Right Hook Weekly Review (7/8/2024 to 7/12/2024)

Monday Night Raw (7/8/2024)

The CM Punk and Seth Rollins in-ring segment was excellent!  Punk says actions has consequences but wants GM Adam Pearce to lift Drew McIntyre’s suspension. When out Seth Rollins came out to confront Punk saying his actions on Saturday will have consequences too, Punk wants his pound of flesh with Drew, but Rollins promised Punk as long as he is around that will not happen. A lot of things could happen in this multi-feud which has been amazing all year.

Chad Gable and his interaction with the Wyatt sicks is setting up something where Gable has to find some help who hopefully are the Creeds and Ivy Nile finally. The Uncle Howdy/Bo Dallas interviews are fun and unique, but while I am being patient and optimistic about the Wyatt Sicks this has to pay off in the ring but finally showing the other members as themselves certainly is promising that this will not lean on the supernatural as much.

Bron Breakker and Sami Zayn segment was great, that spear mid-sentence and attacking Zayn was the thing this feud needed. Pearce fining Breakker make him more of a bad ass dare I say Lesnar like. But it was nice to finally see Adam Pearce with some backbone and authority on camera with all fines and suspensions he dished out. Pearce then called into his office to tell him he would talk to McIntyre next week, but Punk has to stay home if he wants that suspension lifted, so much can happen next week with these two and I cannot wait.

Finally, the Judgement Day and their drama was throughout the show that ended with Dom and Liv Morgan in a mixed tag against Rey Mysterio and Zelina Vega for the main event. Dom and Liv win where Dominik was about to finally cave when the music of Mami hit and out came Rhea Ripley who stormed to the ring where Liv Morgan escaped through the crowd leaving Dom alone with Mami. Ripley was not happy with him ending the show with Ripley walking back with disgusted and hurt while Dominik chased her, and certainly leaves a lot to wonder as far what will happened next week to Dom and the Judgement Day now that Mami is back.

NXT (7/9/2024)

New champion Ethan Page started the show where he announced that the “Whoop that” era was over and the “All Ego” era has begun. Which brings out former champion Trick Williams wanting a rematch that night that Page denied, Spears then Evans came out where a brawl happened setting up a tag match later on.

Tony D’Angelo holding the NXT heritage cup just baffles me, either Lexis King or Charlie Dempsey should be the options for that cup and the family needs something to freshen this up and make them interesting again.

The Wes Lee segment where he doubts himself lead to something I have wanted to years ago but happy were getting now with a Rascalz reunion! So happy to see Trey Miguel on big time tv and hopefully means he will wrestle some on NXT, but this was a nice and cool moment for them reuniting hopefully to revive the tag team division, the NXT/TNA collaboration strikes again.

Now for the main event where earlier in the night Je’Von Evans was attacked by Brooks Jensen who has been unhinged lately and they are trying something with him, but the attack left Trick Williams looking for a partner that crowd wanted and chanted for the recently popular Joe Hendry from TNA. Williams comes out with Page and Spears waiting in the ring and reveals that he said a certain name and that person appeared… Joe Hendry which set the crowd into a frenzy. The match was fine, actually was impressed with Hendry who may not just the flavor of the month favorite wrestler where Hendry and Williams got the victory ending the show.

AEW Dynamite (7/10/2024)

Unbelievably I have some good things to say about Dynamite for the first time in what feels like a while! The men’s and women’s Owen Hart cup final matches were good, and the right person won. Danielson winning over Page was the obvious choice to face Swerve Strickland at All-In over Page that we do not want to see especially this refurbished dark hangman, Danielson vs. Strickland will certainly be the main event or one of the main events in Wembley come August.

Mariah May winning over Willow Nightingale was done well, especially setting up things with not only Nightingale and Statlander but with the inevitable we have been waiting for with Mariah May and Toni Storm where May finally attacks Strom leaving her bloody to end the show making their match a bit interesting next month.

Will Ospreay starting the show upset over MJF attacking Daniel Garcia the previous week calls him out only for MJF to appear on the screen challenging him for the international championship next week which will be a solid match, but it is so damn nice to have heel MJF back and on tv.

Swerve Strickland’s segment where he congratulates Danielson on winning his match and cannot wait to face him, then he addresses the Elite trying to get him to join them for the blood and guts match coming up but declares he is the leader of team AEW followed by challenging Okada to match for next week. As much as I dislike Swerve being wrapped up in the Elite situation but hopefully this is short term where his title reign can be focused on better.

Again, I want to say nice things about Dynamite but the two things that were bad and cannot be ignored were the Jericho match with Samoa Joe and the Mercedes Mone second celebration party. Chris Jericho is plain awful! A much needed and long overdue vacation or break for him needs to happen quickly simply unwatchable, turn the tv off kind of stuff.

Then the Mercedes Mone stuff has not been good and exposed the flaws with her presentation where even the extreme AEW faithful are rejecting it as well as justifies the statements and feelings from people that Mone might be the most overrated of the four horsewomen (Her, Charlotte Flair, Bayley, and Becky Lynch). Hopefully, some things can be put in place to keep this from going further downhill because it would be nice to see her do well but maybe this is not the place for that to be possible, but time will tell.

Friday Night Smackdown (7/12/2024)

This week’s Smackdown was in Worchester, MA and the opening segment with Tiffany Stratton, Bayley, and Nia Jax was fine followed by the match between Jax and Mia Yim where Jax won but the post-match stuff left Bayley laying where Stratton thought about cashing in her briefcase but opted not to because of Jax. Hopefully, she does decide to cash in soon specifically at Summerslam after the Bayley/Nia Jax match.

The Andrade and Carmello Hayes interview in the empty arena with Byron Saxton was good. I cannot wait for this feud to get started; the matches are going to be exciting. The tag team of Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin is an interesting pairing as they are trying to spice up and make the tag division mean something again on Friday nights.

LA Knight comes out and has signed a contract for a shot at the US title at Summerslam against Logan Paul but all he has to do is get Paul to sign it and make it official which is a nice twist to building up to the potential match in Cleveland.

DIY vs. Theory & Waller in rematch was fine, hopefully with DIY being one of the tag team champions is a sign they are going to make better use of the tag teams they have. DIY won but after the match Theory and Waller are arguing when the enforcer Jacob Fatu steamrolls Theory as Waller ran away, Fatu then destroys DIY leading to the entrance of Solo Sikoa and his bloodline.

Solo and his bloodline tell the crowd to acknowledge him where the crowd chants “We Want Roman” Solo reminds us of what happens when you do not acknowledge him and says if Roman returns, he will acknowledge Solo as the tribal chief. Cody Rhodes comes out to say he knows the match for Summerslam which him vs. Solo for the championship since they cannot do it right there tonight when the bloodline surrounded Rhodes and a brawl starts.

Randy Orton hits the rings and takes out Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa but Fatu levels Orton then tie Rhodes in the ropes so he can watch Jacob Fatu and Tongans power bomb Orton through the announce table to end the show with Solo and his bloodline standing victorious again.