Randy Orton had the holiday weekend off from WWE live events, and used it to spend some time with his kids by the family pool. Evidently, the Orton family has a very strict “No…Diving” policy, which is punishable by an RKO-Outta-Nowhere.
Orton posted the following to social media earlier:
Orton will get his WWE championship rematch against Jinder Mahal at “Money in the Bank” on June 18th. The show will be held in Orton’s hometown of St. Louis.
Originally it had been planned for Orton to defend the WWE championship against a returning Rusev on the show, but plans changed when the decision was made to put the title on Jinder. What is next for Rusev now remains unknown, but should be cleared up shortly after his return.
Sasha Banks will be on 205 Live tonight after Smackdown. The former multi-time women’s champion has promised to back-up Rich Swann, her partner at Sunday’s Extreme Rules PPV.
As announced on Raw last night, Noam Dar & Alicia Fox will take on Banks & Swann in a mixed-tag match. The event will be held in Baltimore, MD, Swann’s hometown.
More Stars to 205 Live?
With viewership for the brand low, despite good reviews from those who enjoy it, WWE could be looking to include more big stars on 205 Live programming.
26-year old Rich Swann, became one of the more popular superstars early in the show’s run, and is a former cruiserweight champion. He fell out of the title picture shortly after Neville debuted on the brand.
Noam Dar has been entered into various feuds centred around his on-again off-again girlfriend, Alicia Fox. To her credit, Fox is really putting everything into her character right now.
Ring of Honor this week was the first new episode since the “War of the Worlds” PPV. On that night, Kenny Omega fired Adam Cole from Bullet Club and announced their newest member, Marty Scurll.
ROH TV airdate: May 29th 2017(on Fite App)
Philadelphia, PA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEpox5tsdQk
Bullet Club Segment
The show opened up this week with Hangman Page and the Young Bucks introducing the newest member of Bullet Club, Marty Scurrl. Marty cut a promo saying he was going to throw a “tea party with Marty” but is interrupted by Adam Cole.
Cole said that Bullet Club firing him was the worst mistake they will ever make. Hangman Page then challenged Cole to a match, which is later made official for next week.
1. Josh Woods vs. David Starr
David Starr got a hometown reaction from the Philly crowd, but it didn’t help him any. This was Woods’ first match since winning the 2017 prospects tournament. He works an MMA gimmick and took most of the offence in this match.
Woods wins with a rolling knee-bar for a submission.
Winner: Josh Woods via submission
Adam Cole vs Hangman Page is made official as next week’s main event.
Before the 2nd match, Silas Young cut a promo on Jay Lethal. Silas doesn’t like it that Lethal gets all the commercials in ROH, and all the opportunities. He says he doesn’t get what is so great about Jay Lethal. Silas reminds everyone that he beat Jay Lethal in singles competition last time they met. Last week, Silas was shown jumping Lethal in the locker-room after learning he had been given another commercial.
This brings out Jay Lethal, who wants a match with him. Silas told Lethal he would face the Bruiser instead.
2. Jay Lethal vs. the Beer City Bruiser
The match started off as a brawl, as Silas joined the commentary team. Lethal gained the advantage on the outside as the show went to commercial. After the break, the match was back inside where Lethal once again got the advantage. He looked to go for his flying elbow, but Bruiser rolled out of the ring.
Lethal hit a flying cross body on Bruiser on the outside, then turned his sights to Silas, who was seated at the commentary table. Lethal started throwing punches at Silas and the match was called off.
Silas and Bruiser started to double-team Lethal, but Bobby Fish made the save. Fish and Silas have a long-standing rivalry., so that is probably setting up a tag-team match somewhere down the line.
Result: No Contest.
3. Cody (Bullet Club) vs. Frankie Kazarian
Before the match Cody cut a promo saying he should be ROH Champion. His reasoning is that in the main event at War of the Worlds, he had Lethal in a figure-four when Daniels pinned Lethal. Cody claims that since he had the figure-four on the pinned opponent that he should be the winner, not Daniels. So this could mean we get Cody vs Daniels for the title next.
The match was very even, with each guy hitting a few of their signature moves. Cody hit a disaster kick and an Alabama slam. Kazarian hit a spring-board cutter, and a flying moonsault to the outside in the opening moments of the match.
In the final moments, Kazarian countered the Cross Rhodes twice, but Cody’s third attempt was successful, scoring him the win.
WWE has released video of the recent tryouts the company held in Dubai. The company held 3 days of tryouts at the end of April, but have yet to announce signing any of the participants.
WWE posted the following video earlier:
Wrestling’s Race for India
Impact Wrestling and WWE appear to be in a race to establish themselves in India, where JBL has noted several times, there is a population of 1.3 billion.
While Impact is in the country for a set of TV tapings, WWE has planned to tour the country in September. It will be interesting to see if WWE decides to air a Network special from the country on that tour or not. A Jinder Mahal WWE title defence from India could provide a unique, and entertaining atmosphere.
Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson’s newest movie, “Baywatch”, did not do well at the Box Office for its opening weekend. The film, which currently holds only a 19% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, only brought in $22 million this weekend.
In comparison, Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean 5” brought in $77 million this weekend.
Groom Uses the Rock’s Entrance at Wedding
The weekend wasn’t all bad for the Rock however, as video of a man using his old entrance theme at his wedding went viral. The Rock himself commented on the video:
Check this out. AWESOME. (this is also how I saunter around the house after a few drinks;). Congrats brotha to you and the lovely bride ?? ? https://t.co/ovtrK9T10b
The Austin, Texas based independent promotion, Wrestle Circus, ran their 10th event this weekend. In a 6-person match, 3 up-and-coming prospects decided to mock the recent controversy surrounding Randy Orton’s social media comments about “… dives”.
Wrestle Circus
For a young independent promotion, there appears to be some money backing Wrestle Circus.
The promotion has brought in names such as the Lucha Brothers, John Morrison, Taya Valkyrie, and Joey Ryan in recent events. Sammy Guevara, Shane Strickland and Mr. 450 are the Wrestle Circus wrestlers who abandoned their …dive plans in favour of RKOs.
Earlier today, WWE announced they will be cancelling their planned NXT show in Manchester on June 6th. The company also announced they will be sending superstars to local hospitals to visit those impacted by the tragedy.
Earlier this week, WWE released a statement to TMZ, indicating they were working with local authorities to determine whether or not the show should go on as planned:
“WWE offers its heartfelt condolences to those affected by this tragedy. We are working with local authorities on the appropriate course of action as it relates to our event scheduled for Tuesday, June 6 at the Manchester Arena.”
With the show now cancelled, it likely means authorities in Manchester advised against keeping the planned date.
My thoughts are with all of those affected by the senseless tragedy in Manchester. #PrayforManchester
Gunner started his pro-wrestling career in 2001, after returning home from the Iraq war. While serving, he reached the rank of Lance Corporal. He was a machine-gunner while in Iraq, which led to the name he uses in his wrestling career.
His early career involved competing for various NWA affiliated promotions. He even won the NWA National Championship at one point, only vacating it when he signed with TNA in 2010.
For 5 years, Gunner was apart of TNA storylines, including as a member of Hulk Hogan’s “Immortal” faction. He left the company in June of 2015, and began looking for work as an actor and bodybuilder. Now it appears, he’s gotten the call to be a part of NXT.
Lucha Underground returns on Wednesday May 31st, 2017. The promotion recently released a trailer for the second-half of season 3:
State Of Lucha Underground
Lucha Underground wrapped filming for season 3 over a year ago, and have yet to announce tapings for the season 4. Despite the long layoff, tapings for the company’s 4th season are expected to begin this fall.
Last year, the El Rey Network increased their funding for original programming, which includes LU, leading to speculation Dario Cueto’s promotion has security they will be around for awhile still. They are now distributing their content through iTunes and Netflix as well, which should increase their revenue streams.
Some wrestlers/luchadors have expressed frustration in a possible 16-month gap between tapings however. Such lengthy layoffs, while common in television, are new territory for pro-wrestling, where at most promotions will tape a few months in advance.
35 year-old Ryan Reeves, better known to wrestling fans as Ryback, has been producing his own podcast since August. Ever the polarizing figure, Ryback gave his thoughts on several controversial subjects during his latest show.
Here are the highlights (via Wrestlezone):
On Rip Rogers and Randy Orton’s “…dive” tweet:
“I think he understands the fundamentals of Wrestling, and he is very old school; I mean, the product does evolve, but he’s pretty right on with everything he said right on. He is 100% right on though. Independent Wrestlers are ruining wrestling. It has carried over to WWE, and Hunter [Triple H] and Vince [McMahon] have allowed it to happen. It’s controlled more up there. This isn’t to say that every independent wrestler, but this is one thing that I have ripped on [John] Cena on personal things for the most part, but Cena always was really good at selling the basics really well. One punch and he would sell it, and that is what Rip [Rogers] was alluding to. If any of those independent guys get punched in the mouth, and I don’t mean that as a knock on independents because I see a lot of it since I am there, it’s running ramped. I was talking to one of our other buddies about this, but these guys are going to kill it for themselves because they are going to shorten their careers too. They are replacing one bump with 5-6 bumps and like, they’re f***ing stupid, which is a nice way to say it. You were throwing out the meaning of one bump for 6-7 bumps that won’t get the same reaction, which I believe is because guys don’t know how to sell accordingly. I think WWE shouldn’t bring guys in there and push them to do that, but they tone it back when they get there because it doesn’t fly there, but they have allowed it on certain extents and that is not a good thing, so I agree with Rip 100%. Don’t get me wrong, all that stuff is cool to do it, you don’t have to do 100 of them but the guys don’t sell anything. I just watched a match the other day where a guy took a Brogue Kick to the face to start the match and then came right back with a dropkick and then it was dive; it’s like, what are you doing? I think Vince Russo said this before, but the game of Baseball and the rules of Baseball were created, then some different rules were added to excite the fans, but they haven’t flat out said f*** you to the psychology of Baseball, which is what wrestlers are doing now, they’re saying, f*** you to psychology because they’ve never been in a real fight.”
On Wrestlers Selling:
“This is not a knock on independents. It all comes down to selling. If you sold you wouldn’t have to do all that stuff because you would be too busy selling. You’re throwing out the art of selling, that is the big issue I feel like, because selling slows everything down. You can still have all the action and things, but you just have to find different ways to get there. It’s not just doing every move in the book, it’s not about that. If you want it to be in style, put it in style, however everyone’s career is going to be much shorter. I look at the ratings and the ratings are telling me everything. Granted, there is a lot more TV out there now, but casual people don’t think that way. That small independent market is not going to pay the bills. People are throwing away the basic fundementals of wrestling. Outdoing your opponent by selling that move to the best of your ability; which guys no longer think that way and it is wrong. There’s a difference between the big leagues and selling to the masses, and it is the way it has always been. It’s nothing against independent wrestling. I am having the time of my life; like, I will throw a suicide dive in there, but I’m not doing it after no-selling 100 things. It’s not a knock on them, but it’s just getting out of hand, so hearing that I agree with Rip 100%. When Jeff Hardy does that high-spot stuff, he’s always sold accordingly; go back and watch Ricky Steamboat and Macho Man; everyone says it’s one of the greatest match of all time—they sold. Young Bucks are smaller guys so they have a similar style, but now you see everyone doing that style and people begin emulating them.”
On Working With Independent Wrestlers:
” I can wrestle independent wrestlers, it’s fine, but I’m not going to go into a match and have them no-sell 20 forearms, it’s not going to happen. Indy wrestlers are super talented, but it doesn’t make you a wrestler. It’s all the little things; the psychology of the original rules of the game, because those who came before us created the game, and I’m not talking about Triple H, but the game of wrestling. It evolves in different areas, but it’s people being disrespectful to the psychology and rules of wrestling. They think because chant ‘This is Awesome,’ they’re throwing themselves away and killing themselves.”
On Wrestlers Currently Being Pushed in WWE:
“WWE is pushing guys that cannot hurt a fly. When did gymnastics make you tough? It doesn’t. It really doesn’t, and I get that it is entertainment, and it has its place, but for that to replace actual toughness, the business was built around being real, that is why you lose casual viewers because they don’t buy into that and they never will. When the Dads and kids tune in, they are not tuned in to watch that gymnastics stuff. It’s not believable; the whole art of it is making it believable, which is my honest take and everyone has their own opinion. It is what it is and I agree with Rip Rogers.”
Hawkins got in some initial offence after faking a test-of-strength challenge, but otherwise this was all Black. The guy is fun to watch. He won here with a roundhouse head-kick. During the match he also did a really nice springboard moonsault onto a standing Hawkins.
Winner: Aleister Black
2. “the Velveteen Dream” Patrick Clark vs. Robert Anthony
The Velveteen Dream, Patrick Clark is certainly in good shape. This was a squash match to feature him, after weeks of his vignettes shown on NXT. They do appear to be dropping Patrick Clark from his name, and are just going with him as the Velveteen Dream.
He hit a beautiful big elbow drop from the top rope for the win.
Winner: the Velveteen Dream
3. Drew McIntyre vs. Wesley Blake
This wasn’t a squash match, meaning they might be looking at Wesley Blake as a mid to top heel in NXT’s men’s singles division.
Blake threw Drew into the post shoulder first and locked in a crossface. Drew powered out of it however, and ended up landing a reverse Alabama slam. Blake countered a double-arm DDT into an arm-breaker to go back on offence. He went to the top rope but Drew caught him and threw him off. Blake countered the running boot, but then took a big headbutt. After that, Drew finally hit a single-leg Yakuza kick and got the pin.
NXT Women’s Champion Asuka recently won her 177th match in NXT, surpassing Bill Goldberg’s fabled 176-0 streak from the glory days of WCW. Both Asuka and Goldberg commented on her accomplishment:
I respect Goldberg so much. He is amazing. I am honored to be the undefeated champion with the longest streak in WWE history. #WWE#WWENXTpic.twitter.com/eOZXIj4NGV
Goldberg’s streak, according to WCW storylines, ended at 176-0. In reality, that streak was only 158 wins and he actually lost a non-televised match to Chad Fortune at a WCW Saturday Night taping early in his career. In Goldberg’s autobiography, he stated that management were testing to see how he would react to losing a match, and when he didn’t complain, they continued pushing his undefeated streak.
Asuka has never been pinned or submitted in NXT, but she has been in matches where she didn’t win. In 2016, she didn’t win 3 straight fatal 4-way matches, which were all won by Bayley. She was also in a battle royal she didn’t win.
Yesterday, Jinder Mahal’s WWE championship win was commended in Canadian Provincial Parliament in Alberta. The congrats were delivered by Graham Sucha (NDP), MPP for the Calgary-Shaw riding in Alberta.
Amazingly, Sucha got the line “Don’t Hinder Jinder” into the official transcript. The MPP posted video of his congrats on his YouTube channel. Sucha has been in office over 2 years, and this was just the 5th video he has chosen to post.
Jinder Mahal is Canadian?
Yuvraj “Raj” Singh Dhesi was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is of Indian Punjabi origin. His Uncle was the Great Gama Singh, who wrestled under a similar gimmick in Stampede Wrestling. Gama Singh led the Karachi-Vice stable and feuded with members of the Hart Family.
Jinder’s grandfather emigrated from India to Canada with his family in 1963. The Great Gama Singh was 9 years old at the time.
Before the match we were shown highlights of Daivari from the last few weeks. In general, he has been involved in backstage scenes that play up the idea he comes from a wealthy background, and is a little uppity about it.
Swann took the brunt of Daivari’s offence for the first part of the match, but began to make a comeback after breaking out of his opponent’s cobra clutch. He hit a somersault axe-kick and then a spinning roundhouse head kick for a near-fall. After that he hit his Phoenix Splash and got the win.
Winner: Rich Swann
Following the match Noam Dar and Alicia Fox hit the ring. Dar attacked Swann from behind and threw him out of the ring.
Austin Aries and Neville Interview Segment
Neville and Aries discuss their upcoming submissions match at Extreme Rules in 2 weeks.
Aries was eating a banana to start the interview.
2. Cedric Alexander vs. Johnny Boone
I really hope WWE doesn’t figure this out, but Johnny Boone is the name of the leader of the old “Cornbread Mafia”, a famous Minnesota marijuana-growing outfit from 1980s. Perhaps they’ll do a season of Fargo on him. Poor guy is serving life in prison. His namesake didn’t do much better here.
Alexander won with the Lumbar Check.
Winner: Cedric Alexander
3. Street Fight The Brian Kendrick vs. Akira Tozawa
Since this brand has no Takeovers or PPVs (aside from the title match being on Raw PPVs), Tozawa and Kendrick concluded their feud in the main event of 205 Live this week.
Kendrick went immediately to the outside to get a weapon but Tozawa hit him with a suicide dive. They started the match brawling around the outside. When they got back in the ring, Kendrick used a role of purple duct tape to tape Tozawa’s mouth shut. Then he locked in the Captain’s Hook, but Tozawa got to the ropes and used them as leverage to get out of the hold.
Kendrick set up a table on the outside, but Tozawa recovered and started whipping him with a leather belt. Tozawa went for his diving Senton, but Kendrick countered and once again locked in the Captain’s Hook. Tozawa got out of the move by diving to the outside, bringing his opponent with him.
After brawling on the outside for a bit, Tozawa set up Kendrick on the table and climbed the ropes. He then hit his high-diving senton onto Kendrick through the table. He rolled Kendrick back into the ring and pinned him.
CM Punk is taking part in MTV’s reality show “The Challenge”, and was on the receiving end of some hate from one of the other contestants apparently. The MTV program posted the following video to their FB page last night:
Is CM Punk Still in the UFC?
CM Punk has said he has been trying to get another fight in the UFC, but there has been some stalling on behalf of the promotion. After his unfortunate performance in his bout with Mickey Gall, UFC President Dana White indicated that perhaps Punk’s next bout shouldn’t be in the UFC.
Mickey Gall defeated CM Punk via rear-naked choke in 2:14 of the 1st round at UFC 203.
A Change.org petition to remove pro-wrestling from YouTube’s offensive content list is gaining traction. So far over 2000 people have signed.
Last March, YouTube responded to advertisers complaints that their ads were running over offensive content, such as hate speech or other offensive content. Somehow, pro-wrestling got grouped in with offensive content. As a result, many pro-wrestling YouTube channels have taken a hit financially.
It is believed YouTube is still tweaking their policy however, which makes the current petition all the more important.
The change in YouTube’s policy greatly reduced the amount of revenue earned by What Culture Pro-Wrestling, leading to the cancellation of several tapings for their YouTube shows. The Young Bucks have also expressed the policy has caused their revenue to “take a beating” from “Being the Elite”.
Similar wrestling channels on YouTube have also been hurt by the move. There is also a worry that such policies set a dangerous precedent regarding the value of pro-wrestling content to advertisers.
the Young Bucks & Kenny Omega turned on Adam Cole to close out ROH’s “War of the Worlds” PPV earlier this month.
New footage released by the trio seems to indicate the Young Bucks are having 2nd thoughts about firing Cole from Bullet Club.
Adam Cole vs. Bullet Club Rivalry
Adam Cole is no longer under contract to ROH, leading to speculation he is WWE bound. He is still taking independent bookings however, so if he is WWE bound he’s not headed there immediately.
Cole and Omega teased dissension during a tour with NJPW earlier this year, something they have yet to pay off. The big angle to close out the ROH PPV a couple weeks ago, also seemed to indicate Cole will be feuding with Bullet Club before heading to WWE.
Last night on Raw, viewers saw an old-school Goldust style promo, something first brought to WWE over 20 years ago. After splitting with his “Golden Truth” partner, R-Truth, it appears Goldust, as in the old Goldust, might be in line for a push.
Goldust’s First WWE Run
48-year old Dustin Runnels made his WWE debut in 1990. He was wrestling as Dustin Rhodes then, but when he returned to the company 5 years later, they had entirely different plans for him.
The WWE Universe was first introduced to Goldust through a series of bizarre vignettes that began airing in the fall of 1995.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD_EILhBBGw
He would make his in-ring debut that October, at an In Your House PPV.
The character immediately moved into some controversial storylines. It was heavily alluded to during his feud with Razor Ramon, that Goldust either had a sexual interest in his rival, or was trying to play mind games with him.
Check out Goldust distract Razor Ramon during his match with a young Jeff Hardy:
After feuding with Razor Ramon, Goldust moved into a program with Roddy Piper leading to WrestleMania XII, and their famous “Hollywood Backlot Brawl”.
Over the course of the next year Goldust would feud with various good guys on the roster. A rivalry once built between he and Ahmed Johnson, after Goldust insisted on giving him mouth-to-mouth recitation after having been knocked out.
This led to Ahmed and Goldust meeting at the 1996 King of the Ring:
The First End to Goldust
By 1997 the gimmick was waning a little. Vignettes of a happy Dustin Runnels and wife Terri began to air, as they played up that his true self was a family man. This started a feud with Brian Pillman that would end prematurely due to Brian’s tragic death.
Pillman defeated Goldust at SummerSlam 97, with the stipulation being that Pillman got Marlena (Terri) for 30 days. Pillman died before the conclusion of the angle.
Dustin then ended up turning on Marlena, and ending their marriage in storyline. Their real marriage would end in 1999.
The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust
With the Attitude Era in full-swing, WWE could take the Goldust character farther than they had before. He was paired up with Luna Vachon, and became “the Artist Formerly Known as Goldust”.
WWE ended up landing in some hot water with upset parent groups in the late 90s and certain characters ended up being changed, Goldust’s being one of them.
Dustin Runnels returned, and started to speak out against WWE’s edgy storylines and characters, a subtle shot from WWE to their real-life detractors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch2QltZZ7DU
Runnels became a born-again Christian and began speaking of “His Return”. He was speaking about the Goldust character however.
Goldust would feud with Jeff Jarrett and Al Snow in his final months of his first run as the character. He ended up in a rather bizarre angle with the Blue Meanie as well, leading to a match between the two of them at the St. Valentines Day Massacre PPV in 1999. I searched all over YouTube and this angle is nowhere to be found. It’s on the Network however.
Signing with WCW
Dustin signed with WCW in 1999, after Vince Russo took over the booking. Russo tried to re-imagine the Goldust character as a darker more sadistic persona. He was named “Seven”, but after reactions to the vignettes underwhelmed, he simply wrestled as Dustin Runnels until the company went out of business.
His appearance in WCW in 1999 solidified that the initial run of the Goldust character was over. He’d be back in WWE, but his character slowly moved away from edgy towards a comedy act.
That initial first-run of Goldust is one of the most controversial in wrestling history.
After NXT Takeover: Chicago concluded, unsuccessful NXT title challenger, Hideo Itami, was quite distraught in the back. The normally mild-mannered Itami was confronted by Kassius Ohno, who also lost an NXT title match to Bobby Roode earlier this year.
Ohno attempted to calm down Itami, but may have put himself in his crosshairs instead. The 36-year old Itami has been frustrated with his run in NXT since signing with the company in 2014. Injuries, and now his loss to Roode, have prevented him from playing a larger role in NXT, or get called-up to the main roster.
As for Kassius Ohno, the 37 year-old was released from WWE developmental in 2013, but resigned last year. He lost an NXT title shot to Bobby Roode not long after re-debuting in NXT. Ohno most recently defeated Andrade “Cien” Almas in NXT’s main event last week.
New WWE champion, Jinder Mahal, plans to have a celebration that will be felt all the way in India tonight on Smackdown. WWE has announced that Jinder will throw a “Punjabi Celebration” tonight in honor of his championship win.
Jinder will most likely have to defend this title against former champion Randy Orton at some point. Also, waiting in the wings is the returning Rusev. The injured Bulgarian insisted he be granted a WWE title opportunity at Money in the Bank in July.
If WWE plans to have Jinder defend against Rusev at MITB, it will either be a heel vs. heel match, or one of them (most likely Rusev), will turn face beforehand.
Last year at MITB, Dean Ambrose captured and cashed-in the briefcase on the same night. A lot could happen with the WWE title in the next couple of months.
ROH TV airdate: May 22nd 2017 (Fite App) Tokyo, Japan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgEJH88oFA8
This week on Ring of Honor television, matches were from the company’s shows from Tokyo in late February. In addition to wrestlers from ROH, many NJPW stars were featured as well.
1. NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championships
Delirious, Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask vs. Sanada, Bushi, & Evil (Los Ingobernables)(c)
Surprisingly, the only ROH wrestler in this match was Delirious, and he’s actually the ROH booker. He likes to wrestle when they go to Japan though, so he was on the card here.
Sanada and Delirious ended up being the two legal wrestlers in the ring at the end of the match. Delirious looked like he was a little too unorthodox for Sanada, but Evil bashed Delirious in the head with a chair when the refs back was turned.
After that, Sanada put him in the “Skull and Bones” and made him tap for the win.
Winners: Los Ingobernables ( 1st title defence- later lost titles to “Taguchi Japan”)
2. NEVER Openweight Championship Hirooki Goto (c) vs. Punishment Martinez
35 year-old Luis “Punishment” Martinez is a 13-year pro who is just now starting to get a break. Originally trained at the Monster Factory in New Jersey, Martinez wrestled the indies until heading to Ring of Honor’s school for additional training in 2015. He has since had a short-lived alliance with Kevin Sullivan that boosted his name value some.
He got a big opportunity here in a match against a well-known NJPW champion. While Goto has since dropped the title to Minoru Suzuki, he is a 3x NJPW Cup winner, 1x IWGP Intercontinental champion, and multi-time tag team champion as well.
Goto countered the “South of Heaven Chokeslam” into the GTR to retain the championship.
Winner: Hirooki Goto (1 of 3 successful title defences he had before losing the title to Suzuki on April 27th 2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6IIURNdHlI
3. Kenny Omega, Cody & the Young Bucks (Bullet Club) vs. The Briscoes, Will Ospreay & Kazuchika Okada (CHAOS)
There were lots of really innovative spots between the Young Bucks and Will Ospreay early. When Ospreay was dazed on the apron the Bucks would both super-kick him off, only for him to fall into the arms of Cody and Omega, who placed him back on the apron to be super-kicked again. This happened a few times.
Ospreay ended up taking a lot of Bullet Club offence before making a hot tag into Okada, who cleaned house, followed by Mark Briscoe doing the same. As with most Young Buck matches, there was a lot to keep track of.
Mark Briscoe and Okada gave Omega consecutive elbows from the top, leading to Okada attempting a rainmaker clothesline on his challenger from WrestleKingdom 11. Omega countered the rainmaker with a jumping knee however, but then ran right into a standing spanish fly by Ospreay. Okada tagged in Ospreay and Omega tagged in Cody, and they would be the final two legal wrestlers in the match.
Ospreay hit a hesitation dropkick in the corner followed by a Falcon Arrow for a near-fall. After dodging a diving attack however, Cody countered Ospreay’s springboard cutter into the Cross Rhodes and got the pin.
2 of the original 4 members of Bullet Club will square off tonight when Finn Balor goes one-on-one with Karl Anderson. The match was announced by WWE less than an hour before the star of tonight’s Raw.
BREAKING: @FinnBalor will be in action TONIGHT on #RAW when he goes one-on-one with former #TagTeamChampion @KarlAndersonWWE!
Anderson and Balor played a larger role in forming the Bullet Club than any other 2 superstars. The name, Bullet Club, comes from a combination of their nicknames at the time: Balor, as Prince Devitt, was “the Shooter”, and Anderson was “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson.
Prince Devitt grew frustrated when he was unable to defeat Hiroshi Tanahashi, as did Karl Anderson for the same reasons. The two “good guys” both turned heel and began bringing the tactics of the nWo into NJPW.
The other 2 original 4 members were Bad Luck Fale, who served as Balor’s “Personal Bouncer” at the time, and Tama Tonga, who is the son of Haku, aka Meng.
We've traveled a lot of roads, cowboy. But this is business, and beating you up is best for business.#BeatUpFinnBalor@WWE#WWERaw tonight
Austin Aries will challenge Neville for the Cruiserweight championship on Sunday June 4th at the Extreme Rules 2017 PPV. The event will be held inside Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, MD.
Recently, WWE announced the title match will be a “submissions match”.
This will be the 3rd Cruiserweight championship match in a row for Aries. He failed to win the title at WrestleMania, and again at Payback from Neville.
In their 1st title match at WrestleMania 33, Neville clawed at Aries’ eye to gain the advantage and the win. At Payback, Neville got himself intentionally disqualified to save his title, leading to the upcoming 3rd bout at Extreme Rules.
The longest reigning tag team champions in WWE history, the New Day, are expected to debut on Smackdown this week, PWInsider.com has confirmed.
It will be the first appearance on Smackdown since being written off of Raw via an injury angle with the Revival. Kofi Kingston needed ankle surgery, so the Revival was booked to beat the team 2 weeks in a row, injuring Kofi in the process.
New Day on Smackdown
During their sabbatical, Big E and Kofi Kingston did a promotional tour in India, while Xavier Woods focussed on his “UpUpDownDown” YouTube channel, and WWE’s partnership with Rocket League.
The team being moved to Smackdown opens up the possibility for several new storylines. With a heel team holding the tag titles, New Day could move immediately into title contention.
The heel side of Smackdown’s tag division is a little shallow at the moment, with only he Colons and Usos. Expect to either see a babyface team turn heel, or the Singh Brothers to enter the division shortly.
Saturday’s NXT: Takeover Chicago show ended with the sudden betrayal of Johnny Gargano by his longtime tag-team partner Tommaso Ciampa. The story-telling for this angle actually goes all the way back to the Cruiserweight Classic.
Gargano’s real-life spouse, Candice LeRae, who made an appearance on NXT television in a battle royal recently, offered a statement on Gargano’s condition.
Ciampa & Gargano met in the 1st round of the Cruiserweight Classic last year, with Ciampa coming out the victor. In that match, Gargano had second thoughts before using dirt-underhanded tactics to beat his partner/opponent. This allowed Ciampa the opportunity he needed to win the match.
During the match at Takeover, Gargano pushed Ciampa out of the way of a ladder attack, and took the brunt himself. The story is that Gargano is so loyal to his partner that he is willing to take losses and beatings rather than have the same happen to his partner. Ciampa isn’t afraid to do the opposite to Gargano however, even though he does seem somewhat reluctant. While Ciampa’s character might appreciate his longtime partner, he is willing to take him out if it furthers his career.
