December is here, which means the chaos of November has come to an end. November brought new champions, the beginning of the second Continental Classic and of course the Thanksgiving tradition of Survivor Series. For myself and others, November rang in with nothing but disappointment and stress. At least we have professional Wrestling to ease the pain... right?
November 2nd was Crown Jewel where WWE put champion against champion to determine "The Crown Jewel of WWE". Both World Champions collided with the winners receiving a Hall of Fame adjacent Ring and get to pose with the ceremonial Crown Jewel Championship. The night kicked off with a six man tag team match between Roman Reigns, Jimmy and Jey Uso against Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga. Solo Sikoa pinned Roman in the center of the ring for the victory, basically confirming that Solo is the REAL Tribal Chief. After the bell the chaos continued, The New Bloodline attempted to finish the job and take out Roman for good. To my surprise, Sami Zayn appeared to make the save, however he ended up accidentally knocking out Roman himself thanks to some trickery on behalf of the heels. Leaving the foundation of the original Bloodline just as unsettled as they were before.
Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill retained their Tag Team Championships in a hectic fatal four way. Which featured Jakara Jackson and Lash Legend, who were competing on a WWE PLE for the first time. They will be a staple of the women's divisions in the coming years for certain. Over the past few months Bronson Reed has been on a war path that started with Seth Rollins. At Crown Jewel, Rollins was looking to get some vengeance on Reed. In a hard hitting back and forth Rollins was able to keep the beast down for a three count after a curb stomp on the steel steps. Seth may have won the match, but the moment Seth left the ring after the bell, Bronson stood back up.
Following the carnage was the first match for a Crown Jewel Championship, Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan faced off against WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax. Liv's victory here cemented her name in the history books, but it wasn't without the help of Dominick Mysterio, Raquel Rodriquez and Tiffany Stratton albeit accidentally. Nia Jax had the clear advantage coming into the contest, but never doubt the success rate of shenanigans in wrestling. When Ms. Money in the Bank got involved it caused a domino effect of chaos and distractions which led to Liv Morgan hitting her Oblivion finisher on Nia for the victory.
Randy Orton and Kevin Owens brawled all over the stadium before their match could even begin, which culminated in Kevin dropping a sky high elbow on Randy through some tables. Oh and LA Knight successfully defended his United States Championship against Carmelo Hayes and Andrade.
The main event was Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes against World Heavyweight Champion Gunther for the Men's Crown Jewel Championship. After 23 minutes of back and forth. This was Cody's night, after reversing a hold into a roll up pin. Cody became the first Crown Jewel Champion. I was fully expecting some interference in this bout and thankfully I was wrong! However I do wish Cody could've won more definitively, Cody was the one to vanquish Roman, He was not an underdog here. That being said Cody has a big shiny ring now, and I'm sure he'll earn another or two before he retires.
Dynamite on the 4th and on the 13th felt like they were just going through the motions. Adam Cole and Roderick Strong continued in their journeys to get to MJF. Roderick was able to squeeze out a victory against Lance Archer. Adam Cole was defeated by Konosuke Takeshita, which was somehow Takeshita's worst match I've seen on AEW. In my opinion two back to back very skippable weeks of Dynamite.
NXT suffered a devastating loss. Over the past few months NXT has been trying to build Ridge Holland as a monster heel to be feared. When he first arrived back in NXT he signed up for Chase University. Ridge was looking for the guidance of Andre Chase to make him a better man. Ultimately, Ridge turned his back on Chase U, and this lead to the eventual demise of it. Andre Chase and Ridge Holland battled it with the University on the line. Somehow Ridge won, one of the best through lines in NXT since the start of 2.0, all the way to this moment. Just to give heat to a guy no one is interested in. I can only hope this leads to some interesting stories for the now former Chase U members.
Dynamite strongly rebounded on November 20th as its go home show before AEW FULL GEAR. The show exploded open with an 8 man tag match. Will Ospreay, Mark Davis, Powerhouse Hobbs, and Ricochet all teaming up against The Don Callis Family. Which as expected was pure mayhem. It looked like the baby faces had the upper hand, until Ospreay accidentally hit Mark Davis with a hidden blade elbow. This allowed Takeshita to hit a power drive knee on Davis to finish the match.
Hikaru Shida and Kris Statlander faced off in a match that could've gone another 10 minutes and I wouldn't have complained. This was just set up to further Stat and Mercedes' match at Full Gear. Bobby Lashley had a 2 on 1 showcase match, with a Cheeseburger appearance! (the wrestler not a literal cheeseburger)
The main event of the go home Dynamite was Orange Cassidy against his former best friend Wheeler Yuta. Orange came out of the gate swinging. After ducking a steel chair shot, Orange rolled up Yuta for a 3 count. Once the bell rung, The Death Riders came and laid out Orange. No one came out to help him, just as he requested. After the Death Riders were satisfied with the carnage, they all left Orange in the dust.
Full Gear was... well full gear. Nonstop action that probably could've had a match or two cut from it. During the zero Hour show, Viral internet Celebrities The Costco Guys made their television wrestling Debuts. AEW finally breached it's niche containment, I personally had dozens of friends reach out to me to ask how to watch this momentous occasion. In hopes of drawing more eyes to the product AEW had 2 other matches on the preshow, Anna Jay and Deonna Purrazzo as well as an absolutely bonkers fatal 4 way between Dante Martin, Beast Mortos, Buddy Matthews, and Komander. Big Boom AJ definitely brought the boom to QT Marshall. Big Justice intervened and speared QT, and AJ was able to hit his Power Boom finisher for the victory. The bell was rung by none other than The Rizzler, who was the special guest timekeeper.
If reading that didn't give you a headache, you probably watched the rest of this show, which had 9 matches. The TBS title was on the line, Kris Statlander challenged Mercedes Moné. Mercedes spent the match targeting Statlander's knee. The match ended abruptly despite it's great momentum after Mercedes fought out of a Tombstone Piledriver and rolled up Kris for the victory. At 19 minutes and 23 seconds, this is now AEW's longest women's match in it's history. Mercedes is familiar with breaking records and I'm certain Statlander/Moné 2 will be longer and even more entertaining.
The best match on the card by far was the crowning of Kyle Fletcher defeating Will Ospreay. This 24 minute fire ball of a contest was a back and forth thrill ride. The story coming into this match was simple, Fletcher has outgrown the shadow of Will Ospreay. These two really felt like they were trying to kill each other at times. Especially after Fletcher planted Ospreay onto the steel steps with a piledriver. I believe ten years from now we will look back at this moment and say "This was what made Fletcher a star."
For some reason the AEW Women's Championship was not defended at Full Gear, instead a Champagne Celebration was in order! Mina Shirakawa arrived on the stage with champagne. Mina spoke about her love for Mariah. Mariah joined her on stage and spoke as well. The fun couldn't last forever, Mina wanted to dance with the Champion. May grabbed the champagne bottle and swung full force at Shirakawa, who ducked and KICKED it out of her hand. As if tensions couldn't get worse. Mariah may spat at Mina. Flung into a rage by the betrayal of the love of her life. Mina Charged at May, sending them both careening off the stage through tables below.
I can't have anything nice anymore
Daniel Garcia became the new TNT champion! Konosuke Takeshita retained the International Title over Ricochet, and Bobby Lashley quite literally crushed Swerve.
The Main event was Orange Cassidy challenging Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship. OC kicked off the match by hitting Mox with three Orange Punches. Very early on Orange dawned a crimson mask of blood. As expected there was a lot of interference from both The Death Riders and The Conglomeration. However Orange's former best friend Yuta waited for the perfect moment to strike and cost OC's chances of becoming Champion. Following the match, The Death Riders poured cleaning fluid on Cassidy's face. The show culminated in the Death Riders being chased out, by an assortment of babyfaces, one of which led to a car crash for some reason.
The final moments of November were the Thanksgiving weekend tradition of Survivor Series: War Games! The show began with MY main event, The women's War Games match. The match began with Bayley and Nia Jax in the ring. A good start as these two have a long history of being rivals. AS the match officially began, the heels held Rhea Ripley while Liv Morgan got a few hits in with her baseball bat. The highlight moment of the match was the double dive off the cage. Tiffany Stratton hit a picture perfect Swanton dive where as on the other side of the cage, Iyo Sky placed herself inside a trash can, and hit her moonsault off the top. This was a legendary spot from both, unfortunately for Tiffy, It seems like Iyo's dive was more sensational. Team Ripley was able to secure the victory after Ripley dropped Liv through a table with her Riptide finisher.
A new United States Champion was crowned! A new Shinsuke Nakamura returned recently looking like Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith. LA Knight has had a decent run as champion. Sadly this match immediately followed a War Games match, which means it was tough to get too excited for it. Bron Breakker retained the Intercontinental Title following a brutal triple threat against Sheamus and Ludwig Kaiser. The last few minutes of this fight were electric. Sheamus was so close to becoming champion, until Kaiser broke up the pin fall at what felt like the last millisecond. In typical Bron fashion, the match ended with a brutal looking spear. Gunther and Damian priest battled one on one for the third time. Once again Finn Balor got involved when he leapt over the barricade and dove off the steel steps hitting his Coup De Grace foot stomp onto a prone Damian on the floor. Gunther removed Balor from the equation and dragged Priest's body into the ring and planted him with a power bomb and sleeper hold for the finish.
The main event was the New Bloodline against the OG Bloodline (and CM Punk). Tama Tonga and Jey Uso began the match for each team. Through out the match as members entered, Reigns would build tension between himself and Punk, refusing to let him enter at one point. However when it appeared to be Reigns turn to enter, Punk pushed him aside and entered himself. The tribal Chiefs were the last members of each team to enter. It looked like the egos of Punk and Reigns would cause this match to crash out. However Punk actually saved Roman from a devastating body splash from Bronson Reed, who dove from the top of the cage. Bronson ended up suffering a broken right ankle from the dive. The baby faces won the match after each of them hitting a signature move of theirs on the False Tribal Chief Solo Sikoa. Punk warmly embraced each member of his team, except for Roman who gave a cool handshake.
November began quite slow in my opinion, The back end of the month was much heavier with a special show from both AEW and WWE. Both of which definitely brought the BOOM. The Continental Classic is in progress which does not feel as special as last years, mostly because they didn't announce it's competitors until days before it began. The future of wrestling always looks bright lately. Who knows what's next?
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