Daniels vs. Rhodes Headlines ROH ‘Best in the World’ on 6/23

It’s official folks, Christopher Daniels will defend the ROH World Championship against Cody Rhodes in the main event of Ring of Honor’s next pay-per-view event, Best in the World on 6/23 at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, MA.

This match stems from a previous encounter at last month’s War of the Worlds event where Daniels beat Cody in a triple threat match involving former champion Jay Lethal. Cody, however, argued that Lethal’s shoulders were on the mat while he had the figure four applied seconds before Daniels got the pin, making him the rightful champion.

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Samoa Joe wins Fatal 5-Way at WWE Extreme Rules

Samoa Joe is the number one contender for the WWE Universal Championship and will challenge Brock Lesnar on 7/9 at Great Balls of Fire. Joe defeated Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns and Fin Balor in the Fatal 5-Way main event, last night, at Extreme Rules.

The finish saw Finn Balor hit Roman Reigns with the Coupe de Grace, only for Joe to pull him away from the cover and apply the Coquina Clutch. Balor passed and out and the referee called for the bell.

Finn Balor was the favorite to win the match from a booking perspective since it was teased on Raw a couple of weeks ago that Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar are watching Balor with a vested interest. The match would have made sense being that Balor never lost the Universal Title.

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NJPW’s Best of the Super Juniors Finals Determined

The finals of NJPW’s Best of the Super Juniors 24 has been determined.

Will Ospreay emerged as the Block A winner when he pinned Hiromu Takahashi on Tuesday in Osaka. KUSHIDA cemented his place on top of Block B by defeating Volador Jr. last night, thus punching his ticket to the finals.

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WWE Announces First ever Women’s Money in the Bank LadderMatch

WWE will make history at Money in the Bank on June 18th. Charlotte, Becky Lynch, Natalya, Carmella, and Tamina will compete in the first-ever women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. Shane McMahon made the announcement last night after a fatal five-way didn’t happen when a brawl ensued between the participants.

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Five Star Drama

Two weeks ago, British wrestling standouts Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate tore the house down in a superb encounter at NXT TakeOver Chicago. If you’re unfamiliar with WWE’s U.K. initiative, watching this match will serve as the perfect introduction.

Seemingly, however, online drama coming after the match has fans voicing their displeasure at journalist Dave Meltzer, who, based on his popular rating system, gave the Dunne vs. Bate match 4 ¾ stars out of 5.

We’re talking about a smidge of a point away here. Yet, a lot of fans are left shaking their heads wondering what would this match had to have done to earn five stars. 4 ¾ is an excellent score, however, there is a bigger issue here.

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NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors Updated Standings

Artwork by TAPLA – http://tapla.deviantart.com/

Eight shows have thus far encompassed NJPW’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament. Sixteen wrestlers divided into two separate blocks have faced each other in round-robin competition where each win is two points, a draw is worth one point, and a loss is zero.

The two top scorers in each block will advance to the finals on June 3, which will air live on New Japan World, where the winner will get an IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship match on June 11 at Dominion in Osaka, Japan.

Opening night kicked off with two standout matches. ROH TV Champion Marty Scrull defeated last year’s BOSJ winner Will Ospreay by submission after catching him in mid-air and locked in the chickenwing.

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Ricochet & Ospreay Are Changing the Game

Last year’s Best of the Super Juniors (BOSJ) match between Ricochet and Will Ospreay drew highly divisive opinions from the pro wrestling community. Chris Jericho praised the match for its aerial evolution while Vader panned it due its choreographed nature. Fans were equally torn on the matter.

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Randy Orton Sparks the Great Indy Wrestling Debate

Randy Orton knows how to cause drama of the off-screen variety. In fact, he’s something of an artist at it. Last weekend, Orton retweeted a message from his original trainer in OVW, Rip Rogers, that criticized the current style of independent wrestling.

“Every Indy match now: handshake, drawn out move exchange, this is awesome chant, strike exchange, dive, no sell Indy strongstyle, dive, more strikes, no sells, dive, flippy floppy sequence, dive, hit everyone with each other’s finisher, then Humpty Dumpty, we all fall down. Fight forever chant, rinse and repeat until every move is useless and means nothing, dive, take unsafe shot that looks like shit and hurts like hell then roll-up finish. Handshake and hug after match. Everyone’s hand raised. All these guys chant. Go home and type on social media thanking your opponent and company for the match and telling others they should book these guys…dive.”

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Favorite Matches #6: Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect

The night before the Summer Slam 88, a Mega Powers’ promo hyping their match against the Mega Bucks got me hooked on professional wrestling. The actual matches were ancillary as it was all about the drama and interviews ending in “whatcha gonna do.” Three years later, my wrestling fandom got flipped turned upside down by an amazing match between two all-time greats.

The Intercontinental Title match at Summer Slam 1991 between Mr. Perfect and Bret Hart completely changed how I looked at wrestling. I didn’t know anything about booking or storytelling at the time, however, the match was a masterful display of the art.

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Billy Corgan Buys the NWA; Now What?

Smashing Pumpkins frontman and former TNA Wrestling President Billy Corgan has purchased National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). PWInsider.com broke the news last week and has confirmed that Corgan owns the name, rights, and trademarks to the NWA as well as the rights and possession of the NWA championship belt.

At one time, the NWA was the governing body of professional wrestling and the NWA championship was the most prestigious belt in the industry. Iconic names such as Lou Thez, Harley Race, Dory Funk, Ric Flair, and others were among its stars.

The group of promoters who governed the NWA and voted on who the champion would be started going out of business by the 1980’s when Vince McMahon’s then-WWF went national, destroying the territory system.

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