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!