AEW Double or Nothing 2021

• Singles (Brian Cage vs. Adam Page): 4/7. These two are both good, and I guess it's building the Team Taz story, but it wasn't clear what the point of the actual match was supposed to be.
• AEW Tag Team Championship (Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston vs. The Young Bucks): 4/7. Both teams are good, but the match didn't really interest me because it was pretty clear which way it was going to go.
• Casino Battle Royale (21 competitors): 6/7. I always love a battle royale. This wasn't the best one, but it wasn't bad.
• Singles (Anthony Ogogo vs. Cody Rhodes): 4/7. The framing where the American is automatically the good guy just doesn't work for me (or, I suspect, for most people outside of America) and so the story they're trying to tell is in conflict with the reality that Anthony's been making some very good points and Cody's been... bad. The match was ok though, and I must admit I did like Cody's outfit.
• TNT Championship (Miro vs. Lance Archer): 6/7. Took a bit for me to get into it, but once I did I was 100% on board.
• AEW Women's Championship (Shida Hikaru vs. Dr. Britt Baker): 5/7. Had a few good moments, but everyone knew how this was going to end and it took a bit long to get there.
• Tag Team (Sting & Darby Allin vs. Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page): 2/7. Why do they keep saying this is Sting's first match in six years? He was in the stupid street fight at Revolution. I bumped this up a point because Page held Allin over his head and threw him, like, two metres. It was pretty awesome. But I could not give less of a shit about Sting or Darby Allin.
• AEW Men's Championship Triple Threat (Pac vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Kenny Omega): 6/7. Almost great, but this Kenny/Bucks/Good Brothers team just doesn't work for me.
• Stadium Stampede (The Pinnacle vs. The Inner Circle): 6/7. Some very good pieces that didn't really mesh at all. You could probably fix it with editing and get a 7/7.

Overall Rating: 5/7. Nothing was quite as good as it should have been, and some things could easily have been cut. Like the two non-championship singles matches - they weren't bad, they just didn't need to be there. They could have been on Dynamite.

WWE WrestleMania Backlash

• Raw Championship Triple Threat (Charlotte Flair vs. Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley): 5/7. Had its moments, but I really would have preferred to see any two of them in a singles match. There was one really good bit where just Ripley and Flair were in the ring and it was like, that, that's the match I want to see. And then Asuka was back and... meh.
• Smackdown Tag Team Championship (Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode vs. Rey Mysterio): 3/7. It was all a bit obvious.
• Zombie Lumberjack Match (The Miz vs. Damien Priest): 5/7. Fun concept. Not sure it quite worked, although the bit where Miz and Priest were both fighting the zombies was good. It would be really cool if, next time we see them, Miz and Morrison are zombies. But I doubt they will be.
• Smackdown Championship (Bayley vs. Bianca Belair): 6/7. Bayley is great.
• WWE Championship Triple Threat (Drew McIntyre vs. Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley): 5/7. I wish it had just been McIntyre vs. Strowman.
• Universal Championship (Cesaro vs. Roman Reigns): 7/7. Cesaro is great. Pat McAfee's commentary was distractingly bad, but in the end it didn't matter.

Overall Rating: 5/7. No real low points. The Smackdown Tag championship wasn't great, but it was fine. I do wish they'd cut back on the number of triple threats, but they were fine.

iMPACT! Under Siege

• Singles (Brian Myers vs. Black Taurus): 4/7. I don't remember why these two are fighting. It was ok.
• Tag Team (Kimber Lee & Susan vs. Taylor Wilde & Tenille Dashwood): 5/7. I don't know where this story is going, but the match was surprisingly straight-forward and good.
• Men's Tag Championship #1 Contenders (Ace Austen & Madman Fulton vs. TJP & Petey Williams vs. XXXL vs. Rohit Raju & Shera): 4/7. Too many people involved, and the stupid "only two wrestlers legal at a time" rule is still bad.
• Singles (W. Morrissey vs. Willie Mack): 2/7. Don't like Morrissey; don't like his gimmick.
• Knockouts Tag Championship (Jordynne Grace & Rachael Ellering vs. Fire N Flava): 5/7. Weird ending. I like Rachael Ellering though.
• X Division Championship (Josh Alexander vs. El Phantasmo): 5/7. I like El Phantasmo.
• Knockouts Championship (Deonna Purrazzo vs. Havok): 5/7. A bit slow, but not bad.
• Six-Person Tag (Kenny Omega & the Good Brothers vs. Eddie Edwards & FinJuice): 5/7. I would rather have watched just the Good Brothers vs. FinJuice again.
• Impact Championship #1 Contender (Chris Sabin vs. Chris Bey vs. Sami Callihan vs. Matt Cardona vs. Trey Miguel vs. Moose): 5/7. Should have been an elimination match. Why don't they do more elimination matches?

Overall Rating: 4/7. It was an ok show, but pretty low-key. Basically just a regular episode.

iMPACT! Rebellion 2021

• X Division Championship Triple Threat (TJP vs. Josh Alexander vs. Ace Austin): 5/7. Just a good match.
• Eight Person Tag (Violent by Design vs. James Storm, Chris Sabin, Eddie Edwards & Willie Mack): 1/7. Too many dicks on the dance floor. And I'm not thrilled to see William "Big Cass" Morrissey again.
• Brian Myers vs. Matt Cardona: 4/7. After all the build up, this was just ok.
• Knockouts Tag Team Championship (Fire N Flava vs. Jordynne Grace & Rachael Ellering): 5/7. This was a good one, and I like Rachael Ellering.
• Last One Standing (Sami Callahan vs. Trey Miguel): 7/7. Forget the barbed wire and blood, this is how you make a match seem brutal.
• Men's Tag Team Championship (FinJuice vs. the Good Brothers): 6/7. Two great teams doing some great wrestling.
• Knockouts Championship (Deonna Purrazzo vs Tenille Dashwood): 6/7. Tenille was robbed!
• Title vs. Title AEW & iMPACT Men's Championship (Kenny Omega vs Rich Swann): 6/7. Very nice to hear Mauro Ranallo on commentary again. He's really very good at it.

Overall Rating: 5/7. If it weren't for the fact that I don't like those big multi-person tag matches, I'd have nothing much to complain about here. Good show.

Prize-Winning Casserole from 1979

Wrestlemania 37

 Night One

• WWE Championship (Drew McIntyre vs. Bobby Lashley): 3/7. Bobby Lashley is just a very strange and awkward man and I will never care about anything he does. Lio Rush couldn't help him, Drew McIntyre couldn't help him, and MVP certainly can't help him.
• Tag Team Turmoil (Lana & Naomi vs. Carmella & Billie Kay vs. The Riott Squad vs. Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke vs. Natalya & Tamina): 2/7. A gauntlet match with weird ad-hoc tag teams featuring a bunch of people way too good to waste on this garbage.
• Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro: 6/7. When Cesaro balanced Seth on his shoulders and spun him around, hands-free? Magic.
• Raw Tag Team Championship (The New Day vs. AJ Styles & Omos): 2/7. You're telling me Omos is so powerful that he can easily beat Xavier and Kofi practically on his own? Come on.
• Cage Match (Shane McMahon vs. Braun Strowman): 1/7. Guys. Dudes. What is this? What are you doing?
• John Morrison & The Miz vs. Damian Priest & Bad Bunny: 6/7. Wait, this was actually good? How?
• Smackdown Championship (Bianca Belair vs. Sasha Banks): 6/7. Unlike the last one, this one being good didn't surprise me.

Night One Rating: 3/7. Would have been 4, but they lost a point for making me see Hulk Hogan, Jerry Lawler and JBL on my screen. Aside from that it was just really inconsistent.

Night Two

• Randy Orton vs. The Fiend: 7/7. Alexa and Randy have been doing great work on this storyline and I love that it's apparently not over, and now I guess Alexa has become more powerful than the Fiend? Is that what happened here? I don't know where they're going with this, but I've loved every bit of it so far!
• WWE Women's Tag Team Championship (Natalya & Tamina vs. Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax): 4/7. The women's main roster tag division really needs some actual teams and stories. Basically the only thing happening right now is Shayna and Nia's half-arsed repeat of The Bar's story, and whatever is going on with Reginald.
• Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens: 1/7. What did Sami and Kevin do to deserve this?
• United States Championship (Sheamus vs. Riddle): 2/7. Ugh. Riddle. Would be 1/7 but at least he lost.
• Intercontinental Championship Nigerian Drum Fight (Big E vs. Apollo Crews): 2/7. They didn't even have anyone playing the drums. It was just a stupid no-DQ match with thematically appropriate props. And it's really weird to have Apollo put on that accent and claim to be descended from royalty. It's all just weird. And not in a good way.
• Raw Championship (Rhea Ripley vs. Asuka): 7/7. These two are both great.
• Universal Championship Triple Threat (Daniel Bryan vs. Edge vs. Roman Reigns): 6/7. The only real issue with this one was that I never believed Daniel Bryan had a chance of winning it.

Night Two Rating: 3/7. Would have been 4, but they lost a point for making me see Hulk Hogan (again) and Logan Paul. And again, wildly inconsistent.

---

Overall Rating (-1 point for every terrible person featured): 1/7. Because the scale doesn't go any lower.

iMPACT! Hardcore Justice 2021

•  Triple Threat Tag (Ace Austin & Madman Fulton vs. TJP & Fallah Bahh vs. Josh Alexander & Petey Williams): 5/7. It's always annoyed me that only two teams are legal at any given time but now that WWE's given up on that nonsense it's going to annoy me even more that other shows are still doing it.
• Chairly Legal Match (Shera vs. Hernandez): 5/7. The gimmick was supposed to be "chairs are legal", which would at least have distinguished it from a regular no-DQ match, but as usual it turned out to just be a standard no-DQ match with themed props around the ring.
• Doc Gallows vs. Black Taurus: 5/7. Given that the Good Brothers have a championship rematch coming up, the outcome of this match was pretty easy to predict.
• Mystery Crate Match (Johnny Swinger vs. Matt Cardona): 2/7. I'm never sure how ironic the "Swinger's Palace" segments are supposed to be. Is it dumb and shitty on purpose, as a joke, or is it just dumb and shitty? And does it matter?
• Flashback Moment of the Week (Rob Van Dam vs Sabu): 6/7. It was half a match from ten years ago, but it was still one of the bext parts of the show. Some creative use of chairs.
• Sami Callihan vs. Sam Beale: 3/7. Filler.
• Hardcore Blindfold Match (Bryan Myers vs. Jake Something): 5/7. Didn't mind this one. It was something a bit different.
• #1 Contender Weapons Match (Jordynne Grace vs. Susan vs. Tenille Dashwood vs. Havok vs. Rosemary vs. Alisha Edwards): 6/7. I always love some supernatural shenanigans, and the actual match was good too.
• Old School Rules Title vs. Career Knockouts Championship (Deonna Purrazzo vs. Jazz): 6/7. Good match, believable stakes.
• Eight-Man Hardcore War (Violent By Design vs. Team Dreamer): 4/7. WarGames is dumb, but you're not going to improve it by half-arsing it.

Overall rating: 5/7. Should have gotten rid of Johnny Swinger and ended on the Knockouts Championship. But mostly just get rid of Johnny Swinger.

TVs: how do they work?

 My HD Smart TV started displaying static. Like, old-fashioned, analogue-TV's-not-tuned-in static.

NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver

 Night One

• Pete Dunn vs. Kushida: 4/7. It was an ok match, but there was nothing particular about it to grab my attention.
• #1 Contender Gauntlet Eliminator Match (Leon Ruff vs. Isaiah Scott vs. Bronson Reed vs. Cameron Grimes vs. Dexter Lumis vs LA Knight): 5/7. Took a bit to get going, but once it did it was pretty good.
• NXT UK Men's Championship (Walter vs. Tommaso Ciampa): 5/7. It seemed unlikely that Ciampa would move to NXT UK, or that the UK championship would move to NXT.
• NXT Men's Tag Team Championship Triple Threat (MSK vs. Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Legado del Fantasma): 5/7. All three teams were legal at the same time! They got rid of the stupid rule where you have to be tagged in by your opponent!
• NXT Women's Championship (Shirai Io vs. Raquel Gonzales): 5/7. Shirai jumped off a giant skull. She wasn't inside a garbage bin though.

Night One Rating: 5/7. It was all good, but nothing really stood out.

Night Two

• Cruiserweight Championship Unification (Santos Escobar vs. Jordan Devlin): 2/7. Jordan Devlin.
• NXT Women's Tag Team Championship (Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon vs. The Way): 5/7. I really like all of these wrestlers, but the match itself was a bit hard to care about because I didn't think there was any chance of Shotzi and Ember losing the titles so soon.
• North American Championship (Bronson Reed vs. Johnny Gargano): 6/7. I would have preferred a different outcome.
• NXT Men's Championship (Finn Bálor vs. Karrion Kross): 5/7. I want to like Karrion Kross, but I don't feel like his heart's really in his gimmick. Scarlett is obviously 100% into it, but I'm not so sure about him.
• Unsanctioned Match (Adam Cole vs. Kyle O'Reilly): 4/7. If it's unsanctioned, why is it happening in the CWC, in front of the NXT audience, broadcast on the WWE Network? If it's not a sanctioned wrestling match, why should it end with a pin? Why is advertised as part of the show? Nothing about this concept makes sense! Also, all the stuff with the chain was very dumb.

Night Two Rating: 4/7. Less consistent than the first night, with some higher highs and lower lows.

---

Overall Rating: 5/7. I don't think there was anything in this show that I'd actually been looking forward to, and nothing that really surprised me either. For a two-night, Wrestlemania-week event, I expected more.

Ring of Honor 19th Anniversary Show

• Television Championship (Tracy Williams vs. Kenny King): 2/7. I think the lack of a crowd really hurt this one. It's just hard to really get into a match when there's no crowd response. I dunno, maybe I'd have enjoyed it more later in the show, but maybe not.
• Flip Gordon vs. Mark Briscoe: 2/7. I barely paid attention to this one, to be honest.
• Dalton Castle vs. Josh Woods: 2/7. At this point I was starting to think I was just wasting my time watching this show.
• Grudge Match (Jay Briscoe vs. EC3): 3/7. I'm not sure what the actual grudge behind this was, and I don't know what EC3 actually wanted, but he did keep yelling about honour a lot. I do like EC3, but yeah, just not sure what was going on here.
• Triple Threat (Flamita vs. Bandido vs. Rey Horus): 6/7. This was incredible. The lack of an audience hurt it a bit, but it was still super cool. Three luchadores just doing non-stop luchadore stuff. I'd watch this all day.
• Unsanctioned Match (Matt Taven vs. Vincent): 2/7. I've got to give them credit for not having an "unsanctioned" match on the premises or during the actual show. Makes much more sense this way - even if showing the video still kind of makes it seems like they actually did sanction it... But the match was dumb. Listen, AEW tried having some guys fight each other in an empty building for no clear reason and it was dumb. This was a different building, and there was a better excuse for the ring being there, but it was still dumb.
• Pure Championship (Dak Draper vs. Jonathan Gresham): 5/7. Pure Rules is a neat twist on an otherwise standard match, and this match was fantastic. Again, the lack of an audience brought it down a little, and I felt like the end dragged on a bit, but still a very good match.
• ROH Tag Team Championship (The Foundation vs. La Faccion Ingobernable): 4/7. Just an OK match, but made slightly more interesting by the ongoing drama between LFI and their manager.
• ROH Championship (Jay Lethal vs. Rush): 5/7. Rush is very entertaining, but this match too would have greatly benefited from a live audience, and went on a little long.

Overall Rating: 3/7. This show could have got a decent overall score, I think, if it had an audience. Put other wrestlers around the ring like AEW, do masks and social distancing like NJPW, or do some kind of remote/fake audience like WWE, but do something. The empty, silent room just doesn't work for wrestling.