Weekend Wrap-Up: More Like 10 Days of Wrap-Up

Ain't they a cute couple?
Photo Credit: TexasAnarchy.com

- Any other week, this would be the biggest news story, but yeah, with the passing of a true icon, it's taken a backseat. However, it's really a huge story when a major wrestling company monetarily changes hands. Ring of Honor is a major wrestling company, and yes, they were purchased by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group for the purpose of developing a new TV show for the company. The SBC has TV in 35 different markets, although some key markets are missing. Back to the same dilemmas as HDNet? Well, I'm not sure at this point. Anyway, there's a lot of buzz and optimism, and there should be. However, for a more grounded, skeptical view, check out Eric Gargiulo's piece in the Camel Clutch Blog about it.

- As for the company itself, they had an event in Chicago Ridge Saturday, headlined by Roderick Strong's rematch for the ROH World Championship against Eddie Edwards. Edwards retained the title and then in a proactive move, he called out his tag team partner and laid the challenge down to Davey Richards for a title match. Also on the card, the Briscoes defeated the All Nite Express in a Chicago Street Fight and Jimmy Jacobs returned to ROH, seconding Steve Corino in his match against Mike Bennett.

- Over the Limit was last night, and hoo-boy, were people pissed over the main event. Then again, what else is new? The problems with the main event stemmed from the overbooking of the match, with several false finishes and restarts, ending with John Cena absorbing a beating from Miz, only to SuperCena the shit out of him and win their "I Quit" match. I didn't see the match, so I won't comment on how it was or how it played out. I will say this though; did anyone really expect Miz to make Cena say "I quit"? Really? Honestly, it doesn't faze me any more except from a match quality standpoint, and again I didn't see the match, so I won't comment. However, there was one match that was given the thumbs up by everyone, and unsurprisingly, it involved Christian. Seriously, among him, Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, is it possible for those guys to have a bad match, ever? Anyway, he didn't regain his World Heavyweight Championship, but his match with Randy Orton was given very high marks. Finally, Michael Cole got his comeuppance at the hands of Jerry Lawler, while Bret Hart came back to help the King get the win in a Kiss My Foot match.

- While I was away, I missed the recap on THREE Chikara shows. It's very unusual for Chikara to run on consecutive weeks, but that's only good news in my estimation. Their Dirty South debut May 14 saw Mike Quackenbush eat a pinfall to ICARUS of all people (I told you he ain't care people!), while UltraMantis Black scored a rare pinfall win over Tursas. In the main event, the Colony defeated the Batiri in somewhat of a KoT return match (with Kobold replacing Sinn Bodhi).

This past weekend was Aniversario weekend, with shows in both Union City, NJ and Easton, PA. The Easton show was on Saturday, with the highlights being Hallowicked defeating Quack in the opening match of the 12 Large Summit, "Dashing" Brandon Stroud's favorite wrestler Archibald Peck taking out Frightmare in a non-YLC match and in the main event, 3.0 making sure that the UnStable would never team again via piledriver and pinfall. After the match, STIGMA teased a tecnico turn, which could mean the return of Shayne Storm? The Sunday show in Easton also sounded like a bunch of fun, headlined by The Colony defeating SAT in a trios match. In the 12 Large Summit match for this card, Vin Gerard scored a mild upset over Brodie Lee, while Peck defeated Sugar Dunkerton. Chikara will return with a tripleshot of shows in the Midwest at the end of June before coming back to the Delaware Valley in July for Chikarasaurus Rex weekend.

- TNA Sacrifice took place on May 15th as well, and there were no real surprises. Sting retained, Kurt Angle and Chyna won their match, Beer Money retained as well.

- New Japan Pro Wrestling's American tour went down last weekend with great fanfare. The elder statesman wrestling promotion from Japan made their American debut by crowning MVP as their inaugural IWGP Intercontinental Championship, winning a mini-tournament for the title over Toru Yano in the finals in Philly. Also on the Philly card, Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Davey Richards and Kenny Omega wrested the JAPW Light Heavyweight Championship from Jushin "Thunder" Liger. Also on the weekend, Low Ki and Prince Devitt wrestled in New York in what was reputed to be an amazing match. Also appearing over the weekend were Karl "Machine Gun" Anderson, Rhino, Jedo, Gado and Giant Bernard, aka Albert.

- Hey, remember the pro wrestling prom? It happened. I would have had a With Leather recap, but the aforementioned "Dashing" Brandon Stroud didn't get around to it. However, The Dirty Dirty Sheets has a recap, and you can check results out there. I just wanted to post a prom picture.

- Finally, AAW's EPIC!, first show of the period in question (FRIDAY THE 13th~!) may have been the bust-out show for the Chicagoland/Iowa indie fed. It featured a bunch of guest stars, the least of which certainly not being Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins. The event featured Alex Shelley (who put Michael Elgin over), the Blue World Order and Sabu, who defeated Mason Beck in the main event. Also on the card, Arik Cannon defeated Jimmy Jacobs.

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!