@codytweetsstuff
My week in wrestling started with a very much sub-par episode of RAW. The show was very repetitive but Baron Corbin is improving every week & is managing to get some serious heat on himself.
Smackdown Live however was actually pretty decent. ‘The Man’ returned, The Usos and The Bar had a great match and the show ended with Asuka winning a women’s battle royale to join Charlotte & Becky Lynch to make a triple threat TLC match at the TLC PPV. Overall, a decent show.
Next up was NXT. Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan took on The Mighty in a very good match, EC3 returned to squash Marcel Barthel, Mia Yim and Vanessa Borne had a decent match and the show ended with an excellent match between two beasts, Keith Lee & Lars Sullivan. A throwaway show but good action as always.
I then watched 205 Live. A good show with a couple twists and turns throughout. Noam Dar beat Mike Kanellis, Hideo Itami returns, beats a jobber before seemingly teaming up with another returning man, Ariya Daivari. The main event saw Cedric Alexander & Mustafa Ali take on Buddy Murphy & Tony Nese in a hotly contended match. I liked this show, some returns, some jobber wins and a great main event.
The two hours of NXT UK was absolutely superb. Excellent show. In this double episode, Pete Dunne took on Jordan Devlin in a superb match, definitely the best on NXT UK so far. On the other episode, we crowned an inaugural NXT UK Women’s champion when Rhea Ripley defeated Toni Storm.
I was quite busy this week so I didn’t watch any indies but overall, I was pretty happy with WWE this week. Though, Vince, please improve RAW, it’s getting hard to watch.
@TheCiaranJames
What a newsworthy week it’s been, from the atrocious episode of Raw to the breaking news of the exclusive NXT UK contracts, the business is certainly in turmoil. I have my opinions which I intend to share in bigger piece later in the week, however I will share my immediate thoughts here.
I caught bits and pieces of Raw, that was only because of the numerous reports of how bad it was. From the PWJ review to the PWTorch podcast, the review, comments and options tore WWE’s flagship show to pieces. WWE’s deals with USA and FOX are now the deals of the millennium, the fact they’ve managed to secure that money from a product that unarguably fails on all levels is quite astounding. Unfortunately WWE have the money to crush….oops, sign anyone and vanquish their supposed rivals
Which brings me to……NXTUK
The opinions are divided concerning the news of the exclusive deals signed by a handful of now former independent wrestlers. This directly effects the UK independent scene, positively and negatively. Yes there will be opportunities for up and coming wrestlers, but will they be given the years to improve and gain experience similar to Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate and Trent Seven? The last thing I want to see is talent signed just to stop someone else having them, which I feel is the reason WWE are doing what they are doing. I will delve further into this issue in my piece.
I am very skeptical with what is going to happen, the only summary I can make right now is that WWE are showing their hand and flexing their power.
@twf87
The biggest news coming out this week seems to be the fact that WWE have announced that the indy talent they signed to NXT UK deals are now on exclusive contracts and can’t appear for other shows without special permission. This is, of course, in contrast to what WWE originally announced when setting up NXT UK. A lot of the reaction to this decision has been negative, and it has led to a lot of cards being changed now that certain wrestlers are no longer going to be available going forward. My personal view is that this is a worrying development for indy wrestling, particularly since the UK was one of the hottest scenes in recent years. Yes, in theory it allows new stars to step up and take the spots left by NXT UK talent, but it also smacks of the approach WWF took to the territories in the past, and we all know how that turned out. As far as the newly signed talent goes, how much more bloated can the WWE roster get? People like Walter will doubtlessly be okay, but does anyone really believe that the mid-level talent WWE is signing isn’t going to get lost in the interminable NXT house loop? The fact that groups like Progress, who branded themselves as “punk rock”, jumped in bed with WWE at the first opportunity is rather ironic. Between signing almost every major indy name to NXT and making their contracts more exclusive, the future of the independent scene suddenly seems much more precarious than it did a few years ago.
There have also been rumours this week that there might be a new wrestling promotion on the horizon – All Elite Wrestling – involving The Elite, Chris Jericho, and a billionaire backer. The general history of billionaire funded promotions don’t make for inspiring reading, but after the success of All In it seems like the time is right to capitalise on the popularity of people like Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks. What this means for companies like New Japan and Ring of Honor going forward remains to be seen. It would seem sensible for AEW to want to have some kind of a relationship with New Japan, especially if Kenny Omega is involved. Ring of Honor may prove to be the odd one out, particularly if the entire Elite leave. Selfishly speaking, I’ve grown bored with The Elite over the past year so I wouldn’t mind them having their own promotion, and being less of a focus in New Japan. Would that be good for NJPW from a business standpoint though? Despite a few rumblings of discontent, business with Kenny at the helm as IWGP champion remains strong.
The World Tag League rumbled on this week, and the team of ZSJ and Taichi have rapidly become my favourite team in the tournament. The match between Dangerous Tekkers (as they’re known) and Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka was actually really quite good. I’m no fan of Iizuka, but even he was bearable in the Suzuki-gun showdown. The other big news in the WTL this week was that Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada tagged together for the first time ever against their common enemy Jay White and Bullet Club. The first two nights saw Bullet Club get the better of Tanahashi and Okada, but with the third match in Osaka yet to happen at the time of writing, I would expect the Aces to finally get their big win.
As a self-imposed deadline looms for the last of my ‘Tracking the Territories’ books, my focus this week has primarily been on watching the Christmas offerings from each territory. With under twenty shows to go now – the majority of them by Pro Wrestling USA – the finishing line is in sight. As a project, it has taken me close to two years to do, so I am thankful to anyone who has supported the project. What do I do next? Could do 1985, though I am looking at some other long term projects as well.
I’m glad to see that Riptide have announced their dates for the following year, with what looks like a slightly truncated schedule. Brighton and the surrounding area doesn’t really have easy access to wrestling outside of heading up to London, so I am glad that Riptide has managed to at least initially overcome any financial issues.
It wouldn’t be right to not at least comment on the WWE/NXT UK contracts issue, as well as the involvement in promotions such as PROGRESS and wXw. I’m one of the people who feels that there is a lot of talent out there that isn’t under contract, whilst also believing that a shuffling of the pack is good for a scene that has felt largely homogenous amongst the bigger independent promotions. When you can’t just stick Pete Dunne and Trent Seven on a poster and hope for the best, what can you do? This should lead to some interesting months ahead. WWE had wanted to create global branches of their company several years ago; why bother when you can just buy what is already there?
The only real issue I have is that this kills the chances of seeing someone like WALTER on a Riptide show in the future. However, I don’t agree with the idea of stagnation that was put forward by TWF. With brands like NXT-UK out there and the popularity of NXT, it seems clear that you will end up with more ‘lifers’ in those promotions, with call-up to the WWE not part of the long term plan. Arguably, it becomes a bit like Chelsea FC, hoarding/buying up the talent and loaning it away for years at a time. I hope that the UK scene is robust enough to rise above the machinations of the WWE, but only time will tell.
