The Best of the Week
Date: 11/3/19
Filed by: Dennis D.
Support the bWb Writing team
Welcome to the best of the week. We watch a lot of wrestling here at bWb, and this is, in my opinion, the best of the past week.
Male Wrestler of the week: Mance Warner
Great matches this week on Uncharted Territory & MLW SuperFight, Warner, who’s coming off an injury, I believe, showing no signs of ring rust. Just blood. Lots of it.
Female Wrestler of the week: Ashley Vox
Vox, since debuting on NWAPowerrr, has been every on my tv screen as of late, and thats not a bad thing at all. She’s got a great look, and works hard in the ring. She continues to improve on a body of work that has been very impressive over the last 30 days.
MLW SuperFight - Purchase Show here.
Last night, Major League Wrestling debuted on PPV with “SuperFight”. Every match worked. Some right out of the gate, some picked up steam half way through, but each match was just as good if not better than the previous match. Teddy Hart and Austin Aries was probably my match of the night, though that main event of Fatu & LA Park was crazy as fuck at the end. New found respect for Fatu. And what a crazy ass bump from Salina de la Renta. Hope she’s doing okay today.
Mance Warner, Jimmy Havoc and Bestia 666 tore the house down with an amazing hardcore match that left nothing to the imagination. If I had to fix one thing, I think I’d change the ending to the Pillman/Lo-Ki match. I understand that’s how they’ve been building matches, but on a ppv, I don’t think it’s the right way to end a match.
Beyond Wrestling Uncharted Territory - Watch the show here
What can you say that hasn’t already been said about Uncharted Territory? The show just delivers every week regardless of the problems that may arise. With independent wrestling, the term “card subject to change,” is always at the forefront of a promoters mind. This week was no exception. Last week, Beyond booked the match of Nick Gage v. Shotzi Blackheart. For some reason, she couldn’t make this show. So what does Beyond Wrestling owner, booker, commentator, taste maker, Drew Cordeiro do? He books Nick Gage and Mance Warner in a 100,000 thumbtack match. Hell, I was so inspired by the god damn move, I funded 2500 thumbtacks. Don’t call me a hero. The match was balls to the wall fun. AND If that wasn’t enough to tickle your balls, EFFY and Danhausen teamed up this week, and it was gaytacular.
GCW’s Fright Fest - Purchase Show Here
I wasn’t even going to watch wrestling on Monday night. Then, I remembered that GCW was running a show on Fite. So, last minute, I watched. And for fuck sake am I pleased that I did. What a way to start off a wrestling week, my friends. Chris Dickinson beating the living shit out of Jordan Oliver was so therapeutic for my mind that, if at all possible, can we do that every Monday from now on?
EFFY stole the show, though. He cemented himself into the world of hardcore wrestling. I’ll never forget the night i watched a man get choked on live TV and get aroused. What a world we live in. A truly beautiful world.
NWA Powerrr - Watch the show here
Another fine show from the NWA. The big angle this week, a six-man tag match that would see either James Storm earn a shot at the NWA world champion, Nick Aldis, or Colt Cabana earning a rematch against Storm for the North American title.
Ashely Vox was back and continues to climb the latter of the women’s division, while Thunder Rosa made her screen debut.
AEW’s Dynamite
This show felt totally different in some ways, from the previous episodes. I don’t know if it was booked differently due to game seven of the world series airing in competition of the show. There was debuts and more backstage stuff than usual, it felt. But nothing that was insulting. Everything pushed the narratives at hand. I liked how they debuted Shanna - who i had not heard of previously, against Hikaru Shida. And damn, Shida was on point this week with the knee strikes, am i right?
I really dug the audio only promo to open the show, by Moxley. It was a cool way to have Tony Kahn involved, but not seen on the show. Kind of like breaking the fourth wall without making Kahn an actual on screen talent.
All that and SCU becomes your first AEW Tag Team champions.
RISE La Escalera - Buy Show Here
This was my first go around on a live broadcast of RISE. I’ve seen clips and followed the twitter page to keep track of who’s wrestling there, but I’d never sat through a live broadcast. I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve made no secret of my fandom of newcomer Elyana Black. Her being on the show probably prompted me to watch the show. So give her a raise, RISE! Let’s take a minute to say how great Veda Scott was as solo commentator for the show. That’s got to be a hard gig to pull off and she did it with ease.
Match of the night, for me, was Allysin Kay v. Taya Valkyrie. Kay and Valkyrie are two of the reasons I've fallen in love with women's wrestling. Kay exemplifies the term "Bad Ass" but in such a classy savage way. And what can you say about Valkyrie. She's just so damn good. The chemistry of these two, in ring, on the mic, really set this match apart from the rest for me. The gimmickry of the match was fun, as well. There were three hidden items (in trash cans) that really brought the fun in this match. Kay and Valkyrie chugging vodka is all that's right with pro wrestling 2019.