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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?
Backlash 2005
Date: May 1, 2005
Location: Verizon Wireless Arena, Manchester, New Hampshire
Attendance: 14,000
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
It’s the follow up to Wrestlemania and that means we’re in for a rematch for the Raw World Title with HHH challenging Batista for the title. Other than that, we have the ultimate teaming of Shawn Michaels/Hulk Hogan vs. Muhammad Hassan/Daivari because we need a way to get to what is likely going to be Shawn vs. Hogan at a big show. Let’s get to it.
The opening video i..

They might have a case. One of the most important things a wrestling company can do is connect with its fans. There needs to be a way for a promotion to be able to give its fans information about all kinds of things the company is doing and one of the best is a website. Without a good one, things can get a little troublesome and that seems to be the case again in a pretty serious way.
According to Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston, AEW is facing a class action lawsuit over its website violating the Americans With Disabilities Act. The site does not include coding that allows the use of screen readers to used by the visually impaired. The coding allows a program to describe items being displayed. WWE faced a similar lawsuit in 2020 and settled with the plaintiffs shortly thereafter.
A plaintiff has filed a class action complaint against All Elite Wrestling, LLC for allegedly violating the Americans With Disabilities Act, claiming https://t.co/HckO1NRSoH isn't accessible to visually..

It’s a gig. Wrestlers have a weird relationship when it comes to acting, as while they are professional athletes, they are also acting in a way. They are asked to go out in front of an audience and portray a character, while also wrestling a match. That is easier said than done, but now one prominent wrestler is getting more into the pure acting side of things with the ring not being included.
Earlier this week, AEW’s CM Punk appeared in an episode of Mayans M.C. as Paul, a military veteran. According to show runner Elgin James in an interview with Gamespot, the character was written with Punk in mind and he will continue to appear throughout the rest of season four. Punk has dabbled in acting before, most notably in the horror movie The Girl On The Third Floor and the Starz wrestling series Heels.
Punk has some screen presence. Check out his appearance on the show:
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Opinion: This is something that is rather cool to see as Punk has a bit of..

One more on the list? There are a lot of wrestling promotions in the world but only a few rise to prominence. It takes a lot of money, time and effort to make a promotion work and a lot of that comes down to the owner. If the right person is not behind the wheel, things can go badly in a hurry. Now someone you might have heard of before is throwing their hat into the ring.
Freddie Prinze Jr., an actor and former member of the WWE Creative team, has announced on his Wrestling With Freddie podcast that he is planning to start his own promotion. Prinze says that he hopes to have the promotion up and running in eighteen months but does not expect to get a TV deal right away. He hopes that his shows are about two hours each and wants men and women to have equal time. In addition, Prinze is hoping that the show will be a SAG show, meaning that everyone involved will be a member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Opinion: This is one of those things that might sound good on paper but it might be a..

He might have a future in this. Wrestlers often have a hard time finding a way out of the industry, as it is all they have done for so long. It can be sad to see someone hanging on for far longer than they should, but that is not always the case. Sometimes you see someone find a career that suits them very well, and that is the case again with a wrestling legend who will be continuing in an important role.
Earlier this week, Glenn Jacobs, better known as Kane, won the Republican primary in the race for Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, a position he currently holds. Jacobs ran unopposed and will move on to the general election in August. While holding office since 2018, Jacobs has continued to make occasional WWE appearances, including last week. Jacobs has also issued a statement on his victory:
Tonight was a victory for our Knox County conservative values. I can not express my gratitude to everyone who has shown me support over the past months! It is my honor to serve as your Mayor…

The forbidden door continues. Tonight on AEW Dynamite, William Morrissey, known as W. Morrissey in Impact Wrestling, made his debut with the company. He served as MJF’s mystery opponent for Wardlow and would be defeated in his debut.
You can see the video of his debut below:
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Morrissey has been with Impact since April 2021, when he was revealed as the surprise replacement for Eric Young in Violent by Design’s match against Chris Sabin, Eddie Edwards, James Storm, and Willie Mack. He is best known for his time in WWE as Big Cass, which is a shortened name of his former ring name, Colin Cassidy.
It is unknown at this time if this was a one-off appearance, or if he has signed a deal with the company.
Editor’s Opinion:
This was a great moment for Morrissey and I’m thrilled that he got his opportunity to wrestle in AEW. I always thought that he had a ton of potential in WWE and it was unfortunate that he was released in the circumstances that ..

There’s the next one. We are less than a month away from AEW Double Or Nothing, which means the card is already starting to come together. AEW only presents a pay per view every quarter and that means they have a lot of time setting up the card in advance. There will be a variety of title matches on the show and as of this week, we have another one of them set.
An AEW Women’s Title match was set for Double Or Nothing this week on AEW Dynamite. Thunder Rosa will be defending against Serena Deeb, who challenged Rosa for the title match. The challenge comes after the two had a brief interaction last month. This will be Deeb’s first ever shot at the title, though she did defeat Rosa to win the NWA Women’s World Title in October 2020 and successfully defended it against Rosa on Dynamite the following month.
Opinion: This is the kind of match that the show needs, as it had been set up in recent weeks and was then made official this week. That isn’t a complicated situation and AEW didn’t bo..

History has been made! We are in a very interesting time in wrestling as the lines between the companies have virtually gone away. You can see wrestlers show up in one national company after another and it makes for a series of interesting matches. Some of them can be rather interesting and a title can make them even better. That was the case this week with a rather intricate situation.
This week on AEW Dynamite, Interim Ring Of Honor Women’s Champion Mercedes Martinez defeated Ring Of Honor Women’s Champion Deonna Purrazzo to unify the titles. The match saw Martinez, an AEW wrestler defeat Purrazzo, an Impact Wrestling wrestler, for a Ring Of Honor title. There is no word on if Purrazzo will be making regular appearances for AEW going forward.
Opinion: This is something that sounded like a good idea on paper but AEW did not do the best job of hyping up the match. The match had quite the unique setup but it was treated as just another match that happened to headline the show. AEW sti..

That could be worse. There are all kinds of injuries that could keep someone out of action. One of the worst parts about an injury is waiting to see how long the injury is going to put them on the shelf. It could be anywhere from a few days to several months or anywhere in the middle. That was the case again recently, as another wrestler is on the shelf for a little while.
This week on NXT, Brooks Jensen was examined by a doctor about an arm injury suffered at the hands of Von Wagner. As a result, Jensen will be out of action for six to eight weeks, though the doctor had said that Jensen could have been out of action as long as ten to twelve weeks. There is no word on if the injury is legitimate or just part of the storyline between Jensen and Wagner.
Opinion: That could be worse, though I’m not sure how long Josh Briggs is going to be able to hang on his own. The team isn’t exactly red hot in the first place but they were figuring out something with Fallon Henley involved. Hopefully..

Dynamite
Date: May 4, 2022
Location: Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena, Baltimore, Maryland
Commentators: Excalibur, Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone
I’m not sure how but we’re less than a month away from Double Or Nothing. Last week’s show saw the announcement that CM Punk would be challenging Hangman Page for the World Title at the pay per view so at least they have the top match set up pretty far in advance. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Owen Hart Foundation Qualifying Match: Jeff Hardy vs. Bobby Fish Adam Cole is on commentary and Matt Hardy and Kyle O’Reilly are at ringside. Fish takes him into the corner to start and kicks away at the leg, setting up a dragon screw legwhip onto the other leg. They head outside with another dragon screw legwhip sending Hardy into the barricade and we take a break.
Back with Hardy making a comeback and dropping Fish to go up top. The Swanton is broken up though and it’s the super Falcon Arrow to put Hardy down for two. Fish grabs the kneebar bu..

Add it to the list. WWE presents quite a bit of television content in any given week, with at least two hours of programming three nights a week. That allows them to offer quite a bit of material, but that is not all they do. In addition there are also regular or in some cases semi-regular specials. Now WWE might be considering adding another one for a show that doesn’t have that many.
According to the WrestleVotes Twitter account, WWE is considering presenting another NXT Stand & Deliver special later this year. The show would be paired with one of the main roster’s stadium shows, which include Money in the Bank in July, Summerslam in July or Clash At The Castle in September. WWE’s preference is to hold it over Money in the Bank weekend, but Summerslam seems more likely. NXT’s most recent Stand & Deliver took place over WrestleMania 38 weekend in April.
WWE has discussed adding another Stand & Deliver event for one of the 3 big stadium shows happening this summer. I’ve heard the pre..

That’s a strong point. WWE and AEW are the two most dominant wrestling promotions in the world with almost no one else even close to them. That seems likely to be the case for a long time to come, but there are few ways to compare the two. It can be done though, and now we have some numbers that shoe one company dominating in one specific area of fan interest.
According to Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston, WWE has dominated the Google searches in professional wrestling with 80.1% of all professional Wrestling searches in the year so far. AEW came in second with 12.4% and New Japan Pro Wrestling was third with 5%. No other promotion broke more than two percent. While the gap is closing, it is still seen as a long time before there is any real competition.
Opinion: While there are several factors to consider here (including how much longer WWE has been around), it is rather telling that WWE is this far ahead of AEW, and anyone else for that matter. WWE dominates the level of interest fr..