Last Week in Professional Wrestling Today: Vince McMahon's shocking retirement, Kevin Gates' AEW punch, Jericho and Kingston get bloody
This past week was really good, but also very saddening for the world of professional wrestling. I don’t want to speed passed the significance of this week. Regardless of how you feel about him now, Vince McMahon is the primary reason professional wrestling is global the way it is today. His retirement not only shakes up the wrestling scene for WWE, but is a major shift in the wrestling world in general. He created some of the greatest characters we have seen, and was one of the driving forces behind the greatest generation of wrestling in the ‘Attitude’ Era. Take a minute and think about all he did, and how the transition from Vince to his daughter Stephanie should be an interesting time. I am not going to take away from AEW this week, but now that this scandal has claimed Vince McMahon, AEW had a great week as well. Let’s start with WWE.
It’s all about the Monday Night Raw, dog…
Monday Night Raw set up a few more stories for Summerslam. Becky Lynch led off the show staking her claim to a title match. Bianca Belair took on Carmella for the title. And to no one’s surprise Belair defeated Carmella setting up a rematch that jump started the Big Time Bex express. Remember Becky surprised Becky at Summerslam and defeated Bianca Belair for her title in 26 seconds. Now we get back to where we started. Long term storytelling at it’s finest. We will see it come to fruition this coming Saturday night.
We also had the return of the Kevin Owens show. KO’s guest was none other than the original Bro, Riddle. The meteoric rise of Riddle has also caught the attention of KO. While his best friend Randy Orton is healing, Owens had the idea of keeping the tag team going with the idea of Bro-KO. I mean, it sounded good in my head, but Riddle declined because of his unfinished business with Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins. They square off at Summerslam. Can’t wait to see it honestly.
I can’t stand the guy, but his personality is one of a WWE superstar. Logan Paul showed up to confront the Miz. He came after the Miz and the running joke of Miz’s tiny balls. It’s a funny line, and gets a big pop. Miz is always going to find a way to get a reaction, and he is overly successful right now with this gimmick. Logan Paul doubled down on his match at Summerslam with the Miz. I got the Miz by the way.
Time to layeth the SmackDown…
SmackDown was not very story driven this week. It was a few good spots and they revolved around The Usos and The Street Profits. Theory came out to interrupt the Street Profits, and decided to make it even more known he is going to cash in at on Brock or Roman. This triggered the Usos to come out and defend the Tribal Chief. Theory also has beef with Madcap Moss. That’s six people fighting with each other. What better way to squash things than a six man tag match.
Before the six man tag, Sheamus and Drew McIntyre had a pretty good segment. The match is finally going to happen to settle the number one contender for after SummerSlam. It will be settled next week, essentially in a street fight, but Angela, Drew’s sword is banned from ringside. Who do you think is up next?
The six man tag match was really great, and sets up another great match between the Usos and Street Profits. Mixing in Theory and Madcap was good for everyone. It helped drive home the significance of the Money in the Bank winner and the beef with the Bloodline. All the hard hitting and high flying action, Theory tried to bail only for The Usos to break him down. Theory got the disqualification hitting Madcap with the briefcase. This triggered the Beast Incarnate to show up and drop Theory. Brock Lesnar just annihilated Theory driving the point home, regardless if he cashes in, he’s got no chance in hell to beat Roman or Brock.
AEW’s Dynamite with a ton of Rampage…
AEW had some GREAT moments this week. NXT and WWE may have missed on this opportunity for a good rivalry, Miro and Malakai Black. Two great performers and amazing characters. Now their characters have a good story to back their upcoming rivalry. Miro the Redeemer and the House of Black. LET’S GET IT!
Professional wrestling is attracting all sorts of artists nowadays. Tony Khan is not above letting them get involved in the show either. Kevin Gates was sitting ringside and was enjoying the show like a casual fan watching the celebration of Swerve in their Glory. Cue Tony Neese. In an attempt to get Gates to sign a petition. He popped off to the wrong one, and Kevin Gates laid out Neese. It was a great spot, and pretty funny honestly.
Christian Cage and Luchasaurus had a match. In typical heel fashion, Luchasaurus did all the heavy work and Cage got the pinfall to secure the victory. Once the pinfall was completed, cue Jungle Boy’s music. THAT’S RIGHT! HE’S BACK! After taking all the bashing he took while injured, Jungle Boy is healthy enough to make his return and go after Cage. Luchasaurus even made sure to not get in Jungle Boy’s way in his pursuit of Cage.
Lastly, the biggest match of the week, aside from our boy Claudio winning the ROH title (FINALLY!) Jericho and Kingston tore down the house in their barbwire everywhere death match. It was as over the top, and violent as you could imagine. The Jericho Appreciation Society was in a shark cage over the ring controlled by Rubi Soho. In typical Jericho fashion, there was a plan in place to get the team out of the cage. Blood spilling everywhere, Jericho needed help, and he got it in the form of an attack on Soho. This freed the JAS to attack Kingston. Kingston had backup as well in the Blackpool Combat Club who took down the JAS. As Kingston was about to put Jericho away, cue Sammy Guevara! His interference allowed Jericho to hit the Judas Effect elbow and put down the Mad King. In his last act of defiance, Kingston dropped Jericho on the bed of barbwire outside the ring.
It was an eventful week, but the main story was Vince McMahon retiring. We joked about what it would be like if he did retire, now we get to find out. If I missed anything you wanted to talk about, like AJ dropping Theory, or Orange Cassidy taking on Brodie King, drop a comment or hit me up on the social media: Twitter: @Proctorious34 or IG: Rproctor23. See you all next week!
