Future Dark Side Of The Ring Topics

(Writer’s Note: This column is going to feature a lot of talk about sensitive topics like suicide, rape, incest, sexual assault, and pedophilia. Consider this a trigger warning.)

 

Another season of Dark Side Of The Ring is officially in the books.

Evan Husney and Jason Eisener’s documentary series looking at… well… the dark side of the ring and the world of pro wrestling just finished airing its sixth season. In my opinion, it was another successful one. The episodes on Daffney, Muhammad Hassan, Eddie Gilbert, and the Original Sheik were my picks for the best of the season.

As has become tradition, the official Twitter account of the show posted about a potential new season, asking what topics the fans would like to see covered. I don’t post on Twitter anymore, unless it’s to share links to my new columns for my people that are still on the app, so I figured I’d just turn my requests into a column.

Easy enough, right?

If you’ve been reading my columns for a while, some of these topics will be repeats, as I did a column like this two years ago. Some of the things I’m listing here were also requests I made in that 2023 column.

By the way, if you don’t see a topic listed here, it’s probably more along the lines of me not wanting to make a list that was 50 items long, as opposed to me not wanting to see it on Dark Side Of The Ring, or thinking that it doesn’t deserve an episode of the show. Just something to keep in mind as you read on.

Let’s get dark.

 

Rob Feinstein: If you’ve enjoyed anything Ring Of Honor has done over the last 23 years, there’s one man, above all else, you can thank for it.

Rob Feinstein.

If you’ve enjoyed any type of shoot interview that has taken place in the same time span, there’s one man, above all else, you can thank for it.

Rob Feinstein.

He’s the founder of RoH, and his video distribution company, RF Video, has been responsible for some of the wildest shoot interviews ever created.

Things looked great for his future, but then the calendars hit 2004, and everything changed. Perverted Justice, the company who would go on to fame as the entity working with Dateline NBC for their “To Catch A Predator” series, was running a sting in Chicago. One of the men caught up in the sting was accused of chatting with someone they thought was a 14-year-old boy in a AOL gay chat room. A meet was set up, and the man who showed up at a house in Chicago to meet with the “14-year-old boy” was… you guessed it…

Rob Feinstein.

Almost immediately, Feinstein was forced to resign from RoH and RF Video, although he would later return to the latter. It seemed like RoH, as a whole, would end up shutting down, as they were having financial troubles on top of having the stench of the scandal on them, but Cary Silkin would end up purchasing the company and would take them all over the globe.

Feinstein would claim that he was set up, implying that Cary Silkin had worked with Perverted Justice in some sort of power play to gain control of Ring Of Honor. He also claimed that the chat logs showing him talking to the “14-year-old” were made up, and that he did meet up with someone from the internet, but that it was a college student of legal age.

Through the years, Feinstein would try to get involved with multiple wrestling promotions, but nothing ever came of it. He would receive more heat, though, over accusations that he forged Roddy Piper’s signature on items after Piper’s death and attempted to sell them, as well as accusations by Joey Janela that Feinstein hit on him when Janela was 17 years old.

Ring Of Honor is a wild “what if” story when it comes to Feinstein. We’ve seen what Cary Silkin, Sinclair Broadcasting and, eventually, Tony Khan would do with the company. What would’ve happened if Feinstein remained in charge? Silkin was financially backing the company before taking over, but how long would that have lasted? Would there even be a Ring Of Honor today?

 

Heroes Of Wrestling: On October 10th, 1999, Heroes Of Wrestling aired on pay-per-view and featured a card chock full of wrestlers who became big stars in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, Tully Blanchard, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart, One Man Gang, Marty Jannetty, Nikita Volkoff, The Iron Sheik, King Kong Bundy, Yokozuna, and “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka were just some of the names who wrestled that night.

The entire show ended up being a complete disaster. First and foremost, names that became stars in the 1980’s (and in many cases, even earlier than that) weren’t exactly in the physical primes of their lives in October 1999. Almost every match on the show was slow, plodding, and featured workers who could barely move without some sort of assistance.

On commentary, someone named Randy Rosenbloom did some of the worst talking you’ll ever see on a wrestling show, coming across as someone who had never watched wrestling before, let alone called some matches. Wikipedia lists one of his most egregious mistakes as when he refereed to an arm drag as a “reverse slam takedown,” but also when he called dropkicks “flying kick,” “flying leg kick,” and “leg drop.”

The match between The Bushwhackers and the team of The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff ended up being one of the worst wrestling matches of all-time, with almost nothing going right or looking good from bell-to-bell.

Before the main event, we got a backstage promo from Jake Roberts, who was as shitfaced and inebriated as you’ll ever see someone be. He cut an incoherent, nonsensical, rambling promo using gambling analogies (the show was being held at a casino in Mississippi), and at some points, needed to hold on to the interviewer to keep from falling to the floor. After the promo, Jake makes his way to the ring for his match against Neidhart, staggering down the aisle, then staggers back up the aisle, takes his shirt off, and staggers his way back to the ring. Jake gets the snake out of his bag and uses it as a penis, of sorts, simulating masturbation with it and pointing at random women in the crowd. The match becomes a tag bout, on the fly, in an attempt to salvage anything, with Bundy showing up to be Neidhart’s partner and Yokozuna being Jake’s partner. Jake’s complete inability to do anything in the ring (even lacing up his ring boots, which eventually led to one coming off during the match), and the other three competitors seeing better days physically, led to this being competition for the aforementioned Bushwhackers vs Sheik & Volkoff match for the worst of all-time.

An absolute mess of a pay-per-view that had no business being a show in the first place.

 

Mitsuharu Misawa: Here’s my first repeat request from the previous DSOTR column.

Misawa wasn’t the first pro wrestler to die during a match, nor was he the last pro wrestler to die during a match. However, a strong argument can be made that he is the “best” and most accomplished pro wrestler to die during a match.

He reached tremendous heights in Japan, wrestling for All Japan Pro Wrestling before going on to start the Pro Wrestling NOAH promotion. He’s a five-time AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, which is AJPW’s top title, and an eight-time Tag Team Champion (six World Tag and two All Asia Tag), to go with one reign as the NWA International Junior Heavyweight Champion and one reign as one-half of the Pacific Wrestling Federation Tag Team Champions. His NOAH stint saw him win the Global Honored Crown Heavyweight Title, which was the company’s top title, three times and the GHC Tag Team Titles twice. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Pro Wrestling Illustrated, and Tokyo Sports (a daily sports newspaper in Japan) have given him just about every award and achievement they have to give out. I know that not everyone cares about this type of thing, but Misawa has participated in a whopping 26 matches that Dave Meltzer has given a five-star rating to.

On June 13th, 2019, Misawa would take a back suplex during a GHC Tag Team Title match in Hiroshima, Japan. Upon hitting the mat, he would remain motionless, and the match would be stopped. CPR to revive him would be unsuccessful, as were attempts to use a defibrillator, and he would be pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital. The cause of death would be listed by local police as “cervical cord transection.”

Misawa wasn’t a known drug abuser and/or all-around terrible human being like many DSOTR subjects, but he deserves to be included because his death is almost literally the definition of the dark side of the wrestling ring, where men and women put their lives on the line to do unthinkable damage to their bodies and well-being. It’s exactly the type of thing that people bring up when they defend pro wrestling to others who call the sport “fake.” Yes, the match outcomes are scripted ahead of time, but the results of what can, and does, happen to the bodies of these wrestlers can be catastrophic.

 

Hana Kimura: It’s an unfortunate fact that suicide isn’t a new thing in wrestling. From a little research, the earliest known suicide of a pro wrestler was former World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion (the first officially recognized World Title in pro wrestling) Dean Detton, who took his own life in 1958 at the age of 49. From there, a seemingly endless number of wrestlers would end their lives prematurely through the years.

Hana Kimura would join that list on May 23rd, 2020 at the wildly young age of 22. What set her death apart from almost all of the wrestler suicides that came before was the fact that cyberbullying came into play, and you could pinpoint the moment when things began to go downhill for her.

She was a cast member on the Japanese reality show Terrace House, and after getting into a fight during an episode in March 2020, she began receiving all sorts of negativity online, ranging from racist jokes (she was mixed race) to outright threats. By her own account, she was getting “nearly 100 honest opinions” on a daily basis, adding that they hurt her. Less than two months after the fight episode aired on television, she would be dead, and a new round of discussion about cyberbullying would pop up, taking a look at just how dangerous things like social media can be for people.

Cowards on the internet, hiding behind veils of anonymity, led to this woman taking her own life. One of the men who was charged for the online abuse he directed at her would admit that he only did it because he saw a bunch of other people doing it. This is a conversation that, while not being a happy one, is something that needs to be talked about. A Dark Side Of The Ring episode could be a good place for that conversation to take place.

 

Trent Acid: Another repeat from my previous column.

Many people probably don’t recognize his name, but there was a point when Trent Acid was one of the top “indy darlings” in the relatively early days of the internet. He made his pro debut at the age of 14, and eventually worked his way up to debut for Combat Zone Wrestling in 1999 at the age of 18.

He was able to stand out in CZW with his mix of hardcore wrestling and high-flying action, and he took those skills to find success in other places such as Ring Of Honor, Big Japan Pro Wrestling, Juggalo Championship Wrestling, and other independent promotions.

Unfortunately, he also had some personal demons that followed him every step of the way. He was a known drug abuser, and the addiction would begin to affect his body and the way he wrestled. If you were to watch his early stuff, and then watch his work from the mid-to-late 2000’s, he is basically two different performers. In 2010, he was arrested for heroin possession, and would serve some jail time for it. He had another trial set for later in 2010 for some other charges, but that trial never took place, as Acid would die of a drug overdose on June 18th, five months shy of his 30th birthday.

He remains one of the biggest “what if” scenarios from that era, as he was definitely talented enough to become a big star in wrestling, especially with companies like Ring Of Honor growing exponentially in popularity during the mid-2000’s.

 

The “Speaking Out” Movement: Yet another repeat request.

This was a wild time to be a wrestling fan. For a while, it seemed like every man involved in the business was going to end up accused of being a complete and utter dirtbag.

It all started when independent wrestler David Starr was accused of sexual assault by an ex-girlfriend, and it completely snowballed from there. Ex-spouses, one night stands, fans, trainees… they were all coming out of the woodwork with accusations, and it seemed like nobody was safe. Wrestlers from WWE and AEW, all the way down to the smallest of independent companies, were being accused of some truly deplorable behavior. Some accusations came with proof, and some didn’t. There were accusations that were found to be true, and some that weren’t.

It wasn’t just the wrestlers, either. Like I said, it seemed like every man involved in the business had a target on his chest. Owners, ring announcers, managers, journalists, and fans were facing disturbing claims. The British wrestling scene was hit so hard with claims that the British government actually launched a Parliamentary Group inquiry into the wrestling scene in the United Kingdom in an attempt to figure out just what the hell was going on.

Plenty of careers were ended, and countless others were seriously hurt, because of the movement. It became a very important time in the history of the sport, with plenty of self-regulating and cleansing taking place.

 

Hardbody Harrison: Here’s another repeat from my previous column on DSOTR topics.

The man was never a household name, best known for his time as an enhancement talent in WCW, doing a bunch of jobs on WCW Saturday Night and Monday Nitro.

If you’re covering his life outside of the wrestling ring, you can cover his time as a United States Army veteran who saw action during the Gulf War in the early-90’s, as well as his time as a Toughman champion in 2001.

He’s included here because of the legal issues he faced in the mid-2000’s, though. It started in 2004, when he was arrested on three counts of false imprisonment, followed by more false imprisonment charges the following year. The 2005 charges came with sex trafficking accusations, as well, with the charges stating he kept numerous sex slaves at his home, forcing them to participate in large orgies, pimping them out in multiple states, and making the women pay him if they broke any of his “rules.” After several convictions, he would be sentenced to life in prison in 2008.

 

Sean O’Haire: If you were watching WCW in 2000… first of all, kudos to you, but most importantly, you probably remember seeing Sean O’Haire debut and began his rise through the ranks. If that’s the case, you’re probably one of those people who just KNEW you were watching a future World Champion. He had a look that grabbed your attention as soon as you saw him, and he had the in-ring chops at such an early stage of his career to go with it.

Unfortunately, he never came close to reaching those levels. He saw some tag team success in the final year of WCW’s existence, winning the WCW Tag Team Titles three times (twice with Mark Jindrak, once with Chuck Palumbo), but that was the extent of his championship history. His WWE stint saw him involved in the failed “Invasion” storyline, and then spending most of the next three years wrestling on shows like Heat and Velocity before being released in 2004. Even his promising “Devil’s Advocate” character couldn’t get him any sort of time to wrestle on television.

His out-of-the-ring history saw him getting arrested several times, always involving assault and/or battery. He was also injured in a fight outside of a bar in 2007, where he instigated a brawl, but ended up getting jumped, leaving him with fractures to his face and skull, permanently impairing the vision in his left eye.

On September 9th, 2014, O’Haire was found dead by his father. He had committed suicide the night before, hanging himself from a bedpost. It was later reported that he had been dealing with depression and substance abuse issues, with it said that he had entered WWE-sponsored rehab on six different occasions during the final six years of his life.

He seemed like such a sure thing in the business, and almost none of that promise was delivered on. It’s a sad story of how wrestling doesn’t always go the way you think it will, with countless reasons behind it.

 

Buck Zumhofe: Here’s another repeat request.

For wrestling fans of a certain age, you might remember Zumhofe from his time working for Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association or Fritz Von Erich’s World Class Championship Wrestling territories. He achieved a pretty decent amount of success, both as a singles competitor and as a tag wrestler. In following years, he became a bit of a trivia answer as an enhancement talent in the WWF, being the first opponent that The Undertaker placed inside of a body bag, as well as being one of Hunter Hearst Helmsley’s first opponents with the company.

In 1986, while he was the AWA Light Heavyweight Champion, he would be sent to prison for sexual misconduct involving a minor. 1989 saw him receive another prison sentence for fourth degree sexual conduct with a minor.

It wasn’t until 2013, though, that Zumhofe would cement his status as a Dark Side Of The Ring topic candidate. That year, he would be charged with 12 felony counts of criminal sexual misconduct. He was convicted on all counts, and would be sentenced to 25 years in prison. The victim in those charges? His own daughter, who he had been raping and sexually assaulting over the span of 12 years, starting when she was only 15 years old.

There have been a lot of heinous acts committed by people in the wrestling business, but what Zumhofe did ranks right up there at the top.

 

Chyna: There have been a total of 60 Dark Side Of The Ring episodes that have aired, covering a total of 58 topics (Chris Benoit and Brian Pillman received two-part episodes). Of everything that the show has yet to cover, Chyna is the one I’m most shocked to see miss the cut so far.

After a rough childhood, her time as a wrestler came with many hurdles, as well. She received a ton of harsh negative reactions over the way she looked, especially in the early days of her time with the WWF. There was her relationship with Triple H, and the split that many believed was due to Hunter cheating on her with Stephanie McMahon, although Chyna’s sister denies those claims and says that he was “very good” to her, and that their split was due to disagreements over future family plans, as well as Chyna’s addiction issues and mental health struggles. There’s also her relationship with Sean Waltman that saw her addiction issues grow, as well as her start in the adult film industry. Of course, her story came to an end in 2016, when she passed away due to a drug overdose at the age of 46.

There’s a lot to cover, but unlike some of the topics in DSOTR history, there’s a lot of positivity to work with, too. By almost all accounts, Joanie Laurer was a beloved human being, and her legacy of breaking down barriers in wrestling continues to live on to this day. That helps to take the sting out of some of these episodes, so it isn’t just an hour of being bombarded by sadness and depravity.

 

WWF’s Ring Boy Scandal: Here’s another repeat request from the previous column.

If you let WWE tell the story, Pat Patterson is one of the most beloved and respected names in company history.

Then, there’s the other side of the coin.

If you let the cast of characters in the Ring Boy Scandal tell the story, Pat Patterson is, at best, a creepy bastard, and at worst, a sexual predator and a pedophile.

This particular scandal involved teenagers that were hired by the WWF to handle things like setting up the ring before a show, taking the ring down after a show, and basically being errand boys for some of the higher ups in the company. A different set of boys would be hired in each city, and they’d be given a bit of cash for their troubles. On the surface, that sounds like it could be a lot of fun, with some viewing it as their way to get their foot in the door in the wrestling business.

Mel Phillips, who was a ring announcer for the WWF at the time, was also the head of the company’s ring crew, and was responsible for the hiring of these boys. Like a true predator, he knew the specific types of kids to target, generally going after boys from “broken homes” and had single-parent households, drug or alcohol addicted parents, and other issues that might make them vulnerable. Phillips seemed to have a bit of a foot fetish, as multiple boys came forward to say that he liked playing with their feet or taking their feet and rubbing them against his crotch.

It wasn’t just Phillips, though, as the man he answered to was Terry Garvin, a former wrestler from Canada who was working backstage for the WWF. Garvin would be accused of molesting multiple ring boys, but also firing the boys who turned his advances down.

Garvin and Patterson were good friends, and they had a lot in common. Both men were from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They were both openly gay former pro wrestlers. Both men were also accused of a lot of things here, with Patterson being accused of things like grabbing and squeezing the backsides of some of the ring boys, as well as things like staring at their crotches and licking his lips while they were having conversations.

Tom Cole, the main whistleblower in the scandal, was let go after reportedly turning down sexual advances, only to be hired by Garvin again two years later, only to be fired again before officially being hired after… you guessed it… turning down sexual advances by Garvin. In late-1991 and early-1992, Cole would go public with his accusations, and this would bring numerous people forward with similar accusations against the likes of Garvin and Patterson. The heat was so strong that Phillips, Garvin, and Patterson would all resign within a couple months of Cole going public. In interviews, Vince McMahon would say that Patterson was innocent, throwing Phillips and Garvin under the bus without directly saying they did what they were being accused of.

Obviously, Patterson would be brought back to the company and would work on and off-screen for the company until the day he died, but Phillips and Garvin never worked for the WWF again. To this day, there is a ridiculous amount of speculation about whether or not Vince McMahon knew what was happening, whether or not he helped to cover any of it up, and just how deep the issues ran. Cole would go on to commit suicide in 2021, and his brother blamed Vince and Linda McMahon for allowing “child molesters” in their company and covering up their wrongdoings. Tom Cole didn’t quite view Linda in that same light, going so far as to write a check to her political campaign in 2010 when she was running for a spot on the United States Senate, saying that he was “thankful” for how Linda (specifically Linda, not Linda and Vince) “handled” his situation.

With that much dirt to sift through, this could be a rare two-part DSOTR episode.

 

Ashley Massaro: As the winner of the third WWE Raw Diva Search competition, one has to imagine that Ashley Massaro received a lot of hate and criticism from within the WWE locker room, as well as from the wrestling business, as a whole.

You know the deal… we paid our dues to get here, you won a contest, blah blah blah.

Her three-year run with WWE was relatively nondescript in the ring. She had 43 matches on television or pay-per-view in that span, and if you subtract things like Battle Royals, Bra & Panties bouts, and nonsense of that nature, it brings her total match number down to 31. There were only 11 total singles matches in her time with the company, and she never won any titles during her time there.

Obviously, that isn’t enough to be on Dark Side Of The Ring.

Being sexually assaulted at a United States military base by a man posing as doctor while WWE is on a tour of Kuwait, though? Now we’re getting closer.

Having WWE apologize to her about the assault, only to have them persuade her not to report it to the authorities because the company was worried about affecting their relationship with the military? Now we’re Dark Side Of The Ring material.

That was the story, and although nothing ever came of it, legally, there was always conflicting reports of what happened. The full military investigation would be closed in 2020, after they claim that their research led to no actual evidence of anything taking place.

We’ll never know what Ashley Massaro’s reaction to that is, though, because she took her own life on May 16th, 2019 at the age of 39. Within the military investigation, though, we would find out that WWE had been lying about their knowledge of Massaro’s accusations. After she went public with the accusations in 2016, WWE said they had no knowledge of it, but the lawyer of John Laurinaitis would go on to say that not only did Laurinaitis himself know about the accusations, but that “most upper level management” knew, as well.

While we may never know the full, uncut truth about what did, or didn’t, happen to Ashley in Kuwait, it has still shined a light on the unfortunate culture that pro wrestling… but in this case, WWE, in particular… has been a part of for as long as we can remember.

 

Jay Briscoe: If you were to poll 100 wrestling fans of all types of backgrounds and ask them who the greatest tag team in wrestling history is, you’re probably going to end up with more than a few votes for The Briscoe Brothers, Jay and Mark. Together, the brothers won Tag Team Titles on 29 different occasions for promotions on multiple continents, and even had three different Six Man Tag Team Title reigns (two with Toru Yano in New Japan Pro Wrestling, one with Bully Ray in Ring Of Honor) to boot.

A DSOTR episode on Jay Briscoe would have to start with the fact that both he and his brother began their pro wrestling careers as underaged performers, even working illegally in some cases. Covering their legendary careers is fine and all, but it also isn’t why you’d be on a show called Dark Side Of The Ring, is it?

Jay came under fire in 2011 and 2013 for some tweets that were viewed as homophobic and transphobic, even back at a time when that type of thing wasn’t frowned upon anywhere near as much as it would be today. He apologized and donated his salary from some upcoming shows to LGBTQ charities, but the damage had already been done. Jay’s tweets were said to have kept him and his brother from receiving WWE tryouts, and they were also banned from appearing on AEW television or pay-per-views due to an unnamed WarnerMedia executive’s decision.

Even with all accounts from those in the know stating that Jay’s views on the LGBTQ community had truly and honestly changed through the years after he took the time to learn as much as he could about them and their paths in life, it still prevented the brothers from some major opportunities.

Then, on January 17th, 2023, Jay’s life would be cut short in a car accident near his home in Laurel, Delaware. The ban that kept the Briscoes away from AEW programming was lifted, allowing for Mark to begin wrestling for the company, but the whole thing is still a reminder of how fragile life can be. One minute, Jamin Pugh (Jay’s real name) is driving his daughters to cheerleading practice, and the next minute, his family is planning his funeral. The ups and downs of Jay’s life would make for a fascinating DSOTR episode, in my opinion.

 

Juana Barraza: Another repeat request.

La Mataviejitas.

That’s the nickname given to Barraza when she achieved infamy. What does the name translate to?

The Little Old Lady Killer.

While she was a pro wrestler for a brief spell, she became infinitely more famous because, in 2008, she would be sentenced to spend 759 years in prison for the murders of 16 elderly women in Mexico. 16 is the number of victims that there were when the case was officially closed, but most estimates have the number of people she killed being closer to 48.

All of the victims were over the age of 60, and many of them lived alone. Barraza posed as a government official to visit the women and gain their trust, getting them to sign up for welfare programs, and would then bludgeon or strangle them to death before robbing them.

When Barraza was 12, her mother traded her to a man in exchange for three beers. While in the man’s care, she would be raped repeatedly, eventually becoming pregnant and giving birth to a son. The criminologist working Barraza’s murder trial believes that she targeted elderly women as her victims because she associated them with her mother, who she carried hatred for after what happened to her as a child.

Terribly sad story all around.

 

Brawl Out: If I had to venture a guess, I would say we won’t be getting a DSOTR episode on this one, but it would be an incredible episode if we did.

As much as I would love to see an episode about the beginning of the end of CM Punk’s time with AEW, I can’t picture too many people involved in the events appearing on DSOTR. We know Punk himself isn’t going to be on the show. Can you picture “Hangman” Adam Page, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Colt Cabana, or Tony Khan making appearances? I sure can’t.

That’s not a dealbreaker, of course, but having people who were involved in the actual situation would go a long way to making the episode more than just hearsay and gossip.

Hell, you could even make this something of a “Rise & Fall Of CM Punk In AEW” episode and include Punk’s backstage altercation with Jack Perry the following year at All In(nit). Again, though, Punk wouldn’t be involved in the DSOTR episode, and I don’t see Perry or anyone like Samoa Joe, who helped break the altercation up, being involved, either. It would still make for some entertaining television, though.

 

What topics would you like to see covered in any future episodes of Dark Side Of The Ring? As always, feel free to hit me up in the comments section below, or on Bluesky (@aaronhyden.bsky.social), and let me know what’s on your mind.

Now, let’s switch it over to my Weekly Power Rankings, before we close things out like we always do, and that’s with the list of songs I was listening to as I put this column together.

 

 

Weekly Power Rankings

Andrade vs Carmelo Hayes vs Jacob Fatu: Overall, this wasn’t the strongest of weeks for WWE, NXT, and AEW television. Don’t get me wrong… this match was really good. It’s just not something that would’ve gotten the top spot in many weeks. As much as I wanted Jacob or Melo to get the win here, it’s pretty obvious that Andrade needed the win more. He’s going to be a lot of fun to watch at Money In The Bank.

Brodie Lee vs Josh Alexander: On one hand, Josh Alexander took yet another loss, further establishing his spot down the card. However, on the other hand, he’s probably making a lot more money than he was before, and more eyeballs are getting to see him every week.

Sami Zayn vs Finn Balor vs Seth Rollins: This is a lineup that could’ve been in a pay-per-view main event with no problems whatsoever. I continue to like the story being told with Seth and his band of enforcers.

Ricky Saints vs Ethan Page: A fun, physical brawl between two men who know each other well. I was pretty surprised to see the NXT North American Title change hands here, as Saints didn’t even get to the two-month mark as champion, but the early buzz is that Saints is on his way to the main roster soon, so it makes sense in that regard.

Naomi: The match she participated in on Smackdown barely missed the cut for my Power Rankings, but Naomi herself makes it. She is doing a tremendous job with this unhinged heel character. It’s amazing what she’s been able to do now that she actually has something she can sink her teeth into. For years, her character has been nothing more than “umm, she likes things that glow, I guess.”

Mark Briscoe, “Speedball” Mike Bailey & Willow Nightingale vs Jon Moxley, Gabe Kidd & Marina Shafir: Anarchy In The Arena continues! Fight for-ev-er! Cool. Can we just fast forward to the part of the show where Mox loses the AEW World Title and his entire crew disbands?

Mike Santana vs Tavion Heights: This was a really good introduction to the NXT audience for Santana, who has come such a long way in his singles run since splitting up with Ortiz. Even more important for NXT, though, is the fact that this was another entertaining performance from Heights, who is proving to be a quick learner, as well as someone who the company might be able to give a serious push to moving forward.

Rey Fenix & Je’Von Evans vs Angel & Berto: Honestly, it doesn’t matter who won the match… this was a showcase for Je’Von Evans, who got to let the world see what he’s capable of in the ring. There aren’t many in the business who have a brighter future than he does.

Penta vs Chad Gable vs Dragon Lee: The match was a lot of fun, which makes it even more unfortunate that all anyone will remember here is the spot where Gable was dropped on his head. That was really close to being an absolute disaster.

Stephanie Vaquer vs Jacy Jayne: Steph is getting called up to Raw, so it makes sense that she needed to drop the NXT Women’s Title, but… to Jacy Jayne?!? The Jacy Jayne who hadn’t won a match on NXT programming in over two months? The Jacy Jayne who has won a grand total of five singles matches on NXT programming over the last TWO YEARS? THAT Jacy Jayne?!? Jinder Mahal strikes again.

 

 

This Week’s Playlist: “Ace Trumpets” by Clipse… “Better Days” by Yellowcard… “Booted Up” by GELO… “Afterlife” by Awaken I Am… “All Night” by J Boog & Collie Buddz… “I’ll Do 4 U” by Father MC… “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers… “The Boys Of Summer” by Don Henley… “Whatcha Gonna Do” by Jayo Felony, Method Man & DMX… “Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)” by Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz… “Kill Us All” by Twista… “Art & Life (Chi-Roc)” by Twista, Memphis Bleek, Freeway & Young Chris… “Warriors” by Ky-Mani Marley… “Love Season” by J Boog… “RUN” by Killer Mike & Damian Marley… “Educated Fools” by Damian Marley, Treach, Bounty Killer & Bunny Wailer… “Khaki Suit” by Damian Marley, Bounty Killer & Eek-A-Mouse… “Ganja Smuggling” by Eek-A-Mouse… “Zungguzungguguzungguzeng” by Yellowman… “Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt” by Yellowman… “Steppin’ Out” by Steel Pulse… “Tomorrow People” by Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers… “John Crow” by Jimmy Cliff… “Just A Passing Glance” by Don Carlos… “Picture On The Wall” by Naturalites… “Rebel Music” by Bob Marley & Krayzie Bone… “Turn Your Lights Down Low” by Bob Marley & Lauryn Hill… “Brothers and Sisters” by SOJA… “Give It Up” by Pepper… “You Won’t Be Alone” by HIRIE