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Top 5 Matches: Week Ending 9/16/2018

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Another week and a busy weekend is upon us. Aside from the normal daily TV, the Destruction tour of New Japan starts with the official shows, All Japan’s Royal Road Tournament starts, Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix is still going and Hell in a Cell rounds out the weekend. So with all those big events, this should be a good weekend.

Before we get to the Top 5, let’s go over who won last week. For what I think is a first, MLW Fusion Tag Team Chamionship Match: Rey Fenix & Pentagon vs Rey Horus & Drago, wins the week and continues our interesting month.

Speaking of interesting month, WWE put on a tremendous show compared to a mediocre at best New Japan show. So, let’s see what the Top 5 looks like.

 

5. WWE Hell in a Cell Match: Randy Orton vs Jeff Hardy

Credit: WWE.com

Well we get one of the Hell in a Cell matches right off the bat, and it’s the one that’ has the crazy guy. So this one should be interesting.

Umm…damn. The match was very deliberately paced as you can anticipate with a Randy Orton match, but the creativity and callbacks were great. The brutality of the match was actually pretty solid given that WWE has scaled down quite a bit.

Hardy was utilizing ladders and chairs, but one of the highlights has to be Orton grabbing a screwdriver from the toolbox. I personally immediately knew where that was going, and it didn’t disappoint. Orton puts the screwdriver through Hardy’s earlobe gauges and starts twisting the screwdriver as a callback to when he first went after Hardy on SmackDown.

Surprisingly, Hardy fired up nicely after that, whipping Orton with his studded belt, a chair and then setting up two ladders and a table. At first I thought he was gonna try the leap frog Swanton he’s done in the past, but Hardy noticed there wasn’t enough clearance in the cage. So he grabs the structure and starts swinging back and forth. Right before he lets go, Orton rolls off the ladder and Hardy crashes through face first.

The referee tries to call a stoppage, Orton demands he count the pinfall. So Orton wins via pinfall and Hardy gets stretchered out. Damn good match though.

Winner: Orton via Pinfall

Rating: **** 

 

4. Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix: Kagetsu vs Jungle Kyona

Kagetsu has an interestingly subtle promo, basically surmising that Kyona reminds her of herself from before, so she wants to win fair and square. Kyona on the other hand, is her usual energetic and fun self just looking forward to someone breaking the tie for the lead in Red Stars. So, who comes out of this match with the lead?

Well these two definitely didn’t disappoint. They’ve been two of the more consistent Red Stars competitors and we can see why. Most of this match was just very nicely matching each other blow for blow and seeing who’d stop getting up. Of course when it spills to the outside we get a bit of Oedo Tai interference, but Kyona fights back nicely and at some point tosses Kagetsu from the entrance ramp into the waiting arms of the rest of her faction members.

Each woman hit most of their signatures, but they did good to protect certain moves. My personal highlight was when Kyona was trying to Powerbomb Kagetsu, Kagetsu kept fighting back, so Kyona pulled a Kawada and just dropped Kagetsu straight down for the Ganso Bomb. We saw a few submission attempts from both, but as the time counts down Kagetsu gets erratic.

She lands a Michinoku Driver and goes up for the Oedo Coaster (450 Splash), hits her move, but after the 1 count, time runs out. So it’s a good way to protect the champion and her finisher, as well as give an interesting wrinkle to a fairly straight forward tournament so far. Damn good match.

Winner: Time Limit Draw

Rating: **** 1/4

 

3. Hell in a Cell WWE Championship Match: Samoa Joe vs AJ Styles (c)

Hell In A Cell Results AJ Styles Samoa Joe

One of the better storylines coming into the show, so this was definitely one many were looking forward to. Does Styles put his family or his title first?

AJ came out irate and took it to Joe pretty quickly. Samoa Joe eventually got the advantage on the outside, but the whole match was a nice back and forth.

Styles pulled off his Asai DDT and Springboard 450, but Joe kicked out. Joe teased the Muscle Buster again, but Styles managed to slip out and counter it into a Styles Clash attempt, but Joe got away from that. Either way, pacing was solid, the near falls mattered and both men had a legitimate chance of winning…which makes the ending interesting.

Joe goes to try and sink in the Coquina Clutch, Styles floats over for a pin and the referee counts the pinfall for Styles. Joe argues that Styles tapped, we didn’t see it until a different camera angle proves that Joe was right. Styles has a moment in the ring where he sees the replay, but still holds up the title anyway. So this just makes the story deeper of what AJ cares about more. Because right now…it looks like the title matters more.

Winner: Styles via Pinfall

Rating: **** 1/4

 

Honorable Mentions:

AJPW Royal Road Tournament: Kento Miyahara vs Yoshitatsu
Winner: Miyahara via Shutdown German Suplex Hold
Rating: ****
WWE Hell in a Cell Raw Tag Team Championship Match: Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre vs Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins
Winner: Ziggler via Claymore
Rating: ****
205 Live: Drew Gulak & Jack Gallagher vs Akira Tozawa & Cedric Alexander
Winner: Gulak via Gu-Lock
Rating: *** 3/4
NJPW Destruction in Hiroshima: YOSHI-HASHI, Kazuchika Okada & Jay White vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma
Winner: Tanahashi via Roll Up
Rating: *** 1/2
WWE Hell in a Cell Raw Women’s Title Match: Ronda Rousey (c) vs Alexa Bliss
Winner: Ronda via Arm Bar
Rating: *** 1/2
Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix: Utami Hayashishita vs Jungle Kyona
Winner: Time Limit Draw
Rating: *** 1/2
205 Live: Buddy Murphy vs Gran Metallik
Winner: Buddy Murphy via Murphy’s Law
Rating: *** 1/2
WWE Hell in a Cell: The Miz & Maryse vs Brie Bella & Daniel Bryan
Winner: Maryse via Dirty Pin
Rating: *** 1/4
AJPW Royal Road Tournament: Yuma Aoyagi vs Ryoji Sai
Winner: Sai via
Rating: *** 1/4
Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix: Natsuko Tora vs Tam Nakano
Winner: Natsuko via Splash
Rating: ***

 

2. NJPW Destruction in Hiroshima IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs Tomohiro Ishii

Ishii was the first man to beat Kenny Omega in the G1 this year, and that had the champ go on an odd slide. So with only one defense against Cody under his belt, Omega still has a lot to prove as a champion. Does Omega get dethroned fairly quickly or do we get Omega defending like most people think?

Well this match was…fine. Sadly that’s all I’ve really got as a general description. Nothing about this match went over the top as special. The biggest moment was a partially missed Double Footstomp from Omega to Ishii ricocheting off the announce table, cause, Japanese tables don’t break. Which is something he’s done in the past, so really, even the biggest spot wasn’t different.

I feel part of the problem was that no one had faith in Ishii winning the match. It took 90% of the match for the crowd to kinda support Ishii’s near falls and close offense, and it still didn’t sound too convincing. So yeah, a basic Omega match and a basic Ishii match is really what we got here. They’ve had a better matches in the past, including their G1 match and US Title Tournament match.

Also it can’t be ignored, whoever they have doing commentary with Kevin Kelly, was awful. Cliche, generic and worthless commentary.

Winner: Omega via One Winged Angel

Rating: **** 1/4

 

1. WWE Hell in a Cell SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte Flair (c) vs Becky Lynch

Well the best friends split because one feels like they are always in the shadow. We’ve seen this story before, but it should be interesting to see how this one plays out. Does Becky prove that she’s really the best?

Am I watching a WWE show? I mean, the main card opener was great, and this match was fantastic. Becky came in with a very specific strategy to leave Charlotte with one arm, but Charlotte played the face in peril nicely. The action stayed mostly in the ring save for some apron exchanges, but still, wow.

Charlotte misses her Moonsault, Becky tries to take advantage of it with the Disarm-Her, but Charlotte powers through. Becky even tries an Arm Bar, which Charlotte powers out of, but the whole thing was entertaining. Just when we think that Charlotte has Becky dead to rights, Becky rolls through the Spear with Charlotte and picks up the flash pinfall.

Becky got the belt, the IWC rejoices…until they don’t.

Winner: Becky via Spear Counter in Pinfall

Rating: **** 1/4

 

Thoughts:

Well damn, WWE knocked down a Japanese match into an Honorable Mention! The world is ending! RUN AWAY!

Okay seriously though, Hell in a Cell was damn good, and the show put out some quality matches for the week. So my pick for the week will be, SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte Flair (c) vs Becky Lynch, all hail our new Irish champion. Now let’s get to hoping the rest of the Destruction main shows are better or the Royal Road Tournament picks up as it continues.

Until next week, Always Use Your Head.

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Opinion

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS: WWE Bash In Berlin Immediate Reactions

Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

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Join DJ and Tunney for their immediate reactions to WWE Bash in Berlin. For the latest, greatest and up to datest, ALWAYS #UseYourHead and visit THECHAIRSHOT.COM

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@TheMindlessPod @PCTunney @ChairshotMedia

prowrestlingtees.com/TheChairshot – TONS of Great designs…MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

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Opinion

AJ’s Top 3 Favorite SummerSlams

AJ is back with his annual opinion article, and this time the SummerSlam buzz got him wondering about his personal Top 3.

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It’s been a while since I have done any form of writing and SummerSlam is this Saturday. Of all the SummerSlams I’ve seen over the years; which ones are my favorites? While it’s not a revolutionary idea, I figured everyone loves to debate favorites of well, anything. Don’t worry though because this isn’t just going to be pure recency bias. I’ve watched the majority of them so with the ones I put on the list, it hit me more in some way shape or form whether it was story, a really good match or it just felt like a solid event.

At least this proves WWE is trending in a good direction for me, when it gets the ol’ brain juices flowing just because a show is around the corner!

#3: 2022 (Ol’ Brock Lesnar Has A Farm)

r/Wrasslin - when did Brock lesner begin his farmer and cowboy gimmick and when did he stop doing the gimmick ? is it worth watching I believe it was 2021 but not sure when he stopped the gimmick
Starting off the show, we get Bianca looking for a rematch against Becky from last years SummerSlam and it was better than the 21 second affair that everyone claims was a squash. This time Bianca holds her own and beats the Man in a fairly decent match, good way to get the event started. Next up is the heat seeking missile, Logan Paul against the former heat seeking missile because, well he wasn’t cut out for it and wasn’t a guy in everyone’s eyes, The Miz. After they had their blow off at Mania with Logan coming out on top which… isn’t awful, I just don’t like Logan Paul because he has that dude bro aura and swagger to make him more hateable than any other person on the card. Which I suppose is his gimmick…so…kudos?

First Championship match is for the US Championship and it’s as expected that in Theory, he should never beat someone to the caliber of Bobby Lashley which is no surprise. Dominik and Rey still back when Dom wanted the good fight against the Judgement Day before joining them later. The former Colts players, which they hammered it dahn in this match up showed that the canal swimming, trash talkin’, podcastin’, current RAW Color Commentatin’ goofball we all love, Pat McAfee came out on top again Bum Ass Corbin.

Usos putting the Street Profits on lockdown in the penitentiary since I believe this was peak Bloodline with the belt collecting and running all of WWE. Liv beat Ronda Rousey which isn’t astonishing but it’s not something people had on their bingo cards for anything with WWE so it was a nice little shock factor. The most memorable part of the night is obviously the Main Event, Lesnar brings the tractor, Roman catching the Microphone and Brock stands on top of the vehicle. Damn good match that showed off what they do in the ring since Roman caught his stride as the main bad guy and Brock… liked people after all of this? That is still a weird statement in my head. Brock being a good guy people person. If Liv wasn’t on bingo cards for wrestling, that is not on bingo cards in any aspect of life really.

That is more of the event that had solid matches and story going for it. No weird double count out, multiple people involved, 5 tag matches on the card. Things made sense and weren’t convoluted, had shocking moments that were great to see like Liv actually getting a title defense and there were the results we all expected at the time like Theory losing in 4 minutes to Bobby Lashley.

#2: 2009 (Are You Ready for The Return?)

10 Greatest Summerslam Entrances in WWE History - GameSpot
This event wasn’t that strong. It was strong with the star power involved in 2009 with guys like Rey Mysterio as Intercontinental Champion, Orton and Cena for the WWE Championship as it was becoming as stale as month old chips and CM Punk was facing Jeff Hardy before he ultimately returned to TNA at the beginning of 2010 after this PPV. For me, it’s not so much of the show itself, it was more of the memories because the Balai as our friends Chris Platt and Rey Cash like to call my brother and I, we were just coming back into wrestling and we were TNA Fans. We didn’t watch WWE that much really, it was just what came on after another channel had old ROH shows before they moved to three hours and swallowed the 8pm Eastern Slot. No, the reason why this has so many memories for me is three main reasons. First, Orton and Cena. They have had their rivalry since the beginning it seems, being each others foils like Hogan and Piper before them and there had to be a stipulation where if Randy was Counted Out or DQ’d, he’d lose the championship regardless. This was prime Viper Randy and the obvious joke we had of Super Cena where he very rarely lost, unless it was SummerSlam surprisingly enough.

Number two reason was CM Punk and Jeff Hardy. Hardys known for the Ladder and TLC matches in the past and this being the penultimate match for this feud and it was a banger of a match. If you didn’t know Punk before, it was a great introduction to his wrestling. I used to like Punk a lot because of this match because he could talk, wrestle… and not insanely personal with things in wrestling. In all seriousness, this was a great match. Ultimate risks, high reward for Punk grabbing the World Heavyweight Championship and he was given his next feud because of the final boss of SmackDown at that time. Thanks, Teddy Long.

The main and final reason though why this match gave me the memories flowing back is more of the fact that one of my closest and longest termed friends of 23 years, also loves wrestling. Back when we were younger, he’d do MoCap videos on YouTube with his figures. We’d have friends come over for parties at his house and we’d do the one thing WWE always told us not to do and that was try it at home. He was always stronger than me, I was always more charismatic. He had the power aspect and did things with brute force, I could talk my way out of trouble with parents if we did something wrong. There was always one thing that our respective mother’s always called us though… it’s on the tip of my tongue… oh right, ‘Degenerates’.

As soon as we were called that, we kind of parodied the DX line. I was limber enough to do the HBK pose and do a Superkick before it became the new DDT and he would just Spinebuster people and knew how to do the water spit. So what do you think was the main reason we even ordered this PPV for his 13th Birthday? I think the two guys we were pretending to be were set to return on a tank and toss out some glow sticks. The return of DX, Shawn Michaels coming back after Mania with Triple H to deal with the Legacy problem was an amazing return for them and made everything so much fun.

So we have the solid card and this one has a personal story… what’s my number one SummerSlam? Is it personal? Well yes but not going into that. Is it a good card? To me, it was a phenomenal card! Is it memorable? Seeing how wrestling fans still mention at least three matches to this day.

#1: 2005 (Octopus in the Washer, Lover’s Quarrel and Where the F%#$ is Vickie?)

Vickie Guerrero on Rey vs. Dominik Mysterio: 'I wish I was part of it' -  Cageside Seats
Quite possibly some of the best matches I’ve seen and one that was just the most hilarious moments of overselling in wrestling history, I know why I love this SummerSlam but it’s also a really good card at the same time. Redacted beats Orlando Jordan in 25 seconds for the US Title and they made jokes about it like, he can make a coffee faster than he beat Orlando and stuff like that, it’s pretty funny. Angle getting sick of Eugene’s antics for his Gold Medal was also a great bit they had play up, the Year long feud of Randy Orton and Undertaker was still going on where Orton comes out on top this time around to get the win back from Mania, Jericho returning for the match with Cena in a whole promotional thing for each other’s groups, Fozzy for Jericho and the Chain Gang doing Bad, Bad Man for Cena leading up to a match for the WWE Championship. JBL won a 20 man battle royal on SmackDown to win the Championship…… Opportunity to face the newest member of SmackDown, Batista but the three main matches that a lot of people talk about to this day; Edge vs Matt Hardy, Rey vs Eddie for Dominik and Hogan vs HBK in the Main Event.

I have reasons to enjoy the Hardy/Edge match but it looked like a real fight, it really made us believe that Matt Hardy was going to kill Edge because real names were dropped during this tirade from Hardy. It wasn’t Edge and Lita, it was Adam and Amy. Matt was so dead set on beating the hell out of Edge that they made a situation into gold and it was a great moment for this match to happen, I believe it was also an Unsanctioned Match too which added the intensity until matt got concussed and knocked senseless that it looked like he couldn’t fight for anything but the build up was what made it seem like a marque match. It made it feel real, it made it feel awesome and it made it feel personal.

Eddie kept tormenting Rey Mysterio about Dominik not being Rey’s but Eddie’s for the summer. That’s all you heard from Eddie being the weasel he was is hanging out with Dominik, making the world believe it’s his son and what not (Let’s not do a fast forward to today where he has the mullet, mustache and everything like Eddie) but they settle this in a Ladder Match where the top of it is a document for the custody of Dominik and my god, this match is better than it should have been. I expect nothing else from Eddie because the man hated having a bad match, Dom got involved and stopped Eddie, Vickie was late and stopped Eddie. The whole match was good it was just very weird with the premise but was a great match. I wonder if Rey regrets his decision to win the match now…

Octopus in a Washing Machine… those five words have resonated with Shawn Michaels’ performance in this match, forever. It was supposed to be an amazing match up between Hogan and Michaels, Icon vs Icon it said and suddenly Hogan’s back gives out, can’t do a trilogy of matches so we can only do the one and then pull out of everything after. This match was set up to be a classic and instead turned into the most unbelievable sell fest ever. A Hogan big boot caused Shawn to tumble 3 or 4 times, getting crotched on the ropes had HBK bouncing higher than he should have, being tossed out of the ring made it look like Shawn never broke his back in 1998 from how much he flopped and flipped around like crazy. It’s bad… or maybe even good that a lot of current wrestlers watched this match that went, “I can sell like that, I want to be a wrestler” and did. So good or bad, I don’t know but for some reason this PPV has always had a place in my heart for how memorable it was.

Those are my top three SummerSlams so far but who knows, 2024 has potential to maybe bump something or at least get me to consider a shift. Should be fun to see how the show plays out! What are some of your favorite SummerSlams?

About Chairshot Radio Network

Launched in 2017, the Chairshot Radio Network presents you with the best in sports, entertainment, and sports entertainment. Wrestling and wrestling crossover podcasts + the most interesting content + the most engaging hosts = the most entertaining podcasts you’ll find!

 MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)

TUESDAY - Musical Chairs (music) / Hockey Talk (NHL)

WEDNESDAY - The Greg DeMarco Show (wrestling) 

THURSDAY - Keeping the news ridiculous... The Oddity / Chairshot NFL (NFL)

FRIDAY - DWI Podcast (Drunk Wrestling Intellect)

SATURDAY - The Mindless Wrestling Podcast

SUNDAY - The Front and Center Sports Podcast 

CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5

Classic POD is WAR


Chairshot Radio Network Your home for the hardest hitting podcasts... Sports, Entertainment and Sports Entertainment!

All Shows On Demand


Powered by RedCircle


Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
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