2015 Pro Wrestling Thread

From what it sounds like from the Internets, the NXT show tonight was unreal.

 

It was pretty, pretty, pretty good.

 

That show was outstanding. The last two matches were unreal. I was off the net all day and the way it was built I expected a Cena save. What it was instead....holy shit.

 

Eh. It was OK. A step down from their recent shows.
First, they screwed up big time having Blake and Murphy beat Big Cass and Enzo. Big Cass and Enzo are on fire, despite the useless Carmella, and that crowd was hot for them. They deserve a title run.
The other matches from the first match were serviceable, sure, but apart from the sick entrances of Breeze and Balor, nothing really stood out.
Then the final half-hour happened and completely redeemed the show.
Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch put it all out there and that was an outstanding match. Forget women's wrestling. That was a great wrestling match period.
Sasha Banks is my favorite Diva on either roster right now and tonight shows why. And, much like last Takeover with Bayley, Becky Lynch stepped up big here. Nice look for her and I'm excited to see where it goes from here. Definitely my match of the night.
Zayn-Owens was fantastic ... right up until the end. I really wish they'd have let that match go along unimpeded but I get it. They're prolonging the feud so the payoff is sweeter but, man, was that disappointing tonight. That match was freaking awesome and then Zayn gets pop-up powerbombed and it spirals out of control.
I don't mind Samoa Joe debuting and it should be interesting but, honestly, I kind of wish we'd had some resolution on the Zayn-Owens feud first.
What's KO feuding with? Five? Six guys? (Balor, Riley, Itami, Cena, Joe, Zayn)
That's insane.

 

Oh and can I just say again how amazing the NXT crowd is? I got goosebumps watching them give Becky Lynch a standing ovation and sing her music. SOOO cool.

 

So I thought I would pad this out more. Here are their results on pay per view since the split. They make for very interesting reading:

2014

MITB:
-Seth Rollins defeated Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler, Kofi Kingston, Rob Van Dam and Jack Swagger (with Zeb Colter) to win the Money in the Bank briefcase
-John Cena defeated Kane, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus, Bray Wyatt and Cesaro (with Paul Heyman) to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a Ladder Match

Battleground
-John Cena (c) defeated Kane, Randy Orton and Roman Reigns to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Summerslam:
-Seth Rollins defeated Dean Ambrose in a Lumberjack Match
-Roman Reigns defeated Randy Orton

Hell in a Cell
-Seth Rollins (with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury) defeated Dean Ambrose in a Hell in a Cell Match

Survivor Series
-Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose by disqualification
-Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Erick Rowan and Ryback) defeated Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev and Luke Harper) (with Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Jamie Noble, Joey Mercury and Lana)

TLC
-John Cena defeated Seth Rollins (with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury) in a Tables Match (Roman Reigns made his return).
-Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose in a TLC Match

2015

Royal Rumble
-Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) defeated John Cena and Seth Rollins (with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury)
-Roman Reigns won the Royal Rumble Match by last eliminating Rusev

Fast Lane:
-The Authority (Kane, Big Show and Seth Rollins) (with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury) defeated Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan and Ryback
-Bad News Barrett (c) defeated Dean Ambrose by disqualification
-Roman Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan

Wrestlemania:
-Daniel Bryan defeated Bad News Barrett (c), R-Truth,Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper, Dolph Ziggler and Stardust in a Ladder Match for the IC Title
-Randy Orton defeated Seth Rollins (with Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble)
-Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) and Roman Reigns by cashing in Money in the Bank to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion

Extreme Rules:
-Dean Ambrose defeated Luke Harper in a Chicago Street Fight
-Roman Reigns defeated Big Show in a Last Man Standing Match
-Seth Rollins (c) defeated Randy Orton by escaping the cage to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Payback:
-Seth Rollins (c) (with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury) defeated Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Randy Orton in a Fatal 4-Way Match to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

 

Start to finish the NXT special wasn't as good as the last NXT special but the women's title match was much better than I expected and the title match was great so that kind of made up for it. Wasn't totally sure they could pull off such a great women's match without Charlotte and Becky Lynch and Sasha were incredible.

 

One quibble about the NXT special - I liked the "surprise" relatively speaking of the Joe debut, but I'm not sure if I like whatever odd jazz track they're using for him. It's a little too light to me, whereas even though he's probably going to be a face for a few months at least, he's more of a "bad ass face" to me vs. a cool one.

 

Chalk up another MARK OUT moment for me last night.

I at first thought they were going to send Uha Nation (is that his name?) out for the save and then Joe walks out and instant FUCK YEAH!

I watched it three or four times and man ... wow.

 

I'm not familiar with this Samoa Joe guy, but it's getting a lot of play today online. I'm definitely going to watch it in the next day or so.

 

Former TNA world champion, and probably the biggest "homegrown" star of that company along with AJ Styles. (Although, I think they both actually came up in ROH, but TNA was most people's major exposure to them.) His nickname is the Samoan submission machine, and he has a somewhat unique ring style, as you can probably guess from his physique - He's got some heft to him, but he's surprisingly quick and agile. At least, he used to be; he's slowed down a bit in recent years because of injuries (he's 36), but he can still go. He skipped WWE developmental because of his history in the ring, and he's probably either going to be one of the top guys in NXT for the foreseeable future or fast tracked to the main roster. If you're looking for some past matches to get hyped about, he has some iron man matches with Kurt Angle that were good.

 

My dream booking: Let him hang around NXT and tear through people until August, when he shows up on Raw and challenges Cena for the U.S. title (which surely Super-Cena will still have). Have Cena laugh him off after he's beaten every other NXT challenger that he's faced (throw a couple more out there between now and August). Then have Joe win that belt at SummerSlam over Cena and let them feud a couple of months and Joe keeps the title in the end.

That or he wins a spot in the IC strap Elimination Chamber and wins that outright and skips NXT, but that ain't gonna happen.