This weekend we saw the last of Bryan Danielson as a full-time wrestler at WrestleDream. It was a great match, not one of Danielson’s best but still a good match to go out on. He’ll continue to wrestle every now and then but this is the end of him wrestling full-time. After the match, the rest of the Blackpool Combat Club jumped him. Wheeler Yuta came in for the save… and turned on Danielson too, chocking him out with a plastic bag. It was an ugly finish, one only cushioned by the knowledge that Danielson almost certainly wrote the whole thing. Ratings for the WrestleDream matches:
-Jay White defeats Hangman Adam Page-4.5/6
-Mariah May defeats Willow Nightingale-4/5
-Jack Perry defeats Katsuyori Shibata-3/5 (was originally 2.5/5 but I decided I was being too hard)
-Konosuke Takeshita defeats Will Ospreay and Ricochet-5/5
-Hologram defeats The Beast Mortos-4/5
-Darby Allin defeats Brody King-4/5
-The Young Bucks defeat Private Party-3/5
-Mark Briscoe defeats Chris Jericho-3/5
-Jon Moxley defeats Bryan Danielson-4.5/5
Other news:
-One of the WrestleDream Zero Hour matches had one of the most unprofessional (non-violent) things I’ve ever seen in a wrestling match. It was during the Anna Jay vs. Harley Cameron match. I was actually enjoying it, Jay has improved considerably after her run in Stardom and Cameron is shockingly good considering her inexperience. But then the finish happened. Jay went to pin Cameron but one of the latter’s shoulders wasn’t down completely. So, the referee pushed it down right on camera. I… I can’t believe this happened. Jesus.
-Stephanie Vaquer had her televised WWE in-ring debut this week. She had a pretty good match with Wren Sinclair. It was a bit too short for my liking but both Vaquer and Sinclair came out looking strong.
-I must confess that I’m not really not liking Chris Jericho continually bringing up Jay Briscoe in his feud with Mark Briscoe. It feels like he’s trying to be like Christian Cage but this subject matter needs a firm hand or it comes off as crass. Cage has a firm hand but Jericho does not.
-Jim Ross ruffled a few feathers when he admitted that he hasn’t felt a connection to Mercedes Mone yet. I’ve seen a few people say he was being unprofessional, going after a co-worker, but I can’t really disagree with him. (Also, this is tame by “Jim Ross being unprofessional” standards.)
-El Hijo del Vikingo is going to be at TNA Bound for Glory this month. Vikingo, for the love of God, stay in the Impact Zone! Don’t go back to AAA.
-AAA is cancelling its tour dates in Spain. It’s bizarre that they even thought they could run a Spanish tour, not even WWE or AEW have tried touring Spain.
-This isn’t important or new but I just discovered this. I was watching an old TNA Asylum PPV and The Briscoe Brothers, Mark and Jay, were on the show. I did a legit double take when they said the names. They looked so young! It’s TNA Asylum 4, if you’re interested.