A Right Hook Catch Up

November 26, 2024 0 By Right Hook Ray

It has been a few weeks since I did an RHR weekly review because of some planned trips, and to be honest, it just wasn’t a lot to do weekly reviews for (laughs). So here is a quick review of what has been going on recently and what has caught my eye going into Survivor Series this weekend.

The Bloodline keeps getting more Interesting.

With Survivor Series this weekend, the Bloodline saga continues to be the best long-term story in wrestling while keeping us intrigued. From Jey Uso reuniting with Roman and Jimmy, Sami Zayn follows, reuniting the OG Bloodline, to last week, the Wise man Paul Heyman returns with a fifth member to join the OG Bloodline in CM Punk to challenge Solo’s Bloodline with Bronson Reed, making this war games match exciting this weekend, especially with what Seth Rollins will or will not do on Saturday.

Cody & KO
The feud between Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens continues, with Owens taking Orton out a few weeks ago. Of course, the IWC/Cody critics still yell about this title reign being mediocre, which is not entirely accurate, but recently, it has hit a dry spot that I don’t see being the case.

Damian Priest gets another shot
Gunther and Damian Priest’s fight for the world heavyweight championship has been good. Priest on the mic has found his stride, which is what many of us have been waiting for. Their match at Survivor Series should be a good match.

Something for the Ladies!
The women’s war games should be okay. The Bianca & Jade situation may come to a head this weekend, especially after her attack last Friday. Also, the announcement of a women’s US championship a few weeks ago should finally please the section of fans who have wanted a women’s mid-card title. Hopefully, it elevates some of the women who can’t crack the main event scenes yet.

Is there a Tag Team Revival?
There is an honest attempt to revamp and make the tag team divisions meaningful, which is nice. The Motor City Machine Guns on Smackdown, the long overdue repacking of the War Raiders on Raw, and what is next with DIY or the Street Profits should lend us some real hope about tag team wrestling in WWE.

Is the Final Testament finally getting interesting?
The Final Testament and Wyatt Sicks feud has been a little blah, but the Miz joining the Final Testament may be a great move. Miz and Karrion Kross leading the group makes the Final Testament a bit interesting when they have yet to be from the start.

NXT: Home of the Best Women’s Division in Wrestling
NXT has been underwhelming. While it is doing fine on the CW, thanks to the up-and-coming women’s division (minus Wendy Choo), it is the show’s driving force. While the men’s division feels a bit rudderless across the board, that needs to improve in 2025, especially with some talent that is not featured or champions currently; no offense to Tony D’Angelo or Nathan Frazer and Axiom, but there are better options to hold the NXT North American and NXT tag team championships.

AEW continues to be… AEW

Last but certainly not least is AEW, where their delusional journey continues. Except for what Bobby Lashley and the Hurt Syndicate have been doing with their beef with Swerve Strickland, everything else has been flat or just outright horrible parts of their shows.

The situation with Jon Moxley and his Death Riders is not good, and the relentless attempt to force Orange Cassidy to the top makes it worse. Hopefully, we can get to Darby Allin challenging Moxley for the world championship or the Shane McMahon rumors come true, and we can see how that unfolds at this point, which I can guarantee will occur at the World’s End PPV at the end of the year.

The Women’s division remains confusing or annoying with the whole Mariah May & Mina Shirakawa situation running its course even with Anna Jay finally getting an opportunity. Then there is the TBS championship situation where Mercedes Mone’s run continues to invoke the wrong type of hatred that now has spilled onto Kamille, who could be one of the bright spots to turn things around, but when it comes to Mone, it starting to become a bit ridiculous. Still, as usual, for whatever reason, I will hold out hope that this division turns it around.

Will Ospreay and Kyle Fltecher’s feud should be entertaining in the ring regardless of whether you like their style, but this may be one of AEW’s limited positives to present on TV if they don’t get too crazy.

While the men’s mid-card scene seems to be getting sorted out with Takeshita as the International champion, Daniel Garcia winning the TNT title this weekend is hopefully a good sign and should be a prime situation for Ricochet to shine and show us what we never saw in WWE.

AEW Full Gear Review

So, I decided to call an audible here. Instead of doing a separate review for this past weekend’s Full Gear show, I figured I’d add it here. As always, with an AEW PPV there were mixed reviews, but here are some quick takes and my RHR rating for the show overall.

Lashley & Swerve’s match was probably the match of the night on Saturday, a pleasant reminder that AEW can have suitable matches when they want to.

Ospreay & Fletcher certainly was the “Greatest match ever” on wrestling Twitter and sheets, but the match was all right. Ospreay may know some psychology after all, but Fletcher winning was exactly what needed to happen that night.

Daniel Garcia winning the TNT title gave me some hope that this title will be something meaningful like it was at first, with so many strong challengers to take the belt away from Garcia. I’m just happy it is not on Perry anymore.

Kris Statlander’s failure to win the TBS title was a misfire because Mercedes Mone, as champion, is just not well received. Sometimes, you have to read the room and listen to your audience.

The ending of Jay White vs. Adam Page was good. Of course, these two can have decent matches, but their presentations have to change to make them feel like main event players in the future.

Finally, the main event was exactly what I thought, which was an underwhelming mess. Moxley and Cassidy do not have good matches for obvious reasons, which enhances the feeling that the longer the show went on, the worse it got.

The match wasn’t the best, and the show’s ending did no favors with all the post-match chaos. It probably felt more like an ending of Dynamite than a PPV. The reason for that observation was that Moxley and the Death Riders were fleeing the arena, avoiding a car wreck from Darby Allin, as the last thing on the show left something to be desired for some fans.