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RIP Scott Hall

As I mentioned in the first newsletter, I started watching WWE in the late 1990s; at that time, WWE was still a “Federation” before replacing “Federation” with “Entertainment” (and also “F” with “E”), the Attitude Era was still going on, we had the “Corporation Ministry” running amok a couple months before WWE SmackDown was born…just to name a few. Plus, at that time, the Monday Night Wars was occurring between WWE and WCW…WWE with Raw Is War (now known simply as “Raw” of course), and WCW with Monday Nitro.

Almost a full year after WCW was defunct, Vince McMahon—on an episode of SmackDown—wanted to kill his own creation by bringing in the New World Order; days later at No Way Out, the New World Order—in the form of Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan—appeared.

That’s how I first remember seeing Scott Hall, and I was 16 at that time.

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Years later, I would later learn about his career in both the WWE and WCW as well as TNA (or what’s nowadays known as Impact Wrestling), from his time as “Razor Ramon” to his time in the Kliq—with Nash (as “Diesel”), Shawn Michaels, Triple H (as “Hunter Hearst Helmsley”) and Sean Waltman (as the “1-2-3 Kid”)—to his time in WCW where he became a member of the nWo prior to returning to the WWE and his time in the Band (with Nash and Waltman who was “Syxx-Pac” in Impact Wrestling); I even checked out his accomplishments in those companies prior to Impact, including the inaugural ladder match at WrestleMania X where he fought Shawn Michaels for the WWE Intercontinental Championship (a match that was declared the best by many fans and companies including Pro Wrestling Illustrated).

Not only did he win championships in those companies (as well as hearts of the fans), but also was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame twice, first time as Razor Ramon and the second time as a member of the New World Order.

On Monday, March 14, 2022, minutes before an episode of Monday Night Raw was aired on USA Network, we were saddened to learn that Scott Hall passed away at the age of 63.

Rest in peace Scott Hall…thank you for the matches and memories.

ICW Fight Club

We start off with a post-Square Go! episode of ICW Fight Club, back at the GPWA in Glasgow, Scotland.

This week’s episode looked like a slow start on having Fight Club back in action after Square Go! came and went at a different venue—SWG3—in Glasgow. The dead giveaway were the matches that occurred both after a pretty good opener and before a pretty good closer. There were no new storylines coming up yet with the exception of the Manifesto wreaking havoc, some competitors that weren’t thrilled after how they were eliminated in the Square Go! battle royal, and Kez Evans attempting to avoid BT Gunn who was promised to be the next challenger for the ICW World Heavyweight Championship after Evans defeated Mark Haskins to retain the title at Square Go!

On the other hand, we were treated to seeing a new addition to ICW as well as a competitor returning to the company; even though this post-Square Go! episode of Fight Club was nothing like episodes of Raw and SmackDown after WrestleMania when it comes to surprise additions and returns, it was still good to see the two names that I will mention right now.

The new addition to ICW, hailing from Uganda, is Nsereko. He had a fair matchup with the self-proclaimed “wrestling god” Theo Doros who ended up winning; the newcomer kind of reminds me of a cross between Dean Allmark and (from back when WWE had their own relaunch/rendition of ECW) Kofi Kingston. I look forward to seeing more matches, promos, and other things from the Ugandan up-and-comer on ICW.

The returning name, whom we have seen competing on Progress lately, is Rhio; she appears to be overshadowing her loss to Gisele Shaw from Progress Chapter 128 (where Gisele retained the Progress Women’s Championship the hard way), and is now eyeing on Angel Hayze and the ICW Women’s Championship. I would still love to see Rhio capture gold in the two promotions that I just mentioned, even after seeing her returning to ICW.

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As I noted, both the opening and closing matches were good; the best of the two was the closer, which was a Scheme Rules match between Ravie Davie and Charles Vyce. I was pretty sure that Davie’s “Scheme Rules” streak would continue as soon as he went toe-to-toe with a member of Thatcher’s Cabinet. In the end, the Cabinet—minus their leader Thatcher Wright—broke the Scheme Rules streak that Davie had as soon as Ian Skinner appeared and helped Vyce pick up the win. I believe that Thatcher’s Cabinet now has a new rival in the form of the “Fresh Prince” Ravie Davie, and probably Lou King Sharp & Krieger ever since the three went after all three members of Thatcher’s Cabinet prior to this episode and Square Go!

Here are the match results from Glasgow…

Match #1: “The Outlaw” Stevie James defeated Tallon Jr. after a superkick followed by a brainbuster

Tallon Jr. applauded at James afterwards. My score: 3/5

Match #2: Grant McIvor (w/ ADM, Eddie Castle and Dylan Thorn) defeated Levi (w/ Sweeney)

Near the end, Aaron Echo appeared at the entryway until Sweeney encountered him; while Levi watched, McIvor wrapped his chain around his fist, punched his opponent with it and pinned him for the win. Afterwards, Sweeney and Echo fought at the entryway until Echo hit him with a low blow before leaving. My score: 1/5

Match #3: Theo Doros defeated Nsereko

Nsereko went for a suplex until Doros grabbed him by the hair before rolling him up and pinning him for the win. My score: 2/5

Match #4: Rhio defeated Moxie Malone

…in a couple minutes with a leg-trapped snap swinging neckbreaker (ala Nikki A.S.H.). My score: 1/5

Match #5: Eddie Castle (w/ ADM, Grant McIvor and Dylan Thorn) defeated Saqib Ali (w/ Chris Toal)

McIvor choked Toal at ringside with his chain, leading to Castle winning after hitting Ali with a swinging reverse DDT. My score: 2/5

Main event: Charles Vyce defeated Ravie Davie in a Scheme Rules match

Earlier in the episode, Vyce told Jen Louise in an interview that Ian Skinner wasn’t in attendance. Two chairs, a videotape, a plate, a bowl, a kendo stick, a block of cheese, a flower pot, and a bag of small round cheeses were used as weapons; a hubcap was also brought into the ring, but wasn’t used as a weapon for some reason. Near the end, Skinner appeared and—after getting knocked off the apron by Davie at first—hit Davie, who went for a moonsault, with a chair before Skinner picked up the win while using the top rope for leverage. Post-match, Vyce and Skinner beat down Davie with chairs. My score: 3.5/5

NXT

We now head to Orlando, Florida for an episode of NXT.

Actually, this week’s episode of NXT should have been labeled “Tuesday Night Raw” because of how many Raw superstars appeared that night. We saw NXT’s first ever episode of MizTV when the Miz interviewed Dolph Ziggler—with Robert Roode in tow—after Ziggler, on the last episode, won the NXT Championship prior to LA Knight appearing and challenging Ziggler for the title.

The Miz, Ziggler, and Roode weren’t the only Raw competitors that appeared on NXT this week; Rey Mysterio and his son Dominik appeared as well after Rey’s son challenged a member of Legado del Fantasma to a match even after the Mysterios and Legado argued over who was representing the new generation of lucha-libre.

Speaking of Legado del Fantasma, we have qualifying matches—as requested by the NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes—and one of them took place this week. The first qualifying match was between Cameron Grimes and Santos Escobar. Two more matches will take place next week on NXT, which are Solo Sikoa vs. Roderick Strong and A-Kid (who was inserted into this match after defeating Kushida in his NXT debut) vs. Grayson Waller; I believe there will be one more qualifying match in the following week. I definitely look forward to seeing those qualifying matches after seeing the first one take place this week. The winners of those qualifying matches will fight Hayes for the title in a ladder match at NXT Stand & Deliver.

Staying on the topic which is Stand & Deliver, more pieces came together like a jigsaw puzzle as we saw more title matches being made for that event as well as a one-on-one match. It included Bron Breakker not finished yet with Ziggler after Ziggler won the NXT Championship, the Creed Brothers and MSK fighting Imperium members Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel for the NXT Tag Team Championship, and Cora Jade fighting Mandy Rose for the NXT Women’s Championship after a cat-and-mouse game occurred Cora stole the titles from Toxic Attraction. (After trapping Jacy Jayne with cage doors and Gigi Dolin in a dumpster, Cora attempted to toy with Mandy’s Range Rover until Mandy fought her out of the vehicle and beat her down in the parking lot before spray painting “TA” on Cora’s back.) It also included Tony D’Angelo looking for a “white whale” to fight at Stand & Deliver, and that “whale” turning out to be Tommaso Ciampa who has no idea what his plans are after failing to win back the NXT Championship last week. (Perhaps a jump to Raw for Ciampa after NXT?)

Finally while making “championships” the key word, not only was Grimes vs. Escobar one of my favorite matches on this episode, but so was the NXT Championship match between Ziggler and Knight. Even though, I expected Ziggler to retain prior to NXT Stand & Deliver, it was still a good match between him and Knight. I still want to see Knight win more gold on NXT or another WWE brand in the future though…just my opinion.

Onto the match results from Orlando…

Match #1: Santos Escobar (w/ Joaquin Wilde, Raul Mendoza and Elektra Lopez) defeated Cameron Grimes

…in a qualifying match to participate in a ladder match for the NXT North American Championship at Stand & Deliver; Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams joined Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett on commentary. Escobar won after countering Grimes’ Cave-In with the Phantom Driver. My score: 3.5/5

Match #2: A-Kid defeated Kushida (w/ Ikemen Jiro)

…with a moonsault turned into a DDT. My score: 1.5/5

Match #3: Tiffany Stratton defeated Sarray in less than a minute

Tiffany sneak attacked Sarray backstage—including ripping Sarray’s necklace off of her—and to the ring, and afterwards defeated her with a corkscrew Vader bomb. No score.

Match #4: Indi Hartwell defeated Persia Pirotta in a couple minutes

Both Indi and Persia were 1upping each other in poses to the ring until the match began. In the end, Duke Hudson appeared and got Indi distracted; Persia lifted up Indi before seeing Dexter Lumis appear from under the ring, leading to Indi rolling up Persia and pinning her for the win. Afterwards, Indi and Persia 1upped each other again, but this time on making out with—respectively—Lumis and Hudson. No score.

Match #5: Dominik Mysterio (w/ Rey Mysterio) defeated Raul Mendoza (w/ Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde and Elektra Lopez) in three minutes.

After a skirmish between the rest of Legado del Fantasma, Fallon Hanley and Briggs & Jensen occurred, Rey punched Escobar prior to Dominik winning after hitting Mendoza with the 619 and—ala the late Eddie Guerrero—the Froggy frog splash. The Mysterios, Fallon, and Briggs & Jensen celebrated afterwards. My score: 0.5/5

Main event: Dolph Ziggler (w/ Robert Roode) defeated LA Knight to retain the NXT Championship with a superkick.

Post-match, Bron Breakker—who was sent home early in the day by coach Matt Bloom after Breakker angrily looked for Ziggler before cooler heads prevailed—came into the ring and demanded a match for the title at Stand & Deliver; after Breakker punched Roode, Ziggler accepted the challenge. My score: 3.5/5

NXT UK

We now return to the United Kingdom because we’re taking a look back at a St. Patrick’s Day episode of NXT UK at the BT Sports Studios in London, England…with fans back in attendance!

When it comes to watching NXT UK, I’m no stranger to seeing a competitor from the American NXT brand competing on NXT UK besides visiting. Kassius Ohno (nowadays Chris Hero), Kona Reeves, Mia Yim, Reina Gonzalez (now Raquel Gonzalez on NXT), Adam Cole, Oney Lorcan (nowadays Biff Busick), and Danny Burch—just to name a few—have competed on episodes of NXT UK, including on episodes where Worlds Collide took place during Royal Rumble and WrestleMania weekends in 2019, as well as “hidden gems” that were shown in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. I honestly like seeing the best of both NXT worlds colliding (pun intended) not only on NXT UK but on NXT as well.

This week, Diamond Mine member Roderick Strong—flying solo without the rest of the group—came to the BT Sports Studios for a match against Gallus member Wolfgang. Both competitors did pretty well in their match, even with Strong playing mind games before and during the beginning of the match. What Strong announced that he would do next, after the match, has me chomping into bit for a future episode.

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Before getting to what happened a minute or so before the episode came to a close, I’m jumping to the opening match which was my favorite from this episode. It was a pretty good matchup between Tyler Bate and Oliver Carter, even with Trent Seven and Ashton Smith coming close to brawling at ringside near the end. Despite what was going on at ringside, it was still an enjoyable bout that’s part of the storyline where Carter and Smith are proving that they deserve another shot at the NXT UK Tag Team Championship at a later date once the challengers—Smith and Carter—go through the singles matches that the champions Moustache Mountain put them in. I do however have a gut feeling that there might be a heel turn coming from one of those two teams as soon as the storyline comes to a close…

Okay, I’m done worrying. Onto the other storylines that are championship related…we learned that Meiko Satomura will defend the NXT UK Women’s Championship next week against Isla Dawn, and also we’ll be seeing Mark Coffey being the next member of Gallus fighting Noam Dar for the NXT UK Heritage Cup. Plus, we learned that Wild Boar is eyeing on Symbiosis ever since he returned months after getting kicked out by Eddie Dennis and Primate.

Onto the match results from London…

Match #1: Oliver Carter (w/ Ashton Smith) defeated Tyler Bate (w/ Trent Seven)

After Bate saw Smith and Seven arguing at ringside, Bate went for a top rope maneuver until Carter countered with a backslide for the win. My score: 3.25/5

Match #2: Emilia McKenzie defeated Nina Samuels

…after dodging Nina’s moonsault before winning with a spear. My score: 3/5

Match #3: Aleah James defeated Stevie Turner

…in around four minutes after dodging Stevie’s off-the-ropes flatliner finisher before winning with an O’Connor roll. My score: 2/5

Main event: Roderick Strong defeated Wolfgang

Strong bled from close to his right eye during the match. After dodging a spear from Wolfgang, Strong won with a running knee lift to the face. Post-match, Strong that he came to NXT UK for a good time and for big money fights, then challenged Ilja Dragunov to a match! My score: 3/5

NXT: LVL UP

Finally, we return to Orlando for another episode of NXT: LVL UP.

I liked both the first and second matches more than the main event. The first match saw Xyon Quinn finally throwing his losing streak out of the window after defeating Damon Kemp, and the second match saw Lash Legend picking up a win and making it a message to her current rival Nikkita Lyons. The main event was okay, even if it was part of the ongoing rivalry between Chase University and Robert Stone & Von Wagner. Other than that, this week’s episode of NXT: LVL UP wasn’t too bad.

Here are the match results from Orlando…

Match #1: Xyon Quinn defeated Damon Kemp

Quinn suffered a cut on his left cheek, from Kemp’s forearm, after blocking an attack from Kemp. Quinn won after hitting Kemp with a running jumping forearm. Both men showed sportsmanship to one another afterwards. My score: 2/5

Match #2: Lash Legend defeated Valentina Feroz (w/ Yulisa Leon) with a bicycle kick

Post-match, Lash vowed to give Nikkita Lyons a “brutal beatdown.” My score: 2/5

Main event: Dante Chen defeated Bodhi Hayward (w/ Andre Chase)

Robert Stone appeared and argued with Chase near the end, leading to Chen winning with a crucifix rollup to the distracted Hayward. My score: 1.5/5

Next time…

Besides the usual four shows, I will also take a look back at wXw We Love Wrestling 27.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment! I’ll see you next time!

(With the exception of the photo of Charles Vyce vs. Ravie Davie from ICW Fight Club on Peacock—that I watched on my laptop—that I took a picture of with my phone, the rest of the photos shown in the newsletter are from WWE.)