AJ Styles Meet & Greet

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the recent fan meet & greet with TNA Wrestler “The Phenomenal’ AJ Styles at the Hardrock Cafe in Sydney. For me personally this was really cool as AJ was one of the first wrestlers I saw when I first started watching TNA & he really captured my attention and had me hooked on the product/company.

The turn out however was surprising as there wasn’t anywhere near as many people as I thought there would have been, the event was also a little disappointing as a lot of the crowd was expecting an announcement of a tour by the company especially due to the way it had been promoted on Facebook and Twitter.

Once AJ had signed autographs & taken photos with everyone that arrived on time he left, this was only about 30-40 minutes after the signing started and given the time it was held, 4pm Monday, I would not have been surprised to hear that many people showed up after work and were left disappointed.

Thanks everyone for reading & I would love to hear from the other people there what you thought of the event so feel free to comment or contact me on twitter @Appsy88

Raw 1000 Thoughts

So the 1000th episode of Monday Night Raw just finished and overall it was really fun to watch & great way to spend the morning on my birthday. There was however even less in ring action than a normal Raw and that’s saying something, however all of the returns and cameo appearances of past Raw legends made up for this and made it an enjoyable 3 hours of television.

My favourite moments were the Degeneration X reunion with the whole crew, minus Chyna of course, the CM Punk, Daniel Bryan & Rock segment, the reunion of the Brothers of Destruction & finally the ending of the show with CM Punk laying out the Rock and laying the foundation for their feud leading into a match for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble next year.

The Degeneration segment was really fun purely for the nostalgic feeling it had seeing all of the members of the faction back together & I especially liked having Road Dogg, Billy Gunn & X-Pac coming out on the Jeep that was used during the WCW invasion.

The next moment that stood out to me was the segment involving the Rock, CM Punk & Daniel Bryan. During this segment the Rock announced that at  next years Royal Rumble he would be facing whoever holds the WWE Championship at that time. I liked this segment because it proved that both Punk and Bryan can hold their own on the mic with the greatest talker of all time in the industry, I would however have preferred if Bryan hadn’t taken the Rock Bottom as I fear that may hurt him down the line.

The next big moment was the return of the Undertaker to help his brother Kane against the current job squad of the WWE; Hawkins, Reks, Jinder Mahal, Hunico, Comacho & Drew McIntyre. This was another fun segment for its nostalgia factor but didn’t really further any story lines. Another thing that struck me about this segment is just how far McIntyre has fallen from grace.

Finally the show ended really strong with a heel turn by Cm Punk as he stood idly by as Big Show attacked John Cena which led to the Rock making the save only to then be taken out by Punk. I loved this segment because it lays a solid foundation for the feud between the Rock and Punk leading up to a payoff with a WWE Championship match at the Royal Rumble and left CM Punk looking very strong as the face of the company. Im also happy that Punk finally got to be in the actual main event of the show albeit it had to be with John Cena also.

I would love to hear feedback and opinions my readers have wither in the comments below or via twitter @Appsy88

Thanks for reading and hope to do this much more regularly form now on.

Long Awaited Return

So I am finally back from holiday and while it has taken a long time I have caught back up on all of the wrestling I missed while away. I now plan on returning to the old format of writing my personal opinions and reactions to any form of professional wrestling that I watch.

My holiday was a long time dream of mine and I figured that now that I’m finished uni it was the prefect time for me to embark on this grand adventure to the US. I visited Orlando and Los Angeles on a very quick two-week trip. Whilst there I was able to enjoy the theme parks that Orlando has to offer and many of the tourist attractions that Los Angeles and Hollywood has, oh and I also got to watch my first live Impact Wrestling and WWE events. I attended Hardcore Justice and the subsequent television taping for Impact Wrestling which were enjoyable but were soon to be blown out of the water by my experiences at WWE Summerslam.

I attended the first session of Summerslam Axxess and got to meet many of the stars of the WWE. I met The Miz, Justin Gabriel, Alex Riley & Evan Bourne but I also got to see many others up close such as Wade Barrett, Sheamus, CM Punk, Triple H, Natalya, Hornswoggle, Zach Ryder & Edge.

The following day I attended Summerslam which was the first live WWE event I had ever been to and was absolutely amazed this event was so fun to be at live and I now plan on attending next time the WWE tours Australia.

If you have any feedback please feel free to leave comments below or contact me on Twitter @Appsy88.

Thanks for reading and I promise to have much more regular updates in the future.

Raw Thoughts – Game On

The last few weeks of Monday Night Raw have been some of the best television the WWE has produced since the Nexus angle last year and after Money In the Bank this week was shaping up to be no different. However this week started flat and was looking like we had returned to mediocre weekly program once more, that was until the final segment.

Don’t get me wrong I was happy to see much more in-ring action than usual but I felt that moving straight into a tournament to crown a new champion was the wrong way to go and somewhat devalued the ending to MITB. The matches weren’t really all that exciting either, although the semi-finals of The Miz vs Kofi Kingston & Rey Mysterio vs R-Truth were both very good.

I begun to think something was up when the last semi-final match between Rey & Truth started with only 20 minutes remaining in the show, as I thought surely they aren’t going to squeeze two matches and the Cena McMahon segment into such a short time. I was right as the final of the tournament was postponed until next week, I hope that this means a new title belt which Punk can then return to challenge for to crown the true WWE Champion.

I thought the final segment was really well done, and I will admit I popped for the not so subtle Impact Wrestling reference by John Cena & then again when Triple H’s music hit. I love the fact that the WWE is playing off of what we already know in regards to the future of the company with Triple H being groomed to be the leader of the company. My only negative from the whole segment was the injunction line, this could have easily been left out as I think it draws to close a parallel to the recent Dixie Carter vs Immortal storyline from Impact Wrestling, I think the segment would have come across just as well had they just stuck with the “Vince you have been relieved of your duties” line.

There my thoughts on yesterdays program & as always I would love to hear what you guys think in the comments or on twitter @Appsy88.

Thanks for reading.

WWE Money In The Bank Review/Thoughts

WOW is probably the best way to sum up how I’m feeling after watching that PPV. For me this was my most anticipated wrestling PPV in a very long time and boy did it deliver. I’m not going to do the typical review blog here where I run through every match on the card instead I’m just gonna give my thoughts on the main matches that excited me. PS if you haven’t watched the PPV yet stop reading now because I’m likely to spoil it for you.

First is the Smackdown MITB match, I expected a lot from this match given the participants and was really happy with how it went. The main points to be taken from this match are the injury angle to Sin Cara, which I didn’t expect but thought it was done very well, Gabriels 450 splash was also very impressive but most of all the winning of this match was totally out of left field in my opinion. Daniel Bryan winning this match was not even a possibility in my mind prior to the event, but I must say I’m really excited about this as Bryan was the first indy guy that stood out to me when I began watching independent professional wrestling, when Bryan won the match the first thought that crossed my mind was that this may have only been done to keep the internet wrestling fans, such as myself, happy when later on in the night CM Punk lost, to my delight this wasn’t the case.

The next match that I want to review is the Raw MITB match, again I was expecting a lot from this match & again I wasn’t disappointed. Whilst the Raw MITB match wasn’t given as much time as the SMackdown match is was no less enjoyable & in my opinion even more innovative. The main talking points from this match are Bourne’s amazing Shooting Star Press on the outside, a possible Miz injury (but since Miz returned later in the match I don’t think this will be a major setback for him), one spot that I thought was really cool was when all of the participants were perched atop ladders battling for the briefcase (this was the sort of innovation I was expecting) &  finally Alberto Del Rio winning. Whilst I think Del Rio winning was to obvious & given one superstar a Royal Rumble & MITB victory in a single is too much I understand why it was done especially given the result of the WWE Championship match.

Next up was the World Heavyweight Championship match between Randy Orton & Christian. I had high expectations leading into this match given the quality of the previous two encounters between these two, this match was somewhat of a letdown though. The main points to take away from this match were that Christian was able to use the stipulation to his advantage, which always seems to happen in the WWE, and the post-match beat down inflicted on Christian by Orton. Whilst I am happy that this feud will now more than likely continue onto Summerslam, mainly because I’m going to Summerslam this year, I would have liked for this to have gone down differently.

Finally it was time for the match we had all been waiting for, this was one match were I expected the story to overshadow the quality of the ring work however to my surprise these two men put on what is possibly the match of the year in the WWE. The crowd was right into this match which always makes watching at home so much more exciting, I loved the way this match slowly built up to the climax & the finish was fantastic, by just closing with Punk leaving the building through the crowd we are left to guess what might happen now & are compelled to watch Raw tomorrow. One thing that annoyed me, but I totally understand why it was done, was the fact that the cameras & commentators refused to show or mention Colt Cabana sitting in the front row even when Punk gave him a high-five. I would highly recommend this match to anyone who hasn’t already seen it & I’m now waiting impatiently for Raw tomorrow to hopefully get some answers.

As always thanks for reading & I’d love to hear your opinions in the comments below or via twitter @Appsy88.

WWE Money In The Bank Predictions

Up until three weeks ago I wasn’t feeling very excited about this PPV & thought that it would be a standard B-level show with very few talking points, that was until CM Punk’s now infamous promo on Raw. This PPV has now become a must see & I can only hope that Punk has resigned & there will be a fulfilling pay-off to this great angle.

• Kelly Kelly vs Brie Bella

This match will probably be your standard divas match, I see Kelly Kelly winning this one and continuing here massive push.

• Mark Henry vs Big Show

This match involves two stalwarts of the WWE over the years & I imagine this will be very hard hitting. I think Mark Henry goes over in this one & continues on his warpath towards the World Champion.

• Smackdown Money In The Bank Match – Wade Barrett vs Sheamus vs Cody Rhodes vs Daniel Bryan vs Kane vs Sin Cara vs Justin Gabriel vs Heath Slater

This match should be exciting as always, especially given the high flying abilities of Bryan, Sin Cara & Gabriel, I’m expecting to see some really innovative stuff from this match. As for who I believe will win it comes down to two men, Sheamus & Wade Barrett, while I’d like to see Barrett given another chance to challenge for the world title, this time without an entourage. I however think that based on the current direction on Smackdown Sheamus will come out victorious.

• Raw Money In The Bank Match – Rey Mysterio vs Kofi Kingston vs Alex Riley vs R-Truth vs The Miz vs Evan Bourne vs Jack Swagger vs Alberto Del Rio

Again this should be a very exciting match with the likes of Kingston, Mysterio & Bourne involved. I’m thinking that Alberto Del Rio is the most obvious choice for victory in this one but I could also see Bourne winning this one & cashing in later in the night against Punk and being the first MITB winner to lose after cashing in. For my prediction though I’m going with the obvious choice Alberto Del Rio.

• World Heavyweight Championship Match – Randy Orton vs Christian

If this match is anywhere near the quality of the previous matches between these two it could very well steal the limelight from one if not both MITB Matches. While I would love to see this feud continue on to Summerslam, for selfish reasons as I will be there, I don’t think this will occur. I’m going to predict that this feud has a third party in Mark Henry added to the mix after a no contest due to Mark Henry attacking both men.

• WWE Championship Match – John Cena vs CM Punk

This is the match that everyone is looking forward to & the outcome hinges entirely upon whether or not Punk has resigned with WWE, I think that he most likely has because I don’t believe that Vince McMahon would push Punk so strongly if he was leaving immediately following the PPV. My prediction for this match is that Punk wins the championship & is then immediately challenged by the Raw MITB winner at which point an indy invasion angle occurs, involving Colt Cabana, Seth Rollins/Tyler Black, Daniel Bryan & the Kings of Wrestling (Claudio Castagnolli & Chris Hero), to help Punk retain the title.

Thanks for reading and as always I would love to hear your thoughts and predictions in the comments below or via twitter @Appsy88.

Destination X Review

• Samoa Joe vs Kaz

This match was ok, I had expected more out of these two guys, but with the lack of build for this match and Joe’s apparent position backstage this was probably the best outcome we could hope for. I didn’t particularly like the finish to this match and feel that it further cements the burial of Joe by management. I really think Joe deserves more than he is currently being given, I remember the glory days of Joe, “Joe Is Gonna Kill You”, when he was running rampant through the entire roster and would really like to see this Joe come back for more than the brief glimpses we are currently getting.

• Douglas Williams vs Mark Haskins

This was the first time I had heard of or seen Haskins and nothing about him really stands out in my mind in terms of charisma or future potential. Apparently Haskins impressed TNA management during their recent UK tour and from that was given this opportunity which I think he blew, yeah sure you can probably blame nerves but when Haskins slipped from the top rope on his first Shooting Star Press attempt he lost any chance for people to talk about him for anything other than that. Willams used his typical technical ground based style which when combined with Haskins left me feeling like I could have gone without this match.

• Eric Young & Shark Boy vs Generation Me

This match was fun for what it was, and I’m glad Gen Me was given one last PPV appearance before leaving the company I only wish they could have had different opponents.

• Ultimate X Match – Alex Shelly vs Amazing Red vs Shannon Moore vs Robbie E

I liked this match, but felt it could have been better & the winner was obvious as Shelly is the only one of these guys that deserved the victory. Red was a standout in this match hitting some very impressive moves, Robbie E on the other hand could not have looked more goofy or out of place with the way he over-sold some of the moves.

• RVD vs Jerry Lynn

This match was really cool especially for an old school ECW fan like myself. Whilst it was clear that both of these guys have lost a step or two in the ring they both put on a very good match. RVD getting busted open the hard way only added to the match and I wouldn’t complain about seeing these two go at it again next month live at Hardcore Justice.

• Contract Match – Low-Ki vs Jack Evans vs Zema Ion vs Austin Aries

For me this was the match I was most looking forward to and it definitely lived up to the hype. These four guys went out they and put it all on the line and tore the house down providing the match of the night. The action in this one was so fast paced the cameras failed to catch some of the action the first time and replays were required. I was really happy that Aries won and will now be a regular on Impact Wrestling, I can only hope he is used properly and not stuck low on the card, I also totally agree with the crowd when they chanted “sign them all” I was unsold on Zema after his qualifying match but after this event I hope to see more of him and the rest in the future. If you like high flying and want to see what the X-Division used to be like check this match out in particular.

• X-Division Championship Match – Abyss (C) vs Brian Kendrick

I wasn’t really looking forward to this match as I expected some form of run in and was not disappointed, the outcome of this match only served to highlight why Abyss should never have been crowned X-Division Champion in the first place.

• AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels

This match was very good, as I expected given the two men involved. I was very impressed that these two were able to go out there and provide us with something fresh and entertaining, rather than just redoing a previous match. The style of this was different to the other bouts on the card as this one started out slow with some back and forth chain submission wrestling and eventually built to a very good finish.

Overall this was a good PPV to highlight the X-Division and I can only hope that the creative and management teams take notice of the fantastic crowd reactions and continue to showcase the X-Division on a much more regular basis on Impact Wrestling.

ROH Best In The World

I just finished watching Ring Of Honor’s Best in The World iPPV and once again ROH delivered a fantastic show. The show featured some of ROH’s upcoming talent, such as Mike Bennett & a returning Jay Lethal,  as well as championship matches for the ROH Television, World Tag Team & World Titles.

The first half of the show was ok, with the highlight being Kevin Steen’s run-in/promo after the Steve Corino vs Michael Elgin match. For me though it is the second half of the show that really stands out in my mind. The Television championship match between Christopher Daniels and El Generico was really good, and Daniels once again proved how good he is and should definitely be used more on Impact Wrestling.

The next match was a four-way elimination tag team match for the ROH World Tag Team Titles, involving The Briscoes, The Kings Of Wrestling, The All Night Express & Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team. This match was one of the best tag team bouts I have seen in a very long time. I was once again impressed by the KOW and can only hope that WWE signs the pair, possibly to team up with Tyler Black (Seth Rollins), Daniel Bryan & CM Punk in an indy invasion angle, & doesn’t waste their immense talent. Kenny King was impressive and showed that he has a fantastic future in professional wrestling & I can see him as a future ROH world champion.

The iPPV was closed out with the world championship match between Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards. This match was so good it challenges Triple H and Undertaker from Wrestlemania as match of the year. I was so happy that Davey was given the title as he has deserved this honour for so long and I hope that he has a very long and successful run. I now hope Eddie is able to continue to improve and come back to challenge Davey in the future and give us fans another epic encounter.

Thanks ROH for providing wrestling fans with a real alternative to WWE & Impact Wrestling. Thanks everyone for reading and feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter.

CM Punk’s Promo To End Raw Roulette

So I just heard about CM Punk’s epic promo on Raw and went on YouTube to check it out and was absolutely blown away, and now cant wait to watch the rest of Raw tomorrow. Now while it is obvious that this wasn’t a straight shoot there were definitely shoot elements in this worked promo.

During the promo Punk bashed almost everyone in the company including John Cena, Vince McMahon, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Hulk Hogan, Stephanie McMahon, Triple H and even John Laurinaitas. Punk claimed that he has always been the best wrestler in the company since his arrival but because he is not as good at kissing Vince’s ass as most of the other top talent he has always been held down, Punk also said that he was being held down because Paul Heyman saw something in him that nobody else did and that just like Brock Lesnar (another Heyman guy) he was fed up and ready to leave. He then went on to say that on July 17 he is leaving the WWE and taking the WWE Championship with him & he may even defend it in NJPW or ROH, I was half expecting him to say TNA at this point but he didn’t which confirms that this promo was indeed a work. Everything Punk said was obviously cleared with management prior to this promo but it had elements of the truth and needed to be said because these are the issues that have been plaguing the WWE for the last few years.

I liked that during the ROH portion of this promo that Punk said hi to his friend and current ROH talent Colt Cabana. I also liked that WWE cut Punk’s mic off and abruptly ended the show early to heighten the realism and make us think that this promo was actually a shoot.

This is the most compelling storyline the WWE has done since the Nexus invaded last year and I cant wait to see how this plays out over the next few weeks. CM Punk is in my opinion one of the all time great heel wrestlers in the WWE and tonight he most certainly solidified this fact in my mind.

I have included some spoiler info and my opinions below, if you don’t want to be spoiled for next week stop reading now otherwise thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments or contact me on Twitter @Appsy88 as I would love to hear other fans opinions on this program.

SPOILER ALERT:

I just read on WWE.com that CM Punk has been suspended indefinitely and WWE is teasing that this could be the end of Punk’s tenure in the WWE. To further emphasise this they have named a new number one contender for the WWE Championship in Alberto Del Rio at the tapings for next weeks Raw. I like this idea but I hope that Punk gets his deserved shot at the WWE title and able to come to term on a contract extension until at least after SummerSlam, since I am traveling to the US for this PPV.

Dragon Gate UK Invasion

With my new found attraction to Japanese wrestling I have been looking everywhere for New Japan, Dragon Gate & NOAH DVD’s and finally was able to get my hands on a Dragon Gate DVD. The DVD I got is the Dragon Gate UK Invasion Tour from 2009.

Now while I expected this DVD to be good I was wasn’t expecting it to be this good & was in-fact amazed at the quality of the in ring action. The card for this DVD had two international bouts featuring talent from the UK and the major standout to me in these was Marty Scurll, who I think will have a bright future in this business & look forward to see him competing in some of the US independent promotions. The remaining bouts involved Dragon Gate talent, such as Masato Yoshino, Shingo, BxB Hulk, Cima, Pac & Naruki Doi.

Once again BxB Hulk was very impressive, as was Yoshino (who’s speed never ceases to amaze me), but this time the two main standouts for me were Pac & Shingo. Shingo’s match was very hard hitting and had the crowd on the edge of their seats towards the end, what is even more impressive (if it wasn’t a work) was that the commentary noted that prior to the match Shingo was suffering from flu symptoms but was determined to work through the sickness to entertain the crowd, which he did by putting on the match of the night. This was my first time watching Pac perform and I was very impressed with his ability in the squared circle and think he would make a great addition to Impact Wrestling’s X-Division & would fit perfectly into the Destination X tournament they are currently running.

That’s all I have to say for now, hopefully I will be able to get a hold of some more Japanese wrestling DVD’s in the future. Thanks for reading and if you like my blog please follow me on twitter or leave a comment below I would love to hear from other wrestling fans, especially regarding Destination X & the X-Division tournament.