WWE

There was a major return to the company this week, further solidifying HHH’s reintegration of his old NXT crew. That’s right, The Road D-O-Double G is back as an executive producer.

Also this guy showed up:

In terms of ticket sales at least, Vince’s resignation and the uptick in quality (whether real or just wishfully imagined) is making a real difference. Survivor Series, in Atlanta, sold out just in pre-sales.

AEW

Dynamite provided us with the unification match between CM Punk and Jon Moxley which shockingly proved to be pretty much a squash. Punk almost immediately seemed to injure his foot and taking advantage, Moxley hit him with two Death Riders to become the Undisputed AEW Champion in a matter of minutes. Shocking really was the only way to describe it, and I can’t wait to see where the story goes from here. Most entertainingly however were the various histrionic reactions online: “TK’s has lost his mind to cocaine and White Claws! Punk must have been punished and/or he’s leaving the company! This was AEW’s ‘Fingerpoke of Doom!’ I turned the show off I was so disgusted! Russo booking lol”

I think this is the problem with (a lot) of AEW fans: everything has to framed in terms of “work” and “shoot”, the “backstage drama” has to be investigated in all its minutiae, stories just can’t be enjoyed on their own terms. It’s just a wrestling show folks, you should really just relax. Go outside and touch some grass.

Anyone whose knitting was so ripped they turned off their TV also missed a fantastic main event between Death Triangle and Aussie Open which ended with Kenneth Omega coming out to confront Will Ospreay and suddenly their years-long shit-flinging on Twitter has all been made worthwhile. It had the unwelcome juxtaposition of Omega being the Heel with Ospreay being the face; perhaps unavoidable after all the superb performances Ospreay’s been putting on over the past month. I think Omega needs to ditch Callis (and maybe the Bucks too) and get back to his Cleaner persona.

Elsewhere, Thunder Rosa vacated the Women’s World Championship and Hikaru Shida, Toni Storm, Britt Baker, and Jamie Hayter will now compete in a match to determine the… interim AEW Women’s World Champion? Why ‘interim’ if Rosa vacated?

The Observer reported that Eddie Kingston had been secretly suspended from AEW a few weeks ago after getting into a verbal altercation with Sammy Guevara. Kingston later admitted on social media he was entirely in the wrong.

Also, I’m very late to the party with these, but RJ City’s Hey! (EW) interviews on YouTube are genuinely hilarious. I would have thought doing a “Between Two Ferns” style show with professional wrestlers would have been near impossible considering their oversized personalities might not fit he format, but the ones who “get” the idea are hilarious, especially Arn Anderson:

ELSEWHERE

New Japan unveiled the design for the IWGP Women’s Championship plates, inspired by the second IWGP Heavyweight belt. Ain’t she a beaut?

Whatever wrestling you watched this week, I hope you enjoyed it!