August exploded into the world of professional wrestling beginning with WWE's Summer Slam weekend with multiple shows from Cleveland, Ohio. New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Climax Tournament concluded with a historic result. AEW had their second ever Wembley Stadium show ALL IN, and WWE closed out the month with their first ever PLE from Germany with Bash in Berlin. August could end up being the most memorable month this year.
Cleveland hosted Summer Slam Weekend, beginning with Friday Night Smackdown where both tag team championship were put on the line. The women's Tag Team Champions Unholy Union; Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn defended against former Champions Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill. I was pleasantly surprised to see Blair Davenport interfere in this match and help Fyre and Dawn retain. This continues the narrative that will lead us to their rematch in Berlin. Hometown hero Johnny Gargano and his tag partner Tommaso Ciampa defended their tag titles against the New Bloodline specifically Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga. I was pretty disappointed that DIY lost this match. Gargano and Ciampa are both 5 star talents and honestly need the championships more than the Bloodline. If this led to DIY being the next people to help Cody against the Bloodline I would've been a bit interested, but this doesn't seem like the case. For a go home show before a big PLE, this was a pretty mediocre Smackdown.
However Summer Slam was quite fun! The show opened with their hottest story line: Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan. Which was a roller coaster, Liv used Rhea's anger to her advantage and consistently goaded her into making mistakes. This lead to Rhea "re-dislocating" her shoulder. Which looked sickening, then even more so as Rhea drove her shoulder into the announce desk to put it back into place. The match came to a halt when Dominick Mysterio stopped Rhea from hitting Liv with a Chair. "You can't win like this" Dom claimed, which was true, if she wanted to regain her title, she needed to win cleanly. Liv took advantage of the distractions with her obLIVion finisher not once but twice, the second time being on the chair, conveniently planted there by Dominick. As if the loss wasn't devastating enough for Rhea, Dominick officially left her side and stood next to Liv before passionately making out with her to a chorus of screams and boos from the audience, and me watching at my desk.
A fireball of a match, Bron Breakker got his rematch against Sami Zayn and became the new Intercontinental Champion. I'm okay with Sami losing the title here, however I feel like after defeating GUNTHER, Sami should've hung on in this match a little longer.
Days after making several transphobic statements on X, Logan Paul lost his United States Championship. Hopefully this will be the last of him we see on TV for a minute. LA Knight is the new US Champion, I'm curious to see what they do with him after being in the company for several years and he's only now winning his first title.
Another Championship changed hands as Queen of the Ring winner Nia Jax took down Bayley and became the new WWE Women's Champion. Nia has formed a partnership with the current Money In the Bank holder Tiffany Stratton. I feel similarly to this match as I do about the Sami/Bron match, I think Bayley should've had more offense.
The title changes continued as the King of the Ring Gunther is now the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Damian Priest stepped up as champion this year and has proved that he should be a feature in WWE for a long time. I was really hoping the Judgement Day wouldn't explode here. Yet Finn Balor arrived and screwed over Damian and cost him the Championship. The visual of Damian reaching through the ropes to grab Finn's throat was insane, ultimately Gunther is the one who should be Champion right now. The Judgement Day needed a big change and with Rhea and Damian out, it got exactly that.
The only thing I will say about Cody Rhodes and Solo Sikoa in Bloodline Rules is that it was better than most of the other matches these two have had with each other. Oh and Roman Reigns is finally back for the first time since his loss to Cody at WrestleMania. Summer Slam was an exciting show that felt like a "Season Finale". So many Championships changed hands and their biggest faction experienced a paradigm shift.
I had the opportunity to write about Summer Slam weekend over on Instinct Culture so you can check out here. While the show was running I lost Internet for the entire show following the opening match. So I watched the remainder of the show on my phone, The top half of the screen the broadcast and the bottom half my notes. Absolutely stressful experience, Thankfully the show was fun to balance out my own stress.
For some reason a match took place two night later on RAW that in my opinion should've been on Summer Slam, The Wyatt Sicks debuted in ring against the newly named American Made. So this was a double debut of sorts, Chad gable and the Creed Brothers needed a refresh and this is what I was waiting for. The Wyatt Sicks are all good wrestlers apart and I was pleasantly surprised to see how much chemistry they already had. Overall a very fun match, that deserved to be on the PLE.
August 7th was AEW's Dynamite which opened with MJF faces Kyle Fletcher, as a part of their build to MJF and Ospreay. MJF knocked out Fletcher with the Dynamite Diamond Ring and punched him repeatedly until he bled, causing Will Ospreay to come out and save his friend.
The Glamour Mariah May had a quick squash match against Viva Van, I was hoping we'd get some extra time with this match as anything I have seen from Viva has been quite good. Mariah picked up a victory after hitting a Storm Zero to taunt her ALL IN opponent Toni Storm. Following the match she was given a gift; A large photo of her and Toni, Scrawled on the back of the frame was "DIE MARIAH DIE". Toni Storm rushed the ring and attempted to take Mariah down. Officials quickly rushed the scene and separated them before the two can get too physical.
A match on paper like Bryan Keith vs. Katsuyori Shibata, should make my night, but the heavy dark cloud that is Chris Jericho hung low over this match. That's all I got for this match. The main event was Bryan Danielson against Good Ol' Double J Jeff Jarrett. Who has been challenging Danielson as he thinks he doesn't have what it takes to overcome Swerve Strickland. A fun Surprise was Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat was on commentary.
The following week on Dynamite Mercedes Moné opened the show facing Hikaru Shida, this had me very excited. After 10 minutes Mercedes picked up a victory. Before Moné could fully celebrate Britt Baker's music hit. Kamille attacked someone in a mask who was sitting ringside as she thought it was Britt. This distraction allowed for the DMD to sneak in and get a shot off on Mercedes. The main event was AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland against Protégé of Danielson; Wheeler Yuta. The match was called when swerve repeatedly hit his House Call finisher on Yuta. Following the bell, swerve planned to continue his assault and was ultimately stopped by Danielson making the save.
New Japan Pro Wrestling finished up their enormous G1 Climax Tournament on August 18th. I unfortunately didn't have time to follow everything going on in this tournament, but I was paying close attention to the standings when they were updated. I couldn't be happier, my two picks for the tournament were in the finals. Yota Tsuji and Zack Sabre Jr. This 31 minute banger, was a great showcase for both talent and either could've won, with a justified argument for both. Ultimately the twenty year veteran Zack Sabre Jr. won the match. ZSJ became the second ever wrestler from outside of Japan to win this prestigious tournament. Zack quickly stated he wants to get his title opportunity not at Wrestle Kingdom at the Tokyo Dome but in his home country. Specifically at the Crystal palace Arena in London towards the end of October.
AEW began their European takeover for ALL IN week, Starting with Dynamite from Cardiff, Wales! The go home show featured a contract signing between the CEO and the DMD. Which culminated in Britt agreeing to not hit Mercedes, but attacking Kamille because "This bitch is is getting on my nerves", which got a good laugh out of me. Britt popped Kamille with a microphone and leaped off the table onto her knocking into Mercedes. Britt ended the segment holding the title up above her head.
Tommy Bilington wrestled which was cool; it was against Chris Jericho, which was significantly less cool. Toni Storm defended her AEW Women's title which was cool: it was against Saraya, which was significantly less cool.
Finally it was time for my most anticipated show of the month, ALL IN from Wembley Stadium, 2023's event was great and I was certain this would be the same. The preshow featured a mixed tag match between "Big Tom" Tomohiro Ishii & Willow Nightingale against a dastardly Kris Statlander & Stokely Hathaway. This was a really fun match to get the crowd excited for what was to come. Somehow the Pre-show was interrupted by the problematic Saraya, who threatened to hold the entire show hostage. Thankfully Jamie Hayter returned after 14 months to shut her up and truly save us from Saraya. My hero!
The main show began with the Ladder match for AEW Trios Championship. The Patriarchy, House of Black, Blackpool Combat Club (with PAC) and the Bang Bang Gang. The Patriarchy were the defending champions and as someone who enjoys all of these teams I was content on whoever would leave with the gold. This chaotic ladder match ended with PAC getting his Wembley Stadium moment atop a ladder and pulling down the championship belt to become a trios champion once more. A strange visual to see PAC not with Fenix and Penta, but the more PAC is a champion the better.
If you have been following along this year, you know that my absolute favorite feud this year has been Toni Storm and Mariah May, a story that has building since Mariah debuted in November of last year. Following her Owen Hart Cup Tournament victory Mariah has made it her goal to ruin Toni Storm, and she fulfilled that goal at this show. Not before slapping the taste out of her own mothers mouth, the only possible way to get heel heat in your home country. She also kissed her second biggest fan (only second to me) Nigel McGuinness, a life changing moment for Nigel I'm sure. Toni dropped Mariah with a piledriver on the steel steps, which gave me chills. Mariah fulfilled her destiny and is now the 13th Women's Champion and she should be champion for a while.
I'll be honest I forgot to pay attention to the next two match, HOOK overcame Jericho to regain his FTW Championship and The Young Bucks retained the Tag Team titles, cool! Plus we had the re-debut of Grizzled Young veterans who should be a featured tag team on AEW TV going forward.
The next match was an absolute mad house, it was their newly devised match concept: The Casino Gauntlet match. This match had the arrival of Ricochet in AEW, Kazuchika Okada, a Zack Sabre Jr. appearance, and a violent Hangman Adam Page. To me, the biggest surprise was the in ring return of Nigel FUCKING McGuinness, who clearly was revitalized all thanks to Mariah. In a stranger series of events, as the band OASIS played Nigel to the ring, less than 24 hours later the members of OASIS squashed their problems with each other and announce a reunion. A magical weekend for sure. Against all odds, this star studded match ended with Christian Cage stealing the victory thanks to the help of Killswitch FKA Luchasaurus. Many people were disappointed with this choice, but honestly this was the biggest heel moment from Christian yet.
MJF up to this point has been on an AMERICA themed heel run, bordering on racist dog whistles on a weekly basis. Will Ospreay was thankfully able to put an end to this in MJF's best match in a while. This storyline was absolutely unnecessary as it ended back where it started... We just had to deal with M(aga)JF for weeks for no reason.
In a match that I was certain would be pretty good, Britt Baker had her first real match back in AEW challenged Mercedes Moné for the TBS title. The general consensus for this match was that it was a total stinker. I can't exactly disagree, I'm not shy about being a shill for Mercedes and even I was pretty down about this match. A few good spots happened and the match ended with the right person winning, Britt has had some great matches with great opponents in the past, but sometimes wrestlers don't have chemistry with each other and that's exactly what this match felt like. Mercedes came to the ring with Corgi's descended from the Queen of England's Corgi's and that's kind of cool.
In a match that was definitely cut for time, Jack Perry retained his TNT Championship in a coffin match. The less I have to watch his opponent in this match wrestle the better. Jack is doing great work and I want to see that continue.
The main event was The American Dragon Bryan Danielson against Swerve Strickland, in an all timer match. The build was confusing at first, most people were certain it should've been Hangman and Swerve, but instead we got a man at the tail end of his career putting it all on the line to overcome Swerve. It was Title vs. Career a stipulation added only days before to turn the heat up. This match was PACKED with amazing moment's from Swerve literally brushing off Danielson's Busaiku Knee to Swerve smack talking his opponents children at ring side. I mean wow, Swerve up to this point has been a stellar champion and we were lucky to have the run he did. The Show ended with Swerve being vanquished and Daniel celebrating with his wife, children, Blackpool Combat Club members, and PAC, a beautiful moment to see.
August 26th's Monday Night RAW was quite eventful, the announcement of a strap match between CM Punk and Drew McIntyre. The Terror Twins Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley continued their hunt on the new Judgement Day. Bronson Reed and Braun Strowman fought to a no-contest after Reed left off a railing crashing into Strowman who was laid on top of a car, with the impact all the windows exploded. The main event of the night was the in ring return of Uncle Howdy, one on one against Chad Gable. Within minutes, the referee was knocked out, which opened the door for the Wyatt Sicks and American Made to wreak havoc. The show ended with the Wyatt's standing tall.
Dynamite two days later featured a match between Ishii and Adam Page, in a match only to be described as a slobber knocker, these two beat the hell out of each other. Jamie Hayter cleaned Harley Cameron in mere minutes, a great return to form for Hayter. The most shocking moment of the night was the confrontation between Hangman and Swerve. In this exchange of hateful words, Swerve exposed to the world that Hangman and his wife had a second child, something that was not public knowledge, he claimed that he found this out because he was stalking him once more.
"...Instead of burning my career to the ground, yours is the one going up in flames. So again, in that cage, what kind of man are you going to be? Better yet, what kind of man are you going to show your kids that you’re going to be?”
Hangman had no response and walked out.
WWE sandwiches the month of August with Bash in Berlin, the first WWE PLE in Germany. Kevin Owen's challenged Cody Rhodes for the WWE Titles, which was way better than I anticipated. Kevin is fantastic as subtle in ring story telling. Owens has always struggled to be "the good guy". We've seen him get frustrated that others don't trust him, because of his explosive nature. The build for this match was that Kevin wanted a shot at the title for saving Cody dozens of times. A baby face versus baby face match. Kevin would repeatedly go for the "heel" move but stop himself. Through out the match Cody was the one pulling cheap shots, despite Kevin's hesitation. Eventually Cody pushed Kevin one too many times and we saw a shimmer of violence from Kevin, Ultimately it was not enough to overcome The American Nightmare.
The Strap match between Drew and Punk was entertaining, I probably wouldn't watch it again, especially since I am certain their upcoming match at Bad Blood will top it. I don't typically enjoy strap matches as I think the four corners rule is a bit dumb, however these men were as creative as they could be. CM Punk regained the controversial bracelet, that Drew had stored in his trunks, which he then kissed. My personal favorite match of the night was Dominick Mysterio and Liv Morgan against Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley in a mixed tag. The Berlin audience blew the roof off when Rhea was finally tagged in. Ripley eventually caught Dominick in a head scissors choke that popped the crowd. In typical wrestling fashion, despite having a significant numbers advantage the heel faction looked like idiots trickling in instead of working together properly. All four competitors in this match looked like a million bucks and should be main stays in this company.
The Main event was Randy Orton challenging for the World Heavyweight Championship against GUNTHER. Coming into this match, I'm not sure anyone thought Randy had a chance of winning. These guys beat the hell out of each other. Randy cursed up a storm each time he was slapped across the chest. Gunther ended the match with some nasty bruises on his shoulder and arm. Randy managed to drop Gunther through the announce table which was brutal to watch. The bell finally rang after almost 35 minutes, Randy unconscious in the grips of a rear naked choke at the hands of The Ring General. The PLE went off the air with Randy offering respect to Gunther, not a moment of passing the torch but a moment of approval, on both ends. Gunther proved he deserves to be on top, and Randy proved he still can go despite his tenure.
August had four match of the year contenders, all of which I didn't expect to be as good as they were. 3 huge events in the rear view mirror and already some huge things have happened since August has ended. Overall this has been a monstrous summer for professional wrestling. The landscape for every company is dramatically different than it was at the start of the season. Which only makes me more excited to see what the Autumn brings.
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