AEW made the right BIG move?

Hey everyone. welcome back to another edition of “Blogs Count Anywhere”, the complementary blog to #607TWS & the ODPH podcast. Last week’s blog had issues loading so hopefully this one goes a bit smoother. Enough about that, lets talk some wrestling!

WWE opened up the week on the reactions to the Elimination Chamber PPV. We now have a new champion. We have now entered the Miz era on Raw & I’m super excited to see it. Miz has proven he can handle being champ. His last title reign (10 years ago?!) was very underrated imo, so well see how long this one lasts. One wrestler making the most of the changing of the guard on Raw is Bobby Lashley.

Lashley dropped the US Title on Sunday but made a huge impact during Drew McIntyre’s celebration of winning the Chamber match. Lashley took Mcntyre out so Miz could cash in Money In the Bank. On Monday, Lashley made his intentions known: he wants the championship. The Hurt Business has done a world of good for Lashley & this move makes all the sense in the world. Super excited to see how he arrives at wrestlemania: champion or in a title match. Either way, it’s a win.

Smackdown led off with an odd-paced promo by Roman Reigns. A rare mis-step from him these days. Rest of the show had solid matches plus the official announcement: Sasha banks vs. Bianca Belair at Wrestlemania. CAN. NOT. WAIT. for that one!

In NJPW news, Jon Moxley retained verses KENTA. Definitely didn’t see this ending coming on NJPW Strong & that raises more questions. Where do we go from here with both guys? Mox is in the AEW title match for AEW revolution. Does Kenta now appear during this? Is this tied to the “Forbidden Door” talk? only time will tell, but this has to be the upset of the week.

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Switching gears to AEW…..It’s a week later, but THAT still happened. I’m not super excited to see this match but Sting took a Brian Cage powerbomb at age 61. Granted, a lot of “wrestling logic” can happen during a street fight match, but not sure where this is all heading. We went into pretty big length on 607TWS about AEW signing older wrestlers instead of pushing new stars. The logic here is a bit puzzling, but if Sting wins, where does he go from here? TNT championship picture? World Championship?

The bigger question I have is: What does this mean for Starks & Cage? Both has been under-used imo thus far & losing to Sting & Darby at this stage isn’t helping matters. Cage, a former Impact world champion made a big splash when he debuted …. and then fell off the main show. Team Taz deserves a lot better showing on the weekly show.

Photo Credit: All Elite Wrestling

Another star who’s been lost a bit in the shuffle is Adam Page. His “money match” with Matt Hardy has been picking up steam but when is AEW gonna push this guy back in the world title picture like he was when the company started 2 years ago. Page & MJF are their 2 young cornerstones to build off of for the future, yet they are nowhere near the title or mid-card title.

Instead the BIG news (pun intended) was their signing of Paul Wight fka The Big Show. After being with WWE for 20+ years, he’s left & is scheduled for commentary on a new YOU-Tube show, “AEW Dark: Elevation” along with returning to the ring.

Pro: Wight can definitely help with the younger talent on the roster (One name that immediately comes to mind is Wardlow) with his knowledge. He’s an established name.

Con: Perception is reality & this announcement was perceived to be a “game changer” for AEW. Wight, who’s been on spot part-time wrestling duties while exploring other avenues, was crowned by some as the missing piece for them to overcome WWE. At this stage of the game, he’s not.

I have no doubt he will do well on commentary but as for moving the needle to get AEW over 1 million views per episode of “Dynamite”, I don’t see it. Sting couldn’t. Shaq couldn’t (thus far) & Snoop didn’t, even with how viral his “frog splash” went. Any expectations of this being the “missing piece” are misleading imo. They have a very talented roster but how many times are the new stars featured on Dynamite? Why is it that the big marquee signings are not talent to build on like Page & MJF, but rather former stars from WWE & WCW that the newer audiance isn’t tuning in to see en mass? Ratings don’t lie.

Until there’s a solid direction from the powers that be over there to be “the new alternative” to WWE, AEW isn’t moving forward. It’s staying in neutral.

On their AEW Unrestricted podcast this week, Red Velvet was the featured guest. Check it out here.

That’s all I got for this week so makre sure you’re following 607TWS on Twitch & the ODPH podcast for more pro-wrestling talk! Till next time…..Thanks for reading

Who's ready to Royal Rumble!

Welcome back for another edition of Blogs Count Anywhere, the complementary Blog for the ODPH podcast & 607TWS talking pro wrestling. Last week was a very quiet week, but heading into Sunday, there’s a lot to talk about. In case you didn’t realize, it’s Royal Rumble Weekend for the WWE. There’s a lot of storylines to look at heading into the WWE’s 2nd biggest PPV of the year.

One of the best right now is Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens. Since his return with Paul Heyman, the “Head of The Table” has been putting out the best mic work of his career while giving us great matches. Owens is always solid & has ran with the underdog role in this one. They’ve battled over the past few months & this one feels like it will be the end match between them. Their last promo together on Smackdown was absolutely brilliant. Expecting a show stealer with their last man standing match

(prediction #andStill champ Roman Reigns).

Another one is Drew McIntyre Vs. Goldberg. McIntyre has been running things on RAW for months now & pending on who you ask, it’s been hit or miss. Ratings say one thing but the time we are in with no crowds says another. Either way, he was a puzzling challenger for Sunday. Whenever Goldberg appears, it feels (imo) that Vince is hitting an emergency alarm button. Grabbing a star from the past that generates a unique buzz but hasn’t put on great matches lately is a bit of a scare. Last few times, Goldberg has gotten the belt off of a new star. I fear we’re getting that here in a move to boost ratings.

(prediction: #andNEW on Sunday for the ‘chip).

The last one I’ll cover here is the Royal Rumble itself. 30 Superstars from Raw, Smackdown & NXT involved - 2 start, another entrant every 90 secs* until everyone’s in. expect surprise entrants thorughout. Only way eliminated is both feet touch the floor when they go over the top rope. This card is always the pace car for Wrestlemania season. The winner punches a ticket to Wrestlemania for a chance to face a champion for their belt. With WM being on 2 nights again ( THANK GOD), the winner here is gonna have some additional pressure on them to deliver a classic at the “Granddaddy of them all”. Let’s break down the field:

Women’s Royal Rumble (Current Champions: Asuka - Raw, Sasha Banks - Smackdown)

The field: WWE is tipping their hand a bit with entrants because WWE Backstage has a match with Tamina vs. Natalya for #30 entry. This match won’t factor too much. All signs point to Bianca Belair (SD) winning this year. She’s been on a roll since coming to the main roster & just defeated Bayley this past Friday. Plus she deadlifted Otis & ran with him with ease. She’s fantastic & deserves the win.

Other possible winners: Alexa Bliss (RAW), Rhea Ripley (NXT), Becky Lynch (RAW)*, Rhonda Rousey (RAW)* * = Surprise Entrant

Men’s Royal Rumble (Current Champions: Drew McIntyre - RAW, Roman Reigns - Smackdown)

The Field: This one is a little harder to predict. If Drew loses to Goldberg, then bank on Brock Lesnar to return & win. If Drew retains, expect the winner to come from Smackdown’s roster. WWE has done an incredible job of building up some contenders to seriously consider winning the match: Shinske Nakamura, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, Big E & Daniel Bryan. Bryan has been hinting that this is his last run in the rumble & what better storybook moment would that be to win it? If Big E still has the IC title by match time, I rule him out. We know Edge is back & that would be a hell of a story too, but I feel he’s only back to finish things with Randy Orton. That being all said, I’m picking the Beast to win: Brock Lesnar.

Other possible winners: Edge (RAW), CM Punk (SD)*, Big E (SD), Keith Lee (RAW), Adam Cole (NXT)

* = Surprise Entrant

The Royal Rumble takes place 7pm EST on the WWE Network

Switching gears to AEW, They had 2 events you definitely should check out: their AEW Awards show on Bleacher Report before Dynamite & Amanda Huber, the wife of the late Brodie Lee was on the latest AEW Unrestricted podcast. As for AEW Dynamite, it was much better show than last week, but I want to talk about this match for a quick second:

Photo Credit to All Elite Wrestling

The best match (& imo feud on AEW right now) of this past week was Jungle Boy from Jurassic Express vs Dax from FTR. They stole the show with this match. Their story has been getting buried on the show for more Cody vs. Shaq time (yawn) & whatever the deal is with Young Bucks/ Kenny Omega/ Good Brothers/ Can you really call it the B****t C**b? saga. These two put on a epic match & I can’t wait to see the big payoff match between both teams.

In some NJPW news, we finally had KENTA meet up with Jon Moxley on NJPW Strong. No timetable about when we’re getting this match but sooner the better! PS: If you haven’t been following Tama Tonga on Twitter & Twitch, start. He’s always dropping epic content.

That being said, for more wrestling discussion, hit me up on Twitter & join in the chat (& follow) on Twitch this Sunday as we live react to the Royal Rumble card. See ya next time.

Is AEW making a Big Impact on Impact?

Welcome Back for another edition of the ODPH’s pro-wrestling blog: Blogs Count Anywhere. This is gonna be a follow-up to discussions had on #607TWS this week. It’s a busy week with Impact Wrestling leading the charge this weekend with a big show: “Hard To Kill (Saturday, Jan. 16th -8PM EST -PPV /Fite TV). In case you’re not familiar on why this is a BIG deal, here’s a quick reminder:

Photo Credit to All Elite Wrestling

A few weeks back, Don Callis (Impact VP) came to AEW Dynamite as a guest of Kenny Omega for his match vs. Jon Moxley. After the match where Omega captured the title, Callis & Omega escaped with fans watching the next phase in this story moved to Impact.

An actual cross-over with promotions? And how has this worked.? For AEW, it’s been a smash. Omega & AEW have been given the spotlight each time they appear on Impact. Tony Khan is doing his best mic work via info-mercials. They also have had Impact tag champs Gallows and Anderson appear on AEW Dynamite to reunite a certain club?

On the other hand, Impact hasn’t benefited (imo) from this. There has been very little to no mention of what’s going on with Impact on AEW TV. In fact, this past week’s Dynamite had a guest appearance from Gallows & Anderson but only to push an AEW angle with the Young Bucks. No Impact mention, just a eird ending with AEW talent becoming involved. So where are we at with Hard To Kill?

The PPV card is actually good…..very good (on Paper). The main event: Omega/Gallows/Anderson vs. Impact Champ Rich Swann, Chris Sabin & Moose (replacing Alex Shelley). The AEW champ appearing & main eventing has fallen on deaf ears outside of the Impact faithful. It’s a shame too.

The rest of the card shapes up with some notable bouts: Sami Callihan vs. Eddie Edwards in a Barbed Wire match, Taya Valkyrie vs. Deonna Purrazzo for the Knockouts Title, the Knockout’s Tag Team champions get crowned & “KARATE MAN” vs. Ethan Page (in his last Impact Match). This should be a huge win for Impact, but, imo, lack of AEW promotion seriously hurt this card from growing a bigger audience.

Guess we’ll have to see what happens on Saturday….

In other AEW news, it has been announced the AEW Dynamite Awards will be handed out on Wednesday, January 27th 7pm EST on Bleacher Report live app Catergories can be found on www.aewawards.com

Photo Credit to All Elite Wrestling

As far as WWE went this week, it was…..something. Raw had to switch things up with Drew McIntyre announcing he has COVID symptoms & could not appear on the show. Triple H stepped in vs. Randy Orton but that wasn’t anything earth-shattering. Alexa Bliss throwing a HADOUKEN fireball at Orton was though…

But WWE’s saving grace was: Smackdown! When you have a show open with Nakamura vs. Jey Uso, give Cesaro a win after 20 mins with Daniel Bryan, Apollo Crews working with Paul Heyman? & Kevin Owens & Adam Pierce swerving Roman Reigns for the main event of the Royal Rumble card….you win!

That’s all for this week so hit me up on Twitter & check out the latest 607TWS to further the wrestling talk.

See ya next time

New Year, New Blog

Welcome back to a brand new Blogs Count Anywhere! First and foremost, hope everyone had a safe & healthy start to 2021! There was SO much wrestling this week that let’s waste no more time & start the blog!

New Japan Pro Wrestling put on an EPIC card to start the year: Wrestle Kingdom 15! There is a brand new champion after the smoke cleared as Kota Ibushi took home all the gold! It was such an incredible event that you need to watch #607TWS for a more in-depth breakdown of the card (Drop a follow while you’re there too)!

WWE started off with Monday Night Raw (Mondays 8pm EST on USA Network) & I have to be honest: Nothing great to write home about. Legends Night was pretty stat quo & the ending with the return (ugh) of Goldberg to challenge Drew McIntyre created some negative buzz (imo). Fearing that we’re now on the road to Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania, which isn’t making me want to watch.

Before we go into this past #WrestlingWednesday, I want to fully applaud the job AEW did for the Brodie Lee tribute show. This was one of the most amazing tributes shows I have ever seen. From start to finish, they did an incredible job honoring Brodie Lee. You need to watch it if you haven’t seen it yet.

Photo credit to All Elite Wrestling

Also, 2CW, where Brodie wrestled for many years before going to WWE are also honoring his memory. Check out http://www.prowrestlingtees.com/2cw where all 2CW shirts proceeds (until January 31st) will go directly to Brodie Lee’s family. There is a brand new “All day” shirt that is only available for a limited run. Support if you can!

This past week’s AEW Dynamite (Wednesdays 8pm EST on TNT Network). started off the 2 night card “New Year’s Smash. Night 1 delivered Snoop Dogg jumping off the top rope, Wardlow beating Jake Hager, and a wild ending to Fenix vs. Kenny Omega:

Photo Credit to All Elite Wrestling

The band got back…..together? After the match ends, Omega tried to take out Fenix. Jon Moxley runs in for the save. He doesn’t get far as Impact Wrestling Tag team Champs Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson rush the ring & drop him. This is continuing the invasion angle going on with AEW & Impact. It’s been fun but Impact looks VERY bad in this thus far. As “the locker room” try helping, The Young Bucks come out and…..turn on AEW? The final image is the Elite are back together with the Good Brothers.

Where do we go from here now? Is that certain faction from NJPW coming to AEW? How does this all shake out? Omega & the Good Brothers are scheduled for Impact on 1/16 for Hard to Kill. Next week, we should get some more answers BUT Impact stars needs to appear on Dynamite soon for this angle to feel not so lop-sided.

Kenny Omega also unveiled a new YouTube show: “2.Show”. It’s a must watch for anyone into Video games. The first episode is up now so check it out!

NXT (Wednesdays 8pm EST on USA Network) had their “New Year’s Evil” card. Highlights include: Karrion Kross defeated Damian Priest, Xia Li re-intro & Raquel Gonzalez defeated Rhea ripley in a brutal Last Woman Standing match. All had moments but none compared to the rematch with Finn Balor (c) & Kyle O’Reilly.

No commercials, No letdown. As brutal and bad-ass as their epic 1st go-around, Balor defeated O’Reilly in an instant classic. Now, it appears we won’t see a 3rd soon, but we’re looking at possible Pete Dunne or Karrion Kross as the next opponent for the Prince.

Friday Night Smackdown (Fridays 8pm on Fox) made a few eyebrows raise. New tag team champs as “the Dirty Dawgs” Dolph Zoggler & Bobby Roode defeated the Street Profits for the belts. Not gonna lie….didn’t see this coming. However, the biggest surprise was the apparent face turn of one Shinsuke Nakamura.

Nakamura was almost the last one standing after nearly 30 mins of a gauntlet match to decide who was going to face Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble. After defeating Daniel Bryan, there was a show of a respect that was ended by Roman & Jey Uso. This allowed Adam Pierce, who was forced into the mix as punishment by Roman, to win the match…..wrestling.

That’s a lot to digest so expect #607podcats to break it down further over the week. Join in the conversation on socials & let us know what you thought of this week’s wrestling action!

See you next time!

Happy Holidays Wrestling Fans!

Hey everyone! Welcome back to another installment of Blogs Count Anywhere! Guessing the technical difficulties have been fixed so lets catch up on the latest in the land of professional wrestling shall we?

WWE TLC results were broke down on the latest ODPH podcast & #607TWS. Overall, it was an average card. Good matches but only a few “WOW!” moments: Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens & Randy Orton “Killing” The Fiend. The rest of the card was enjoyable and grading it a C+.

Nothing to write home about with Monday Night Raw. The Hurt Business carried the show again. Love the fact they have 3/4’s all the gold. The build for Drew McIntyre Vs. Shameus continues while Alexa Bliss confronted Randy Orton & teased that the Fiend will be back with a new look. Everything else was just going thru motions.

Smackdown however…..looks very, VERY good. Spoilers are out so be careful if avoiding them. It should be a fun watch on Friday Night.

NXT looks to have New Years Evil kicking into high gear: Thatcher vs. Ciampa in a FIGHT PIT! Mercedes Martinez returns! Ripley/Gonzales in “Last Woman Standing”?! LET’S GO!!!!! Solid show overall.

Switching gears to AEW now. AEW Dynamite was delayed this week for the kickoff of the NBA. Chris Jericho has heard enough comments so I’m not gonna add on. We did get more build up for this however:

Photo credit to All Elite Wrestling

I honestly don’t have any idea how Darby Allin/Sting is gonna play out. If I have to guess, there could be a tag match coming vs. Team Taz, but as previously stated: Love seeing Sting back, Not in love with seeing him wrestle at this stage. His promos in AEW have been excellent & he sounds extremely happy to be All Elite.

Speaking of Sting, he was on the AEW Unrestricted podcast this week & talking about the talent of AEW:

“When I first started, I didn’t want to do and be like the generation before me. I wanted to be different, and I was, and these guys I’m watching do the same thing. They’re different. They’ve changed the psychology, you know, how they tell a story, and they’re good. Very innovative.”

It’s a great interview & a must-listen for any fan of the Man Called Sting!

Back to Dynamite, Jurassic Express is locked and loaded for a date with FTR. Solid build-up for that match with a win over the faltering Dark Order. Brodie Lee not on the show hurts this group HUGE. Not even the Dustin Rhodes recruitment story is gonna help at this stage. Great win (& finisher) for the Express, who should have a show-stealer on January 6th!

The rest of the card did good work for building hype for New Year’s Smash on 12/30/20 & 1/6/21. Shida & Abadon had some time to build their match up. Hager vs WARDLOW is (finally) set. The Young Bucks continue to work with new talent in closing the show with The Acclaimed.

Photo credit to All Elite Wrestling

The Impact/AEW team-up didn’t get a ton of attention this week. Omega is still locked in for Impact “Hard To Kill” & has a HUGE match next week vs Rey Fenix. Impact did get the open invite to have some talent appear on Dynamite with Sami Callihan generating some interest about it. Book “The Draw” vs. MOX & let them go! Expect some progression after the holidays for this storyline. Impact needs to make an impact on AEW cause they’re not doing anything to elevate their status in this partnership.

That’s all for this week. For deeper dives on the discussions, check out #607TWS podcast for the latest with NJPW, and more pro-wrestling topics!

Any feedback, hit me up on Twitter. Thanks for reading. See you next time! Happy Holidays!

WWE TLC 2020 Predictions

Welcome to the 1st edition of The ODPH podcast’s newest Blog: Blogs Count Anywhere. This was originally supposed to launch in 2021 but with a 45 inch snowstorm hitting the 607, there was some time to write. I’ll be doing this blog weekly along with the pro-wrestling coverage you hear each week on the ODPH Podcast as well as #607TWS on Twitch,Tv/607podcasts . Let’s waste no more time & talk some wrestling, shall we?

WWE TLC kicks off in a few hours so lets take a look at the matches & give some last-minute predictictions:

Pre-Show: Daniel Bryan, Big E. & Alpha Academy (Otis & Chad Gable) vs. Sami Zayn, NAKAMURA, King Corbin & Cesaro

Parlay Point: This should be a fun match. Storyline wise, there’s nothing really standing out other than Big E & Sami Zayn so I think this will be where the match focuses on. D-Bry is waiting for Roman Reigns, Alpha Academy just started & is hitting the ground running with Cesaro & Nakamura. Corbin has knights…..yeah.

Prediction: Team Sami wins via Shenanigans over Big E, extending their feud to the Royal Rumble

WWE Women’s tag team Titles: Baszler & Jax (C) vs. Asuka & “Mystery partner”

Parlay Point: This whole storyline has been centered around Lana being bullied weekly by “Team hell No 2.0”. Asuka making the save has made for a unique pair but with Lana (allegedly) hurt and out for a while, the focus now shifts to a partner. Let me guess who via ODPH Locks and Leaps

Lock: Charlotte (returning from time off and builds on a possible feud don the Wrestlemania Road)

Leap: Lana, gutting it thru the match to further the babyface angle or Kairi Sane, who made an odd tweet a few days ago. Seriously doubting it’s her BUT never say never

Predictions:: Auska & Mystery partner (#ANDNEW either way)

WWE Raw Men’s Tag Team Titles: New Day (C) vs, Hurt Business

Parlay Point: The Hurt Business has been the breakout group of 2020. Every great faction has all the gold at one point. Lashley has the US title, so why not have Cedric & Sheldon join in? Great match a few weeks back on RAW so let’s run it back with a #ANDNEW tonight. Pick for Match of the Night

Prediction: #ANDNEW Hurt Business wins clean

Firefly Inferno Match: Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton

Parlay Point: Fiend as a face doesn’t work. Weird inferno matches don’t work. Orton without dge isn’t working right now either. No idea how to call this one but….

Prediction: Bray Wyatt w/ an assist from Edge

Smackdown Women’s Championship: Sasha Banks (C) vs. Carmella

Parlay Point: Carmella repackaged as Emmalina 2.0 wasn’t needed and isn’t over enough (imo) to warrant a title change from one of your wrestlers of the year. It will be a good match, but….

Prediction: #ANDSTILL Sasha banks wins clean

Raw Men’s World Championship: Drew McIntyre vs AJ Styles

Parlay Point: Drew’s 2nd run has a solid start with AJ & the whole bodyguard angle. However, as great as this match should be, we know Shameus will be involved & most likely…

Prediction: AJ Styles via disqualification when Shameus costs Drew the match

Smackdown Men’s World Championship: Roman Reigns (C) vs. Kevin Owens

Parlay Point: no better storyline in WWE than Roman Reigns right now. No way he loses the belt tonight. Very, very happy to see Owens in te main event, but fear he’s holdin the spot for D-Bry at Rumble.

Prediction: #ANDSTILL Roman Reigns

WWE TLC starts 7PM EST on Sunday, December 20th on the WWE Network

That’s all for this first blog but let m know what you think on Twitter : @ODParlayHour

Thanks for reading. See You next time!