Weekend Wrap-Up: Destination Success

I wonder if A Double demanded So Cal Val as part of his terms before signing his contract
Photo Credit: ImpactWrestling.com

- For once, Impact Wrestling was the buzz of the grappling world for a GOOD reason. Destination X was a critical success, a harkening back to the days when TNA was fun and before it was ruined by Vince Russo's vision for what sports entertainment should be. For the first time, an Impact PPV was talked about for the action rather than how bad it was or how fucked up one of its main eventers was coming out for a match. Brian Kendrick ended our long national nightmare of Abyss as X-Division Champion by upending him last night. Austin Aries won the Impact contract, and hopefully, third time's the charm for A Double. He really deserves a chance to make serious coin and be a national star. Shark Boy appeared and apparently won a match, which is a cool throwback. Alex Shelley won the Ultimate X match. In the main event, AJ Styles defeated Christopher Daniels. Lots of positive feedback for this one. Here's hoping that everyone who watched bought it and that a lot of people bought so as to send a message to Dixie and her cronies.

- NWA Hollywood tapings were yesterday, and as with other tapings, well, it's hard to find results online. However, two notes. One, Tom Ford attended and will most likely have a recap later on today or tomorrow. Two, the Tribe upended Natural Selection for the NWA Heritage Tag Team Championships.

- ROH toured the Mid-Atlantic Friday and Saturday. The Richmond show had somewhat of a skeleton crew working for it, as several talents (the Bravados, Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly, Mike Bennett) working two matches. Apparently, Chris Hero got stranded via weather, but it still seems like a light show for the country's top indie. On the Richmond card, Cole and O'Reilly defeated the Bravados (who scored a surprise, TWGTT-assisted win over the Briscoes earlier in the night) for a shot at Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas at a later date. Speaking of the Champs, they retained their titles against El Generico and Colt Cabana. In the main event, the American Wolves defeated Michael Elgin and Roderick Strong. They're really pushing the House of Truth as a major faction. Saturday in Charlotte saw the weather cooperate with Hero enough for him to be able to make the trip. He took out Cabana in his match. There were two non-title matches to headline the card, as Haas and Benjamin defeated the Bravados, and in the main event, Generico bested Strong in a steel cage.

- Site announcement! This week will be Punk Week on the blog. Why? Because this might be the last week CM Punk is in professional wrestling for a good long time. We must celebrate him! Expect some blogs to be dropped with him as the subject and for Punk to be the subject of a few of the features this week. All will culminate in a review of Money in the Bank, the show which may very well be known mostly for the Straight Edge Savior. Enjoy!

The Wrestling Podcast, in Downloadable Links!

It has come to my attention that some amongst you, the loyal superfans of TWB, cannot download The Wrestling Podcast. This vexes me, as I want to make all the media that I produce accessible to everyone who wants to consume it. So, if you couldn't listen to it on the Gredunza Press site or get it via iTunes, here they are in direct links to where you can right click and download.

Sgt. Slaughter's Lonely Boot Camp Band - Bryce Remsburg
Chris Masters of Puppets - Jason Mann
Dark Side of the Max Moon - Eric Gargiulo
The Macho Man Who Sold the World - Seth Zillmann (Macho Man Tribute)
Paul London Calling - Tom Ford
Darkness on the Edge and Christian of Town - Mitch of PizzaBodySlam and K. Sawyer Paul
In the Aeroplane over the CIMA - Brandon Stroud
Yankem Hotel Foxtrot - Josh "PUNTE" Zerkle
Wrestle-phenia - Razor of Kick-Out!! Blog

If this doesn't work... then I have no idea what else to say except sorry. And make a sad face. Like this - :[

Weekend Wrap-Up: Enter the Dragon

Still the Champ

- Dragon Gate USA had a triple-shot of shows this weekend, culminating in an iPPV last night that had feed problems. Feed problems suck, but Gabe Sapolsky is making good on the customer dissatisfaction by throwing in a free viewing of their Open the Southern Gate show along with any purchase of last night's show on demand. This is how companies should operate. Anyway, the first night of action in Revere, MA, on Frriday was headlined by an Open the United Gate Championship defense by PAC and Masato Yoshino over YAMATO and Akira Tozawa. Saturday night's show on Long Island didn't have any title matches, but saw Ricochet defeating PAC and Rich Swann in what probably was a breathtaking spotfest of the main event. Last night's show looked pretty loaded. The Dirty Ugly Fucks of Sami Callihan and Arik Cannon took out Masaaki Mochizuki and Susumu Yokosuka, and the Ronin stable defeated the Blood Warriors group in an elimination match, with Johnny Gargano getting the final elimination on Austin Aries (giving him a receipt from Friday night's singles match where Aries was victorious). In the main event, PAC was unsuccessful in his attempt to corner the market in American DG gold, as YAMATO retained his Open the Freedom Gate Championship.

- Apparently, Mick Foley's exit from TNA on Thursday's show was more shoot than they let on at the time. According to several news outlets, and according to Foley's Twitter itself, he's out of TNA after "trying to change the creative process" and all that other jazz. While the fact that all the usual suspects are reporting this as news lends credence to it being real news, I am still suspect at the timing of it, ESPECIALLY given that Vince Russo has never met a worked shoot he didn't like. That being said, if Foley shows up on RAW in three months, then I'll readily admit that I was wrong, but I can't shake the nagging feeling that this is some elaborate work. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to your discretion, I suppose.

- Betty George, the first wife of wrestling icon and WWE Hall of Famer Gorgeous George, passed away Friday at the age of 98. Wow, 98, that's a hell of a run. Regardless though, I wish my sincerest condolences to her family and friends.

- Finally, this isn't so much wrestling news as it's site news, but I'm rebooting all the features on the blog. The Six Packs, the Best Move Ever, Know Your Indie Wrestlers... they're all going to start over again. What does that mean? Eh, just that I'll be repeating topics and such. But yeah, so if you see a repeat for any feature, you know now why, so at least I can point you to a warning rather than you going "BLOGGER Y U NO HAVE ORIGINAL TOPICS FOR FEATURES?"

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!