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Steve Cook’s Fave Five: August 2020

Steve Cook updates his Fave Five, with talent spread across Impact Wrestling, AEW, and WWE!

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Taynara Conti Anna Jay AEW

Steve Cook updates his Fave Five, with talent spread across Impact Wrestling, AEW, and WWE!

Back in the day, Booker T had his Fave Five. Now, I’m not sure he likes anything unless he’s told to. The poor guy keeps trying to tell us that WWE has pushed POC correctly, and it’s like he missed the part where Triple H pinned him after a 30 count at WrestleMania. I’m not going to try to judge that here, since this a column where I’m trying to put over stuff that is awesome.

This is my Fave Five. There are seven people in my Fave Five. That isn’t a problem for me.

5. Tay Conti & Anna Jay

One of my favorite events back in the day was BattleBowl. I loved tag team wrestling, and I loved the idea of random teams being thrown together for random matches. Of course, as a young fan I didn’t realize the flaw in the system: people that don’t usually work together can have a tough time putting on a good match. Even though the Lethal Lottery was rigged, it typically resulted in some rough stuff. Like, you’d find out why Bill Kazmier & Jushin Liger wouldn’t make a good team, even if it sounded fun on paper.

AEW’s Deadly Draw has resulted in a couple of those types of teams. Nyla Rose & Ariane Andrew was meant to be a bad fit. Don’t mind Penelope Ford or Mel individually, don’t see them as a team either. However, I think AEW might have struck gold with the other “random pairing” from the first night of the tournament. Sometimes you just see two people together and know they would have great chemistry. Something about the way they look, the way their personalities mesh.

Tay Conti & Anna Jay? Yeah, I see that working. We’re talking about two ambitious young women here. Tay grew tired of sitting on the Performance Center shelf, thinking that somebody with her athletic background & natural charisma deserved better. Getting released was fine with her. Anna got a spot on an AEW show during an early portion of the pandemic and hit it out of the park, just a few matches into her career. She calls herself the Star of the Show, but has shown a willingness to learn from her seniors. So what if the Dark Order is probably a cult, it’s a good way to learn from Mr. Brodie Lee, Colt Cabana & other people that know the business well. It also might get you on the show more often than by just sitting quietly backstage and waiting their turn.

That’s why Tay & Anna entered the Deadly Draw. Doesn’t matter if it’s on YouTube or TNT or whatever, it’s an opportunity to be seen. Critics of TayJay might want them to sit & wait their turn for the bosses to notice them. I’ve seen that sentiment all over the place from fans and it’s 100% wrong. You gotta take a chance. Sure, it might blow up in your face. Or, you might end up discovering your future tag team partner.

4. Big E

Big E has been in a strange place for quite sometime. On one hand, forming the New Day was taking a big chance in the first place. It got bigger than anybody thought it would, and it would be easy to coast off of that success for years to come. Not that I would say that E has been coasting, but he certainly has been reluctant to get out of that comfort zone in a tag team with Kofi Kingston or Xavier Woods.

We all thought E would be the breakout star. E said it needed to be Kofi that would be the New Day member to win the WWE Championship. Kofi was the senior of the group, and E & Xavier wanted him to have the glory. An admirable trait, but fans still wonder if E could have done more in that spot at the time.

They would have kept wondering if Xavier didn’t get hurt & Kofi didn’t decide to take some time off too. Now, it’s Big E’s time. Will he take advantage? I’m interested to find out, and am rooting for him.

3. Deonna Purrazzo

We’ve already discussed women that refuse to sit on the shelf and wait for people to notice them. Deonna might be the #1 example of why one shouldn’t wait for the big bosses to let them be famous. We were excited when she got signed by WWE, then she got placed on that shelf in the Performance Center next to Tay Conti, only to be seen again one time on Raw when Nia Jax needed somebody to beat.

Deonna was done waiting. It was time for the Virtuosa to emerge, so she took her talents to Nashville. Impact has quietly put together a strong Knockouts division over the last several months, and Purrazzo immediately went to the top of it. Deservedly so. Now that she isn’t on a shelf, we get to see her shine as a champion. It’s really good stuff, pal.

2. Motor City Machine Guns

Chris Sabin was on a different type of shelf. He tore his ACL for the third time back in January 2019, an injury a lot of people thought would be career-ending. Not Chris Sabin. He rehabbed & worked his way back into in-ring competition, while serving as an agent for Impact Wrestling on the side. Helping him train for his return was his previous tag team partner, Alex Shelley.

Shelley had his own ups & downs with wrestling, retiring from the sport for a year while he went through some personal issues. He kicked out of those issues and returned to wrestling, working as a free agent. He returned to Ring of Honor and spent the last few months of 2019 working there. He was still scheduled to work there when the pandemic hit, but also made an appearance on NXT in early 2020 to team with his Time Splitters partner, KUSHIDA.

As it turned out, that wasn’t the only tag team Shelley would re-form in 2020. Sabin & Shelley saw that they still had that in-ring chemistry while training, and Impact Wrestling (TNA back in the day) was where they found the lion’s share of their success, so their return at Slammiversary made perfect sense. In a perfect world, their chase of The North would played out longer and in front of a live crowd, but we do not live in a perfect world, and to be honest, somebody needed to take those straps off of Ethan Page & Josh Alexander after over a year. Sabin & Shelley were one of the best tag teams throughout their original run together, no matter where they were competing. It’s awesome to see them back as the MCMG.

1. Eddie Kingston

Eddie Kingston didn’t want to wait all this time to get a national audience. If we’re being fair to other promotions he’s worked for, it’s not the first time he’s been on cable television. He had a couple of runs with Impact Wrestling. One was part of the Death Crew Council with James Storm & Bram. The other was part of a new LAX where “King” was trying to run things and led to all sorts of good promos with Eddie & Konnan. Also, some good tag matches with Santana & Ortiz taking on Homicide & Hernandez.

If you give Eddie Kingston a microphone, he’ll make magic. That’s the #1 reason why he would never work in WWE. They’d try to give him a script. I’m sure he would read it as best he could, but it would lack the heart of a typical Eddie Kingston promo. The way you treat somebody like Eddie is to give him bullet points, and he’ll give you what you want without failure. The man can talk people into a building, which is especially more important nowadays, whenever people will be allowed to attend shows.

Eddie’s worst enemy has always been Eddie. He would admit that. He grew up around addicts and became one himself. It happens. The biggest pawn against Edidie Kingston has always been himself. It was just a matter of him getting to the right time at the right place, and fortunately we have Cody issuing random TNT title shots. Some guys get that spot and fail. Some guys don’t, like Eddie Kingston.

AEW shouldn’t sign everybody that wrestles Cody. I think some people thought that was the case when they pimped WarHorse for a match. There’s a difference between Warhorse and Eddie Kingston. Eddie has more than paid his dues, and AEW recognizes it. WarHorse still needs some work, and if you watched that match and don’t think so, I’m not sure what to tell you. This is the Mad King’s

From what I can tell Twitter wants every female wrestler to wrestle for twenty years before Vince McMahon notices them. It’s a gross take. Some Fabulous Moolah shit to be honest. These guys just want these girls to work and work and work. I can’t pretend to be amused. These clowns want to keep women on the shelf, and maybe they would let Eddie speak his piece whenever things become less controversial. Which is never. Let King talk. Your favorites have had their time. Let my guy speak his piece.

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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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