Sunday Night Reset: October 24, 2021

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Tonight’s NFL Game is the Colts against the 49ers.

After further review, I think I’m the only one who liked the ending to Bound For Glory.  At the very least, given how much better Impact has gotten, I’m willing to let it play out and see where it goes.  The visual of Moose standing over Alexander as Josh’s daughter is crying is so pro wrestling it’s beautiful.  But that’s just me.

Looking ahead: your Joshi Spotlight is on Queen’s Holy Night; Wednesdays of Honor looks at Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies; and this week’s Dream Matches are all about the 1996 Kuwaiti Cup, back when there was a Middle Eastern nation we could go to that didn’t make the WWE look amoral.

Enjoy the night.

Bound For Glory 2021

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Bound For Glory 2021
Date: October 23, 2021
Location: Sam’s Town Live, Las Vegas, Nevada
Commentators: Matt Striker, D’Lo Brown

It’s the biggest night of the year for Impact Wrestling and we have a pretty stacked card. The main event is the battle of Canada as Impact Wrestling World Champion Christian Cage is defending against Josh Alexander. The second biggest match on the card is probably Deonna Purrazzo defending the Knockouts Title against Mickie James in a grudge match. Let’s get to it.

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Crown Jewel

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Is it safe to say you're not reviewing it anytime soon? Dont worry about the Dubbalos turning on you for giving your thoughts on arguably the best show of the year, with a legit MOTY candidate, because of where the show came from.


Ehhhhhhh, but on the flip side, I'd rather review more 84 MSG shows with my time.  

Reigns too long?

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Hello Scott

Do you feel the “Head of the Table” shtick has gone on too long? At this

point people only want to see someone, anyone, win the title. But unlike

say Honky Tonk Man's Intercontinental Championship run where people were

paying to see him lose, the Tribal Chief is just running fans off. When

the BUNNY gets more viewers, then we clearly have a problem. Basically,

by the time somebody finally wins the Historical Universal Championship,

who will really care? Maybe it will be more a case of people sighing and

going “Finally”, rather than actually popping.

Also, how would Rock being the one to end the Reign of Boredom benefit

anyone? It'll get a brief spike in the ratings, but the message would be

clear…NONE of the current guys could win the title, so the retired

from the ring Hollywood guy has to come back. It would make the current

guys look like even bigger losers than they are portrayed as being

now…


In what universe is Reigns running viewers off?  He's literally the only ratings draw they have left outside of part-time guys like Brock.  The title reign has been so ridiculously successful that people are actually cheering for him now and they're going to have to fight it to keep him heel.  

This, sir, was a BAD TAKE.

The End of an Era

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It looks like the relationship with Impact and AEW is finished. After AEW stars held their main title and buried the product on their own TV, what else can be said from Impact's perspective than “LOL TNA”? 


Oh, and if you didn't watch Bound for Glory, the IIIIInspiration won their tag titles in their first appearance, because Impact/TNA/Global Force/Anthem can't hold their load when it comes to putting titles on incoming talent without doing a bit of polish or allowing something to breath.


I don't want to blindly bash the product too much because most of what I watched of this era has been at least competent and enjoyable.  I do have a problem with them using the WWE trope of booking the big babyface win and then pulling the rug out with the Magic Contract, though, and the main event result really annoyed me in that regard.  

The Cody Rhodes Formula

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1. An impressive-looking heel targets Cody and dominates/overwhelms him.
2. Cody puts the heel over and makes them look like a total superstar who he's in over his head against.
3. Cody overcomes the heel and undoes all of that work.

He's the worst thing in AEW right now by far, and I say this as someone who actually loves his promos and in-ring work.

I think “worst” is a bit of a stretch.  

Building momentum toward Survivor Series

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Which WWE promotional tactic is most likely to get you excited about Survivor Series:

1. The battle for brand supremacy!

2. The only time Raw & Smackdown superstars meet! 

3. WWE superstars are building momentum toward championship opportunities!

Apparently they're going for option 4:  World champions act bitchy to each other in real life.  

Tournament Upset

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Since everyone thinks it’s a foregone conclusion that the Eliminator Tournament Finals will be Moxley vs. Danielson, might it be a more fun idea to have 10 pull off a fluke upset on Wednesday night?

It gives a guy they’re high on instant credibility by beating a World Champion.  It would easily plant seeds for the seemingly inevitable Mox heel turn as he could start murdering Dark Order guys after the loss – which then could set up a Mox/Hangman program.

Then that leaves you with Bryan Danielson vs. Orange Cassidy at the PPV, which would be a hell of a deal in and of itself.  Thoughts?


Yeah but Tony already wrote it down on that piece of paper at the football game, so…you know…that's it.  It's done.  

Also they're clearly building to Big Money Matt against Orange to blow off that feud and I'd rather they stay the course.  

The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.23.21

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The SmarK Rant for AEW Dynamite – 10.23.21

Live from Orlando, FL.  However, I’m just back from James Bond, so naturally tonight I’m residing in London, baby!  I always wondered why we had to take English in school if we were never going to go to England, but now I’m glad I did!

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Excalibur & Jim Ross

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Dynamite – October 23, 2021

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Dynamite
Date: October 23, 2021
Location: Addition Financial Arena, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Jim Ross, Excalibur, Tony Schiavone

It’s another tournament focused show as we continue the World Title Eliminator Tournament and begin the TBS Title Tournament. We are also less than a month away from Full Gear and that show is going to need some more attention sooner than later. The card is being set up, but it rarely feels like something that is receiving focus. AEW knows how to pull these things off though so let’s get to it.

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Mike Reviews – WWE ECW (4th September 2007)

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Hello there you cheesy comestibles!

I decided to review this one as I wanted to re-watch the John Morrison Vs CM Punk match again as I had a lot of fondness for it back in the day. I haven’t got a clue as to what else is on this show though, so that could end up being a potentially nice or negative surprise.

Maffew has also reviewed this show during his EPIC journey through the history of WWE’s ECW brand and you can read what he thought by clicking HERE

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LOD’s 1997 Tag Title Reign

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One thing that got lost in all the chaos of late WWF 1997, was LOD's short Tag Title reign right before Survivor Series.  They made such a big deal of them finally winning the belts back from the Godwinns (After only a 2 day Title reign no less), and then out
of nowhere they lost to the Outlaws and never got back on top again.


Were they supposed to have a long reign?  Did they expect to get the belts back from NAO at some point?  How much of that whole fiasco was a Russo booking situation rather than what Vince had planned?

They were definitely not planned to have a long reign.  It was just done to pop a rating with their name value and BOY HOWDY did that fail.  But they did give DX a bit of a rub so there’s that.  

Bret winning the WWF Title from Flair in Saskatoon

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Was it just a coincidence that they put the belt on Bret in Canada?  If they were touring the midwest at the time, would Bret have still gotten the belt?  Before putting the belt on Bret, were there any plans for him for Survivor Series '92?
100% a coincidence.  Bret was booked with someone else for Survivor Series originally but I can’t remember who offhand. 

June PPVs

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Can it be argued that the WWF should have introduced a June PPV (and gone to five a year) earlier than 1993?  With five months between Wrestlemania and Summerslam, serious doldrums often set in on the TV shows with no major show on the horizon to build to (this
was even more pronounced in the years before Summerslam and Survivor Series: I remember the post WM III TV getting stuck in major ruts at multiple points).  With that June show in place – it doesn't have to be a concept show like KOTR – you have about 2.5-3
months between each PPV; plenty of time to set up an angle/feud, run the house shows, blow it off on PPV, and then start the process over again.  For the really hot feuds, you can find ways to prolong them over 2+ PPV cycles.


What do you think: would it have been to a good idea to go to five PPVs earlier than they did?  I get that house shows were still the main engine driving business at the time, but once they'd gone to four PPVs, they arguably should have started the transition
towards organizing the booking around those, and with the regular interval between them it could give the TV a consistently focused direction and lower the chances of lagging momentum.

Yeah I think King of the Ring would have made a good addition back in the day, although two tournament shows in 1988 would have been a bit much.  But for example, something like the WrestleFest stadium show in Milwaukee would have filled that gap nicely.  And why isn’t that show on the damn Network yet?!?  

XPW Day 1 – Rob Black, Through the Lens of Louis Theroux

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I don’t review every episode of Dark Side of the Ring, but the XPW episode was on the radar. It’s got some good things going for it, but one big omission is the absence of Rob Black, the owner and promoter. However, the man himself hasn’t always been shy about appearing on camera, and two places he did appear were in documentaries presented by Louis Theroux. So, today I’m going to look at his appearances there, as well as some brief comments on the other participants in his shows, then tomorrow it’ll be the review of Dark Side.

(Rob Black, back in the day)

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