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

NXT, 1/28

Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy open NXT this week. Commentary puts them over and their win against the Vaudevillains and tonight they have an NXT Tag Team Title shot tonight against the Lucha Dragons.

Cara and Blake start first, with Cara taking the early advantage with a go behind hammerlock. Goes to an arm wringer and Blake shoots him into the ropes, Cara springboard and lucha arm drag. Blake backs Cara into his corner, slams him down and tags in Murphy.

They tie up Cara’s arms and lift him to slam him down but Cara leaps up, springboard off the ropes and takes them both over with the knucklelock. Cara sends Blake out with a dropkick and goes to springboard clothesline Murphy but gets caught with a dropkick in mid-air. He sends Cara to his corner, tags in Blake and they put the boots to him. Blake takes Cara to the center of the ring and locks in a chinlock to keep him grounded.

He puts a few elbows in the head of Cara but Cara works up to his feet, Blake stays on him though and sends him to the corner and kicks him in the midsection. Cara grabs an arm, rolls through and powerbombs Blake and they both crawl to their corners and tag in their partner.

Murphy rushes to the opposite corner but Kalisto springboards to the top and hits a diving cross body. Springboard corkscrew cross body off the ropes then flips into the ropes, rebounds and kicks Murphy in the head. Kalisto leaps on his back and takes him over with a Yoshi Tonic but Blake is there to break up the pin. Cara comes in and clotheslines Blake to the outside and goes to plancha but Blake avoids it and whips him into the apron.

In the ring, Kalisto sends Murphy to the ropes and Blake tags himself in as Kalisto rolls through and kicks Murphy in the head. Blake enters the ring as Kalisto isn’t looking. Kalisto hits the Selina Del Sol on Murphy, who isn’t legal, and Blake pulls him off, rolls him up and Blake and Murphy are the new tag team champions!

It wasn’t a very long match but the Lucha Dragons dropping the tag belts was a huge surprise. Blake and Murphy have a great chemistry and though they are great in the ring, need just a little bit more work on their characters. They haven’t really had much time to build their personas but their teamwork and their in-ring work should make them formidable champions.

Also, with the Dragons dropping the belts so suddenly (especially when there’s a live event coming up) it suggests to me that WWE is probably looking to bring Kalisto up soon. Sin Cara has been working singles matches more frequently lately and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kalisto on the main roster soon.

Bayley is in the locker room getting ready and Charlotte comes in and confronts her about what she did last week, saying she’ll destroy Bayley. Bayley starts to say she’s sorry but then takes it back. She says maybe her problem is she’s been too nice and points out where Sami Zayn is at now that he’s taken a serious turn. Bayley says they need to work together tonight (they have a tag match against Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch) and Charlotte says she better not cross that line again because if she does, she won’t make it to the fatal fourway.

Tyler Breeze phone video says he’s going to be watching the #1 contender tournament very closely and doesn’t care that he lost one match. Commentary makes it seem like he’s going to continue feuding with Hideo Itami.

Adrian Neville out to take on Tyson Kidd in the tournament. What the what? During Tyson’s entrance, there was a weird interruption (that commentary doesn’t acknowledge) and it looks like Solomon Crowe’s hacker gimmick might be making an appearance soon!

They start off exchanging holds and neither can get an advantage. Neville seems to start taking the advantage in the exchange, but Tyson manages to escape the holds and taunts Neville. They go to lock up again but Tyson boots him in the stomach, gives him a few punches and smashes his face in the turnbuckle. Sends him to the opposite corner and chokes him on the turnbuckle. Shoots him off again and Neville flips out of it a few times and looks to be gaining some momentum, hits the rope and a rana. Tyson escapes the ring and Neville handspring into the ropes and rebounds off into a backflip and taunts Tyson.

Tyson taking his time getting back in the ring as Neville waits and lets him back in. Tyson gets in but jumps out again quickly and Neville gets tired of waiting and chases him out. Tyson slides in, Neville grabs his legs but Kidd kicks him off and into the guard rail. Kidd hits the ropes, slides out and head scissor Neville into the stairs. Tyson gets back in the ring and makes the ref count.

Referee Drake Younger gets to 9 and Neville just barely gets back in. Tyson cover him quick but Neville grabs the ropes and Tyson stomps him.

After a commercial for Immortals, Tyson is still in control of Neville. Keeps him on the mat with a rear chinlock. (Oh my god. Commentary is talking about the Corbin/Dempsey rematch and Riley calls Corbin “the big bad wolf.” What is it with WWE and fairytales these days??)

Neville finally gets some separation and clothesline Kidd over the top. Hits the ropes and huge flip over the top on Kidd. Throws Kidd back in and hits a series of kicks to Kidd’s midsection. Tom Phillips calls a standing Shooting Star a standing moonsault and Neville gets a 2. Phillips then calls a Kidd spinning fisherman buster a spinning neckbreaker. Man, he is Schiavonne bad.

Neville gets a 2 off a sit out powerbomb. Neville tries to get to the ropes but Kidd grabs his ankle. Neville kicks him off after a few shots and goes to the apron but Kidd springs up somehow and dropkicks Neville off into the guard rail. Kidd follows him out and soccer kick to the face of Neville. He throws him back in but only gets a 2.

Kidd tries to lock in the Sharpshooter but Neville powers out of it. Kidd rushes in and Neville throws him up and over and into the turnbuckle. After a big head kick that lays out Kidd, Neville hits the Red Arrow for the win.

That random interviewer, who still hasn’t said his name or had anyone identify him from last week, talks to Neville in the ring. Says Baron and Bull are big tough guys but this business is about getting knocked down and getting back up again. He’s the most dominant NXT Champion in the history of NXT and confident he’ll come out on top.

Sasha and Becky in the back. Sasha says she knows Becky will do the ring thing and help her win but after she walks away Becky says she’ll do the right thing and walk out NXT Women’s champion.

(Why do they call it “Divas tag team action” when they are in the Women’s division? If it’s not the Women’s division, why is it the Women’s Championship? Also found it odd that Bayley and Charlotte didn’t come out together but Sasha and Becky did enter together to Sasha’s music.)

Bayley and Sasha start the match. Bayley is botching all over the place. Didn’t spring up to the ropes fast enough and kinda fell off backwards into Sasha, who still sold it as an arm drag. Sasha in the corner and Bayley rushes in, eats an elbow but still falls forward awkwardly into Sasha. Sasha takes Bayley to her corner and tags in Becky who hammers on Bayley a few times and tags Sasha back in.

Bayley picks up Sasha and Charlotte tags herself in. She backs up Sasha to the corner who ducks a chop and tags in Becky. Charlotte arm drags her over and drops a couple knees, Hits the ropes to drop a knee and Bayley tags herself in. Bayley clotheslines her over the top and follows her out. Goes back in the ring and Sasha grabs Bayley and drops her neck on the ropes and Becky takes control, dropping a leg on Bayley.

Back her into the corner and Sasha tags in. Shoot her into the ropes and double back elbow. Sasha taunts Bayley’s whack waving inflatable arm flailing tube men and then gives her a knee-DT, targeting that injured knee.

Charlotte finally in against Sasha and taking her to school with chops and boots and a suplex into a spin through for a neckbreaker (long way to go for a neckbreaker). Puts Sasha in the Figure Four and bridges up but Becky breaks it up with a dropkick. Charlotte takes her down with a line and eats a knee from Sasha.

Sasha hits the straight jacket neckbreaker (which they call Bankrupt) but Bayley breaks it up. Bayley accidentally hit Charlotte who looks pissed when she gets up and shoves Bayley. Bayley gives a line and Charlotte chops her back. Charlotte in the mount and dropping bows as Becky and Sasha get in and start hammering both of them. The ref calls for the bell as Bayley and Charlotte clear the ring then turn their attention on each other again and a bunch of refs hit the ring to break them up.

Devin Taylor talks to Finn Balor about facing Hideo Itami next week (I really thought they were gonna build it toward the live event but I guess I was looking at the brackets wrong). Balor says he knew facing Itami would happen someday but didn’t know it’d be so soon. But when it’s for the NXT Championship, all friendships go out the window. Itami interrupts and says he brought Balor to NXT and if he has to, he’ll take him out of it.

Commercial for Wrestlemania 31 and there’s no numbers on the logo. This is making me irrationally angry that they’re dropping the numbering of the show. It doesn’t make it sound old - it makes it sound prestigious. It makes it sound consistent and strong, not over the hill and outdated.

Apparently Emma is coming back to NXT next week lol. Says things didn’t work out as she planned but it’s time for a fresh start and that begins with a rematch against Carmella.

Baron Corbin out to take on Bull Dempsey in the tournament. Corbin takes advantage early and every time Bull tries to get something going, Corbin stops it and takes the upper hand. Corbin wins the short match with the End of Days and faces Neville next week.

Devin talks to Baron Corbin. Next week he’s one step closer to being NXT Champ and Neville is one step closer to being erased. Bull shows up and says Corbin got lucky twice. Says he’s gonna knock his teeth down his throat but before he can finish, Corbin mushes him and walks away.

Contract signing up now. Sami Zayn out first and he stares down Kevin Owens the entire time he makes his way to the ring.

William Regal says he’s not gonna allow this contract signing to turn out like every other contract signing in the WWE and have people fighting. He says if they touch each other, he’ll cancel the match at NXT Takeover.

Sami signs first and Regal moves the contract to Owens. Owens hasn’t taken his eyes off Sami the whole time and doesn’t make a move to sign the contract.

Sami says, “Are you just gonna look at me or are you gonna tell me and all these people why - why you attacked me?” Owens just stares at Zayn and act like the last 12 years didn’t exist. Like they didn’t start in Montreal together and take it all over the world fighting with and against each other. Maybe he should’ve seen this coming but the truth is he didn’t. But they both know that whatever they did out there, it was all about ending up here (NXT/WWE).

Never thought on a night like R Evolution when he finally arrived, and Zayn finally arrived, that Owens would do what he did. But it’s moot now because at Takeover, he’s gonna beat the hell out of Owens.

Owens grabs the pen but puts it down and picks up the mic. Says the contract says non-title match. Regardless what Zayn thinks, what he did at Takeover wasn’t personal, it was business. He’ll fight anyone and everyone but he fights for a prize and Zayn is not the prize - the NXT Title is the prize. It means more money and a better life for himself and his family. And until the contract says NXT Championship match, he’s not doing it.

Zayn says Regal has to make it a championship match. He knows Owens and he won’t do it otherwise. It’s what he wants but it’s also what Zayn wants and what the people want.

Regal changes the contract and Zayn signs again. But again, Owens hesitates and hangs back on the ropes as Regal tells him to sign. He takes his time signing then throws the contract at Zayn nonchalantly and throws the pen at his head. Zayn steps to Owens but Regal stops him and Owens walks out as Zayn stares him down.

WWE put up a video on their YouTube page on Feb. 1, a compilation of super kicks, and called it “Superkick Party.” Just lulz all around. Young Bucks should sue for gimmick infringement.

Lucha Underground, 1/28

The show opens with a recap of Crenshaw Crew turning on Big Ryck and Prince Puma winning the title and being attacked by Cage.

Dario Cueto talks to Cage while he’s lifting. Tells him he likes a man who takes the bull by the horns and that Puma is here tonight and has been told he’s defending his title against Cage. But Cage says no - he loses his title tonight against Cage. Cause he’s a machine.

Opening match is Mil Muertes with Catrina. Never noticed that Mil is billed as from “Beyond the grave.” He takes on Fenix. Shouldn’t he be upset with Prince Puma and Johnny Mundo because they knocked out Mil from Aztec Warfare? Not to mention Mundo kicked Cartina in the face. Wonder why he hasn’t done anything about them yet.

Mil starts fast like he usually does, racing at Fenix, but Fenix moves out of the way and Mil hits the buckle and Fenix rolls him up and Mil kicks out quickly. Fenix hits Mil with a few big kicks and knees to the chest but Mil stays on his feet and looks more annoyed than anything. Fenix races in again and Mil levels him with a big right hand.

Fenix picks himself up and runs at Mil again and Mil belly to belly suplexes him over into the corner then spikes him with a DDT for 2. Fenix create space, handspring and tries to land on his shoulder but Mil catches him and plants him with a German suplex and a 2 count. Mil sends him into the corner, Fenix stops himself and tries a 619 through the corner but Mil catches his legs and slams him down, runs to the corner and spears Fenix but only gets a 2.

Mil hammers Fenix in the corner with heavy rights then sets him on the top rope. Mil takes him over with a superplex but as they hit the mat, Fenix shifts his weight and catches Mil’s leg for a quick, surprising 3 count. Mil looks furious and Catrina can’t believe it.

Video package about what fuels Cage. Says he has to work for every inch because no one gives him anything and a wasted day is a wasted opportunity. The video is two dudes attacking him in a parking lot and Cage no selling everything. One guy kicks him and Cage backhands him to the ground and the other breaks a bottle over his head and Cage just looks annoyed, turns around and slams him into a pickup truck. First dude hits him with a box and can’t believe it had no effect and Cage slams him down. Another dude tries to hit him with a bottle but Cage catches his arm and crushes the bottle in his hand, lifts the dude over his head and drops him in the bed of the pickup.

Next is a six man tag match, the first big, multi-man tag match they’ve had on LU, even though they’re a staple of AAA and CMLL. Argenis, Aerostar and Super Fly take on The Crenshaw Crew. Super Fly starting against Cortez. Super Fly starts strong, takes Cortez to the outside and knocks the other two Crew off the apron. He moonsaults from the top rope onto Cortez and Bael.

Bael tags in and Fly tags Argenis. Trade a few shots, Bael blocks a superkick and tags in Cisco. Sends Cisco off, takes him off his feet then hits a rana and tags in Auerostar. He springboard off the ropes and headscissor Cisco over. Bumps Cisco and leaps over the ropes in his corner. Argenis to the second rope and Cisco rushes in and eats a boot. Aerostar gets on his shoulders, Argeis stands up and Aero cross body off his shoulders onto Cisco but only gets a 2.

Aero hits the ropes and Cisco gets his boot up. Cisco slaps Super Fly and he comes in and he and Aero goes after Cisco. They send him to the corner and he punches Aero as he comes in and flips Super Fly over the rope to the outside. Cortez enziguri, Cisco facewash dropkick and Bael facewash on Aero in the corner who looks dead.

Cortez tags in and slams Aero and drops the knee but gets a 2. Tags in Bael who elbows Aero and kicks him in the face and suplex him over but didn’t cover but bites Aero in the face. Tags in Cortez who puts the boots to Aero and a double underhook suplex. Tags in Bael who puts on a rear chin lock. Aero reaches for his corner and elbows a few times to Bael. Aero Creates space, springs to the top buckle and back elbow off and crawls to his corner and Bael tags Cisco.

Argenis in, springboard rana Cisco over and Cortez jumps in and Argenis head scisor him over. Argenis sunset flip powerbomb (or a Yoshi Tonic) on Cisco but Cortez breaks it up.

Breaks down and lots of flips to the outside, mostly by Aerostar. He ranas Cisco from the top to the outside then hits the ropes and springboard moonsault to the floor. He rolls Cisco back in and sends him off the ropes but out of nowhere, Cortez is in, Cisco flapjacks Aero over and Cortez codebreaker, like a 3D codebreaker for the pin.

Next, Vampiro talks about his interview with Puma and Konnan about Puma’s title win and says “You could’ve cut the knife with the intensity.” These are pretaped, you couldn’t fix stuff like that?

Vamp shakes Puma’s hand and says congratulations. Asks him how he’s feeling but Konnan cuts him off and says “I’ll tell you exactly how he’s feeling” and Puma looks kinda annoyed but lets it go. Konnan says he’s pissed about having won the title and beaten Fenix only to be jumped by Cage.

Vamp says that Puma looks impressive but Cage is a monster and people are saying he’s not gonna be able to handle him. Konnan answers for Puma again, says he never asked for their opinion. Says that Cage lacks brains that he and Puma have.

Vamp says he’s getting sick of Konnan jumping in and shooting his mouth off. It’s supposed to be Puma’s moment but Konnan won’t let him speak. Konnan says Puma is gonna shred Cage like some Spanish word and says that Vamp might be next then says the interview in over, dumps his chair and gets in Vamp’s face who tells him “Anytime you wanna do this, brother.” And tells Puma to be careful

Main event up now. Puma in the ring first and as Cage enters, Puma leaps over the top rope and dives onto him. Hammers on Cage and rolls him in. Cage double leg lifts him up and slams in in the corner but Puma sets himself on top. Cage rushes in and Puma rana.

Puma ducks a few shots and springboard off the ropes for a line but Cage just barrels through him. Cage uses his size to power Puma to the corner with a few shoulders then whips him hard to the corner. Cage lifts him high in the air, gets a 2 and uses a lock to keep him on the mat.

Puma can’t maintain momentum, Cage using his size and pwoer to overwhelm Puma. Gets a two off a sitout Alabama Slam and hits a few lines in the corner. Cage lifts him up and Puma reverse into a swinging DDT. Puma starts using his speed and high impact moves to try and get something going but Cage tosses him across the ring by a double underhook suplex. Tossed to the apron and Cage moves in, Puma springboard and Knees of Meteora for a 2.

Cage countering a lot of Puma’s offense, catching him out of the air and slamming him down. Cage even hits a second rope moonsault for a 2.

Cage hits an F5 but only gets a 2. Puma lands a few big kicks, ducks a discus line and northern lights suplex Cage over, holds on a deadlift suplex him over for a 2.

Puma rolls cage to the corner and goes up top for the 630 but Cage gets up and pushes the ref into the rope to crotch Puma. Then Cage low blow kicks Puma blatantly and the ref calls for the bell. (Weird finish – why would Cage just blatantly get himself DQ’ed?)

Cage tries to hit Puma with the Weapon X but like always, it doesn’t work and just ends up a flatliner that took a long time to set up. The ref is still trying to get Cage to stop and he pushes him down. Konnan on the apron now and Cage turns his sights on him and lifts Puma up by his throat.

Konnan steps into the ring and breaks his cane over the back of Cage who drops Puma but Cage boots him in the stomach and punches him. Cage drops the straps and picks up the belt and hammer Konnan with it. Konnan blades and Cage rips the title belt in half and spits on it.

Cueto is watching from his office and smiles but suddenly that Asian chick who has been watching from the shadows for weeks grabs him and throws him backward into his chair. He asks who she is and she says she’s looking for a man, a man that owes her. She knows he’s in Cueto’s temple and he says he’ll help her, to feel free to question anyone on the roster.

She says she doesn’t know who it is but only has one word “Matanza” but Cueto says it means nothing to him. And she disappears out the door as quickly as she appeared.

Ring of Honor

Big matches set for Ring of Honor’s 13th Anniversary Show in Las Vegas on March 1.

ROH World Title

Jay Briscoe defends in four-way against Tommaso Ciampa, Hanson and Michael Elgin

ROH TV Title

Jay Lethal defends against Alberto El Patron

ROH World Tag Team titles

reDRagon defends against The Young Bucks

At an ROH show in Dayton, Ohio, Tadarius Thomas announced that he was retiring from pro wrestling to focus on MMA. Thomas was most recently involved with The Decade as a young boy and eventually left the group while Adam Page stayed.

New Japan Pro Wrestling

New Japan World hit 20,000 subscribers recently which surpassed their expectations. New Japan is really happy with that number, since only 15,000 bought Wrestle Kingdom 8 on PPV. This shows the brand is growing and I believe I read somewhere that they were surprised how many subscriptions they were getting from people outside of Japan.

Also, this week on New Japan’s AXS TV show, Prince Devitt will face Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada will face Togi Makabe.

wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament

wXw, a German wrestling company, announced the participants for the 2015 16 Carat Gold Tournament, taking place on March 6-8 in Turbinehalle, Oberhausen, Germany. The list features some of the biggest names on the American and European indy scene right now.

- Chris Sabin

- Absolute Andy

- Uhaa Nation

- Marty Scurll

- Axel "Axeman" Tischer

- Cedric Alexander

- Sasa Keel

- Mr. Sha Samuels

- Kim Ray

- Timothy Thatcher

- Daisuke Harada

- Tommy End

- Axel Dieter Jr.

- Andrew Everett

-Zack Sabre Jr.

- Ricochet

Also appearing will be the World's Cutest Tag Team

I would definitely want to check out this tournament once it’s available, but I checked out their shop page and it seems to be all in Euros…so, not really sure how I’d go about buying stuff from them.

National Pro Wrestling Day

National Pro Wrestling Day is Sunday, Feb. 8 at 1:30 p.m. at The Greater Norristown PAL Gym in Norristown, PA.

Announced matches are:

“Smooth Sailing” Ashley Remington vs Drew Gulak

N_R_G vs Flying Francis

Fire Ant vs Juan Francisco de Coronado

Blaster McMassive vs Mr. Touchdown

Two years ago when the first National Pro Wrestling Day was held at The National Guard Armory in Northeast Philadelphia, the event seemed like it was striving to be a showcase for all of independent pro wrestling. Lots of different companies attended, each adding a match to the card and selling merch. There were so many companies involved, NPWD hosted two shows in one day that first year.

But since that first year, NPWD has just been used as a Chikara hype show. Last year was used to announce the first “Chikara” show since the shutdown (and I put that in quotes because they had been doing Wrestling Is shows which were essentially Chikara shows) and this year’s NPWD just seems like another Chikara show.

Which is kinda disappointing to me. When the concept was first announced, I had hoped it would grow every year, attracting new and different companies and that soon, indy companies from all over the country would want to showcase their stuff at NPWD. But it’s almost gone the opposite way – using the attention from the first year and becoming more insular, only focusing on Chikara.

Which, you know, whatever – it was Quack and Chikara’s creation so they can do what they want with it, but I had hoped that NPWD would be more than the Chikara hype show that it has become.

Evolve/WWN

Evolve began announcing plans for their shows on Wrestlemania 31 weekend. PJ Black (formerly Justin Gabriel in WWE) will be making his debut for the company on 3/26 facing Evolve Champion Drew Galloway. The match is being billed as “no restrictions” with the idea being that WWE held both wrestlers back but now they can reach their full potential.

On 3/27, Gabriel will face Ricochet and on 3/28, Austin Aries and Roderick Strong team up for the first time since the early 2000s (when they were Generation Next in Ring of Honor) to face Ricochet and Uhaa Nation.

Indy Minute: Your weekly source for independent wrestling news

Hey everyone, Indy Minute is back this week with a full write up. I didn’t have time to write up a full one during Thanksgiving week but I’m back this week. Also, make sure to listen to Ring Rust Radio this week because yours truly makes an appearance in the RRR Fantasy Draft. Well…listen every week, but especially listen this week.

NXT

  Tyler Breeze opens NXT TV this week. (Rich Brennan, Renee Young, Jason Albert are on commentary) His opponent is Marcus Louis who wanders out to the ring with no music, a towel over his head and no hair or eyebrows. Breeze stares at him and can barely bring himself to look at Louis under the towel. The bell rings at one point but neither have moved to start a wrestling match.

  Breeze gets a mic and asks “Am I actually expected to take on the uggo of all uggos?” Breeze steals the towel and acts like he’s going to puke and tells Louis to just leave and says, “Are you not only ugly but stupid?” Says he’s hideous, a monster, a freak and that no one will ever love him. Louis wanders around but Breeze spins him around and hits the Beauty Shot for the win.

  After losing, Louis continues to wander around, yelling incoherently for a while then, during the break, walks slowly out of the ringside area, and out of Full Sail itself.

  Big Cass and Enzo head out to the ring and they introduce Carmella who still has the worst music ever. They introduce Ol’ Blue Pants (indy wrestler Leva Bates) to take on Carmella. Blue Pants gets a few holds but Carmella eventually hits a shoulder block and some drop kicks before making Blue Pants tap out to that figure four choke submission.

  Finn Balor will have his first singles match tonight against Tyson Kidd.

  The Lucha Dragons (the real ones) have a tag match against Jason Jordan and Tye Dillinger. Jordan and Dillinger are mocking Cara and Kalisto a lot in this match but a miscommunication lets Kalisto take control with his high flying offense. Kalisto hits the Selena Del Sol on Jordan for the win.

  We get another Kevin Owens video package. Says he realized the best way to provide for his family wasn’t to work in a warehouse or office, but to fight people. He’s fought for 14 years to get to WWE and now that he’s here, he’ll fight everyone. Loves proving people wrong almost as much as he loves fighting people. And that’s why he’s here and he’s going to change everything.

  Bayley is in the ring. She doesn’t have a match but she wanted to be at NXT anyway. Charlotte isn’t there tonight and she told Bayley to stay away from Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks because they’re bullies. Her mom told her to stand up to her bullies because bullies are cowards...but she’s interrupted by Becky and Sasha.

  They immediately attack Bayley and throw her headband into the crowd. The refs come out to break up the fight and keep Becky and Sasha away. Looks like Bayley’s knee is hurt somehow. How many times are they going to do the same “bullies picking on Bayley” angle? That’s like the only angle she’s ever been involved in.

  Backstage, they ask Natty how she feels about Tyson facing Finn. Tyson eventually cuts off Natty and says that he’s been working with his uncle Bret (Natty goes “Our uncle…”) and that there’s a new Hitman on the horizon. He asks Natty if she’s checked on the cats and that he can’t hug Natty, he doesn’t have much time before the match and has to go Facetime with his cats. Kidd has become an amazing heel. The character he’s developed in NXT is great and the dynamic between how much of a jerk he is and how much the fans love Natty is basically like a modern day Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth.

  We get a pretty unique Vaudevillains video package. Set up like a silent film with old timey piano called “BOOM! Go The Lucha Dragons.”  The police commissioner calls them, apparently the Lucha Dragons are trying to rob a bank…with dynamite! First they train (Aiden English does jumping jacks and push-ups, Simon Gotch shadow boxes and shoot on video of a bear). They go for a run and end up at the bank where the Mini Dragons have set up dynamite. They say the Vaudevillains have fallen into their trap but English and Gotch set up the dynamite behind them before the Mini Dragons explode it.

  Natty accompanies Tyson Kidd to the ring for his match with Finn Balor. Commentary putting over Balor big time, as well they should be. My only complaint about this match is that I wish it was on a bigger stage and got more time because it both guys are amazing.

  Balor gets a go-behind first and Tyson crawls to the ropes for the break. Renee name dropping Tokyo Joe as training Balor in Japan. Tyson and Balor start chain wrestling, trading wrist locks and simple holds. Balor hits a perfect dropkick and sends Tyson to the outside and setting up for a tope but Tyson hides behind Natty and Balor just barely stops before diving.

  Tyson knocks Balor off the apron and hits neckbreaker on the outside and takes control, hammering Balor in the corners, sending him in hard, hitting a catapult to the bottom of the buckle and hanging him in the tree of woe. Kidd yells at Natty after she doesn’t choke Balor “How hard is it to do this?!” then chokes Balor himself and hits a dropkick to Finn’s midsection.

  Kidd has Balor in a deep choke hold. “Ask him ref! Ask him in Irish!”

  Balor blocks a suplex and hits several chops to regain control. Hits a pele kick and nearly pins Kidd with like a twisting suplex, almost like a brainbuster. Charges into the corner but Kidd hits him with a big boot. Balor kicks Kidd off the top but Kidd evades the double stomp and Kidd almost gets the Sharpshooter. Kidd drop toe hold into the bottom buckle and sling shot leg drop Balor to the apron while he was draped over the bottom rope.

  Balor blocks a sling shot elbow drop getting the knees up and hits a running soccer style kick to Kidd’s face. Sets up for the double stomp but The Ascension hit the ring and attack Balor forcing the ref to call for the bell. They hammer him in the corner until Hideo Itami hits the ring to even the odds and the four brawl until refs appear to try and break up the melee. More and more backstage guys (and jobbers?) show up to try and break them up as the show ends.

Lucha Underground

(I thought I had a longer write up of the fifth episode but I can’t find it now)

  Lucha Underground opened with Konnan demanding a street fight against Big Ryck for Prince Puma later in the night. In the first match, Mil Muertes attacked Drago before the bell and won with the Flatliner.

  During the match, King Cuerno appeared at the top of the arena to watch Drago and after Mil won, came down to the ring and hit Drago with a Death Valley Driver variation. Next, Mascarita Sagrada defeated Son of Havoc with a victory roll and afterward, Sexy Star faced Chavo Guerrero. Star slaps Chavo after he grabs her and kisses her. She gets a chair from outside the ring and kicks the ref in the nuts after he tells her drop it but as Chavo begs off, Pentagon Jr steals the chair from her. Chavo holds Star for Pentagon but before he can hit her, Fenix shows up to help run off Chavo and Pentagon.

  The main event was pretty much a handicap match as the Crenshaw Crew were constantly attacking Prince Puma as he fought Big Ryck. Johnny Mundo leapt into the ring from the top of the arena to save Puma as he was tied in the tree of woe on a ladder but accidentally hit him with a chair, allowing Ryck to put Puma through a table.

Also, make sure to check out my write up of Lucha Underground here.

Ring of Honor

Final Battle is this Sunday from New York City and will be live on InDemand PPV at 7:30 p.m.

ROH World Championship

Fight Without Honor

Jay Briscoe (c) vs. Adam Cole

Ever since Briscoe defeated Elgin for the World title, Cole has been hounding him, looking to regain the gold. After Cole attacked Briscoe’s father at a recent event, it became personal and now their World title match will be a Fight Without Honor. Though I definitely like Briscoe and think he’s a great World champ, I’m a huge fan of Cole and feel like ROH would benefit more from having a great heel champ like Cole/

ROH World Tag Team Championship

reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish) (c) vs.

The Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and KUSHIDA)

reDRagon are easily one of the hottest tag teams in the world and recently defeated the Time Splitters for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles in Japan. But now Shelley and KUSHIDA get a chance to win the ROH tag titles in America. This match will be great no doubt, but I can’t see The Time Splitters winning the ROH belts from reDRagon at the biggest ROH show of the year.

ROH World TV Championship

Jay Lethal (c) vs. Matt Sydal

The recently returned Matt Sydal has been tearing it up on the indies and in ROH. But he’s going up against Jay Lethal who has been turning away challengers for the TV title left and right. In his current title reign (which is his second TV title reign), Lethal has successfully defended the TV an amazing 19 times. Though Sydal has been doing really well since returning to ROH, I don’t see him dethroning Jay Lethal.

The Young Bucks and ACH vs. The Addiction and Cedric Alexander

In this six-man tag match, The Young Bucks return to ROH and team up with ACH to make perhaps the most high-flying team in history to take on The Addiction and Cedric Alexander. There hasn’t been much of any build to this match as far as I know, besides the Bucks facing Daniels and Kaz a few times. It’s hard to pick a winner in this one since every guy in this match is incredible, but I’m going with The Addiction/Alexander to win.

Michael Elgin vs. Tommaso Ciampa

Both Elgin and Ciampa have had their issues with ROH in recent months. Elgin has had very public issues with management over his role in the company and their use of him while Ciampa has been at odds with matchmaker Nigel McGuinness over being suspended for attacking ROH staff. This will be an amazingly hard-hitting contest as both guys are powerhouses in the ring. Honestly, considering their beefs with ROH, I could see Elgin and Ciampa teaming up and starting to terrorize the company. But as far as this match goes, I really think (well, hope) that Ciampa is on his way up and a win over a former World champion like Elgin will catapult him into the World title picture.

R.D. Evans (with Veda Scott) vs. Moose (with Stokely Hathaway)

Things have not been going well for R.D. Evans and his manager Veda Scott. First, #TheNewStreak is broken as Evans failed to capture the TV Title from Jay Lethal after Moose hit him with a spear. What seemed like an accident at first then was revealed as part of a larger scheme as former Evans and Scott associate Ramon revealed himself to be a man named Stokely Hathaway and has been working with Prince Nana. It seems that Nana is still upset that Evans helped end The Embassy and recruited Hathaway and Moose to ruin Evans and Scott. Evans is one of my favorite guys in ROH (and in all of wrestling) but getting a win over Moose will be a huge task and I think that with Hathaway and Nana in his corner, Moose takes this one.

Roderick Strong vs. Adam Page

The Decade seems to be splintering as Roderick Strong’s problems with recruit Adam Page spiraled out of control. The two have been at odds for months and it looks like BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs are siding with Page against Strong, who founded the group with Whitmer and Jacobs. It will be interesting to see if former recruit Tadarius Thomas has an impact on this match as he was the first to leave due to the treatment of Whitmer, Jacobs and Strong. It seems like ROH is really behind Page and getting a win over a vet like Roderick Strong will help cement his place as one of the new stars of the company.

  Also, there are several Ring of Honor rumors floating around. The first is from MetsFan4Ever that ROH will be promoting The Hardy Boyz vs The Briscoe Brothers vs The Young Bucks for Wrestlemania weekend.

  The next is from The Meltz who says that ROH and New Japan will run four joint shows in 2015. The shows will return to New York and Toronto while adding Chicago and another new market (here’s hoping for Philadelphia).

New Japan Pro Wrestling

  New Japan recently announced the kick-off of “New Japan World,” an online streaming service for NJPW. And guess what the price is? 999! Well, 999 yen of course (which is about $8.50 American).

  I haven’t signed up for the service but I’ve read online that many Americans have and that it works better than the WWE Network for the most part. NJPW has a huge library of content that goes back to the 1970s too. They apparently don’t have complete shows up just yet but have lots of matches which you can search by venue, event or wrestler. So not only do they have plenty of content from contemporary wrestlers like Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, Prince Devitt, Kota Ibushi and Hiroshi Tanahashi but also classic wrestlers like Antonio Inoki, Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono, Stan Hansen, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and many more.

  With NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9 on the horizon, World is a great way for new fans (or fans after watching Wrestle Kingdom) to watch tons of great New Japan wrestling.

Chikara

The Season 14 finale, "Tomorrow Never Dies" is this Saturday is at the former ECW Arena in South Philadelphia – the first time Chikara is returning to the venue since it reopened. The card looks really good and with the Chikara vs Flood storyline coming to a head, I’ve got to imagine fans are in for some big things.

Icarus vs Deucalion

Steel cage match

(Only the second in Chikara history)

The leader of the Flood has been losing increasing control over the Flood in recent months but also himself. He’s turned on many of his own and though it seems like the Flood is losing steam, that only makes the monster Deucalion more dangerous. Chikara Grand Champion laid out a challenge to the leader of the Flood after he killed Archibald Peck for a steel cage to hopefully rid the company of the beast once and for all. But as valiant as Icarus is, the setting will be just as dangerous for him to be locked inside a steel cage with Deucalion. I don’t think the Grand Championship is on the line but I’m sure the Flood will be trying to get their hands on it one way or the other.

Torneo Cibernetico

8 vs 8 tag team match

Chikara vs The Flood

Worker Ant leads the Chikara Heroes against the Flood in this huge elimination match. Joining Worker Ant will be Fire Ant, Silver Ant, Amasis, Ophidian, Kodama, Obaryion and Jervis Cottonbelly. With The Colony, The Osirian Portal, The Batiri and The World’s Sweetest Man fighting for Chikara, I think they have a pretty good chance of turning back The Flood.

The new leader of the BDK, Jakob Hammermeir, has put together the Flood team for the Cibernetico and it’s very formidable. Sydney Bakabella loaned Jakob the Wrecking Crew (Oleg and Jaka) but also Flex Rumblecrunch, a member of the King of Trios winning Devastation Corporation. Joining them will be Oliver Grimsley, Volgar and Soldier Ant.

Though the Chikara team is made up of more seasoned tag teams, the BDK squad is led by a much more charismatic leader in Hammermeier than Worker Ant and the Flood team is much more vicious. The Chikara Heroes will fight to the end but I think that The Flood, with the inclusion of Soldier Ant, will be victorious.

Ultramantis Black vs Delirious

Loser Leaves Chikara

When Ultramantis controlled the Eye of Tyr, he used it to enslave Delirious to do his bidding. Once Delirious broke free of his control (thanks to the BDK), Delirious promised Ultramantis he would make him pay for the years he stole from him. Can the Devious One’s time really be up in Chikara?

I don’t want to see either of them leave Chikara, personally. Both are great talents but if one had to leave for good, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Delirious. He doesn’t wrestle on the indies very frequently anymore and probably doesn’t have much time to as the ROH booker and head trainer.

The Throwbacks vs The Devastation Corporation

2-out-of-3 falls for the Campeonatos de Parejas

The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield and “Mr. Touchdown” Mark Anglosetti) have been the Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas for a long time now. But The Devastation Corporation (Max Smashmaster and Blaster McMassive) have been on a tear in Chikara as of late, especially after winning the King of Trios tournament. While The Throwbacks are formidable champions, I think Sydney Bakabella’s monsters are going to be too much for them to overcome.

Eddie Kingston vs Jimmy Jacobs

Grudge Match

For a long time, Jacobs was doing his best to win over Kingston as a part of the Flood. Kingston held the Grand Championship before the shut down as seemed like the perfect person to win the title away from Icarus and the Chikara heroes. But Kingston finally made the right choice and turned his back on the Flood once and for all. Now the two are going to clash this Saturday with a ton of bad blood boiling over.

“Smooth Sailing” Ashley Remington vs. Juan Francisco de Coronado

Match can only be won by German Suplex

I’m not very familiar with Remington but Coronado is one of the best up-and-coming heels in Chikara right now. Both use the German suplex and at Tomorrow Never Dies, it will be the only way for these two to pick up the victory.

Missile Assault Ant vs Heidi Lovelace

Young Lion’s Cup finals

This will be the 11^th YLC that Chikara has hosted and is showcasing two of the better talents coming up in Chikara. Heidi Lovelace is tough as nails and I think has a pretty good shot at beating a member of the Gekido Colony. But being that Missile is a heel, I wouldn’t put it past him to win the Cup by any means necessary.