Ruthless Aggression Era Project: WWE Smackdown Review - August 14th, 2003

WWE Smackdown

August 14th, 2003

St Louis, Missouri 

WWE Champion: Kurt Angle (since 7/27/03)

WWE United States Champion: Eddie Guerrero (since 7/27/03)

WWE Tag Team Champions: Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas (since 7/3/03)

WWE Cruserweight Champion: Rey Mysterio (since 6/5/03)

Commentators - Michael Cole & Tazz

TONIGHT: The Undertaker vs. The Big Show

Mr. McMahon opens the show. He says he is here to introduce everyone to someone that they thought they knew.. Brock Lesnar. Vince then replays what happened last week with he & Brock swerving Angle and destroying him in the cage. Vince play by play narrates the entire thing over the mic and it is HILARIOUS LMAO. “LOOK AT THAT!” Vince brings Brock out and they have a love fest. STEPHANIE MCMAHON MAKES HER RETURN to interrupt. Steph says she learned a lot at Vengeance.. she learned that her dad would hire A-Train to physically assault his own daughter just so “his slut” (Sable) could win a match. Dear fucking lord. Considering everything happening right now in real life in 2022, this segment is nuts to look back on. Steph talking about being in a position of power and her dad being a piece of shit. Vince makes a lot of derogatory comments toward women. He says the worst day in his life was when he married her mother and Steph tries to slap him. Brock grabs her arm and she screams. Vince says he can handle it, though, and since Steph wants to accuse him of physical abuse, he’ll show her physical abuse when she faces THE 350

POUND A TRAIN TONIHJT! “And that’s physical abuse…” this is fucked. 

1) Worlds Greatest Tag Team (c) vs. Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman - WWE Tag Team Title Match

Ruthless Aggression Era Project: WWE Monday Night Raw Review - August 11th, 2003

WWE Monday Night Raw 

August 11th, 2003 

Quad Cities

World Heavyweight Champion: Triple H (since 12/15/02)

Intercontinental Champion: Christian (since 8/10/03)

World Tag Team Champions: La Resistance (since 6/15/03)

WWE Women's Champion: Molly Holly (since 7/28/03)

Commentators - Jerry Lawler & Jonathan Coachman

TONIGHT: Goldberg vs. Ric Flair… again. But this time it’s No DQ. OH YAY. 

This is the first episode of Raw on SPIKE TV. 

Eric Bischoff opens the show and he replays everything that went down last week. As he’s bragging about beating Shane, JIM ROSS RETURNS. JR comes to the ring and says he’s pressing charges on Bischoff for what happened to him during the Kane interview. Stone Cold comes out and says the only way JR won’t sue Bischoff is if he signs a contract for a match tonight. Eric agrees to avoid the lawsuit, but he didn’t read the fine print.. tonight, Bischoff is contracted to face Kane!

1) Scott Steiner & Stacy Keibler vs. Rico & Jackie

This is fine while it lasts which isn’t long. Test runs through the crowd and Steiner follows him into the crowd for a brawl. This distraction allows Rico & Jackie to pick up the win. 

Match rating - *1/4

After the match, Steiner says THIS IS BULLSHIT. He is tired of Test following him around and wants him one on one right now. Test is down, but not right now.. next week and with one stipulation - winner gets Stacy Keibler. Jesus Christ. Stacy says they’re in and Steiner says Test’s ass is his next week. 

Backstage, Ric Flair and Randy Orton are talking. Triple H walks up and says now more than ever they need to stick together. H complains about the Elimination Chamber Match and Orton says Hunter isn’t alone in the match because he’s fighting to defend his title as well. H says now they need to turn their attention to tonight when Ric faces Goldberg. H says everyone’s been screwing them, now it’s time for them to screw with everyone else. 

Back from commercial, Kane arrives in his van again LOL. This shit is getting kinda humorous more than scary or ominous. 

2) The Dudley Boyz vs. La Resistance 

NJPW: Music City Mayhem Review - July 30th, 2022

NJPW Music City Mayhem 

July 30th, 2022

Nashville, Tennessee 

Commentators - Ian Riccaboni, Matt Rehwoldt, & Tanga Loa

1) The DKC, Kevin Knight, & Ren Narita vs. Shota Umino, Yuya Uemura, & Fred Yehi 

Uemura gets isolated by Knight, DKC, & Narita. Apparently those guys team a bit on Strong and it definitely shows. Kevin Knight surprised me here with an awesome flurry off a hot tag where he knocks Yehi & Umino off the apron and nails Uemura with a deep bodyslam. Yehi gets the hot tag when Uemura finally gets out of his predicament and it rules. Things break down here with various face offs. Most notably Umino and Narita squaring off. This was fun and almost everyone shined, but as a whole it probably could’ve benefitted from being a little shorter. Shota gets the win for his team with the Death Rider DDT in 13:12.

Match rating - **1/2

2) Davey Richards (c) vs. Rocky Romero - MLW National Openweight Title Match 

Ruthless Aggression Era Project: WWE Smackdown Review - August 7th, 2003

WWE Smackdown 

August 7th, 2003

Kelowna, British Columbia 

WWE Champion: Kurt Angle (since 7/27/03)

WWE United States Champion: Eddie Guerrero (since 7/27/03)

WWE Tag Team Champions: Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas (since 7/3/03)

WWE Cruserweight Champion: Rey Mysterio (since 6/5/03)

Commentators - Michael Cole & Tazz

1) Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit 

Ok, so obviously this fucking rules. Obviously a lot shorter than the awesome Vengeance match, but everything is snug and great. Benoit goes for the flying headbutt and Rhyno runs down & knocks him off. Benoit is pissed and dives onto Rhyno. Tajiri runs in and goes after Eddie and the ref calls for the bell. 

Match rating - ***

A huge brawl breaks out after the match. Officials come out to break it up and Sgt Slaughter gets on the mic. He says to ring the bell and WE’VE GOT A TAG TEAM MATCH PLAYA. 

2) Eddie Guerrero & Rhyno vs. Chris Benoit & Tajiri 

Another great time here. It goes a little over five minutes and goes by so quickly. Tajiri mists Rhyno and Benoit german suplexes the hell out of him. This leads us to the finish with Benoit forcing Eddie to tap to the cross face. 

Match rating - ***

Backstage, Kurt Angle tells Josh Matthews he’s gonna sit down with Brock Lesnar one on one tonight to get their issues settled. 

3) Zach Gowen vs. Nunzio (w/ Chuck Palumbo & Johnny Stamboli) 

AEW: Dynamite - Fight For the Fallen Review - July 27th, 2022

AEW Dynamite 

Fight for the Fallen 2022

July 27th, 2022

Worcester, MA

AEW World Champion: CM Punk (since 5/29/22)

AEW Interim World Champion: Jon Moxley (since 6/26/22)

AEW World Tag Team Champions: Swerve Strickland & Keith Lee (since 7/13/22)

AEW Women’s World Champion: Thunder Rosa (since 3/16/22)

AEW TBS Champion: Jade Cargill (since 1/5/22)

AEW TNT Champion: Wardlow (since 7/6/22)

1) Jon Moxley (c) vs. RUSH - AEW World Championship Match 

Listen, firstly, I’m not calling Mox the interim World champ because that’s just short selling this run he’s having. Rush had an insane match with Dragon Lee this past weekend and that was enough to get me hyped for this considering how killer Mox is right now. We get the best Mox entrance in recent memory as he comes out super fired up and throwing bottles in the crowd. This match couldn’t have happened at a more perfect moment in time. Rush gets the jump on Moxley early and we see blood from the forehead of the champion just minutes into this. This was a great brawl that fell into the vein of Moxley’s style of match while also leaning into Rush’s brawling side which truthfully isn’t very far off from Moxley’s in a way if you look at some Rush’s past grudge matches and such. This just rocked. Stiff strikes, suplexes, nearfalls and some blood. Everything you expect from 2022 Mox and nothing less. Everything you’d want from Rush after his barnburner with his brother last weekend. Andrade tried to run down to interfere, but the Lucha Bros made the save and ran them off which added some drama to the final stretch. Mox retains off of a paradigm shift. 

Match rating - ***3/4

Random Match Review: FTR (c) vs. The Briscoes - ROH World Tag Team Title Match - ROH: Death Before Dishonor - July 23rd, 2022

FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) (c) vs. The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) - 2/3 Falls Match for the ROH World Championship 

This is my Match of the Year so far. Plain and simple. 

I didn’t think anything would surpass Hanger/Bryan from January, but I should’ve never doubted these two teams. Not to spoil my rating before getting to the end of this article, but this is my third five star match of 2022. The first being the obvious Hanger/Danielson title match and the second came at Double or Nothing with the chaotic Anarchy in the Arena. This match surpasses them both, though, if we are comparing. To my taste, atleast. 

This felt like the type of match that made me fall in love with Ring of Honor’s mid 2000’s shows. It went around 45 minutes, but felt like 25. I was glued to the screen from bell to bell and this truly felt like a fucking rollercoaster ride. 

I went ****3/4 on their first match. Not that it was necessarily missing something, but I felt like there was a more perfect epic still stowed away that the two teams could deliver. I’m glad my thinking was right for once because that’s what we got here. 

Everything in this match was laid in. Even the smallest things. Every single strike looked like it hurt. Dax bled from the chest from chops, the teams traded headbutts and closed fists. This felt like an actual war. Their first match was an awesome back & forth spectacle, this felt like war. Competition between two teams who love tag team wrestling with everything in them. 

One team who is the most underrated of the last 20 years in some circles in the Briscoes. Then a team who is dead set on making a career worthy of placing them in the Top 2-3 best teams of all time discussion. The emotion both duos fought with is what pushed it beyond just a slugfest for a title.

The Briscoes have held the guard down for Ring of Honor through thick and thin for 20 years. When everyone else left, they stayed. They fought. They stood their ground and with pride. They’ve beaten everyone, they’ve held the titles 10+ times. Jay is a former world champion. They’ve done it all, but they’ve never beaten FTR. FTR.. a team who captured gold at the top of the ladder in WWE and has arguably taken the opposite career path that the Briscoes have taken. They’re a perfect clash for one another and you feel it with every strike and splash of sweat that flies to the mat. 

This match left nothing else to be desired. Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler, Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe gave everything last night and delivered the best match I’ve seen this year. An epic. A classic. Thank you, guys. This was amazing. Nothing else needs to be said. 

Match rating - *****

Random Match Review: Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta vs. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta) - AEW: Dynamite - July 20th, 2022

Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta vs. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta) - AEW Dynamite - July 20th, 2022

This probably comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me, but I loved this match. I don’t think I loved it solely because of bias, though. I think I tend to be pretty fair in my analysis of most things and when I am being biased, I can call myself out for it and own it. 

Sure, I love Chuck Taylor more than most. Yes, Jon Moxley is my undoubted Wrestler of the Year so far and has me glued to the screen any time he’s on. And yes, Wheeler Yuta has been a consistent favorite of mine this year as well. 

Take all of that away, though, and I think you still have one of the best TV matches of the year. In all honesty, I think it may go down as one of the most underrated ones considering some of the takes I’ve seen on it.