Jonathan Gresham Vs Speedball Mike Bailey - Impact Wrestling (4/5/23)

Feels like ages since I've written anything for the blog.  In April I got married and went on my honeymoon (thank you for the well wishes on discord!) so I had nearly a 3 week stint of not watching any wrestling while I focused on more important matters.  I've tried to catch up a bit on recommended stuff I've missed, but nothing has grabbed me or felt interesting enough to write about.  Until now.

This week's episode of saw Speedball Mike Bailey and Jonathan Gresham have their 4th and (for now) blowoff match in their rivalry.  Gresham won the first match back in February with a roll up, Bailey responded with tapping out Gresham in a figure four at the Sacrifice PPV in March, and last month Tre Miguel spoiled the third match with a run-in to set up the recent 3 way X-Division title match in Canada.   While I'm annoyed that Impact, even in the midst of Josh Alexander going down with a serious injury, are reluctant to let these two fantastic wrestlers be near the top of their card, I am still down to watch two of 'my guys' go at it over and over again.  I really wish there was more of a story here than just a 'mutual respect' series matches because matches like that lack juice to take them to the next level, but there was at least some......idk tetchiness? here from Gresham who took umbrage at Bailey squeezing his hand too tightly in the handshake.  While both men are techinically babyfaces on this roster, Bailey is the pure as snow babyface, and Gresham is the guy that leans a little bit heel and is more desperate to win.

Where my interest really peaks in this match is when Gresham performs a couple of hard hitting arm drags and Speedball takes a little longer than normal to recover from them and starts shaking out his hand.  SPEEDBALL STARTS SELLING A LIMB THAT ISN'T HIS LEG~!  I've seen Speedball do his leg sell match match routine more than I've seen Gunther do his 'chop the ring post = hand sell' match, I've seen it more than I've seen Jon Moxley gush blood on national TV, I've seen it more than I've seen someone join the Bullet Club (happy 10 year anniversary btw).  Don't get me wrong, Bailey is amazing at working that style of match, but I've seen him do it so many times that it doesn't excite me because I know all the beats that are about to happen.  This excited me.  The hand injury meant that A) Bailey could still bring the textbook Speedball offence with 100% efficiency because his legs were in great condition and B) Bailey had a weakness that Gresham could attack

And attack it he did.  Gresham did some nasty joint manipulation work on Bailey's hand that the crowd went along with, 'oooo'ing and wincing in unison as Bailey's hand bent in positions it's not supposed to.  It pays off nicely when Gresham forces the hand down for a pin, and even though it's obviously not going to end the match, the idea is that it's forcing Bailey to weaken his own arm by pushing back on Gresham's weight to escape it.  I'm all about nerdy shit like that.  It really paid off at the end of the match where Gresham caught Speedball in the Octopus Stretch and Bailey had to immediately tap out to it.  Limb work matches are nice, but they really feel like they're worth your time when they connect up with the finish like this.  Gresham comes off like a total genius because his clear strategy worked; he didn't approach the match by worrying about neutralising Speedball's offence, he approached it by playing to his own strengths and what would aid his own moveset.  I prefer it in football when managers are brave and approach games thinking that about how their team's game can hurt the opponent, rather than worrying too much about what the opponent can do to them and so they self-sacrifice their attack and change the team in the hope of nullifying their opponent.....and half the time it doesn't work anyway.  I see so many wrestlers take on Bailey and switch up their own game to just attack his legs, and I'd much rather see people take the Gresham approach here, just be themselves against him and let Bailey worry about their game.  It's definitely more exciting that way from the fan perspective.      

Can you tell Tony Pulis used to manage my team? The scars run deep.

In keeping with all their other matches, this only scratches the surface of what these two are capable of and doesn't flirt with getting on my MOTYC list, but it's such a joy to see them stretch their legs for 10 minutes and still be the best thing on the show.   Carve out 10 minutes of your weekend to watch this, it'll be better than the Coronation.  

Worst WWE Match Ever - 85 - Jesse Jammes vs. Rockabilly - In Your House 14: Revenge of the Taker

 85.

Jesse Jammes vs. Rockabilly

In Your House 14 - Revenge of the Taker

Talk about a match that feels out of place for its time. By April 1997, the wrestling landscape had changed dramatically. The nWo had debuted in the summer the previous year, introducing a new edgier side to the WWE’s primary competition. WWE took a bit of time to catch up to this, but on the back of the push of Steve Austin, as well as the change in character for Bret Hart, there were signs that the WWE were on its way to its own edgier brand of television. That change didn’t come overnight, and while the seeds had been planted for what would become the Attitude Era, there were still plenty on the card that reflected the mid-90s New Generation of WWF. An era of wrestling that no longer complemented the culture of the late 90s. 

Sometimes it is funny how life precedes itself. Both men in this match had a largely unspectacular career to this point, mostly floundering within the lower card and tag division. Tonight, Billy Gunn debuts his new gimmick as Honky Tonk Man’s protégé, Rockabilly. Honky Tonk Man had been teasing his new protégé for weeks, including offering Billy the chance two weeks earlier. As if the prospect of the Honky Tonk Man’s protege isn’t anticlimactic enough, but the big reveal is … the guy that he approached two weeks earlier. I can’t really recall any time in wrestling where a mystery reveal is just someone that was teased a couple weeks earlier. The rumour is that Honky Tonk Man’s protégé was intended to be Disco Inferno, but due to a no-compete clause in his contract the timeline didn’t work and WWE were left scrambling for a replacement. I can’t think of many things worse than Billy Gunn in this role, but Disco Inferno would have been pretty damn close. 

Jesse Jammes is not having much of a better time himself, as his own gimmick mimicked that of the now departed Jeff Jarrett. 

If I had to describe this match in a word, it would be sad. The match is not good by any means - in fact it is quite terrible - but to have a match with so little heat must be demoralising for the talent. No matter what antics Billy, Jesse Jammes or the Honky Tonk Man tried to pull, there was no getting a reaction out of this crowd here. I think we’ve all been part of a crowd like this. Whether at a wrestling show, or perhaps at a stand up comedy show - when there’s performers on stage that are getting zero reaction and at a certain point I almost start to pity them. 

Between just about every move, Rockabilly takes the time to do a little shuffle to gloat to try and revive the crowd. Nothing happening and instead you just have this guy in an outdated gimmick doing a lame little shuffle to crickets. This is embarrassing. Eventually those shimmies would inevitably come back to bite him when Jammes would roll him up for the win.

In a way, if this were anyone but Billy Gunn, this is a career ender. However WWE were always enamoured with Billy, and would constantly push and re-push him in an attempt to get that winning formula to make him a star, meaning he got more opportunities even after this disaster. In a twist of irony, the lowest point of Rockabilly’s career is against the man that he would later go on to become synonymous with. By the end of 1997, the New Age Outlaws had formed seemingly from nowhere. Their chemistry and personality finally shined as the Attitude Era developed. Instead of playing campy country musicians, they were edgy and brash. In a way, when I find myself feeling sorry for these two for what they must have felt during this night, I remind myself that in less than a year they would go on to become one of the most popular acts in the history of WWE. And in a way, I find that little irony that this match exists between these two a little heartwarming in its own perverse way.

Up Next - After a few matches of just bad matches, no we have bad wrestling that comes under the category of “entertaining shite”. This time featuring attempted murder and vehicular manslaughter.

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Worst WWE Match Ever - 86 - Billie Kay & Carmella vs. Lana & Naomi vs. Liv Morgan & Ruby Riott vs.Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose vs. Natalya & Tamina - Wrestlemania 37 Night 1

 86.

Tag-Team Turmoil

Billie Kay & Carmella vs. Lana & Naomi vs. Liv Morgan & Ruby Riott vs.Dana Brooke & Mandy Rose  vs. Natalya & Tamina

Wrestlemania 37 - Night 1

It’s a sad state of the women’s tag division at the time that this match exists on Wrestlemania. Winner of this match faces for the women’s tag team championships at Night 2 of Wrestlemania - a match that features one properly established team, and three makeshift teams that are set to face the makeshift champions the following night.

I’ll come outright and say that Billie Kay is the biggest disaster of this match and pretty much single handedly brings this otherwise below average yet inoffensive match onto this list. You have to do something quite special to make Lana, fucking Lana, look like Ricky Steamboat in there. There’s a good 30 second section of wrestling which might just be the worst piece of wrestling in Wrestlemania history where Billie first completely screws up on a tilt-a-whirl bump, wildly and embarrassingly flails at thin air while Naomi hits the ropes, and then sells a similarly whiffed kick from Lana. It’s as ugly as anything from the infamous Jackie Gayda tag match. She’s uncoordinated, her timing is all over the place, and she can’t bump for shit. She looked every bit the untrained wrestler that Jackie Gayda was, but without the excuse that she actually was that. She had been wrestling for over 10 years at this point, compared to Gayda’s 3 televised matches, yet she didn’t look like she’d stepped foot in a ring before. 

Carmella assists Billie Kay in eliminating Naomi and Lana ensuring that the pain had to continue a bit longer. At the very least Lana is out, and they’re replaced by the Riott Squad who spend the whole match trying to get something good out of what was around them.

I somewhat enjoyed the IIconics outside the ring, they were funny characters when given the right material. But once they got in the ring the pair of them were bad, both in terms of their wrestling ability and - most obnoxiously - their incessant screeching. That’s on full display here. In an era where women’s wrestling is supposed to be taken more seriously on a show main evented by Bianca Belair and Sasha Banks, having her and Lana in this match feels incredibly out of place. 

Once Billie Kay and Carmella are out, the match improves significantly, although that is a low bar to clear. Mandy and Dana come to the ring - edited from the Network version is Mandy Rose’s Ultimo Dragon-esque trip.That’s not to say the match isn’t without its problems after this point. Dana and Mandy are no special talents, but thanks to Liv’s bumping and the general work of the Riott Squad it is a lot better in the second half. Even the ring announcer gets in on the misery, declaring that the Riott Squad had been eliminated, despite the fact that it was actually Dana and Lana who were out.

The final team out is Natalya and Tamina, who I’m afraid to say are two of my least favourite wrestlers on the roster. I am not a fan of talents that just exist for nearly a decade without changing anything about their character or significantly improving. They don’t do anything offensive, outside of Natalya waiting around for the sharpshooter for entirely too long before deciding to tag in Tamina for the win. The wrong team won, as Natalya and Tamina are old news, whereas at least the Riott Squad were a somewhat interesting team. The following night they’d have a mediocre match with Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, although inexplicably Tamina got some great reactions on Night 2. I don’t understand it, but good for her at least.

Up Next - Billy Gunn debuts his new gimmick against the man that would save his career.

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Worst WWE Match Ever - 87 - Armando Elejandro Estrada vs. Braden Walker - ECW, 8th July 2008

 87.

Armando Elejandro Estrada vs. Braden Walker

ECW - 8th July 2008

You only get one chance at a first impression.

Shinsuke Nakamura. Chris Jericho. Kane. These are among the standard bearers of great debuts. The sort of debut where you remember vividly every detail, and watch a star emerge overnight.

Then there’s the other side of the coin.

Sin Cara. The Shockmaster. Tito Ortiz. The debuts that became infamous for their failure. One that derailed future plans and left the talent scrambling to salvage what was left of their career, broken by an ill fated, poorly booked, or badly executed introduction.

Braden Walker is in the latter category.

Braden Walker had maybe a combined 15 minutes of television time on WWE TV across the two weeks he appeared on television. And yet those 15 minutes have been enough to cement his name in infamy. In a segment that has been parodied and mocked for the last 15 years, Braden Walker is introduced backstage as ECW’s newest superstar, debuting with a knock knock joke with all the writing, delivery and comedic timing of a eulogy. He was doomed from the start.

Now if Braden Walker was just some dude, then nobody would have batted an eye about him, and he’d be lost to history only to those brave enough to dig into the archives of WWE ECW. But Braden Walker was the former Chris Harris from TNA. One half of TNA’s greatest tag team, America’s Most Wanted. He was part of one of TNA’s finest and most memorable matches against Triple X in 2004. Even as recently as a year before this match, he and his former tag team partner, James Storm, were having TNA’s match of the year at Sacrifice 2007. At Slammiversary he was briefly pushed into the TNA World Championship picture as part of the King of the Mountain match. It looked like he was set to break out as TNA’s next big homegrown star. So when he was let go and picked up by WWE there was some optimism from a lot of fans, myself included.

But Shock, I hear you say, surely the promo isn’t enough to ruin his career. And that brings us to the match. 

His opponent tonight is Armando Alejandro Estrada, who was fighting for a contract in ECW after his tenure as ECW General Manager ended. Estrada - who was a fun manager character at the start of his WWE run - had inexplicably been changed to a wrestler role that didn’t work for him whatsoever and would ultimately end with his own release in 2008.

In a vacuum, does this match warrant a place on the list? Probably not. This is a plain-ass 4 minute match where nothing interesting whatsoever happens. But therein lies the problem. Braden Walker, out of shape, in his plain black singlet, with his new generic name, standard stock entrance music, with his default entrance where he simply points once, and fresh off one of the most infamously bad opening promos, did absolutely nothing interesting in this match. He is a default create-a-wrestler and this is the tutorial match. Any enthusiasm anyone might have had for Chris Harris in WWE was killed in a single night. 

First of all, at 4 minutes long, this is entirely too long for a debut match against Estrada. Why is he taking meaningful offence from Estrada? Why is he selling for him? Walker could have maybe, maybe survived that horrible opening promo if he was given the opportunity to shine. But he didn’t - he spent most of this 4 minute match selling for Estrada. This debut should be a showcase for him. I referenced Sin Cara earlier - even in his debut match against Primo, at least WWE tried to showcase some of the stuff he could do by pairing him with someone like Primo who could (in theory) complement him. Walker is sitting there in chinlocks and bearhugs from Armando Estrada. He wins off the most basic of babyface moves (a flying cross body) so nothing original there - and even in doing that he nearly landed on Estrada’s head.

Am I saying this to say Braden Walker is blameless? Absolutely not, he is definitely just as much at fault for the mediocre showing as WWE was. Clearly he was not in the best shape, and didn’t look particularly motivated during his debut match. 

However if I didn’t know better, I’d say the entire presentation of Braden Walker was a sabotage, like someone vehemently opposed the signing of Chris Harris and went all out to kill his WWE career dead. In short, this is the most bland presentation of a wrestler you’re ever likely to see, from the music, the promo, the wrestling style, the attire, the look. And if it were anyone else, it wouldn’t even be in consideration for this list. But because it’s Chris Harris and we know he could be at least something, this deserves its place here and its place in wrestling infamy.

Up Next - modern day women’s wrestling is brought back 15 years at the Grandest Stage of Them All.

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Worst WWE Match Ever - 88 - Stephanie McMahon vs. Vince McMahon - No Mercy 2003

 88.

I Quit Match

Stephanie McMahon vs. Vince McMahon

No Mercy 2003

Truthfully, this wasn’t in consideration when I first started drafting my shortlist of matches. It’s not a match I remember hating when I first watched it back in 2003, and it wasn’t something I revisited often, if at all if I’m honest. Then it came up during Vince’s scandal and controversies last summer. It made me feel gross to think about, which led me to a rewatch as I happened to be working my way through my shortlists. Let me tell you - and perhaps this is a symptom of the time - but this is the trashiest shit you are likely to see in wrestling. It’s Jerry Springer car crash style TV in the worst way. That feeling of it being a symptom of the time is reflected in the crowd response, because the crowd is fanatical through the whole match. Vince gets some of the biggest heat you’ll ever hear. Make no mistake, the live attendances ate this storyline up. Therefore, the argument may be that I’m watching this match with 2023 eyes, not 2003 and thus I am harsher on it in retrospect. I’ll leave that to you.

Stephanie was named general manager of SmackDown in 2002, but by the fall of 2003 Vince had become frustrated by her management style and decisions, notably the hiring of Zack Gowen. In turn, Stephanie also became frustrated by Vince's on-screen relationship with Sable. Speaking of, Sable accompanies Vince to the ring, while Linda McMahon accompanies Stephanie - something that will be important later.

The reason for the match and stipulation is because Vince didn’t want to fire Stephanie because that would be him admitting he made a mistake, and also make him a bad father. So instead he’s going to beat the ever loving shit out of his daughter to make her quit instead, like any good father would. At this point it becomes a little uncomfortable to watch Vince gaslighting Stephanie into saying that the beating she’s going to take is her fault.

If Stephanie loses, she’s out as general manager of SmackDown. If Vince loses, he promises to quit as owner of WWE. Before, during and after the match they hype the drama and importance that this would be the end of one of these two in WWE forever - and here we are 20 years later, of course. For Stephanie she can win by pinfall, submission, or making Vince quit, whereas Vince can only win by making Stephanie quit. 

In terms of actual commentary for the match, it goes without saying that expectations should be limited. Neither are active wrestlers, with Stephanie in particular having far less experience as an in-ring competitor. Neither are capable of bumping convincingly, which can sometimes work if you have a competent wrestler opposite. But together it is awkward, clunky, the timing is all over the place, and they constantly repeat spots. Because Stephanie can’t bump cleanly like a trained wrestler can, every fall feels ugly and I think that adds to the weirdness surrounding this match.

Even by Vince's standards he’s enormously bloated for this match. It’s uncomfortable to watch to see this massive human being beat the hell out of his real life daughter, with the mother at ringside. Somehow, despite all this, Linda still fails to emote one bit. Richard Blummenthal must have been jumping for joy when some intern probably brought this shit to his attention in the 2010 Connecticut election. There’s shenanigans featuring Sable and Linda which are also awkward because of Linda’s robot expressions. 

Stephanie can win via pinfall, and she gets a couple of near falls off numerous lead pipe shots that the crowd bites on big. Eventually Vince gets Stephanie in a choke using the lead pipe, which leads to Linda throwing in the towel for Stephanie. To say this is not quite Survivor Series 1994 would be an understatement, and I put that blame 100% on Linda whose best acting performance was pretending to be drugged in 2001 because she didn’t have to act differently. 

An interesting tidbit is that this match took place around a week before Triple H and Stephanie’s real life wedding, to the point where HHH, Stephanie and Linda all vehemently disagreed with it taking place in case Stephanie got hurt. Seriously, the more you think about this match, the weirder it becomes. 

To me this is another symptom of the awkward post attitude era time period. As wrestling’s popularity dwindled in the twilight of the attitude era, WWE in the early 2000s continued to try and push the boundaries with more tasteless storylines. Vince vs Stephanie, Eric Bischoff raping Linda McMahon, Vince beating up a one-legged man, Vince threatening to have Undertaker’s wife raped - all off the top of my head all happened within mere months of one another in the summer and fall of 2003. WWE was desperately trying to cling on to what made it successful, and push it further despite the fact that car crash television was on its way out, and in my opinion the correct move would have been to move the other way. 

It makes me happy how far wrestling has come that this will likely never be seen again. For the first time in this list, we’ve come across a match that is not just poor quality, but actually outright unpleasant to watch.

Up Next - what a difference a year makes. From a match of the year contender and a brief world title push in one company in 2007, to this …

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Bishamon Vs Aussie Open - NJPW Sakura Genesis (8/4/23)

It's been a slow start to the year for quality tag team wrestling, but it's exploded in the last week or so.  Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens won the tag titles from The Usos in a glorious main event of Wrestlemania Saturday, ROH put on a spectacular ladder match which Lucha Bros survived as new ROH tag champs, FTR were back on top of the tag division in AEW after they beat The Gunns for the titles on Wednesday, and this weekend we saw one of the better IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Title matches in recent history.  

Timing has never been a strong suit for Aussie Open.  When they were on the come up in late 2017/early 2018, the BritWres boom was just about peaking and starting to drift downwards.  In early 2020, Mark Davis teared his ACL which took him out of action for a year.  When he returned in early 2021, the world of wrestling was deep into the Pandemic era with limited opportunities to tour.  It took until the end of 2022 before Aussie Open could get started for real with New Japan as part of the world tag league where they lost in the finals to, ironically, Hirooki Goto and Yoshi Hashi.  

A few minutes into the match Kyle Fletcher hits a beautiful moonsault to the outside of the ring, but his momentum on landing caused the back of his head to crash into the guardrail and get a nasty cut in the process.  Mark Davis then took control for a long beatdown of Yoshi Hashi while Fletcher got treated on the apron having a bandage applied around his head with blood still seeping through it like Terry Butcher in 1989.  The blood won the sympathy of the crowd and turned Aussie Open into defacto babyfaces with the Ryogoku faithful as they could see how passionate and how hard Aussie Open wanted to fight for these titles.  Bishamon have been a great team over the last few years, but it's not often they come up against challengers as determined, and frankly, as good as this.  This match was stacked full of cool double team moves and a tremendous performance from Fletcher who wrestled like a fire was light under him once he started bleeding.     

After a double lariat from Fletcher and Davis, they hit the coriolis on Goto to win the titles clean as a whistle and become the new tag Champions after around 15 minutes of great action.  These guys get bonus points for being heels that get the job done without help - I was a little worried when the United Empire entrance involved Cobb, Henare, Akira and O'Khan, but they played no factor in the match thankfully.  United Empire > Bullet Club. 

In some respects it may not be such a bad thing that Aussie Open have had to wait so long for this moment.  Kota Ibushi, Will Ospreay and Shingo Takagi all had their first IWGP World Heavyweight title wins soured by being in front of quiet, clap-crowds because it never felt like the big moment it should have been.  At Sakura Genesis New Japan was back to the way it was before the pandemic, and the way the fans rallied before Aussie Open really helped make this moment feel like a huge one for them.    

Ed's Ongoing 2023 MOTY List

WWE Worst Match Ever - 89 - Braun Strowman vs. Tyson Fury - Crown Jewel 2019

 89.

Braun Strowman vs. Tyson Fury

Crown Jewel 2019

At some point it was inevitable we’d get to one of these shows. Since expanding their premium live event format into Saudi Arabia, they have been infamous for some of the worst matches of recent years. Our first entry comes from 2019 as one of the most famous boxers in the world takes on Braun Strowman in a match that, at least on paper, sounds interesting and wouldn’t look out of place at a Wrestlemania. After all, WWE has a history of success bringing in stars from the world of boxing into wrestling, most notably with Floyd Mayweather in 2008. There’s a world where this match is a total blast and a true spectacle.

Unfortunately, this is not that world. 

Celebrity matches live and die by the celebrity’s commitment to the cause. Guys like Logan Paul, Floyd Mayweather, and Bad Bunny put a noticeable effort and went all in to put on a show and that reflected on their performances. However we should have known this was going to be a bad one with the most awkward press conference in history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUb0WXirF4A

Tyson Fury gets an obnoxious amount of pyrotechnics during his entrance. It’s like that Kevin Nash gif from WCW. Or someone going OTT on their create-a-wrestler entrance.

When you get boxers into wrestling, it must be a struggle for them to untrain themselves to throw a worked punch after learning to do the exact opposite for their entire life. Fury and Braun try some routine wrestling sequences that look awful, before we finally get a sign of things to come when Fury “hits” a shoulder block on Braun. Except it’s done with so little velocity you’d be mistaken for thinking it were Jenna Morasca hitting it. To me, this is almost like that Brock Lesnar vs Dean Ambrose match from Wrestlemania 32, but on a worse scale. In that case, Brock had no interest in doing anything intense or risky because of an upcoming UFC fight. Same here with Fury - you have one of the most legitimately scary motherfuckers in the world and he’s wrestling such a tepid match because an injury to him would be devastating. When Floyd Mayweather wrestled Big Show in 2008, it was a full 18 months before his next boxing match, meaning that he could take a few risks and bumps. The timing of this match is horrendous planning because Fury was just four months away from a highly anticipated heavyweight rematch against Deontay Wilder. An injury to Fury in this environment would have been so catastrophic to Fury and boxing as a whole that it’s a wonder why they even agreed to it in the first place (although I could give you 12 million reasons why). 

However when you watch this match, you realise that the risk of injury is laughably low. 

Braun is in the unenviable role of trying to make Fury’s awful offence look good, while also tuning down his own offence to make it as safe as possible. He also has to account for Fury having no sense of timing or positioning for WWE wrestling. This makes Braun look horrible. Fury wrestles like someone that doesn’t have a great deal of interest in putting on a show, which adds to the perception of this being a quick cash grab. The whole appeal of these two monsters is that they are larger than life ass kicking behemoths. When they have to tone down their offence because they’re petrified of someone getting hurt, it makes the entire spectacle of the match pointless. Instead we get an awkward, mistimed mess. Eventually Fury hits Braun with a right hand, which gives him the win in 9 minutes via count out. After the match, Braun gets his heat back by hitting the running powerslam on Fury, only for Fury to get up immediately and begging Braun to “get back here, pussy!”

In a bizarre twist, this isn’t even the worst match featuring a non-wrestling legitimate fighter on this show, but we’ll get to that later.

I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the actual controversies of these shows, so allow me to get a little personal about it. However if the politics of the show does not interest you, or you’ve heard it all before and don’t want to relive it, then feel free to skip the remainder of the post as the commentary on the match is now finished. This will be the only time on the blog that I’ll reference the controversies of the Saudi shows, so I figured I’d get it out the way now in this first entry.

I’ve always had difficulty with these shows for many reasons, but on a personal level I struggle with it because I am part of a community that is illegal by law in Saudi Arabia. There is no tolerance for people like me. Me and my fiancé would genuinely be at risk of death if we were there, just because of how we were born to be and our beliefs that adults should be allowed to love other adults regardless of gender. Even looking beyond the journalists, the atrocities in Yemen, the misogyny, the worldwide funding of terrorism, and the environmental aspect, there is a very real part of these shows that offends me on a personal level as an individual that hits me hard. People from the forum or know me outside it may be aware that I gave up supporting my local football team of 30 years, Newcastle United, as a direct result of their takeover by the Saudi Public Investment Fund because I couldn’t in good conscience support a team whose future success will be directly attributed to the funding and governance of the Saudi Royal Family. With the way they’ve dipped their funds into just about every walk of life, it is impossible to truly boycott everything. Does that make me a hypocrite because I consume media from WWE and Disney (to name a couple) knowing full well where they get some of their money? Perhaps, but it is also a consequence of the imperfect world we live. The best we can do is our best, whatever you think that is, and to protest in a way that suits you. 

This is all compounded further by one of the men in this match, Tyson Fury, who is a well documented homophobe who has made vile comments towards the LGBT community including likening it to bestiality and paedophilia. It was around 3-4 years before this match took place that he made those comments, and to my knowledge he has never explicitly said that he no longer feels that way. However he did apologise to people he had hurt. Fury is a complicated man, who had a unique upbringing that warped his views on life. By his own admission, he struggled mightily with addiction and mental health issues at the time of those comments, and for that I can sympathise with him. I also recognise that he has done more than most to promote men’s mental health awareness in the UK in recent years. For this I feel he is difficult to evaluate and he is living proof of the grey in people. He’s not a person I would find easy to forgive for his previous comments, and that of course does mean that I went into this match with a less-than-enthusiastic approach even before watching it.

I say all this to say, there are plenty of reasons to hate these shows and what they stand for. The purpose of this blog and future entries is not to shit on the concept of these shows, but the matches that happened to take place on them as it just so happens to be where bad wrestling takes place.

Up Next - As WWE goes through a power struggle off-screen in real life, let’s look back to a time when the McMahons kept their power struggles strictly on-screen.

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