AJPW’s Champion Carnival continues, Impact Rebellion happened over the weekend, and the general television leads to some interesting mixtures!

Now last week wasn’t a strong contender, but the week still happened. So the winner was, NXT: Cruiserweight Championship: Kushida vs Santos Escobar, solid match and a nice surprise. But does it even hold a candle to this week, much less Mania week?

Let’s find out!

Quick Top 5:

1. Impact Rebellion: X Division Championship: TJP vs Ace Austin w/Madman Fulton (c) vs Josh Alexander
   Rating: **** ¼
2. Champion Carnival: Suwama vs Yuma Aoyagi
   Rating: ****
3. AEW Dynamite: TNT Title: Darby Allin (c) vs Jungle Boy
   Rating: *** ¾
4. Champion Carnival: Kento Miyahara vs Kohei Sato
   Rating: *** ¾
5. Impact Rebellion: Champion vs Champion: Rich Swann (c) vs Kenny Omega (c)
   Rating: *** ¾

Honorable Mentions:

• WWE SmackDown: Seth Rollins & Jey Uso vs Cesaro & Daniel Bryan
  Rating: *** ½
• AEW Dynamite: Hangman Page vs Ricky Starks
  Rating: *** ½
• NXT: Cameron Grimes vs Kyle O’Reilly
  Rating: *** ¼
• WWE Raw: Riddle vs Randy Orton
  Rating: *** ¼
• Impact Rebellion: Brian Myers vs Matt Cardona
  Rating: *** ¼
• Champion Carnival: Shuji Ishikawa vs Shotaro Ashino
  Rating: *** ¼
• NXT UK: Sha Samuels & Noam Dar vs Tyler Bate & Trent Seven
  Rating: *** ¼
• AEW Dynamite: AEW Women’s Championship: Hikaru Shida (c) vs Tay Conti
  Rating: *** ¼
• Impact Rebellion: Violent by Design vs Eddie Edwards, Chris Sabin, Willie Mack & James Storm
  Rating: ***
• Impact Rebellion: Impact Tag Team Titles: FinJuice (c) vs The Good Brothers
  Rating: ***
• NXT: Zoe Stark vs Sarray
  Rating: ***

3t. Impact Rebellion: Champion vs Champion: Rich Swann (c) vs Kenny Omega (c)

From AJ’s Review:

Omega thinks he can get damage on Swann again but, Swann uses his adrenaline and speed against Omega and actually gets a good amount of offense but the assault early on makes Rich take too much time and after each men go to the ropes at the same time, Rich gets the upper-hand and pushes Kenny off into a Splash, only for a two as Omega now gets the momentum and hits a Doctor Wily Bomb, V-Trigger and then attempts the One Winged Angel but Swann sees it coming and gets out of the way before getting hit with another V-Trigger. Omega looks like he was going to do an avalanche One Winged Angel but rolls out of the move and both do a sloppy fall down as they go back to the strikes. Kenny takes the advantage again with a V-Trigger and hits two Snap Dragon Suplexs before Rich breaks out of the third attack and hits a cutter. Swann goes for a handspring cutter but Omega pull Hebner in the way and take it. Kenny goes to do use a chair but Aubrey Edwards stops him and Swann uses this to do another Cutter and even then, Kenny gets another V-Trigger in and takes control. Croyt’s Wrath, unprotected V-Triggers, Kenny is dissecting Swann until another burst of adrenaline after Eddie and Willie cheer him on and even though Rich gets the advantage, he can’t hit the Phoenix Splash and misses, getting hit with another V-Trigger and with the finish of the One Winged Angel.

Winner: Omega via One Winged Angel

3t. Champion Carnival: Kento Miyahara vs Kohei Sato

From Mathew’s Review:

Sato was going for the German Suplex Hold but Kento was holding his ground, holding onto the ropes and when Sato saw it wasn’t going anywhere, he just shoved him into the turnbuckle. Sato charged at Kento but missed, leading Kento to hit the first Blackout of the match as they both go down. Kento would hit another Blackout on the back of his head before hitting another one soon as Sato got up but would kick out at two. Sato hits a knee to the gut to stop Kento’s momentum and would pick him up to hit a beautiful Falcon Arrow but Kento kicked out at two. Sato was getting ready for the German Suplex Hold again but Kento immediately turned behind him to hit a German Suplex and a Blackout. Kento went for the Shutdown German Suplex Hold but Kohei kicked his leg out to make him let go and hits a stiff forearm. Kento counteracted with another Blackout, leading to hit another one, and finally hits the Shutdown German Suplex Hold to grab the victory!

Winner: Miyahara via Shutdown Suplex Hold

3t. AEW Dynamite: TNT Title: Darby Allin (c) vs Jungle Boy

From Mitchell’s Coverage:

JB is still down, Luchasaurus shouts to him, but JB is up at 8, leaning against Luchasaurus. That’s enough for him to get in at 9.5!! Luchasaurus backs off because he was innocent, but Sting questions it! Luchasaurus defends himself to the Icon and puts a hand on his shoulder to keep him back. Sting catches that arm in a cording hold to ROCK Luchasaurus with haymakers! Sting and Luchasaurus brawl on stage! Sting kicks but Luchasaurus stays up to throw Sting down the tunnel! JB and Darby are up and they brawl in the ring! Darby shoves but JB rebounds to LARIAT!! JB gets Darby up fast for a BRAINBUSTER!! JB sits Darby up, BLINDSIDE LARIAT!! Cover, TWO!!??

Fans fire up as JB gets the legs and the crossface for the SNARE TRAP!! Darby is fading fast but his hand still reaches! Darby gets his second wind and he drags himself to the ropes! JB drags Darby back to stand on the legs! And then he gets the arms, for the ROMERO SPECIAL, and a ROLLING SURFBOARD! JB then gets the legs again, SNARE TRAP!! Darby endures again as JB shifts to a cravat hold, but Darby claws at JB’s eyes! Darby gets free, but JB comes back to SLAP Darby! And slap and slap and slap! Fans are thunderous as they duel, but Darby whips. JB sunset flips, Darby rolls through to get the legs! LAST SUPPER CLUTCH!! DARBY WINS!!!

Winner: Allin via Last Supper

2. Champion Carnival: Suwama vs Yuma Aoyagi

From Mathew’s Review:

The two would slowly get up as Yuma delivered a couple of European Uppercuts to get Suwama down on the mat before climbing to the top rope. As Yuma was on top, Suwama quickly got up to fight Yuma to get him out a bit before hitting a Superplex to make them both go down again. Suwama hits a Discus Lariat as Yuma barely kicked out and Suwama would get him up for the Backdrop as Yuma fights it off to make him let go, hitting a spin kick to have the champ go down. Yuma picked him up for the Rockstar Buster as Suwama kicked out and Yuma quickly turns it into the End Game! Yuma tries to grab the champ’s arm to lock it in full but Suwama would have his foot on the rope to break the hold and save himself. Yuma delivered a couple of forearms to get the champ down and ran the ropes but Suwama catches him with another Lariat before collapsing. Suwama went for the Backdrop but Yuma shifted his body around to pin him as Suwama kicked out at two but Yuma wasn’t done as he tried to roll him up with the European Clutch as Suwama kicked out again! Yuma had the champ in a headlock but Suwama grabbed onto him to hit the Backdrop! Suwama slowly got up to hit another Backdrop and it looks like this could be over as Yuma barely kicked out! Suwama turns Yuma inside out with a Lariat but Yuma kicked out again! Suwama, however, didn’t waste any more time as he hits the Backdrop Hold, getting the victory over Yuma! Great match!

Winner: Suwama via Backdrop Hold

1. Impact Rebellion: X Division Championship: TJP vs Ace Austin w/Madman Fulton (c) vs Josh Alexander

From AJ’s Review:

The match starts off fast and rapid to all men as Ace is removed from the ring early on as everyone shows their prowess. TJP with his all-around talent, Alexander with his technical wrestling and Ace with his speed and agility as everyone gets a good amount of high speed offense with what they are best at.  TJP goes for a few holds like the Octopus and weakening his opponents at some points, Ace goes and gets the wrestling goes into overdrive and Josh Alexander gets the strength factor, even executing a Russian Leg Sweep and Superplex at the same time to his opponents.

TJP and Josh Alexander get their submission moves on not only each other but Ace as well but Ace can also get his signature move, The Fold, on Josh Alexander getting things sped up again where nobody looks to get an advantage. After high speed and high risk moves with even Madman Fulton getting involved but all in vain, as TJP gets taken out by Fulton and Divine Intervention comes in the form of a new X Division Champion.

Winner: Josh Alexander via Divine Intervention

Final Thoughts:

Much like I expected going into Rebellion, Omega won, the match was a bit disappointing and tried to make Rich seem “resilient” but coming off a match with Trey that tried the same thing, and the obvious outcome, none of this came across well. It was more just like dragging out the ending to a story everyone’s heard before. HOWEVER, the X Division match was match of the night like I expected, and became my personal vote for Match of the Week.

Champion Carnival had some contenders, and decent matches on SmackDown and AEW made some push; but the X Division is in a good place right now. It’s also really great to see Josh Alexander experiencing some singles success without much down time from the tag team dominance.

So vote away and we’ll see how the chips fall next week!