Indian Pro Wrestling Base

Welcome back. We are on the way to AEW Revolution and that means things are starting to get a lot more interesting in a hurry. While the show is still about two weeks away, AEW is starting to put the card together. That includes drumming up interest in the show, and that can be done in a few ways. One of those ways took place this week, albeit two times on the same show.
This week’s edition of AEW Dynamite featured two returns over the course of the show. First up, the returning Kyle O’Reilly, along with Bobby Fish, helped Adam Cole attack Hangman Page, marking their returns after a multiple week absence. O’Reilly had been out of action due to paternity leave. Later, Eddie Kingston made his return from a broken orbital bone to manage Santana and Ortiz in their win over Chris Jericho and Jake Hager. Kingston and Jericho brawled after the match.
Opinion: Neither of these were big surprises, but it does make you feel like things are starting to pick up. I could go for more of both of th..

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?
Survivor Series 2002
Date: November 17, 2002
Location: Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York
Attendance: 17,930
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Tazz
For those of you who have read my old reviews of this show, you might remember that the main event has sent me into various rantings and ravings over the years. It might have ticked me off more than any match ever at one point, though it’s since been topped multiple times. I’m kind of curious to see how I react to it this time around so le..

Ring Of Honor
Date: February 16, 2022
We’re still on the Hall of Fame shows and that means we should be in for a fun week. Last week’s show was pretty awesome and this time around we have another big one with Bryan Danielson. He was absolutely a star in Ring of Honor and was a big part of why the company got on the map. Opening the vault is always fun so let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
We open with Danielson’s Hall of Fame video, including talking about how his talent and amazing matches helped develop the company’s reputation. Then he moved on to WWE and AEW and kept doing the same thing.
From Glory By Honor V (September 16, 2006).
Ring Of Honor World Title: Kenta vs. Bryan Danielson Danielson is defending has a horrible shoulder coming in. Kenta threatens him with the big kick to start and backs Danielson up against the ropes. That means a slap to the face and things are getting a bit more serious. They go to a test of strength until Danielson grabs the arm, setting up a knee..

There are weeks when I start this column with almost no idea what I should be talking about. While there might be a major wrestling story going on, it might be something that I had already talked about recently or there just isn’t enough to write a full column about it. Then there are weeks like this one, when there are two major stories that I can’t pick between. Therefore, I’m not going to try, meaning that this week we’ll be having a pair of mini columns about the two biggest wrestling stories of the week.
First up, we’ll start with one of the biggest What If’s in recent memory: the possibility of Steve Austin returning to the ring in April for WrestleMania 38. Should Austin actually get in the ring, it would end his nineteen year retirement, marking one of the all time surprise returns to the ring. Austin has long since maintained that he is retired and not interested in a return to the ring, but the rumors have started up again for WrestleMania season.
Now granted, there is a Te..

Dynamite
Date: February 16, 2022
Location: Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, Tennessee
Commentators: Excalibur, Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone
They have their work cut out for themselves after last week’s show but AEW has a tendency to make something like that work more often than not. We are less than three weeks away from Revolution as well so it is time to start hammering home the card. The good thing is that you probably know what you’re getting. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
We open with CM Punk sitting in the middle of the ring, where he explains the idea of straightedge, which means he is better than you. That kind of a statement might sound familiar because he said it for the first time over twenty years ago. It inspired some people to be wrestlers and some people to be straightedge. Heck it even inspired some people to sit like him, ala Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
That would be the same MJF who beat him in his hometown of Chicago (twice). MJF tries to make himself seem like some..

That’s never good to hear. There are certain awful things in wrestling that can happen to anyone and unfortunately they can come out of nowhere. Some of them are a lot more serious than others, with injuries being near the top of the list. You never know when someone is going to be hurt and taken out of action out of nowhere and unfortunately that is the case again.
AEW’s Jake Atlas has revealed that he has suffered a torn ACL and has already undergone surgery. Atlas injured his knee in a match against Adam Cole on the January 7 Rampage, though the extent of his injury was not known. The injury took place during Atlas’ first match under contract with AEW after wrestling a few matches on the company’s web series over the previous weeks. There is no word on when he will be back in the ring.
Don’t forget to tune in to #AEWDynamite tonight on @TBSNetwork! pic.twitter.com/ALCC1r5Jvw
— ???? ????? (@JakeAtlasReal) February 16, 2022
Opinion: That is never good to hear and it is a shame tha..

Not so fast? There have been some big wrestling stories over the course of the week, but perhaps the most surprising has been Cody and Brandi Rhodes leaving AEW. Cody helped found the company and Brandi was an executive, but now both of them are out the door. This has led to some speculation about where they are heading, but we might know a bit more about one of them.
According to Sports Illustrated, Brandi will not be joining Cody in WWE, assuming Cody goes there as well. There is no word on where Brandi will go, or if she will continue to wrestle elsewhere. Brandi served as a ring announcer during her time in WWE, under the name of Eden Stiles, though she never wrestled a match for the company. Cody has been in talks to make a WWE return but nothing has been made official.
Opinion: I’m not sure if this is the biggest surprise, as while Brandi has been in WWE, she was never a character or anything more than a ring announcer. Now that she has become a television character and a wrest..

No more running. AEW does not run the most frequent pay per views and it makes their schedule a bit different. Instead of running a show every month, the company runs four pay per views a year, meaning their shows tend to have some very stacked cards. That is something that AEW knows how to do very well and now they have added a pretty violent match to their next pay per view.
Last week on AEW Dynamite, CM Punk and Jon Moxley teamed up to defeat FTR. As a result of the win, Punk was allowed to pick the specifics of his rematch with Maxwell Jacob Friedman. This week’s Dynamite opened with Punk announcing that the match will take place at Revolution on March 6 and it will be a Dog Collar match. This will be the second Dog Collar match in AEW history after Cody Rhodes defeated Brodie Lee in October 2020.
Opinion: This is the kind of match that could go a long way to making Revolution special, as it is going to be a war between two people who feel like they hate each other You don’t get ..

That doesn’t seem to be the best idea. Wrestling is as unique of a form of entertainment as you can get, as the wrestlers are required to make everything look as real as possible while being as safe as possible. That is a heck of a trick, but there are some wrestlers who can cause some very real damage if they need to. It would not be logical to go after them, but that is what took place recently.
Brock Lesnar appeared on the Pat McAfee Show this week and told a story of how Johnny Knoxville broke down Lesnar’s hotel room door. Lesnar was in St. Louis for the Royal Rumble and had a private room at his hotel. He was told that Knoxville and the cast of Jackass was there as well, so Lesnar sent over a bottle of wine. Soon thereafter, Knoxville broke down Lesnar’s door so Lesnar came outside and put Jackass member Wee Man through a table. According to Lesnar, none of this was planned in advance.
There is a lot here. Check out the full interview:
[This post contains video, click to play]..

They might not be able to do everything. AEW has come a very long way in the three years since their inception. The company has brought in several wrestlers from around the world, developing an interesting roster, which can make for some amazing matches and shows. However, there are some limits to what AEW can do and now you might be noticing some of those limits taking effect soon.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, AEW spends a high amount of money on its roster in order to compete with WWE. This includes names such as Adam Cole, who is making “way more” than he would have made had he signed a new WWE deal, and Bryan Danielson, who is likely making “several” million dollars a year. The company is starting to slow down on some of its major signings, but hopefully they will be able to spend more on some major names when their new television deal comes through in 2024.
Opinion: This is something that had to be an issue at some point, as Tony Khan has a lot of money, but he doesn’t..

It’s not on the cards. We are in the middle of WWE’s busiest season as the company is on the Road to WrestleMania 38. That means there is a lot of work to be done as WWE tries to get ready for their biggest shows of the year. Some of those adjustments involve a lot of work but WWE tends to know how to pull them off. In this case, it means wrapping up a story for a certain visiting legend.
Lita made her return to WWE back at the Royal Rumble in January. The following week on Monday Night Raw, she challenged Becky Lynch for a Raw Women’s Title match at Elimination Chamber, which has since been made official. During an interview with Sports Illustrated, Lita revealed that there are currently no plans for her to continue with WWE after the match. There is still a chance for that to change though.
Opinion: I’m not entirely surprised by this, as I don’t think Lita was exactly a heavy favorite to take the title from Lynch. That doesn’t leave Lita with much to do at WrestleMania or beyond, s..

Welcome back? The biggest wrestling news of the week has been the departure of Cody and Brandi Rhodes from AEW. The move came out of nowhere as Cody is one of the company’s founding fathers. Now that the two have left though, the question becomes where they might be heading next. It seems like we might have an idea and odds are you are not going to be surprised.
According to PWInsider.com, WWE has had discussions with the Rhodes family and the two sides are close to coming to an agreement. While there has been no agreement made, it is expected that Cody could be at the Performance Center as early as this weekend to prepare for a quick return. This has led to excitement backstage in WWE as Cody would be expected to have knowledge of the inner workings of AEW, which could help WWE’s strategy.
In addition, according to Fightful Select, the Rhodes family and AEW may have split over financial issues. The two sides met last week with Cody wanting to sign a “big” money deal but the two side..