Big weekend, it shouldn’t be too hard to find 5 matches, right? You know…you’d be surprised. Check out the article!

Talk about a lot of underwhelming in-ring action for the big weekend shows. All Out was big for who showed up and definitely not for what happened in the ring. NJPW had a few announcements and a faction shift, but they were barely above average shows.

I guess we’ll see if business starts to pick up more since it’s kind of now or never for AEW and NJPW has the G1 to hopefully right the ship. Sheesh, quarantine has not only stolen smiles but just stolen creative talent as well.

Anyway! On to the Top 5!

Quick Top 5:

1. WWE Raw: United States Championship: Sheamus vs Damian Priest (c) vs Drew McIntyre
   Rating: ****
2. NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: IWGP Heavyweight Tags: SANADA & Naito vs Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs Taichi & ZSJ (c)
   Rating: *** ¾
3. AEW All Out: AEW Tag Team Championship Steel Cage: The Young Bucks (c) vs Lucha Bros
   Rating: *** ¾
4. NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: IWGP US Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs Kota Ibushi
   Rating: *** ¾
5. NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Robbie Eagles (c) vs Hiromu Takahashi
   Rating: *** ¾
6. NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: SHO vs YOH
   Rating: *** ¾

Honorable Mentions:

• WWE Raw: Nia Jax vs Charlotte Flair
  Rating: *** ½
• NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: Jeff Cobb vs Kazuchika Okada
  Rating: *** ½
• NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: STARDOM: Lady C & Maika vs Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani
  Rating: *** ½
• AEW All Out: CM Punk vs Darby Allin
  Rating: *** ½
• NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: Hiromu & BUSHI vs Tiger Mask IV & Robbie Eagles
  Rating: *** ¼
• IMPACT!: X Division Championship: Josh Alexander (c) vs Jake Crist
  Rating: *** ¼
• NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tags: Taiji Ishimori & ELP (c) vs El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
  Rating: *** ¼
• IMPACT!: Ace Austin vs Tommy Dreamer
  Rating: *** ¼
• WWE Raw: Raw Tag Team Titles: RKBRO (c) vs MVP & Lashley
  Rating: ***
• NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: STARDOM: Giulia & Syuri vs Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani
  Rating: ***
• IMPACT!: Crazzy Steve & Black Taurus vs Fallah Bahh & No Way Jose
  Rating: ***

2t. NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: SHO vs YOH

From Mitchell’s Coverage:
Yoh stands Sho up, SNAP DRAGON!! Bridging cover, TWO!! Sho escapes but Yoh has more to give! Yoh stands Sho up again, reels him in and underhooks the arms. But Sho shoves Yoh into the ref, then does it again! The ref is down, Sho SPEARS Yoh down! But with no ref to count, Sho can’t finish this! Except Sho doesn’t want to finish this as a match! Sho gets a chair from under the ring and brings it into the ring. Yoh flounders to the ropes and drags himself up as Sho takes aim. Yoh dodges the chairshot to SUPERKICK Sho down! Yoh glares at Sho, kicks him from the chair, and then picks up the chair for himself. Yoh smacks the chair off the mat and Sho wants mercy?!

Yoh holds the chair up but he can’t bring himself to use it. So he SUPERKICKS Sho again! Yoh gets Sho up, underhooks the arms, DIRECT- NO! Sho blocks the lift and LOW BLOW UPPERCUTS!! Sho gets the chair again, smirks as he aims at Yoh, for a HEAD SHOT!!! Sho tells the ref to get up already, and then Sho covers. But Sho lets off at TWO?!? Sho is a sadist as he reels Yoh into HELL’S GATE!!! Yoh can’t get free, he’s passing out! Sho wins!!

Winner: SHO via Triangle Arm Choke

2t. NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Robbie Eagles (c) vs Hiromu Takahashi

From My Results:
We see a lot of quick early strikes, early dives, typical Hiromu break-neck speed. A little bit of the overhand chop exchange that he likes to do, then a lot of dodging and countering. Hiromu keeps stopping the Turbo Backpack, while Robbie is throwing a few different moves at Hiromu. Robbie gets Overhead Release German’d into the corner, Hiromu puts some stuff together, Robbie counters, then Hiromu staggers to the corner, blocks Robbie’s move and Death Valley Driver into the corner pads.

Then we see the signature Apron Sunset Bomb that killed Kushida in a matter of seconds when Hiromu came back, and Robbie barely beats the 20 count. Hiromu continues high impact attacks around the neck and shoulders area, but can’t seem to keep Robbie down just yet. Dynamite Plunger and a few high impact moves give Hiromu some near falls, but he has to look for some of his bigger moves.

Time Bomb 2 gets countered, Robbie gets perched on the top rope, Hiromu tries for an Avalanche Wheelbarrow Bomb, but Eagles blocks. Eagles gets off the top rope and starts picking at Hiromu’s legs. He hits the Turbo Backpack off the top rope and works on the legs some more. Hiromu starts seeing the writing on the wall, tries to block Robbie from executing the leg 450, but Robbie extricates himself from Hiromu’s grip, 450 on the leg, Ron Miller Special, then pulls Hiromu back to the middle after some struggle, Ron Miller Special again and Hiromu submits while looking heartbroken.

Winner: Eagles via Ron Miller Special

2t. NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: IWGP US Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs Kota Ibushi

From Mitchell’s Coverage:
Ibushi stands, sits Tanahashi up, KAMI-GOYEEEEE!! But he can’t make the cover from being as exhausted as Tanahashi! Fans are electric again as Red Shoes checks on both men. Both men are somehow okay to continue and Ibushi crawls to ropes. Tanahashi stirs but doesn’t move from the spot. Ibushi aims from a corner as Tanahashi tries to sit up. Ibushi calls upon the other god of NJPW, “YAO~!” BOMAYE!!! But Ibushi won’t let it end with just Shinsuke Nakamura’s move! He sits Tanahashi up again but Tanahashi resists the pull in his wrists! Tanahashi stands now, so Ibushi V-TRIGGERS! KENNYYY~!

Ibushi sits Tanahashi up again, but Tanahashi crosses the arms! Ibushi can’t hit through that so he has to power the arms apart. Tanahashi powers up to cross the arms again, and fans are volcanic as Tanahashi hits a SLINGBLADE!! Cover, ONE?!?! Ibushi shocks himself, but Tanahashi reels him in for a full nelson! DRAGON SUPLEX!! Bridging cover, TWO!! Ibushi survives and fans cheer but Tanahashi roars again! Tanahashi goes up top, takes aim, HIGH FLY FLOW ATTACK! Direct hit but Tanahashi wants it again! HIGH FLY FLOW!!! Cover, Tanahashi wins!!

Winner: Tanahashi via High Fly Flow

2t. AEW All Out: AEW Tag Team Championship Steel Cage: The Young Bucks (c) vs Lucha Bros

The first move of the match, made no sense. Apparently it was established this match was pin or submission with no escape, and the Young Bucks try to escape the cage immediately. So, that’s a bad start. Also there were a lot of stalled moments in the match prepping for the intercept or break up and it was extremely obvious. Plus we had the big spot where Fenix hits a Crossbody off the top of the cage on Penta and the Bucks, but Penta just pops back up. Which reminds me of the Chop/Superkick circle where everyone looked exhausted, but Fenix and Penta can kip up and Superkick a Buck. Lots of bad selling, if you’re exhausted quick jolts and then fall down just looks stupid, struggle to get up and fall into something.

You may be wondering why this even made the Top 5 then? It was a spectacle. The moves made little sense aside from the story they picked and chose when to tell of the two teams being very similar. So it was kind of entertaining, but it wasn’t a good wrestling match. The entire rating is based purely off of spots and entertainment value, because it was cool at moments, but illogical crap everywhere. It was like watching Jersey Shore, it’s trash, but you like pieces of it for unknown reasons.

Winner: Lucha Bros via Tandem Assisted Piledriver

2t. NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam: IWGP Heavyweight Tags: SANADA & Naito vs Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs Taichi & ZSJ (c)

From My Results:
Now let’s be honest, this was a crazy match with a lot of action but it was all really fun and made solid sense. YOSHI-HASHI’s offense still looked awkward at times, he’s gotten a little better over this past year, but he still looks out of place when the action gets chaotic and quick. There was also a weird delayed period where commentary tried to say that Naito was surveying the situation and making a gameplan, but it really just looked like waiting for people to get in close enough spots so nothing was missed.

So a few missed steps, but the finish was amazing. SANADA had YOSHI-HASHI dead to rights, but he was in the Tekkers corner while the Tekkers were on the floor. SANADA gets greedy, heads up for the Moonsault, Taichi pops up and tags in on SANADA’s boot. Moonsault gets hit but the referee calls Taichi the legal wrestler. We get one more “everybody down” moment after signature spams. ZSJ locks up Naito in a grounded octopus and Taichi takes the weakened YOSHI-HASHI and Black Mephistos him back to the 6 man division. Stupid HASHI.

Winner: Taichi via Black Mephisto

1. WWE Raw: United States Championship: Sheamus vs Damian Priest (c) vs Drew McIntyre

Sheamus was a wonderful linchpin in this match. Being the former champion trying to get the US Title back, coupled with all the history that he and McIntyre have; made it very easy to follow the story beats here. Each man got in some great flurries and they did a good job at portraying them as very similar. Priest going for the Step Over Springboard Senton, and McIntyre hits a Tope con Hilo a little later on. Then we get a Superplex spot while McIntyre is in the Tree of Woe, which turns into McIntyre grabbing a Spider German Suplex and we get the big man car crash!

McIntyre was used well and protected fairly well as well. Eating a South of Heaven Chokeslam, then got the Claymore intercepted with a Brogue Kick, Avalanche White Noise and eventually taking The Reckoning to eat the pinfall, but that was after multiple signature and finishing moves.

Well paced and if nothing else, was only hurt a little by two commercial breaks.

Winner: Priest via The Reckoning

Thoughts:

It’s a weird week when NJPW has two big shows, AEW has one of their marquee shows, and the best in-ring work was on WWE Raw. 2021 is a trip man. Also, I think I made my feelings pretty obvious on the Steel Cage match on why that didn’t rank as high as others. Also, kudos to CM Punk for doing his best impression of a John Cena match. Punk took a few bumps, let Darby do all the work and still got the “welcome back” “you still got it” “this is awesome” chants for effectively sleepwalking through a match he could’ve practice spots on with AJ Lee since her and Darby are about the same size.

Was All Out fun because of the debuts? Sure. That doesn’t make it the best PPV in the history of wrestling just because people debuted. Let’s give it time to see if it moves any needles.

Aside from that, you know what, the Raw triple threat will get my vote this week. Why? Because it was actually kinda special instead of floating in this see of pretty good but not quite breaking the barrier like everything this past week.