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Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over twelve years now and have reviewed over 6,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be?
Ric Flair’s Last Match
Date: July 31, 2022
Location: Nashville Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, David Crockett, Ian Riccaboni
We had to get here eventually and I’m not that happy about it. This is a show that I haven’t really wanted to watch since it was announced and that hasn’t changed since. While I absolutely respect what he did in the ring, I’m not the biggest Flair fan and seeing him do something this risky isn’t something I particularly needed to see. The good thing i..

The important part. AEW has been around for a few years now, with most of its focus being built around the weekly Dynamite series. The show has built a consistent audience that rarely goes below a certain level, which is quite the selling point for the company. However, there are some forces at work that could cause AEW some problems and there is nothing they can do about it.
AEW’s parent company WarnerMedia and Discovery have recently merged, meaning that AEW has a new boss. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, Discovery is making all kinds of budget cuts, which could be a problem when AEW’s next television deal is negotiated next year. This could mean that AEW’s new deal could be worth significantly less, or that the company could have to move elsewhere, though nothing will be known for sure until next year.
Opinion: This merger is one of the biggest stories in all of entertainment at the moment and things are starting to look shaky for the future of some of these properties. Tha..

Of all people to not talk. While the focus in wrestling tends to be what happens between the bells, a wrestler having the ability to speak well might be even more important. Without a wrestler speaking to the fans and making them care, a story is only going to have so much impact. As it turns out, one of the best talkers in wrestling today has not had much to say lately.
Back on the June 1 edition of AEW Dynamite, Maxwell Jacob Friedman cut an in-ring promo insulting the company and owner Tony Khan. Friedman has not been seen and barely referenced on AEW TV since and it is not clear when he will be returning. According to Fightful Select, Friedman has been silent since the promo, making no contact with any known AEW wrestler or staff member. Khan has not been heard discussing Friedman either.
Opinion: This is one of those stories that could go in a few different ways, but it would be nice to see it go in some way. I’m not sure when Friedman is going to be back, but if he isn’t back j..

Join the team. A manager can do quite a few positive things for a wrestler. There might be someone who needs someone to do the talking for them or someone who can bring some instant interest to them. AEW does that on a regular basis with a variety of managers who work for several wrestlers. Now they have another pairing which was formed this week and already has potential.
This week on AEW Dynamite, Ethan Page was in the ring and complained about getting no attention in AEW. Page asked why he wasn’t having a match every week or why his face wasn’t featured in more advertising for the company. Stokely Hathaway came out and stared at Page before handing him his business card. The two left together, suggesting that Page has joined Hathaway’s group. Page had been associated with Dan Lambert for several months but there was no mention of Lambert this week.
Opinion: This is something that could be interesting as Page does need something to do. Page has talent but he has not had the chance ..

They didn’t do much in advance. WWE has been shaken up quite a bit over the last few weeks and there is a good chance that it is going to continue for a good while to come. Some of these changes have taken place behind the scenes, with some of those moves causing changes in front of the camera. That was the case last week and things were a bit more rushed than they seemed.
At Summerslam, Bayley made her return to WWE TV after over a year away due to a torn ACL. She was soon joined by Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai, who were making their returns after being gone from NXT for several months. Kai appeared on this week’s edition of the Bump and revealed that her appearance was a last minute decision and not planned in advance. Kai was originally released from WWE on April 29, just over three months before her return but did not wrestle a match for any other promotion.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that has me interested, as it is the sort of change that you might see happen on a fairly regu..

That’s going to be a big one. AEW has been around for a few years now and the company has built up a rather deep roster in its existence. This involves a group of wrestlers who have been around the world with all kinds of success. That includes wrestlers being paired together in different units, but now one of those groups has fallen apart in a pretty violent way.
This week’s AEW Dynamite featured the return of the Undisputed Elite, including Adam Cole. During his speech, Cole revealed that he was injured and unable to participate in the upcoming Trios Titles tournament. Cole also said that fellow Undisputed Elite members the Young Bucks would be unable to participate as well because they would be physically unable. This caused Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly to attack the bucks, with Hangman Page having to make the save. Page did not embrace the Bucks and left without them.
Opinion: This feels like something that is designed to set up the return of Kenny Omega, but if that is not the c..

It was nice while it lasted. Stables are an idea that work very well in a lot of ways. One of the best things that they can do is bring together a lot of wrestlers who might not be able to get enough television time on their own. At some point almost every stable splits up though, and that is the case again with a stable that has been around for a while. This time it ended in a bit of a unique way.
Last week on AEW Dynamite, Hook answered an open challenge from Ricky Starks and win the FTW Title. Following the title loss, Powerhouse Hobbs attacked Starks and left him laying. All three are members of Team Taz, with Taz himself ending the team the following week. Taz said that he was ending the team because he did not know what the members were doing and no one cleared these actions with him.
Opinion: I do like the logic here, as there was no reason for Taz to stick around if his team has nothing to do with him. There isn’t much of a reason to keep the thing going so let everyone go fo..

Dynamite
Date: August 3, 2022
Location: Schottenstein Center, Columbus, Ohio
Commentators: Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Taz
We’re rapidly coming up on All Out but first we need to get through this weekend’s Battle Of The Belts, which is apparently a thing that is happening. So far there is one match announced and that means we will probably get the rest of the card announced. Whether that is in rapid fire or with more traditional announcements remains to be seen, but Excalibur is probably warming up his throat. Let’s get to it.
Jay Lethal vs. Orange Cassidy Cassidy rolls him up to start and knocks Lethal up the ramp, setting up the lazy kicks. Lethal crawls away but it’s Satnam Singh waiting at the top of the ramp. Cue the Best Friends, with Trent on Taylor’s shoulders, to be taller than Singh, who leaves for no logical reason. With that HILARIOUS visual gag out of the way, we get back in and Cassidy hits a high crossbody but the tornado DDT is countered into a dragon screw legwhip. Ca..

There’s the next generation. There are a lot of wrestlers in the world today though some of them are away from the ring at times. Those wrestlers are still waiting to get back to the ring at some point, but there are things that can slow them down. Some of those things are very good news though and that is the case again, as two wrestlers have a very positive announcement.
AEW star Shawn Spears and former WWE and Impact Wrestling star Cassie Lee (better known as Peyton Royce) have announced that they are expecting a child. The video shows Spears opening a gift and seeing something inside that tells him Lee is pregnant. An ultrasound photo is also shown, along with photos of Spears hugging Lee’s stomach. There is no word on when the baby is due.
This is special. Check out the reveal:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Opinion: That’s awesome to see and probably the most important thing that the two will ever get to announce. You can see the emotions on their faces and that is..

It’s quite the introduction. Celebrities have a strange history when it comes to wrestling. There have always been famous people coming inside the wrestling bubble and at times, it can draw in an extra audience. That is a tricky balance to find though, as you do not want a celebrity with a small following taking up too much time. WWE has tried to find that balance, and now they may have again with a famous star. He just might not be famous to everyone.
Triple H appeared on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast and revealed that he had never heard of Paul when approached about Paul appearing for WWE. In addition to people in WWE telling Triple H who Paul was, his children also talked about Paul, which helped show Triple H just how big of a star Paul is. Paul has wrestled twice for WWE, including last weekend at Summerslam, where he defeated the Miz.
There is a lot to this. Check out the full interview:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: This is one of those things that ha..

We are living in a brand new reality in wrestling and that is going to take some getting used to over the next….well years probably. Following the retirement (or forcing out, whichever you prefer) of Vince McMahon, WWE is officially in uncharted waters and the boss is not there to steer the ship. That could create a lot of problems, but that certainly wasn’t the case this week.
This week’s Monday Night Raw featured the fallout from Summerslam and happened to be one of the best editions of the show that I have seen in a LONG time. The show felt quite a bit different that anything Monday Night Raw had done in years and you could tell that there was a breath of fresh air to the whole thing. That was the case for a lot of reasons and we are going to look at some of the bigger ones this week. Note that this isn’t meant to be exhaustive, but rather the things that stood out to me the most.
The biggest change that stood out was the wrestlers were acting more like humans. How often have you ..

It’s finally here. AEW issued a press release today, officially announcing their upcoming video game ‘Fight Forever’. This comes after an initial announcement was made in late 2020.
From the press release:
THQ Nordic GmbH and All Elite Wrestling, LLC (AEW) and YUKE’S Co., Ltd. today confirmed that the release of AEW: Fight Forever will be the tag-team event of the century! The two companies have joined forces to bring developer YUKES’ latest creation to PS4™, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo® Switch.
“One of the first things I did after signing with AEW was to ask Tony Khan to let me help assemble the best gaming team on the planet, to make the best wrestling game ever,” said Kenny Omega, EVP of AEW and former AEW World Champion and AEW World Tag Team Champion. “Well, we just landed the perfect finisher by partnering with global publishing and distribution powerhouse THQ Nordic for AEW: Fight Forever. The THQ brand has long been synonymous with wrestling games – ther..