THY KINGDOM AE-DUB/MLW FIGHTLAND/NWA HARD TIMES 3

Welcome to an all new edition of Blogs Count Anywhere, the complementary pro wrestling blog to the ODPH Podcast & 607 TWS: The Wrestling Show! It’s been a very busy few weeks as I hit New York Comic Con and have been catching up on all the latest pro wresting news. WWE & GCW have been making some headlines the past week. Bray Wyatt has returned in a BIG way. Nick Gage is the GCW Champion avoiding retirement. All have taken up the majority of press. For this entry, there are some other organizations making some waves in their own right that you should definitely know about. Let’s take a quick lap around the feds and see what’s happening, shall we?

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Kicking things off is All Elite Wrestling. During all the headlines, it was announced that current world champion Jon Moxley has signed an extension that will keep him with the company for 5 more years. This is a big win for AEW that needed one in the worst way. Moxley has restarted his career in AEW and took that energy to NJPW & GCW just to name a few indie feds. Mox has been the true face of AEW for a while now and seeing him invest back can only help the company during its’ recent locker room woes. During this time, it was also announced that Renee Paquette has joined the company as well. Another HUGE win for AEW as she is an excellent interviewer & commentator. Memo to the AEW powers that be: PUT RENEE ON THE DYNAMITE ANNOUNCE TEAM ASAP!

AEW also finished a run of shows in Toronto with some noteworthy events transpiring. Orange Cassidy defeated PAC to win the All-Atlantic championship. Fans were also gifted a segment to hype up the Adam Page/Moxley title match for the 10/18 edition of Dynamite (Special Day change). Ring of Honor also had their (more than) fair share of TV time this week as Chris Jericho defended the ROH title against Bryan Danielson with an assist from the ROH Pure Champion Daniel Garcia. It was a better show than the 3 year anniversary one but imo, AEW Rampage had the bigger moment coming from its conclusion.

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Walking out at the end of the show to face off with ROH tag champs FTR was Mike Bennett, Maria Kanellis-Bennett and Matt Taven, collectively known as The Kingdom. All 3 are very well known members of the previous Ring Of Honor incarnation. Bennett and Taven are an excellent tag team, most recently seen in Impact Wrestling. Taven has been heavily rumored to be on the radar of WWE, but note the word “rumored”. Maria is very well known to make an impact as well being “The First Lady Of Professional Wrestling”. The real question is IF they are all signed to AEW or is this a partial deal?

If I’m AEW, I don’t let them leave the building without a signed contract. Yes, there are a lot of people signed between AEW and ROH but the Kingdom is one not to pass one. They are that good that they should be featured on programming each week no matter what company it is. If ROH is getting a real TV deal, the Kingdom can add some depth to a very stacked tag team division. If They’re not, they could do some work in an AEW tag team division that (imo) has cooled off a bit without FTR & the Young Bucks in the mix. It feels as the shift of tag team has gone to the newly created trios titles. Other than The Acclaimed and Swerve/Keith Lee, what 2 person teams have been making notable noise. FTR hasn’t been NEAR the AEW belts and finally got some time this week against an ROH team that was lost in the shuffle. This wouldn’t happen with Bennett and Taven. Only question now is how long with this reign of the Kingdom be? If AEW is smart, this should last for quite some time….

Photo Credit: Major League Wrestling

Major League Wrestling is loading up their MLW Fightland Card slated for September 30th in Philadelphia. The main event is World Champion Alex Hammerstone defending against “The Judge” Ed Njuka in a “last Man Standing” match. The card looks like one not to miss with matches like Lio Rush taking on Jacob Fatu and Calvin Tankman facing Willie Mack. Keep following MLW social media to hear about the match line-up. This is looking like a great card.

Photo Credit: National Wrestling Alliance

The National Wrestling Alliance has just announced a few dates for Louisiana in November that all NWA fans simply can’t miss. On November 12th, “Hard Times in New Orleans” aka “Hard Times 3” will feature a 3-way dance for the world title as current NWA Champion Trevor Murdoch defends against former champion Matt Cardona and current NWA TV champion Tyrus. Also scheduled for the show: NWA Women’s World Champion Kamille defending against KiLynn King, and Nick Aldis challenging Odinson amongst other great bouts. On November 13th, there will be a television taping “Revolution Rumble” that fans will want to catch if they can.

That’s all the pro-wrestling talk for this edition. Hit me up on the ODPH podcast social media and llet me know what pro wrestling you’re watching and think we should be covering. Thanks for reading!

SUMMER OF PUNK AGAIN?/LIONHEART RETURNS/CIRCLE 6

Welcome to an all new edition of Blogs Count Anywhere, the complementary pro wrestling blog to the ODPH podcast and 607 TWS. It has been a more relatively quiet week than we’ve seen in recent weeks, so this will be a shorter blog than usual. WWE keeps bringing back familiar faces while the eyes on the independent scene have been locked into Atlantic City for GCW Homecoming. In between that, there are some stories worth mentioning about so lets’ talk about them, shall we?

CM Punk

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

First up is AEW Dynamite closed with the return of current AEW world champion CM PUNK. Punk has been out with a foot injury in early June. In the meantime, AEW has crowned Jon Moxley as their intern champion. There has been rumors of when Punk would be back, but no clarification until this moment. The only other time anyone had seen Punk out really was seeing him at San Diego Comic Con in July. That said, the main event for their biggest show of the year appears to be all set with the unification bout locked up for September 4th at “All Out” in Chicago.

It’s the smart move to make and if Punk’ 100% ready, then go for it. It will be an interesting reaction form the crowd because both Mox and Punk are considered faces in this battle. I’m expecting it to be very pro-Punk but what (if anything) does this mean for the Blackpool Combat Club? They have been getting booked as top faces. It’s a bit confusing on that perspective but all signs point to Punk winning regardless.

Since his arrival last year, Punk has been pushed HEAVY into this position on the card. Whatever your feelings are about him, you can’t deny he gets fans attention. Has the return been the ”game changer” many thought? Debatable on what do you measure that on. Ratings still struggle to continuously clear 1 million for Dynamite. Social media impressions appear to be increased, but overall, imo, the jury is still out. With his return heading into the big show, it will be interesting to see how this set-up goes. AEW programing and PPV Buys will give a general idea if it’s the “Summer Of Punk” again or is the honeymoon phase finally over? Wait and see…..

Chris Jericho

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Also “returning” this week was the “Lionheart” persona of one Chris Jericho. Facing Jon Moxley, Jericho went back to his original gimmick that he broke into most notably ECW with during the 90’s. The match started a bit off imo, but picked up towards the end (I personally didn’t score it 4.75 but to each their own). Seeing Jericho borrow from the playbook of Mick Foley with bringing back characters like “Lionheart” and “The Painmaker” from NJPW has been good for nostalgia, and is a credit to how Jericho has gotten over pretty much every character he’s created thus far. “The Wizard”…..to be determined. Seeing less of the trip into the past would make these moves more impactful, but the AEW faithful enjoyed it. End of the day, that’s what matters more.

FTR and Wardlow

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Speaking of Nostalgia, Wardlow reunited with FTR for a semi-reunion of The Pinnacle, the faction started by he who AEW does not name (MJF). The ROH tag team champs came to back up Wardlow versus the Jay Lethal faction (name TBD) on AEW Dynamite this week. Seeing the 3 together makes me wonder if this is going to be a thing moving forward. AEW is in full trios tag team mode with champions to be crowned at All Out. Could we see the Pinnacle reformed? And what about adding a fourth member again? With MJF gone, I’m not doubting a certain returning champion bringing these three out with him to stand off against Moxley, Bryan Danielson, Wheeler Yuta and Claudio….just saying…..

HOOK

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

HOOK will be defending the FTW tile vs. “The Reality” Zack Clayton …. so that’s happening. …

Photo Credit: Circle 6 Wrestling

Circle 6 is lining up to crown their first world champion with a “Hybrid Ladder Match”. The concept is very interesting and RSP breaks it down in a recent tweet. The upstart promotion has been building their fan base up and this match should catch a lot of attention when it happens on Sept. 9th.

Credit: National Wrestling Alliance

Last bit of news: It was announced that the NWA is taming up with Vet Tix to offer complimentary tickets for NWA 74 on August 27th and 28th to active Military members, Veterans and the immediate family members of those killed in duty. This is an incredible action for the NWA to do and they should be applauded for this. For more information on the NWA, click here.

That’s all the pro wrestling talk for this week. Hit me up on Twitter and let me know what pro wrestling you’re checking out! Thanks for reading!

RING OF HONOR DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR/NWA 74/GLORY PRO STL VICE

Welcome to an all new edition of Blogs Count Anywhere, the complementary pro wrestling blog to the ODPH podcast & 607TWS (on Twitch and in podcast form). Late Friday afternoon, the Vince McMahon “retirement” story broke and will be covered fully on all the 607 podcasts this coming week. However, the focus for this edition is talking about Ring Of Honor’s return to pay-per-view with :Death Before Dishonor”. This will be the 2nd ROH show led under the direction of AEW owner Tony Khan, who purchased the company earlier this year. In April of 2022 was “SuperCard of Honor” which had a very positive reaction amongst fans. “Death Before Dishonor” hails from Lowell, MA & can be seen on BR Live and traditional PPV outlets domestically (FITE TV internationally) for $39.99. How is the final card shaped up heading into Saturday night? Let’s break it down and see, shall we?

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

RING OF HONOR “DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR” ZERO HOUR pre show - 7pm EST

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Brian Cage & the Gates Of Agony vs. Blake Christian, Tony Deppen and Alex Zayne

Interesting fact to this match: this will be the 2nd consecutive time on ROH PPV that Cage will be wrestling stars from GCW (Ninja Mack was his opponent at Supercard Of Honor in April). Very amped to see “Team GCW” on the card but this is gonna be all Cage/Gates for the win here.

Allysin Kay vs. Willow Nightingale

This will be the match of the pre show. Hopefully these two extremely talented wrestlers will get some time to shine. Nightingale has been popping up on AEW TV as of late so going with Willow for the win.

Shinobi Shadow Squad vs. Trustbusters

This is Ariya Davari’s new gimmick that has been making the rounds on the IWC. Factor in the AEW Rampage promo on Friday and it telegraphs itself. Expecting a Parker Bourdeux sighting as well. Trustbusters get the easy win here.

Colt Cabana vs Anthony Henry

Colt is going to be a focal point of the new ROH regime, esp with all the questions of “would he be back” cause of the whole CM Punk drama. This should be a fun match with Cabana getting the W

Wheeler Yuta

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

ROH “DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR: MAIN CARD - 8PM EST

RUSH VS. DRAGON LEE

The battle of real life brothers should start the show off in a big way. Rush is just getting started with AEW/ROH and Andrade’s La Faccion Ingobernable so i don’t see him taking the L here. Winner: Rush

The Righteous (c) vs. Dalton Castle and The Boys (ROH 6 man tag titles Championship)

Interesting addition to the card as Vincent from The Righteous has been in Impact Wrestling lately. Granted, ROH (& AEW) is home of the “Forbidden Door” deal, but somehow I don’t see the Righteous walking home with the belts. Winner: Castle & the Boys!

WHEELER YUTA (C) VS. DANIEL GARCIA - ROH PURE WRESTLING TITLE

One of the marquee matches on the card, the two young guns from the Blackpool Combat Club (BCC) & Jericho Appreciation Society (JAS) lock it up under PURE rules. This should be an exceptional match but one has to wonder: Yuta keeps referencing the horrible car crash Garcia and some wrestlers from the Buffalo area endured a few years ago. It comes off in such a heel way….are we seeing some early seeds planted for the BCC to go heel, especially with Moxley eventually facing CM Punk for the AEW title. Food for thought. Winner: ANDNEW! Garcia adds to his indy belt collection with a huge win here.

Mercedes Martinez

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

MERCEDES MARTINEZ (C) vs. SERENA DEEB - ROH WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

This should be an exciting match with 2 of the best wrestlers on the planet going at it. The build up has been very good as the former teammates imploded with Deeb wanting the title. I’m only hoping they get plenty of time to work on a stacked main card. This is a coin flip on who could win. They’re both that good. Martinez hasn’t had too much time to really run with the belt, but Deeb winning could build into a bigger storyline for the next few months between these two. Coin is flipped…… Winner: ANDNEW! Deeb

SAMOA JOE (C) VS. JAY LETHAL - ROH TV CHAMPIONSHIP

Very puzzling fans haven’t seen much of Samoa Joe on AEW programming to hype this match up more. Fearing this one is going to be a mess with run-ins form Lethal’s faction with Sonjay Dutt and Satnam Singh. Once that happens, this match (which should be great) is gonna crash and burn.Not much really else to say about it. Winner: ANDNEW! Lethal

FTR

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

CO-MAIN EVENT: FTR VS THE BRISCOES 2 - ROH WORLD TAG TEAM TITLES (2 OUT OF 3 FALLS)

In a match of the year candidate, these two teams put on a legendary performance. At the time, fans didn’t think we would see this match happen again, let alone this soon. The Briscoes were long rumored NOT to be signed due to past questionable tweets, which have been apologized repeatedly for by the Briscoes previously. However, in the ROH media scrum that I was in attendance for, Tony Khan revealed that the Briscoes were in fact signed to a long-term deal with ROH. This changes everything.

Before that announcement, this match was a no-brainer #ANSTILL. Now, it could flip and arguably should. FTR is the best tag team on the planet right now holding he IWGP, AAA & ROH titles, but with a hall of fame team like the Briscoes sticking around ROH (as they should), FTR losing the belts to build for ALL Out is a great twist in the storyline. Plus if the Brisoces lose here again (even in dramatic fashion), what sense would it make to have them run it back a third time since they wlll be with the company long term? Calling: ANDNEW! Briscoes win setting up for a triple threat, everything on the line (AEW, ROH, IWGP & AAA) with FTR & Strickland/Lee for All Out.

Claudio Castagnoli

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Tully Blanchard Enterprises w/ Jonathan Gresham

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

MAIN EVENT: JONATHAN GRESHAM (C) VS. CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI - ROH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

This will be a technical classic for the ages. Claudio is been on fire since debuting in AEW at “Forbidden Door”. He has been featured on AEW programming very well as a member of the BCC, and even more so due to the absence of Bryan Danielson. His arrival in ROH wasn’t so far fetched (check out the last Blogs Count Anywhere) and is now in the world title picture. Not too shabby of a debut in AEW/ROH.

On the flipside, Gresham has been ROH champion for quite some time and hasn’t been featured until recently. This has been a disservice imo. Gresham IS the best technical wrestler on the planet. He should have been featured more long before this show (a weekly Rampage spot at the bare minimum). Gresham’s pairing with Tully Blanchard comes off very forced and not sure what to expect long term, but for now, its a quick build to this math. Maybe we get BCC vs. TBE after this to drive ROH stories for a while? Who Knows.

As for this match, it’s all ANDNEW! Claudio. he’s got all the momentum right now and I can’t see the powers that be not making the switch. The only way I don’t see this happens is if post-match, Danielson walks out to challenge Gresham or a new signee makes a debut (Johnny Gargano anyone?). If that doesn’t happen, the Claudio era begins. Can’t be mad about that.

Photo Credit: Glory Pro Wreslting

Some other notes of wrestling this week: don’t forget to check out Glory Pro Wrestling STL Vice on Sunday, July 24th (3PM CST)! The show is gonna be can’t miss and is FREE on YouTube! For more info, check out Glory Pro on Twitter!

Photo Credit: National Wrestling Alliance

Lastly, it was announced that the National Wrestling Alliance will be bringing back the United States Tag Team Championships! The winners of this champions will be crowned at NWA 74 (Aug. 28, 2022) via a 10 team battle royale. Participants will be announced but with how fantastic their tag matches have been (see Briscoes vs Commonwealth Connection pictured below as a prime example), this is somehting to get amped up for at the NWA’s biggest show of the year! for more information: NWA on Twitter!

Briscoes vs. Commonwealth Connection (National Wrestling Alliance)

Photo Credit: Hiban Huerta

That’s all the pro wrestling talk for this edition. Make sure you’re following all the 607podcasts for all the pro wrestling coverage you need called right down the middle. Hit me up on Twitter and let me know what pro wrestling you’re checking out.

Thanks for reading.