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

NXT, 9/30

Kyle Edwards opens NXT this week, giving more updates on the Dusty Classic. Wait, what? For real? Again, you’re not showcasing matches from this tournament? Dropping the ball bigtime, WWE.

The semis and finals will take place at NXT Takeover: Respect. At a live event recently, Jason Jordan and Chad Gable defeated the Hype Bros to advance and they’ll take on Baron Corbin and Rhyno in the semis.

In the opening match of the night, Enzo and Cass with Carmella takes on Finn Balor and Samoa Joe for the final spot in the Dusty Classic semifinals. The winners of this match face Dash and Dawson.

Balor had a slightly updated intro to his entrance music and the WWE is running with their “Balor Club” trademark, having it dominate Balor’s tron video. Balor is still rocking that leather jacket, which is definitely a good idea.

Cass and Joe start the match brawling back and forth and then Balor and Enzo make their presence felt with some big dives.

I’m kinda surprised Joe is still in NXT. He seems like he should already be on the main roster. What would I do with Joe? Have him be the first of many high-profile names who stay in NXT. It would give the roster some consistency and would help angles and stories (especially involving titles) not be so transparent.

Balor gets knocked off the apron and Cass rocket launcher Enzo onto Joe but Joe rolls through the pin and picks up Enzo. Balor shotgun dropkick Cass out of the ring as Joe Muscle Buster to Enzo and a Coup de Grace from Balor for the win.

Cameraman talks to Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa about their experience in NXT so far. Gargano says they’ve had ups and downs, expected better from themselves. Ciampa says their own expectations are through the roof. Wish they made it further in the Dusty Classic, but that’s the past and need to look forward to what’s next.

They start to talk about Gargano’s opponent tonight, Apollo Crews, and how they traveled the world together when Tyler Breeze interrupts them. Breeze says a friend of Crews is an enemy of his. They cost Breeze his shot at the Dusty Classic and challenges Ciampa to a match later.

Johnny Gargano out next to take on Apollo Crews. Fun back and forth to open, the kind of action that only two dudes who are very familiar with one another can pull off. And they are very familiar, having worked often with Evolve/Dragon Gate USA (and Crews worked extensively in Dragon Gate as well).

Gargano takes control early, trying to keep Crews grounded with a few holds, but Crews uses his strength to create an opening with a suplex and then hits several high-impact strikes. Crews Combo gives Crews the win.

Dana Brooke and Emma are in William Regal’s office about his latest announcement. He talks about how they interrupted Regal and Asuka last week on TV. Regal says at Takeover on Oct. 7, Dana Brooke will face Asuka. Regal shows them a video of Asuka on his laptop and Dana and Emma start looking kinda concerned (but we can’t see the screen so it’s just a bunch of grunts and noises). Emma claps Dana on the shoulder and says “good luck with that” and walks off.

Nia Jax. Still coming soon. Again.

Dana Brooke and Emma out next. They take on Peyton Royce and Billie Kay. The new Australian girls have matching gear now, maybe this team will be permanent going forward?

Peyton and Billie working very well as a team. Billie even hits a stalling vertical suplex, something you don’t see often in women’s matches.

Emma and Dana are in control for most of the match, working over Billie Kay. Peyton finally gets back in and hits a few big kicks on Dana. After Emma trips Peyton, Dana hits her finisher and gets the pin.

Jason Jordan and Chad Gable talk to Devin about their chances in the Dusty Classic and say they have good odds since they’ve won a lot of tournament finals before. They run down their competition and Dash and Dawson interrupt for Jordan and Gable saying them beating Joe and Balor isn’t likely.

This run in kinda makes me think that both these teams lose and go on to feud after Takeover. Meaning that Corbin and Rhyno are winning the Dusty Classic and are pretty much the next tag champs. Great.

Next, Tommaso Ciampa vs Tyler Breeze. Breeze messing around to start, trying to making Ciampa look dumb but Ciampa not having any of it. Ciampa gets an opening and uses different strikes to stun Breeze and hit a big running knee into the corner.

Both slugging it out and Ciampa doing his best to knock out Breeze but Breeze won’t go away. Ciampa is throwing everything at Breeze but somehow Breeze keeps kicking out.

This match is much longer than I thought it would be. Showing that even indy guys can put on a good match in the WWE style. Breeze stays in the match, weathering all the damage from Ciampa and wins with an Unprettier out of nowhere!

End of the show is a look at the card of Takeover Respect as well as an “in depth” look at Sasha Banks vs Bayley 30 minute ironman match for the Women’s title.

The in depth look is video packages recounting the match at Takeover Brooklyn as well as their run ins at Full Sail since last Takeover.

 

ROH DA 9/30

Opening match of ROH, final week from Philly, Matt Sydal vs then IWGP Jr Champ KUSHIDA. From what I remember this match wasn't as high flying as I thought it would be but still a solid Juniors match.

Match starts with a this is awesome chant. Doesn't happen often, especially in a smarky city like Philly.

Starts with a lot of back and forth,  hold for hold wrestling, mixing in the high octane Junior style they both excel at. Much faster paced than I remember as it goes on. Neither has a strong advantage but Kushida does lock on his finisher first, but Sydal gets to the ropes. They go back and forth and Sydal misses the 450 and Kushida gets the Hoverboard Lock. Sydal finally transitions out of it and Sydal hits a series of strikes to Kushida's head. Sydal follows it up with a SSP for a surprise victory over the champ. This earned Sydal an IWGP Junior title shot which he'll get at KOPW in Oct against Kenny Omega.

Next, BJ Whitmer complains about Adam Page not having main event matches but Will Ferrara interrupts him, followed by Watanabe and Moose.

Two men in, two out. If someone goes to the floor, someone else can come in. Page blindsides  Watanabe to start but Ferrara quickly tags Watanabe out and goes to work on Page. Though Page has been angling for a match with Jay Briscoe, I think he's going to get destroyed in that upcoming no DQ match (TV) then feud with Moose. They tease tension in this match and them feuding would help them both.

Colby tries to distract Moose, who eats a big boot and takes an unnecessary back bump to the floor. Moose then spears Page out of the ring and Ferrera tries to take advantage of Moose. Watanabe hits a German on Ferrara and literally lands on his head but he's ok somehow. Watanabe tries it on Moose but can't do it at first, throws Moose to the ropes and uses momentum to help hit a German. Ferrara surprise Watanabe with a  roll up but kick out at 2. Watanabe hits a headbutt followed by a roaring elbow and a big STO and Watanabe gets the win.

Main event time - Adam Cole (Bay Bay) vs Shinsuke Nakamura in a dream match. Nakamura had perhaps the biggest pop of the night, rivaled only by Okada. They start the match with a handshake but it doesn't seem very genuine.

Starts with some great technical wrestling. And the crowd is split between hometown golden boy Adam Cole and international superstar (legit, not WWE vocab) Shinsuke Nakamura. The antics and grandiose personality of Nakamura is getting to Cole, forcing him to make mistakes. 
Back from commercials, Nakamura is in control on the outside but Cole avoids a knee and lands a superkick to turn the tide. Cole gets cocky though and starts messing with the crowd too much and Nakamura takes his opening and lands several devastating knees to Cole but somehow he kicks out. Cole comes back and works over Nakamura's back then locks in a Figure Four and it's a struggle but he gets to the ropes.

Neither guy is backing down as the match wears on. Nakamura lands a big series of kicks and looks for a Boma Ye but Cole hits a knee followed by a knee pad down shining wizard. Cole hits a super kick to the back of the head followed by the Florida Key straight jacket german but somehow Nakamura kicks out and Cole nearly attacks Sinclair he's so mad. Cole goes back to work Nakamura flips out of a suplex and hits a Boma Ye from the corner. They trade big strikes but Nakamura is getting the better of them and a 2 count on a Boma Ye to a nearly prone Cole. Nakamura gets the win after a Michinoku Driver and a high kick Boma Ye to Cole's face for the win.

Jay Lethal is close to becoming the most prolific champion in ROH history. His TV title reign just surpassed Nigel McGuinness World title record of 545 days and his TV title reign (549+) is now the second longest reign in ROH history. The final record for Jay to break is Samoa Joe's World title reign of 645 days.

ROH is selling a tshirt to raise money for breath cancer awareness month. It is $25 and only available in October and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to charity.

Set for Champions vs All Star main event of Glory by Honor XIV on Oct. 24 in Dayton, Ohio is:

The Kingdom and Jay Lethal vs AJ Styles, Roderick Strong and ACH

Lucha Underground

There are plans in place to begin filming LU S2 on 11/14 in Boyle Heights and going to air early 2016

LU coming back January 2016!

New Japan

On a conference call on Tuesday, Triple H was asked about the relationship with New Japan. Hunter didn’t have anything specific to say, but did add that they had been talking and we’ll have to wait and see if anything comes of it.

NJPW has been making inroads in America for the past few years and exposure with the WWE audience would be extremely beneficial for New Japan. It also couldn’t hurt WWE, either.

If I had to guess, I’d say this could mean more one-time-only New Japan guys in NXT in the future. I doubt it would be huge names like Tanahashi, Okada or Nakamura but you never know.

AXS will be highlighting WrestleKingdom 9 for the next few weeks

Hiroshi Hase, the man who innovated the Northern Lights suplex and made Great Muta bleed so much that the Muta Scale was created, is now the Minister of Education, Culture and Sports in Japan.

I can’t wait for January 4^th to made a national school holiday.

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla

Stage 1 and 2 of BOLA were great.

Hard to pick favorites because every match was so good. 

S1 was very solid overall but S2 had some more personal favorites, like Bailey/Galloway, Hero/Thatcher, and of course, Fenix/Aero Star vs Drago and Pentagon Jr. But night 3 was just nuts. Every match is great - easily the greatest tournament in history. 

AAA and UK guys did amazing.

Galloway had become a monster.

Speedball is biggest underdog face around, despite the fact that he wins a lot.

Jack Evans is better than ever. And he played a really good heel throughout the tournament. Just really cocky and and was a dick to everyone, even his partner Angelico.

Melissa Santos on N1, did a great job and looked the hottest I've ever seen her.

Never saw Ospreay, Scurll or Andrews but they all did great. Scurll was really impressive and upset Trevor Lee.

Had seen Tommy End before but he really cemented himself at this BOLA and it's too bad he can't be more regular, since I think he’s based in Europe

Trevor Lee is still being pushed heavily but he is doing great, you know, despite a 2nd round loss to Scurll.

Chris Hero is still a killer but he needs to harness his heel side to get to that next level.

Timothy Thatcher is another guy I want to see more often, both in PWG and in general. He’s a lot taller and bigger than I realized.

Holy shit, the heat for Pentagon Jr and ZSJ is off the charts - even before it starts, before even the introductions. Konnan and Rey Mysterio Jr were right next to Excalibur on N3 watching at least Pentagon vs ZSJ. I think Pentagon has taken exception to the regard that Sabre is held in in terms of technical, submission wrestling.

Oh and another thing - Sexy Chuckie T was with Excalibur for the first halves of each stage. There was a bunch of technical difficulties and such throughout the tournament too but it was barely noticeable with the amazing action.

The announcing was weird too. Melissa Santos was good, a little out of her element though. Then there was another dude who was a little inconsistent with what he would announce people as, though he had a good voice. It seemed like he was late or not there for some parts cause Excalibur had to do announcing sometimes.

All of ZSJ matches have been off the charts. The armbar battle with Pentagon, the English wrestling classic with Marty Scurll, or the finals against Hero and Speedball.

Team Chuck Taylor! The 10 man tag had the goofiness of last year's but also kept it fresh

ZSJ wins the finals, Speedball eliminated first then Hero.

Roddy says he's gonna beat the shit out of Zack next time Zack is back. The European contingent joins Zack in the ring to congratulate him and surprisingly, the trophy remains intact.

The Chikara channel on the Roku streaming video service went live last week. With a subscription to Chikaratopia.com for $8 a month, fans get access to over 215 events already available, dating back to 2002, and new content is being added regularly.

Combat Zone Wrestling

Tangled Web, Oct. 10, 8pm

Flyers Skate Zone, Voorhees, New Jersey

Also on iPPV

Poseidon and his Sea Friends vs Frankie Pickard and the Dub Boys

Lio Rush vs Aaron Williams

Greg Excellent vs Dick Justice

Joe Gacy vs AR Fox

Masada vs Rory Gulak

Sozio vs Pepper Parks

David Starr vs JT Dunn

Tangled Web Deathmatch

Nation of Intoxication vs OI4K

CZW Wired Championship

Tim Donst (c) vs Joey Janela

CZW Tag Team Championships

Team Tremendous (c) vs The Beaver Boys

CZW World Championship

Matt Tremont (c) vs Blk Jeez

Freedom to Fight

CZW vs IWS

Oct. 17, Quebec, Canada

Vampiro, Green Phantom and the Hardcore Ninjas vs Nation of Intoxication (Danny Havoc, Devon Moore, Lucky 13 and Conor Claxton)

CZW World Championship

No DQ

‘Bulldozer’ Matt Tremont (c) vs PCP Crazy F’n Manny

CZW World Tag Team Championship

Team Tremendous (c) vs Tabernak de Team

DJ Hyde vs Shayne Hawk

‘Chainsaw’ Joe Gacy vs Exess (you mean Excess 69?)

Sozio vs Rory Gulak