Last Week in Pro Wrestling Today: Brock Lesnar goes beast mode, AEW's new tag team champions, Usos and Street Profits get intense
Another great past week in professional wrestling from start to finish. Raw actually came to my town this week in San Antonio. It’s always a great time when you can get to the show and see these performers live. Especially seeing someone the stature of Brock Lesnar. We will comeback to that in a few. AEW Fyte Fest was on top of the world this week, they are causing WWE to react now moving up to the rating to TV-14. I wonder how that changes the shows. But let’s start with WWE.
It’s all about the Monday Night Raw, dog…
Raw was an amazing show this week. It’s been a while since I have been able to say that about Raw. Brock Lesnar opened the show, and being there, television didn’t capture how loud the arena was for his return. Regardless of how you as a fan see him, Brock gets the biggest pop wherever he goes. This is because you can count on seeing some serious feats of strength. What do I mean by that? He picked up our boi Otis, WITH EASE, and flipped him through the announce table. Seeing it was incredible.
The match of the year for WWE may have happened in San Antonio. Rey Mysterio took on Judgement Day’s Finn Balor. This was hands down one of the best matches I have seen since Wrestlemania (Becky v. Bianca). Finn and Rey stole the show for sure. High flying and technical in the best possible way. Finn won after delivering the Coup de Grace. Judgement Day now has the Mysterio’s number.
The main event for Raw was a tag match between Riddle/Bobby Lashley and Seth Rollins/Theory. It was hard-hitting, borderline No DQ, and awesome. Riddle is going to be a huge star if he is not already. His feud with Seth Rollins going forward will put him in that upper echelon of WWE talent. Lashley showed off too with his upcoming SummerSlam opponent and Mr. Money in the Bank Theory. The highlight of the match was watching Bobby Lashley spear Rollins through the barricade. Leading to Riddle hitting an RKO on Theory for the win.
Time To Layeth The Smacketh Down…
SmackDown wasn’t at its peak this week. Aside from the Usos/Street Profits, there was not much story development. The New Day had a great segment clowning the Viking Raiders, but we are still waiting for them to square off. Paul Heyman was in his typical role as a great mouthpiece. His promos with Theory and MadCap were good at presenting the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns as ‘worried.‘
The story which drove the show was The Usos and Street Profits. Jimmy and Angelo Dawkins squared off in the main event. The match was great. These two were just a small piece of the action. Sami Zayn made his presence known, taking his ‘honorary Uso’ status seriously. He confronted Theory before the match started. Can you imagine after Brock and Roman beat the hell out of each, he comes Theory to cash in, but Sami Zayn comes to the rescue?
Back to Jimmy and Dawkins. Remember how their match at Money in the Bank ended? Ford’s shoulder was up at the 3 count, same can be said for Jimmy. He lost, his shoulder was up before the 3 count. This brings out Adam Pearce to announce the special ref for the tag team match at Summerslam. It’s in Nashville, so why not bring out Hall of Famer Double J? I hope it works. Have to wait and see I guess.
All Out All Elite Wrestling…
AEW started Fyter Fest this week. For the next few weeks we are going to see some 7 star (FTR) matches, some promos that push the envelope, and maybe even some blood spilled, because that’s just how Jon Moxley works. Professional wrestling fans are in for a treat. The show opened with some freshly squeezed Orange Cassidy and the monster known as Wardlow for the TNT championship. I don’t know who continues to doubt Cassidy, but this guy can go with ANYONE. His style and his character can go with anyone in the world. Just look at his feud with Jericho a few years ago. He gave the TNT champ all he could handle. Cassidy made one mistake that led to the power bomb by Wardlow to get the victory and remain champ. But, afterwards, Wardlow gave Cassidy a fist bump as a sign of respect as he knows he may have to face him again at some point.
Claudio (aka Cesaro) faced off against Jake Hager. Where’s my guy Jim Ross?! This match was a straight slobber knockers as good ole J.R would put it. These two could fight every week and I doubt anyone would get tired of them. Fight forever for all I care. As a fan, this is what I would want to see more of in the future. These two showcasing large wrestlers can have a QUALITY match. They went power move for power move, high flying moves, and even the SWING! Claudio got the W over Hager in power house fashion.
The main event was the triple threat match for the AEW tag team championship. Everyone involved had an amazing spot. The Young Bucks brought everyone to the super kick party. Keith Lee and Power House Hobbs showed unbelievable feats of strength. Swerve had some of the best acrobatics I’ve seen. Swerve in our Glory found their opening to take the match. Swerve gave the stomp to Ricky Starks giving them the victory and being crowned the new Tag Champs of AEW. This can only mean, Swerve and Keith Lee may have to take on the Young Buck here soon as they did not really ‘lose’ the belts. So we will have to wait and see where they decide to go.
That’s all for this week Attack The Culture fam. If I missed something you want to continue the conversation about, like Moxley’s title eliminator match, Jericho accepting Kingston’s challenge, or Bianca and Becky’s continued feud, drop a comment or hit me up on the social media: Twitter: @Proctorious34 or IG: Rproctor23.
