Wednesday Wrestling Minutes - Your Weekly Source for NXT, Lucha Underground, Ring of Honor and Independent Wrestling News

NXT, 8/12

Rich Brennan talks to William Regal as NXT opens. Brennan talks about how Kevin Owens talks about how he can’t trust Regal and if the ladder match is happening.

Regal says his decision won’t be altered because of the way he feels about Owens. He says he talked to champion Finn Balor about it and that Balor will take the match under any stipulation. Regal says it’s the biggest match in NXT history in front of the biggest crowd and then wishes good luck to both competitors.

Looks like Solomon Crowe is in the opening match of NXT this week. We haven’t seen him in a while and they’ve done literally no further character development for him. Don’t know his motives or his goals so he’s just some guy right now.

He takes on Tye Dillinger who is finally debuting the “Perfect 10” gimmick on TV. His music is pretty good too.

They lock up and trade holds but Dillinger gets in Crowe’s face, saying he’s the perfect 10. Crowe boots him in the chest then gives him a few chops.

Dillinger beats down Crowe and pulls his kneepad down like he’s setting up for something but then Crowe starts to mount a comeback. Dillinger throws Crowe outside and when he gets back in the ring, Dillinger pulls Crowe’s face down across his knee and gets the win.

Mojo Rawley finds Zack Ryder and asks where he’s been, he’s been hitting him up forever! And Ryder says he knows, it was 3 am and he was sleeping. Rawley is already in his gear and Ryder asks why and Rawley says it’s because he stays…ready, not hype this time. Rawley says Ryder should’ve been at the club last night because he had 10 chicks all over him! No wait dude, it was 12!

We get it. Mojo is hype and a ladies man. He’s totally cool and we all like him. Are you happy now, WWE?

Baron Corbin out now. He takes on Axle Tischer.

A few weeks ago, Tischer held his own against Samoa Joe for a while so we’ll see how he fares against Corbin, who has been running through opponents for weeks.

Sounds like the crowd turned on Corbin pretty rapidly. The last few weeks, they seemed indifferent. This week they start the “Boring” chant right away at Corbin.

Corbin backs Tischer into the corner and delivers a few punches then End of Days for the win.

After the match he grabs the mic?! He says “This is what happens. Every time I come to the ring, I dominate. I am the real deal. And if you step in the ring with me – the same tired story, nobody gets up from the End of Days.”

Corbin goes to pick up Tischer but Steve Cutler attacks him from behind. Corbin pushes him in the ropes and End of Days puts him down. Then says “Like I said, nobody gets up from the End of Days. I don’t care who you are.

Then Samoa Joe’s music hits and he comes out in his gear, looking for a fight, staring down Corbin. Joe says he’s impressed. He was in the back and heard Corbin moaning that he wants a challenge. Joe says this is an impressive path of destruction that Corbin has laid, he won’t be doing that (End of Days) to Joe. Corbin says he can do this to anyone – and that includes Joe. Corbin says it’s obvious wants to fight, but he just fought two guys. And they can do this – just not right now.

Corbin shoves past Joe as he walks to the ramp. Joe grabs his arm but Corbin throws a few punches that knock Joe down. They are really making Joe look like a chump. But then Joe locks in the rear naked choke and Corbin seems to be out cold, to a big “Thank you Joe” chant from the crowd.

A short video of Bull Dempsey working out like crazy in the gym and it’s ended with the words “Iron sharpens iron.” Iron Bull Dempsey?

Tyler Breeze says he asks for something monumental for NXT Brooklyn and Regal didn’t disappoint. And it’s fitting because the last time Breeze asked, Regal brought in Hideo Itami and Breeze disposed of him like garbage. So domo arigato Mr. Liger for helping Breeze become the face of the rising sun.

Marcus Louis walks down to the ring, looking crazy as ever. He takes on NXT Champion Finn Balor.

They lock up and Balor immediately gets the advantage but he can’t keep Louis down. Louis eventually gets control and whips Balor into the corner but he gets his boots up to stun Louis. Balor sends him to the opposite corner then hits a Sling Blade.

Balor hits the shotgun dropkick followed by the Coup de Grace for the win.

After Balor celebrates and walks up the ramp, Kevin Owens attacks him from behind. Owens sets up to powerbomb Balor on the apron, but Balor hangs on and delivers a penalty kick to Owens’ face. A Balor dropkick then drives Owens through the barricade outside.

Balor rolls him back in the ring and sets up for a shotgun dropkick but Owens reverses it and slams Balor with a pop up powerbomb.

Owens leaves the ring and picks up the NXT Title and carries it into the ring with him. He holds the belt and mocks Balor’s entrance pose over him and drops the title on Balor, stepping on him as he walks out of the ring.

Greg Hamilton talks to The Vaudevillains. He asks if they have a plan to walk out Brooklyn as champions.

Aiden English says they have a plan to counter Alexa Bliss. Then Simon Gotch says with Bliss contained, he and Aiden will be free to take on Blake and Murphy but before he can finish, Alexa Bliss walks in.

She says “You guys have something to take care of little ol’ me?” Then slaps them both and says good luck.

Another Apollo Crews video package. Says when he got into wrestling, he told himself he wasn’t going to stop until he got to WWE. He’s worked really hard to get to this point but that the hard work is just beginning.

Sasha Banks is in the NXT zone to do commentary for the main event between Becky Lynch and Bayley.

Becky starts trying to work Bayley’s arm early, but Bayley reserves it into an arm wringer of her own. Bayley pulling out some interesting moves to try and put Becky on the mat but Becky uses arm drags to take Bayley over and keep her on the mat.

Becky really starts to work Bayley’s arm and keeps Bayley on the mat. Bayley starts trying to mount a comeback but Becky quickly stops her momentum and puts her back down on the mat and locks up her arm.

Bayley gets out of a pumphandle suplex and then gets a series of near falls from cradles and backslides. But Becky eventually works to hit that pumphandle suplex and then she hits series of running leg drops but misses the last one.

Bayley hits a lariat on a seated Becky and then two back elbows in the corner. Bayley hits another flying back elbow off the second rope but only gets a 2 count.

Becky goes up top and Bayley cuts her off and follows her up. But Becky starts landing some body shots to stun Bayley. Bayley hits a powerslam out of the corner but only gets a 2 count. Becky locks in the Disarmer but they’re too close to the ropes and Bayley gets a rope break. Bayley tries to go for a Belly to Bayley but Becky blocks it, trying to take her to the mat for the Disarmer. Bayley spins out of it and rolls up Becky for the pin to become the new Women’s title #1 contender.

After the match, Sasha stands on the announce table holding up the Women’s title and she and Bayley trade words.

Justin LaBar reported that Triple H allegedly stated that they are looking to do an NXT show in England in the future. No other news or concrete info, though. Still, it’s pretty exciting for fans in England and for the NXT brand that they think they will be able to draw a big crowd internationally just with the NXT brand.

No Lucha Underground!

Though the first season of Lucha Underground is over, a movement has begun on social media by fans and wrestlers to get the show on Netflix. Many fans as well as Lucha talents like Son of Havoc and Ivelisse have been tweeting #NetflixNeedsLucha to try and get the series on the popular streaming service.

Ring of Honor

ROH DA 8 /12
ACH vs Watanabe up first. Watanabe trying to keep ACH on the mat and negate his acrobatic offense. ACH hits a big tope con Hilo but show boats too much and Watanabe hits big suplexes. But ACH wins with a 450 in a really good opener.

War Machine against Dijack and Diesel. Lethal on commentary. House of Truth doesn't shake hands, WM gets early lead but Truth comes back. In the end, War Machine looks dominant in the win. Lethal and Hanson have words since, in 3 weeks, Hanson has a TV title shot.

Adam Page vs some jobber named Tim Hughes. They mention Page's win over ACH at DBD. Page gets a quick win with I forgot his finisher already. Whitmer talks up Page and goads Page into calling out Jay Briscoe (even though he knows Briscoe isn't there). After that, Whitmer gets into Corino's face and says he shouldn't be allowed there because he puts his hands on Whitmer last week. Nigel comes out to mediate.

The Kingdom vs reDRagon main event. Adam Cole on commentary. O'Reilly gets the better of Taven first then Fish takes control of Bennett. Kingdom spike piledriver to O'Reilly on the outside and Cole is very upset. Kingdom hits another Hail Mary spike piledriver on Fish for the win. Set up to do it again to Fish but Cole stops them.

On 8/19 ROH TV:

Young Bucks vs RPG Vice

Silas Young vs Dalton Castle

Moose vs Will Ferrara

Aftershock TV tapings

Philadelphia, 8/21

ROH World title rematch

Jay Lethal (c) vs Roderick Strong

Adam Cole vs Shinsuke Nakamura

IWGP Junior Heavyweight champ Kushida vs Matt Sydal

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and RPG Vice vs The Briscoes and IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hirooki Goto

Dalton Castle vs Cedric Alexander

Michael Elgin vs Silas Young

Adam Page vs Will Ferrara vs Watanabe vs Moose in a 4 corner survival match

ACH vs Caprice Coleman

reDRagon vs House of Truth (Dijack and Diesel)

The Kingdom vs War Machine

Field of Honor

Aftershock tour

Brooklyn MCU Park, 8/22

The Briscoes vs The Time Splitters

ROH World Champion Jay Lethal and Shinsuke Nakamura vs reDRagon

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs Roderick Strong

GHC Heavyweight tag team champions Killer Elite Squad vs War Machine

IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hirooki Goto vs Michael Elgin

Adam Cole vs Christopher Daniels

The Young Bucks, Matt Sydal and ACH vs The Kingdom and RPG Vice

Gauntlet match for TV Title shot on 9/19

ROH World tag team champ Frankie Kazarian

Moose

Donovan Dijack

Cedric Alexander

Adam Page

Dalton Castle

Silas Young

New Japan Pro Wrestling

Hiroshi Tanahashi is the G1 Climax 25 winner, defeating Shinsuke Nakamura in the finals, after defeating AJ Styles on the final day of competition to win Block A. Nakamura made IWGP Heavyweight Champ Kazuchika Okada tap out to an arm bar to win Block B on the final day of competition.

This is Tanahashi’s 2^nd G1 Climax win, his first coming all the way back in 2007. He’ll now get an IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleKingdom 10 on January 4^th.

Even though I think everyone wanted Nakamura to win, having Tanahashi win making a certain amount of sense. Last year, at WrestleKingdom 9, Tanahashi was the champ and Okada had won the G1 to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight title. Tanahashi retained the title and crushed Okada’s dream of winning in the Tokyo Dome main event and then Tanahashi proceeded to berate Okada as he left the ring in defeat.

This year, the situation is reversed with Okada going into WrestleKingdom with the belt and Tanahashi challenging after having won the G1. It will most likely be the story of Okada’s redemption and one of his biggest tests since becoming the new ace of New Japan. I can’t see Okada losing – though the prospect of Tanahashi making history once again for a record 8^th IWGP title win could be too much for Jado and Gedo (NJPW bookers) to pass up.

Also during the show, ROH booker Delirious made an announcement (yes – he spoke intelligible English which confuses my kayfabe) that ROH would conduct a tour of Japan in 2016. No concrete dates announced yet, but word online is that the tour will be 2-3 shows.

Results from the finals of the G1 Climax 25:

-Ryusuke Taguchi, Mascara Dorada and David Finlay def. Jushin “Thunder” Liger, Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu

-TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) and Captain New Japan def. Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi and Jay White

(And I saw this link on Voices of Wrestling http://keepingthespiritalive.tumblr.com/post/126421611285/noah-news-during-the-departure-2015-show-a which said that Nakanishi and Nagata will soon be heading to Pro Wrestling NOAH to join with Maybach Taniguchi as the Maybach Trio.)

-Michael Elgin def. YOSHI-HASHI

(Really great match and Elgin looked awesome in the win. NJPW would be crazy not to have him back)

-CHAOS (Kazushi Sakuraba, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano) def. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi)

-Hirooki Goto, Katsuyori Shibata and Kota Ibushi def. Tetsuya Naito, Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma

(Lots of grudges in this one. Shibata and Naito seem to be on a collision course and Ibushi is coming after Makabe’s NEVER title. Who knows where Goto is going next and poor Honma got pinned after getting a big win over Ishii in the main event of a Korakuen Hall show)

-During intermission, Japanese wrestling legend Genichiro Tenryu called out Kazuchika Okada for a match on November 15. He may be a little older than most of the NJPW roster (he’s 65) but he’s still a legend in Japan.

-reDRagon def. The Young Bucks to become new IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag team champs

-KUSHIDA def. Ricochet to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship

-Bullet Club (AJ Styles, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) def. The Kingdom and Kazuchika Okada

(Styles pins Okada in this one so you gotta imagine he’ll get a shot coming up)

-Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Shinsuke Nakamura

(Puro legends Keiji Mutoh and Masahiro Chono are on commentary for the main event)

This isn’t about any American wrestling promotion, but I saw this article (well, more a photo story) on Squared Circle and it was really interesting to me – a look inside the world of professional wrestling in Russia.

Apparently, it’s very underground in Russia, where the sport is considered too “cruel” and “Western” to earn any real popularity. The photos are really cool though. What I found most interesting is the reversal of tropes we see in American wrestling, with Russian wrestlers portraying Americans and getting heel heat. Though, now that I think about it, that’s not a reversal of the trope at all – it’s the exact same idea of the “evil foreigner” and that the hometown boys are the heroes (regardless of the fact that in this case, the heroes are sporting Soviet iconography)

https://meduza.io/en/galleries/2015/08/19/a-cruel-and-western-sport

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla

Threemendous IV was released recently and I got my copy.

-Team Tremendous def. World’s Cutest Tag Team

-Brian Cage def. Johnny Gargano

-Andrew Everett def. Rich Swann

-Trevor Lee def. Tommaso Ciampa

-Mike Bailey def. Chris Hero

-Ricochet def. Akira Tozawa

-The Young Bucks def. Jack Evans and Angelico to retain the PWG Tag Titles

Overall, not as good as Mystery Vortex 3 but it’s still a fun show. Roderick Strong was at Death Before Dishonor so he wasn’t there to participate in the Mount Rushmore shenanigans (we’ll get to that), which was unfortunate, but Battle of Los Angeles is coming up and I’m sure Mount Rushmore will make their presence felt.

Highlight of the show for me was the Bailey/Hero match. Bailey is perhaps the most sympathetic, likeable babyface in wrestling right and Hero played the villain really well, using his size to bully Bailey. Not quite as good as Bailey/Strong or Hero/Sabre from MV3 but still really good.

Team Tremendous picked up a win over WCTT, which has to put them in the running for a title shot since not many teams (or any, really) have beaten WCTT cleanly in PWG. I’ve been singing their praises for a while, but Officer Dan Barry and Detective Bill Carr are one of the best teams on the indies and I’m really glad to see them getting exposure in PWG.

Cage/Gargano was really good and another size mismatch, though Gargano made up for it by reminding everyone why his nickname is “Johnny Wrestling.”

Everett/Swann felt a little uneven and wonky to me. Everett was jaw-jacking with the crowd and Swann a litte too much and the pacing kinda suffered for it.

Lee/Ciampa was great and if you couldn’t tell by now, PWG is really behind Trevor Lee. He’s been working PWG for about a year now and been racking up impressive wins while getting the support of the fans.

As much as it pains me to say it, Ricochet/Tozawa and Bucks/Angelico and Evans weren’t as great as I hoped. Maybe I built them up a little too much in my mind, but what happened between these matches was more interesting than either.

Ricochet/Tozawa started slow and I was sure they were going to kick into high gear eventually but it never seemed to happen. For two of the quickest dudes in wrestling, this match felt like it was stuck in first gear. It was a good match, don’t get me wrong, but Tozawa isn’t the young, hungry up-and-comer he was during his first PWG run and this kinda felt like they were just going through the motions.

After Ricochet won with that spinning sitout cradle driver (does that move even have a name?), Super Dragon attacked both Tozawa and Ricochet, putting Ricochet down with a Psycho Driver. Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae and Joey Ryan came to the aid of Ricochet but were soon surprised by the Young Bucks, both wearing Super Dragon masks, and put down Gargano and Ryan with super kicks. This left Candice at the mercy of Dragon and the Bucks – and they showed her none. The Bucks and Dragon beat down Gargano, Ryan and LeRae in the corners with simultaneous Violence Parties and then Dragon set up to curb stomp Candice, the Bucks super kicked her, then she got stomped.

Dragon continued the attack on Candice (including a curb stomp on the bottom turnbuckle) while the Bucks watched the entrance, super kicking Everett and Lee when they tried to help. Bailey came through the curtain like a house of fire, threw a chair at the Bucks the put them down then went after Dragon. Bailey got a few kicks on Dragon but it wasn’t long before he was taken out as well.

The main event was good, but not great. It was too much of a spotfest at first and continued to feel like one throughout. I chalk this up to the teams being unfamiliar with each other and instead of going out there and working holds, they went out there and got all the shit in that they could (including an Indytaker spike tombstone FROM THE RING TO THE FLOOR).  Evans and Angelico will be back for BOLA and also wrestling as a team so hopefully next time they’re more acclimated to the Reseda crowd and their PWG opponents.

One last thing – I never realized how tall Angelico is. He never seemed that much taller than anyone else on Lucha Underground but he practically towered over the Bucks and his partner, Jack Evans.

For its 10-year anniversary, IWA-MS uploaded the entire Samoa Joe vs Necro Butcher match from “Something to Prove” which was held at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia. I was at this show and to this day, I still talk about how insane and hard-hitting it was.

Evolve

Evolve 47 results

EVOLVE 47 was broadcast live on IPPV on August 15th from Queens, New York.

-Tracy Williams def. Biff Busick

-Drew Gulak def. Rich Swann

-Chris Hero def. Speedball Bailey

-Anthony Nese and Caleb Konley def. Trent? and Rey Horus

Anything Goes Match

-Ethan Page def. Johnny Gargano. (Rich Swann turned on Gargano during the match.)

EVOLVE Championship Match

-Timothy Thatcher (c) def. Zack Sabre Jr. to retain the title

Evolve 48 results

EVOLVE 48 was broadcast live on IPPV on August 16th from Deer Park, New York.

-Anthony Nese def. Ethan Page. (Rich Swann was out with Page, and after the match, Johnny Gargano came out and got in their faces.)

-Rich Swann def. Johnny Gargano. (Page was still out there, and cut a promo trashing Gargano after the match, telling him to go die with the DGUSA Championship.)

-Caleb Konley def. Trent?

-Drew Gulak and Tracy Williams def. Rey Horus and Mike Bailey

-Chris Hero def. Zack Sabre Jr.

No Holds Barred Match

-Timothy Thatcher def. Biff Busick

-The show ended with Thatcher challenging TNA wrestler Davey Richards. Drew Gulak comes out instead with Tracy Williams and both challenge Thatcher for the EVOLVE title. Chris Hero is out next and he ends up taking out everyone with rolling elbow shots.

Couple of things about Evolve:

-I want to like Evolve more and watch it more often but it seems like unless I sign up for WWNLive, there’s no way to since their DVD output is woefully behind. For real – Evolve 47 and 48 just happened. What’s the latest DVD for sale on DGUSA.tv (more on that in a second)? Evolve 34 and 35! From September of 2014! That’s almost a year behind! I guess they want to push traffic to their streaming site and aren’t as focused on DVD sales but still – get with Highspots or something to get that stuff on sale. PWG usually takes about a month to get their recent shows on DVD, which I thought was bad, but Evolve is ridiculous.

-Dragon Gate USA has been defunct for a while now. They haven’t held a show in what feels like years and the last DVD for sale on their site is Mercury Rising 2013 (though they could still just be catching up). What’s weird is that Evolve still uses the DG USA Open the Freedom Gate title as well as the site www.dgusa.tv for their home page. I guess they are keeping their options open in hopes that they can do another DG USA show but it’s been so long since they’ve held a show under that banner that it’s starting to seem a little that they still use that title and home page.