July has somehow already came and went. Money in the Bank, Summer Destiny, Fantastica Mania, and The G1 Climax begun. Each time I think a month might be easy, I eat my words with a big plate of great wrestling television. This month was a Michelin star of performances and moments. Wrestling around the world continues to grow and shine brighter each month. The pattern continues for the seventh month! With Forbidden Door in the rear view mirror, the race to Wembley Stadium has begun. The Owen Hart Cup was quickly approaching its end with two huge matches. The show opened with Bryan Danielson and PAC in the Semi-finals. A hard hitting back and forth match that genuinely could've ended at any move. The other semi-final match up was on the Women's side with Willow Nightingale colliding with her former friend and new rival Kris Statlander. Before the bell could even ring, these two were duking it out on the stage. After ducking a lariat attempt from Statlander, Willow pounced Statlander who tumbled and rolled all the way down the ramp to the apron of the ring. Willow was able to come out victorious and head to the finals.
The most notable promo of the night was Britt Baker returning to Dynamite to explain her absence. She stated that back in November of 2023 she was struggling with her vision and her right arm was numb. She was sent to the hospital with a transient ischemic attack, which is what she aptly called a "mini stroke". During this time she was also dealing with several herniated discs in her spine and a torn hip labrum. I'm happy to see Britt back and healthy and I'm sure she is going to kill it with Mercedes at Wembley for the TNT title.
The main event of Beach Break was Will Ospreay putting the AEW International Title on the line against Daniel Garcia! Deep down I knew Garcia was not winning this, but hell did I hold out hope as long as I could. This was a fantastic match, but it falls victim to a lot of matches: Wrestler gets distracted because they cannot decide if they wanna cheat or not and loses because of their hesitation. Daniel Garcia hasn't strayed away from being a heel in the past, and I think it's reasonable to have him hesitate here. Ultimately I still wish Garcia won the title. He's gotten himself over several times with no real support from AEW itself. The post match angle was MJF turning on Garcia, the assault was pretty brutal as MJF grabbed Garcia by the neck and shook the head of the bloodied man. This was a way to write him off TV for the time being. Definitely a bummer, I would've liked to see a match between these two in the near future.
WWE arrived in Canada, the first weekend of July for one of the more fun gimmick PLE's of the year: Money In the Bank! The first MITB match of the night gave away it's ending to me. Drew McIntyre coming into this match felt like a dead giveaway to win. In a match with Andrade, Carmelo Hayes, Chad Gable, Jey Uso and LA Knight, all just waiting for that one spark to push their careers to the next level. I am disappointed WWE went with the safe option of Drew McIntyre winning it. I personally think we could've gotten the same result if CM Punk screwed him out of winning the MITB, and giving someone else an opportunity to have the briefcase instead.
Sami Zayn retained the Intercontinental Championship after getting absolutely demolished for 12 minutes straight. Sami in the last minute got a good comeback and picked up a victory. I am curious where both Sami and Bron end up, at the end of this feud. I fear Sami will be left with nothing to do.
The next match plays into my frustrations with the Men's Money in the Bank match. Damian Priest defended his World Heavyweight Title against Seth Rollins. In the buildup to the match, Seth claimed he wouldn't challenge for the title again as long as Damian is champion. Which I always think is a weird stipulation if they end up with a loop hole to get out of it. This was the case here. Drew McIntyre immediately cashed in and turned the match into a triple threat. Which CM Punk wasn't having any of, and interfered himself screwing Drew out of the world title and his MITB Briefcase. Damian pinned McIntyre to retain the title. Therefor Seth didn't lose and can challenge again. However I don't think he will since Damian is set to face GUNTHER for the Heavyweight title
The show stealer in Canada was the Women's Money In The Bank match! Almost all of the competitors had an interesting stories lined up to win. Tiffany Stratton, Iyo Sky, Lyra Valkyria, and Naomi all were viable picks. My personal pick was Chelsea Green, who is so incredibly entertaining and this match was no different. Sadly the odd woman out was Zoey Stark who honestly, I personally would've just been confused if she won. Ultimately Canada's own Chelsea did not win. Tiffany Stratton was the odds favorite to pull down the briefcase. The odds were correct. Canada was definitely running on tiffy time, and her becoming a world champion is inevitable. Now with the briefcase, I think that fate is coming true sooner rather than later.
For some bizarre reason the main event of the show was a 6-man tag of
The Bloodline (Jacob Fatu, Solo Sikoa & Tama Tonga) against WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, Kevin Owens & Randy Orton. Triple H stated online that this show will be "game changing" or something. It's crazy that he would just lie like that, fully knowing he was about to put together the most predictable PLE of the year so far. This tag match was fun for sure, but simply should've opened the show to get the crowd excited for the rest of it. Especially since when the bell finally rang, the show simply ended.
The following night was NXT Heatwave, which from top to bottom was a fun show. Oba Femi and Wes Lee put on a crazy performance, with Oba Femi retaining the NXT North American Title. At this point, I'm really not sure who is going to be the one to uproot his title reign. The Women's North American title was on the line after, A match from the future. Kehlani and Sol Ruca are truly the future of WWE. Both are so new into their careers as wrestlers and are already so talented. This Match ended up being one of the silly controversies on the app formerly known as Twitter. As many people said they were just copying Ricochet and Will Ospreay. There were other takes about how "If ThIs WaS DoNe In AeW EvEryOne WoULd LoVE iT." Which I respond to by saying, shut up. I was very sports entertained. Why is it homage when men imitate their predecessors. Yet when women do the same, it is "copying and derivative"?
NXT Tag Team Champions Nathan Frazer & Axiom continue to prove me wrong and are still a cohesive tag team and are putting out such great matches. This time against Chase U: Andre Chase and Duke Hudson. Fraxiom's title defense catalogue is quickly becoming unmatched.
The NXT Women's title match was thrilling, Lola Vice exceeded my expectations after her underground match at Battleground last month. Roxanne is a fantastic champion and I think she should hold onto this title until her old rival Cora Jade is back and healthy. There are sharks in the water on the horizon for her. Giulia, Stephanie Vaquer and Delta all are waiting to arrive at the Performance Center in Florida. Each of those potential opponents for her can easily be match of the year contenders.
The NXT Men's title main evented with a fatal four way match between Shawn Spears, Je'Von Evans, Ethan Page, and Trick Williams who was the defending champion coming into this. All four of these men are NXT's top names, I fully expected Trick to retain. The definitive highlight of the match was the 20 year old Je'von Evans. From doing a dive over the turnbuckle to the outside of the ring crashing into Trick and breaking through the barricade ringside, to taking a huge bump from getting pushed off the top rope and flying all the way through the announce table. In the chaos of the 4 way match Trick knocked out both Je'von and Ethan Page with a jumping knee strike. Ethan collapsed on top of Je'Von beginning a pinfall. Shawn Spears pulled trick outside of the ring, and trick was helpless as he watched his NXT Title slip from his hands. A great main event through and through.
AEW Dynamite on July 10th was where the two world title matches for ALL IN at Wembley would be set. The Owen Hart Cup finals for the men's and women's both took place. The show opened with hangman Adam Page and Bryan Danielson. Since his return Page has made one thing clear, he wants to demolish Swerve Strickland and get the World Title once more. This new version of the Hangman is lethal. For most people, it felt like destiny for him to be in this tournament and win it. 25 minutes later... Bryan Danielson's hand was raised. I can't say this is a bad choice, Danielson is literally in the final months of his full time career and has still never held a title in AEW. Swerve and Danielson will sure be a generational match.
It's a rare occurrence when the women get to main event dynamite. So when they get the chance, they show out. The Owen Cup finals, the inaugural winner last year: Willow Nightingale against the World Champion's protégé: Mariah May. Mariah did her best to overcome the power of Willow, but was unable, Mariah needed to outsmart her opponent. Each pin fall attempt Mariah had could've ended it. After Willow hit a cannonball in the corner, she picked up Mariah in a fire mans carry, she was looking to hit her Death Valley Driver. Mariah evaded this fate by dropping Willow into a roll up pin fall. Mariah May is going to Wembley! My pure joy wouldn't last long as Toni and Mariah paraded to the top of the stage for Mariah to take her trophy. Mariah sped ahead to grab the trophy belt, and she whipped around to crack Toni in the head! We have never seen a look like this from Mariah in AEW, every inch of her body language changed in an instant. Mariah proceeded to pummel Toni with her own shoe, leaving Toni covered in blood at Mariah's feet. The show went dark as the camera pulled away to show "Mariah May vs. Toni Storm at ALL IN". A chilling ending for a show, absolutely THE moment of July. Toni and Mariah have been doing great work as a team, and now are doing insane work as enemies.
I was able to check out Pro Wrestling NOAH for one match in particular: AJ Styles and Naomichi Marufuji. For some people this was a dream match, to me it was just cool. WWE over recent months has allowed talent to appear elsewhere, which is really exciting and makes these moments feel special. This was a good match overall, I'm left imagining what it could've been if both these men were in their prime.
On the same night was Dream Star Fighting Marigold's first big event "Summer Destiny". This was where Marigold would crown it's first champions. Natsumi Showzuki was crowned the inaugural Marigold Superfly Champion. Both her and her opponent Misa Matsui were fantastic, and I'm excited to see where they both end up in the future. The show also featured the semi-finals and finals of a tournament to determine the inaugural United National Champion. In the semi-final match Miku Aono put on an absolute banger with MIRAI. Miku came out victorious, then immediately had to compete in the finals against the 20 year old Bozilla from Germany. Bozilla absolutely stood out in the debuting Marigold show. Here at Summer Destiny, Miku Aono looked like a million bucks. I am now a huge fan of Aono, and she is the inaugural United National Champion.
The final two matches on the card are absolutely match of the year contenders. One of my favorite Joshi wrestlers Utami Hayashishita faced off against WWE's Iyo Sky. Utami has always credited Iyo as a main inspiration for her career. However, the two never had an opportunity to face off as Iyo went to America as Utami's career began. Iyo is an all around great performer, but this felt like Iyo uninhibited. I could rewatch this match over and over again and not get bored.
The main event was for the Marigold World Title, Saree and Giulia. The latter was coming off a wrist injury and also just announced that she has signed a deal with WWE and is leaving sometime in the near future. I fully expected Saree to walk out as champion, and she did just that. Despite me predicting the result, This match somehow had me on the edge of my seat. 25 minutes of the best wrestlers in the world proving why they have that name. When the bell finally rang, Saree looked like she went through hell. I'm not able to tune into every Marigold show that takes place, but if every special they have is on the caliber of this night, I am going to make sure I tune in.
SOMEHOW, There was another great wrestling show taking place, this time not in Japan but in a high school gym in San Jose, California was NJPW Presents CMLL Fantastica Mania. Following the departure of Stephanie Vaquer only three days prior, the CMLL World Women's Title was vacated and a new champion needed to be crowned. It was a triple threat match between Willow Nightingale, Lluvia, and Viva Van. For some reason this match only went 10 minutes, the contest was definitely fun, but the crowning of a new champion in a triple threat match should be more than just 10 minutes.
NJPW's Yota Tsuji faced off against El Barbaro Cavernario of CMLL. It's no secret that Yuta is one of my favorites in NJPW right now, If that was not the case I probably wouldn't have enjoyed this match. El Barbaro is very talented in ring, but I struggled to feel invested here, possibly because he came to the ring with a big bone in his hair and a flintstones tunic.
The last match I had the time to check out was Gabe Kidd defending the NJPW STRONG Openweight Title against the legendary Ultimo Guerrero. For a match between someone who hasn't reached his peak yet, and a legend whose better years are behind them. I can't help but imagine what this fight could've been like if it both of these men were at their peaks. Even so, these two beat the shit out of each other and it was beautiful.
The fallout of the July 17th episode of Dynamite was a hot topic, even still is today. The show was set to have two big title matches: the AEW International title defended by Will Ospreay against MJF, and the TBS title defended by Mercedes Moné against Nyla Rose. The show opened right away with the International title match. This match went 59 minutes and 59 seconds and MJF became the new champion. Historically AEW has only done a handful of 60 minute matches, one of which even had MJF in it. I typically enjoy these long matches, I think they can be really engaging if the narrative is there to help carry the hour. MJF is hot off of turning on and brutalizing Daniel Garcia. I was actually looking forward to this... next thing I knew it was 8:30 and the match was still going.. then 8:45 and still going... Then MJF won. I struggle to put this match in the same category as the likes of MJF's last hour long match against Danielson. MJF and Ospreay was only announced a week prior, and the feud is only just starting and on top of all of that there is several exciting stories happening on Dynamite. Overall this shouldn't have gone past 30 minutes.
The TBS title was also put on the line, Mercedes Moné and Nyla Rose which went a frustrating 9 minutes and 21 seconds. A great 9 minutes for sure, but there is no reason a match between a former world champion and the biggest star for a title should be going 9 minutes. Half of which was of course in picture and picture. Mercedes retained the title by submission.
The main event for this Dynamite was Swerve Strickland and Kazuchika Okada, AEW World Champion against Continental Champion. The match ended in disqualification after the Young Bucks interfered and attacked Swerve. The show went to black in chaos, as members of the "Team AEW" and "Team Elite" brawled all around, a decent closing segment hyping up Blood & Guts.
Across the world in Japan, The G1 Climax began and although I have not had the opportunity to check any of its matches out, I have been seeing and hearing nothing but good things. There is a lot of wrestling out right now and you will always miss something, and that's okay! A quick reminder there is no rush to enjoy wrestling, enjoy it at your own pace and you don't need to watch every show that airs, or even every segment on any show.
AEW continued the following week with it's Blood & Guts special. If you are unfamiliar this is AEW's version of WAR GAMES, a concept originally created after the late Dusty Rhodes who was inspired by watching MAD MAX in 1985. The match was designed to be a competition between two teams, too big for just one ring. One large cage encapsulating 2 wrestling rings against each other. It's a jarring site for sure.
MJF was here, and he is a strikingly different character from simply a week ago. MJF cut a long winded promo about how the only country that matters is the United States. MJF continued to say that he refuses to represent other countries with an International Title, thus he dumps the title into the trash. It is revealed that it is being replaced by the American Championship. The design of the title is the same, but with only America represented on it and the leather strap is also an American flag. This thing is UGLY ugly, collectively people have aptly referred to this as the MAGA belt. This was a warning of how cringe this new MJF character will be going forward.
Later on was Britt Baker's first match since her injury against Hikaru Shida. Britt felt a step or two slower than she was before she left, which is okay! Shida did her best at making Britt look strong, her ring rust should be gone before Wembley. Following the match Britt was taunted by Mercedes and blindsided by the debuting Kamille! She lifted Britt into a torture rack and spun her into a powerbomb. Kamille is a sight to behold, she's 5'10 and STRONG. For those who have never seen her, she was the NWA Women's Champion for over 800 days. I think this a great role for her to be on TV, especially if the rumors of her signing months ago were true. Kamille will be a star in AEW within a few years.
Mariah May competed in a squash match, following the quick contest she was attacked by Toni Storm who was disguised as a camera operator. The two women swung lashes at each other until dozens of security are needed to separate them. While restrained Toni screams into a microphone " ARE YOU PREPARED TO DIE!? BECAUSE I AM!" The segment ends with Mariah glaring daggers at Toni who is literally trying to claw her way over security to reach her.
It was time for the titular match, Blood & Guts. I've been very critical this month and I wish I could say I didn't have criticisms for this match as well. This year's Blood & Guts felt like it had very little or even no stakes. Team Elite has been terrorizing the roster for weeks since they eliminated Tony Khan. Team AEW is a taped together team of people who don't really interact or have had a violent history with each other. The match was really entertaining, but the feelings this match evoked were those I have watching a death match at some fair in a state below the bible belt. It was just guys using elevated violence just because they could. The match came to a close when Jack Perry was handcuffed to the cage and was being threatened to be lit on fire if he does not surrender and give someone a title shot. This felt like it should've led to some arguing for Team AEW as D*rby was only trying to gain something for himself. Jack would've rather been lit on fire (again) instead of work with him. (relatable) The Young Bucks threw in the towel and spared Jack from his pride. Team AEW was victorious.
2 days later was ROH's Death before Dishonor, from top to bottom this was a great show. However I truly think the women owned the show. Leila Hirsch and Diamante beat the hell out of each other in a Texas Death Match. To the disappointment of Athena, Red Velvet overcame Billie Starkz to become the ROH Women's World Television Champion. From the moment Billie lost the match, her mentor Athena has essentially ignored her. Athena successfully defended her title against Queen Aminata. This show was packed with people who are the future of professional wrestling. I am happy that ROH is back to what it used to be, the future today.
NXT began their 2 week celebration with the Great American Bash, main evented by Thea Hail and Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women's Championship. I've been singing Perez's praises for a long time now, and this was another notch on her impressive title run. Thea Hail has been with NXT for some time now, her character work is always fun and engaging, and she even had the ring skill, but I was always waiting for her to have her moment. This was what I was waiting for, these two had the time and narrative to show how amazing both of these competitors are. I hope they keep the momentum they have made with Thea and she should be holding gold before the year is up.
July came to a close with another episode of Dynamite. Will Ospreay was able to cut down the Murder Hawk Monster Lance Archer. I desperately want Lance to win a match on TV, despite his positive AEW record, I cannot recall a time he won a big match.
Willow Nightingale faced former best friend Kris Statlander in an Eliminator match for her CMLL Women's Championship she won earlier in the month. The match came to a close after Stokely handed Kris a metal chain to wrap around her hand and knock out Willow which she was able to do after Stokely distracted the referee. Kris and Willow should be fighting each other at Wembley, If they are not I'm going to have a word with Tony Khan.
We finally got a sit-down interview with Mariah May who divulged to us, why she turned on Toni Storm. “What more do I have to explain? It’s all been very clear. From day one I said I wanted to be just like Toni Storm. I got her trust and I sliced her open and wore her skin. What do you not understand?” Mariah challenged Renee who was simply trying to conduct an interview. Renee was befuddled by the response she asks Mariah, what did Toni do to deserve this.
“Nothing, and that’s why she was perfect. She always said this business would eat you alive. I guess it was my turn to eat..." A chilling answer as Mariah left the interview. Enraged by this video Toni Storm comes out in front of crowd and screams: “Mariah May, you said you loved me. Well, I love you too! They say you should find what you love and let it kill you! Well at All In, it’s going to be the romance of a bloody lifetime!”
July was absolutely packed with great matches and definitely some of the best moments of the year. Mariah and Toni are the best story going on in AEW, with Hangman's path to revenge a very close second. There was a lot to criticize this month but just as much to enjoy. August began with Summer Slam and will be ending with ALL IN and Bash in Berlin. There is never enough wrestling. I'm looking forward to the big storylines on the horizon and I hope you come back here next month to read my thoughts again.
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