NXT, Lucha Underground and Indy Wrestling Minute - Your Weekly Source for Independent Wrestling News

NXT Takeover: Rival

Overall, Rival was another great live event for NXT. It showcased some of their best talent and it was capped off by three of the best matches WWE has put out in a long time. Though, it didn’t quite reach the heights of R Evolution because there were lulls in the otherwise great show, in the Baron Corbin/Bull Dempsey No DQ match and the tag team title match.

The show opened with Hideo Itami taking on Tyler Breeze. Breeze attacked Itami after NXT last week, furious that Itami lost in the #1 Contender tournament, since Itami defeated Breeze in the first round. It’s great to see that they are still finding things for Breeze to do since he’s been overshadowed by the NXT 5 lately, because he has put in a lot of time in the WWE developmental system and found a gimmick that he does really well and has caught on big time with the fans.

Breeze coming out with a selfie stick done up in the same fabric as his ring gear was genius and I really hope he continues to make that part of his entrance. (I also saw someone on Twitter, I can’t remember who, say he should call it “The Ugly Stick” and use it to attack people, which I think would be great.) Also, a “fan” jumped on Prince Pretty during his entrance (she’s another developmental talent named Gionna Daddio. She actually looks almost exactly like Alexa Bliss somehow) and was quickly dragged away.

As good as Shawn Michaels’ “Sexy Boy” theme song is, Tyler Breeze’s is even better. And I compare the two because both have lyrics done by that wrestler.

Hideo starts fast, sending numerous kicks at Breeze which he avoids while screaming “Not the face!” (Actually that might have been a fan saying that, I’m not sure)

Itami staying a few steps ahead of Breeze, nailing him with combinations of kicks. But eventually, Breeze starts to focus on Itami’s knee to keep him grounded and take away his kicking power. (Figure Four on the post and a modified cloverleaf which Itami breaks with the ropes)

I feel like Itami is just going to tease the GTS forever and never actually hit it. Itami somehow kicks out of a Supermodel Kick and a deep folding press cover.

Itami shows off that Fighting Spirit and fights through numerous punches from Breeze to mount a comeback and flurry of strikes and several kicks. It’s like his Hulking Up and he should definitely make it a part of his routine.

Itami wins with a Sick Kick to the face of Breeze.

Bull Dempsey vs Baron Corbin is up next. I think Corbin has a good future (especially if he bulks up some and gets some cuts like Neville did) but this match was awful. It was supposed to be a No DQ match but it’s just like all their other matches. And no weapons were used at all. Bull looks under the ring one time and doesn’t find anything then grabs a chair from the timekeeper area and doesn’t even use it before he’s hit with the End of Days and pinned. After the match, Corbin sits in the chair and laughs at Bull – literally the only way the chair was used despite it being a no DQ match. I was expecting a crazy brawl with some cool spots but got literally the same match they’ve had every other time they’ve wrestled.

The Lucha Dragons get a rematch with Blake and Murphy for the NXT Tag Team Titles. From what I remember, Sin Cara and even Kalisto were botching all over the place in this one. I’m convinced that the Sin Cara mask somehow makes people into botch machines and now it’s rubbing off on Kalisto. The quicker he can get away from Sin Cara and start a solo career, the better.

Blake and Murphy work well, making tags and staying on top of the Dragons. Wonder how long it will be before the Vaudevillains come after them? Probably right away since there’s literally no other tag teams in NXT (I guess there’s The Mechanics, who we haven’t seen in a while).

Kalisto spiked Murphy with a low rana which was probably the highlight of the match. Murphy then reversed a Selina Del Sol which looked cool. Overall, these guys just seemed off tonight, they just didn’t click.

Blake and Murphy retain. Murphy hits a running suplex and Blake nails Sin Cara with a frog splash for the victory.

During their celebration, a message pops up on screen – “The takeover isn’t over – it’s only just begun. Stay tuned…next week.” Looks like hacker Solomon Crowe shows up (Corey Graves, Rich Brennan and not so much Albert seem very confused by it)

Adrian Neville versus Finn Balor for the #1 Contendership up next. I was hoping Balor would have different paint tonight but he doesn’t. It’s not quite the same, but it’s the same theme.

Starts off really fast, exchanging holds but quickly turns into the two athletic guys displaying their aerial abilities and their agility. Balor wants to use his speed and high impact moves to set a pace but Neville keeping him grounded and wearing him down with chinlocks.

Neville getting the better of the exchanges early. But he was the longest reigning NXT Champ so you’d expect him to have an advantage. But after hitting a tope con hilo to the ramp and sending Neville through the barricade with a big dropkick, Balor starts to take control. He lands a double stomp from the top rope to Neville’s head but he kicks out somehow.

Neville almost hits a Red Arrow but Balor gets the knees up, rolls him up but only gets a 2. He sends Neville flying to the corner with a missile dropkick and follows it with a double stomp for the win and is the #1 contender.

This was an incredible match between two of the most athletic guys in NXT. Obviously there wasn’t as much flippy stuff as their meetings in New Japan but both guys have acclimated to the WWE style really well - Balor especially since he’s only been here a short time. Neville has a bright future if he’s used right on the main roster, but I can’t shake the feeling that because he’s a little smaller than the typical WWE mold, he’s going to overshadowed or turned into a joke.

Women’s Title Fatal Fourway up now. Bayley out first, looking more aggressive and determined. Sasha Banks out second and actually gets a good reaction at first until the crowd remembers she’s a heel and supposed to get booed.

Becky Lynch out third. Sporting new ring gear that I’m not into. Her previous long pants, plaid ring gear suited her and her persona much better than the plain grey and red gear with shorts. Charlotte out last with her Ric Flair theme remix.

Team BAE ganging up on Charlotte first but Charlotte shows why she’s the champ and sends them flying while also dealing with Bayley.

Cool spot early on when Becky sends Charlotte into the LED board on the hard cam side of the ring and it “shorts out.”

Becky and Sasha working together early on but after they go for a cover on Bayley at the same time, things break down quickly. Sasha yells her down and Becky seems to back off but surprises Sasha with a huge pump handle suplex that sends her out of the ring. Becky hits three leg drops on Bayley but gets a 2. Puts on the Four Leg Clover on Bayley but eats a boot from Sasha, who takes controls of Becky.

Sasha hits the corner knee drop on Charlotte and Becky at the same time and it looked awesome (Charlote on second buckle, Becky on bottom). Sasha really killed it in this match, not just in terms of her in-ring work but selling her character flawlessly.

After Becky breaks up a pin after Bayley hit the Belly to Bayley on Charlotte, Bayley slams her on the apron and does a sliding single leg drop kick through the corner. Fighting on the ramp and Sasha dives onto them! As they stagger to their feet, Charlotte hits a plancha onto them! When was the last time you saw dives to the outside in a WWE women’s match – let alone two in one match?

Bayley hits a Belly to Bayley from the top rope on Charlotte but Sasha breaks it up and throws Bayley out. Covers Charlotte but gets a 2! Sasha locks in the Bank Statement crossface, lets it go to kick Becky and Bayley back out. Locks it in again and Charlotte crawling. Really wrenching it in now, transitions to crucifix pin and pins Charlotte to become the news Women’s champ! The Boss is the NXT Women’s Champion!

Charlotte extends her hand to shake and Sasha hesitates. But then embraces Charlotte for a moment, before shoving her away and raising the championship belt over her head and letting out a mocking “Woo!”

This match was really well-paced and you could argue that it was the best overall match on the show. Zayn/Owens was great for what it was but was largely a squash to make Owens look like a monster, like Lesnar’s match against Cena at Summerslam. This four way let all four women shine, it was hot from the get-go and each girl seemed like they were giving it all they had, leaving it all in the ring to win the title. Also, it flowed really well, with each wrestler moving in and out of the action seamlessly, whereas most fatal fourways in WWE tend to be “2 in the ring while 2 rest on the outside of the corner.”

Replay the video package that closed NXT last week before the main event match.

I still can’t get over how crazy it is that Kevin Steen and El Generico are fighting over a WWE title on a WWE live event.

Lots of boos at Kevin Owens during the intros but also a loud “Fight Owens Fight” chant. But for the most part, the crowd is solidly behind Sami Zayn.

Zayn has new ring gear but Owens still in the plain KO t-shirt and black everything else.

Owens starts off avoiding Zayn, rolling outside when Zayn approaches, not wanting to engage. He does it once, then twice, both times the ref holding Zayn back and telling Owens to get back in, who just paces and stares down Zayn. On the third time, Zayn leaps over the ref and top con hilo on Owens on the ramp.

The tope was pretty much the only offense Sami got in. Owens whipped him hard into the corners, followed by big clotheslines and hard shots, cutting off his air with chin locks and headlocks on the mat. Not to mention front suplexing Zayn on the top rope and Zayn bouncing off and landing on his chest.

Owens just a step ahead the whole time. Every time Zayn tries to get going, Owens cuts him off, hits a big power move or keeps him off balance with a stiff shot. Owens showing great personality too, trash talking the crowd when keeping Zayn down (I can’t hear you now!) and mocking Zayn’s entrance on the steps while outside.

Owens huge gutbuster (I was like, Deep Sea Diverticulitis!?) followed by a senton. Only gets a 2. Sami tries to fighting back, throwing weak punches toward Owens’ face who mocks him “You missed” as he lays in forearms.

Zayn starts getting offense going. Lands a few shots and sends Owens outside. Lands a few lines outside and rolls him in. Sends him to the corner and rushes in but Owens get the boot up and Zayn is staggering heavily and Owens lines up a corner cannonball for a 2. Owens drops him with the pump handle neckbreaker on his knee but somehow Zayn kicks out.

Zayn hits a half and half suplex and Owens rolls to the apron. Zayn locks him up and is on the second or bottom rope like he’s gonna suplex him again, but Owens guillotines him sending Zayn crashing to the mat. Owens goes up top and maybe looking for the Swanton but gets blocked and Sami follows him - perhaps teasing a Brainbustaaah? But we’ll never know, Owens hits him in the gut and a headbutt sends him to the mat and dives into a Swanton but Sami gets the knees up! Sami exploder into the corner and rushes in for a Helluva Kick but Owens drops down a rolls out.

Sami follows him and Owens boot to the gut and teases an apron bomb but Zayn holds onto the ropes and kicks Owens away. Sit out springboards off the top rope into a moonsault on Owens but Sami lands hard on the ramp, smashing the back of his head. (Seriously why is that just a steel grated ramp? That’s where they do all their high flying moves to - you’d think they’d take some precaution.)

Sami rolls Owens back in. Owens in the corner and Sami tries to get to the opposite corner but stumbles slightly and looks really out of it. Tries to rush in but stumbles again. The ref checks on him, Sami waves him off and rushes in again but this time Owens is ready and lands a pop up power bomb! Cover but only gets a 2!

Owens is furious and just hammering on Sami with punches and forearms and uppercuts. Sami hung up in the ropes and the ref pulling Owens off numerous times, each time coming back to hammer him more.

A trainer comes out to check on Sami who tells him he’s OK. But Owens is right on top of him again and nails a power bomb. And another. Pins him and Sami barely gets a shoulder up, just barely rolls out of the nonchalant cover.

The trainers check Sami again. But Owens pulls Sami away from them and lands another power bomb. And another! Sets up for another power bomb and the ref pushes Owens off and calls for the bell! He raises Owens’ hand and awards him the belt! Owens wins the NXT Championship via ref stoppage! Owens celebrates with the belt as the ref and trainers check on a motionless Sami Zayn. (Replays show the trainers actually telling the ref to end the match when he pulls Owens off Zan).

Owens standing over the lifeless body of Zayn with the title as the show ends.

Really good match. Booked well too so that Owens can win the title and look really strong, becoming the most dangerous person in NXT instantly while at the same time, leaving the door open for Zayn to return and challenge immediately since he never lost. Makes Zayn look sympathetic from the beating he took from his former best friend while looking resilient even in the loss, since he never gave up, never quit, and never got pinned. This also means that we will get Owens vs Balor at some point or, hopefully, Owens vs Balor vs Zayn. That’s how you build new stars to the main event spot without sacrificing the spot of a guy currently there.

NXT live event in Cleveland, Ohio sold out almost immediately. So that’s two NXT shows on the road which have sold out right away. I really hope they plan on doing more – maybe at the 2300 Arena or National Guard Armory?

Also, Triple H was asked on Twitter where he sees NXT in 5 years and he replied “Standing on its own as a brand, but is not only a pipeline - but an alternative.”

Lucha Underground, 2/11

Opens where left off last week, with Alberto El Patron in Dario Cueto’s office. Cueto says he always admired Alberto - hits suits and his cars. Alberto says he likes that key, what does it unlock? But Cueto just ignores the question and asks him what now that he’s here. Alberto says he likes the temple and what it represents, but first he has to get something off his chest. Grant him this request and LU will never be the same, and the next time he comes to ask for anything, it will be for blood. Cueto asks him what he wants and Alberto smirks and they cut to the arena.

Alberto to have an open mic later tonight says Striker.

Argenis (who is the brother of Mistico, the first Sin Cara, apparently). He takes on Fenix. Argenis takes advantage first but Fenix staying in it with big strikes and a crazy step up dive over the top and lands on his feet.

Striker says Fenix’s first match was when he was 14. Argenis hits a super kick after Fenix springboard and a  rana to follow. Argenis in firm control after a weird flapjack type bump where Fenix landed awkwardly. Fenix soon regains controls with a springboard arm drag and a springboard head kick.

Catrina coming down to the ring by herself, no Mil. She walks around the ring as Argenis crotches fenix and hits a top rope rana followed by a standing moonsault. Don’t think they’ve seen Catrina yet.

Fenix reverses a tombstone into an over the shoulder reverse piledriver for the win. Catrina gets into the ring and licks Argenis while staring down Fenix who rolls out of the ring unsure what to make of Catrina.

After a commercial, Catrina approaches Mil Muertes. She says “The power of 1,000 lives was too much for you. You need to…” But she can’t finish because Mil lifts her up by the throat and yells at her “I...need...NOTHING!” Puts her down and he walks away. Down the hall, Mil comes faces to face with Chavo, they stare down and Mil slams him around by the next and says “next week, you pay your debt.”

Big Ryck in a confessional box “Forgive me father for I am about to sin. I am going to destroy three Judases” Says his hands won’t shed innocent blood. Bael only showed up when the getting got good, Cortez screwed up by attacking him and Cisco is a rat. It’s time for Big Ryck to go Old Testament. Father tells him to go in peace but Ryck says “Thank you father but even God said, ‘Vengeance is mine’” and leans forward to show he wears an eye patch now.

Son of Havoc in the ring with Ivelisse. He takes on Johnny Mundo. Havoc says he’s dedicating tonight’s win to the baddest bitch in the building and the love of his life, Ivelisse.

Havoc doing a good job staying in the fight but Mundo should be too much for Havoc. Vampiro spending most of this show talking about how hot Ivelisse and Catrina are.

Havoc actually in control for most of the early going and not just by taking advantage of Mundo’s injured left knee. Using quick, high impact strikes and his athleticism to stay a step ahead of Mundo. Ivelisse even helps out too, maybe they’re back on the same page.

Mundo reverses a hold with a donkey kick and starts his comeback, driving Havoc into the corner and lands many big punches. But Havoc staying in it, avoiding The End of the World, hits a gamanguri and a double stomp to the back followed by a standing moonsault for a 2. Havoc with a 2 after a standing Shooting Star.

Havoc having a much better showing than I thought he would have. Havoc perched on top and holds on to block a rana from Mundo. Stands up and takes forever to go for the Shooting Star, making eyes at Ivelisse who shouts to go for it. When he does, Mundo gets the knees up, sweeps the legs and hits the End of the World for the win. Ivelisse looks pretty upset at ringside.

King Cuerno runs down the the ring and attacks Mundo after the match, hits a big dropkick and hammers on him. Mundo tries to fight back but Cuerno hits him with the Thrill of the Hunt and leaves the ring.

Ricky Mandel in the ring. Probably gonna job to Pentagon Jr. And yup - he’s against Pentagon. Striker says Pentagon broke Famous B’s arm last time.

Pentagon takes advantage early, dropping Mandel back first on his knee and follows with a big kick to the back. Pentagon quiets the crowd and gives him maybe the loudest chop ever. Mandel tries to fight back but Pentagon too much.

Vamp points out, and I’m surprised too, that the fans are behind Pentagon’s new aggressive style. Mandel goes for a cross body but Pentagon drop kick to the gut and lifts up his head before the three-count. Pentagon stomps his arm, then Burning Hammer into the corner followed by a dropkick to the back of his head. Pentagon locks in the submission he broke Famous B’s arm with and Mandel taps but he doesn’t let go. He pushes Knox off and falls back, breaking Mandel’s arm. And the fans chants “0 Miedo” for Pentagon?!

On the mic in the middle of the ring, Pentagon says “I’ve given you another sacrifice tonight, master.” Could he be talking about Mil, the man who deals in souls? And Catrina did talk about fear with Fenix last week. And as we know, Pentagon’s motto is “0 Miedo (0 Fear)”

Alberto El Patron announced as the AAA Champion and shows up with the belt (but in a suit, not wrestling tonight it seems)

Crowd going nuts for El Patron. Says he doesn’t need to impress anyone tonight because everyone here tonight are his friends and his family.

Talks about his heritage and family lineage in lucha libre but also says he needed to go to the United States to conquer there. Says he became a household name, an idol and icon for his people, la raza. But says “You all know what happened - they would embrace him but when I turned around, they stabbed him in the back.” They disrespected him, his family and what he represents - that’s why he left and that’s why he’s here.

He wanted to work in a place where the word “equal” means something. Where you aren’t held back by the color of your skin. A place where you’re only held back if you don’t get the job done and Alberto always gets the job done. Tonight, the revolution begins - but Alberto is attacked by Texano Jr! The man Alberto took the AAA Title from. Attacks him with a bull rope, whipping him and punching him with it.

He takes the belt and says it belongs to him and that soon it will be back around his waist. He leaves the ring and leaves Alberto lying.

Texano is the longest reigning AAA champ ever and it’s cool to see those big time feud crossing over to the smaller, American product. I hope the Lucha Underground championship doesn’t get overshadowed by the AAA Championship or, if it does, it leads to Prince Puma fighting for respect against established, AAA guys.

New Japan Pro Wrestling

The Bullet Club is back on the rise in New Japan. At “The New Beginning” in Osaka, the gaijin stable won back three championships it had lost over the past few months – the IWGP Heavyweight and Junior Heavyweight tag team titles and the IWGP Heavyweight title.

The Young Bucks regained the IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag team championships in a triple threat match against reDRagon (who held the belts) and The Time Splitters. The Bucks regained the titles when they pinned Kushida, leaving the door open for Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish to challenge again since they never actually lost to the Bucks.

The tag team of Doc Gallows and Karl “Machine Gun” Anderson defeated Meiyu Tag, Katsuyori Shibata and Hirooki Goto, to regain the IWGP Heavyweight tag team titles. Meiyu Tag only held the titles for a little over a month, winning them at Wrestle Kingdom 9, before dropping them back to the former champs, who had held the belts since Wrestle Kingdom 8.

AJ Styles defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win his second IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Styles is proving to be one of the most impressive wrestlers in New Japan, having soundly defeated former contender Tetsuya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 9 and now having defeated Tanahashi twice for the biggest title in the company.

Bullet Club now controls nearly all major titles in New Japan. The only gold that doesn’t belong to BC are the Intercontinental title and NEVER Openweight title, held respectively by Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii – who are both CHAOS members. It seems that the Bullet Club and CHAOS may be on a collision course now, if the BC decide they want all gold for themselves – especially since Bad Luck Fale is former IC champ and Yujiro Takahashi is a former NEVER champ.

This also means that Styles and the Bucks will be bringing the IWGP belts to ROH’s 13^th Anniversary show, raising the profile of both companies.

Also, the brackets for the New Japan Cup have been announced. The first round is on March 6, the quarterfinals on March 8 and the semifinals and finals are on March 15.

Some of the matchups are predictable (like Tanahashi vs Yano – obviously Japanese John Cena isn’t going to lose to Yano) and I gotta believe that Goto and Shibata are going to meet in the quarters. But hopefully this tournament will allow Honma to begin is run toward greatness, though defeating Togi Makabe in the first round will be a tall order.

Here are my first round predictions:

Tanahashi def. Yano

Ibushi def. Gallows

Naito def. Anderson

Fale def. Okada (to continue the downward spiral of Okada)

Honma def. Makabe

YOSHI-HASHI def. Takahashi

Goto def. Nagata

Shibata def. Kojima

This sets up interesting quarterfinals match-ups like Tanahashi vs. Ibushi, Naito vs Fale, Honma vs. YOSHI, and Goto vs Shibata. My hopes would be that Ibushi, goes on to the semis to beat Naito and that Honma beats YOSHI but loses to Shibata in the semis to set up Ibushi vs Shibata in the finals. Both guys could be big, future stars in New Japan though it would be awesome to see Honma finally get a big push.

Evolve

New info on Evolve’s Wrestlemania 31 weekend updates. They will be broadcasting iPPVs from San Jose, CA for the three shows. Check www.wwnlive.com/SJCA for more updates and info.

3/26, 8 pm Pacific

Drew McIntyre vs PJ Black - non title (No restrictions, no limits)

Biff Busick vs Tommy End

3/27 3 pm Pacific

Ricochet vs PJ Black - First time ever

Chris Hero vs Biff Busick - First time ever

Timothy Hatcher vs Tommy End

WWN Supershow, 3/28 4 pm Eastern

Austin Aries and Roderick Strong vs Ricochet and Uhaa Nationa

Chris Hero vs Timothy Thatcher

Some really cool match ups slated for these shows. Hero vs. Busick in their first ever meeting will be insane and Drew McIntyre vs PJ Black will no doubt be way different than any meeting in WWE they ever could have had. No to mention, the tag team of Ricochet and Uhaa Nation could probably beat any other tag team in the history of pro wrestling.

Chikara

Chikara is doing something different for Season 15. “Director of Fun” Mike Quackenbush has picked 10 “team captains” who drafted wrestlers this past Monday on Twitter to embark on “The Challenge of the Immortals.”

As Quack explains it, the teams will enter into a round-robin tournament with each member of the winning team getting a Golden Opportunity – a chance to challenge for whatever title they want, regardless of their point standings.

Each team will face every other team twice, with the captains deciding on the type of match beforehand – a singles, tag, trios or atomicos match. But the catch is during their second meeting, the captains can’t choose the same match type as the first meeting.

Each win in the tournament nets the team one point while losses earn no points. The team with the most points at the end of the tournament will be the winners and earn their Golden Opportunities.

The teams are:

- Max Smashmaster (captain), Blaster McMassive, Flex Rumblecrunch and Jaka

- Dash Hatfield (captain), Mr. Touchdown, Icarus and Heidi Lovelace

- UltraMantis Black (captain), Kodama, Obaryion and Oleg the Usurper

- Chuck Taylor (captain), Drew Gulak, Orange Cassidy and Swamp Monster

- Hallowicked (captain), Frightmare, Silver Ant and Blind Rage

- Jakob Hammermeier (captain), Soldier Ant, Nokken, and Pinkie Sanchez

- Amasis (captain), Fire Ant, Worker Ant and Ashley Remington

- Ophidian (captain), Eddie Kingston, Shynron and Argus

- Juan Francisco de Coronado (captain), Mr. Azerbaijan, Prakash Sabar, and The Proletariat Boar of Moldova

- Princess Kimber Lee (captain), Jervis Cottonbelly, and Los Ice Creams

I was watching the draft go down over Twitter on Monday night and there must have been some trades made because these teams look a little different than what I originally saw.

At first I had high hopes for Challenge of the Immortals, as it could really shake up the established teams, create new alliances and make for some interesting matchups. But what we’re getting, it seems, are the same alliances, for the most part, and continuations of the same old stories.

For instance, The Devastation Corporation is entirely in tact with Wrecking Crew member Jaka as the fourth. The Golden Trio is intact with Young Lions Cup winner Heidi Lovelace (so the Golden Quad, I guess). The Gentleman’s Club, The BDK, the Bloc Party – all together in their entirety. The only interesting teams are UltraMantis’ and Ophidian’s teams and even they have guys who normally team like Worker and Fire Ant and The Batiri. Hallowicked’s team is cool because Silver Ant is surrounded by heels and Blind Rage only comes out of the woodwork once every blue moon so their dynamic should be pretty fun but otherwise, this seems like business as usual for Chikara except with a new point scheme on top of the usual title point scheme.

The biggest thing that killed the draft for me was Juan’s drafting, if you can believe that. Juan picked relatively late in the game but there were still many big names on the board but who does he draft? The Bloc Party – the jobbers of the jobber division. Have Azerbaijan, Sabar or the Boar ever won anything EVER? Whhhhyyy would they get drafted at all, let alone as a complete team? For example, Icarus – Chikara Grand Champion – didn’t get drafted until the second round. Meaning Juan could have drafted him first, increasing his chances of getting a title shot of his own. But who does he pick? Jobbers – jobbers as far as the eye can see.

Hopefully something cool comes out of the Challenge of the Immortals but if anything, the draft choices and teams made me way less excited about seeing what happens.