Raw Review, 8/13

IN-RING SEGMENT: RONDA ROUSEY, EMBER MOON, ALICIA FOX, & ALEXA BLISS

Nice surprise to start the show with Ronda Rousey. Kind words from her to her friend Natalya, and this will give Alexa a ton of nuclear heat when she inevitably interrupts this segment. I’m really surprised they didn’t have a ten-bell salute or at least an “in memory” screen.

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What is your most memorable live wrestling experience?

Next weekend, a good friend and I will be doing the longest weekend of wrestling I’ve ever and probably will ever experience. We’re going to NXT Takeover Brooklyn on Saturday, SummerSlam on Sunday, Raw on Monday, and SmackDown on Tuesday. If I counted right, this will be my 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th shows. I’ve been two three SmackDowns, three Raws, two NXT Takeovers, and one Extreme Rules. So I got to thinking about which is the most memorable.

It’s definitely the first show I ever attended, on July 18, 2002, a SmackDown taping in Wilkes Barre. I went by myself, and I had a blast. I got there 6-7 hours early to meet wrestlers as they drove in, and it paid off as I got an autograph my my idol and this site’s patron saint, Kurt Angle. Hulk Hogan wrestled in a tag match with Edge and Rikishi against the Un-Americans. John Cena, in only his second SmackDown match, wrestled Chris Jericho. The Rock vs. Kurt Angle was the main event. I made a sign that said Kurt Angle rules, everyone else sucks. I drew a gold medal on it. The other side of my sign said “Is that Molly Holly or Rikishi”. I was 18. Ok, an extremely immature 18.

The best part was after the show everyone found out the wrestlers were going to a TGI Friday’s. I feel like kind of a douche about it now, bothering the wrestlers while they were eating, but I got some awesome autographs and I still have the notepad full of them. Rey Mysterio, before he even made his debut with the company. Randy Orton, just a couple of months into his WWE career. Reverend D-Von and Deacon Bautista. Chuck Palumbo and Rico. Brian Hebner the referee. By far the coolest was John Cena. He was nobody yet and he treated the fans better than anybody. He was so glad to talk to us and really wanted to hear what we thought about the show.

So that’s my best live experience. I want to hear from my readers, what’s your most memorable WWE show? Or WCW, ECW, ROH, or indie show? Anything! Let’s hear it!

NXT Review, 8/8

AMBER NOVA VS. NIKKI CROSS

All I know about Amber Nova is that she’s a gearhead, and that’s only because the announce team just told us. Oh, I also know that she’s about to be torn apart by Nikki Cross. Mauro says, “I wonder what side of Nikki Cross we’re gonna see today.” My guess is the crazy side. Amber doesn’t seem intimidated by the insane Scot and uses her strength go keep Nikki grounded with a straight jacket submission.

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205 Live Review, 8/7

LINCE DORADO & KALISTO VS. TONY NESE & BUDDY MURPHY

Nese does a springboard moonsault, which was awesome, and I don’t ever remember seeing him do that before. It’s certainly not his normal style, he’s usually just speed and power, not high-risk. Kalisto is the one taking the punishment in the match, as he gets worked over for a good 5-10 minutes before finally making a hot tag to Dorado, who enters the ring with a double cross body from the top rope to take out Nese and Murphy.

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NXT Review, 7/25

ADAM COLE VS. SEAN MALUTA

As I’ve mentioned before I really don’t like all the cheers that Adam Cole gets. Mr. Cool Heel is bullshit. When he has to do real heel work it doesn’t work right because of how he plays his character. He’s not even on Miz’s level because Miz can get boos when he really wants them.

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