The big stories of the week:
-Full Gear was this past weekend and it was a great show… until the main event. MJF and Jay White are great wrestlers and they should have had a great match. But Tony Khan can’t get out of his own way and the actual match was an overbooked disaster.
-In contrast, Swerve Strickland and Hangman Adam Page’s Texas Death Match earlier in the show was one of the best matches of the year. It went hard as fuck, when a wrestler trying to choke out the other with a chain is one of the tamer spots of your match, you know you’re in for something wild. The most iconic moment was the instantly infamous spot where Page legit drank some of Strickland’s blood. And yet, it was still less gross than MJF beating White with a fake broken leg.
-The mystery signing Tony Khan was crowing about on Twitter was Will Ospreay. For once, one of Khan’s special announcements lived up to the hype.
-Randy Orton is finally returning, joining Cody Rhodes’ War Games team at Survivor Series this Saturday. About goddamn time and we’re excited to see him back in the ring.
-Speaking of War Games, Becky Lynch joined Charlotte Flair’s team to fight Damage Ctrl. It should be a good match, especially since IYO SKY is involved.
-Stardom superstar Giulia has had some harsh words for Rossy Ogawa, the head of Stardom. There’s been some speculation that she wants to head to WWE and it’s been looking more and more likely.
-The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame inductees were announced last Friday. This year’s inductees are: Antonino Rocco and Miguel Perez, Beauty Pair, Sgt. Slaughter, Jack and Jerry Brisco, Tomohiro Ishii, Blue Panther, and George Kidd. Rocco, Jackie Sato (of Beauty Pair), and Jack Brisco were inducted for their solo careers previously. People that came close to getting inducted this year were: Bobby Davis, Los Hermanos Dinamita, Paul Orndorff, Roman Reigns, and The Young Bucks.
Best AEW matches of the week:
1. Swerve Strickland vs. Hangman Adam Page
2. Big Bill and Ricky Starks vs. FTR vs. The Kings of the Black Throne vs. La Faccion Ingobernable
3. The Young Bucks vs. Penta el Zero Miedo and Komander
4. Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, Kota Ibushi, and Paul Wight vs. The Don Callis Family
5. Adam Copeland, Sting, and Darby Allin vs. Christian Cage, Luchasaurus, and Nick Wayne
6. Dax Harwood vs. Rush
7. The Golden Jets vs. The Young Bucks
8. Toni Storm vs. Emi Sakura
9. Julia Hart vs. Kris Statlander vs. Skye Blue
10. Buddy Matthews vs. Wheeler Yuta
Best WWE matches of the week:
1. Dragon Lee vs. Axiom
2. Becky Lynch vs. Xia Li
3. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Chad Gable
4. Johnny Gargano vs. Ludwig Kaiser
5. Drew McIntyre vs. Jey Uso
6. Natalya and Tegan Nox vs. Katana Chance and Kayden Carter vs. Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell vs. Maxxine Dupri and Ivy Nile
7. Lyra Valkyria vs. Xia Li
8. The Street Profits vs. Pretty Deadly vs. The Brawling Brutes
9. Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo vs. Malik Blade and Edris Enofe
10. L.A. Knight vs. Jimmy Uso
Worst AEW match of the week:
-MJF vs. Jay White
Worst WWE match of the week:
-Nia Jax vs. Raquel Rodriguez (Rodriguez is innocent)