This Week In Wresting: Tournaments Created, Decisions Made, And Hell Frozen Over

By Gwen Lombard

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW

After a whirlwind of a Survivor Series Pay-Per-View (that I unfortunately didn’t cover due to Thanksgiving), this Monday’s show opened with the first of two major returns that happened at Survivor Series: Randy Orton. I am so incredibly happy that he’s finally returned after almost two years of being on the injured list after receiving double fusion back surgery. He hasn’t lost a step though, and thanked the crowd for waiting so long for him. He announced that he still has unfinished business with The Bloodline and that he has receipts for every member. He then got interrupted by Rhea Ripley who informed him that his focus was misplaced and that he should be worried about Judgment Day. If Orton hadn’t returned and thwarted Damien Priests’ attempted cash-in, Priest would be the World Heavyweight Champion, and that makes Randy the Judgment Day enemy. This brought out JD McDonaugh and Dominik Mysterio to beat him down, and JD received an RKO for his worries. This set up a match between Randy and Dominik later on in the night.

Our first match of the night was a tag team gauntlet match, where two teams start and the winner will go on to immediately face the next team, and so on until the winner is declared in the final match. It started with Alpha Academy’s Otis and Akira Tozawa taking on the team of DIY, Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa. This was a fun match, though quick, and it saw DIY advance into the next match. The team of Indus Sher came out next, and DIY eliminated them as well in an equally quick fashion. They lost to the Creed Brothers, however, after a great match between the two teams. What was even better was next when the Creed Brothers took on Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods of The New Day. This was a great example of wonderful tag teamwork, and worth the watch in my opinion. This also carried into the next match after the Creed Brothers managed to pull a major upset and beat New Day to advance. Imperium was the final team to beat and somehow this match might’ve been even better. Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci worked together so wonderfully, and they battled the Creed Brothers for nearly twenty minutes. In the end though, despite their wonderful cohesion, they were eliminated by the Creed Brothers who are now the number one contenders for the Tag Team Titles.

Cody Rhodes came down to the ring next and talked about how much it meant to him that his team won in the WarGames match at Survivor Series because it’s the match stipulation that his father, The American Dream Dusty Rhodes, came up with so long ago. But that was Saturday, and he has to look forward now and is officially the first man to announce himself for the 2024 Royal Rumble. The lights suddenly went out, and it was revealed that Cody was now Shinsuke Nakamura’s latest target, spraying him in the face with his Red Mist to end the segment.

Bronson Reed took on Ivar next in a great example of just how much fun a real heavyweight match can be. Two massive men just absolutely knocked the spit out of each other while at the same time being incredibly agile and athletic. They brawled outside of the ring and out into the crowd until they were both counted out and it was a dual disqualification. This didn’t stop them, however, and Ivar hit a Senton from the top of a production crate onto Reed and several security guards while out in the aisles of the crowd. It was a great moment.

Seth Rollins came down to the ring next to say that he’d discussed with Adam Pearce about the next challenger for his belt, but before he could announce anything, Drew McIntyre interrupted him. The Judgment Day promised Jey Uso to him in a cage, and they didn’t deliver on their promise at WarGames. But, in a sportsman-like fashion, he congratulated Seth on beating him and Judgment Day in the match and told him that he hopes for a rematch for the World 

Heavyweight Championship in the future. Seth agreed but argued that there’s one person back in the locker room who deserves a shot at the title first, and that’s Jey. Drew went haywire, beating down Seth while shouting that he’s more deserving, he beat Jey two weeks ago. Jey made his way down and joined Seth to beat Drew back until he retreated backstage.

We then had our main event match, Randy Orton making his return to singles action against Dominik Mysterio. This was an incredibly fun match, and I will happily admit to my personal bias showing there. Randy is one of my all-time favorite wrestlers ever, and he’s just made his grand return. It’s not going to be anything less than fantastic in my book. He toyed around with Dominik enough to have some fun and fought off JD McDonaugh who was ringside as well. In the end, Randy won with a beautifully executed RKO.

Our main event segment was taken by the second of the two triumphant returns at Saturday’s Survivor Series, CM Punk. To quote his promo to the crowd, hell has frozen over and Punk is back inside of a WWE ring. This is something nobody ever thought possible after the litany of events that unfolded in the early 2010s between him and the company. However, he has returned and the devil is eating snow cones. He told the crowd how happy he is now that he’s finally returned, and he has so much to do now. He talked about how almost everyone backstage was happy to see him, and how this place is like a second home to him even after all these years away. He thanked the fans and set the microphone down, seemingly finished with his words except he looked dead into the camera lens and spoke loud enough for the camera’s microphone to pick it up “I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to make money.” These words were the ones that sent the show off the air and they hold some incredible possibilities. But we’ll just have to wait and see what he does next.

AEW DYNAMITE

The show opened with Jon Moxley taking on Jay Lethal in a Continental Classic Tournament match. The tournament was announced last week, and will feature a litany of the company’s best talent split into two leagues, and the winner of both leagues will face off against each other to win the tournament. Moxley and Lethal faced each other in the Gold League, and they put on a great match. After some brutal back and forth that saw Lethal put a heavy target on Moxley’s knees, including several Figure Four Leg Locks and Dragon Leg Screw Whips, Moxley was able to lock in a Rear Naked Choke submission and Lethal had no choice but to tap out.

Another Continental Classic match was next, this time in the form of Mark Briscoe taking on Rush. This was a fun match that let Mark show off his rough-and-tumble bruiser style that made him such a great hit in Ring Of Honor. Despite overwhelming being the crowd’s favorite, Rush fought his way out of Mark’s Jay Driller finisher and hit him Bull’s Horn’s finisher instead to keep Mark down for the three count.

MJF came down to the ring next to thank Samoa Joe. He said that it’s because Joe broke the mold of a ‘massive male bodybuilder model’ as a world champion during his time in TNA Wrestling, that he’s able to stand here in AEW today. If it hadn’t been for the roads Joe paved, MJF wouldn’t have had the opportunity to pave the roads he is now. But on December 30th at World’s End, it’s no longer about Joe’s legacy, but his own. This is when the lights in the arena suddenly went black and when they came back up, no House of Black unfortunately, but a group of people dressed all in black with black masks and the devil mask that’s been taunting MJF and his opponents for weeks now on their back. They attacked MJF, holding him down and even pulling out a baseball bat before Samoa Joe ran down to make the save. The masked men fled, and a message appeared on the entrance screen asking Joe and MJF if they were willing to face the unknown in a tag match next week. MJF immediately accepted, to Joe’s chagrin.

Next was Wardlow versus AR Fox. This was wrestling’s closest comparison to what happens when you put a pumpkin in a tiger’s enclosure, and he just bats it around for a few hours. Wardlow just decimated Fox, hitting Powerbomb after Powerbomb, a Lariat, and even a Senton from the top rope. Fox was able to get away for a brief moment and attempt to hit a 450 Splash, but Wardlow kicked out immediately. After another series of Powerbomb, the referee had to stop the match, and Wardlow was declared the winner.

Julia Hart defended her TBS Championship against Emi Sakura in a House Rules match which gives the House of Blacks’ opponent the ability to choose whatever stipulation they think will help them win. Emi decided that the match could not be won via submission, and this resulted in a very fun match. Julia attempted to lock in her Hartless submission before hitting a Moonsault to pin Emi and win.

Christian Cage was in the ring next, surrounded by security guards, and asked Adam Copeland to come down to the ring so they could talk man to man. When Adam finally appeared, Cage shooed the security guards out of the ring, claiming management wanted them to be there, but he knew they didn’t need it. He talked to Copeland about their long, storied history together and just how deep their bond goes; forty-plus years of friendship is a hard thing to wash away. They worked up the ranks in this business together, side by side through being dirt broke without a dime to their names, to having more money than they knew what to do with, to both being forced into earlier retirement, and both coming back and getting in the ring again despite everything. Cage reminded Adam that they’re brothers, and admitted that Adam was right. They should tag together again, and end their careers like they started! Adam turned his back to Cage, thinking, and Cage raised his TNT title belt to take a cheap shot and hit him with it, but at the last moment, Adam turned around and kicked him below the belt. He told Cage to shine the TNT belt up real nice because it’ll be coming home with him next week when they finally face each other on one. And he added in a ‘go fuck yourself’ as a nice nod of payback.

Our main event was Jay White versus Swerve Strickland for the Continental Classic tournament. This was a fantastic showing for both men, amazing skill and talent on show. This is the Jay White that I’ve been wanting to see, and Swerve hasn’t slowed down at all since that Texas Death Match at Full Gear. If anything, it seems to have spurred him on more. This match was a back-and-forth battle that saw both men try to win several times, and just about do it. Swerve finally managed to get the win when Jay set him up for the Bladerunner, but he countered at the last moment and rolled Jay up to sneak the win. This was absolutely my match of the night, and I’d encourage anyone who has a spare twenty minutes to take the time and watch it. A great example of both men’s abilities.

WWE SMACKDOWN

We got a cold open to the show that saw Smackdown General Manager Nick Aldis and Raw General Manager Adam Pearce arguing over who got to sign Randy Orton to their show. Aldis brought up a great point, asking why Pearce didn’t just sign Orton to Raw when he was there four days ago, and Pearce didn’t have an answer. Paul Heyman appeared though, and told Pearce that he was willing to do anything to make sure that Orton doesn’t end up on the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns’ show.

The show properly started with Bianca Belair in the ring, saying that her business with Damage Control isn’t over yet, despite WarGames. She’s coming for Iyo Sky’s Women’s Championship. This brought out Charlotte Flair and Shotzi, and it devolved rather quickly into the members of Damage Control members running down and attacking the good guys. However, Bayley was missing from the attack. She didn’t run down with her faction mates, and we saw backstage later on that she had been left out, she wasn’t told that they were planning on attacking Charlotte, Bianca, and Shotzi.

Pete Dunne graced my television screen next, so you know it’s a great night. He faced off against Bobby Lashley with the Street Profits at ringside. Ridge Holland walked out on Pete last week, and so he was left on his own this week with Ridge nowhere in sight. The match didn’t last very long and through a few distractions from the Street Profits, Bobby hit the Spear on Pete to win. Afterward, however, Pete was angry backstage and saw Pretty Deadly making fun of him for losing. He tried his best to attack them, but the two-on-one numbers game quickly overpowered him, and he was left lying on the floor in pain as Pretty Deadly pointed and laughed, chanting “You’re alone!” like school children. They’re so stupid and I love them dearly, but they were bullying Pete so I do have to be mad. But I do have to love their stupidity.

After such a nice time seeing Pete Dunne and Pretty Deadly on my screen, I was subjected to sitting through a Logan Paul in-ring promo. He announced a tournament to decide who the next challenger to his United States Championship will be since Rey Mysterio got injured, and that it will start next week featuring Santos Escobar, Bobby Lashley, Dragon Lee, Karrion Kross, Austin Theory, Grayson Waller, Kevin Owens, and a mystery contender from NXT. And Kevin Owens’ First Rule of Wrestling rings true again as his name was spoken, so now he must appear. Owens came down to the ring and got all up in Logan’s face until Grayson Waller and Austin Theory arrived to mock Owens for only ever wanting to punch people in the face. So then he did that and punched Theory in the face, a glorious sight I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of. This led to a match between Waller and Owens though that was a lot of fun. Logan was on commentary throughout, but if you mute the stream then it’s far more enjoyable to watch. This was a really fun match that saw Owens make the classic comeback after having his right arm targeted throughout the match. He rolled up Waller in a surprise pin to win.

Our main event match was next, seeing Kairi Sane take on Bianca Belair. Backstage before the match, we saw Iyo tell Bayley to stay backstage and that she wasn’t needed at ringside tonight. Bayley obviously didn’t like that and so after everybody else had gotten themselves ejected from ringside for attempting to interfere with the match, she ran down while the referee’s back was turned. The match up until this point had been fairly fun. Bianca is always a treat to watch, and Kairi is so enjoyable to watch that I’m super glad she’s finally back with the company. Bayley interfered though by attacking Bianca, and her appearance ringside confused Kairi just long enough that when she finally got up to the top rope to hit the InSane Elbow, Bianca was able to counter it into a K.O.D. and win.

Our closing segment saw Randy Orton make his grand and long-awaited return to Smackdown. In the ring, Adam Pearce offered him a match against the winner of Seth versus Jey for the World Heavyweight Championship next week if he signed to Raw, but Nick Aldis wasted no time. He handed Orton the contract, saying that if he signed, he’d give him a shot at the people who put him on the injured list for almost two years: The Bloodline. The easiest choice Randy’s ever made was signing that blue contract. Before he could sign it though, Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa ran down to stop him. LA Knight made the save though, pulling Solo’s attention and brawling with him to the back. Randy hit an RKO on Jimmy, signed the contract, and told Paul Heyman to call Roman Reigns and warn him that “Daddy’s back.”

AEW RAMPAGE

The show opened with a big eight-man tag team match that saw Danhausen, Hook, Orange Cassidy, and Trent Beretta take on Angelo Parker, Daddy Magic, Evil Uno, and Alex Reynolds. This was overall just a fun match. Any match with Danhausen is worth the watch, and the same is true for Orange and Hook as well. Dark Order has been doing some great work lately, so seeing Evil Uno and Reynolds have a television match was great. Danhausen and Hook carried a lot of this match, and Dark Order was unfortunately on the receiving end of a lot of that carrying, but the end thankfully came when Hook sank in Redrum on Angelo and Dark Order didn’t have to be pinned.

We then got a trios match pitting Hikaru Shida, Kris Statlander, and Skye Blue against Anna Jay, Ruby Soho, and Saraya. Angelo Parker, despite Anna being his faction mate and having a blossoming romance with Ruby, was told to stay backstage by Anna and Saraya. This was a chaotic match, with each woman hitting her finisher at least once. Ruby brought about the beginning of the end though when she mistakenly kicked Anna in the face and let herself be hit with the Code Blue by Skye for the win. Saraya pulled Ruby backstage by the hair, afterward.

Our main event was another great trios match, this time with Brian Cage teaming with The Workhorsemen (Anthony Henry and JD Drake) to take on the team of El Hijo de Vikingo, Komander, and Penta El Zero Miedo. This was an adequate main event in my opinion; I love the luchadors a lot but Brian Cage just doesn’t hold my attention. The luchadors were on the offensive throughout most of the match despite Brian’s inability to be kept down by anything. However, Anthony spelled the beginning of the end when he kicked Brian in the head as Komander ducked just out of the way. Brian left the ring, abandoning the Workhorsemen to fight on their own after that and Anthony was hit by each of the luchadores finishers in succession until Vikingo finally pinned him and ended the misery.

AEW COLLISION

Claudio Castagnoli represented the Blackpool Combat Club against House of Black’s Brody King in a Continental Classic match to begin the show. As is to be expected with either of these men in the ring, this was a hard-hitting match. Claudio looked great, even managing to get Brody in the Giant Swing at one point and hitting a perfectly executed European Uppercut that lifted Brody off the mat. Brody didn’t let it go unanswered though, and hit a Piledriver followed by a devastating Lariat to knock Claudio out and pin him for the win.

Abadon took on Kiera Hogan next, and this was such a fun match. My opinions are largely swayed by my love for Abadon, but Kiera got a few great moments in as well, hitting a great Drop Kick and a Neckbreaker. However, despite Kiera’s best efforts, Abadon powered out and hit a beautiful Black Dahlia finisher on her for the win. As they had their hand raised in victory, however, the lights went out and when they came back on, Julia Hart was standing in the corner, smiling at Abadon. The lights went out again and Julia was gone when they came back on, leaving Abadon alone in the ring. I am so extremely excited for their match, give Abadon every match they ever want. Please. They need to be on screen more often.

Christopher Daniels teamed with Matt Sydal to take on House of Black’s Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews next, and this was a good match. Sydal showed off his skills in this match, though House of Black kept a solid grasp on the upper hand, always on the offensive. They put out Daniels with a Curb Stomp from Buddy and finished with a Roundhouse Kick from Black who pinned him. After the match finished, the lights went out, but instead of the House of Black disappearing, FTR’s music began to play. They made their way down to the ring as Malakai asked if they were coming to join the House. After all, the only people who’ve been there for them lately have been the House. Before Dax could grab the microphone to speak, Buddy nailed him with a kick and a Curb Stomp. He was held down and forced to watch as Malakai hit Cash with a perfect Roundhouse Kick. Dax held up his middle finger, but that was all he had the chance to do before getting obliterated with a Spin Kick aimed right for his head.

Toni Storm was interviewed by Renee Paquette backstage where she announced that Skye Blue would be the first challenger for her Women’s Title. And, as the great old school Hollywood star she is, she gave Skye some advice: walk backwards, because the only time anyone has anything good to say about her, it’s when they’re taking pictures of her bottom. Skye responded, accepting the challenge and declaring that, despite whatever weird midlife crisis Toni is having right now, none of it is going to stop her from taking that title belt.

Kip Sabian faced El Hijo de Vikingo next in a fantastic match. My love for Kip might be swaying my view of this, but Vikingo never has a bad match either, and this was a great match for the both of them. They worked together well, and though Vikingo kept the upper hand throughout, Kip got some good offense in. In the end, though, Vikingo hit a 630 Splash to pin Kip and win. Kip Sabian was on my television though, so despite the loss, it’s a win in my book, at least he got television time.

The Blackpool Combat Club was represented again in the Continental Classic by Bryan Danielson as he took on Eddie Kingston in the main event. This was a barn burner of a match, as was expected. Two of the most passionate men in the business today, wrestling for the sake of wrestling as an art form, there was no other option than to be great. Danielson wore an eyepatch as he’s still healing from his fractured orbital bone, but his depth perception was still perfect as he nailed Eddie with Drop Kicks and Headbutts. Eddie fired back with Spinning Back Fists and Vertical Suplexes, but Danielson kept kicking out of pinning predicaments, refusing to stay down. These two have such an insane amount of grit in their souls and such a threshold for pain that it’s surprising one of them did eventually stay down. Unfortunately, the one who finally did was Eddie after Danielson struck him with a Running Knee. Danielson might’ve celebrated, but Eddie is still one of the biggest fan favorites. So while he might not have any points in the tournament yet, he has the fans on his side.