{"id":11128,"date":"2019-02-03T13:18:34","date_gmt":"2019-02-03T18:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=11128"},"modified":"2019-02-03T13:18:43","modified_gmt":"2019-02-03T18:18:43","slug":"my-week-in-wrestling-week-ending-3rd-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/02\/03\/my-week-in-wrestling-week-ending-3rd-february\/","title":{"rendered":"My Week in Wrestling (week ending 3rd February)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

@RoxBlackburn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, whilst battling the flu, I watched the WWE Royal\nRumble (see my recent review) and Raw. So I guess we’re back to Balor being\nsquashed again? Seth Rollins is a dynamo and I am so excited to see him face\nBrock Lesnar at Wrestlemania but I don’t think he’ll win. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Becky Lynch is still riding a wave of incredible momentum. I\njust hope they don’t ruin this Wrestlemania match by adding Charlotte or\nworst….. making Stephanie McMahon the special guest referee (my prediction is\nthat they will do this, just to get Stephanie on the card) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haven’t got round to Smackdown yet but I have watched NXT UK\nand the debut of Walter. I don’t get his appeal to be honest so my goal this\nweek is to YouTube his back catalogue. Any recommendations are appreciated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we’ve all got our ears to the ground as the build up\nto Wrestlemania also gives us contract renewals. WWE have confirmed Dean\nAmbrose won’t be renewing apparently. It’s odd for them to confirm this so far\nahead of time which leads me to think it’s a work. Kenny Omega is a free agent\nbut his social media hints towards AEW. AJ Styles took to twitter to squash\ncontract renewal rumours. Dolph Ziggler tweeted ‘Later, marks’ at the end of\nlast week and then showed up at the Rumble. Hideo Itami is on his way out the\ndoor too. I think this is a good move for him, he’s a lovely guy and a good\nwrestler but I think he needs to regroup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lesson here is that although you might check Twitter and\nInstagram everyday, we are pretty much none the wiser. We’ll only ever know as\nmuch as they want us to know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m going to post my NXT UK review, I promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

@tvtimelimit<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main news for me is the final volume of my \u2018Tracking the\nTerritories\u2019 series hitting (digital) bookshelves. The project in total\ntechnically began five years ago as a forum post at a couple of wrestling\nmessage boards, but I knuckled down to it for the last two and a half years or\nso. 1984 was such an amazing year of transformation in wrestling that it was\nreal fun to relive for the most part. Some promotions were harder to watch than\nothers, but overall the experience was a positive one. In particular, I came\naway with a new found love for Memphis and Mid-South as they were often the\nbest shows week in, week out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next project is being ruminated on as we speak. Rather\nthan being a collection of reviews, my desire would be to write something far\nmore editorial. With many a good story already being told, it is just a case of\nfinding the rich vein of something interesting. The world of 80s wrestling\noffers a lot of that and is probably still the area I will be looking at in the\nlong term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t watch too much modern WWE anymore but I did watch\nthe two Rumbles whilst I was marking books at work. Perhaps it was because I\nwas distracted, but they felt a little on the boring side. The crowd themselves\ndidn\u2019t seem too much into it either, which didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the names potentially moving from the WWE as well as the\nfinancial weight behind some of the other promotions out there makes this at\nleast an exciting period of time in terms of what might happen next. It has\nbeen many years since it has felt like a viable option could be out there for\nwrestlers who are fed up with the WWE and that can only be a good thing. What\nhappens in the long run is still very much up for debate, but you feel that\nthis might force WWE to do something in order to turn things around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

@TheCiaranJames<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, the idea that a legitimate company could\noffer current top level wrestlers an alternative place to work was unthinkable.\nAEW is slowly creating its footprint, Cody and the Bucks signing was a given,\nbut the additions of PAC and Chris Jericho made everyone stand up and take\nnotice. Over this past weekend Pentagon Jr and Fenix were invited to wrestle\nthe Bucks, this might not be official as they are signed to other companies but\nan appearance at Double or Nothing may be on the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest move if it happens, will be the signing of Dean\nAmbrose once his contacts ends with WWE at the end of April. Dean is supposedly\nfed up with his current career direction, it isn\u2019t about money or being the top\nguy, it\u2019s about artist fulfilment. Dean rose to prominence as Jon Moxley, known\nfor his character work and promos, he was a hot commodity. Mick Foley is a know\nfan of his work, and months before his official debut with the Shield, Mick\nwanted to work with Dean. Without scripted promos, and a somewhat structured\nenvironment Dean can flourish, the WrestleMania season is looks very\ninteresting indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I last night (2\/2\/19) traveled to Coventry to watch Kamikaze Pro. The show delivered, I\u2019m not a huge fan of the Empire in Coventry (as I have to stand) but thankfully the product is good enough to endure the numbness. This will be my third year watching and reviewing their events, each year Kamikaze has grown and improved as a promotion. The company has a great mix of international and homegrown talent, most notable matches were Mike Bailey vs Millie McKenzie, AFP vs CCKBLAAAA and Kay Jutler vs Shigihero Irie. I must also discuss the potential of their Relentless Champion, The Elliot Jordan Experience, this man just keeps getting better. He is solid in the ring and gold on the microphone, easily one of the best heels working in the United Kingdom, a hard thing to do in 2019, where every wrestler is cool and loved. Kudos Elliot Jordan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have also enjoyed this week that insightful conversation and debate offered by PWTorch. The collective trio of Wade Keller, Todd Martin and Bruce Mitchel are so great, their reviews of TakeOver, Rumble, UFC and everything in between is essential listening. A must for all wrestling fans who have a thirst for what goes once the cameras stop rolling and doors are shut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

@RoxBlackburn This week, whilst battling the flu, I watched the WWE Royal Rumble (see my recent review) and Raw. So I guess we’re back to Balor being squashed again? Seth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":10749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[28,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-editorials","category-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-2Tu","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/build-a-wrestling-ring.jpg?fit=600%2C324&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11128"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11129,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11128\/revisions\/11129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}