It would have been way more impactful. However, this is still good. I think Jey only chose the Bloodline because Roman threatened Jimmy last week. If you recall, when the Bloodline started in the I Quit match between Roman and Jey, Jey only quit because Roman choked Jimmy. Once again, Roman has used Jimmy to lockdown Jey. I wonder if there is still hope for a turn from Jey. I don’t think he can be controlled forever. All he needs is to convince Jimmy, who also rebelled at one point.
2. (AEW Dynamite ) Trios Division Heating Up
The Elite and Death Triangle established the Trios Titles, and The Elite cemented the Trios division as a premier division at Revolution. Now the J.A.S. are trying to get a shot at the Trios Titles. However, the former Trios champions, the Elite, claim that they are more deserving than the JAS for a Trios Title match. Seeing Jericho's faction and Kenny Omega's faction prepares to feud was already cool enough, but then the Trios Champions House of Black came out. They reminded everyone that they are the top dogs in this division and no one will overshadow them. House of Black didn't play any politics, and they just threw down the gauntlet. They challenged both teams to a triple-threat Trios Titles Match next week.
1. (AEW Dynamite ) Outcast
This is the first time I have been enthralled with a story from the AEW Women’s division. Ruby Soho has started something. She cut a heel promo blaming the fans for her turn, and it got the AEW crowd big mad, but she didn’t tell a single lie. AEW fans did cheer for her losses and boo her wins. AEW did shaft Toni Storm when she is probably a top two AEW women’s champion of all time. The crowd definitely jumped all over Saraya after she came back. I love the story of the WWE women joining together to take out the homegrown AEW woman. It's a natural story that makes sense. This will bring massive heat to the WWE heels and huge cheers for the homegrown AEW Woman. This feud could put the AEW woman’s division on the map.
Rob’s Lowlights
3. Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne, NXT
Going into Roadblock, this should have been the biggest story to see who will “win the breakup” of Toxic Attraction. The breakup was perfect, and the promo work leading up to the match was meh. Unfortunately, the match was more in the meh category too. I fear that NXT broke up Toxic Attraction too soon, as neither one of these stars seem ready on their own compared to some other NXT women.
2. Who takes the fall?, WWE Raw
One thing that is hard about WWE’s deep roster is that it means talented stars are stuck in the lower-mid card struggling to keep their head above water. This week, stars like Carmella, Dolph Ziggler, Candice Lerae, and Baron Corbin were defeated handily. Even though I think their opponents were more deserving of the win in storyline, it’s hard to see talented wrestlers be used in glorified squash matches. I will be curious what solution WWE comes up for this, if any.
1. Hot Potato, AEW Dynamite
After regaining the AEW TNT Championship at Revolution, Wardlow has already lost to Powerhouse Hobbs. That means in approximately the last six months, the TNT Championship has gone from Wardlow to Samoa Joe to Darby Allin to Samoa Joe to Wardlow to Hobbs. Even though this is a good win for Hobbs, it is horrible for the midcard of AEW to have a championship passed around like this. Already, Orange Cassidy’s International Championship is much more credible. Hell, winning the FTW Championship seems more impressive at this point. A television championship is meant to be defended and occasionally lost on television, but at this point, it has lost all meaning. If I were AEW, I would let someone run with it for a while to try to rebuild it.
Reverse Hipster’s Winners of the Week
6.SmackDown
SmackDown had zero highlights. Everything was either predictable or deflating. The fatal fiveway was deflating it was supposed to be this exciting match and it turns into a two-man domination where we don’t even get a clear winner because Sheamus and Drew get a pin at the same time. Legado facing Judgemnt day on SmackDown was horrible. That should be a Wrestlemania match, not a tv match.
5. Rampage
Rampage is in fifth place because Riho was so close to a highlight. If Riho had won after her bridge slam she would have been on the highlight list but the match kept going and dampened its highlight moment. Also, the Outcast coming out after and letting a bunch of AEW girls go and painting on Riho without beating her up made no sense.
4th Raw
Raw made a lot of moves that on paper should have been a big deal but honestly, none of them hit the mark they should have. None of them were tightly written to take the star power and push it over the top. Even Jey’s turn seemed kind of random but it was such an anticipated moment that it would have been hard to mess up so badly that it wouldn’t be a highlight.
3rd NXT
NXT Roadblock was not the best tv special NXT has done. However, it is the first time in a while that I have been excited about NXT. I do think the NXT World Title picture was totally done wrong. Carmelo coming out to be nice to Bron was terrible. For Bron vs. Melo to work Melo needs to be himself. The Mutual respect aspect ruined the segment. However, a lot of the other matches and moments were good to great.
2nd Impact
Impact had a decent show. If you look at the Highlights list it describes the show Impact put on. They didn’t have the best highlights of the week but they were highlights and no other show had more highlights. 1st Dynamite
Once again Dynamite just smashed the other shows. Dynamite consistently has some blockbuster moments that the other shows just can’t seem to compete with.
Rob’s Winners of the Week
6. This was one of the worst AEW Dynamites I could remember in a long time. Coming off a great PPV, most of the segments were meaningless or downright bad.
5. AEW Rampage had some good matches this week, but the overall feel of the show is still lacking direction or story.
4. Weirdly, most normal NXTs felt like more of an attraction than NXT Roadblock. Independent of the main event, everything else felt like it could have been on a normal NXT show.
3. Impact Wrestling had an okay show this week that was good enough to put it in the middle of the pack this week.
2. WWE SmackDown had some good matches and started building WrestleMania storylines.
1. WWE Raw came back full force this week. It felt like it was swinging for the fences with big Road to WrestleMania segments like Seth Rollins/Logan Paul, John Cena/Austin Theory, and Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens/the Bloodline.
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