Category Archives: Samoa Joe

AEW’s “All In” Was Worth Every Penny (No Spoilers)

All Elite Wrestling has had a cloud over their heads since CM Punk and The Elite had a backstage brawl in 2022. Ratings for their flagship show “Dynamite” have been stagnant and their newest show, “Collision”, is having trouble cracking 600k viewers most weeks. Things aren’t as hot as they’ve been in the past and the tension between Punk and The Elite still continues. They desperately needed a big, successful show to help cleanse themselves of some of the last year’s stench.

AEW has been eyeing the UK market since before their debut episode of “Dynamite.” Owner Tony Khan spends a lot of time there due to his family’s ownership of Fulham Football Club. The pandemic ruined their plans of having a big show in Fulham’s home stadium. Now that things have returned to normal, they swung for the fences in their UK debut.

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Toy Crazy: Mattel’s WWE Elite Series 64

I’m a self-confessed vintage toy nerd. I collect vintage wrestling action figures from the 80’s & 90’s. I started purchasing some vintage toys out of nostalgia. Well, WWE and Mattel sucked me into their new stuff. I now buy a few figures a month. You can view photos of my collection on my Instagram account.

The lineup for WWE Elite series 64 is a pretty underwhelming set. Many in the lineup have been peg-warmers at retail in the past and the one ‘first time elite’ in the set is of a guy who has lost 200+ matches in a row.

The WWE Superstars included in Elite 64 Seth Rollins, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Samoa Joe, John Cena and two Curt Hawkins elites (yes, there’s a chase version).

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Toy Crazy: Mattel’s WWE Elite Series 56

The lineup for WWE Elite series 56 has been known for awhile (and I actually own a few of these figures right now). I fell behind on some of my toy reviews during football season. My betting picks and other gambling-related topics took over the site, so I didn’t have time to write up a couple posts about a hobby I enjoy.

Elite 56 has a couple first-ever elites and includes a couple top stars like AJ Styles and Roman Reigns. It’s a solid set, especially since we finally have The Club elites.

The WWE Superstars included in Elite 56 are AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Jack Gallagher, Roman Reigns & Samoa Joe.

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Top 10 WWE Matches of 2017

I started to compile a list of the ten best wrestling matches of 2017. The list of contenders was loaded with New Japan matches, a couple from Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and not many from WWE.

This year has just been an insane year for great matches all over the world. I decided to save that list for later this month and just focus on WWE with this post.

I was surprised there weren’t many top matches with women wrestlers in WWE. The top ten matches in WWE the last two years had plenty of contenders from the women’s division. I think when you have a belt on Alexa Bliss for most of the year (on Smackdown and RAW), and every brand PPV usually only has one women’s match (usually just the title match), you’re cutting down the opportunities for women to have great matches.

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Review: WWE Survivor Series 2017

I don’t always review WWE pay-per-views, but I usually do them for the ‘Big Four’ events. ‘Survivor Series’ would need to be a great show to surpass the previous night’s ‘NXT Takeover: War Games’ event that was insanely good.

I didn’t have high hopes for ‘Survivor Series’, but there were some matches that intrigued me. Brock Lesnar vs. AJ Styles was the match I was most looking forward to watching. I guess there were also certain match-ups in the main event that we’ve never seen before like Braun Strowman & Shinsuke Nakamura and Triple H & Bobby Roode that occurred, which were pretty cool.

Was the 2017 ‘Survivor Series’ worth all the hype?

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Review: WWE SummerSlam 2017

After last night’s NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III, the WWE main roster had to put on a PPV to follow up that amazing show. I wouldn’t say they failed to do so, but the show was too damn long.

If you count the pre-show and the main card, it was SIX HOURS LONG! You could watch two NFL football games, or roughly four football matches (I didn’t want to exclude my International readers). It wasn’t as long as Wrestlemania and thank God.

SummerSlam had five title changes, which could be a record. I know Michael Cole mentioned that this show has the most title matches in one night in the history of WWE. It may or may not be correct since WWE announcers have spewed bullshit records in the past (I’m looking at you Matt Striker).

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Toy Crazy: Mattel’s WWE NXT Series 1

The NXT lineup was announced either at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con or Ringside Fest (I can’t quite remember). Collectors have been anxiously waiting.

When it comes to store exclusives from Mattel, they just all of the sudden appear there without any announcement. That happened with the NXT series at Target, with both elites and basic figures.

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Seth Rollins Re-Injures Knee, Could Miss Wrestlemania

Seth Rollins has been one of the major players in WWE since debuting on the main roster in The Shield faction in 2012. He followed his run in the group with a WWE ‘Money In Bank’ win and then cashed in his briefcase at Wrestlemania 31 in the middle of the Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns main event.

Rollins was the champ for over six months, but he blew out his ACL during a November European tour. He had to forfeit the WWE Championship and was on the shelf for quite awhile. He had to miss Wrestlemania 32 due to the injury and didn’t come back until May 22nd at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view.

WWE has been teasing a Rollins vs. Triple H match for nearly six months. The possible Wrestlemania 33 match is now in jeopardy after Rollins legitimately re-injured his surgically-repaired knee on Monday Night Raw.

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Toy Crazy: Mattel’s WWE Elite Series 43

Elite 42 was bit of a disappointment, even though I was glad to see the Nasty Boys get some figures. The lineup in Elite 43 is just beyond amazing. You have the first elites of three different superstars. The WWE Superstars included in Elite 43 are Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Alberto Del Rio and Kofi Kingston.

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