Rob’s Highlights
7. Trinity debuts in-ring, Impact Wrestling
The Impact Women’s Division is on my shortlist for the division to keep an eye on in all of wrestling. Trinity looked to be wrestling a slightly more technical style in Impact Wrestling, and it was awesome. She should be a great contribution to their already underrated but stacked division.
6. Dirty Dango revealed as Santino Marella’s attacker, Impact Wrestling
Impact Wrestling has made these segments fun and capitalized on the personalities of everyone involved. Dirty Dango had accused Johnny Swinger of attacking him until realizing he was “too dumb” to pull this off. Joe Hendry joined them with his signature song, where they all had to stop to clap, and he tangled up with Dango, ultimately revealing that he was the one that attacked Santino Marella. It got a good laugh out of me, and I think they can make the match that falls out of this story meaningful.
5. The Usos vs. LWO, WWE SmackDown
I’m glad to see the LWO stay in the main event picture, even if it’s part of a larger story, and with Rey Mysterio and Santos Escobar instead of their usual tag team lineup. The match was pretty good, and it served the larger story of the Usos losing favor in the Bloodline.
4. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn Take on all Challengers, WWE Raw
The tag team picture is finally getting exciting again, as Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are on the defensive against aggressive title challengers in Judgment Day, the Bloodline, and Imperium. I think fighting Babyface champions is the best way to frame Owens and Zayn, who have lost some of their identity since the WrestleMania victory. All of these matches are tempting options, and we could have a summer full of show-stealing tag team wrestling if WWE gives them time.
3. Sammy Guevara, AEW Dynamite
It’s easy to forget a time when Sammy Guevara was one of the hottest babyfaces on AEW Dynamite. He cut a promo owning up to some of his mistakes as a young wrestling star, and I believed him. Later in the night, he came out to save Jungle Boy and Darby Allin from La Faccion Ingobernable. MJF is the clear frontrunner to win the fatal four (pillars) way, but Guevara made me want to root for him here.
2. Seth Rollins Interview, WWE Raw
This was some of the best promo work we’ve seen out of Seth Rollins. Reports for a long time have said that Rollins is frustrated with his placement in WWE, and he let it rip here. Some of the best work in WWE walks the line of shoot and work. According to dirt sheets, WWE is still split on who will be the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion. For my money, it’s not even close that Rollins should be the inaugural champ. He has carried Raw for the last few years without a title and with an organic connection to the fans and great all-around sports entertainment work.
1. Anarchy in the Arena 2, AEW Dynamite
The first Anarchy in the Arena was my favorite match of the year last year, and they have been building to a potential match-of-the-year candidate this year. The heel Blackpool Combat Club has been ultra-violent and fun to watch. The Elite is finally reunited, as Adam Page comes out to help Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks. Page cut an impassioned promo about how they were the heart of this company and they were what was promised to the fans.
Reverse Hipster's Lowlights
3.(Impact) Trey Miguel
I feel like Trey has been running in circles. It's true he has a great opponent for under siege, and they no doubt put on an excellent performance. However, I still don't care about Trey Miguel's run as champion, and I don't care that he spray-painted the championship. That will easily be undone when someone new wins it, but it's been the theme of his heel run thus far.
Trey Miguel's biggest problem is that he doesn't stand out as a character. He's an excellent wrestler, but his character work could be better. It would really help him to have a manager. Looking at the landscape of Knockouts, I think there are two prime candidates for him. First, there is Giselle Shaw. She has shown that she is always trying to latch on to another wrestler, and she is really good at getting heat on the mic. Shaw would help Trey evolve into the arrogant, obnoxious champion he is trying to be. Secondly is Taylor Wild and KiLynn King. The X Division and TNA Tag Champions coming together in a faction would be awesome. Also, Trey turning to Black magic would not only be a good reason not to like him but also give his character something to play off.
2.(Raw)Miz
Miz is guaranteed time on Tv every week, but is that enough? He's the first two-time grand slam champion, and we all know what he did in the past with the IC championship. Raw is wasting Miz by using him as a popular jobber who makes people angry, and then inevitability gets beat up. I'm not saying Miz has to go back to the main event. However, if he went back to being a serious competitor who wins, it would do wonders for the entire midcard.
1.(NXT)Bron Breakker vs. Carmelo
I hate to say this, but NXT has messed up this feud. It makes no sense. NXT had an amazing chance to do a double turn during their first encounter, but instead, they completely watered down both characters in the lead-up. Maybe the feud would be better the second time, but it still makes no sense. There is still no good reason for Bron to be a heel, and Carmelo calling out a non-champion who doesn't care about the championship for his championship makes no sense.
Rob’s Winners of the Week
6. It’s easy to forget AEW already has a second show because it is full of meaningless matches and storylines that AEW won’t invest as many resources in.
5. WWE SmackDown introduced a bunch of their new draft picks from NXT, but they did an awful job doing so with uncreative segments that didn’t make me want to see more.
4. This was one of the worse NXT shows in a while. The segments and booking were awkward and didn’t maximize on the character work we have come to expect from NXT.
3. Impact Wrestling is in a little bit of a transition period storywise, and it came out a little worse than usual this week despite two smaller highlights.
2. AEW Dynamite announced a new AEW show “AEW Collision”, while their current show was weirdly full of subpar segments despite two highlights this week.
1. WWE Raw was solid this week, but most of its segments made me more excited to see where it’s going than what was actually happening. This week, that’s enough to pick up the top spot.
Reverse Hipster's Winner of the Week
6th Place NXT
I think NXT needs to answer the question of who do you want to be. the draft has put NXT in flux, but I'm confident it will, but as it stands now, it was the weakest show.
5th Place Rampage
Rampage actually had a solid showing. The main event was ironically the weakest part, but the rest of the show was interesting.
4th Place Raw
Raw had a pretty solid show which is why they are just outside of the top three
3rd Place Dynamite
Dynamite had a really exciting show that advanced all of their double-or-nothing feuds in exciting ways.
2nd Place SmackDown
The Bloodline story is on point. The LWO are rising up as a true threat, and the NXT call-ups are infusing new life into SmackDown.
1st Place Impact
Impact had so much going on, from the Trinity match to the reveal of who attacked Santino to the Jessicka segment and Maclin's brutal attack on PCO. Impact was loaded this week, and thats why they bring home the W.
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