OSW Review

Category: Wrestling news

  • WTF is happening in TNA?

    WTF is happening in TNA?

    The Hardys set off on their 'Expedition of Gold'
    The Hardys set off on their ‘Expedition of Gold’!

    TNA (aka IMPACT WRESTLING!) is in a major state of change, let’s get ya up to speed!

    Jan 5th 2017: Anthem Sports announce they’ve majority control of the company.
    • Dixie was demoted to ‘advisory board’ and still has a 5% minority stake.
    • Billy Corgan, after contesting, accepted a buyout of his stake and is fully done with TNA.
    • Jeff Jarrett (and his wife) returned to TNA as Executive Consultant, as well as his boy Dutch Mantell as Creative consultant. This means although Jason Brown is the CEO, Jarrett is pretty much in charge, and Dixie has no say.

    What’s happening now?
    Jarrett/Anthem have issued new contracts, like his old ones – to pay wrestlers ‘per day of taping’ rather than ‘per episode you appear on’. This is a major downgrade in pay – for example, say you filmed 6 episodes of impact over two days. At $10,000 per episode, you used to be paid $60,000. Now you’re being paid $10,000 per day, so you’re being paid $20,000 for the same work.

    Jeez, what else?
    The other stickler with the new contracts is that they want control over your independent bookings, AND to take a 10% cut. This is a slap in the face, as many wrestlers earn more working indy shows than in TNA.

    Eh, won’t wrestlers just bail?
    Yeah, that’s what’s happening. Contracts have expired and weren’t re-signed – The Hardys (oh man!), Drew Galloway, Mike & Maria Bennett & Jade so far.

    Who’s definitely staying?
    Bobby Lashley, Moose, Eli Drake, Davey Richards, Eddie Edwards and EC3 are all locked into contracts so they’ll be at the next set of tapings. (Davey Richards’s contract is expiring soon though)

    How come they’re doing all this?
    This is a *major* cost-cutting measure, and to lock down wrestlers so they can start touring again.

    Didn’t they lose a lot of money the last time they started touring?
    Yes, millions. Leaving Orlando was a massive financial mistake. Hopefully they won’t start touring soon.

    What’s the good news to all of this?
    Today they announced they’ve struck a TV deal in the UK with Spike UK! iMPACT returns to UK TVs on April 21st. Spike UK is an offshoot of Channel 5/Viacom, so this bodes well for getting back on Spike TV in the US. That’d be a big plus as they don’t get paid by PopTV. Also they’re saving a lot of money by paying talent less (lol!), so it will be easier to start turning a profit. Hopefully enough wrestlers stick around for people to keep watching. And for fans, Broken Matt has had a great run in TNA – it’d be amazing to see him in WWE (Matt’s been name-dropping multiple promotions, including New Japan)

    They’ve also gotten rid of the Owl logo:

    RIP Anthem Owl 2017-2017. We hardly knew ye.

  • TNA Total Access App Review

    TNA Total Access App Review

    totalaccess1

    TNA Total Access! What is it?
    TNA’s version of the WWE Network. Only available in UK/Ireland at the moment (it will be coming to more countries) £5 or €6/month

    What platforms?
    Android (Google Play), iOS (Apple Store), Apple TV, Amazon FireTV and your PC.

    Three screenshots from my phone put side by side.

    What do they have?
    The last 3 impacts, all the PPVs from 2005-2015 (note 2013 & ’14 had 4 PPVs, and 2015 had 2), neither of the 2 2016 PPVs are up though. “Inside Impact” (the 20 minute impact discussion show) goes back to June 1st 2016, 17 “TNA Epics” which is their home video compilation series eg “Best of Jeff Hardy in TNA”, 29 x One Night Only specials.

    How’s the stream?
    • Honestly, pretty poor. I have really fast internet and it buffers a lot if you start jumping around. It really wants you to start from the start and leave it playing. Even at that it’ll start pausing.
    • Resolution? Up to 720p, but the bitrate isn’t great. I wager you could get better rips illegally. The old PPVs do look nice – high quality DVD rips, but the 4:3 standard def PPVs are “double bar’ed” i.e it’s slightly squished 4:3 with a large TNA bar and small black or white bar.


    This is a screengrab from my phone. Note 4:3 PPV is stretched and cropped a little, but still has small white bars on either side.

    Stray Thoughts:
    • When you sign up you get a wordpress user and pass, it’s really weird (because sure OSW’s site is made with wordpress!) so it feels a bit cheap lol.
    • Although I signed up on my phone I can access it on the desktop (and other devices presumably.) My tablet had absolutely none of the app – it keeps crashing immediately 🙁
    • I am impressed at the speed Anthem have been able to get all the best TNA footage digitised and ready for a streaming service.
    • When I downloaded it yesterday it said it had between 500-1,000 downloads on GooglePlay

    Is it worth it?
    It depends how much you love TNA or how much use you’d get out of the back catalogue. I’d recommend holding off until they can sort out the bandwidth issue as I’m having a tough time watching Black Reign!


    MYAH MYAH MYAHHHH!

    One more thing, what do you think of Dixie being demoted from Chairman to “on the Advisory Board” for Anthem?
    Great! She’s been with TNA for well over a decade and squandered too many chances. I’m kinda sad Billy Corgan got squeezed out because he seemed to genuinely care about building TNA and was prepared to go to court with a much bigger company (Anthem) to get control. (He’s since been paid/settled and is now out of TNA completely). I’ve hope with new people at the top of the TNA food chain, it has a chance to grow. I’m big fan of Jeff Jarrett but what fresh ideas for success he can bring to TNA management?  Anthem has their work cut out for them reversing the negative brand connotation TNA has but they’re well aware with deep pockets! I really wish them the best. Also, give Josh Matthews & Pope the boot and bring in John & Wai! — Jay

  • OSW Live Show tix now available!

    OSW Live Show tix now available!

    liveshow

    Clicky here!! 

    Tix for our WrestleCon 2017 live show are now up! I wanna mention that we are not being paid for this, everything goes to Gimmick Tree to recoup purchasing our flights & accom!

    So we’re doing two days at WrestleCon, Thursday Live Show (an AXCLOOSIV review + Q&A!), Friday we’ll have a table for a Meet & Greet!

    Clicky for tickets to the Thursday Live Show

    Clicky for tickets to the Friday Meet & Greet

    Absolutely stoked about this!! I’ve never been to Florida, V1’s never been to the States and none of us have been to WrestleMania!

    Jay

  • Dixie Carter will no longer own TNA

    Dixie Carter will no longer own TNA

    president-billy-corgan-chairman-dixie-carter

    I’ve written up a blog getting you up to speed of THE STATE of TNA. Enjoy!

    Dixie Carter will no longer own TNA. Who will?
    Anthem Sports & Entertainment (the company that owns Fight Network) will take control getting 85%, Aroluxe getting 10% and Dixie getting 5%. Anthem funded Bound For Glory and the recent TV tapings. Aroluxe’s Jason Brown will be the new CEO of TNA. Dixie’s 5% is more for saving face and won’t have any power.

    What about Billy Corgan?
    He’s out. He tried to get control of TNA (as was agreed when he loaned them money during the summer, totalling $1.8m) but on Monday, Judge Hobbs sided with TNA & Dixie, which allows them to sell. TNA won because he couldn’t produce enough evidence that they were insolvent.

    What will he do now?
    Corgan can sue to get ownership interest but not voting power. Anthem has agreed to pay Corgan back his loan + 6% interest, but he’ll likely look for the 50% extra promised in the event of a sale, about $800k.

    What about all the money TNA owe?
    Anthem would be responsible for sorting that. Rumour is TNA owe about 10x what the company is worth. Their owner Leonard Asper is aware of TNA’s financial situation, but is wealthy and will try turn it around. Last year The Fight Network made $4.5m in Canada alone, is now in 30 countries and has a piece of other sports properties.

    TNA’s TV Deals:
    USA:     PopTV doesn’t pay TNA to air iMPACT. It’s a terrible deal.

    UK: TNA’s UK deal has not been renewed – Challenge will stop airing TNA in January, worth about $1.25million. TNA’s biggest supporter at Challenge left the station and iMPACT has lost ~30% of it’s UK viewers in the last 2 years – with a large downturn in May. TNA tried to spin this loss of TV as “we want to find a new channel to avoid tape delay and spoilers” which I bet a lot of TNA fans would actually believe; despite spoilers being available months in advance (as iMPACT is recorded months in advance)

    INDIA: This is TNA’s biggest revenue stream, their 6-7 year TV deal with Sony Six, giving them $5m/year. However the deal hinges on doing yearly tours of India, which they didn’t last year, so they could cancel this at any time.

    What happened to WWE purchasing TNA’s tape library?
    They did offer, then lowballed ’em; but as 85% owners, Anthem will retain the tape library even if TNA go bust. Seeing as Anthem bought into a money-losing company, TNA will survive. Amazing, really! The dolphins could take over the earth, and TNA would still manage to get the next set of tapings done.

    How about some good news?!
    The upside to all of this is that everyone working for TNA will start getting paid (hooray!) and they’ll tape the iMPACT at Matt Hardy’s house as soon as they can, which is something the world needs to see!

    TL;DR? Dixie’s out out power (but retains 5%), Corgan’s out, Anthem is in, and Aroluxe’s Jason Brown is in charge.

    Note: Of course this blog just deals with the business side of things, regardless of any good stuff they’re doing on TV with Lashley and co. Hate to see their talent squandered under Dixie and hopefully Jason Brown can turn it around!

    Do you still watch iMPACT? If not, when did you stop watching?

    Our new episode dropped on Monday! SUPERBRAWL VI: OSWreview.com/media/oswreview60
    As well as audio for our last show, World War 3! : OSWreview.com/media/oswreview59

    Getting mean-spirited on twitter between Billy & Fight Network!

    https://twitter.com/Billy/status/794233412034891776


    https://twitter.com/Billy/status/794275341325864960

  • NXT Takeover Brooklyn II

    NXT Takeover Brooklyn II

    NXTTakeOverII-Logo

    NXT Takeover Brooklyn II
    August 20, 2016
    Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York

    Jose

    Austin Aries vs. No Way Jose
    – Jose’s tee is “No Way -Jose”. That friggin’ hyphen. Does Jose say “No Way” a lot? 😛 I’m not a fan of his dance spot, it’s real house show gimmick and he got Aries to do it (at the Dublin house show anyway)
    – nothing notable; crowd initially like Jose but get solidly behind the far more talented veteran. Aries hits a sunset flip powerbomb (no chance of Aloha’ing there) and Last Chancery for the submission.
    – Itami hits the ring and out of nowhere hits the GTS! Wow I can’t believe they gave it away so quickly. Looking forward to their match in 2 months.

    NXTTakeOverII-Itami

    NXTTakeOverII-BillieNXTTakeOverII-Ember

    Ember Moon vs Billy Kay
    – Australia’s Billy Kay looks like the alternate costume version of Eva Marie.
    – Enjoyed Ember’s Milena mouth veil and gothic entrance; then she starts bouncing up and down as she’s excited, odd mix!
    – NXT is this weird place where you have 10+ year veterans and developmental talent on the same card. This match is between two new signees having a highly scripted match. Couple of awkward exchanges and dodgy punches, the two didn’t gel well.
    – Loved Ember’s top rope RKO/Stunner. Looked awesome, popped the crowd.
    – Not high hopes for either wrestler.

    NXTTakeOverII-Bobby

    Bobby Roode vs. Andrade Almas
    – amazing entrance by Roode. He tried very hard not to mark out, basking in the love of the NXT crowd singing his entrance theme (already!!). Ya gotta love when WWE do things solely for it’s very hardcore fans and they reciprocate in kind.
    – match got Andrade’s gimmick/personality over a bit (eg countering thrown to the outside by tangling himself in the ropes) but was more just a coming-out party for Roode
    – match had nothing huge going on, Roode won clean with his pump-handle slam (minus the bumming)

    NXTTakeOverII-CWC

    – OCC (not OOC) reveal the CWC trophy, which is a metallic, bulbous penis.

    The Revival (c) vs. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa
    – Revival are great at being old school rasslin’ heels (eg pulling someone off the apron) and Gargano/Ciampa warmed up to an exciting finish, tons of near falls that the crowd were really into; right team won I felt, Revival win with an inverted figure 4 and can face TM61 next probably.
    – The match was WAY better than expected! Very impressive. Crowd gave the challengers a standing ovation afterwards.
    – For a couple of seconds they tease a Ciampa heel turn but they didn’t. Good stuff.

    NXTTakeOverII-Ciampa

    – Jolly Rancher’s new slogan is “keep on sucking”. ha ha ha!

    Asuka (c) vs. Bayley
    – fantastic storyline match: Bayley was clearly in over her head vs Asuka. The champ enjoyed being in front, smiling as she controlled Bayley – which is almost a heel thing.
    – Bayley would fight back, despite changing tactics, hulking up, and escaping the Asuka lock, she’d get repeatedly beaten down
    – In the end, Bayley’s never-say-die attitude was kicked in the head (literally) and she went down for the 3.
    – AWESOME storytelling, the loss gets Bayley over more (as a sympathetic underdog) and Asuka looks like a fucking killer.
    – Great shot of Bayley’s mates Becky & Sasha heartbroken afterwards.
    – Small point but Charlotte was not sitting near the babyfaces – awesome kayfabe.
    – I expect Bayley to be called up any day now (she bloody worked Battleground last month wtf!) and since she was thoroughly outclassed there’s no need for a round 3/getting that 2nd women’s title reign – it’s been 3.5 years!

    NXTTakeOverII-Asuka

    NXTTakeOverII-Nakamura1

    Samoa Joe (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
    – Shinsuke’s entrance was very cool, had the violinist play a little piece beforehand and along with the main theme.
    – Joe’s street-Godzilla theme is also cool
    – started off with Joe dominating with well, rest holds, more of a showcase transitioning into various submission holds. It’s pretty awesome to see how large his repertoire is.
    – after 10 minutes or so it built up into big moves trying to score the win
    – both men kicked out of each other’s finishes (Joe selling a broken jaw is great)
    – Nakamura hit a top rope knee to the back of the head then a Kinshasa for the win and the NXT title, place goes nuts.

    Overall: Very good Takeover special (they’re always great) but it’s getting harder for them to live up to the unmatchable high standards/expectations set by previous attempts; especially losing a lot of wrestlers to the ‘big leagues’. It really is a TNA 2013 show with Aries, Roode and Joe in singles matches! With Sami doing nothing on the main roster maybe he could pop down for the next TakeOver. A very easy 2hr35m watch, but not unmissable.

    NXTTakeOverII-Nakamura2

    Not too hard to see who Roode modeled himself on!

    SummerSlam 2016 video review coming next week! More info: OSW Update for August

  • Super huge OSW announcement!

    Super huge OSW announcement!

    OH SHIIIIIIIIIII

    • YEEEEEEEOW! We’ll be at WRESTLECON 2017! It’s on the week leading up to WrestleMania 33, very close to where WM33 is being held, in Orlando Florida. It’s gonna be emotional!

    • The announcement vid was shot during WrestleCon last month, that’s Bill Apter (of Starrcade 94 PWI awards ‘fame’!), promoter Brad Jones, head of Gimmick Tree (the guys putting on the promotion) and of course THE GENIUS Lanny Poffo!

    • We’ll have more info on the event as they’re set but the main thing is if you were planning on going to a WrestleMania, go next year and meet us!! BOYS CLUB!!

    • To celebrate our 5th birthday (we started 5th May 2011!) we brought back our ORIGINAL t-shart for a limited run! If you missed out first time please pick one up, it’s out of some sizes already! (You guys work quick!!) SquaredCircle.com/category/t-shirts-partners

    @psychof0x 2

    • Newest Super OSW 64 videogame music show (Level 8!) OSWreview.com/super-osw-64-level-8

    • WWE Payback & RAW review: OSWreview.com/payback-2016-part-2

  • WWE Payback 2016

    WWE Payback 2016

    Payback-logoYo! Here are my thoughts on WWE’s latest and RAW the next night afterwards. Pre-amble is in italics, and credit WrestlingDailyNews for the gifs!

    PRE-SHOW: Dolph Ziggler vs Baron Corbin
    Mauro is calling it with Byron – it’s not news but it’s so great to hear him call moves and his general high quality commentary. Ziggles is the most overexposed wrestler on the roster, in that he’s wrestling long matches every week on TV and PPV for years now and his career has stagnated, making it difficult to get invested in his matches. Quiet back and forth with Ziggler countering an end of days into a roll up – so Baron loses while saving face. It’s the same booking as Corbin/Aries at Takeover Dallas. Despite having the Andre Trophy, much like Cesaro when he won it, the statue hasn’t improved his standing.

    US TITLE MATCH: Kalisto (c) vs Ryback
    Crazy to see the disparity between the midcard titles – the US makes the pre-show, same as last month, but the IC was in a Mania ladder match (best on the card) and a featured bout with two of RAW’s best wrestlers and hot feud. With the lack of focus, Kalisto’s moved much farther down the card (despite being an entertaining and unique act in WWE) and Ryback’s doing a jerk bully gimmick (going ooo!) I like it. As i do his weight-lifter’s belt (“the preshow stopper”) and his kicking of a downed opponent, like an animal seeing if it’s prey is dead. Loud Goldberg, and you can’t wrestle chants. They move quickly from spot to spot of kalisto countering ryback’s strongman offense. Lots of choreographed sequences which I really appreciate. In the end Ryback hits a military press from the middle rope (great!) Misses a frog splash and gets hit with a Salida del Sol, Kalisto retains. These guys worked great together (and the big man vs lucha is always an interesting pairing) it deserves more focus and should’ve been on the main PPV.
    On RAW: Rusev wins a #1 contenders battle royale for the US title (they didn’t bother doing a League of Nations bit on the show, even though they’re disbanding). Ryback asked to be pulled off TV and wasn’t on RAW, due to negotiating a new contract. He wrote a tumblr post (yes, tumblr) about how he’s creatively stifled and bemoaned losers/jobbers getting paid less than the winners…. WWE is an entertainment company, they push those who they think will make them the most money, like The New Day being crazy over (with tons of hot merch) and holding the WWE tag belts for over 250 days. WWE obviously don’t think much of him (with his won-loss record) but his claims aren’t black and white because they tried to push him as a main eventer but he’s known for not being safe – he injures his opponents.

    WWE PAYBACK
    The New Day promo. They recap that the winners of the tag match will face them next month for the tag titles. They are pretty much the only guys who live outside the WWE bubble, referencing Beyonce’s marital troubles and his Twitter DMs are open. Intro video – interestingly marketed as the first PPV of a new era which is about the fans…before The main event Cole says it started with Roman winning the belt… It also surrounded the main event with McMahons fighting, which is the opposite of a new era!

    Payback-NewEraTAG #1 CONTENDERS: Enzo & Cass vs Vaudevillains
    Always a fan of tournaments to determine new contenders, much more sporting reason than “I ran to the ring and insulted the champions first”. Two NXT tag teams with opposite RAW debuts – enzo with one of the best promos of his career vs quiet debut on SD and no build to such a comedy indy gimmick. New Day not on commentary surprisingly – probably because Owens would be on commentary later.
    Scarily Enzo is thrown to the outside but whips his neck off the middle rope on the way out and his head off the mat – immediately you know something is wrong, Enzo’s not moving. The match is halted and then called off as EMTs bring a stretcher down. The camera focuses on the commentators, only glancing at Enzo, who gets his name chanted. I watched this on Tuesday so I knew that Enzo was alright but it must’ve been very different for the live audience. He suffered a concussion but he’s clear otherwise, he’ll be out until he passes impact testing. On RAW they slotted Big Cass in as a third man (using Xavier to even the teams) and the Vaudevillains are the new #1 contenders. It feels likely that the Dudleys would’ve cost Enzo & Cass the match so they could feud.

    Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn
    They replay the excellent lifelong friendship-turned-feud promo from Raw. Owens cites his heel turn as Sami reached his goals before Zayn, but Sami stays face despite Owens taking Zayn’s spot on the main roster due to Sami’s injury. This match is way too low on the card – it’s the second most important match, should be semi main! JBL mentions Chicago is home to one of the best trash talkers of all time, not CM Punk but Michael Jordan!
    Both are excellent wrestlers with tremendous chemistry. I can’t really expound how amazing these guys are together, absolutely killing it. The match is hot, both guys working big moves at a fast pace, making each other look great. Crowd are invested in the match, popping for small things like a big clothesline. Awesome hotly contested back and forth, KO wins it CLEAN by catching Sami with a superkick and then the pop up powerbomb. KO bullies Byron Saxton in a post match interview and invites himself to commentate on the upcoming match…

    IC TITLE: The Miz (c) vs Cesaro
    Huge fan of Miz’s delusional Hollywood starlet gimmick, his least stupid haircut, his shiny Mortal Kombat Scorpion coat, and his incredibly hot wife Maryse. I also love his new two-take Jay gimmick where he redoes (repeats) part of his promo so he can get a better take. It’s all great stuff. He won the IC belt after Mania, dismally cutting Ryder’s 24-hour title reign. I read a rumour saying Neville was supposed to do the 24-hour reign but when he got injured, the rest of the ladder match participants lobbied for Ryder to get his WM moment. If true that’s wonderful.
    Cesaro’s got his James Bond entrance and stripper clothes. Just wish he used his previous theme, which sounds like the Goldfinger song. Tons of Cesaro section paper littering the crowd, awesome. Watching Cesaro work, it reminds me how awesome it is that we (the hardcore wrestling fans) are proven right to back the talented indie guys. Owens is a delight on commentary, very quick-witted insulting Cole and Byron. He was the MVP of this show, and it’s great how much time he got.
    It’s the Cesaro showcase, with multiple feats of strength. He just went into signature spot after spot and is a joy to watch. Fans can’t count the Cesaro swing correctly (they just count, which is about double the speed of the swing) and when Sami appears to brawl with Owens, the distraction allows Miz to retain with a rollup. Post match they all brawl (pointing at a 4 way at Extreme Rules) with Owens standing tall in the end. On RAW they further hint towards the 4 Way with Sami ending up on top, holding the belt. Very enjoyable bout with a “see you next time” finish. I think the Miz is at the level of the IC belt, however Cesaro, Sami and KO are already above it, so they’re definitely improving the standard of the title. Interesting to see KO go back for the IC belt rather than put in a claim for the WWE title.

    CLICK HERE FOR PART 2!

  • WWE Payback 2016 Part 2

    WWE Payback 2016 Part 2

    Continued from Part 1

    Funaki, part of the Japanese announce team, botches his one line and the camera moves away. It was so hilarious, even funnier than if he got his “#1 announcer!” line correctly.

    JERICHO vs DEAN AMBROSE
    Jericho’s such an entertaining heel troll. He’s quite funny on Twitter. Love his douchey aging rockstar heel-garnering look of a long scarf and dinner jacket with no shirt. Also loving his 70s generic heel insult, shouting “you stupid idiot!”. Jericho, despite winning at Mania against AJ, took the loss in the four-way the night afterwards, and found a new person to feud with in Ambrose. Dean, fresh off his depressing feud with Brock, is in a similar position. (Ambrose got beaten up each week before Mania by Brock, and then lost decisively clean at Mania — the feud was low on the card and didn’t elevate him at all, the guy who still has to stick around every week). They use Shane O Mac renaming the Highlight Reel as the Ambrose Asylum as a trivial reason to pick a fight with each other. The feud hasn’t really started yet.
    Both are accomplished, smooth wrestlers and the match really got cooking at points, but since it’s gotten little reason to care beyond both are great personalities and wrestlers, it felt flat to me. The crowd were up for it, and Dean got a much-needed win.
    On RAW, Steph cancelled the Ambrose Asylum talk segment and reinstated Jericho’s Highlight Reel, and Y2J broke Dean’s potted plant, “Mitch”. WWE have this thing about testing excellent personalities with awful wackiness, I don’t know how much longer Dean can work his magic before people start dismissing him.

    WOMEN’S TITLE: Charlotte (c) vs Nattie
    The Divas title is no more, as a new championship was awarded to Charlotte – the WWE women’s championship, a red version of the WWE title. Thank God, a million times better than the Divas title, feels like a legitimate title, and not a flowery girly accessory. Nattie’s wormed her way into the #1 contender’s spot and made Charlotte tap in a tag match. To counteract Ric’s interference, Uncle Bret will be in Mattie’s corner. I know he’s a bigger star but it’s odd that Jim Neidhart, her dad, isn’t in her corner. He’s alive and was seen in Total Divas.
    Nattie has always been an excellent women’s wrestler but never truly successful (always down the pecking order for Divas) perhaps it’s because she feels awkward. Like the girl in class who seems nice but you’ve absolutely nothing to say to her. Great to see her at the top of the queue. She showed much more personality & confidence/swagger esp. in the opening exchanges. A very enjoyable bout, but then it happens. A Fucking Montreal Screwjob. Jesus Christ. WWE will just not let it die — I thought when Bret returned that’d finally be it’s end. Little Naitch even does the McMahon look to Charlotte (who doesn’t seem to cop it). Ring the bell, Charlotte retains, and Bret & Nattie get their heat back by doing stereo sharpshooters. Bret says he came up with that final spot (not the screwjob).
    On RAW the heels denied any shenanigans (Little Naitch saying he heard Nattie verbally submit) and we’re getting a submission match next month.

    McMahons segment – Vince chooses Steph or Shane to run RAW.
    “CM Punk” chants and Vince goads them to continue, which they don’t, lol. Steph tries to make her case and goddamn, the crowd are SO LOUD booing her. It’s so amazing. Man, wrestling fans are still super-passionate. I wonder what casual fans think when they see/hear segments like this. She gives a pretty great corporate pitch about why she should be picked. Shane (beloved to fans everywhere) goes for the internet approach by picking headlines from various news outlets (no dirtsheets obviously!). Honestly, Steph had a much better argument and Shane didn’t pick up on Vince mentioning RAW reinventing itself (so a new person should be in charge). In the end we get the ultimate cop out of a Austin/Bischoff 50/50, both of you run RAW. We’re gonna get so many McMahon squabbling backstage segments, just give it a few weeks. BTW, Vince has the amazing line of “I don’t listen to anyone…except me!” line that should be splicied in out of context 😀 This segment feels like it should be on RAW (as it affects RAW) but it’s great to hear the crowd absolutely rabid at Steph.

    MAIN EVENT WWE TITLE: Roman Reigns (c) vs AJ Styles
    Roman was crowned a 3-time WWE champion (Jesus!) last month at WrestleMania in an absolute stinker against Triple H. Styles won the 4-way on RAW the night afterwards and is the new #1 contender. Adding sizzle to the steak, former Bullet Club members, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, are hinting at being paired with Styles by interfering on his behalf. AJ is playing a babyface that is friends with heels. Since WWE are building the company around Reigns, and delayed his big wrestlemania win by a year (due to overwhelming negative reaction), there’s no way Roman was going to lose this match. But it’s up to the performers to make me doubt that.
    It’s interesting to see Reigns play the big strongman vs the smaller AJ, he did some big shoulder-tackles and repeat deadlift-powerbombs to show off his strength. Reminds me of Shawn Michaels remarking how people would love to wrestle the Rockers because they would bump all around for them and would take all these power moves. They put on a much, much better match than Reigns had last month, and go full on X7 with the amount of false finishes and kicking out of each other’s signature moves. AJ did a phenomenal forearm to Reigns breaking the announce table, looked fantastic. They actually did it so much it got me to believe maybe AJ could possibly win it! (so well done!). They do a ton of screwy finishes (countout, DQ) so Shane and Steph can restart the bout, Doc and Karl run-in, Usos run-in (it set up a match on RAW the next night) but Reigns secures the win with a spear. Very entertaining match (even if seeing McMahons stick themselves in it is a bit disheartening) — this arguably Roman’s best singles bout ever. Great job guys.

    We close the show backstage with Vince, Shane and Steph agreeing to an extreme rules rematch at Extreme Rules.

    Overall: Kevin Owens stole the show, the matches were generally great (only one I wasn’t invested in was Ambrose/Jericho) but apart from the McMahons going on before, during and after the main event, it was a high quality wrestling PPV. So happy to have Cesaro back as well. Good job WWE! However, since extreme rules is 3 weeks later, a lot of the feuds are just continuing, making this show a bit inconsequential. Way better viewing experience than Mania, and tons of great wrestlers on the roster! Thumbs up!

    Here’s KO tweeting Enzo’s alright 🙂
    https://twitter.com/FightOwensFight/status/726983158730756096

    Table for 3 review: http://oswreview.com/table-for-3-four-horsemen/

    Super OSW 64 Level 8 videogame radio show will be on the podcast feed tomorrow!

  • UR Fight iPPV

    UR Fight iPPV

    URfight-logo

    UR Fight (pronounced “your fight”)
    The Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix AZ
    20 March 2016

    An iPPV designed to promote the web-TV channel “URshow.tv”. It’s pitch was a broad nostalgia hodge-podge of worked pro-wrestling and shoot MMA/boxing bouts with older and/or disgraced personalities. Ken Shamrock was originally scheduled to fight Dan Severn (the match I was most looking forward to, that we never properly got in WWF!) but Ken was replaced by WCW/Friends-alum Tank Abbott, who wasn’t licensed, so the match was scrapped entirely. Today it was found out that Shamrock tested positive for steroids (and methadone – used for pain or drug dependence) at Bellator 149 last month. So is it worth the asking price of $12? Let’s find out.

    URfight-GaryBusey

    Opening video: Holy shit, in a bad way. Michael Rappaport (co-star of Inside Out with Triple H) Ken Shamrock, Chael Sonnen in front of a US flag, Gary Busey et al plugging URshow.tv and it’s “video AMAs, real time voting, and the most unbelievable contests and prizes”. Oh my God! Smacks of some money mark paying disinterested celebrities to hock their soulless web channel. Combined with the card subject to change and multiple types of sporting contests, it has the potential to be another heroes of wrestling.

    URfight-commentators

    Commentators: Jim Ross, Sean Wheelock (MMA commentator) and Rampage Jackson.
    In 2008 he was charged with a felony hit and run with the police in tow and a female victim tried to claim it caused a stillbirth (which was dismissed). You might remember he was in TNA (!) with the Main Event Mafia and hung around Angle; even wrestling against the Aces & Eights. They have no chemistry. Sean Wheelock does a good job of presenting points of information, although he embarrassingly sucks up to JR using smark terms like “mark”, “legit heat” and “turning heel”. It’s great to hear JR, and God love him he’s trying, but even he can’t feign being interested/excited. He does have some fun quips throughout the night. “Hey JR, you should promote your own shows.” “I’d like to keep my money.”

    Our innoggeral 😉 contest is Shannon Ritch vs Mavrick Harvey.
    The first of 4 -count ‘em 4- bouts! And the PPV is 2 and a half hours. Rampage immediately notes the mat must be slippery, affecting how people fight. It rucks up easily and the ring looks cheap – they fucking skimped on the ring affecting the quality of the fights! Something straight of bumfights with how unprofessional this was, setting the tone: Harvey brawling in the ropes and a big wedgie! Harvey won with a rear naked choke in Round 1.

    https://twitter.com/ZProphet_MMA/status/711723532263268354

    Chael Sonnen vs Michael Bisping – Metamoris Rules (Submission-only grappling)
    Chael’s a hell of a promo and it sucks he didn’t (or hasn’t) gotten into WWE. Given that he’s a notable friend of CM Punk and was released from UFC in mid-2014 due to his multiple failed drugs tests, he won’t be coming to WWE anytime soon. Bisping beat Anderson Silva at UFC Fight Night 84 a couple weeks ago so I’m unsure how he can fight for another organisation. Rampage did note that win but said he was lucky, the judges beat Silva. Sonnen weighed in at 231 (19 heavier than Bisping), JR quips he enjoyed the catering at ESPN (lol!). They sleep through their fight – an eternity before the first takedown attempt. They grapple like they’re both avoiding injuring themselves and their opponent, like they were paid to appear, not to compete. Commentators call it “conservative” and “showing mutual respect”. Boo! In the last minute there was a scissors takedown and angle lock attempt but time was up and it was a draw. Chael says he won’t fight again professionally. It’s like the ending of Dexter – if you wanted no-one to ask you to come back, perfect job! Crowd are absolutely dead. They’ve turned down the lights but you can see the scores of empty ringside seats! Deafening silence!

    https://twitter.com/ZProphet_MMA/status/711732626080534530

    Pre-recorded fight from earlier today: Kobe “The Stunna” Ortiz vs Brendan “Tiny Shorts” Tierney OH MY GOD! It looks like the fighters are in slow motion and they’re pulling their punches. It looked wrong. Sadly no stunner, but a TKO in Round 3, a stoppage due to strikes, the Stunna winning it.

    Wow, mega heat with “intermission performer” Riff Raff singing a song with four disinterested models standing in the ring. The commentators admit it shit the bed, pondering if the cheer for angle was really for Riff Raff leaving. Ha!

    Pro-Wrestling: Rey vs Angle (41 and 47 respectively) in a 2 out of 3 falls match.
    What we all came to see! Idiot backstage reporter gets her facts wrong live and Rey has to correct her, admitting he’s not wearing the mask a fan made for him, but rather the fan is wearing it and will accompany him. WTF don’t bring up the mask at all then! That’s like a kid giving you a drawing and for safe-keeping you put it in the bin! Wear it you cunt! Or get a proper version of it made. The kid is also taller than Rey, and in the shirt, you could tell the fans didn’t know which one of the two was the star. No choreography as the fan is told to look at the screen and he looks at something else. The whole event feels unrehearsed/poor direction.
    Hail to the chief! Kurt Angle comes out to Bob Backlund’s theme. YES. This match was reffed by TNA’s Brian Hebner and tonight’s announcer is former WWE guy Justin Roberts. Presentation is crucial in modern wrestling and it feels very bush league/unimportant. Roughly mid 2000s ROH. Bit rusty starting off, but it heats up and Angle gets the first fall with the Angle Slam. Rampage shakes his head at the small size of Mysterio, having to fight a man much heavier than him. Rey ties it up with a 619 and a shit splash, and straight into near falls (including the battered sausage!). Ref bump, low blow and when Angle grabs a chair, Rampage shouts Motherfucker! Jackson was enjoying himself here (he name-dropped Ultimate Warrior and JYD as his favs) but I wonder how most MMA fighters/broadcasters feel about calling (obviously scripted) pro-rasslin bouts. With Riff-Raff’s distraction (taking the chair away), Rey wins with the 619 and the world’s shittest frog splash. No themesong plays. Riff-Raff hotdogs with Mysterio to silence. It just feels out of sorts! HILARIOUS them trying to get Riff Raff over. A decent but inconsequential and unmemorable bout, it’s like someone was watching SummerSlam 2002 on the Network and wanted it on their show. When the two warmed up is was fun to see them wrestling each other again. JR notes “at least the crowd came alive for the pro wrestling match” — it woke the crowd up, which was great. JR keeps putting over how massive it was for Rey to win 2 straight falls (coming from behind) and nobody’s done it; gotta mention Benoit did it 2-0 at Insurrextion 2001!

    https://twitter.com/ZProphet_MMA/status/711747413103525888

    MAIN EVENT: Boxing: Roy Jones Jr vs Vyron Phillips
    Old boxer (Jones) vs younger MMA fighter in a boxing match. Contributing to the carny atmosphere, fighters sent in tapes to UR Fight, and facebook voted for the final four nominees (which Vyron won), so the 34-year old gets to box his hero, the 47-year old Roy Jones Jr. If he won he’d get $100,000. Voting only STARTED about 3 weeks ago (FIX! FIIIIIX!) so it was a slam dunk. Jones outboxed him easily, and smashed him with a right in the jaw in the second round, and despite Vyron getting up, the ref called waved it off as a TKO.

    https://twitter.com/KOKINGS4/status/711942002011668480

    Overall: Pretty much a low-rent freak-carny show! Very short fights, it delivered on what you’d expect, which is for it to be not very good! Save your money, look for gifs online. Shame on Sonnen/Bisping. But hey, we got a wedgie, a solid punch, and Angle vs Mysterio.

    So you didn’t miss much! But if you saw it, lemme know what you thought. Our 3RD ANNUAL GOLDEN NOGGERS video dropped last night (watch it here!) and our New storyline arc trailer earlier in the week (watch it here!)

  • WWE Roadblock Review

    WWE Roadblock Review

    WWE Roadblock
    March 12th, 2016
    Ricoh Coliseum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    WWE.Roadblock.title

    Isn’t it great to have a WWE live event on a Saturday? WWE decided to televise the Toronto house show, as they’re looking to increase their live content on the Network (and more reasons to subscribe) as they continue to move away from traditional PPV. It also serves as a stop-gap in storylines between No Way Out (sorry, Faaaaaaaastlane!) and WrestleMania; as it was built on what looks like alternative booking plans for WrestleMania – Triple H vs Dean Ambrose, and Bray Wyatt vs Brock Lesnar. Notable by his absence is Roman Reigns – who’s been gone since t-shirt-and-jeans babyface Triple H gave him a decisive beating, kayfabe putting him on the shelf for a few weeks so Reigns could actually get nose surgery for a deviated septum. Time’s ticking as Mania’s in 3 weeks and he isn’t being missed, and right now, the ‘real’ main event is Shane McMahon vs The Undertaker. The show ran just short of 2.5 hours, and with the small entrance way and no pyro, it definitely felt like a house show. That’s a good thing though – it didn’t look like RAW or Smackdown, and was more wrestling-centred, making it an easy watch. Sadly it was the RAW commentary team of Michael Cole, JBL and Byron Saxton; so no Mauro Ranallo, who is doing a great job on smackdown, who brings much-needed credibility to the announce team.

    Dark Matches: Mark Henry def. Local wrestler Randy Sharp (aka Randy Reign) and Goldust went over Viktor.

    The New Day vs Sheamus & Wade Barrett

    WWE-Roadblock-BootyOs
    New Day pushed their Booty-Os cereal box, which is a legit box you can buy that contains their new t-shirt. Amazing — that’s some really clever, inventive WWE creativity in merch that we rarely see. Also, shout-out to their WWE-championship kids sneakers! They pushed it hard and went a bit overboard with the trombone New Day Rocks chants (3 in ~5 minutes)
    It’s sad to see 4-time WWE/World Champion Sheamus, and equally-talented Wade Barrett being presented as comedy jobbers in the failed League of Nations faction. Originally the heels were built around WWE World Champion Sheamus, which fell apart within weeks as Reigns won the title. As they’re much less entertaining and cemented as a faction than New Day, they’re actually lower on the totem pole. And it showed here – they were outsmarted by 3-Man New day, as Big E delivered the Big Ending to Barrett, getting the win in 9:49. Most notable moment was Kofi doing a flying nothing off the top rope and awkwardly bowling over Sheamus!

    The Flying Nothing

    Chris Jericho vs Jack Swagger

    Yep, Jack Swagger! CAPTAIN…Jack Swagger. He’s still employed. Jericho cut a real house-show heel promo (“Canada smells, Toronto is the anus, I moved away from Canada”) cheap heat but hey, it got the desired crowd reaction. He worked in that Swagger beat him for the World title (remember that?) and Swagger’s name got booed, the opposite of his intention. After slagging the “We The People” catchphrase, Swagger comes out. It must be a house show, ha! So the Pro-American who sucks is babyface vs the heel Canadian in Canada. WHAAAT?! I think Kalisto, Neville, Zayn, even Ziggler would’ve been a better choice (they’re saving AJ for WrestleMania). Swagger’s main negative is that he’s known for injuring people, which means WWE won’t want to risk their bigger stars working programs with him (which is why he’s on Superstars/Main Event, amongst being a poor promo!). It annoys me that his world title reign precludes him from being a boy. Swagger comes out with a black t-shirt and training shorts over his attire, he looks like such a jobber! And job he does. Jericho has some nice heel touches like pulling the ref’s leg to get to the ropes. He applies a Boston Crab to Swagger (there’s absolutely no elevation to call it a Walls of Jericho) and gets the tap out win in 7:54.

    Enzo & Big Cass vs The Revival (c) for the NXT tag championships

    Very jarring to see an NXT match on a WWE house show, a televised first of it’s kind. Enzo & Big Cass are jersey-shore guidos that have a New Age Outlaws-esque intro that the crowd can sing-along to, and they aren’t great wrestlers (esp. Big Cass). They’ve been tagging for almost 3 years now and have never gotten the tag titles. The Revival (previously called ‘The Mechanics’) are said to be a throwback to the olden days, like Tully & Arn, which is a massive (and inaccurate!) complement, they’re grand in the ring but have “lack of flash” i.e. they’re charisma vacuuums – which make them a perfect contrast to Enzo & Cass. They do have some nice old-school tactics (eg pulling a guy out of the ring/distraction) which I do like. Big Cass used Wade Barrett’s bossman slam from earlier, dammit D’lo! Oddly Cass spent a lot of time in the ring, hoofing Enzo out into their opponents. I really like The Revival’s super-codebreaker called the Shatter machine (retaining in 10:17). Like most of the matches on the card, it was decent but unmemorable. There’s an NXT special Mania weekend, I imagine The American Alphas will get a shot in the biggest NXT show of the year.

    Shatter Machine

    Click here for part 2!