Seems like the G1 Climax stole all the Good Wrestling thunder in August. This was a pretty weak month, with a strong Top 5 or 6 before you get into the territory of “fun” / “solid” matches where your fondness for them is going to depend on your overall feelings about World Wrestling Entertainment.
1. WWE U.K. Title: WALTER [c] vs. Tyler Bate (NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff 8/31/19)
A 45-minute professional wrestling main event championship match on the WWE Network. When you boil it down this is simple David vs. Goliath stuff but there was a lot going on here. It did a lot of what some of Bate’s best matches in WWE have done, and that’s deliver on the new school high impact fast-paced This is Awesome type of wrestling while also staying true to what makes old school wrestling great: stuff is teased and delivered on, everything from the holds to the urgency to win is sold dramatically, and at the end of the day everything is about absolute wonderful fake manliness with a little throwback BritWres thrown in there for fun. The match was smart, the match was fun, the match was epic.
2. Candice LeRae vs. Io Shirai (NXT TakeOver: Toronto 8/10/19)
There were a few things that were good hovering on great this month, but this was the one that stood out – not just a match, but these two finally getting to be like: hey, motherfuckers, we are major league professional wrestlers. The presence of Io Shirai after landing on her feet off a headscissors or a German suplex from the top is something that could change the world if bottled up. Candice made for a great underdog too.
3. WWE Universal Title: Brock Lesnar [c] w/ Paul Heyman vs. Seth Rollins (SummerSlam 8/11/19)
I didn’t want to see this again, I don’t feel any better that I did, but it was an action-packed sprint where every second felt urgent, and every opening Seth got felt like THE ONE which is really how you want this sort of David vs. Goliath thing to work. The spot where Brock picked up and spun Seth around by his rib-tape was an all-timer, and the big table splash through the announce table was one of the better big table splashes through the announce table I’ve ever seen.
4. Buddy Murphy vs. Roman Reigns (SmackDown 8/13/19)
One of those special matches that wasn’t just a Very Good Wrestling but had a lot going on: Buddy making his TV in-ring debut, Buddy wrestling ROMAN REIGNS, the Daniel Bryan saga surrounding it, and best of all Roman for the first time in forever wrestling a long TV match and as per usual crushing it. He sold not just like he was exhausted but like he was legitimately taken aback by this cruiserweight punk.
5. Buddy Murphy vs. Daniel Bryan w/ Rowan (SmackDown 8/20/19)
Here’s Daniel Bryan, still casually the best wrestler in the world, opposite a blank slate of an athletic gem of a wrestler. He smacked and bit and stretched Buddy Murphy so much that Buddy organically got over with the live crowd, and they made the most of it – the most of what you can do on SmackDown Live, at least.
6. NXT Tag Team Title: Street Profits [c] vs. The Undisputed Era (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) (NXT TakeOver: Toronto 8/10/19)
You can’t beat good tag wrestling, especially when it’s opening up TakeOver – they got time, everything was extra physical, and the crowd was extra hot. Montez Ford is doing babyface offense based around armdrags and leapfrogs and dropkicks, but he is also doing tribute spots to The Rock and it feels weirdly appropriate. O’Reilly and Fish provided a solid beatdown, particularly O’Reilly who was just wrecking everybody with strikes. Dawkins meanwhile might’ve been my favorite guy here – he’s been working on those strikes, and is now really into takedowns and just launching dudes into another dudes. So good.
7. King of the Ring – Round 1: Ali vs. Buddy Murphy (SmackDown 8/27/19)
A match with a directive: go do cool shit on television. And they did. It a great showcase/introduction of these two guys to SmackDown – not as epic as some of their 205 Live battles, but maybe more effective. Buddy doing the Dirty Dancing lift and dropping Ali outside, and Ali’s Tornado DDT in the ropes were tremendous spots.
8. King of the Ring – Round 1: Ricochet vs. Drew McIntyre (RAW 8/26/19)
This was a lot of Ricochet doing wild stuff and Drew bringing him back down to earth: the Ricochet catch into the northern lights and a roll-through followed by Drew just tossing him away, the dive over the stairs into the Glasgow Kiss. Drew vs. a little fella is when Drew suddenly becomes really good, especially when the little fella is this very exciting Ricochet guy.
9. Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic (NXT 8/29/19)
These two are the exception to the wrestling rule when it comes to monsters as high-flyers, and while this didn’t come close to their first NXT match for me it provided a fun in-between as we head into what I imagine are a lot more of these matches. At around 10 minutes it felt pretty short, and read more like a brief showcase than a big epic heavyweight encounter like the last one. Dug the powerbomb catch, dug the Feast Your Eyes, but most of all dug Lee’s nod to tell Dijakovic that yes he WOULD be slamming his head into the turnbuckle.
10. Cesaro vs. Ilja Dragunov (NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff 8/31/19)
Always good to see casual wrestling legend Cesaro treated like a superstar, and he had a lot of fun wrestling Ilja Dragunov. There was a 40-rotation Giant Swing here. 40!!! Also Cesaro hits like one of the greatest Go 2 Sleep’s of all time here.
11. RAW Tag Team Title: Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson [c] w/ AJ Styles vs. Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman (RAW 8/19/19)
A great old-fashioned kind of tag, with a little 90s sprinkle of a Tag Titles match being booked mid-show and 80s era sprinkle with Seth selling his taped ribs while big Braun kept getting held back until he beat some ass.
12. WWE Cruiserweight Title: Drew Gulak [c] vs. Oney Lorcan (205 Live 8/13/19)
As seems to be tradition now, the Cruiserweight Title rematch on 205 Live was better than the match on the PPV Kickoff. This was very good, though still not quite the earth-shattering experience I’d expect from this pair. Either way, Oney Rules.
13. Rey Mysterio vs. Andrade w/ Zelina Vega (RAW 8/5/19)
A shorter version of their SmackDown epics from earlier in the year, but they still packed in some insanity here: the baseball slide sunset flip, Rey’s springboard backflip into a crucifix bomb, a headscissors caught with a tossing powerbomb. Great frantic cradles at the end too, just unreal work. I’m jealous of Zelina Vega – she has a front row seat to all this magic.
14. Triple Threat Match – NXT North American Title: Velveteen Dream [c] vs. Pete Dunne vs. Roderick Strong (NXT TakeOver: Toronto 8/10/19)
A match with a ton of cool stuff. Lots of cool stuff. A bunch of really cool badass spots laid out to make for a pretty good time. It also didn’t totally hit. Like it was good, it was fun, I just need a generation-defining classic from these guys right now and didn’t get it.
15. King of the Ring – Round 1: Samoa Joe vs. Cesaro (RAW 8/19/19)
A match that provided kind of what-if scenario if this was 10 years ago and these two got a bunch of time on RAW. It’s a little slower and more careful but still rules: uppercuts, chops, boots, and a lariat that just bodied Cesaro. They went at it from the bell and stayed on each other. All of the strikes were so cool that a corkscrew springboard uppercut Cesaro did got no reaction.
16. WWE U.S. Title: AJ Styles [c] vs. Ricochet (SummerSlam 8/11/19)
A longer-than-usual Ricochet in WWE match, and Styles worked like a reliable craftsman wrestler, targeting the leg and being there for every freakish thing Ricochet did. There’s still something missing from WWE vet AJ, a restraint that isn’t meeting an assumed potential, so the match was a good time but not much beyond that – which is kind of how all their matches have been. The step-over Gallows and Anderson into the rana that made the crowd YELP was SO good though.
17. Triple Threat Match – NXT UK Tag Team Title: The Grizzled Young Veterans [c] vs. Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster vs. Gallus (Wolfgang & Mark Coffey) (NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff 8/31/19)
It was a bit of a rough journey to get there but this match closed STRONG. Still not sure why Gallus was here but still, really fun wild finish.
18. Last Man Standing: Bomber Dave Mastiff vs. Joe Coffey (NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff 8/31/19)
A match that was occasionally really cool and entertaining that was also sometimes annoyingly ridiculous. The rope snaps a couple minutes in, Coffey takes some concerning bumps, and they used a cricket bat and snooker stick because UNITED KINGDOM. Good stunt at the end too.
19. Matt Riddle vs. Killian Dain (NXT 8/21/19)
Very good stuff, a great re-debut for Dain and a match that was exactly what it should’ve been: Riddle working around this big ass motherfucker as they rolled around, hit each other, and Riddle fired up once in a while with some wild strength spots including a deadlift German suplex.
20. Cedric Alexander vs. Drew McIntyre (RAW 8/12/19)
Cedric is very good at being tossed around, while Drew – as stated above – works well with smaller fellas. Heck of a Claymore too.
21. NXT Tag Team Title: Street Profits [c] vs. The Undisputed Era (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) (NXT 8/29/19)
A match that might’ve been as quality as their TakeOver opener, just lacking the heat. Dawkins again stood out, including a great spot where he just straight-up shoved Fish into O’Reilly and speared Fish.
22. WWE Title: Kofi Kingston [c] vs. Randy Orton (SummerSlam 8/11/19)
A match that I swear to you was building to something real good and then it just ended by double countout. An amazing Orton performance though, truly – Kofi takes some massive bumps, but Orton’s ability to just stand there and milk in a moment is special. And not in a “derrr old school wrestling” way but in a legit bonafide superstar way. What’s really impressive is that they worked this slow type of match after a weak stretch of matches before it and actually sort of made it work.
23. 10-Man Captain’s Challenge Match: Oney Lorcan (c), Akira Tozawa, Jack Gallagher, Humberto Carrillo & Isaiah “Swerve” Scott vs. Drew Gulak, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, Mike Kanellis & Angel Garza (205 Live 8/20/19)
A match that made for a more interesting version of the usual 205 Live television show, with a bunch of strong pairings over 40 minutes of wrestling action that ranged from really cool to mediocre. Carrillo vs. Garza, Swerve vs. Nese, and Swerve vs. Garza all stood out as match-ups, while Daivari lasted an incredibly long time for some reason. Great Carrillo/Garza finish too, and the match starts off with a quadruple umbrella plancha.
24. 2/3 Falls: Rey Mysterio vs. Andrade w/ Zelina Vega (RAW 8/12/19)
In retrospect, running Andrade vs. Rey as a bunch of TV matches and doing no PPV match might’ve been a mistake. I do know that giving this 2/3 Falls Match under 10 minutes of TV time was one. Regardless, these two did some incredible sequences in here that I wouldn’t necessarily say were new but were still incredible examples of human capability.
25. WWE Cruiserweight Title: Drew Gulak [c] vs. Oney Lorcan (SummerSlam Kickoff 8/11/19)
A match lacking atmosphere as the crowd found their seats, but as with most Oney matches once he started moving it got real good. There was also a moment where both guys stopped to square up that I really enjoyed. Lots of slaps to the neck too.
Honorable Mentions: 6-Pack Challenge Match – Winner Faces Drew Gulak for Cruiserweight Title at SummerSlam: Tony Nese vs. Kalisto vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Jack Gallagher vs. Oney Lorcan vs. Ariya Daivari (205 Live 8/6/19), Akira Tozawa w/ Brian Kendrick vs. Jack Gallagher (205 Live 8/13/19), NXT UK Women’s Title: Toni Storm [c] vs. Kay Lee Ray (NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff 8/31/19), Bomber Dave Mastiff vs. Joe Coffey (NXT UK 8/7/19), WWE Cruiserweight Title: Drew Gulak [c] vs. Oney Lorcan (SummerSlam Kickoff 8/11/19)
Ali vs. Dolph Ziggler (SmackDown 8/6/19), NXT Breakout Tournament – Final: Jordan Myles vs. Cameron Grimes (NXT 8/14/19), Bayley vs. Lacey Evans (SmackDown 8/27/19), Big E vs. Randy Orton (SmackDown 8/27/19), Aleister Black vs. Sami Zayn (SmackDown 8/6/19), Lince Dorado vs. Humberto Carrillo (205 Live 8/6/19), Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins vs. The Revival (Main Event 8/7/19)
Mark Andrews w/ Flash Morgan Webster vs. Wolfgang w/ Mark Coffey (NXT UK 8/21/19), Roman Reigns vs. Dolph Ziggler (RAW 8/19/19), King of the Ring – Round 1: Apollo Crews vs. Andrade w/ Zelina Vega (SmackDown 8/21/19), Dana Brooke vs. Sarah Logan (Main Event 8/7/19), Kassius Ohno vs. Ilja Dragunov (NXT UK 8/14/19), The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) vs. The Revival (RAW 8/19/19)
