11/24/2025

© CMLL

CMLL

Bitesize Round-up

By David Hayter

Dios De Los Muertos at Sold Out Arena Mexico Turns Into A Nightmare

Friday nights at Arena México are almost without fail tremendous entertainment, mixing state-of-the-art wrestling with decades-old psychology and the most heated crowds in wrestling. Naturally, with Viernes Espectacular falling directly on Halloween, no one was in the mood to hold back and the pageantry was dialled up to the absolute extreme. Unfortunately, after a hot start, it seemed the occasion got the better of the competitors as one mishap led to another.

Thankfully, the second match on the card more than delivered, as the técnico team of Capitán Suicida, Magia Blanca and Hijo del Pantera decided they were going to go completely out of their minds with death-defying dives. The trio delivered not only immaculate acrobatics but created strong drama and tension against the stalwarts El Cobre, Okumura and Espanto Jr as they offered clever cross-up spots and believable near-falls. The only disappointment came when the rudo team stole the 2-1 victory with a deflating final fall.

The two stars of Women’s Month in Mexico, Persephone and India Sioux, faced off in a Lightning Match that featured beautiful flying arm-drags from Sioux and rock-solid basing from Persephone. Sadly, it wasn’t perfect; Persephone noticeably botched a suicide dive, but shrewdly worked the crowd to disguise the error. After a hot start, the match grew steadily sloppier and slower until the pair regained their confidence with some solid near-falls down the stretch. Unfortunately, given that neither woman could afford to lose, the match ended in a time-limit draw, which drew groans from the crowd.

Why on earth you’d spend a month trying to get these two women over as stars only to put them in a position to frustrate and disappoint a sold-out crowd, I will never know.

The card briefly threatened to go completely off the rails as the rudo team of Averno, Euforia and Mephisto bumbled their way through the first two falls against the dream team of Titán, Xelhua and Esfinge. Thankfully, disaster was averted thanks to a fantastic back-and-forth third fall carried by the intensity and precision of Titán’s offence.

The niggling issues, mishaps and outright botches that had been peppered throughout the show thus far seemed to build to the quasi-disastrous Rey del Inframundo elimination four-way. Adrenaline set the tone by biting off way more than he could chew athletically and struggling to pull off a series of overly ambitious spots. Thankfully, despite some rough moments, the match was ultimately highlighted by the flying of Difunto and Villano III (although even they were noticeably flubbing their lines). The finish came when Difunto attempted his signature rope-walk dropkick only to be caught with a sickening powerbomb counter by the eventual winner, Guerrero Maya Jr.

Mercifully, the main event stopped the rot. It was clear that the Arena México crowd had sorely missed Místico as they greeted him with deafening chants and were thrilled as El Sky Team blew through the rudos in a fantastic high-flying first fall. Cavernario, Volador Jr and Hechicero would recover to win the second fall using underhanded tactics. The heat would peak when Kemalito put the boots to Kemonito with the help of an army of alligator demons on the rampway. The third fall featured a glaring botch from Místico as he didn’t get enough spring on the Neon-assisted tijeras. Once the boos died down, Neon and Máscara won the crowd back round with jaw-dropping simultaneous dives, while Místico secured victory and sent the crowd home happy with La Mística.

Women’s Month In Mexico Is a Qualified Success

CMLL’s commitment to women’s wrestling is admirable. Reflecting their status as a quasi-public service and Mexican cultural artefact, the promotion has decided to take a noticeable hit at the box office to give its luchadoras the chance to main event throughout the month of October. CMLL’s faith has been rewarded with some signs of genuine growth in interest, particularly when Mercedes Moné headlined an edition of Viernes Espectacular, drawing a record attendance in the 9–10k range for an all-women show. Equally, the Women’s International GP appeared to push beyond the 10,000 mark (albeit with luchadores on the undercard).

It cannot be denied that the in-ring quality is miles below that of the mid-card male workers and, even with big guest stars from AEW, TJPW and STARDOM, the gates are poor by 2025 CMLL standards. Nevertheless, the promotion is actively trying to make stars and establish La Catalina, Olympia, Persephone and India Sioux as potential drawing cards.

Heat Magnet Mercedes Makes Persephone, While Skadi and India Sioux Impress

The crowds for the all-women’s shows are noticeably bigger and undeniably hotter than in years past, and the wrestling has somewhat improved. Mercedes Moné and Persephone combined for an ultra-heated and riotously enjoyable main event on 17 October 2025, where Moné used her bratty superstar belt-collector persona to make Persephone (usually a ruda) into a beloved star, even in defeat. The match was strong, but not remotely blow-away, with some awkward action in the early going, but even if it couldn’t compare to CMLL’s best in-ring action, it nevertheless succeeded in delivering a worthy main event with a pleasing big-fight feel.

The true revelation of Women’s Month in Mexico has been Skadi. There’s no denying that CMLL’s women’s division is wretched; a black hole of slow-motion, botch-heavy disaster pieces that feels at least a decade behind the US, let alone Japan.

Nevertheless, the green shoots of recovery were on display in the final of the Universal de Amazonas tournament as India Sioux and Skadi perfectly combined for a dazzling flyer-versus-bruiser battle.

The bulky Skadi has somewhat flown under the radar in CMLL during her 13-year career, but not only did she manage to keep the botch-prone India Sioux on the rails in this delightfully dramatic finale, she also got to go toe-to-toe and throw-for-throw with STARDOM’s Hazuki and Koguma during the Dios de los Muertos tour.

© CMLL

The International Women’s GP Is Lovably Rotten

This 56-minute cibernético was, in its own strange little way, a lot of fun — but don’t believe anyone trying to spin that it held a candle to the men’s match. It undeniably had a great final five minutes as Persephone, fresh from her showcase with Mercedes, was roared on as Team Mexico made a comeback on AEW’s Triangle of Madness to claim the feel-good, come-from-behind victory.

It was a brilliant story — in fact, it was the exact same story they told in the men’s match, with Místico having to make a heroic final stand to overcome a loaded Rest of the World team. Unfortunately, getting to those final five minutes was not exactly a slog, but it was a bizarre spectacle full of mistimed, sloppy, soft and at times dangerously mistimed action.

The opening portion of the match was particularly painful, as Hazuki and Koguma — two of the fastest, slickest and hardest-hitting workers in Japan — had to work at 0.25 speed with a parade of hapless luchadoras. It was hard not to feel bad for the pair, who would bump so hard for their opponents in an effort to make (for example) Olympia look strong, only for their opponents to be out of position and sell poorly when it was FWC’s turn to go on offence. Kanji fared little better when she tried to engage Lluvia or Zeuxis in more technical exchanges.

Shoko Nakajima was not to be denied, however. She was a little whirlwind, determined to go as fast as she possibly could, regardless of whether her opponents were able to keep up.

India Sioux, fresh from her star-making tournament win, was back to her bad old ways — whatever magic she’d conjured against Skadi evaporated here as botch followed botch. She was far from the worst; at least India was trying to entertain. Reyna Isis, however, proved both incompetent and dull throughout.

The Rest of the World team was not without its faults; Skye Blue and Julia Hart kept it simple for much of the match, but when it came time to dominate — when they paired off with the CMLL Tag Team Champions Lluvia and La Jarochita — disaster struck. They botched up an attempted synchronised spot, tried to transition to dual submissions but simply couldn’t get on the same page and ultimately gave up. Thekla fared little better — she delivered some good exchanges with a variety of opponents and got in STARDOM booker Taro Okada’s face at ringside, but her momentum ground to a halt when she tried to grapple with Zeuxis.

Make no mistake, despite the wonky, awkward work, the match had a chaotic charm. Whenever the heat died or the errors started to accumulate, both teams would spill to the outside for a wild brawl to pop the crowd and restore the heat.

There were two aspects of this marathon match that were unreservedly successful: firstly, Persephone’s victory, and secondly, the combination of Mina Shirakawa and La Catalina. Mina and Catalina are both hit-and-miss wrestlers, but they exude charisma and sheer joy that proves infectious. They were perfect dance partners, both literally and metaphorically, as they exchanged gyrations and crafty counters. The pair knew how to work the crowd while delivering satisfying action.

Ultimately, however, the night belonged to Persephone. She was stiffer and more violent than anyone else on Team Mexico and, when it was time to make her grand comeback, she obliterated the Triangle of Madness one after another in scintillating fashion.

The 2025 Women’s International Grand Prix was a classic “good bad match” — the work was poor, but never tiresome; an entertaining clusterfuck that succeeded in what it set out to achieve.

© CMLL

The Unexpected Elevation of Yutani

Who could have predicted that Místico’s next headline opponent, after bloodily besting MJF, would be former Japanese footballer Yutani? Sure, he absolutely has the look and at times he can ooze charisma, but for most of his CMLL tenure he’s simply bumped around the undercard in tags. However, in late October, CMLL decided to give him a shot at the big time.

After being showcased on the Women’s International GP undercard, he then found himself teaming with Hechicero and Volador Jr against Místico, Neon and Titán on the big, freely streamed Dios de los Muertos show from Puebla — and something crazy happened.

The first fall saw Yutani isolate Místico, beating his arse all around ringside before returning to the ring to hit a flying splash for the 1-2-3. The rudos took the first fall, not with a double pinfall on Titán and Neon, but by beating Místico clean as a sheet with little or no resistance. Then things got stranger still. Neon, Místico and Titán started making their grand comeback, tying things up 1-1, and just as Místico was launching into his silky, sumptuous comeback, Yutani ripped off his mask for the DQ — and a beatdown ensued.

That’s right — they went further than a pinfall victory. On a celebratory free-to-air show, they ran a huge heat angle to try and make Yutani a contender in one night. The official announcement followed hot on the heels of the angle: Místico vs Yutani will headline the next big card in Puebla, and it has already sold out a week in advance. However, the question that really needs to be answered in the ring is whether Yutani can truly deliver on this level.

The Stars Return From Fantasticamania With Dazzling Tag

The male stars of CMLL have been away working for RevPro, but they made their triumphant return to Arena México on the 24th in a show-stealing tag. Máscara Dorada and Titán proved to be a sensational team, mixing blitzkrieg speed with frightening precision as they took on Bárbaro Cavernario and Difunto. Titán never puts a foot wrong, but the mouth-watering exchanges emerged whenever Difunto and Dorada shared the ring.

Dorada has explosive brilliance, while Difunto has elegant rope-walking grace. This tantalising 12-minute teaser, which the técnicos won decisively 2-0, was so good it simply must be rematched. Difunto is too sublime and too over to be denied at this point — it’s long past time he followed in his stablemate Zandokan Jr’s footsteps and was given a main event singles showcase with Dorada.

Don’t Skip The Undercards: Watch Out For Valiente Jr and Friends

Being a live events business, CMLL puts on far too many shows for any one person to realistically keep up with, and to accommodate their relentless schedule, the company has one of the deepest rosters in all of wrestling. It is, however, worth watching a full non-Friday night card from start to finish every once in a while just to check in on their mind-boggling array of talented flyers and discover a new favourite.

El Audaz, El Hijo del Pantera and Valiente Jr made waves this week for their at-times sloppy but undeniably spectacular clash with Infarto and Calavera Jr I & II on the 4 November 2025 edition of Martes Populares. The clips of their acrobatics have been doing the rounds on social media and, while the match wasn’t perfect, it was a reminder that deep in the bowels of CMLL, their luchadores are cooking up the next wave of revolutionary dives and death-defying rope-walking techniques.

So don’t be afraid to dive in at the deep end, even if CMLL’s array of masked stars can be intimidating and alien at first.

© CMLL

CMLL 92. Anniversario

19th September 2025
Company Announced Attendance: ca16,000
Arena México, México City, México
Watch On: YouTube (Subscription Required)
Review by David Hayter

CMLL does an incredible job of making their big shows feel special despite taking place in the exact same 16,000-capacity arena that they sell out every other week. For “Anniversario”, it wasn’t simply a card laden with feud-ending Apuesta matches that signalled the show’s significance, but the pageantry. After the brilliant Los Villanos vs Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja tag team title match, the crowd were treated to a military marching band leading Arena México in song, and a beautifully filmed display of traditional Mexican dancing as a Mariachi band rallied the crowd.

Truth be told, the “Anniversario” is one of those surreal events that’s designed for hardcore wrestling fans and the casual audience simultaneously. There is a pressure to deliver big singles matches with ultra-high stakes, as opposed to the traditional two-out-of-three falls trios matches that CMLL is built on. For long-term viewers, this “Anniversario”, much like last year’s event, represents a noticeable dip in quality from what we’re used to seeing on a regular Friday night. Certain matches are rushed, big stars are shunted to the side, and middling acts are thrust into the spotlight because their hair or mask is on the line.
Nevertheless, despite some noticeable ups and downs, this year’s “Anniversario” was a thumping triumph: a celebration of state-of-the-art athleticism and classic psychology ripped straight out of the 1970s. Ultimately, however, in the years to come, no one will remember the flips, dives or crazily convoluted submission holds; there will be a single enduring visual that will immortalise this show: the image of Místico standing tall in the centre of a ring drenched in his own blood.

Bathed In Blood Mistico Rediscovers The Spring In His Step To Vanquish MJF

MJF’s run in CMLL has been a rather torturous parade of cheap heat where he (along with Jon Cruz) has been great on promos, but rotten in the ring. Mercifully, it appears his counterproductive swatting aside of Zandokan Jr was worth it for tonight’s long-awaited clash with Místico. The crowd was absolutely molten from the word go, and they reached a murderous apex as Max ripped Místico’s mask to open the contest. It only got crazier from there as Místico came up bleeding an absolute gusher after taking a flying face-first bump into the ring post.

MJF did his best to simply soak in the heat with rest holds and crowd-baiting antics, but Místico was determined not to repeat the faults of Max’s previous matches. (Editor’s Note: It’s almost like MJF needs an Editor?) Místico was busting his arse to create movement; springboarding head-first into a flying forearm and ensuring he fired up whenever Max’s shtick threatened to get too out of control. Místico put on an absolute masterclass in showing fire and creating repeated hope spots. Despite being caked in blood, Místico displayed masterful balance on his springboards and soared gracefully through the air to hit a sumptuous tornillo. If we needed any further proof that his leg injury has healed, it came when Místico sprang to the top rope to deliver a giant plancha to the outside – his days of cautiously stepping his way to the top rope appear to be over.

MJF, to his credit, was here to receive his comeuppance and he was a fantastic base at times. It is worth re-watching Max’s great catch on Místico’s springboard Canadian Destroyer – not only did Max stabilise the move, but he instantly snapped into the backflip. In another nice touch, after a piledriver on the apron, MJF tried to win by count-out, leading to one of the greatest last-minute desperation dives to break the count in wrestling history. From there on in, the near falls were simply tremendous as Místico escaped the Salt of the Earth only to have La Mística countered into a Tombstone Piledriver (complete with The Undertaker’s signature pinning pose).

Místico offered up a brilliant near fall of his own when Jon Cruz distracted the referee, and the ultimate babyface blasted MJF with a giant low blow to the delight of the crowd. When Max kicked out at two the sold-out arena imploded. From there on in, however, it was academic: Místico countered a top rope Tombstone attempt with an enzuigiri into a springboard rana and, after superkicking Jon Cruz, he hit La Mística and forced MJF to submit following a brief struggle.

The road to the match proved pretty destructive with MJF stinking up a pair of Friday night main events, but there’s no denying this Mask vs Title clash was an absolute classic. Mind-blowing heat, an all-time blade job, a cocky, hateable heel and a performance from Místico that rolled back the years. This was pro-wrestling at its absolute best: a match-of-the-year contender that should cement Místico’s status as the wrestler of the year.

Valiente Loses His Mask In A Solid But Unspectacular Main Event

There is always something deeply surreal about watching heated enemies forced to team in order to earn the right to face off in an Apuesta in the main event of the “Anniversario”. Even when the work in the tag match is of a high quality, as it was tonight, the matches inevitably have a strange purgatory-like quality. They are in some ways the quiet before the storm and are often potential banana peels, a last chance for a sneaky promoter to get out of delivering the match the crowd actually wants to see.

Tonight, there was only one option: the never-ending feud between Valiente and Esfinge had to end. No one buys that Último and Averno hate each other – in fact, they had an absolutely tremendous time teaming – and while Dragón Rojo Jr and Bárbaro Cavernario are at least rivals and great workers, they ended up proving to be a surprisingly slick team with neither the heat nor the star power to justify being in the main event.

So why even bother with the farce of a tag match? Well, for one thing, to get some fantastic workers on the card. Dragón and Bárbaro were determined to steal the spotlight with fantastic dives and by laying in their strikes. They were working so hard and so fast, it was no surprise that they were the first “team” to be eliminated when Esfinge got his boots up on Bárbaro’s slingshot splash and then pinned him with a spinning enzuigiri in a somewhat anti-climactic finish.

Averno and Último were having a gay old time playing with the crowd and taking it easy as they worked over Valiente with a stalling second-rope military press. When the simultaneous second-rope front suplex and butterfly facebuster only got a near fall, the writing was on the wall. Esfinge and Valiente didn’t wait long, swiftly hitting the springboard splash and lungblower to secure the double pinfall.

© CMLL

The Match Beyond: Esfinge Ends The Eternal Feud

Finally, the never-ending feud must end. To be fair to CMLL, despite multiple rug pulls, when the ring announcer declared that Esfinge and Valiente would be going Mask vs Mask, Arena México came unglued. The downside of teasing this match for so long is that at this stage it feels like we’ve seen everything that Valiente and Esfinge have in their locker; we’ve seen these two face off every Friday night for what feels like an entire year or more. It didn’t help that after a fast start Valiente settled into getting the heat with little imagination and no flair.

It was up to Esfinge to bring this match to life, and he decided to do it by taking a flip dive off the ramp and killing himself with a hard crash landing on the floor below. This car crash of a dive seemed to inspire Valiente; suddenly he discovered the intensity and personality he’d been lacking. He laughed in the crowd’s face, hurled Esfinge back-first into the barricade, head-first into the ring apron and finished the abuse with his signature tope suicida combo.

As the pair battled atop the dried blood of Místico, it was clear that this main event lacked the urgency and energy that Místico delivered in spades. Esfinge is one of the top técnicos in CMLL, but he struggled to truly ignite the crowd behind him. The crowd simply didn’t bite on the near falls, practically ignoring Valiente’s lungblower and only mildly popping for Esfinge’s spinning enzuigiri. The heat wasn’t bad by any means – the crowd were clearly into the match – but the match wasn’t structured to lead the crowd through a series of dramatic peaks and valleys.

It didn’t help that even as the action intensified and Valiente hit a beautiful springboard moonsault to the outside, and the pair began exchanging strikes, Valiente kept cutting off the técnico. Esfinge wasn’t allowed to deliver sustained offence until the very end of the match and that clearly stifled the crowd’s involvement. It didn’t help that the pair botched a key sequence ending in a powerbomb where Valiente just barely got his feet on the ropes.

To their credit they recovered. When Esfinge hit his signature offence (a running powerslam, giant monkey flip and springboard splash) the crowd were genuinely shocked when Valiente kicked out at the very last second. Unfortunately, the eventual finish – a figure four into a bridging cradle – was quasi-botched with Valiente’s shoulder clearly not pinned to the mat.

Still, it’s over: Valiente has been unmasked and another never-ending feud is over. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad either; it simply was what it was. Next year, let’s get Zandokan Jr and Máscara Dorada into the main event.

Bucanero and Felino’s Tedious Feud Ends In Bafflingly Bore Draw

Rey Bucanero and Felino are another pair that feel like they have been feuding for an eternity, to the point where their hair vs hair match feels more like a relief than a cause for excitement. Nevertheless, both men are absolute pros and they started the match hot with Felino jumping Bucanero during his entrance and quickly scoring a snap powerslam and top-rope Frankensteiner to get the heat. Both men knew that they’d have to keep the intensity up to compete with their younger peers, and they wasted no time hitting and missing dives respectively, with Felino scoring a big near fall with a sunset flip powerbomb within the first five minutes of the match.

Despite the genuine attempts to deliver a heated war, there were times when the match clearly fell apart. Felino took a completely random flip bump onto the apron for no discernible reason, then they botched tossing each other into the ring and finally, after some awkward walking and brawling, Bucanero hit an ugly splash from the top rope to the ramp. The match was rapidly falling apart when a simultaneous low-blow spot caused the crowd to erupt in deafening boos, with people standing up and heckling the referee when it became clear that the match had been adjudged to be a draw.

This was in some ways a fittingly unsatisfying finale to an interminable feud. Sure, on paper it’s clever – two notorious cheats both get caught out trying to low blow one another – but it absolutely killed the live crowd when they realised the match was not going to be restarted. The head-shaving only has value if one man is triumphant over the other; instead this double head-shaving was a pathetic and limp ending that left no one satisfied. There was nothing to cheer, no one to jeer – it was just sad.

Copa Independencia Finals Struggle For Heat As Crowd Favourites Face Off

Arena México thrives on antagonism, and tonight the crowd simply refused to pick sides when the United Empire team of Titán and Templario faced off with the cool rudos Galeón del Fantasma. Difunto is so much fun and so damn graceful in his agility that he’s impossible to boo at this stage, while Barboza is good enough to simply ride on Zandokan Jr’s coattails. Titán is a supremely talented all-round worker and Templario, while hit and miss, is a spectacular and flashy worker. On paper this sounded like a clash between two dream teams, but in reality the crowd simply refused to pick sides and instead cheered the big spots, robbing the match of any heat.

Mercifully, for a heatless match, the action was tremendous, with Difunto taking a series of wild bumps as his signature top-rope offence was countered by Templario’s speed. Titán would survive a spinning heel kick and meteora combo for a good near fall, before he was hoisted into the air and hurled via double military press onto Templario, who was seated in the corner. However, that would be Galeón del Fantasma’s last convincing offence of the match. Templario would cut off Difunto’s rope-walk Van Terminator with a great snap powerbomb counter. From there the writing was on the wall: Titán hit a flying double footstomp, Templario hit a Sasuke Special from the ramp into the ring, and United Empire picked up the victory with a simultaneous powerbomb backstabber and flipping sit-out reverse suplex for the double pin.

This match was certainly decent enough, but lacked the time and, likely, the heat it would have generated on a regular Friday night.

Zandokan, Dorada & Neon Showcase Their Undeniable Potential Despite Lowly Card Placement

It’s a testament to the embarrassment of riches at CMLL’s disposal that the hottest rudo in the company, Zandokan Jr, is slumming it on the undercard of the “Anniversario” alongside the company’s most illustrious young técnicos, Neón and Máscara Dorada. With any luck, they will not have to wait long to headline this show in their own right, but for the time being there could be worse fates than sharing the ring with legends Hechicero, Volador Jr and the unintentional heat magnet that is Atlantis Jr.

Suffice it to say, the crowd reactions in this match were an absolute mess. Zandokan Jr was wildly cheered and deeply booed simultaneously. Hechicero and Volador Jr could manage to draw heat when they worked over their opponents, but were raucously cheered at any opportunity despite being the nominal rudos. Atlantis Jr was so thoroughly detested that the mere fact Dorada and Neón were helping him pick up falls led to El Sky Team being jeered and hissed at when they won their first fall in quick fashion after a series of dives.

Neón was shaky in the first fall working with Hechicero, but was the absolute star of the second fall as he uncorked a series of dazzling flipping, twisting tijeras and arm drags to a mix of cheers and boos. Volador Jr is simply too slow and broken down to match his younger rivals, but his positioning is perfect and he based brilliantly for Dorada in particular. Despite being cool heels, Zandokan and Hechicero had no problem taking a series of wildly comedic pratfalls for their opponents. The momentum eventually switched when Zandokan posed on the outside, luring Dorada into an ill-fated dive that saw him wipe himself out against the barricade. From there the rudos absolutely destroyed Dorada with a brilliant sequence of triple-team offence, allowing Hechicero to pick up the captain’s fall over Máscara Dorada with a Death Valley Driver to even the score at 1-1.

The third fall was swift and to the point. Neón hit his now-legendary double-jump springboard moonsault on Volador, Atlantis Jr nailed Zandokan with a suicide dive, and Máscara Dorada picked up the captain’s fall win over Hechicero with the 450 Splash. The victory was met with shrieking cheers for Dorada and Neón and hearty jeers for Atlantis Jr. This wasn’t as quite good as your usual Friday night main event, but it was a tremendous taster of what CMLL’s young stars can produce.

© CMLL

Los Villanos Are Denied Their Crowning Moment On The Grandest Stage

This rudo vs rudo clash was an intriguing proposition. Ángel & Roja are a great team: absolutely rock solid in their work and capable of blending with any style of opponent, but despite their undeniable skill they only ever reach a certain level of overness. They are the very definition of good hands, whereas Los Villanos are not the finished article by any means, but they are wildly popular – rudos or villains in name only.

The difference in slickness between the teams was obvious from the opening bell as Los Villanos took a series of inelegant bumps, but what they lacked in smoothness they made up for in raw charisma. That’s not to say the young Villanos aren’t strong workers: when they get on offence they are a riot of Eddie Guerrero-style cheeky heel fake-outs and genuinely impressive athleticism (a springboard dropkick–powerbomb combination was an early highlight).

There was a brilliant moment that highlighted the strange dynamics of this title match when Ángel and Roja took over on offence. They hit a beautiful satellite headscissors followed by a pair of gorgeous dives and Arena México couldn’t help itself but erupt in a wild round of applause – only to realise what had just happened and begin drowning Oro and Roja in boos.

As the match approached its peak, both teams unleashed an array of synchronised offence culminating in a double down after a Canadian Destroyer by Villano III Jr. With that, Arena México reached fever pitch, the building physically shaking. From there on, even when Los Villanos stumbled or slipped, they could do no wrong. The crowd lost their minds with every near fall. The match was cleverly structured, with Los Villanos escaping from their opponents’ simultaneous pendulum surfboards, making the crowd believe this would really be their moment – only for Oro & Roja to dodge their opponents’ dives, slam them atop one another and catch them in their swinging submissions just a few minutes later to secure a double submission victory.

This was a tremendous match, but it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that while the better team won, the right team lost.

Women’s Tag Opener Is Blighted By Boo-Birds As Complex Sequences Fall Apart

The opening tag for the CMLL women’s title was wrestled at a noticeably slower pace with softer strikes and a lack of structure, as is sadly the convention with CMLL’s women’s matches. However, despite their obvious limitations, it was clear both teams were determined to go the extra mile. Early in the match they delivered suplexes on the floor, and the tecnicas hit a Doomsday Device with a missile dropkick to kick-start a parade of good near falls.

Unfortunately, this early moment was squandered as the match fell apart with a series of awful and contrived double-team sequences where it was hard to tell whether the horrible execution of the worker doing the move or the bad positioning and bumping of their opponent was to blame. The match continued in this messy pattern as a double dive off the stage by La Jarochita and Lluvia punctuated the slow, sloppy and contrived action.

Fittingly, the crowd completely turned on the tecnica team and their offensive sequences were bathed in droning boos, even as they attempted flashy manoeuvres. Persephone’s power offence was the only shining light in a match blighted by mistimed double-team sequences. Fittingly, for a messy opener, when La Jarochita and Lluvia eventually scored the double pinfall with stereo face washes, they were met with a chorus of boos.

© CMLL

Grand Prix Internacional 2025

29th August 2025
Company Announced Attendance: ca16,000
Arena México, México City, México
Watch On: YouTube (Subscription Required)
Review by David Hayter

CMLL’s annual International Grand Prix is one of those events that simply should not work. There’s no way a marathon match with a convoluted 20-man, two-team, total-elimination format full of unfamiliar international talent should triumph in front of what is often a casual crowd, including thousands of tourists who love fun, fast-paced matches that don’t overstay their welcome – and yet it absolutely does, every single year.

Now, I might be a little biased here: I love the International GP format. It has the flavour and intensity of the World Cup (including the pre-match pomp) with the insanity of a PWG spotfest. It’s a wonderful hybrid that’s rooted in tradition with its flag ceremony, brass band introductions and old-fashioned babyface–heel dynamics thanks to its Mexico vs the World concept. But on the other hand, it’s totally ridiculous: Team Mexico is a wild mix of rudos and tecnicos forced to team, the Rest of the World is always loaded with flashy babyfaces who get brutally booed based purely on their nationality (it was a rough night for the Michaels – Bailey and Oku), and the work is just wild. New tandems simply hop into the ring and square off, often at random, as we discover who has chemistry and who doesn’t in real time. It’s wonderfully anarchic and experimental.

Some things, however, are not in doubt. Claudio Castagnoli won the International GP in 2024 for the Rest of the World; there was pretty much no chance in hell that Team Mexico would lose in 2025. Some analysts were baffled by Místico not only winning the GP, but being the last man standing in a match where it would be so easy for him to take a fall without scuppering his momentum. They thought a younger wrestler – Neon, Dorada or Zandokan – should have picked up the win. This thinking is logical to an extent, and Cibernéticos have been used to give younger talent signature victories, but in truth those criticising Místico’s victory are failing to see the forest for the trees.

Místico is facing MJF at the “Anniversario” on 19 September. MJF is playing the role of a loud, brash, flag-waving American scumbag heel. Místico is playing the ultimate defender of Mexico’s honour. So of course, Captain Mexico himself is going to come from an impossible position, alone and outnumbered, to pull off the upset victory for his home nation. It’s all part of painting the picture of the ultimate American menace facing off against the truest of Mexican heroes. It’s booking 101. There will be many a year where Máscara Dorada or Neon can wave the flag and lift the trophy, but not this year.

80 Minutes Of Deafening Heat, Incredible Action and Truly Unique Match Ups

First things first, the Arena México crowd were absolutely phenomenal. The building was shaking for what felt like 30 minutes as Mexico and the Rest of the World did battle without a single elimination taking place. The heat was absolutely deafening and sustained.

The villain of the piece was the whitest of white-meat babyfaces, Mike Bailey, who was positioned as Místico’s foil. Speedball didn’t do anything remotely heelish – sure, he wore a sterner facial expression than usual, but he didn’t cheat. Instead, his brutal karate kicks and double knees had a violence that caused the crowd to erupt in hissing and droning boos. He was the perfect contrast to Místico’s incredible smoothness and the dazzling feats of agility that Dorada, Neon and Difunto produced.

This inherent strangeness is what makes the GP so fascinating. If you’re an English-speaking fan it’s surreal seeing Michael Oku playing the heelish role as his Fosbury Flop and springboard moonsaults are shouted down by the crowd, but equally for a Mexican fan it must be surreal seeing Zandokan playing the underdog hero as he bravely confronts and cuts off Donovan Dijak. This, after all, is part of the fun: when someone gets up a head of steam and clears the ring, the question is always, who will hop over that top rope to confront them?
This gleeful joy in the face of the unknown was typified by a series of early stand-off spots. Ángel de Oro’s nonchalant agility was paired off with Lio Rush’s blistering speed; the scraggly Scot Robbie X managed to out-flip Neon; and Atlantis Jr and Mortos decided to forgo athleticism altogether in favour of chopping one another into oblivion. It wasn’t always smooth, because the stylistic match-ups were so alien. It was clear to see that for all his incredible talents, Michael Oku did not know how to help Máscara Dorada balance through his intricate rope walks and inverted flips, but it hardly mattered – it only made it all the more astonishing when he gutted through the spots with raw body control.

Then, of course, there was Místico himself. Plagued by injury earlier in the year, he was clearly rushed back too soon and forced to wrestle way too often for his own good (for obvious commercial reasons), and he has at times lacked athleticism – but not tonight. Since his injury, he’s often had assistance from teammates when doing his tope con hilo or corkscrew plancha, but when he faced off with Mike Bailey, having survived a barrage of stiff kicks, with the Arena physically shaking, he needed no assistance. Místico ran, he sprang, he soared over the top rope and he wiped Mike out on the floor…only to be stomped down by the entire Rest of the World in a truly brilliant spot. It felt like a riot was about to break out.

It felt like a night for old favourites, as Volador Jr and Titán were free to showcase their best dives. Titán was a true stand-out, capable of effortlessly blending styles: whether his opponent wanted strong-style strike exchanges, technical grappling battles or elaborate fast-paced flying counter-sequences, he not only rose to the challenge but often surpassed his rival. There was silliness too, of course – Difunto (who was tragically eliminated early) went face to face with Aswang, and TJP soon discovered that poison mist isn’t particularly effective on undead pirates.

It turns out some things run deeper than nationalism, and poor old Atlantis Jr found himself showered in boos even when representing Mexico. Michael Oku tried teasing his mask to help matters, but despite drawing massive heat, the crowd simply would not cheer Atlantis even as he delivered a fantastically intricate sequence of near falls and near submissions with Speedball and Oku. It’s almost impossible to describe how brilliant the sequence was that saw the pair lock in double half crabs, before somehow ending up on the ring apron to deliver synchronised top-rope moonsaults to the outside. It was a gorgeous visual and, of course, as they both landed on the floor, rather than soaking in the moment, they were treated to a gangland beatdown by the entire Mexican team.

One aspect of the GP that truly makes it distinct is the way each wrestler is allowed to shine on their own terms. After a pair of simultaneous dives by Lio Rush and Action Andretti, Rush got to showcase his blazing speed: ducking under lariats, hopping over leg sweeps, hitting a lightning-fast Asai moonsault and then out-sprinting the entire Mexican team to make it safely back to his corner. Meanwhile, Dijak found a new lease of life playing bully and base opposite Dorada and Místico, who joined forces to cut him down to size.

© CMLL

Let The Eliminations Begin: The Rest Of The World Takes Control

It was a bold move for the match to go so long without a single elimination, but that was a brilliant creative choice as the crowd seemed to get wilder and wilder as they jumped out of their seats with each ultra-believable near fall (like when Templario hit a Sasuke Special from the ramp into the ring onto Rocky Romero). It was Difunto who’d started the big run of eliminations. He went on an incredible streak, clearing the ring and the ringside area with a series of elegant rope-walk dives, before angering The Beast Mortos with a rope-walk Van Terminator. Mortos would spring up, blasting him with a brutal combo of power moves for the first pinfall at the 39-minute mark.

From there on in the eliminations were thrilling, largely because they were so damn unpredictable. Who would have seen Taiji Ishimori taking out Templario? Or Titán being the man to fell Mortos? That’s all part of the fun. As is discovering dream matches you never knew you wanted. Who knew Místico and Action Andretti would mesh so serenely? Perhaps you might have predicted Mike Bailey and Neon would be fantastic, but Bailey’s ability to match Neon stride for stride while taking the most dramatic of bumps was a sight to behold.

Then, of course, there were the pops. When Místico teased going for La Mística on Action Andretti and instead turned it into his version of a Glamorous Clutch, the crowd came absolutely unglued. Forget pinning an AEW jobber – Arena México erupted like he’d just slammed André the Giant. The reactions would only get bigger from there. When Speedball eventually eliminated Neón – who, yes, managed to hit his double-jump moonsault in a match this chaotic – the director panned to a crowd shot and in the middle of all the screaming fans was a woman covering her ears because it was truly, honestly, terrifyingly loud.

Mistico vs The World: Speedball Survives Long Enough To Become The Villain

If Neón’s elimination at the hands of Mike Bailey was a legitimate shocker for the Arena México crowd, then the sight of TJP avoiding Máscara Dorada’s 450, hitting a seamless tornado DDT and instantly submitting him with an octopus stretch might have been the killer blow. All the biggest stars were falling: Zandokan gone, Neón gone, Volador Jr submitted at the hands of Taiji Ishimori, and Titán (after a dazzling sequence) utterly destroyed by Mike Bailey. Místico was alone and selling disbelief.

Místico managed to pick off Taiji Ishimori with a Spanish Fly, but with the crowd shredding their vocal cords to cheer him on, Bailey and TJP simply toyed with him. Suddenly the flying had stopped and it was time for some good old-fashioned heat. Místico would rally with 619s and suicide dives, but he’d be cut off with planchas the second he paused for breath. Seventy-five minutes into the match and the crowd were going wild with boo-yay spots as TJP and Místico traded strikes, and the heat was nuclear when Speedball tripped the Mexican hero as he was running the ropes.

Perhaps most remarkable of all, after Místico managed to eliminate TJP with a Spanish Fly, the final two men didn’t simply go to a finish. Speedball and Místico squared up and gave us a five-minute speed run of a main-event match at the end of an 82-minute monster where both men had absolutely busted their arses. Místico would survive a Canadian Destroyer, a cross-armbreaker, a wild rolling near-fall battle, only to set up a sublime sequence where Speedball hopped over a baseball slide to hit a springboard moonsault which Místico perfectly caught on the floor (the timing was impeccable).

There was, of course, only one winner from here, but Místico made sure to do everything in his power to make Speedball look like a top star. Speedball would beat Místico to the punch at every turn, hitting Total Elimination on the apron, before Místico finally turned the tables with a flash Canadian Destroyer which set the stage for La Mística.

Matches this long, this crazy and this unrelenting will not be for everyone, but in my eyes this was a clear match of the year contender and the perfect way to build Místico for his showdown with MJF.

CMLL News

CMLL and New Japan announced details of the FantasticaMania tour that will take place across Japan in February 2026. The tour will begin at Yogogi National Gym #2 on 18th Feburary, with seven total dates ending on 27th Feburary at Korakuen Hall. In contrast to 2025 which also ended with back-to-back Korakuen Hall shows, the 2026 tour starts off with a big show. As reported by Luchablog, Futuro, Valiente Jr. and Hijo de Stuka Jr. will be making their FantasticaMania tour debuts. As always, Luchablog has a great write-up about the tour.

Persephone will be challenging Athena for the ROH Women’s Title at “Final Battle” on 5th December.

© WWE

AAA News

AAA continued its integration of the WWE product into its own as it made the decision to crown Dominik Mysterio as the new AAA Mega Champion on 12th September, beating El Hijo del Vikingo in the main event in Las Vegas at Worlds Collide. Since then, the Mexican AAA fans have treated Dominik as a babyface and welcomed the champion, especially as Vikingo was struggling with crowd reactions ever since he beat Alberto El Patron for the title.

Dominik would go on to defend the title against fellow WWE wrestler Dragon Lee in the main event of Héroes Inmortales on 25th October in Mexico City, while Vikingo opened the show criticising the fans and cementing his heel turn. You would not be blamed for thinking AAA had become another branch of WWE just like NXT, just with Mexican wrestlers and touring larger buildings. El Grande Americano (Ludwig Kaiser), the gimmick originally created to generate heat from Mexican fans and play on the fierce anti-immigration stance of the Trump administration, has ironically now become a huge babyface character in the promotion, as he saved Dominik from a Vikingo and Dragon Lee beatdown after the main event of Héroes Inmortales. That has led to the 22nd November tag match which would main event the monthly Mexico City taping, pitting Dragon Lee and Vikingo, the heels, against Dominik and El Grande Americano, the babyfaces. El Grande Americano pinned Dragon Lee, and then when Dominik was cutting a promo, Penta and Fenix showed up, so they are now back together on AAA TV.

Elsewhere, Chelsea Green and Ethan Page captured the AAA Mixed Tag Team Titles from La Hiedra and Mr. Iguana, with the latter finding a new partner in NXT wrestler Lola Vice to challenge again unsuccessfully for the titles on 22nd November. Je’Von Evans became the #1 Contender for the AAA World Cruiserweight Title on 22nd November. Hopefully this has given you enough of an idea of what the AAA-WWE product integration has looked like.

Galeno del Mal, the brother of El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., announced that he had signed an AAA (WWE) deal. He had dropped the GHC National Title in NOAH to Dragon Bane before leaving the promotion.

WWE announced a new media rights deal for AAA, which will be broadcast on FOX in Mexico, Central America and South America, except Brazil. The FOX channel that AAA will be broadcast on is the previously-named Caliente TV channel that Fox Corporation took over in June 2025. It is not the same as Fox Sports which is managed by Grupo Lauman and purchased the broadcast rights of AEW in 2024.

We have enough WWE coverage in the newsletter. We’ll leave the rest of the AAA coverage to the amazing Luchablog. See his blog here.

© The Crash

Mexico Independents

News

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter relayed a report from The Crash’s 14th Anniversary show in Tijuana on 7th November that Andrade had left the show unhappy after the meet and greet. The report that WON was reporting may have been luchablog, who reported that Zona Ruda had received reports that Andrade had left the venue upset. Right. Anyway, Karl Anderson, who worked the show, refuted the reports saying that Andrade finished the signing and then went backstage to watch the whole show. The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) won The Crash Tag Team Titles in a three-way against El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno del Mal and D’Luxe & Pierroth Jr. Elsewhere, Demonio Infernal pinned Mamba in a Mask vs. Hair Five Way also involving El Texano Jr., Hijo de Rey Misterio and Rey Escorpion. The show is on YouTube. Their next show is on 5th December with a main event of Carlito and Primo Colon against El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. (now going by Dr. Wagner Jr.) and Galeno del Mal. On the undercard, Lucha Solos (Arkangel Divino & Ultimo Maldito) take on 420 Brothers (Kamik-C & Skalibur) and the Panthers.

IWRG were host to a handful of CMLL talent on their “Lucha Revolucion” show on 20th November, which was main evented by Ultimo Guerrero, Neon, Soberano Jr. and Esfinge in a four-way, and included Lluvia and Jarochita against Olympia and Tabata in the semi-main event.

On IWRG’s “Castillo Del Terror 2025” show, Lady Maravilla defeated Keyra and Sagitarius to become the new IWRG Women’s Champion. Luchablog reported that Maravilla had not appeared on AAA since WWE took over and that IWRG had declared her as “100% IWRG” during their Revolucionado talk show, but Luchablog could not verify. Dr. Wagner Jr. lost his own Heavyweight Title to DMT Azul in a four-way casket mask, being directly placed in the casket by DMT Azul. In the main event, which was a Mask vs. Hair cage match involving fifteen participants, Abigor lost his mask and was unveiled as Jonathan Pacheco. IWRG have weekly shows on Thursday and Sunday and all of their shows are available on YouTube.

To celebrate the 10th event of RIOT Lucha Libre, Bandido defended the RIOT Title against Beast Mortos on 11th October in Monterrey, making his first successful defense on a show that also included a singles match between Hellboy and Demonio Infernal. RIOT’s next show is on 12th December where AEW’s Blake Christian faces Vengador. That match was due to take place on the 11th October show, but travel circumstances caused plans to change. Another match announced for the December show is La Mxlx Fxmx (Toxin & Latigo) against Los Hermanos de la Jungla (Aero Panther & Fight Panther Jr.) for the inaugural RIOT Tag Team Titles. Aero and Fight Panther are coming off a tour in Dragongate where they looked excellent, especially in their match against JackyRiiita (JACKY KAMEI & Riiita), one of the best tag teams in the world. UK independent wrestler Tate Mayfairs faces Erik Ortiz and Aeroboy takes on Hellboy in singles matches.

© WWE

WWE

“Bitesize” Round-up

By David Hayter

A Self-Inflicted Freak Injury Derails A Year’s Worth Of Booking Plans

When Seth Rollins foolishly injured himself at Crown Jewel attempting a Van Terminator-style diving headbutt to Cody Rhodes, who was suspended upside down in the Tree of Woe (yes, you read that correctly), the entire trajectory of WWE booking for the next nine months went flying off the rails.

It’s no secret that Seth Rollins and CM Punk were on a collision course for the World Heavyweight Championship and, equally, everyone knew that Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed were destined to turn on Seth eventually. However, that was all supposed to happen months in the future, perhaps on the Raw after WrestleMania at the earliest. The entire point of Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes’ match at Crown Jewel was for Seth to prove to Paul Heyman and Bron Breakker that he was worthy of leading The Vision. He defeated Cody Rhodes entirely unassisted in a good (albeit slowly paced) main event and the idea was simple: Seth had reached the pinnacle of his career and stemmed an insurrection in one fell swoop.

Except, of course, because of his own recklessness, he was now injured for a minimum of six months and, as they say, ‘plans change.’ In hindsight, it would have been much better for Cody to win at Crown Jewel to justify what came next. Seth kicked off Raw with an incredibly triumphant and cocky promo, taking all the credit for his success and claiming he didn’t need the Brons — he chose them. This was noticeably out of character compared with his previous promos and he would spend the rest of the show beaming with such glee that there was no question he was about to be killed off as a character.

In the unlikely event you ever find yourself a fictional character in a TV show, never: a) achieve true happiness, or b) leave a conversation with a loved one on a sour note — you will die in the next scene. And die Seth did. Despite the foreshadowing, it was still a shocking moment when Bron went feral, spearing Rollins to death and instantly forcing Bronson and a trembling Paul Heyman to pass a loyalty test. Succumbing to Breakker’s intimidation tactics, both men sided with Bron and Seth was left laying.

So far, so good. Then, the next night on Raw, a Battle Royal was announced to name a No. 1 contender and, following a surprisingly strong angle where Adam Pearce stood up to the new top heels of Raw, Bron and Bronson were barred from participating. This was certainly a surprise. WWE was clearly choosing not to follow through on the angle and make Breakker the top star of the Raw brand. Things got stranger still when the Battle Royal began and Jey Uso promptly eliminated the two other most likely winners, LA Knight and Dominik Mysterio, to book a date with CM Punk at Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Where Does The Truth Lie: Is Jey Uso Being Rejected By WWE’s Audience?

Jey’s Battle Royal win was greeted with rampant Yeeting in the arena and by howls of discontent online. The YouTube video showing Uso’s victory would break a record (previously held by another Jey Uso Royal Rumble win) for the worst like-to-dislike ratio on a WWE video. X was aflame with discontent. The decision to go with Jey was a particular tinderbox for three reasons:

1. Jey Uso and his Yeeting are a clear turn-off to a large number of fans (myself included);
2. LA Knight is absolutely beloved by WWE’s hardcore fans and had been involved in several excellent promo battles with CM Punk that led fans to believe he was finally getting his shot at the big time; and
3. Fans were furious that instead of embracing the future under Bron Breakker, WWE was going back to the Yeet era.

The bigger question, however, is whether the bulk of WWE fans were actually annoyed by this decision. Online you’d certainly get that impression, but the next night on Raw, in front of a 13,000-plus sold-out crowd, Jey Uso was wildly over in his confrontation with CM Punk, with no signs of backlash. In fact, Jey Uso has been a highlight of Raw in the past two months. Along with Iyo Sky (more on that below), he has been part of one of two character-rich stories that play on long kayfabe histories between characters — something that had been noticeably missing from Raw since The Bloodline ended.

Jey has been slowly turning heel under the influence of Roman Reigns, to the point where he’s being mockingly called “Little Roman” by LA Knight and CM Punk. The key tension has been with Jimmy Uso, who is the most natural and human character on Raw; finding himself stuck watching his brother make all the wrong choices in his quest to prove he’s not a flash-in-the-pan failure. It’s a good and compelling storyline, but whether it was the right move to elevate Jey to the main event when fans are seemingly desperate for a shake-up in the form of Breakker or Knight is another matter entirely.

© WWE

CM Punk Regains The World Heavyweight Championship

Unsurprisingly, CM Punk defeated Jey Uso in a clumsy but compelling main event of Saturday Night’s Main Event. The match was wrestled as a straight babyface vs babyface contest, but it was interesting to note that they structured the action to allow Punk to take the nominal heel role. Jey Uso was presented as more dynamic, hitting all the glory spots (the suicide dive, the spear through the apron, and always going for the decisive win), whereas Punk was positioned as the wily veteran just barely hanging on and overcoming exhaustion.

Despite the online backlash, it was Punk who drew the only boos of the match. However, rather than a sign of rejection, this appeared to be the result of some overthinking on WWE’s or Punk’s part. At one point in the match, CM Punk hit a GTS that caused Uso to spill to the outside. Punk, realising that he needed to get Uso back in the ring, decided to “wake him up” by splashing him with water. The fans in attendance didn’t read this as an attempt to revive Jey and instead reacted as if it were a heel humiliation tactic. Punk’s win was rapturously received by the crowd when he eventually escaped a rear naked choke to hit back-to-back GTSs (a spot he’d botched earlier in the match), but he was booed early in the match when posing and playing to the crowd.

Given the story they are telling with Jey Uso, another high-profile failure makes sense for his character, giving him more cause to edge towards the dark side. In the interim, CM Punk’s title reign can stabilise the Raw brand as they recalibrate their timelines for Bron Breakker.

J-Drama Culminates As RhIyo Win The Battle, But Lose The War

The undoubted highlight of Raw for the past 12 weeks (despite some histrionic acting) has been the slow-burn story of Asuka turning on Iyo Sky and cruelly gaslighting Kairi Sane. Part of the reason for the storyline’s success has been the chemistry and deep kayfabe history between the participants. Rhea and Iyo have a wonderful quasi-sapphic friendship that fans picked up on in their post-show interactions over the years, to the point where the WWE Universe has been willing the pair to become a tag team even when management has appeared resistant to embrace the idea. It’s a classic story: two arch-competitors with completely different styles and philosophies in the squared circle prove to be utterly simpatico outside of the ring.

Of course, it was the truly chaotic and gloriously camp performance of Asuka that threw a spanner in the works. She’s playing the jealous (drag) mother of Iyo Sky, routinely throwing dirty looks and subtle shade at Iyo’s “new friend” Rhea Ripley before open hostility eventually broke out. Iyo found herself cast in the traditional cinematic role of the good-hearted woman caught between her edgy new love and her disapproving conservative family who, “know what’s best for her.”

The interesting wrinkle to an already excellent storyline was the addition of Kairi Sane, playing the role of the sweet sister determined to keep her family together. She would cower in fear of Asuka and try to apologise to Iyo (and even Rhea) when Asuka’s back was turned. It was genuinely difficult to tell, watching at home, whether Kairi was in on it with Asuka (i.e. using her kindness to manipulate Iyo into letting her guard down) or whether she was simply a victim of Asuka’s bullying (or, as Asuka terms it, her “flat hierarchy” system of control).

The question was answered in a series of skits where Asuka would slap the kindness out of Kairi, drawing huge gasps of shock from crowds in Australia and the US. Kairi definitively had Stockholm syndrome and was another victim, albeit a willing one, in Asuka’s cult of personality.

The feud culminated in two strong matches. First, at Crown Jewel, the teams battled in front of a rabid Aussie audience and it was immediately noticeable how much more violent, accurate and fast-paced Asuka and Iyo’s work was than that of anyone else on the main roster. They brutalised each other, and Iyo’s speed and underdog selling were so impressive that the chants and the singing of her name was louder than the pop for Rhea Ripley’s hot tag in her home country. The match would end when Kairi pulled Asuka out of the way of a big boot from Rhea Ripley, allowing RhIyo to hit the RipTide–Over the Moonsault combination for the victory.

The next night on Raw, Kairi would apologise to Asuka for her failure and show off a large cut and haematoma on her forehead that she received when saving Asuka from Rhea. Asuka would respond by slapping the piss out of Kairi and telling her she had to redeem herself in a match with Rhea Ripley. The match itself was a shockingly excellent TV match, with Kairi showing she’s still a tremendous worker, particularly in matches that involve hard strikes and big slams rather than complicated sequences and counters that she often struggles to remember. Rhea would eke out the win with Iyo cheering her on at ringside, but the angle would culminate with Rhea about to give Asuka a RipTide through the table, only for Kairi to make the save with a kendo stick. A heavy heat angle ensued, with Asuka DDTing Rhea (who took a sick neck-twisting bump on the unbreaking table). This left Rhea injured and Iyo in tears as Kairi cemented her heel turn.

Fortuitously, in hindsight, Rhea would break her nose on a Japanese house show, allowing Asuka and Kairi to take the credit for taking Rhea out in an excellent subtitled video package. Kairi rounded off her character development and the storyline (for now) by blaming Rhea Ripley, rather than Asuka, for breaking up her wrestling family – making it clear that Asuka had succeeded in transforming Kairi’s innate sweetness into the fuel for her full-fledged heel turn.

Ilya Dragunov Ends Sami Zayn’s US Open Challenge Run In A Visceral War

There is no doubt about it, Sami Zayn’s US Open Challenge series has single-handedly saved SmackDown. The television show was nigh-on unwatchable, with Tiffany Stratton’s horrific attempts at babyface promos blighting the women’s division in her forever feud with Jade Cargill, and Cody Rhodes stuck as a dominant champion with absolutely no credible challengers on the horizon. The show was a nothing-happening slog.

Then Sami Zayn offered John Cena a shot at the US Title as part of his retirement run, and suddenly we were off to the races. Sami was given the scope to carry a full thirty minutes of SmackDown each week (including entrances and promos) to just go out there and tear the house down in a main event-level match. He would dazzle the crowd, running through Rey Fénix, Carmelo Hayes, Je’Von Evans, Aleister Black and the returning Shinsuke Nakamura, before eventually falling victim to the Mad Dragon.

Sami’s match with Dragunov was satisfyingly violent, as both men would counter one another’s signature offence not with slick reversals, but with brutal knees, boots and elbows to the face in front of a rabid crowd. The finishing sequence was a thing of beauty, with Sami countering the Torpedo Moscow with a fabulously stiff Helluva Kick, only for Dragunov to kick out at the very last moment. Sami would hit an Exploder, but in a brilliant finish he’d charge headfirst into a murderous Torpedo Moscow and Dragunov, himself knocked loopy, would stagger into the ropes and rebound with an H-Bomb for the shock upset victory.

Since then, Dragunov has continued the tradition, defeating first Aleister Black and most recently Nathan Frazer and Johnny Garganno in strong and gleefully violent TV matches that not only serve to establish Ilja as a top star, but keep a once-stale SmackDown product fresh.

© WWE

Tiffy’s Time Is Up, Jade’s Time Is Now

Tiffany Stratton was called up to the main roster with much fanfare following a show-stealing Extreme Rules match with Becky Lynch at No Mercy 2023. Tiffy made a big splash on arrival, with her signature Prettiest Moonsault Ever and penchant for balletic, death-defying dives wowing audiences and, somewhat implausibly, leading Dave Meltzer to compare her to Manami Toyota. She was so colourful and athletically gifted that it became practically impossible to keep the spoilt daddy’s girl of NXT heel. The writing was on the wall when a 53,000-strong crowd in Perth, Australia started deafening chants of “Tiffy Time”; Tiffany would become champion and she would turn babyface.

Tiffany eventually won the title in January 2025 and held it for over 300 days before dropping it to Jade Cargill on the most recent edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event. So how did WWE’s blue-chip prospect fare? Well, rather disastrously. Due to her expedited call-up to the main roster, Tiffany did not get the opportunity to play the babyface role in NXT – and it shows. NXT has been criticised for its insistence on forcing prospects to play both roles (including turning natural babyfaces like Roxanne Perez heel), but Tiffany’s floundering reign as World Champion suggests there is wisdom in their approach.

Tiffany’s reign featured no real standout matches, feuds or promos. It will most likely be remembered best for the catastrophically awkward promo battle with Charlotte Flair in the run-up to WrestleMania that turned tetchy and then aggressive, as both women went off-script to deliver personal barbs. Tiffy routinely floundered on the mic, delivering robotic promos with a heelish and obnoxious cadence that would quickly lose the crowd. It became a running joke that Nia Jax would be sent out to save the segment as Tiffy drowned on the mic.

In the ring, it was a little better. Tiffany always retained an ability to dazzle with her athleticism, but she clearly never learned to work as a babyface. Her selling is subpar, and matches that involved any kind of complexity or intricacy would routinely fall apart. Her best work came either in the form of ultra-choreographed spotfests or simple “my turn, your turn” power battles. It was no surprise that Tiffy looked rejuvenated at Crown Jewel where, when facing Stephanie Vaquer, she was able to slip back into the heel role of hitting a big move and then posing for heat.

So was Tiffy a bust? Definitely not – she’s too over and too impressive for that. Instead, she is a diminished star: less relevant and less interesting than when she first debuted, but ultimately salvageable. The biggest worry is her lack of development, either in-ring as an organic worker or on the microphone as a character. After nearly a year of centre-of-the-ring promos as a babyface World Champion, Tiffany’s character has not developed in the slightest. Perhaps losing the title will finally spark a fire beneath her perfect plastic princess persona.

Jade Cargill, another prospect who has floundered, now has the opportunity to prove herself. She has turned heel and already feels more natural as a badass supervillain character. WWE clearly still believes in her, as she was allowed to crush Tiffany in dominant fashion (albeit at the third time of asking). Her limitations as a worker are well known, but she has the opportunity to blossom as a character going forward.

Cena and Styles Pay Homage To Their Historic Rivalries In A Beloved and Detested Battle

Suffice to say, AJ Styles and John Cena stole the show in their final ever clash in front of a raucous crowd in Perth, Australia, who had seemingly all purchased John Cena’s latest tee. There’s no doubt that for some, this match represented the antithesis of pro wrestling. It contained no real story, no real attempts to win, sell or tell a logical tale of two men battling for supremacy. Instead, John Cena and AJ Styles took turns playing the hits – but then, like Bruce Springsteen, about halfway through the set they decided to start taking requests. John Cena would pay tribute to everyone from Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio to The Big Show and Chris Jericho, while AJ would pay homage to TNA stalwarts James Storm, Frankie Kazarian and, of course, Christopher Daniels.

The crowd were absolutely molten, buzzing with anticipation over what move or moment they would witness next. The match would undeniably peak when John Cena caught AJ in the Sister Abigail and took time to pay tribute to Bray, letting time stand still before he surprisingly gracefully drove Styles headfirst into the mat. The crowd took it from there, erupting in chants of “Thank You Bray”, lighting up the arena with fireflies and singing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” as Lee Fitting artfully cut to a slow arena-panning long shot. It was a genuinely touching moment and was probably the single most heartfelt tribute to Bray Wyatt to date.

Whether you were loving or hating the match at this point mattered little; the pair were committed to the bit, and following some logic-defying kick-outs the contest eventually came to a conclusion when Cena caught Styles in mid-air and heaved him up into a… Tombstone Piledriver, before quickly hitting an AA for the win. It was a riotously entertaining encounter and I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being the single most well-remembered match of 2025 in any promotion. Whether it was actually any good or not is kind of beside the point.

(Editor Note: Even our esteemed, excellent WWE correspondent David Hayter could not bring himself to talk about Cena’s tragic retirement run. In a small update on that, Cena won the Intercontinental Title from Dominik Mysterio to complete the Grand Slam and will likely face Gunther on 13th December for his final match. WWE hosted a tournament for the right to face Cena which included surprises such as Zack Ryder (Matt Cardona) and Dolph Ziggler (Nic Nemeth), in their WWE gimmicks.)

It’s A Tale Of Two Title Wins As Tatum Paxley and Blake Monroe Triumph At Halloween Havoc

Halloween Havoc was the night when Jacy Jayne’s unexpectedly excellent reign as NXT Women’s Champion came to an end. Jacy was maligned by many when she upset Stephanie Vaquer to win the championship, and it was understandable why fans felt this way. Expectations were low – generic mean girl promos and title defences littered with interference by Fatal Influence – but that never really matched reality. Jacy established herself as a rock-solid in-ring worker, hitting hard and bumping harder for her opponent; it soon became clear why she’d survived so many rounds of cuts.

After defeating Lola Vice in her hometown at the previous PLE, the feeling was that WWE had lost the plot and were cutting the legs out from underneath their young challengers. However, it turns out that Shawn Michaels may have a better sense of his roster’s talent and overness levels than he was given credit for. Rather than running with Lola, Shawn backed Tatum Paxley – an ultra-talented young worker who has shown rapid in-ring development over the past three years despite being lumbered with a knowingly annoying creepy-girl gimmick. Tatum is beloved by NXT faithful both at the Performance Center and on the road; she is a strong babyface promo and she more than held up her own end in the match with Jacy as she mixed great athleticism with solid fundamentals.

She was the right choice and, despite some melodramatic interference from The Culling and Fatal Influence, the big title match was a triumph of Attitude Era-style twists and turns that had the crowd on the edge of their seats all the way up until the happy ending came to pass.

Less successful was Blake Monroe’s (aka Mariah May’s) North American Title win. Make no mistake, she was having a great little mean girls’ match with Zaria, who was defending her title on behalf of her “injured” best friend Sol Ruca (don’t ask), but every few minutes the match would be utterly derailed by terrible soap opera drama. Blake would counter an F-5 into a sick cross-arm breaker, only for Zaria to roll outside and have Sol pop her dislocated arm back into place (yes, that happened). Elsewhere, the action would stop dead so Blake could accidentally knock Zaria into the supposedly injured Sol Ruca in a spot so annoying they insisted on doing it twice. The second time, Sol (bizarrely) didn’t sell it, but it was enough to distract Zaria, allowing Blake to hit the Glamour Shot on the outside and then once again in the ring to win the title.

If Tatum and Jacy’s match was a great example of using melodrama to enhance a match and send the crowd home happy, then Blake’s win was the epitome of overbooking, undercutting an otherwise enjoyable encounter to create a result that no one remotely wanted. Blake is a worthy champion; she could have simply beaten Sol Ruca or Zaria in a straight match, but instead Shawn Michaels seems intent on turning real-life best friends Zaria and Sol against one another.

No one wants this. The fans love their act. Zaria has never been more over than she is right now, and Sol is an absolute revelation as a babyface star (the hardest thing in all of wrestling to create). And yet, for some unfathomable reason, yet another wrestling booker has been sucked into the “can they co-exist” vortex in an era where fans clearly love seeing heartfelt friendships on screen.

© WWE

Giulia Drops The US Title With Little Fanfare

The 7 November 2025 edition of SmackDown was a tedious watch (with the notable exception of Ilja Dragunov’s Open Challenge), but it has made the news for one reason: the baffling decision to have Giulia drop the US Title back to Chelsea Green. There’s no denying that Chelsea is a wildly entertaining television character, but her title reign was, by and large, an embarrassment in the ring. WWE had to spend months with Giulia at the helm, cleansing the audience’s palette and trying to convince them to take the title seriously as Giulia pulled shockingly good matches out of Zelina Vega and Michin.

Going back to Chelsea – if it is more than a one-week novelty – feels regressive for the title and unnecessary for SmackDown as a whole. Chelsea doesn’t need a title to justify her TV time, and it serves to completely pull the rug out from underneath Giulia. The Japanese star had been kept incredibly strong in singles matches and had just been injected as a heel foil into the Tiffany Stratton and Jade Cargill feud. The worry will naturally be that Giulia is getting a false elevation: the title has been stripped from her so she can feud with Tiffany, make her look strong, only to lose every match without the awkwardness of having Tiffy hold the US Title. That seems the likeliest scenario, but don’t be surprised if WWE have decided to waste Giulia’s first big singles defeat for the sake of a random pop and some undercard comedy.

© WWE

“Wrestlepalooza”

20th September 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 14,242
Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indiana, USA
Watch On: ESPN / Netflix
Review by David Hayter

Pro wrestling or, if you’re so inclined, Sports Entertainment, achieved its final form this past Saturday as WWE debuted on ESPN with the “Wrestlepalooza” PLE. Or at least that’s how Paul Levesque attempted to frame it. Oddly, for a final evolution, the brand-new frontier that was “Wrestlepalooza” felt eerily similar to, well, any other major WWE event in the last six months or so. In fact, the show felt so familiar—bordering on stale—that it featured a near move-for-move remake of a match that happened over eleven years ago.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if you are not a CEO, CFO or CVO (don’t look it up), you almost certainly did not remotely care about WWE’s billion-dollar deal to bring their PLEs to ESPN. Make no mistake, the synergy is off the charts, the opportunities for corporate glad-handing and back-patting unparalleled, and, all facetiousness aside, WWE will reap the rewards of being perpetually plugged on the home of American sports. Unfortunately, for the consumer this means little more than an extra $30 added to your monthly outgoings if you’re an American without a cable package that includes this new service, and a new “Then. Now. Forever. Together” ident for the rest of the world.

Fittingly then, a supposed supershow that exists purely to celebrate the alliance of two mega-corporations felt oddly uninspired and more than a little hollow. WWE certainly made a good fist of it, producing a star-laden show on paper, but no matter how many Brock Lesnars or AJ Lees you throw at a card, you can’t simply snap your fingers and create a new Big Four-level PLE out of the ether. “Wrestlepalooza”, from its almost endearingly silly name on down, felt like an old-fashioned B-PPV: a “Great Balls of Fire” for a new generation. The wrestlers worked hard, the matches were largely enjoyable, but WWE’s grand debut on ESPN felt like a non-event, quickly overshadowed by a more dynamic and memorable edition of “Monday Night Raw”.

Stephanie Vaquer Fulfills Her Childhood Dream And Sets Iyo On Course For Disaster

There’s nothing quite like authenticity, that raw sense of relatability and believability that shines through the screen to form connections and build heartfelt bonds. It’s a quality so in demand that a grotesque pantomime of authenticity masquerading as “truth-telling” has infested social media to the extent where it fuels insidious political careers and spreads misinformation like wildfire. That, after all, is the power of belief – and Stephanie Vaquer is one of those rare humans that exudes a sense of shy, sweet, unobtrusive believability.

This might feel strange, describing Vaquer like a retiring violet, especially as she confidently struts around the ring in the most notoriously revealing gear in the business, but there is an undeniable humbleness to her character. “Wrestling is my first language” might be the creation of WWE’s branding department, but it is so inherently real. She isn’t a fluent promo, she doesn’t present a larger-than-life character, and she definitely gets taken aback by the moment at times, but when the bell rings she is in her element – and the fans love her for it. When she defeated Iyo Sky with a sumptuous flipping Sky Twister Press and held the WWE Women’s Championship in her hands, with genuine tears in her eyes, it was one of the most beautiful moments of the entire year. And it would only get better when she hopped down to ringside to celebrate with her father.

It helps, of course, that her win came at the end of an excellent show-stealing match, where Iyo and Vaquer chose not to blow fans away with pace or athleticism, but instead to tell a technical story. Iyo was simply a step ahead of Vaquer: if Stephanie was slick, then Iyo was slicker; finding a way out of every hold, controlling the action and cutting Vaquer off if she ever threatened to gather too much momentum. However, there was an undercurrent to the match: Iyo might be more accurate, but Stephanie hit harder. Her springboard plancha was more devastating than Iyo’s suicide dive and, when it came time for viciousness, Stephanie had the killer instinct.

The match turned on two killer Dragon Screw leg whips. Neither one truly gave Stephanie the edge, Iyo would continue to be a step ahead, but she was wounded, hurting and fatally slowed. As the match built to a crescendo with both women trading running knees in the corner, Iyo came unstuck just as she seemingly took control. Lowering her knee pads, Iyo blasted Vaquer with the Bullet Train Attack and a running sliding knee strike, knocking Vaquer loopy, but further weakening her own knee. The top rope Spanish Fly would follow, with Iyo crashing down hard on her knee, and when she went for the Over the Moonsault and crashed and burned landing knee-first, the match was essentially over.

There was no Asuka, no Kairi and no one took the heel role. Iyo and Stephanie had a good old-fashioned babyface match, a technical exhibition where the loser shook the winner’s hand and both women bowed to each other in a show of respect post-match. This was the best kind of pro-wrestling, where the match itself perfectly forwarded the ongoing storyline. Stephanie completed her ascent and, in failing to do it on her own, Iyo Sky sealed her fate. No commentator had to say it, everyone knew the second her shoulders were pinned to the mat that a chain reaction had started that would culminate in an Asuka heel turn.

Brock Lesnar Bathes In The Tears Of Children

The idea that Brock Lesnar would win his showdown with John Cena was not a surprise. Many people were predicting just that outcome, but few imagined WWE would have the balls to recreate the legendary squash of “SummerSlam” 2014. Tonight’s match wasn’t so much Suplex City as an F-5 funeral. Despite coming to the ring with a horde of happy-go-lucky kids celebrating with their hero John Cena, WWE gave them nothing (or next to nothing, at least). Cena would hit a series of flying shoulder tackles, eventually knocking Lesnar down, then nail three rapid-fire Attitude Adjustments and that was pretty much it in terms of resistance. Brock would kick out without too much trouble, spring to his feet to break up a Five Knuckle Shuffle, and simply F-5 John Cena over and over and over and over and over again – before pinning him 1-2-3.

Credit to Brock, despite turning scary shades of red and purple, he was in incredible shape, far faster and more explosive than in his prior run. He also bumped and sold brilliantly in the brief moments when Cena showed a competitive pulse, but this match has already been derided online. Personally, while I understand that this match was an undeniable bummer that left both children and adults in tears, I enjoyed it for what it was. The news that there will be no rematch makes it somewhat baffling that Cena wasn’t presented in a remotely competitive light, as there will be no opportunity for him to get his win back, but WWE has effectively re-established Brock. It’s certainly a choice: crushing Cena on his retirement road when half the crowd had clearly come for a feel-good celebration of his career.

© WWE

AJ Lee Returns To The Ring In A Wildly Enjoyable, But Unnecessarily Long Tag

Less is more. It’s a concept that you’d certainly assume WWE understands given that they seem determined to run five-match PLE cards at every opportunity, and yet, for some ungodly reason they decided that this all-star mixed tag match needed to run for 30 minutes. To be fair, it is clear that Tiffany Stratton vs Nia Jax vs Jade Cargill was originally going to take place at “Wrestlepalooza”, and it seems their entire time allocation was simply bolted onto this match. Thankfully, it was (give or take some striking) a good match highlighted by the raucously over-the-top performances of Becky Lynch and particularly Seth Rollins, who was bumping out of his boots.

The story of the match, at least for 15 minutes or so, was simple. Becky would refuse to tag in, forcing Punk to wrestle the entire match. The heels would then cheat, isolating and frustrating Punk and doing everything in their power to tease and deny the hot tag to AJ Lee. It was quite masterfully put together, pulling out every classic tag tease. Becky and Seth struck that perfect balance between being annoying but not insufferable, and talented but not too talented to the point where they outshone the babyfaces. Instead, they were obnoxious buffoons who nevertheless presented a legitimate threat.

Eventually, AJ Lee did have to tag in, and the results were decidedly mixed. First and foremost, the crowd absolutely loved her. Her entire act is peak millennial cringe. She’s like a walking time capsule of a bygone era and there’s something charming about seeing someone so visibly out of place mixing it with Becky Lynch. The only real problem was AJ’s arms – they would flail and flop in the general direction of her opponents’ faces like wet noodles. This wouldn’t be a problem if she were, say, Maxxine Dupri, a sympathetic and hapless underdog, but AJ Lee was playing conquering hero and Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins were having to sell for what I believe were punches (to be honest, I’m still not sure). However, the fans were forgiving and super excited to see her and, crucially, after a few stumbles she managed to lock in the Black Widow to a raucous pop.

Still, if AJ Lee was the star of the match in terms of reactions, then Seth was the star in terms of performance. His timing was routinely perfect, most notably as Becky was laying a long deep kiss on him at ringside and he had to shove Becky out of the way at the very last moment to catch CM Punk on a suicide dive while taking a flipping back bump over the announce table. He was doing all the little things right: he helped generate all the momentum for AJ on a tornado DDT she delivered on Becky, he took an absolutely wild bump for a GTS and generally his timing was impeccable. If this match had been 10 minutes shorter, it would have been perfect, but as it was, it was a perfectly plotted match blighted by a little bit of ring rust and a lot of unnecessary padding.

Cody Pours More Fuel On Drew’s Pity Party Fire

The nominal main event of “Wrestlepalooza” was Cody Rhodes vs Drew McIntyre for the WWE Undisputed World Championship. This should have been a big deal, but given that Cody has been away filming the Street Fighter movie, the entire match had a thrown-together air. The strangeness of the match was amplified by the fact that it was centred around a concussion storyline where nobody – not Cody, not Drew, not the announcers – could actually utter the word ‘concussion.’ Instead, Cody had his “bell rung” and it was apparently still ringing throughout this match.

The problem being that this was WWE’s grand debut on ESPN, and it did seem like they genuinely had some new fans checking them out for the first time. So what did these new fans see? Well, instead of a charismatic world champion, a new Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin, they saw an oddly sombre and muted Cody Rhodes getting his arse beat from pillar to post. If you had been following closely, the story was certainly compelling with Drew outshining Cody at every opportunity, only to be foiled by the referee in seemingly innocent ways. Firstly, as he dove out of the way to avoid being crushed in the corner, he was slow to return to the ring and missed a cradle pinfall by McIntyre. Later, the referee blocked McIntyre from Claymoring Cody’s head through the announce table. This brief delay allowed Cody time to move out of the way as Drew blasted a hole in the table with his foot and sold a leg injury that would ultimately decide the match.

This is unquestionably good storytelling, where the heel is both technically correct but also revealed to be a bitter whiner. Drew has stated that Cody is a corporate champion protected by management, and the referee’s actions will further justify his claim. The risk – and it is a big risk when they are shading Jey Uso in a heelish light – is that the fans may just start to believe it. Cody was acting uninspired to sell a concussion in this match, but do you really want to present your white knight babyface hero as a bland, corporate lickspittle protected by management from superior opponents? That sounds like a recipe for long-term disaster. Still, in the moment, it was clever, as Drew’s leg gave out on the Claymore, allowing Cody to hit the Cody Cutter and CrossRhodes to retain his title.

LA Knight Impedes An Otherwise Enjoyable Usos Reunion

The insertion of LA Knight as a special guest referee in the clash between the reunited Usos and The Vision is one of those ideas that’s perfect on paper but horrendous in execution. The match itself was frustratingly good, with the Usos instantly recapturing their chemistry of old and using neat double-team offence to offset the individual power and athleticism of Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. When the teams were engaging in back-and-forth exchanges the match proved wildly entertaining; unfortunately, LA Knight was routinely interjecting to disrupt the rhythm.

Knight would at first stop the heels from using weapons, only to allow the babyfaces to essentially cheat at will – this was no doubt meant to be perceived as The Vision getting their just desserts, but in truth it only made them sympathetic. Later in the match, LA Knight and Jey Uso would get in each other’s faces, with Jey nearly wiping out Knight with a chair, only to pull back at the last moment. The finish of the match was truly bizarre: Jey Uso was running wild with a steel chair, but he hit Bron Breakker in the back so hard the chair sprang back into his own face, busting him wide open. With Jey wobbling, Jimmy had to pull him into position for Bron to spear both Usos through a table before Bronson could pick up the win with the Tsunami.

The match was not bad by any means, it was really rather good, but this simply wasn’t the time to further the LA Knight and Jey Uso storyline. The Usos’ grand reunion should have been a straight match. Hopefully, they will rematch sooner rather than later, as these teams undoubtedly have a great match in them.

© AEW / JJ Williams

All Elite Wrestling

Full Gear Immediate Reaction

AEW ran their 9th PPV of the year on Saturday night, with “Full Gear” emanating from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey for the second consecutive year. This was the second straight PPV to not have WWE competition on the same day, meaning that this would be another evening event after three that had early PPV start times in the US during the summer. “Full Gear” also marked the first time that a WBD property (DC) was promoted in association with a PPV rather than a themed TV broadcast. Tony Khan had called the incorporation of DC into the event as their most important integration with Warner Bros Discovery so far, and the fact that they had chosen this event rather than TV should not go unnoticed.

Should PPV estimates better 107,000, it will be the fifth straight event to beat the PPV buys for the corresponding show in the previous year in a row. This is the second longest streak in company history at current, with positive results here moving them only one show behind the six show streak of March 2021 to May 2022. The show also set an attendance record of sorts for the company. As the show crossed 10,000 tickets distributed, it marked the first year in AEW’s history that they have had seven shows with over 10,000 fans in a single calendar year (per Wrestletix estimates). A crowd of over 10,000 is an even greater achievement than in previous years in this venue, as WWE (and TKO) had flooded the market in the immediate week running up to the show, and a number of key talents were missing from this “Full Gear” card.

The main headline to come out of this show was Samoa Joe defeating Adam Page for the AEW Men’s World Championship during a steel cage match. The match was more of an angle than a match in itself, with eleven minutes of action before a string of interference began that culminated with a turn by Hook to hand Joe the Title. This was followed by the return of Swerve Strickland, complete with new theme, to stand side by side with Page at the show end.

The title change was not something which had been planned since the start of Page’s reign, but rather something that had been relayed midway through their program, with Khan reiterating that it was due to having no challengers for Page and wanting to open up more storyline possibilities, Not everyone in AEW is confident in the belief that this is sufficient reason, being that a number of people pitched to face Page whilst the likes of Swerve Strickland, MJF and Will Ospreay were out of action went unused or were moved into silos of their own. All feedback we have received from people in AEW and in other companies is a lack of understanding of why you would build Page with this big chase up until “All In” only to cut him off in such a way. Dave Meltzer referred to it on Wrestling Observer Radio as a “Lacklustre story” in that aspect, which matches a lot of the consensus from those we have spoken to so far.

There are concerns around the upcoming plan for a multiman man main event at “World’s End” that will likely see the return of MJF in the run up, where another title change is highly likely, meaning two quick title changes in a row which do not have the benefit of being well built and could hurt some of the participants in the match with the outcome. At this point, it is unlikely that Page will gain his revenge over Samoa Joe by picking up the belt. This also hampers the Page-MJF story, in that MJF will not receive the benefit of being the man to end Page’s reign and the scenario will mostly protect Samoa Joe. These are concerns at this point, and considering the point where the last title change was decided, could move, but more needs to be done to convince people internally that their current plans will have more benefit than a more straightforward approach.

The returns of MJF and Swerve Strickland should have been good news for Page’s AEW Men’s World Championship reign. Page built several programs over the previous three years prior to obtaining the belt at “All In” back in July, only to see most of those names become unavailable during the course of the year. From the end of his match with MJF at “Forbidden Door”, it has felt like AEW has been in a holding pattern with Page, with a lack of “credible” opponents being something that is openly admitted to without acknowledging that the promotion had perhaps not done enough to create others, considering that this reign had been planned since the spring and that there were still strong options available. Combine that with being positioned underneath former champion Jon Moxley (and the re-setting of the Death Riders as the top heel group), and there are elements of this reign that mirror his previous one in 2021-22.

Page is a patient man, though, and there have been no complaints from the former champion, who has used his reign to showcase the likes of Kyle Fletcher and Powerhouse Hobbs, If the focus had spent more time on him in the build (and during the reign as a whole) then the switch may have been a lot more palatable. For now, though, it ends with “All In” as a great moment, and a reign where Page was once more not given the commitment of the booker to be the top guy in the company, leaving the TV to continue to be what dominated.

Page had been the lead for the DC crossover for this show, incorporating multiple lines from DC products into his promos. Samoa Joe also had great crossover news this week as well, as hit series “Twisted Metal” was renewed for a third season.

The AEW Women’s World Championship saw Kris Statlander look to make her second PPV defense of her title against Mercedes Mone. This was the third match between the two, and one where Statlander ended up victorious. The approach to Stalander’s reign has been interesting, with her winning the title at a point where she was nowhere close to being the most over woman on the roster. However, they are attempting to make her with the title reign rather than with a babyface chase in the run up to winning. Back to back victories over Toni Storm and Mercedes Moné go a long way towards that, whilst also maintaining Mercedes’ story of being able to collect any belt around the world outside of the AEW Women’s World Championship. The location of this show, in Statlander’s home region, saw the fans behind Kris, with many more fans jeering Moné than usual. Kris has Marina Shafir waiting in the wings as a future challenger thanks to the setup in last week’s “Blood and Guts” as well as the likes of Thekla who could step up.

AEW Tag Team Champions Brodido were looking at their final night as champions on this show, with their excellent in-ring reign being brought to an end by FTR. This was a reign which may not have originally been part of the schedule but it has benefitted both Bandido and Brody King. I live in hope that both will be elevated after it and not just fall back to being the men who put on good matches but ultimately lose.

The Death Riders issues continued to be ongoing for this card, with Jon Moxley facing Kyle O’Reilly after tapping to him on last week’s cage match, and tapping out to him once again at “Full Gear”. The expectation of Jon Moxley being deposed as leader of the Death Riders had only increased in recent weeks, with PAC the most obvious candidate to succeed him given that he was already given the final entry position at “Blood and Guts”. PAC’s win over Darby Allin made that possibility even more likely.

The theme of ongoing programs continuing into this show has been the downside to the build, with the compact fall calendar not allowing programs to breathe and making for a glut of rematches. Kyle Fletcher and Mark Briscoe as well as Ricochet and the Hurt Business had been working against each other in some form since late August, whilst stories with the Death Riders and the Don Callis Family feel like they are moving at a glacial pace. With the C2 around the corner, this event felt like the perfect time for some of these to reach their conclusions and end the holding pattern that many characters have felt like they have been in since September.

© AEW

News Round-up

The onset of Nielsen’s new “Big Data plus Panel” measurement system has hurt wrestling ratings across the board, including AEW. Thanks to work from Brandon Thurston at Wrestlenomics, we now have a much greater understanding of the early impact that the new system has had on wrestling ratings through the period of September 26th to November 14th. All four wrestling programs on US TV have had significant declines under the new system, with “NXT” being hit the hardest by its adoption, with its viewership in the 18-49 demographic now 27% lower than under the previous system. For the AEW properties, the count for “Dynamite” is 20% lower than it would be under the previous system (the same percentage as WWE “Smackdown”), and “Collision” is down just 2%.

The difference in the declines between AEW’s A and B shows have raised additional questions around the methodology that have been present since its first usage. There are massive, strange irregularities when it comes to the counting of the 18-34 age group, and questions over how the number of viewers per household is being calculated and whether programs with lengths longer than two hours are being impacted by the new system if the viewer does not change the channel for the duration of the broadcast. It also brings about the question on whether the old measurement was over indexing wrestling viewership over the previous two decades. It is possible that there will be adjustments to the system and to the methodology that could close the gap between the two, but if there isn’t, every company will be looking at what they can do to ensure they are able to show their value under the new measure.

For AEW, there a number of things that could drive television viewership: more destination shows, such as “Grand Slam” or last week’s “Blood and Guts” are a potential option, with branded shows having often trended to do stronger ratings than non-branded ones over the past five years. It might also mean that they need to change the placement of these shows as well, which have often been located against heavy competition, to be on weeks with less high value programming in order to maximise their numbers. It could also see more profile matchups being put on TV and top talent wrestling more on the weekly shows, which is currently not always the case. The hard part is the increased PPV schedule, which is a big part of the new deal AEW signed with Warner Bros Discovery last October.

With MAX developing its PPV operation on its service just for AEW, PPV buys on the service growing in their second PPV on the service compared to the first, and this being a key way that AEW can illustrate how their fans brand loyalty can be converted into commitment from other services, it is unlikely that AEW will do anything that would impact the value of these PPV events going forward. That’s especially the case as the value of big event programming is ever increasing, and WWE has just received $325 million a year from ESPN for just ten annual PLEs.

The biggest danger to the AEW television value are the lower numbers affecting their ranking for the day, their ad rates, and coming in lower than repeat programming on the station such as the Big Bang Theory. It is, therefore, interesting to see the onset of regular three to four hour blocks of programming this year where the company can illustrate value by using its own content as a lead in. This is not always the most popular move, as viewers of WWE’s three hour “Smackdown” broadcast have often attested, but it allows the company to demonstrate a great effect on the channel’s overall averages. The placement of the “Collision” episodes post-“Dynamite” also help with the show’s overall average, especially now that NBA lead-ins are no longer something which can assist with this.

The TV deal including simulcasting on HBO MAX as well as the PPV element seems like it was perfectly timed. It gives AEW more than one way of demonstrating its value to its most important partner and helps it to react to whichever way the landscape moves over the coming years. With uncertainty over who will be running WBD in the future, it is key that they have as many unique selling points for their content to ensure it keeps or increases its current value when their media rights deal comes up in a few years time.

© AEW

AEW: “WrestleDream” 2025

18th October 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 6,293
Chaifetz Arena, St. Louis, MO
Watch On: Triller, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Youtube
By Emiliana Rico-Toro

“WrestleDream” 2025 felt like a PPV where, once again, the entire locker room of AEW talent knew they had to put on a banger show to make up for the narrative build up leading to the card. Sure, there were some high points in the builds – like seeing Kris Statlander down on the mat with Toni Storm and meeting Toni at her most homoerotic, or for some it could be the Mox and Darby prison visitation promo at the go-home Dynamite – but on the whole, the TV programming leading up to PPV lacked cohesion.

The show, however, ruled. The lows were like, still high. Does that make sense?

From the bottom of the card during the Tailgate Brawl to the end of the main show, there’s very little that I wouldn’t consider entertaining and good-to-great wrestling. Even the matches I was least excited about (an FTR tag match and another Demand vs Hurt Syndicate trios tag match) were solid and enjoyable. Most astounding is the fact that three women’s matches were on the main card, along with a fourth on the Tailgate Brawl – which, if memory serves, hasn’t happened in a long time (three years, according to my colleagues at the Newsletter).

Now, there were some issues when it came to the time. After having three back-to-back PPVs starting at noon (central US time), or within the hours proceeding over the course of three months, it was difficult as a wrestling fan to deal with the 7pm central US time start, which I didn’t expect myself to say given how often I complained that I was missing the beginning of the shows. That being said, the later start time did mean I was home for the pre-show and was able to enjoy it all in the moment, which I never really did with “Forbidden Door” and “All Out,” because the cards tend to seem missable. This was not the case with the Tailgate Brawl for “WrestleDream.” Well, maybe one match was missable, but it had your favorite “guy who doesn’t know wrestling isn’t real” wrestler in it beating up some frat bros so was it really missable? You will probably say yes, and that’s okay. You’re wrong, though.

The Death Riders defeated the Conglomeration (and the begrudging Roderick Strong) in a match I no longer remember but swear was entertaining. (You’re all about to find out how bad my memory recall is and why I should never write reviews ever again.) Listen, Big Tom was there and that’s all that matters. There was some nonsense with Big Boom AJ in a backstage segment in which the Don Callis Family came out to poke fun at him and his son. Trent Beretta was there talking mad shit to a child. It was awesome, which is honestly something I never expected to say about a segment featuring the Costco Guys, but they’ve wormed their way into my heart. I believe they also challenged the DCF to a match at “Full Gear”, which, okay, way to start announcing matches early. To start off the slew of women’s bangers, we had Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron against Megan Bayne and Penelope Ford in a tag match that would preview the women’s tag tournament to come. Big Meg and Penny came out in Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn gear, reminding us all that they are lesbians first and tag partners second. Thank you women for my life. The Babes of Wrath won this bout. Don’t ask me how, I’m not a history book.

By this point in my evening, I looked over at the clock and realized that there were about six minutes left for the FTR match on the pre-show. Also there were some weird noises happening that we couldn’t decipher but settled on thunder, as it was raining in St. Louis. Stopped abruptly, though. Anyway, this isn’t important. It was very strange that so little time was left for the last match. As the match between FTR and JetSpeed started building steam, the clock ran out and it was time for the main card. Funny how that happens when women were supposedly scheduled to begin the main show. Anyway, I can’t say it wasn’t entertaining to see pyro for the show go off midway through a match, because it built a sense of excitement in me that I wasn’t expecting. Of course, JetSpeed opening a PPV will never not be the correct choice. They feel like the natural inheritors of the Orange Cassidy opening spot, and they actually put on a match worth watching with guys who I once hated. “But Emi, they’re heels now. You should hate them.” Well, I wanted them to be heels for years and now they finally get to show how right I was. That means I love them now. I do, in fact, gotta hand it to ISIS because Dax took the pin here and it left me pleasantly surprised.

Before the women’s match, there was a short moment in which Tony Schiavone introduced us to Lou Thesz’s widow, Charlie Thesz, at ringside. Upon reflection, it now makes sense why the tag match “went into” the main show, as the introduction of Charlie Thesz was necessary to an angle in the opening women’s bout, and it would be super strange to start the show off with a short introduction to someone most of us wouldn’t even recognize. She was great to watch during the match and we should definitely have her ringside all the time. Thekla and Jamie Hayter came out for their match, which was more of a brawl than a wrestling match, which might just be my favorite kind of wrestling match. I just love when people beat the shit out of each other. At some point, of course, Thekla came over to Charlie Thesz and got some heat from the crowd because she is an asshole, lest we forget how she left Stardom. (Checks notes) Oh, this was ‘Everyone Banned From Ringside’? I forgot about that. Anyway, Jamie hit Thekla with some lariats and then the Hayterade for the win. I thought to myself, surely now is when Thekla gets mad enough to answer Jamie’s Blood & Guts challenge, but nothing came of it at the time.

© AEW

The next match was probably the most crowd-engaging of the night. We had Jurassic Express against the Young Bucks in a $500K Match. The Bucks came out with a fun entrance graphic that broke down all their expenses, showing that they only had $32.17 left in their bank account. I remember a month or so back wanting a money counter visible at all times when the Bucks appeared because I was watching My Adventures With Superman and Jimmy Olsen had a money countdown from the 5 million dollars he randomly won in an episode. Every time he spent money to save Superman’s life, the counter would drop. Anyway, this made me giggle and kick my feet; the Bucks always give me what I want. When Jurassic Express came out, the St. Louis crowd were emphatically behind Luchasaurus, showering him in chants. Incredibly, my foggy brain remembers nothing I can describe, but the spots in this match were absolutely nuts. If you haven’t watched this match, go back and do so. It rocked. I bit a few times, as is often the case in a Bucks match; they do an incredible job of making you feel like it could go either way with a great opponent.

The Demand vs. The Hurt Syndicate (for contendership for the trios titles) was what I considered my dinner break match – not because I didn’t think the match would be good, or that I didn’t have any favorites, but because it was the lowest stakes bout on the card for me, and I just didn’t have enough faith in the booking to believe in a surprise win for my son, Ricochet. Perhaps that’s a terrible thing to say about one’s own son, but that’s the truth of the matter. Anyway, I watched it yesterday (almost three weeks late) and yeah, it was actually kind of fun. Everybody took some good bumps – yes, everybody. The ending was, of course, not fun at all, but it was still very nice to see Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun on the main card of a PPV. They deserve it. Proof that jobbing in this company will get you very far.

The next match on the card saw Mark Briscoe in a banger of a bout against the TNT Champion, Kyle Fletcher, whose full name I’ve been saying since before he asked. “But Emi, he considers ‘Protostar’ as part of his name, like how everyone says ‘Hangman’ Adam Page.” And to that I say, well he’s not ‘Hangman’ Adam Page. Barring that, this match rocked, and I believed Briscoe was going to win it a few times. Alas, it wouldn’t be the case. Don’t miss this one, it was awesome.

(The lengths to which I will make something about Hangman is actually incredible. Unbiased journalism, everybody.)

Another women’s banger was next, with Kris Statlander successfully defending her AEW world championship against the former world champion, Timeless Toni Storm. Stat came out in a dashing light purple, silvery gear and silver adornments on her eye, giving that distinct alien look. It feels like she’s evolving once more back into the alien gimmick but only using the best parts of it. Anyway, onto the match. The story here was that Toni was ready to die, as she has been for months, talking about how her time was running out and someone was going to end her. Despite Toni losing her title in the previous PPV, Kris put the last nail in the coffin of the Hollywood starlet’s career by affirming her dominance, but Toni refused to lose her agency in the process, shouting “Kill me! Kill me! Just fucking kill me!” A performance for the ages. No notes.

As Toni left the stage to allow the world champion her celebration, who would come out but Mercedes Moné? The TBS Champion upstaged Kris Statlander, stealing her thunder and her spotlight. Oddly enough, the world champion allowed it, which seemed A Choice at the time.

The night before, in Arena Mexico, Mercedes fought a match against Persephone in CMLL to retain her CMLL World Women’s Championship. It would be a wonder to see her fight again on this show, but fight she did as Mina Shirakawa answered her open challenge and put her own Interim ROH World TV Championship on the line against Mercedes’ TBS title. After the first three women’s matches I had seen in the night, I didn’t expect a fourth straight banger, but Mina certainly brought the heat. Now, I never expected Mina to actually win against Mercedes (it would be kind of insane to me if you did), but it never hurts to have a little hope, and I will say I thought Mina had the match won a couple times. Moné, to her credit, not only has the best in-ring prowess but also the best face acting in the game. The way her frustration grows throughout a match should be studied in wrestling classes everywhere. They teach them that stuff, right? Surely. Mina would still lose, however, making Mercedes 11 Belts Moné. Before Mercedes could celebrate, the world champion interrupted and gave her a deserved Samoan drop, reminding Mercedes that despite holding multiple belts across multiple promotions, the top prize will continue to elude her.

We came to the most anticipated and probably the best built match of the night next, I’d say: Brodido vs Konosuke Takeshita and Kazuchika Okada. I had a mild crashout the night before on my own podcast over who would be taking the pin in the match, because I was certain that not a single one of these men needed to be taking pins. This was the Mereenese Knot of pro wrestling tag matches, and I almost didn’t want it to happen. Now, the build told us that Bandido was ‘working hurt,’ so there was an obvious out there if they wanted to stick the belts on Kazu and Take. But Takeshita had lost to Bandido at “Supercard” in July, and Kazu is Kazu, and Takeshita was the newly crowned IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, and Brody is a big MFer. It just made no sense. How could you expect any of these men to take the pin? Despite my doubts, I was amusedly proven wrong. The match, of course, ruled. My extremely limited vocabulary cannot do it justice. Watch the match!! The imminent decay of the DCF tag team here would culminate when Okada hit a Rainmaker on his tag partner – and I’ll let you decide whether or not he did that on purpose. It would be his team’s undoing, however, as Bandido would pin Okada with a one armed 21 Plex to retain the AEW World Tag Team Titles.

© AEW

It has come to my attention that the reason I love Jamie Hayter’s style is because it reminds me of Hangman’s – they are out here to fight. Yes, this was a wrestling match, but more importantly it was the AEW Men’s World Champion proving he could outclass and outlast an ROH Legend and a “Christmas ham of a man” in Samoa Joe. Due to the nature of Hangman being my Blorbo, my Special Little Guy, my Sweet Cheese, My Good Time Boy, I was of course on the edge of my seat. Not because I thought he would lose, but because he’s just that good. My one gripe was that it took three Buckshot Lariats to drop Joe for the three count, but hey, not everything is perfect. What did work, on the other hand, was making sure everybody knew that Joe was a lowlife and a sore loser with the post-match betrayal angle, lest the male podcasters start to believe that toxic masculinity is a babyface trait. Spoiler: It’s not.

Assuming they had to prepare the ring for the last match of the night, AEW aired a backstage promo from Mercedes Moné in which the 11 belts wearing champion challenged – guess who? – the AEW Women’s World Champion, Kris Statlander, to a match at Full Gear. Good stuff.

We settled, finally, at what some – not me, I’m a Hangman propagandist – would call the main event of “WrestleDream”, and that was the “I Quit” match between Death Riders cult leader Jon Moxley and Darby Allin. I didn’t watch this match until two weeks later, as I was depressingly tired that night for reasons having nothing to do with AEW and more to do with compounding sleep deprivation, but once I finally watched it I think I was able to say that, yes, the match ruled. And I think that’s saying a lot considering my usual disdain for Darby Allin as a character and my bias against seeing Jon Moxley headlining a PPV over my world champ. It was an interesting culmination to a feud I felt was kind of dragging on. The two men gave each other their all, and in general it’s really nice to see Jon Moxley enjoying what he’s doing. My one beef is that they gotta stop dangling the carrot of fire in front of me and not following through. I confess that the aquarium tank spot didn’t make me feel much in the way of upping the stakes – one, because it was impossible not to have that spot spoiled by social media by the next day, and two, because water does nothing for me. This is obviously my fire sign speaking, so take it or leave it. Despite that, the Sting surprise was fantastic; it’s like when your grandpa shows up unexpectedly at your doorstep. It’s a huge shock: kind of confusing, kind of uncanny – mainly because he’s dead – but a happy surprise nonetheless! He leveled the playing field for Darby, shattering the aquarium with his baseball bat, swinging for the Death Riders (who of course all showed up), and eventually picking Marina up onto his shoulders and carrying her to the back, which left a very unusual impression on me that I will not delve into further.

Darby choked Mox out with the AEW flag, as promised, after a sequence of a Scorpion Death Drop, a Coffin Drop, and finally a Scorpion Death Lock submission, to which Jon Moxley – the man who called this entire roster weak for an entire year – quit on the spot. The second time in four months that he chose to save himself and relieve the pain rather than take it till his body gave in for him. The final shot of the PPV would be Darby Allin spreading the flag of AEW down onto the ring mat and celebrating with a raucous crowd. 10/10 no notes.

© TNA Wrestling 

TNA

The TNA media rights story took another turn this past week as Jon Alba of Sports Illustrated reported that AMC have emerged as contenders for a possible TV deal. AMC is part of the James Dolan Family majority owned AMC Networks, and is said to have keen interest in adding TNA to their lineup, with speculation after the initial report that this could be a revenue sharing deal similar to what AEW made with Warner Brothers back in 2019. A deal with AMC would potentially double access to potential consumers compared to their current broadcasts on AXS TV. However, it is unlikely to make TNA profitable by live broadcasting fifty-two weeks a year under that revenue model.

Perhaps the biggest surprise around AMC being reported as potential suitors is that this is a story at all. During the summer and early fall, it appeared that TNA was heavily likely to strike a deal with the CW Network – the current home of WWE’s NXT programming. TNA talent had been heavily featured on NXT during that period, with two Survivor Series style elimination matches the focus of the edition of the show which went head to head with the pre-empted AEW Dynamite episode on October 7th. From our understanding, companies across the landscape had been working under the provision that TNA would not only be going to CW, but also would be placed head to head with AEW’s flagship programming on Wednesday nights. The debut was expected in the fall, only for the autumn season to come and go without any announcement being made. Things became even more curious when TNA returned from a month long absence after tentpole show “Bound For Glory” to shows at Full Sail University in Orlando without any immediate media related changes.

A deal with the CW Network would be preferable for WWE, who would be using TNA as a pawn in their ongoing battle against AEW in an effort to weaken the next potential media rights deal for its competitor. It would be cheap programming for a network which has expanded its sports offerings in recent years and may be enough to make TNA much more secure financially, but it would come with a heavy risk of falling victim to the cold war between the two top American companies, all whilst having its talent raided by WWE on a more regular basis than it is currently. There is also the question of how much value it would provide to the network in this slot and if the consistent crossover between TNA and NXT talent would lead to a watering down of NXT ratings in the longer term. Watering down a product has never had great outcomes in that respect.

The onset of Nielsen’s “Big Data + Panel” ratings measurement system may also have had an impact, with NXT dropping from the 0.12-0.17 range they were regularly recording prior to the change to a 0.07-0.12 since the changes came into effect. A number of these weeks were affected by heavy competition from the MLB Playoffs, start of the NBA season and the New York Mayoral election, but it may have still been enough for the network to take pause on adding any additional wrestling programming until a much clearer picture is developed.

The AMC report came after a horrific PR week for the promotion, which had begun brightly when current (just about) AEW talent Chris Jericho praised the “Bound For Glory” crowd in Lowell, Massachusetts, making a favourable comparison to his current employer:

© TNA Wrestling 

Jericho, whose comments were likely made in order to gain as much interest in himself as possible with his AEW contract due up momentarily, may have been unaware that TNA’s return would be to a half empty Full Sail building, with well less than four hundred people in attendance for their first taping. That taping would include content on their show that immediately infuriated their fans, as Mike Santana lost the TNA World Championship at their first TV since the PPV on October 12th. The decision to immediately put Santana back on the chase, after having delayed his win from the summer, is a reminder that the reversion to the TNA branding comes with more than just a logo, as the tendency for shock outcomes that undermine the top babyfaces is as old as TNA itself. The movement of the belt to Frankie Kazarian was incredibly weak, using the continuation of the NXT invasion angle, which should have concluded with Trick Williams losing the belt last month, to help them execute the cheap way out.

Further idiocy was to follow on Friday,when TNA management contacted several major outlets, including PWI, Fightful and PWInsider with the line that Santana had missed the post-show Meet & Greet on Thursday evening as well as the talent call time on the Friday. Using Santana for this angle, ‘to work the ‘sheets’, felt even lower than your standard work when taking into consideration how Santana had openly admitted to fighting addiction in the past and had included those past battles in the build for both his recent PPV title matches. Most outlets chose not to run it, although PWInsider did. The Santana angle felt like it was a setup so that they can offer a babyface title win on a debut show on a new network, whilst also looking to make media impressions that help demonstrate their engagement to potential suitors in a similar way to the PPV ticket number inflation we have seen in recent months. However, there are much better ways to draw momentum and attention rather than removing a lot of good will towards the promotion at such a crucial time.

There are other issues outstanding that require attention in the upcoming months as well. TNA lost one of their top two draws in Joe Hendry, who has left to WWE and signed a main roster style contract once his TNA deal had expired, as many had expected. Their remaining ticket movers, The Hardy Boyz, are also due to be out of contract this month, and re-signing them should be a key priority. There are said to be a dozen other names with deals set to expire, with AJ Francis, Mustafa Ali, Cedric Alexander and Steve Maclin amongst those talents that have contracts with end dates before the end of the year.

TNA’s next big show is “Final Resolution” on 5th December from El Paso, Texas. At the top of the card, the new champion Frankie Kazarian attempts to retain the title against JDC (f.k.a. Fandango), Lei Ying Lee defends her new TNA Knockouts World Championship against either Dani Luna or Xia Brookside and Leon Slater defends the X Division Title from AJ Francis. Elsewhere, Mike Santana will face Charlie Dempsey, Matt Cardona takes on Mance Warner in a street fight, The Hardy Boyz will try to fend off the NXT duo Tyriek Igwe and Tyson Dupont in a bout for the TNA World Tag Team Championship and Steve Maclin defends the TNA International Championship against NXT’s Stacks.

© MLW

MLW

Bitesize Round-up

MLW debuted in Charleston, South Carolina on Thursday, November 20th for a live special with Don Gato Tequila. The Don Gato promotion has been heavy over recent shows, with the promotional character being given life on the brand, mainly opposite Contra member Ikuro Kwon. The Charleston Music Hall show had 535 tickets out a week before the event, with a possible venue capacity of 959.

MLW put on a number of major matches for the show including the final of this year’s Opera Cup, where last year’s winner, Mistico, would go on to win for the second year in a row. Mistico overcame Ikuro Kwon, Ultimo Guerrero and Austin Aries to book his place in the final, and was the favourite going in. Volador Jr. required a low blow and the help of Los Depredadores to get past Satoshi Kojima in his own semi final, after previously defeating alternate Star Jr. and Titán in the opening rounds; the latter of which still remains the best bout of the Cup so far. It all led to a classic face vs. heel matchup during a period in the promotion where the main event scene is beyond heel dominated.

And whilst we talk of heel domination, MLW Heavyweight Champion Mads Krule Krügger defended his title against Brock Anderson in a bunkhouse match, after Krügger “electrocuted” CW Anderson to win the Chamber of Horrors title match in Long Beach last month. Anderson was accompanied by father Arn for the match, which was made by a rather babyface challenge.

The show also saw a host of debuts and returns to the promotion, with Killer Kross returning to face newly christened heel Matt Riddle, Scarlett wrestling the debuting Isla Dawn and Priscilla Kelly coming back to take on Shotzi Blackheart. The Good Brothers beat MLW Tag Team Champions Donovan Dijak and Bishop Dyer by DQ, meaning Dijak and Dyer held onto the tag titles despite how involved both are in the World Title picture right now.

MLW will return to regular markets Dallas and Chicago in the New Year, on January 10th and February 7th respectively. They also take their “Battle Riot” gimmick to Orlando on January 29th.

© MLW

Fightland 2025

13th September 2025
NYTEX Sports Centre, North Richland Hills, Texas, USA
Watch On: YouTube

Matt Riddle’s MLW Heavyweight Title run ended in Texas, as Mads Krule Krügger cashed in his “Gravity Gamble” briefcase to become the new Champion after being originally unscheduled for a match on this night.

Krügger had survived being thrown off of the roof of the Melrose Ballroom by Donovan Dijak at the end of the previous show, disappearing into the ether, before resurfacing here during the third match between Dijak and Champion Riddle. He chose to add himself into the match, turning it into a three way, ending the excitement that a very energetic Riddle arrived with for the original matchup.

The crowd were not as into the match once the field was extended, and this wasn’t helped by the formulaic nature of the action leading up to Krügger launching Riddle at Dijak after an attempt at a cutter, before stacking them up for the pin.

The post match section felt like it played out in slow motion, with Krügger and Dijak brawling on the outside before the latter was bowled into a section of seats, New Japan style. The fight continued, going outside the arena, ending with the newly heel Alexander Hammerstone smashing the new champion with a chair.

Hammerstone had earlier faced Matthew Justice in a Texas Death Match, which he had labelled Justice’s punishment for interfering during Hammer’s Openweight Title match back in Queens. The former Dynasty member had been talked into embracing a more aggressive heel moniker by former stablemate MJF earlier on in the show and had also vowed that he didn’t need or want weapons to deal with Justice, as though they were beneath him.

It was therefore rather funny when the big man had no issue leaning into the gimmick of the match, meeting Justice’s topé attempt with a trash can lid and busting his opponent open with a chain. Commentary attempted to cover for the lack of coherence between the match and the pre-match comments, labelling Hammerstone a hypocrite, but it still stood out as making little sense regardless.

© MLW

Hammerstone put Justice away after suplexing his opponent whilst still choking him with a part of a broken table. He was yet another heel added to the main event mix that was already short of babyfaces.

Whilst Mads Krule Krügger brought some gold back to Contra, Ikuro Kwon failed to win the MLW Middleweight Championship he had absconded with back in April after Mistico had vacated the title. Kwon lost the title match to Templario, who had been due to face the previous champion before the vacation. Kwon has dubbed himself “The Lucha Hunter”, arriving at the ring with a host of luchador’s masks hanging from his mouth.

The match saw Kwon take control for the most part, as the fans got behind Templario, giving the match one of the best atmospheres of the night. Templario eventually began to gain some momentum, leading to a host of Contra masked men run-ins after the referee had been taken out by a splash, having been pulled into the line of fire by Kwon. Don Gato, now a wrestling character and not just a tequila mascot, arrived to aid Templario in the numbers game, taking out the masked assailants with some rather shiny gold brass knucks, before entering into a staredown with Kwon. The staredown was costly for the Contra man, who fell victim to a powerbomb backcracker from Templario, the Debario, giving him the win and the Middleweight Championship.

The rest of the card consisted of further opening round matches for the Opera Cup Tournament and an MLW Featherweight Title defense for Shoko Nakajima against fellow TJPW wrestler Yuki Kamifuku. Kamifuku had earned her title shot after beating Wakana Uehara last time out in Queens, as she looked to use her height and long leg reach to inflict damage on her smaller, more evasive opponent.

This was a lot messier than what you would come to expect from a Nakajima match, with several moves looking rather weak or having little impact. Nakajima hit back to back northern lights suplexes to take the win after Kamifuku missed with a super Fameasser.

In the Opera Cup matchups on the live part of the taping, Esfinge fell to Ultimo Guerrero in the show opener, in what was a slow outing that struggled to get the crowd fully engaged. Guerrero would go on to face last year’s cup winner Mistico in the next round.

Blue Panther Jr. vs. Zandokan Jr started a fair bit faster, as the two battled for control. Zandokan got the win before stealing the mask of Blue Panther, but only after smashing a chair over the head of his opponent earlier in the match within full view of the referee and not being disqualified. The match simply continued as though it had never happened.

© MLW

Fury Road 2025

13th September 2025
Aired: 27th September 2025
NYTEX Sports Centre, North Richland Hills, Texas, USA
Watch On: YouTube

The pre-taped “Fury Road” show opened with MLW matchmaker Cesar Duran taking a shot at Wrestlemania becoming a “blood money show”, before launching into a lucha six man that was solely focused on getting over Diego Hill, who has been taken under the wing of Blue Panther. The two teamed with Atlantis to take on the trio of el Galeón Fantasma, with Zandokan Jr. and Blue Panther competing in their second match of the taping. The extra workload meant that Hill picked up most of the work, but also that it made a nice showcase for him in a match that rolled both inside and outside of the ring. In the end, it was the more unfamiliar team which emerged victorious, with the pirate legion accidently taking out each other with a flurry of friendly fire that saw Barboza weakened by Zandokan Jr. ahead of being pinned by Atlantis.

MLW also covered Blue Panther winning the MLW Openweight Championship in Arena Mexico from Ultimo Guerrero via video package on this show.

In the Opera Cup, Paul London came past Okumura in a pretty passable match that didn’t try to do too much. Okumura looked to have London pinned for 3 in a roll up but the pin count ended at two and London flipped him straight into a leg submission to get the win. The star of the match though was Satoshi Kojima. Kojima had joined commentary after accompanying Okumura to the ring, before proceeding to demolish a whole platter of bread rolls and getting himself in trouble for swearing on the broadcast. It was unintended comedy brilliance.

The Opera Cup match that followed between Volador Jr. and Titán was a breath of fresh air compared to the standard pacing of MLW matchups. It was fast and frenetic once it became aerial after an early period of grappling, and felt like a match straight out of Arena Mexico. Titán was particularly strong here, with some great aerial counters and slick looking offense. The finish saw Titán get a near count after a double stomp from the top, only to be caught in a roll up for the pin after Volador had removed his mask. This was without doubt, the best match in MLW for some time.

The final first round matchup saw Austin Aries return to an MLW ring for the first time in six years to face Kushida. Aries cut promos before and after the match establishing his ‘King of Controversy’ character to the live crowd, and was cheered by a large part of the audience until the point he raked his boot over Kushida’s face, just because. This was a back and forth technical contest that saw Aries escape the Hoverboard Lock armbar on the inside of the ring, and even tap to it outside of the ring in order to protect Kushida somewhat before getting the count via a brainbuster. Aries moved on to face Paul London in the second round.

The taping closed with another brawl involving the Skyscrapers duo of Dijak and Dyer and Mads Krule Krügger after Krügger had attacked team manager Saint Laurent earlier on in the show. The Champion had been due to face Dyer in a singles match, but it never got started as the duo attacked him on the ramp. When the action reached the ring, the Tag Champions hit the Contra leader with a double chokeslam, only for Krügger to get back up instantly and clear the ring. This led to more brawling through the crowd and another moment between Hammerstone and Mads Krule Krügger once they reached the back. Krügger was cheered by the crowd during the two on one exchanges, as they picked between the heels. Who they are supposed to cheer for in all this felt like anyone’s guess.

© MLW

Slaughterhouse 2025

4th October 2025
Thunder Studios Arena, Long Beach, California, USA
Watch On: YouTube

If there was one thing MLW felt like they didn’t need it was another heel at the top of their roster so, naturally, the promotion chose to add one more to the top end of the men’s heavyweight division. Matt Riddle, having lost the World Title in Texas, low blowed Alexander Hammerstone to gain victory over the bigger man after the referee had been accidentally cleared out. Hammerstone, who was supposed to “lean into hate” recently whilst executing a heel turn of his own, looked like a non-existent threat with this finish, and was a non-feature thereafter whilst Riddle produced the latest “you people” promo to go along with the hundreds of others over recent years. At least he sold his annoyance at something though, because his super happy entrance for the match off the back of losing his World Title felt utterly bizarre.

The title victor at “Fightland”, Mads Krule Krügger, made his first title defense on this show, winning a “Chamber of Horrors” match to open the show. The ‘chamber’ consisted of a steel cage with weapons attached to the inside of it with a Frankenstein-like throne/electric chair in one corner. The winner would be determined by someone being put in it and electrocuted. The honour, on this occasion, fell to CW Anderson, who gave a good attempt to sell the gimmick as purple smoke poured out of the machine. This was like a smaller scale, more comedic version of PCO’s Madison Square Garden entrance back in 2019. The match structure, as well as Krügger getting colour, meant that the Champion gained some support from the crowd. This continued later on in the show when the brawling sequences with the Skyscrapers returned. Was this the desired response MLW wanted? Was it even worth bothering to care about it at this point?

I have no idea.

Bishop Dyer had a pretty disappointing evening altogether, losing in the second round of the Opera Cup to Satoshi Kojima and getting pummeled by Mads Krule Krügger. Dyer failed to turn his power advantage over the Japanese wrestler into a win, seeing Kojima kick out of the Deep Six before succumbing to the second of the veteran’s lariat attempts.

Paul Walter Hauser played a key role in the second round matchup between his former trainer Paul London and Austin Aries. Hauser was on commentary for the bout, which London held a shot at winning until clashing into Hauser thanks to an Austin Aries assist. Aries collected London up off the floor where he and Hauser had crumpled, tossing him back into the ring for a brainbuster and the pin. The relationship between Hauser and London continued to deteriorate.

In the other quarter final matchups, Ultimo Guerrero worked full heel against Mistico, who was the biggest star on the show for this crowd. A classic midair counter into the La Mistica tornado armbar was enough for last year’s cup winner to book his place in the semi finals.

The last man was Volador Jr., who faced alternate Star Jr. in the quarter finals due to an injury to Zandokan Jr. in the weeks leading up to this show down at Arena Mexico. This was another match with a hot atmosphere, especially after Star Jr. launched himself into the front row after taking out his opponent on the outside. A string of counters led to Volador Jr. picking up the win. The match was a thoroughly entertaining sprint and should lead to Star Jr. picking up more dates with the promotion in future.

© MLW

Shoko Nakajima made another successful defense of her MLW Featherweight Championship against HIMAWARI of TJPW, making her MLW debut on this show. HIMAWARI used her long hair braids to whip Nakajima on a number of occasions during this match, before helicoptering them above her head in celebration at the damage she had inflicted. She even used one to choke Shoko against the ropes.

The champion fought back, hitting an incredible topé to the outside that almost had the impact of a full on spear. This match was a lot crisper in execution than Nakajima’s defense against Yuki Kamifuku in Texas.

Shoko Nakajima executed her diving senton for the win, watched on by Shotzi Blackheart in the crowd, as they continued their long build to that eventual title match. Blackheart had to get through the returning Priscilla Kelly in Charleston first though, which she would successfully do.

© DPW

US Independents

DEADLOCK Pro-Wrestling
Super Battle 2025

19th October 2025
Grady Cole Center, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Watch On: dpwondemand.com

DPW solidified their place as one of the best independents in the US after putting on a show that encapsulated their product perfectly: simple, quality wrestling from top to bottom with great production. Unfortunately, shortly after the show aired, DPW announced that they would be holding their end of year show on 12th December, and it would be their last show in the US for the foreseeable future. They will also hold a show in Japan next year before wrapping things up. Some may see this as a boon to the indie scene as people will flock to other promotions, but losing one of the best products on the scene feels like a great loss. We wish all the best to the talent and staff and hope they find safe landings, and thank DPW for its excellent product over recent years. Support the talent as they find new pastures and risk their bodies to entertain us! It’s especially sad for wrestlers like Erick Stevens who had found a home to make his return to and will have to start again building relationships with promotions. As full disclosure, I primarily watch and cover Japanese wrestling. DPW was the only US independent promotion I would have time to catch and it was excellent every single time I chose to dedicate time to it. We will continue to try and cover as many promotions as we can with the resources we have in the hope that more companies such as DPW can operate in the scene and house the great pool of talent the scene has available. (Editor’s Note: see the West Coast Pro review further down this section for another example of a US indie company that has found its groove.)

To the show review itself and Adam Priest’s excellent reign of terror, stretching back to April in Las Vegas when he won the vacant title, finally came to an end at the hands of the previous champion who had to relinquish the title due to injury, Jake Something. After a few months of feuding, it all came to a head in a fantastic steel cage match after Jake earned his opportunity at the title by winning the Carolina Classic on the previous show. This was a great match where the asshole heel finally got his comeuppance with nowhere to run, with even the referee having enough of Priest’s shit which got a huge pop from the crowd. When Jake fought through a chairshot to the head and ran the ropes shoulder tackling Priest again and again, it felt like it was on 2x (it was not, I double checked). Jake delivered a super powerbomb to Priest (with Jake standing on top of the turnbuckle). I loved that despite Jake taking a few seconds to pin Priest, it was still enough to put him away, because the move looked devastating. Jake became the first two-time DPW World Champion.

Young tag team and current DPW World Tag Team Champions Miracle Generation (Dustin Waller & Kylon King) defended their title in an action-packed three-way ladder match against Grizzled Young Vets (James Drake & Zack Gibson) and Violence Is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku). There were a lot of gnarly bumps including Kylon taking a package piledriver through a ladder from Dominic. Waller gave Gibson a great springboard cutter to allow Kylon to climb the ladder and grab the titles. This was very reminiscent of an AEW PPV ladder match (laudatory).

LaBron Kozone held on to his DPW National Title in a hard-hitting match between two DPW favourites against Calvin Tankman. These two put their bodies on a line taking a bunch of crazy bumps, best demonstrated by Kozone being powerbombed onto the railguards. Kozone had a rare kick out of the Tankman Driver which led to Tankman hitting an insane moonsault on Kozone. Kozone wriggled out of a second Tankman Driver attempt to drop Tankman with a series of Ball Game lariats to retain for the 10th time in a row.

Roderick Strong and Erick Stevens stole the show on the undercard as they turned back the clock to their ROH days. The two had a great series of matches in 2007-8, with the last time they locked up happening in 2010. The story was that Strong was the one person who pushed Stevens the most, and if he wanted to dethrone LaBron Kozone, then Strong was the person to whip Stevens into shape. The crowd treated this match as a big deal and Roddy was on a mission to get Stevens over with the audience, helping him get back on his feet as he restarted his wrestling career. There were yelp-inducing spots such as when Roddy backdropped Stevens onto the railguard, and Stevens landed on the crowd-side of the railguard on the top of his back. Roddy sold Stevens’ lariats like hell, before Roddy beat Stevens with the End of Heartache. Bryan Keith came out after the match, as the former DPW National Champion returned to DPW for the first time since April.

After shockingly beating Dani Luna for the DPW Women’s World Title by breaking a wine glass over her head, Nicole Matthews’ short reign came to an end. AEW’s Queen Aminata became the new champion after having her leg worked over by Matthews for much of the bout. Matthews, trying to cheat again, attempted to spit wine in Aminata’s face, but Aminata headbutt her with the win spraying everywhere like the Rock spitting out beer from Austin’s stunner. Aminata blasted Matthews with a running basement kick for the win. Dani Luna came out to challenge Aminata. They would’ve murdered each other in an excellent bout, but Aminata had to pull out due to injury.

Elsewhere, Leon Slater made his fourth DPW appearance of the year in a win against Manny Lo. My standout of DPW in 2025, Dani Luna, teamed up with Emersyn Jayne making her DPW debut against the team of Hyan and Lena Kross, who was also making her DPW debut. These undercard tags with Luna are my guilty pleasure. All the women in the matches work super hard no matter where it is on the card and they are regularly my match of the night. Unfortunately, due to very strong competition, it did not quite win that award on this show, but it was a great hard-hitting match playing on the rivalry of Luna and Hyan. Luna pinned Hyan with Luna Landing after hitting her terrifying, awesome, stomach-turning, incredible German suplex where she flung Hyan into the ring from the apron.

DPW’s penultimate event, “Showdown in Cary II”, aired on 16th November on DPW on Demand. The card had a variety of singles bouts and was headlined by a non-title Champion vs. Champion bout between LaBron Kozone and Jake Something, with Kozone taking the win. There was a title change on the show as Bojack & Morgan Dash beat Miracle Generation to become the new DPW World Tag Team Champions.

Prestige Wrestling News

DPW was not the only promotion that would be closing its doors, as Prestige Wrestling, one of the most prominent US indies, announced that they would be ending their operations after their next event on 20th February 2026, titled “Roseland XIII: The End”. It will be held at their usual stomping ground, the Roseland Theater and will be streamed live on YouTube. The company put out a statement saying that they hoped it would be a break rather than permanent but left things up in the air as to which one it may be. Their subsequent marketing for their last event for now did use the words “final Prestige Wrestling event ever!” As Rob Viper pointed out on Twitter, US independent promotions are “not making anyone rich, it’s largely a hopefully break-even business.” If you like a particular independent promotion, make sure to support them. Some of them even put out content for free on YouTube. Increasing coverage of independent promotions, not only in US and Canada (see our Asia page…), is one of the main goals of the Social Suplex Newsletter. Want to cover one? Contact us!

© Verb Abrams

West Coast Pro Wrestling

“How The West Was Won”

1st November 2025
Company Announced Attendance: 520 (paid)
United Irish Cultural Center, San Francisco, California, USA
Watch On: YouTube
Review by: Chris Whitehead

R.E.M.’s 1996 album New Adventures in HiFi opens with a slow jam called How The West Was Won (And Where It Got Us) a song I have long assumed to be about the painful difficulties of their creative endeavor (making music). New Adventures in HiFi is considered by many critics and fans to be the high point in the R.E.M. catalog but featured no radio hits and ended their streak of #1 albums.

West Coast Pro’s How The West Was Won, on the other hand, showcased the joy of their creative endeavor (pro wrestling), and featured multiple hits (matches) and should begin a new cycle of success for what is now the clear #1 indie company in California, and with the twin hiatuses of DPW and Prestige, possibly all of the US.

WCP presented this, their seventh anniversary show, from their home base of the United Irish Cultural Center in San Francisco, California. The key to this show was them featuring a lot of their local talent, many of which have come up through their training school. Those wrestlers are at various stages of their development and careers from recent graduates like The Young Dead, Andrew Cass and Sweet Caroline to the newly leveled-up Crush Boys, fresh from multiple trips to Japan this year, all the way to 28 year veteran Vinnie Massaro. That core roster was supplemented with a perfectly curated collection of fly-in talents who have stood out on the US indies this year (Maya World, Dani Luna, The Cowboy Way) and two legit tv stars to help move some tickets (Willow Nightingale and Gabe Kidd, booked on the same show in what was surely just a coincidence.)

WCP announced in early October that going forward, their distribution platform would be YouTube (moving on from Highspots) and the timing of that announcement, not long before this show, was either planned with laser precision or a very fortunate break, because this was a real “best foot forward” show that should – and hopefully will – benefit from word of mouth in a way that simply isn’t feasible behind a paywall. Quite frankly I wouldn’t have watched this show and be telling you about it now if it had aired on Highspots. There appears to be a trend towards indie companies moving to YouTube (perhaps with a Patreon on the side) to better reach fans, many of whom are hungry to find and support high quality indie wrestling.

To that point, and I touched on this in my feature on Wrestlemania Week back in Issue 3, I am an advocate of the minority opinion that the US Indie Scene is “Thriving, Actually” – if you know where to look and if you accept that the super indie era is dead. Super indies may never come back with two major league companies on tv every week but regional companies can fill the space. Ironically, the biggest unfilled space in the post super-indie era is Los Angeles, the once home of the biggest and best super indie Pro Wrestling Guerilla, as mentioned in my review of BrainSlam Wrestling in our last issue. (Editors Note: Chris wrote this before DPW announced it was going into hiatus, I wonder if he is still holding onto that “thriving, actually” opinion?)

All things considered, between selling out the UICC to what looked to be a “super no vacancy” capacity (confirmed to us by the company as 520 paid and likely more than that in the room), getting over 11k streams for the show on YouTube and the positive critical response to the show from people who saw it, this show feels like an absolute home run for WCP and a strong endorsement of their decision to focus on their ever growing group of local wrestlers.

With one exception, each match was better and had a more invested crowd than the last and the show built and flowed in a natural way, culminating in the final four matches, especially the three title matches that closed the show, with each also being different from the last. It’s also notable that this show featured nothing but singles and tag/trio matches all with standard rules, a contrast to the indie scene’s one time love affair with scramble matches, ladder matches or blood baths (all of which can have their place, don’t get me wrong.) This was a wrestling company doing a wrestling show, primarily to please the audience in the room and trusting that would be enough to get the people watching online to enjoy the show. It absolutely worked. Indie wrestling companies: Take note and do more of this, please.

Every show on this card is worth your time in one way or another, but for the purposes of this review, I’m separating the show into the two halves either side of the intermission. The first half of the show largely focused on the previously mentioned trainees.

© Verb Abrams

The opening match allowed The Young Dead to shine and pick up the win against WCP regulars and hated Angeleno heels Los Suavecitos, who scored some extra heat given the Los Angeles Dodgers were playing in Game 7 of the World Series at the same time they went to the ring, much to the chagrin of these Bay Area fans (and the rest of the country, and all of Canada.) The standout guy in this match was ETK (Ethan “Tails” Kendo) who, and maybe this is just the mullet, made me think of Speedball Mike Bailey (laudatory). The second match was a rookie showcase for 20-year-old Sweet Caroline in her first match on a non-student show and you can see the underdog babyface upside in her. Miko Alana did a great job here too. The third match seemed slightly out of context to me, someone who was not locked in on WCP pre-YouTube but both Mad Dog and AJ are well known, well-traveled pros who had a solid if unspectacular match. The fourth match was an excellent underdog match with what appeared to be a shocking upset with 20-year-old Andrew Cass winning the Golden Gate title from Alpha Zo in a really enjoyable match enhanced by the crowd’s investment in Cass. The final match before intermission, Gabe vs Karl, was good but didn’t really get over, which in part was not the wrestler’s fault, as this was happening at the same time as the World Series game went into extra innings, which led to reasonable distraction for the crowd who were splitting their focus between the ring and their phones. Even so, the match likely under-delivered anyway, despite being the first ever match between Fredericks and Kidd. I guess LA Dojo lore is better suited to LA than SF?

Post intermission, business picked up significantly, with the first ever – and surely not last – meeting between Willow and Maya. Maya, who was already good, has improved since I saw her in Vegas in April and add my voice to the others who expect to see her on national television in the future. Willow was a great opponent for her both vibes-wise and on a physical level and while the tv star had to win, it never felt like a total foregone conclusion (like it did with Kidd and Fredericks.)

© Verb Abrams

The Women’s Title Match featured perhaps the two other female indie standouts this year (along with Maya) in Johnnie and Dani. Johnnie has also improved since Vegas in April, no doubt due to her extended trip to Japan, and has “it.” I am very high on her and have been since I first saw her last December at the NJPW show in Long Beach. I also expect to see her on tv in the near future. Dani is also really good and they meshed perfectly as Johnnie had to overcome her opponent’s size and power advantage and look for moments to counter-wrestle her way to victory. There was a wonderfully sick German Suplex that took Johnnie from the apron to the middle of the ring that made me yelp and jump out of my seat. A great spot in a great match.

The Tag Title match was a rubber match after these teams split their last two matches. Titus and Charlie, the Crush Boys, are a textbook reminder of the need to constantly re-evaluate wrestlers, especially young indie wrestlers, because two years ago these guys were geek-adjacent in my eyes and now they project a very specific “dork-hunk” energy and have levelled up every aspect of their games (yet again, benefitting from multiple trips to Japan.) Their charisma shone through and was enough to get through the opening comedy spots and into the serious business end of this match. I cannot describe how exactly, and doubtless this is from the time they have spent training with Chigusa Nagayo in Marvelous, but there is a “joshi-ness” to their tag team, and I mean that as the highest compliment. It makes sense with their team’s name. Manders and Shire were the perfect opponents here. You can put the Crush Boys on TV next week and they’d hold their own. (The “Sign Starboy Charlie” sign guy from the early days of AEW is gonna end up being right, huh?)

© Verb Abrams

Finally, we had the emotional closer, as Vinnie Massaro put his long career on the line against Kevin Blackwood for the WCP Heavyweight Title. I was worried that the crowd couldn’t stay up for this after the great heat at the end of the tag title match, but the key here was that emotion. Ring announcer Katie Scarlett did a great job all night, but especially in the introductions for this match, helping put the heaviness of the match over. The commentators, James Kincaid & Righteous Reg, also did an excellent job here (and again on the whole show), putting over the long and winding road that Massaro has travelled and the dirtbag ways that Blackwood used to win and retain this title during his run. The end of the match was laid out exactly how it should have been with Blackwood getting the big near fall on a ref bump/belt shot and Vinnie overcoming it all to get the win. The closing shots of Vinnie being embraced in the ring by his proud students after being given the belt was classic pro wrestling magic.

Pure good vibes abounded both in the ring at the end of this show and for this company’s future. Watch this show, then tell a friend to watch this show. You won’t regret it.

Following the closure of their two close promotional partners in DPW and Prestige, West Coast Pro announced a new partnership with New Texas Pro Wrestling on 21st November. The two promotions officially recognised each others’ championships.

West Coast Pro return on 19th December in Pacifica, California with “Winter Wonderslam”.

© DEFY

US Independent News

Raja Jackson, 25, the son of former MMA star Rampage Jackson and an MMA fighter himself, was arrested on 18th September on a felony assault charge from an incident at KnokX Pro Wrestling in Sun Valley, California on 23rd August. During the day, Stuart Smith (Syko Stu) was filmed on Jackson’s stream hitting Jackson on the head with a beer can as a prank. Jackson was encouraged by viewers and others that he could then get a “receipt” on Smith when they met later that day in the ring. At the time of the prank, they had shaken hands and put it behind them, but, when running interference later during the show as planned, Jackson slammed Smith into the mat and landed over 20 legitimate punches to Smith who was unable to protect himself. Smith was badly injured including trauma to upper and lower jaws, laceration to upper lip, and a fracture to the maxilla bone causing the loss of several teeth. Jackson was held on a $50,000 bond but released while pleading not guilty to battery charges. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for 24th November. Smith has a GoFundMe which has raised over $224k as at the time of writing. We wish Smith the best for his recovery.

Bryan Keith became the new DEFY World Champion at “DEFY Aeon” on 19th September as he beat Clark Connors. Keith went on to retain the title twice against DEFY regular Cody Chhun on 24th October and 21st November. On the 2nd attempt, Chhun was screwed as Evan Rivers, Judas Icarus and Travis Williams rushed the ring to attack him, ending the match in a no contest. The DEFY Women’s Champion, Marina Shafir, retained against Hyan in September and Su Yung in October, while bringing in her Death Riders boss, Jon Moxley, on the latter show as Moxley faced Royce Isaacs in a 20-minute special singles match. Former AEW and ROH tag team, The Righteous (Dutch & Vincent) made their DEFY debut against Midnight Heat (Eddie Pearl & Ricky Gibson) in the main event of the 21st November show. It was a night of debuts as Steven Borden, Sting’s son, made his own DEFY debut earlier in the night. DEFY streams on PROGRESS’ TrillerTV+ channel.

GCW held “Dream On” on 22nd November which included a #1 Contenders match between Atticus Cogar and Charles Mason. The match would end in a No Contest and Effy would have to defend the GCW World Title against both Cogar and Mason in a three-way Hardcore match. Effy could not overcome the odds and Atticus Cogar was crowned the new GCW World Champion. Effy had defended the title five times prior to “Dream On”, against Chris Wilde, Man Like DeReiss, Shotzi Blackheart, Ricky Morton and Danhausen. Killer Kross, making his GCW debut, teamed with Jimmy Lloyd against Major Players (Brian Myers & Matt Cardona) at “Dream On”.

The day after on 23rd November, JCW were at their regular venue at The Mecca in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey for the show “Home For The Holidays”. JCW World Champion Billie Starkz defended her title against Charles Mason, with the match ruled as a No Contest, in a rivalry extending almost 5 years when Billie pinned Manson in an upset. Starkz won the title in a singles match against Manson on 26th October as the title was stripped from former champion Masha Slamovich due to accusations of domestic violence during her relationship with AKIRA. Slamovich has not wrestled since the accusations surfaced. Also on “Home For The Holidays”, following the closure of his home promotion, DPW, LaBron Kozone returned to JCW unsuccessfully challenging for the GCW Tag Team Titles with his student Manny Lo against champions YDNP (Alex Price & Jordan Oliver). Additionally, freelancer Maki Itoh made an appearance, and Thomas Shire lost to Mad Dog Connelly in singles action.

GCW’s next few shows will be in Seattle on 5th December, Los Angeles on 6th December and Orlando on 13th December. GCW have already announced major matches for these shows, including Effy defending the GCW World Title against Priscella Kelly, Matt Tremont attempting to retain his GCW Ultraviolent Title against Atticus Cogar in Seattle, and Priscilla Kelly clashing with Vipress in Los Angeles. JCW’s next show is on 14th December at The Mecca which includes Jersey J-Cup 2026 qualifying matches as Darian Bengston faces Eli Knight and Rich Swann takes on Ryan Clancy. Shows can be found on TrillerTV+.

After a double title match that ended in a DQ in September, House of Glory Heavyweight Champion Charles Mason and PROGRESS World Champion Man Like DeReiss ran it back at “With Glory Comes Pride 2025” in October in a No DQ match. With only the HOG Title on the line, Charles Mason dispatched Man Like DeReiss after a 40-minutes slugfest involving extended crowd brawling. Manson went on to defend the title against Dezmond Xavier on 15th November, in a show main evented by Mercedes Mone capturing the APAC Women’s Title from Nor Phoenix Diana. Days later, returning to Chicago for the first time since May, House of Glory held a show with three titles on the line, as Shotzi Blackheart won the HOG Women’s Title from Indi Hartwell with a diving senton in front of a sold-out crowd. The Mane Event (Jay Lyon & Midas Black) retained the HOG Tag Team Title against The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) while Charles Mason survived another day with his HOG Heavyweight Title against Cedric Alexander. On the undercard, Amazing Red faced former NXT star Tyler Breeze.

The Hardy Boyz will make an appearance in House of Glory “Winter Warfare” on 19th December. HOG shows are streamed on TrillerTV+.

New Texas Pro announced a partnership with West Coast Pro Wrestling in the wake of DPW and Prestige’s upcoming cessation of operations. On 5th October, 1 Called Manders won the New Texas Pro Title from Carter Blaq in the main event of a show that also included key independent talent homegrown in Texas such as Izzy James, Maya World and Vert Vixen, who cut her teeth in New Texas Pro. New Texas Pro celebrated their 7th anniversary in Baytown, Texas on 9th November with Timur The Great winning the LoneStar Title in a Moshpit match, dethroning Izzy James. The former New Texas Pro Champion, Carter Blaq, bounced back from his loss by winning an elimination match in the main event, punching his ticket to a rematch with 1 Called Manders at “Lonestar 6”, the promotion’s biggest show of the year which usually takes place at the end of the year, although an exact date and venue had not been announced as at the time of writing. Their last stop before “Lonestar 6” titled “White Elephant” takes place on 14th December and has key talent announced, including Starboy Charlie returning to the promotion for the first time since April where he lost a title match against Carter Blaq. All shows can be found on IWTV.

New Texas Pro also announced they have commissioned a new belt that will be in use from late 2025 or early 2026.

© Beyond Wrestling

Beyond Wrestling, based in the US Northeast across Massachusetts and Rhode Island, continue holding down the fort for the US indies in the region. Beyond Wrestling’s top star, Ryan Clancy, beat AEW’s Alex Reynolds in the Bound For The Floor Tournament Final to capture the #1 Contendership for the Wrestling Open Title. Clancy won the tournament on 12th October but is yet to face Bobby Orlando for the title, who last defended against Donovan Dijak on 14th November. Clancy defended his own Undisputed IWTV Independent Wrestling World Title against TJ Crawford on the same show. The Righteous (Dutch and Vincent) also worked that show.

The WWE ID Title was defended by Cappuccino Jones on the 12th October show against TJ Crawford. Will Kroos, known for his work in the European scene as well as his excursions in NOAH, worked a few Wrestling Open and Wrestling Open RI shows in October, leading to putting Bear Bronson over twice on back-to-back shows as well as losing to Tyree Taylor. Spike Nishimura will return from her excursion in Japan, where she put in incredible performances in Sendai Girls. Spike made the finals of the “Jaja Uma” tournament which focused on younger talent, losing to one of the best rookies in Japanese women’s wrestling in a very long time, Senka Akatsuki.

Beyond’s next show is on 31st December in the usual White Eagle venue in Worcester, Massachusetts. Wrestling Open and Wrestling Open RI hold weekly shows at White Eagle and Rhodes On the Pawtuxet in Cranston, Rhode Island. All shows are streamed on IWTV.

Maine-based Limitless Wrestling held a joint show with GCW on 8th November in Yarmouth, Maine. While it was streamed on TrillerTV, GCW’s usual home, there were a few Limitless matches on the card including Dezmond Cole defending the Limitless World Title against Charles Mason. Limitless then held a four-show weekend from the 14th November to 16th November in Bangor titled “Queen City Showdown” where Dezmond would defend his title an extra three times against Alec Price, then Price and Bear Bronson in a three-way, and finally against Limitless regular 23 Hazard. Former NXT talent Donovan Dijak also worked the tour.

Limitless will host their “2026 Limitless Rumble” on 16th January 2026 at the Colisee in Lewiston. Former Limitless World Champion BEEF, who had been most recently used as enhancement talent on ROH, will return for the Rumble. All shows can be found on IWTV.

Wrestling Revolver collaborated with ARRIVAL Wrestling for the show “WrestleKombat 2025”. It was the debut of the promotion in New Jersey and involved stars such as AEW’s Ace Austin and TNA International Champion Steve Maclin defending against Kevin Blackwood. The Revolver Title was defended by Myron Reed against Jordan Oliver, with the show main evented by a “Kaiju Deathmatch” between Bear Bronson and Krule (MLW’s MAds Krule Krügger). YouTuber Chris Danger won the first gold of his short career as a wrestler as he beat BDE for the Revolver Remix Title. BDE had just won the title from AJ Francis on the previous Wrestling Revolver show. BDE, another YouTuber who is a product of Piledriver Wrestling Academy (Sami Callihan and Ace Austin’s school) had been making appearances in TNA in weeks prior.

Wrestling Revolver is back on 13th December in Clive, Iowa, at the Horizon Events Center for their season finale. The shows are streamed on TrillerTV+.

Lucha Libra promotion Pro Wrestling Revolution (PWR), based out of San Jose, California, ran a show on 11th October out of Mt. Pleasant High School Gym with plenty of CMLL talent on display. The show was headlined by CMLL & AEW star Hechicero taking on the legendary Blue Panther in a singles match. Misterioso Jr. retained his PWR Heavyweight Title against Ultimo Guerrero via DQ while El Cucuy defeated Rey Horus for the PWR Openweight Title. El Cucuy went on to complete a tour in Dragongate where he would make it to the second round of the annual King of Gate tournament.

PWR are going all out for their next big show at Mt. Pleasant High School on 14th March 2026 as they have already announced that Mistico will be coming in for a match.

© Black Label Pro

Ohio-based Absolute Intense Wrestling’s (AIW) next show, “Hell on Earth XX” takes place at Globe Iron in Cleveland on 28th November. Krule will make his AIW debut, Mike Santana returns to AIW after nine years against Sam Holloway, and (Tyler) Breeze returns after working the promotion in September. AIW’s final two dates of 2025 are on 12th December in Lakewood, Ohio and 27th December date in Akron, where AIW has already announced that Nic Nemeth will make his AIW debut. The shows are streamed live on their YouTube.

Texan promotion Metroplex Wrestling held a show streamed live on Twitch titled “Who Runs The World? 2” which featured several AEW talents such as Deonna Purrazzo, Marina Shafir, Nyla Rose and Kris Statlander. The show was main evented by Abadon, defending their MPX Women’s Title against Nixon Newell. The VOD is only available to subscribers.

Brii Combination Wrestling (BCW), based out of Ridgefield Park, New Jersey (and also hosting shows at The Mecca with JCW), held a show on Halloween titled “Nightmare At The Mecca 2025” and then hosted a watch party for the show on 13th November where fans could interact with some of the roster. The BCW Women’s World Champion, Notorious Mimi (previously in NXT as Sloane Jacobs) competed for the WWE ID Women’s Title on Wrestling Open RI #33 (one of Beyond Wrestling’s sister shows). BCW’s Sammi Chaos returned on the Halloween show after finishing her excursion in Japanese promotion Ice Ribbon where she joined the heel “Bad Butts” faction (yes, their entrance music is Baby Got Back). The Halloween show, and others, can be found at Title Match Network.

Based out of Atlanta, Georgia, ACTION’s next show “BANGERS ONLY 6” takes place on 5th December in Tyrone, Georgia. ACTION Champion Tim Bosby defended his title against Adam Priest on 17th October, Darian Bengston on 25th October in TWE (a promotion based in Chattanooga, TN), and then retained against Jamesen Shook via DQ on 7th November at “It’s A Cold World”. Bosby will run it back against Bengston on 5th December. The show will be streamed on IWTV.

Indiana-based promotion Black Label Pro held a show on 4th October in Crown Point. The show was called “hackSAW” featuring a meet and greet with WWE Hall of Famer “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan. On the show, Kevin Ku overcame his Violence Is Forever tag team partner, Dominic Garrini, as well as Koda Hernandez, Marino Tenaglia, Myung-Jae Lee, Rachel Armstrong, Rhys Maddox and Sabin Gauge to become the new BLP Heavyweight Title for the second time. Calvin Tankman is the only other wrestler to hold the title twice. Elsewhere, Davey Bang won the BLP Midwest Title from Myron Reed. The show can be caught on IWTV.

AAW Pro based out of Berwyn, Illinois, crowned new champions on their 18th October show, “Defining Moment 2025” as The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) won the AAW Tag Team Titles. While AAW Heavyweight Champion Trevor Lee was not on that show, he would return on AAW Pro’s “SMOKESHOW” on 22nd November which also featured the return of Scarlett Bordeaux after seven years, following her WWE release with Killer Kross. AAW Women’s Champion Maggie Lee (a.k.a. M By Elegance in TNA) also wrestled on the show. AAW Pro streams their shows on YouTube.

Connecticut-based promotion Blitzkrieg! Pro, who also stream on IWTV (maybe you get the idea now), put on “Wild In The Streets” on 11th October in Enfield, CT. The show included prominent indie talent such as Bear Bronson, TJ Crawford, Lena Kross, Sinner and Saint (Judas Icarus & Travis Williams), Charles Mason, SLADE, Zachary Wentz and Priscilla Kelly. Their next show will be “Angels With Filthy Souls” on 13th December where they have announced Heath (formerly Heath Slater of WWE) and the returns of Spike Nishimura and Allie Katch, who will face each other in singles action.

Since winning the TWE Title in August, Jamesen Shook has gone on a tear, with his most recent defence for Tennessee-based promotion, TWE, taking place on 9th November at the TWE Arena in Red Bank, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Shook fended off the challenge from former champion Erron Wade. TWE held a show on 22nd November at the usual TWE Arena where Shook defended against Cousin Condry. TWE will host an all women’s showcase on 27th December named “FEMININOMENON”. The shows can be found at, you guessed it, IWTV.

© C4 Wrestling

Canada News

Mercedes Mone beat Jody Threat for the Winnipeg Pro Wrestling Women’s Title on 19th October. WPW have had a smart marketing strategy and have fully leaned into the Mone title win, off the back of the absurd criticism Mone was getting for winning titles on the independent scene. The match is available for free on YouTube. Chad Daniels became the new WPW Champion on the same show, meanwhile Nu Money (Bryce Bentley & Scott Ripley the Third) defended their titles successfully against The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson). WPW’s next show is on 5th December where Nicole Matthews will make her WPW debut against Kristara and the Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning Paul Walter Hauser will make a special appearance at a sold out show.

C4’s “Scream” show on 17th October is available to stream on IWTV. Myung-Jae Lee defended his C4 Underground Title against London Lightning, PROJECT 8100 (Dexter Doom & Haddy) held onto their C4 Tag Team Titles, fending off a challenge from Brent Banks and James Stone, while in the main event, Junior Benito remained the C4 Champion as he beat a journeyman of the independent scene in Kevin Blackwood. Junior has now defended three times since ending Evil Uno’s reign of terror, including the day after his Blackwood defense where he beat Bear Bronson in Interspecies Wrestling in Quebec. C4’s next show is “Event Horizon” on 28th November in Ottawa where Junior will try to hang on to the title in a six-way elimination match including Gabriel Fuerza, Tarik, Alexia Nicole, Ryan Clancy and Marcus Mathers. Oh and Vaughn Vertigo will address his “unsafe work environment”.

Mystery Wrestling, Evil Uno’s promotion which provides a mystery vortex show with a comedic twist, collaborated with ChocoPro on 4th October as BestBros (Baliyan Akki & Mei Suruga) faced Evil Uno and Mei’s student, Miya Yotsuba. The match took place at ChocoPro’s usual Ichigaya arena (the famous small room with a chocolate-coloured mat). Mystery Wrestling returned to Gatineau, Quebec, on 19th October for the 19th instalment. Former Dark Order brothers, Stu Grayson and Evil Uno, fought for the Mystery Wrestling Title which Grayson had captured on #16 on 1st June, although Evil Uno was unsuccessful in capturing the title. #20 was held on 23rd November, the day after AEW’s Full Gear. The shows are available on Evil Uno’s Twitch. #21 will be held in Cardiff, Wales on 18th January, with a bonus show held the day before that will be taped exclusively for the promotion’s Patreon.

Alpha-1’s biggest show of the year, “Final Act 12” was held on 2nd November in Hamilton, with all the titles up for grabs. WWE ID talent Sam Holloway captured the A1 Outer Limits Title in an eight-way elimination match, while WWE Evolve talent Swipe Right (Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes) managed to retain their A1 Tag Team Titles in their own four-way elimination match. Alec Price retained his A1 Zero Gravity Title by way of DQ against Channing Thomas, and finally, Kody Lane defeated Warhorse in a 30-minute Iron Man match with a score of four pins to three to capture the top title in the promotion, the A1 Alpha Male Title. The show is available on Highspots. A1’s next show is on 18th January 2026 which will feature the A1 debuts of Tyler Breeze and Isla Dawn.

Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling held “Reena Rumble” at the NewAge Experience Center in Toronto with the event benefiting the Reena Foundation. As well as the regular talent such as Gisele Shaw and Josh Alexander, Colt Cabana and Mike Santana made their MLP debuts.

SMASH held their 13th Anniversary show on 8th November, headlined by Sinner and Saint (Judas Icarus & Travis Williams) defending their Smash Tag Team Titles against Fresh Air (Junior Benito & Macrae Martin) in a rematch from 28th September. Tyler Breeze, evidently making the rounds in the top US and Canada independent promotions, made his debut challenging Psycho Mike for the Smash World Title.

Rest of the Americas

Brazilian Wrestling Federation (BWF) have launched a new talk show, “Ringuecast” aimed at providing fans with information about upcoming events and having the wrestlers on as guests. BWF, which has weekly shows named “Telewatch”, is not covered well on database websites such as Cagematch, so if you are interested in more information, they have an active Twitter account.

Xplosion’s next event is on 30th November where Castigador will defend his Sudamericano Title against Joel and Billy Rocka in a three-way, after winning it in a five-way on 12th October in San Miguel, Chile. Hellspawn (think Luchasaurus crossed with Mankind) will attempt to wrest the Undisputed World Title held by Victor Riquelme and Javistar (ranked 165 on PWI Women’s 250!) will defend her National Women’s Title against Gidget in a first-time singles match.

After taking a break for a couple of months, Legion Nueva Era returns with a new face on 6th December at La Sasera in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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