By Graham "GSM" Matthews Chris Jericho def. Rene Dupree Jericho was hot as a babyface coming out of his official turn at WrestleMania 20, so I'm surprised more wasn't done with him that year. There was no way he was going to go after the World Heavyweight Championship on Raw as long as Triple H was in the picture, but he was underutilized beyond his feud with Christian. This was a fun little match that served as a fine farewell for Dupree, who was drafted to SmackDown immediately beforehand. He was another guy I thought had potential to be bigger than he was. He was virtually wasted during his time on SmackDown and was gone from the company not long after. Kane def. Rico Kane embarked on a rampage following his humiliating loss to The Undertaker at WrestleMania 20, hence why this match was so short-lived. Not to say Rico would have lasted any longer otherwise, though. Kane wasn't too much of a threat following 'Mania seeing as how he lost to Edge at Backlash, somehow got a world title shot against Chris Benoit at Bad Blood and lost that, too. He might have actually benefited from moving to SmackDown that year.
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By Graham "GSM" Matthews Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa def. TM61 For those who missed it, TM61 are among the latest signees to NXT and were a pretty established tag team on the Australian independent scene. Even if you weren't aware of them before, you should have taken notice of them after their impressive outing against Gargano and Ciamapa here. I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn't a standard squash match and was actually given a decent amount of time. They definitely made the most of the time they were allotted and contested a very fun tag match. I look forward to seeing more of TM61 in the future. Also, right now is easily the best tag team division in NXT has ever been. NXT General Manager William Regal Made Austin Aries vs. Shinsuke Nakamura Official For NXT TakeOver: The End Aries has always been an excellent talker, and while he's had a number of backstage interviews since arriving in NXT, I believe this marked his first ever in-ring promo. He cut a great promo about his NXT Championship aspirations, and Nakamura did the same. His English still needs work, of course, but at least he's easy to understand. I figured a TakeOver match between them was likely and that should be one epic encounter. On a side note, I was waiting for it to be made a No. 1 Contender's match given all the talk about the title. By Graham "GSM" Matthews Joey Ryan def. Mascarita Sagrada Famous B's partnership with Sagrada has undercard act written all over it, yet it's somehow become a guilty pleasure of mine because of how well Famous B plays his role. It seems like the silliest of things in Lucha Underground are what win me over. Ryan is right there with him, so this was a fun little (no pun intended) match that I enjoyed for the few minutes it was allotted. The crowd got behind each of Sagrada's nearfalls, and I like how he's basically the lovable loser of Lucha Underground. When he eventually scores a victory (assuming he does), the temple should come unglued. Cage def. Chavo Guerrero to Win the Gift of the Gods Championship I'm sorry, but nothing about Chavo as a character or as a wrestler excites me in 2016. Not that I ever found him exciting before this year, though. On the bright side, he was carried to a pretty good match by Cage. Granted, Chavo is a better technical wrestler than Cage, but Cage is just a blast to watch in the ring thanks to his explosive offense and connection with the crowd. I was happy to see him win, though it made me question why they even bothered to put the belt on Chavo to begin with. Maybe it was just another way of dragging out the feud? Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to Cage going after the gold next week, and hopefully he can get a better bout out of Matanza Cueto than his past opponents have. By Graham "GSM" Matthews It's been an exciting week to be a WWE fan as it was announced this morning that the Brand Split will be brought back this coming summer. This will coincide with SmackDown going live on Tuesday nights on the USA Network starting July 19th. It was noted by WWE in their official press release that for the first time in nearly five years, SmackDown will have its own "distinct roster," and that a Draft to determine who ends up on which brand is "imminent." It was also said that along with the rosters for Raw and SmackDown being separate again, ECW will be brought back as a third brand... for a second time. |
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