Weekly Rundown 05/27/12 – 06/02/12
FCW 05/27/12
Jason Jordan, Mike Dalton, and CJ Parker take on Garett Dylan, Russev, and Jiro in a six man tag match. Parker gets a victory roll on Dylan for the three count.
Leo Kruger goes one on one with Aiden English. Krugers gets the win using the sleeperhold.
Kassius Ohno cuts a promo on Antonio Cesaro. He talks about being happy for Cesaro for all that he’s accomplished, but that he isn’t better than Ohno. Ohno says the only thing that will make him happy is to knock Cesaro out.
Paige challenges Raquel Diaz for the FCW Divas Championship. Sophia Cortez tosses a chair in the ring to help Paige, but Raquel picks it up and tosses it into Paige’s hands behind the refs back. Raquel falls to the mat and the ref turns around to see it and disqualifies Paige. Raquel wins the match by DQ as the ref assumes Paige smacked Raquel with the chair.
Colin Cassady and Brian Pierce cut a promo talking about random updates in FCW using mob-like New York voices.
Seth Rollins defeats Bo Rotundo to retain his Florida Heavyweight Championship. Rollins uses the buckle bomb and then a brainbuster into a small package for the three count.
Thoughts: Rollins and Rotundo worked an amazing match together. The whole show was put together well and showcased once again why these guys are the future of the business in WWE. I hope Ohno and Cesaro get a chance to work together again before they are both on the main roster. I have this sneaky feeling that they could end up as a tag team once again down the road. Raquel looked awesome and her match finish was a lot of fun. I could definitely see Paige with all of her talent becoming a divas champion in the future. Good show as usual.
NXT 05/30/12
Reks and Hawkins defeat the Usos in an eleven minute tag team matchup. Reks gets the pinfall victory.
Kaitlyn defeats Tamina with the arm stretch/back pressure submission in a five and a half minute match. Maxine does commentary during the match.
Justin Gabriel, Derrick Bateman, and Percy Watson face Johnny Curtis, Michael McGillicutty, and JTG in a six man tag main event. Gabriel ends the match using the tornado DDT on JTG for the three count win.
Thoughts: Solid wrestling from start to finish. I don’t really like the lack of storylines just because the show is on the verge of ending. I think continuing your storylines to the very end and treating the show with the importance that it once had is the best way to help fans get more familiar with the talent’s personalities. I’m anxious to see Reks and Hawkins on Smackdown more as the second heel team behind the Prime Time Playas. Kaitlyn and Tamina are both going to be great working on Smackdown if WWE decides to treat the divas division like it actually matters.
Impact Wrestling 05/31/12
Sting defeated Bobby Roode in a lumberjack match. Sting will now face Roode for the World Title at Slammiversary.
Bully Ray vs Joseph Park is booked for Slammiversary.
Austin Aries defeats Chris Sabin to retain the X-Division Title,
Dixie Carter announces that TNA is starting a Hall of Fame and will announce its first inductee at Slammiversary. She also brings out the new head of the knockouts division, Brooke Hogan.
Jeff Hardy is voted by the fans to face Devon for the TV Title. Robbie E. and Robbie T. attack both men and the match is “thrown out.”
James Storm has another video shown of his family and home life.
Joey Ryan gets a yes from Al Snow and a no from Tazz and Bruce Prichard. Ryan gets angry and tries to challenge Tazz. Nothing comes from it.
AJ Styles defeats Christopher Daniels in the main event. Angle comes down to make the save when Kazarian and Daniels attack Styles. Daniels plays a recording of a phone conversation between Dixie Carter and AJ. Dixie gets on the headset yelling for it to be turned off as the show comes to an end.
Thoughts: Slammiversary will mark the third match between Sting and Roode since Victory Road. Knowing that Sting won’t be winning the title doesn’t take away from the match in my eyes. Sting is a guy that represents what TNA is all about, and a match with the World Champion on the tenth anniversary show is very fitting. I hope Joseph Park conveniently goes missing and Abyss “takes his spot” in the match against Bully Ray. Aries and Sabin worked a great match that could’ve really been talked about more if they had gone for another five to eight minutes. Sabin was always good on his own as a singles competitor, and Shelley’s departure may be a blessing in disguise for the former Gun. I think it would only be fitting for Jeff Jarrett to be the first inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame, but that’s just one man’s opinion. Joey Ryan will end up with a contract; I don’t think we’ll see Alex Silva again though(it’s all storyline anyway). I don’t particularly care for the Dixie/AJ storyline, but at least it’s something new for TNA. Styles and Daniels always work well together, and I would’ve been more enthused if this wasn’t their 5,276th matchup in the last ten years. I’ll talk more about my thoughts on the show in the rumor section below.
WWE Superstars 05/31/12
Beth Phoenix defeats Alicia Fox with the glam slam.
Tensai defeats Alex Riley.
Jinder Mahal defeats Yoshi Tatsu.
Christian defeats Drew McIntyre.
Thoughts: I’m glad the divas were shown somewhere this week. Beth has been the glue of the division for quite some time now and deserves to be recognized for it. The rumor on the street is that Tensai has flopped and won’t be around much longer; I hope this is true. Jinder Mahal still looks like he needs work in terms of wrestling, but his dominant heel role isn’t a bad character at all. McIntyre should’ve wrestled Christian on Smackdown instead of Superstars; the match was good and would’ve been fun if Cody Rhodes had been on commentary for it. Solid wrestling delivered as normal from Superstars and I enjoyed it.
Ring of Honor Wrestling 06/02/12
Mike Mondo and Adam Cole go one on one with Kyle O’Reilly on commentary. Cole wins using the backslide.
Tommasso Ciampa defeats Nick Westgate when the ref stops the match.
Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander lose to the All Night Express in the main event of the night.
Kevin Steen comes out for a promo with Corino and Jacobs. Jim Cornette interrupts. Davey Richards comes out when Cornette is about to announce Steen’s opponent for Best In The World. Richards puts over Steen and says they are the two best wrestlers in the world. Cornette books Richards and Steen for the World Title, but tells Davey this is his last chance at the World Title.
Thoughts: ROH! ROH! ROH! I find myself wanting to yell this from the couch at 4AM when I’m watching the show. It’s just so damn good to see these guy’s passion when they set foot in the ring. Mondo and Cole have a ton of talent and will be the future of ROH, especially Cole as he continues to get better. Ciampa looks like he’ll be going after the TV Title once again at Best in the World. I’m hoping to see him and Lethal go a few more rounds before their rivalry is put to rest. Best in the World is shaping to be a great show and you really couldn’t ask for a more fitting main event than Richards/Steen 2. Those two will tear the house down and put on another unforgettable match. Great show from ROH this week.
News, Rumors, and Final Thoughts:
Impact .89 rating: The live Impact flopped. TNA and Spike officials are hoping this is because of the time change and not because of the overall loss in viewers on a regular basis. The show wasn’t incredible, but it was definitely on par and a little better than the good shows they’ve been putting on as of late. I’m a little surprised at the super low rating, but I’m not giving up on the company just yet. A few more weeks of this might determine whether or not they continue in the 8PM timeslot or if they’ll go back to 9 o’clock.
Show/Punk Summerslam: Rumor has it that CM Punk is currently slated to face the Big Show at Summerslam. I pray this news is fale. First, I’d rather see Punk and Bryan work a rivalry through the summer and cap it off at the big event in August. If not, I’d like to see Punk and Cena get a couple more chances to make magic once again. Big Show is awful, and I know Vince loves his monster/giant heel roles, but this would be BAD BOOKING for Punk and for the biggest event of the summer.
Orton suspended: Randy Orton is suspended for his second wellness violation. He won’t be back until July 30th and will be missing both No Way Out and Money In The Bank. Like Paul Heyman recently said, this is a time for talent to step up and show what they’ve got. With Orton out of the picture, talent can really elevate their game and work their tails off to get noticed. I hope guys like Ziggler, Sandow, Cesaro, Ryder, and even Swagger start to really bust their asses to show WWE why they deserve to be in Orton’s spot at the top. As far as Orton goes, they’ll never terminate the guy and he might as well enjoy his vacation(very, very convenient that it lands through two of the better months of the year in terms of weather).
That’s all for this rundown. I’ve got a top IC Champions column in the works after reading the list WWE.com put out. Keep an eye out for it. Thanks for reading!
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