About that other gruesome Swerve Strickland death match...

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can find the full video Here.

Over the past few days there's been a ton of talk about the Swerve vs Hangman match from Full Gear. Did they go too far? Was it justified and not in a Tony Khan tweet way? This year Swerve has become one of the wrestlers I most look forward to seeing on my TV. Not just for his in ring style, but his whole attitude. That walk to the ring with his hands in his pockets like he'd rather be anywhere else, like Orange Cassidy but with evil behind his eyes. The guy just exudes final boss villain, and that might be what was missing before.

Some quick thoughts on the match from this past Sunday, honestly I'm partial to a violent match if the story fits it, and Swerve has been so evil, and Hangman was so out for revenge that to me at least, it felt fitting that these two would go beyond extreme. It's certainly going to be one of the most memorable matches when 2023 is done, but did you know it's not the first match like this Swerve has had? Swerve also had one of the more memorable matches of 2017, though it aired then it was actually taped the year prior. That time Swerve was under a mask as Killshot, against a familiar foe in Lucha Underground. Also a little note, Swerve actually referenced his former gimmick on one of his kneepads with crosshairs on them. It's also worth noting that Swerve was no stranger to hardcore wrestling, being a former CZW champion. He even competed in CZW's signature match type, the Cage of Death.

If you're not familiar, Lucha Underground was a rather unique wrestling show that aired on the El Rey network between 2014 and 2018. It was a very melodramatic take on mixing lucha libre with almost soap opera style drama, with characters being killed off and even raised from the dead on the regular. It famously featured well known indie stars of the time playing completely different characters that were exclusive to the show. For example Ricochet, Santos Escobar, Jeff Cobb, and Thunder Rosa are among many others who went on to achieve fame elsewhere after playing characters on the show. Added to them Swerve as Killshot, and his opponent in the Hell of War match we'll get into now, Dante also known as AR Fox. It's also worth noting that Lucha Underground also introduced many US fans to the likes of Pentagon Jr and Rey Fenix who also both went on to bigger promotions.

The story going in to the match we're here for is that Dante Fox and Killshot served together in the US military. Killshot had left Dante for dead in battle, and he was now back for revenge. This flavoured the stipulations for their two out of three falls match. Fall one would be first blood rules, fall two would be no DQ, and fall three is essentially an ambulance match where one man has to be placed in a military vehicle, known here as a medical evac match.

Before we get into that match, I want to share with you a quote I read from Swerve talking about the mindset that a wrestler has when coming up with ideas for a death match. In a 2018 interview for Uproxx, AR Fox noted that once had was told they would be having a death match, he was more than happy, and spent as much time as he could coming up with ideas, as did Strickland. Swerve, clarifying Fox's statement says "The funny thing is, when we would come ideas (sic), and put them together, it’s stuff we want to take. It’s never stuff we want to give. I was like, “I’m willing to go through this.” And then he would come up with, “He’s willing to go through this, well, I’m willing to go through this.” And the trust factor with that between us two is just like unparalleled, man." I'm sure you've seen a wrestler in a match construct some assemblage of weapons like a stack of chairs or tables or something, only for the weapons to be used on themselves before, well thats kind of a similar principle. Also crucially, it seems that Swerve and Fox had control over what they would or wouldn't do, and I assume he and Hangman would have had the same.

While the match begins with very flashy lucha style wrestling, it doesn't take long for things to escalate as the two start fighting with a ladder and a chair outside the ring. I also at this point want you to know that I listened to half an hour of painful Matt Striker commentary for this video, where he goes off topic about Dantes Inferno and other tenuous tangents, so thats worth a like no? No, never mind it was worth a shot. It's also rather weird that he keeps questioning how we will know is Killshot is bleeding or not because he is wearing a mask. It's almost like he couldn't bleed from anywhere else, which spoiler alert, he will later on. Speaking of blood too, the canvas for this match might be the dirtiest I've ever seen, and I've seen all death match shows before such as GCW's Planet Death events.

For the first few minutes of the match, the two have a rather good athletic hardcore match, but things get extreme when Fox goes into a closet and brings out a pane of glass. If you watch a GCW show, you'll often see the referee or ring crew help with the construction of insane configurations of weapons, but Fox threatens now AEW referee Rick Knox to make him assist in setting up the glass pane. After a back and forth, Dante throws Killshot though the glass, drawing blood from his back, arms and even hands, winning the first fall.

Getting into fall two, and bear in mind the there is now shattered glass all over the ring, Dante continues with an insane looking Spanish Fly through a chair, then a beautiful 450 into Killshot laid across a ladder. In the process Dante seemed to cut his hand on the glass in the ring. Throughout this match the lucha influence is not forgotten which might well take some out of the drama, but for others might enhance this as a wrestling match.

Killshot once he regains control pulls out a barbed wire board, which Matt Striker calls the ancient aztec torture rack. AAAAGH just talk properly man. By this point Fox is bleeding and even has shards of glass stuck in his beard, but Killshot powerbombs him through the barbed wire board and follows up with a cradle driver in the glass to win the second fall. Killshot didn't just even the odds, but he shredded Fox's back in the process, leaving us with the ambulance match final fall.

So now we get to the medical evac fall, an early highlight being Killshot hitting a death valley driver from Brets rope to the stretcher on the floor, leaving a rather awful looking bloodstain that Striker calls a piece of flesh. The stretcher takes further punishment when Killshot hits a double stomp to Fox on it. From here we build to the finish, as the camera shows us a pane of glass in a wooden frame that is blocking the stretchers path, so you know we're going to see it used fairly soon. To be fair to Matt Striker, he hammers in the point that this was placed there as the command of Lucha Underground's in character promoter Dario Cueto out of sheer bloodthirstyness.

The two men fight their way up to the perch where the temple's Mariachi band usually plays, and Fox chokes Killshot with a cable. Killshot reaches for a bottle on the floor and blasts Fox with it, leading to him crashing off the platform through the glass before hitting the floor. Screw this dude by the way for smiling throughout it, taking the drama away like Paul London when Vince was about to blow his limo up. After this insane fall, Killshot loads Fox into the military vehicle and is declared the winner. I only hope that ambulance doesn't swerve when it drives.

Speaking in another 2018 interview this time with ESPN, Swerve noted how proud he was of the match and how it turned out. "That match came off exactly how we both envisioned it. We couldn't have done it any better. To me, that whole story between me and Fox culminated the perfect way." He also noted "I wanted to make a statement that no one could outperform me," For this reason it was especially cool to see AR Fox arrive in AEW this year, and even have two matches with Swerve. It was unfortunate that their team got cut off the way it did, as it would have been interesting to see what the former Killshot and Dante Fox could have done together as well as being opponents.

Watching this match back for the first time since it first aired, it is indeed still brutal and violent, but in many different ways. The staples, the barbed wire, while some of these weapons were in both matches, I'm very grateful that glass wasn't involved at Full Gear like it was in Lucha Underground. What is very perplexing though, is how Swerve was at an NFL game the day after like it was nothing. The bottom line is Swerve came out of the Full Gear match looking like a big time player. I've already predicted that he will soon get a shot at MJF now Jay White is in the rear view mirror, and he may well be the man to dethrone MJF.

Let me know what your thoughts are in the comments, thank you for your time, and if you liked this video please consider clicking like or even subscribing.

Sources:

The Lucha Underground match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FRULNwtpAY

Uproxx interview: https://uproxx.com/prowrestling/killshot-dante-fox-lucha-underground-hell-of-war-match-interview/

Swerve ESPN Interview: https://www.espn.com/wwe/story/_/id/23865806/evolve-shane-strickland-one-most-demand-stars-independent-wrestling

Full Gear 2023

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can find the video Here.

We're just a few days away from AEW's next pay per view Full Gear, and I thought I'd make some predictions, but not the kind where I ramble on about every match on the card whether I'm bothered about it or not. Here's the card as of Wednesday evening as I'm making this so please bear in mind things will probably be different by the time you're seeing this, and if you care who I think will win, here that is. With that in mind I want to share five predictions for the show itself, and come Sunday I'll either look like a genius or a fool. Likely a fool whether I'm right or not frankly.

Also, let me know your predictions for Full Gear in the comments, or let me know what you think about mine.

1) The only title I see changing hands is the Women's World championship.

As you saw on my graphic there, I don't really see Kris Statlander, Starks and Big Bill, Orange Cassidy or MJF dropping their gold on Saturday. The one of those I'm least confident about is the tag title match, because honestly, who knows where they are going with that division? I do however think that one title might well change hands. I am and have been since AEW started a fan of Hikaru Shida, but I can also see them wanting to do all kinds of diva-ish shenanigans with Timeless Toni Storm as their champion.

Toni Storm's transformation has been wildly popular, and frankly I have more questions than answers. What actually caused her apparent mental breakdown? Why is she English all of a sudden (though her accent is perfect to be fair)? and just whats going on? My confusion wasn't helped when we were treated to her silent films that the American audience saw in picture in picture, meanwhile on the Fite TV feed we got a full screen experience complete with a genuine sounding silent film soundtrack. I watched these live looking for some sort of insightful meaning not knowing that is was actually just ad break filler like Sammy Guevara's cue cards. Also, respect to her for getting the phrase "chin up, tit's out" onto worldwide television.

To get back on topic, Toni comes across as the person they're investing in again, and this may even lead to the Toni vs Saraya one on one match set up at All In, possibly happening at Worlds End.

2) The Bucks vs Jericho and Omega will be fine.

Let me explain what I mean by that. At Revolution 2020, the Young Bucks challenged Kenny Omega and Hangman Page for the AEW tag titles, which was at the time and for a while after regarded as one of the best AEW matches ever. You could claim and I'm about to make the argument, that every person in that match has done just as good or better work since. I'm thinking of The Young Bucks' cage match with the Lucha Bros at All Out 2021. Kenny Omega's 30 minute draw with Bryan Danielson at Grand Slam, and Hangman also had a belter of a one hour draw also with Danielson. What the Revolution match had that none of those others did though, was a compelling long term storyline that would continue for years afterwards. A story that eventually led to Hangman defeating Kenny for the World title, and further on reuniting with The Elite.

Also, Chris Jericho. To be fair to the ayatollah of the bubbly, I truly loved his match with Eddie Kingston at Revolution 2022 and I'd put that up there, and also the All In match with Will Ospreay. My favourite stuff Jericho has done in AEW are the Stadium Stampede and Anarchy in the Arena matches, but they had some degree of production to help them. I guess what I'm trying to say is that despite one of these feeling not like the others, you still have three quarters of one of AEW's best matches, and even though it feels easy to doubt Jericho sometimes, I still think this one could be better than some online are expecting.

The other issue that I have is that the match in general match feels slightly out of place given that days before Full Gear, Jericho and Omega are booked in a Street fight that frankly should be on the pay per view since it's a built up match against the Don Callis family. Incidentally, who knew that in 2023 they would see Kota Ibushi and Paul White in the same match. I don't know this for fact, but it seems like the main reason this is on Dynamite and not the pay per view is that they can tie it in with whatever Like a Dragon is, as the brand deal will get more eyes on it on Dynamite than it would on Full Gear. It might also have something to do with the Young Bucks having a pay per view match in California, but they still could have put them on the show with some other team had they thought planned something for the Bucks sooner.

3) Hangman and Swerve need to switch gears.

AEW has had a bit of an issue lately with its wrestlers committing actual crimes and seemingly facing no punishment for them. It's getting to be as lawless as the dreaded NXT car park. Jay White (more on him later), has been walking around with the AEW World title for weeks now, Roderick Strong held a man captive in his home, and more pertinent to my point, Swerve not only nearly killed Nick Wayne a few months ago, but more recently broke into Hangman Page's home. It took a while for Hangman to respond to this and to be fair he showed some fire last week when he went after Swerve following his match with Penta, but it still feels odd that their rematch at Full Gear still has no stipulation as of me writing this.

I'm guessing that likely has changed following the last Dynamite before Full Gear. Whether it's a Texas Death match, which they've already done on pay per view this year, or a lights out match which is essentially the same, there should be some sort of stipulation added to ramp up the drama in this one. A few weeks ago I made a video listing wrestlers who could become the next AEW World Champion, and Swerve was on that list. I suggested that if they continue to build Swerve until say Revolution, he versus MJF could be a great feud in 2024, and this could be a continuation of that path. Hangman is currently a third of the ROH six man tag champions, so he at least has somewhere else to go after this feud, but Swerve if he loses will be on a rudderless ship should he lose.

4) Jay White has the potential to be one of MJF's best World title opponents.

I've worded that a certain way for a reason that will become clear soon. I've seen others online say that MJF's wrestling has improved a lot this year, and honestly I was of the opinion that he has been great in the ring for a long while, he just didn't wrestle enough for people to see that. In the past few months MJF has wrestled a lot more, so we've had more chance to see how good he really is. I know that others didn't seem to, but I personally I loved his match against Bryan Danielson at Revolution, and I didn't care for the Adam Cole build approaching All In, but I really got invested in the match in the end. I feel like this match has the potential to be better than both of those if the two men in the ring are allowed to do their best work. Let me explain what I mean by that.

His opponent Jay White, is another wrestler who some have conflicting opinions on, but I'm a huge fan of his matches, sometimes. Thats why I worded my prediction the way I did. Jay White himself, in a big time singles match like the ones he had in New Japan, the Jay White who was calculated and had a counter for every signature in his opponents arsenal, thats the Jay White I hope we get on Saturday. What I hope we don't get is Bullet Club shitty interference from the Gunns and Juice Robinson. When Kenny Omega had his big matches in New Japan, especially the Okada matches, the Young Bucks were there to support him, but they did not interfere, and I hope Juice and the Gunns are that at most. Hell, they might even do an angle earlier in the night where Jay's group gets laid out like the Acclaimed were last week by the Devil and his crew. All in all this will likely be the match we're talking about come Sunday, I just hope it's for good reasons. The talk of the Devil brings me to my final prediction.

5) We won't find out who the Devil is yet.

It's rare in wrestling these days that we have a genuine mystery that nobody seems to have a clear answer for. Last year we had the whole White Rabbit saga, and most of us assumed it was leading to Bray Wyatt, but thats likely the closest we've had in a long while. Honestly I have no idea who the Devil is, as but seen many intriguing theories. From Adam Cole, to Britt Baker, to even Danhausen. Okay I'm lying about Danhausen, but can you imagine how angry people would get if it was him all along?

Getting back on track, I don't see the Devil reveal happening at Full Gear, but I also feel like it needs to happen before the end of 2023. If AEW drag this out for too long it's possible that fans will get impatient and lose interest, especially if your eventual reveal turns out to be underwhelming. There's a certain biting point where the time will be right, and after that will be too late. If you pushed me for a guess on when the right should be, I'd say World End, as it would create a big cliffhanger going into 2024. Not to mention a better one that Elite vs Dark Order cliffhanger in 2019.

So there are my predictions, let me know what you think of them and also let me know your own in the comments. Thank you for your time and if you enjoyed this please consider hitting like or subscribing to my channel.

Three wrestlers who should've ended Samoa Joe's ROH TV title reign

This is a script for my YouTube channel. You can view the full video Here.

This past week on AEW Dynamite, Samoa Joe retained the Ring of Honor Television title against Keith Lee, then promptly relinquished the belt, after winning it five hundred and seventy four days ago and defending it eighteen times. I suppose my biggest question would be is Joe giving up the title after so long not defeating the entire fucking point of long title reigns? Time and again we've been told that the biggest benefit of a long title reign is that the person who finally defeats the champion has accomplished something important. Look at when Orange Cassidy recently lost the International title to Jon Moxley in a match that meant so much because of Orange's run that it main-evented a pay per view. With all of this in mind, here are three realistically possible wrestlers who you could have done some good for by having them defeat Samoa Joe.

Before I begin, I want to know your names who could realistically, have been the one to topple Samoa Joe for the TV title, so tell me in the comments.

1) Mark Briscoe

For a while before Mark suffered a knee injury that kept him out of action for the past few months, Mark Briscoe was on a bit of a quest to win singles gold in Ring of Honor. Admittedly he had moved his attention to Claudio Castagnoli and the World title, and was even set to challenge Claudio at Death Before Dishonor before having to pull out due to his injury, but before that Mark had previously challenged Samoa Joe at the previous pay per view, Supercard of Honor. On that night, Briscoe even had his family at ringside to hopefully see him win singles gold, but sadly Joe put an end to his dreams that night. At the time I felt that you could do so much more following this match to continue the story, and create a massive feel good moment had Mark finally dethroned Joe.

Before I move on, I'd like to share with you a quote from a recent interview Mark did for Sports Illustrated in regards to his in ring return on this weeks Dynamite, possibly the best quote I've read in quite a while. Speaking about returning from injury, Mark said "I've been waiting to scratch this itch ever since I went out with the knee. I've been waiting, and I don't particularly handle all that free time too well. Next thing you know, my wife is pregnant." Mark already has seven kid by the way, thats a lot of injuries...

2) Lance Archer

Thats not all that much to this one, take one big scary dude you're not doing much with, and another big scary dude you're not doing a bit more with, and turn them loose. In Lance's case, he is someone who AEW has chronically not had many plans for. Having entered the company right before the pandemic, Lance has according to AEW's roster page has a sixty-three to sixteen win loss record. Thats seventy nine matches since his first for the promotion against Marko Stunt in April 2020. To put that into some context by comparing it to others who had their first AEW match around this time, Matt Hardy who joined AEW around the same time has had ninety eight matches, and Orange Cassidy who's first was in February 2020 has had one hundred and sixty two. February was when Wardlow's in ring debut happened too, and he's has had ninety-one, though admittedly has also had three TNT championships to his name as well. To be clear, I mean none of this to knock Lance Archer. I'm a fan of him, and just hope to see him doing more.

To be fair as well, there are some caveats to these stats, for example Lance did return to New Japan a few times, even taking extensive time away to compete in the 2022 G1 Climax. Also this year Lance has been dealing with a tricep injury that has stunted his progress this year. it just feels like more should have been done with him by now, at least a TNT title reign or something. Lance entered AEW with a bang, being a key figure in the tournament to crown the first TNT champion, making it to the finals at Double or Nothing against Cody Rhodes, and it's hard to pin point another major storyline he's been involved in since then. Honestly and sadly, there are a few names I could have included here and made a similar argument. Miro being chief among them, but also Malakai and Wardlow too.

3) Eddie Kingston

We've gotten this far into the video and I haven't even mentioned the reason Samoa Joe gave for giving back the ROH TV title, and to be honest there was a reason for that. Joe claimed in his post match promo that he wished to set his sights on the AEW World title, which he recently had a shot at and lost to MJF. Technically he's had two shots, but the "real" world title he challenged for in Wembley Stadium is probably sitting in CM Punk's fridge right now.

What if, instead of focusing on the AEW World title, Joe set his sights on the ROH World title instead? What if Samoa Joe, still maintaining his record setting reign decided to challenge for another belt he already owns the record for? Samoa Joe first won the ROH World title in March 2003, and held it for six hundred and forty five days, making him by far the longest reigning ROH World champion ever, and the longest reigning TV champion now too. How awesome a Final Battle 2023 main event could that have been? It would put Eddie Kingston in an interesting position, as the current ROH World champion, yet still the underdog in the eyes of many.

Given that I'm calling for Eddie to beat Joe here, you could even take this opportunity to unify the ROH World and TV titles. They already have the Pure championship, and all the belts AEW has, and maybe we could do to have one less, and this would be a great time to do it, in the main event of ROH's next pay per view.

What do you think of my picks? Do you have any of your own? Let me know in the comments. Thank you for your time, and if you liked this video please consider liking or subscribing.

MLW released two wrestlers who didn't know for six months

This is a script for my YouTube channel. You can find the full video Here.

It's a bit of a weird time for contracts in wrestling. We've got very public bidding wars coming up for the likes of Will Ospreay and MJF, as well as the TV deal with the NWA and the CW which I talked about a few days ago in a video. The NWA was apparently blindsided by the NXT announcement that was made yesterday as I'm making this video, so hopefully we'll get some more info on that soon.

A story that came about today might be the weirdest contract story yet though, as two luchadors that are most associated with AAA but also for a time worked for MLW were under the impression that they were under contracts, but found out today that they had been released in May of this year. Six months ago.

Let's get into who these wrestlers are first, Aramis is someone I first saw in MLW and I'm a fan of. In fact buried early in this channel is still a music video I made of an MLW match he had with another talent I'd only just seen, El Hijo Del Vikingo who has also made a lot of progress since those days.

I also found that Aramis was at one point due to work for AEW. I found a Wrestling Inc article stating according to Dave Meltzer his deal was allowed to expire but I couldn't find any trace of him ever wrestling for AEW. However per Fightful a year earlier that the story is that he was supposed to sign in early 2020 but this was halted due to the Pandemic. It's aslo worth noting that Tony signed a lot of wrestlers during the Pandemic to be in the crowds of his shows, or to wrestle on this 2 hour plus episodes of Dark that they ran back then. The Wrestling Inc article also has a quote from Khan where he states that he kept wrestlers under contract that he wasn't using on television so it's not very clear, but he was by all accounts on AEW's radar, and has since worked for PWG and even came to England last year for Progress.

Arez if I'm honest I'm less familiar with but his biggest US exposure seems to have been GCW, but he's also worked some for NWA. Once you see Arez you tend not to forget him as he doesn't just look unique but he has a very interesting style of wrestling with counters and moves I've never seen before. The long and the short of it is that both he and Aramis are really good wrestlers and should hopefully be working in bigger companies soon, especially since as Aramis noted upon discovering this today, they are both free agents.

Now all of this came about earlier today as of me making this when Arez posted a lengthy message to the general public on twitter in both Spanish and English. It's here if you wish to read it but the TLDR of it is that he hadn't been used by MLW for 18 months which is about accurate and the same for Aramis, and was he formally asking for a written release. There's also an odd part where Arez claims he was in his wording "ineligible" to work in the US when his deal started, but thinking back on it he started working for them during the Azteca series I think, which were episodes of MLW's shows taped in Mexico.

MLW then responded again by Twitter, stating that the pair had been released in May, and it was AAA's responsibility to inform them which they evidently did not. The only thing I can think of that might explain, but not quite justify this weird passing of the buck might be if there was a language barrier and MLW just thought it'd pass it on through AAA, but thats still not great is it. I mean imaging thinking you were signed to a company you hadn't been for six months? I would guess from this that they were paid per appearance in which case the deal must have been for some form of US exclusivity? Arez doesn't explain that in his statement.

Either way this is a bit of a weird situation made even weirder when you factor in that MLW in September announced that it had begun working with CMLL the other major Lucha promotion. Now admittedly I'm not an expert on Lucha Libre but I know CMLL and AAA hate each other to the point where wrestlers from the two companies can't work on the same shows, or it might just be the same matches. Recently AEW also started working with CMLL when they brought Mistico in having already worked with AAA for a long while. I wonder if that should have been a red flag for Aramis and Arez, who apparently were released four months before this.

Either way if they were working for MLW, despite not being used for about a year by May 2023, they probably should have informed them themselves. Interestingly though another story came out today stating that one of MLW's top stars Alex Hammerstone who requested his release a while back hasn't been used since July of this year and that communication between him and the company has been quote "sparse to put it nicely," so it seems their former World Champion hasn't been able to get much clarification either. To be a little fair, MLW's had a tough time of it this year, after effectively being pushed out of the TV deal with Reelz after that channel joined Peacock which WWE has exclusivity for, and then proceeding to sue WWE in return which has dragged on for months at this point. I do like MLW's shows when I get to see them, and both of the wrestlers involved so let's just hope for good things for each involved, starting with MLW maybe upgrading the companies fax machine.

Sources:

MLW Match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1atvH3syE7s 2 mins

Main article https://www.f4wonline.com/news/mlw/mlw-says-it-released-arez-aramis-in-may-aaa-did-not-inform-them

Aramis 1 https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2022/02/backstage-news-on-aew-not-renewing-contract-of-popular-wrestler/

Amaris 2 https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/report-aramis-almost-signed-aew-prior-covid-19-pandemic

Arez statement: https://twitter.com/ArezStrange/status/1722265506974138733

Thoughts on NWA Samhain, suspicious white powder and Billy Corgan

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can find the full video soon, but the audio can be found Here.

On October 28th NWA presented a pay per view spelled Samhain, and pronounced sow-en because leave it to Billy Corgan to run an event with a where even the name is awkward. In the words of the event's host, ECW's Sinister Minister and TNA's Father James Mitchell from an interview with Under the Ring before the pay per view, that is an ancient festival, "parts of which were borrowed and turned into Halloween", so that gives at least a little bit of context that Samhain, sorry sow-en, wasn't supposed to be a typical wrestling card, more a hardcore themed Halloween show. If you're wondering, some of the stipulations on the night included a tag match where if two wrestlers lost James Mitchell would control their souls, and a "Knights of the round tables" match where the tables would be round because according to Mitchell that hurts more.

Before I go any further, this is one of those videos where I'd really love to hear your thoughts in the comment section. Also maybe you could tell me what the CW actually is because to me it doesn't look like the kind of network that would be interested in indie level pro wrestling to begin with.

This video isn't about the event as such, more a minute of it that went viral. So whats all the fuss about? Well at one point in the pay per view, James Mitchell is introduced and a spotlight is put on him in the crowd, with a group of men and women who are obviously partaking in some white powder and drinking. The camera lingers on them for a bit longer than is really necessary while the commentators act like they have no idea what to say. My guess is, as a person can be seen sweeping debris in the ring before they pull in on Mitchell, this was maybe just meant to be no more than a filler moment for the pay per view while the ring was being cleaned up from the match that took place before it. I wonder if the substance use had been a little more implied than it was, might things have panned out any differently? Regardless the clip made the rounds on social media and may have done NWA more harm than good.

According to a report from Haus of Wrestling on November 4th, NWA Powerrr and an accompanying reality show were due at some point soon to begin airing for the first time on television, on CW, who it turns out weren't thrilled upon seeing this moment, and probably the attention it was getting. This could even result in Powerrr being thrown off the air before it was even on it, being relegated to the CW app, which I would imagine has less eyes on it than YouTube, the platform they're currently on. The report also notes that the CW were quote "flooded" by social media posts about the clip, which begs the question, who are these fans that are actively trying to do the NWA harm? Posts that by the way, I couldn't find evidence of because the reporting of the story is all that comes up now.

What interests me about all of this is that the spot was again according to the report, Billy Corgan's idea that he pushed for, based on the notion that quoting the report, "Corgan was told that the network would not be watching the pay per views and would only be concerned with what happened on the TV show airing on their platform." Here's the thing though, if I were working for the CW buying content from a company, I'd be concerned with what that company is doing in totality, not just what hasn't yet aired on my network, especially in the beginning. Imagine if you did your due diligence, signed a deal with NWA, and they then pull a stunt like that. Could you trust them going forward? Also it feels quite naive to me that Billy would just assume that he could air such an angle on his pay per view and figure that the network wouldn't have any thoughts about it.

We as wrestling fans are very aware that traditionally wrestling pay per views, especially online ones, can get away with being more risque than television products in many different ways, but is a network person from outside the wrestling business going to share that perspective, or are they going to see that clip and wonder what they got themselves into? I get wanting to push the envelope with your product, but maybe not at the same time that you're starting a new business relationship based on the product you're currently presenting. All of this comes at the same time as the NWA is attempting more expansion, having recently upgraded all of it's production equipment which was thought to be in preparation for the CW deal, and recently announcing plans to form it's own territory system, bringing the Alliance back to the NWA.

Billy's business acumen is shown even more when the report states that he paid for the reality show to be made himself, and the CW contributed nothing, but would make a profit from selling advertising, to a show that potentially far less people will see now. Furthermore Haus of Wrestling's report notes that a big part of the deal was that the reality show would include footage of Billy's recent wedding. The networks quote "excitement" to air that while seemingly tolerating the wrestling content is another red flag right there. Well done mate. It's obviously too early to know whats going to happen, but right now this feels like a spectacular set of mistakes, dare I even call it an onmishambles. It's also worth pointing out that if Billy backpedals on the edgy content for a while and shows the CW people that Powerrr can be tamer than what he airs on pay per view, the ship can maybe be righted, but for now it's not looking good.

Had the Samhain clip and potential fallout been an isolated incident there wouldn't be much more to talk about, but the whole story is another example of what might be Billy's biggest strength, his creativity, but maybe also his biggest weakness, his insistence on his own vision. Billy Corgan himself clearly has a great creative mind, having done some truly great things not just in wrestling, but in music first. I'll always give him his due respect for the Ten Pounds of Gold series, and his efforts in general to make the NWA World title a valued belt again, which was even more impressive considering that people thought him buying the NWA to begin with was a joke. The peak of that might well have been All In, where the NWA World championship match between Nick Aldis and Cody Rhodes felt a big deal, and was the only championship match on that night.

Unfortunately though Billy has a history of harming his own creations, usually unintentionally. Siamese Dream for example, is admittedly a favourite album of mine, but one on which Billy was said to have gone to the trouble of re-recording much of his bass player Darcy Wretsky's parts himself through his own perfectionism, hurting his own reputation and relationships in the process. If you fancy a deeper dive than I'm prepared to go into here, look up Teargarden by Kaleidoscope, an overly ambitious project partly inspired by the changing way in which people consume music in modern times because of streaming services, intended to consist of forty four free singles that released roughly once a month, that would later be monetised once the collection was complete. At the time this felt like a unique way of addressing the potential fall of the album model due to services like Spotify and YouTube, and it resulted in a fair few good songs, before eventually falling back into the album format that it was designed to break away from, and was ultimately abandoned about thirty songs in.

Getting back to wrestling, having been spotted in the crowd of many WWE, TNA and even ECW shows prior, Billy was a known wrestling fan for years before he started his own company. His first route into pro wrestling was founding a Chicago based indie called Resistance Pro in 2011 which he left in 2014, but the company would go on for a while longer. Upon leaving that project he published an exit notice as convoluted as any Smashing Pumpkins fan who looks up the lyrics might expect. Interestingly Corgan was also shopping around a reality show based on the behind the scenes of that company too. It even got a greenlight from AMC, only to fall apart once Corgan left.

Billy then got involved with TNA Wrestling in 2016, even serving as the company's President, and according to reports at the time he was bank rolling tapings himself during a very dark period for the company where it felt like they could go out of business any day. That whole situation is very messy, and ended in Corgan failing to take control of TNA, leading him to eventually buy the NWA, putting us down the path we're on now.

You might notice I've been fairly critical of Billy Corgan and the NWA in this video, and I suppose part of that comes from my disappointment as a fan. When NWA Powerrr first launched it felt like a breath of fresh air. A true throwback with some modern twists, and a well built up champion to believe in. Especially in the early days, Billy showed a very good eye for talent, and to his credit and his company's detriment, he to my knowlege has never prevented any of his roster from grasping opportunities with bigger promotions, even wishing them well like LA Knight, Thunder Rosa and Ricky Starks. Billy had a big part in creating that, and I'll not knock him for it, but it also feels like the promotion has become as Nick Aldis said, "one man's vision", and maybe thats a problem. To be honest, I nearly made this video when Aldis left, then again when Billy insisted on pushing Tyrus, but Samhain might be the biggest detriment to the NWA yet, or it might blow over once Billy has had enough time to build bridges with the CW.

Whether you buy into his vision for the NWA or not fair play to you, but I'll be interested to see what happens for them next. Let me know your thoughts on the situation in the comments, and I thank you for your time.

Sources:

Haus of Wrestling report: https://www.hausofwrestling.com/2023/11/04/cocaine-spot-at-nwa-ppv-could-negatively-impact-the-cw-deal-exclusive/

James Mitchell Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw-o7OFWxTU

Res Pro exit notice: https://loudwire.com/billy-corgan-addresses-exit-resistance-pro-wrestling/

Raven vs the New Church: TNA's most violent storyline

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can find the full video Here.

Ah go on then, they're topical again. Over the years TNA wrestling had it's share of truly horrific moments. If I were joking around I'd rattle off a mile long list of crazy ideas they had, my personal favourite being the barbed wire Christmas tree, but today I'm talking about a genuinely difficult to watch moment from the early days on TNA, made even more scary when you know what went wrong.

The moment I'm referring to took place on the September 17th 2003 weekly TNA pay per view, and was part of a long and violent feud between Raven and his group known as the Gathering, which included Julio Dinero, CM Punk and Alexis Laree now known as Mickie James, and the Disciples of the New Church led by Father James Mitchell. The New Church at this time included Shane Douglas, Brian Lee, Slash, Sinn who was briefly on Smackdown as Kizarny, and later another member who'll become relevant later. Behind the scenes Mitchell and Raven had known each other since their ECW days, where Mitchell worked in the latter years of the company as the Sinister Minister

For some context on their feud, the two factions would battle in all kinds of matches, notably Ravens signature Clockwork Orange House of fun match, where weapons would hang around the sides of the ring from a chain. At the same time Raven was still vying to achieve his dream, the reason for him even coming to TNA, the NWA World championship. In late August he would defeat New Church member Shane Douglas to earn a shot against then champion AJ Styles, which would take place on August 27th 2003. Multiple times in the match it looked like Raven was going to win, but after thwarting run ins from Slash and Sinn, a low blow from Shane Douglas followed by a Styles Clash was enough to screw Raven out of his opportunity. A wild brawl erupts with various more run ins while James Mitchell cackles on the stage, having achieved his goal.

The brawl would lead to TNA's first version of War Games by another name held on the following weeks event, called Wednesday Bloody Wednesday, in which Raven would team with America's Most Wanted, D'Lo Brown and Jeff Jarrett to defeat his rival Shane Douglas, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger. While Jarrett would pin Styles for the win, absolutely nothing would be resolved as many more wrestlers would run down and create more chaos post match.

This brings us to September 17th, and the hair versus hair match with Shane Douglas. This was actually the third singles match in TNA between the two, with Raven winning the first match on August 13th, and again the following week to earn the World title match with AJ Styles. The match itself for the most part, is a slow paced, dare I say unremarkable brawl between the two ECW veterans, or it was, until mid match Shane begins puking in the ring, yet somehow continues wrestling. I'll be honest, I totally forgot about this until rewatching the match for this video. Another weird point in the match comes a little earlier when Shane offers his hand with Raven's blood on it to a woman on the front row. Thats not the weird part, well it is, but what I mean is the woman turned out to be the future TNA star Angelina Love, who had already started her wrestling career by that point, but wouldn't join the TNA roster full time until 2007 when the Knockouts division would be formed. When it looked like Raven might pin Douglas, Slash would pull the referee out, then Sinn would interfere too, but both would be chased away by CM Punk and Dinero. Just as it looked like the sides were even and Raven was about to win again, the lights would go out in the TNA Asylum, and when they came back on the mystery man I mentioned earlier was in the ring, and revealed himself to be Vampiro. Making his first appearance in TNA, Vampiro would hit Raven with a DDT, allowing Shane to get the win.

Now we get to the really gruesome part, as Raven per the stipulation would willingly sit in a chair, and allow Jim Mitchell to shave his head. Herein would lie the problem, as Jim would proceed to use the wrong end of the clippers, cutting into Ravens head, and effectively scalping him. Initially, while Raven is wincing in pain you might have thought he was selling pain, or maybe trying to convey his humiliation, but when blood starts to pour down his head it then becomes clear that something has gone very wrong. The drama of the situation is elevated by Mike Tenay and Don West on commentary showing their disgust. Don eventually throws his headset down and walks away, while Mike Tenay continues with one of his most famous lines: "This is BS, This sucks, I've lost my objectivity, and I don't give a damn!" Incidentally, how he maintained that same objectivity through some things in the Russo years is beyond me...

In a 2003 shoot interview with Wrestling Epicenter, Mitchell explained what had actually gone wrong, noting that the clippers he was using were actually meant for sheering sheep, and in James' own words, "they looked like shark teeth." The reason for this as explained by Raven in an interview is that due to the sweat in wrestlers hair by the end of a match, a normal razor wouldn't have been enough, so the sheep clippers were used. This claim can maybe be backed up by another hair vs hair match that took place at Summerslam 1998. On that night Jeff Jarrett faced the dubious honour, having lost to X-Pac. Post match X-Pac can be seen struggling to actually cut Jarrett's hair with the razor, so he instead cut lumps off his head with scissors until the segment ran long enough. Upon noticing the blood pouring from Raven's head, James chose to stay in character and keep going, stating afterwards "I'm peeling his scalp off, but what are you going to do? Are you going to go oop's I'm sorry? Or are you going to act like a sadistic motherfucker and start digging in?" Watching the footage back however, he realised how bad a mistake he had made, and even expected Raven's full wrath backstage. While this had to be an excruciating experience for Raven, Mitchell noted that Raven seemed to at least realise that "it made for great TV", and it became the catalyst for Raven in future weeks to get his full revenge, even on Mitchell.

From here the feud would only get even more vicious. Two weeks later The Gathering would defeat Douglas, Slash and Sinn in a Dog Collar match. Post match though, the New Church would use the collars to attempt to hang Raven, Punk and Dinero.

On October 1st the following week, Raven would vow to eliminate the New Church members one by one until only Mitchell remained. This is where Shane Douglas would quietly disappear from the storyline, as he would begin his own mission to find a new Franchise, who would turn out to be Michael Shane, cousin of Shawn Michaels as TNA liked to remind us. In following weeks he would honour his word, as he would defeat and take out Sinn on October 8th. Vampiro would try to hang Raven again but would Punk and Dinero would save him. The next week in a rather bizarre move given that the Gathering saved him from being hung, Raven tells Punk and Dinero that he needs complete the rest of his quest on his own. This would eventually come back to bite Raven, as the Gathering would turn on Raven in December 2003, siding with James Mitchell upon his return.

On October 22nd Raven would continue his quest by defeating Slash in a dog collar match, and then hanging him, thus taking him out too. Vampiro and Mitchell attack Raven after but are chased away by Punk DInero, which Raven is clearly not happy about.

On October 29th Raven would get his final revenge on Vampiro in a the match all this hanging was building up to, the Gallows of retribution match, where the only way to win was to hang your opponent using a noose and the top rope, which to my knowlege hasn't been done ever again.

Finally on November 5th 2003, Raven would finally get his hands on Father James Mitchell in a last man standing match. If you're familiar with the term to give someone a 'reciept' in wrestling, whats very much what this feels like, as Mitchell takes an absolute beating from Raven, possibly to make up for the scalping incident. The match would last just five minutes, but in it Mitchell would bleed buckets. Mercifully, the story would end here, as by this point the violence had escalated about as much as it could go.

TNA has had it's share of violent moments and feuds, especially in the following years when Abyss would ramp things up even further, but the Raven vs New Church story in a way set the tone for how violent things could get, both planned and in real life. These days working for MLW as a manager of his latest faction, the Calling, Raven was back then one of NWA TNA's biggest stars. One of TNA's early big pay per views was headlined by his first shot at NWA World champion Jeff Jarrett, but it would take until 2005 for Raven to eventually capture that gold. I wonder how many still appreciate the impact Raven had back in those years, and even before then in ECW. The grunge aesthetic, the riddle like promos, and the young careers he had an influence on? Will we see another feud quite like his with the New Church, Nevermore.

James Mitchell interview 50 mins http://www.wrestlingepicenter.com/shows/FatherJames/father.mp3

The Cyber Sunday vote that didn't go as planned for Rowdy Roddy Piper

This is a script for a video on my YouTube channel. You can find that video Here.

Earlier this week I uploaded to this channel a video about the first Taboo Tuesday, and while I was researching for that video I came upon a story that I previously didn't know. It's the true story of a fan vote for a WWE match actually leading to a surprising discovery for a wrestling legend, and that legend is Rowdy Roddy Piper.

In 2006 after previously being known as Taboo Tuesday, WWE changed the name and date, creating Cyber Sunday. The concept was still the same, fans would get to vote on match stipulations, and sometimes who would participate in certain matches. In this case, Ric Flair was set to challenge the Spirit Squad for the Raw tag team championships, and his partner would be a legend voted on by the WWE fans. Either Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper or Sargent Slaughter.

As I brought up in my Taboo Tuesday video, everyone involved to this day claims that the votes were legitimate, however it has also been claimed many times that WWE try influence who fans would vote for with how each choice was presented on television, but if a vote didn't go their way they would honour the result. On a few occasions the vote wouldn't go as expected, and this was one of those times. On the October 30th 2006 Raw days before Cyber Sunday, Dusty Rhodes was positioned to be the winner of the vote. For example on this night Ric Flair would come out for a promo. He would talk about the upcoming match, before introducing in order, Sarge, then Piper, and then Dusty. Each of the three men make a pitch for the fans to choose them like it's WCW Thunder on Playstation 1. Sarge talks mainly in military puns as he often did, however Piper blew him away with a single line. If I could play it for you I would, but sorry, you're getting my version. "Whats wrong with this picture? Nature Boy, world champion. Sargent Slaughter, world champion, Dusty Rhodes, world champion. Roddy Piper, nothing!" While raising his kilt by the way, for dramatic effect I assume. Piper did make a fair point here, I suppose having only reached the heights of Intercontinental champion in 1992, he was alluding to his comrades being more successful than him. Unfortunately for WWE, as great a promo Dusty was after him, Piper just by being Roddy Piper stole this segment, which was the last impression fans would get before Cyber Sunday. It also maybe doesn't help that to many fans Piper was a WWE legend for many more years than Dusty was, and so many will have voted based on that. I as a young fan at the time just wasn't as familiar with Dusty Rhodes as I was with Piper at the time, and I bet there were a lot of fans like me. Looking back though, how amazing would a team of long time rivals Flair and Dusty had been, but from where we go next, I'm glad things happened the way they did. It's not like Flair and Piper were strangers though. The two had a heated feud in WWE while Flair was in his first run there, and then in 99 they were co-WCW presidents in the truly dark days of Nitro that we don't talk about much.

Another factor to Piper winning is that he had a small bit of history with the Spirit Squad, as on an episode of Raw two months earlier (Sept 11th) he had teamed with the Highlanders to defeat three of the cheerleaders. On the night of Cyber Sunday, November 5th 2006 from Cincinnati Ohio, Rowdy Roddy Piper would win by earning 46% of the vote, with Dusty getting 35 and Sarge 19. When the vote was announced, a sly grin comes across the face of Piper as he heads to the ring. While he wasn't exactly in ring shape, Roddy and Ric don't just hold their own against the young cheerleaders, but they manage to win the Raw tag team championships. Flair and Piper would make one successful defence of the titles on the following night's Raw, where they would defeat Rated RKO despite the special referee being Raw GM Eric Bischoff. The legends would prevail thanks to the help of DX, who were feuding with Orton and Edge at the time. Piper would even participate in the UK tour that happened in the following week, competing in five non-televised house show matches, each being he Flair and the Highlanders defeating the Spirit Squad. Finally at the end of that tour on an episode of Raw taped in Manchester England (Nov 13th), Edge and Orton would get their revenge, beating Flair and Piper in a short match. In short, Piper would wrestle eight matches in nine days. While most were multi man tags where he could be in the ring for less time, this schedule not to mention all the travel involved can't have been easy for Piper. By my rough estimation thats over four thousand miles of travel in such a short time, not even including the at least three thousand more miles to fly back to the US.

As the story goes, because WWE expected Dusty to win the vote, they didn't have Piper complete a medical check before he got in the ring, which would end up being a blessing and a curse. In a 2021 episode of Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard told a story of an encounter with Piper while on the UK Tour, where something was clearly wrong with him. Roddy was said to be in intense pain throughout the tour, and would reveal in private to Bruce purple skin around his kidneys, which nobody saw as he wrestled with a t-shirt on. Bruce say's "He pulls me into a bathroom and says I've got to show you something, and he pulls up his shirt and down by his kidneys was all just purple." Piper would go out on his sword, dropping the tag titles with Flair to Rated RKO in Manchester, before rushing back to America to get checked out by his own doctors. Bruce notes that he wanted to get back to the US to see a doctor, presumably in fear that he would be admitted and therefore couldn't leave England. Here Piper would by diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, which is a potentially fast spreading cancer. To be clear I'm no expert on this, but according to sites I've read for this video the disease is treatable even in late stages. Following surgery, Piper would undergo radiation treatment for a month which was scheduled to be completed in early 2007. He would eventually announce that he was cancer free.

In article published to WWE.com on December 4th 2006 WWE and Piper confirm these events, going into further detail about his treatment. Roddy Piper also specifically thanked the WWE fans for voting for him at Cyber Sunday, as that was the beginning of this chain of events. It's strange to think that all of this came about because he was voted into a wrestling match he wasn't supposed to be in. Life works in very strange ways sometimes.

Sources:

Something to Wrestle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKHivC3ijww&t

Something to Wrestle 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_uU41W0KK8

Raw before PPV segment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ARPMBHmzeU

WWE.com health update: https://web.archive.org/web/20070501021742/http://www.wwe.com/inside/news/pipertreatmentupdate