Tag: Claudio Castagnoli

Opening Bell: Lesnar gets Raw, Dynamite explodes into Fyter Fest

Get set for the week in WWE and AEW with Opening Bell: quick previews of Raw, SmackDown, Dynamite and Rampage for the week of July 11.

Welcome to the Opening Bell, where we round up what’s been announced for WWE (Raw and SmackDown) and AEW (Dynamite and Rampage) programming for the week we’ve just begun.

WWE Raw preview – Monday, July 11, AT&T Center, San Antonio

It’s almost certainly not like this at WWE HQ, but it occasionally feels like someone says, “oh crap, SummerSlam is coming up fast, we better start promoting the main event!” Roman Reigns did his part on SmackDown this past Friday, making a now somewhat rare appearance.

Brock Lesnar will return the favor tonight, as WWE is telling the world that the Beast Incarnate will be on this week’s show. We’re not exactly sure what he’s going to do, but the official Raw preview poses the question, “what will Lesnar have to say about squaring off with Reigns one last time?”

Someone may get an F-5. If my name rhymed with Saul Layman, I’d probably just stay in the back when Lesnar is out in the ring.

AEW Dynamite preview – Fyter Fest Week 1 – Wednesday, July 13, Enmarket Arena, Savannah, Georgia

Of the themed episodes of AEW television, Fyter Fest might be right near the top. Not because there’s a special gimmick match or anything like that, but simply because its name is partially a reference to and parody of an infamous event that may otherwise have faded from the memory of everyone except those unlucky enough to attend it.

In any case, Fyter Fest Week 1 will be coming in hot with a three-way tag team championship match featuring the Young Bucks defending against both Swerve in Our Glory and Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks. The big question here is whether the challenging teams will be able to focus on the gold since they have long-running beef with each other.

Here’s what else to expect on Wednesday night:

WWE SmackDown preview – Friday, July 15, Amway Center, Orlando

WWE has fairly often not provided any clue as to what to expect on SmackDown recently until it is close to the show (as in sometimes the same day), but has helpfully given Orlando-area fans two matches to look forward to come Friday night.

The first is one of the trends we dislike, a Championship Contender’s Match where you have to beat the champ to get a shot at the champ for their title. In this case, the champ in question is Liv Morgan, and the wrestler gunning for another chance to face her with higher stakes is Natalya. Considering Liv already has a formidable foe lined up for SummerSlam in Ronda Rousey, she’ll hope to get past Nattie as quickly as possible.

And after saying last week he’d like to see if it’s possible to stuff the entire Money in the Briefcase inside the big mouth of Theory, Madcap Moss will get the chance to do just that. Smart money says he fails, even though plenty of people would love to see him succeed.

AEW Rampage preview – Friday, July 15, Enmarket Arena, Savannah, Georgia (taped on July 13)

This really is a red letter week as even Rampage has a few matches that have been revealed ahead of time. With the next ROH event less than two weeks away, it’s only right that the company’s world champion, Jonathan Gresham, is in action against Lee Moriarity, particularly since Gresham sold out Moriarity mid-match last week and aligned himself with Tully Blanchard. As one does.

Plus the Lucha Bros. take on Private Party in a tag team match that should give AEW fans who have down since day one pleasant memories of 2019. We mean that in a good way, too.

AEW Blood and Guts live results: JAS, BCC collide

Check out AEW Blood and Guts live results on the special episode of Dynamite on June 29 from Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

Detroit, are you ready to rock? And by rock, we mean bear witness to some Blood and Guts. It’s a special episode of AEW Dynamite coming to us tonight from the Little Caesars Arena, and one that’s sure to feature a special kind of violence inherent in the name.

What exactly is a Blood and Guts match? It takes more than a few cues from the original WarGames matches from back in the day, with an oversized steel cage that is big enough to house two wrestling rings. Two teams compete, and the winner can only be decided by submission or surrender, which is basically submitting on behalf of a teammate. No pinfalls or cage escapes in this one.

The teams are generally even, but because of a stipulation during one of the bouts at Forbidden Door, the Jericho Appreciation Society is headed into tonight’s match with a one-man advantage over the Blackpool Combat Club. As well, since the combatants enter one at a time, there should be various times during the match when the JAS has a numerical advantage, which could be huge.

There’s also the not insignificant question of whether the BCC side will even all be on the same page. Eddie Kingston was already a wild card of sorts due to his … shall we say, philosophical differences with Bryan Danielson. The American Dragon is still out due to injury, but his replacement is Claudio Castagnoli, who made his AEW debut at Forbidden Door.

Which is great, right? Everyone loves the former Cesaro. Well, not everyone, including Kingston, who has made it very publicly known that he doesn’t trust Claudio. That’s something to keep an eye on as the match plays out.

There’s also a full card of other matches in store for this special Dynamite. If you can’t watch live on TBS, be sure to bookmark this page, as we’ll update it with the latest Blood and Guts live results as they happen.

AEW Blood and Guts results in 60 seconds:

Zack Sabre Jr. on Claudio Castagnoli Forbidden Door surprise: ‘That was not technical wrestling’

Zack Sabre Jr. complained that facing Claudio Castagnoli in his AEW debut at Forbidden Door wasn’t what he signed up for.

Zack Sabre Jr. wanted a match with Bryan Danielson at Forbidden Door to prove who was the best technical wrestler in the world. What he got instead, thanks to Danielson missing the event due to injury, was the AEW debut of Claudio Castagnoli, known to wrestling fans everywhere as Cesaro during his time with WWE.

Castagnoli came out on top in the all-European matchup, pinning Sabre after 18-plus minutes of action. The change in opponents didn’t sit well with Sabre, who stayed on-brand by complaining about it in a video posted to social media by AEW.

“That was not technical wrestling,” Sabre said. “I did not sign up for that. I was coming for you, Bryan, because we were going to find out who the best technical wrestler in the world is. You didn’t bloody show up, did you? And surprises, I bloody hate surprises.

“And sodding Claudio, did he not get the memo? That was supposed to be a technical wrestling match. Where was the technique? You Swiss bastard.”

Sabre ended his rant by saying that if any American wrestlers wanted to take him up on his original challenge, they can head to either Japan or the U.K. to face him, because he has no intentions of returning to the U.S.

That idea has at least a chance of becoming a reality. Earlier this week, NJPW president Takami Ohbari planted the seeds for a Forbidden Door 2 in Japan, saying he’d like to see it and that the company’s “50th anniversary year is a good opportunity to make it happen” … which just so happens to be this year.

Danielson vs. ZSJ in the Tokyo Dome for technical supremacy bragging rights? We’re on board for that and would guess Sabre would be too, as long as there are no surprises this time.

AEW just pulled off Forbidden Door without 4 of the biggest stars in company history

The continual growth of the AEW roster allowed it to put on an excellent Forbidden Door card with NJPW but without four of its biggest names.

If you asked Tony Khan a year ago (pandemic restrictions notwithstanding), if he wanted to try a dual-branded pay-per-view with New Japan Pro-Wrestling without Kenny Omega and Cody Rhodes, he almost certainly would have said no. The same would have been true six months ago pondering a Forbidden Door without CM Punk and Bryan Danielson.

This past Sunday in Chicago, AEW and NJPW pulled off one of the more entertaining and ambitious pro wrestling cards in recent memory without any of them.

While Rhodes departed of his own accord to return to WWE several months ago (and ironically got injured since then), the other three wrestlers all missed Forbidden Door due to injury. Punk and Danielson were penciled in for specific matches: Punk against Hiroshi Tanahoshi for the AEW World Championship, and Danielson in a battle for technical supremacy against Zack Sabre Jr. Omega has been out longer term, but considering his history with NJPW, he almost certainly would have been in one of the night’s matches, like the four-way match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

It’s a testament to the amount of talent that AEW has acquired and developed that other members of the roster were able to step up and fill the void almost seamlessly, a fact not lost on Khan during the post-event media scrum.

“You could headline any pay-per-view ever with the list of people who were out on this pay-per-view,” Khan said. “The roster is so deep compared to where it started, and we’re able to sustain it.”

Indeed, having Jon Moxley sub in for Punk worked for a variety of reasons, not least of which because Mox had been seeking a match with Tanahashi for some time, and Khan admitted to delaying it. That paid off handsomely in Sunday night’s main event, with much of the crowd cheering for Tanahashi but also showing Moxley love when he emerged with the victory.

Moxley also missed time in recent months due to checking himself into alcohol rehab, but he and Jericho — as well as Orange Cassidy, who shined at Forbidden Door in a singles match against Will Ospreay — returned to the fold just when AEW needed them most.

Khan’s continued knack for talent acquisitions helped as well, with Claudio Castagnoli making his AEW debut as Danielson’s hand-picked replacement to face Sabre. Amid the ongoing debate over whether AEW has too large a roster in some parts of wrestling fandom, it could have been seen as a luxury signing. But if Forbidden Door proved anything, it’s that you never know when any newcomer or foundational talent will be needed to play a big part on short notice.

“The people who came in helped fill that void,” Khan said, referring to Punk and Danielson. “Now they need the time, now they’re beat up, and now these guys can step back in, the originals, the first few champions. And new faces come in for the company, including, now, Claudio. I just think it’s really cool, to talk about it again, full circle, being back here in Chicago. … So it all came together even though it wasn’t the original plan for tonight.”

It certainly wasn’t, and probably never would have been at any time in AEW’s history. But darned if it didn’t turn out just fine anyway.

Opening Bell: John Cena returns on Raw, Blood and Guts on Dynamite

Get set for the week in WWE and AEW with Opening Bell: quick previews of Raw, SmackDown, Dynamite and Rampage for the week of June 27.

Welcome to the Opening Bell, where we round up what’s been announced for WWE (Raw and SmackDown) and AEW (Dynamite and Rampage) programming for the week ahead.

WWE Raw preview – Monday, June 27, Sames Auto Arena, Laredo, Texas

Hit the trumpets! After being gone for some time thanks to a busy schedule of Hollywood roles, John Cena returns to Raw to celebrate 20 years in WWE. It seems like only yesterday when he was the Doctor of Thuganomics, but it was, in fact, more than a decade ago. Along with celebrating his many contributions to the company, expect a party crasher by the name of Theory to set up a match for SummerSlam.

Also, Kevin Owens‘ quest to prove Ezekiel and Elias are the same person hit a major bump in the road last week, when Elias performed his first concert in month, then broke a guitar over K.O.’s back. Enraged, Owens challenged Ezekiel or Elias or “their even younger brother” Elrod to a match for Laredo, so the fun will be seeing which one of them walks down the ramp.

AEW Dynamite Blood and Guts preview – Wednesday, June 29, Little Caesars Arena, Detroit

It’s time for Blood and Guts, the match that threw Chris Jericho off a steel cage last year. Times have changed, however, with Jericho now leading the Jericho Appreciation Society, definitely not the fan favorite faction (alliteration is great) this time around. They’ll go up against the Blackpool Combat Club, newly bolstered by the arrival of Claudio Castagnoli during Forbidden Door.

But there is tension on the BCC side as well, with the combustible Eddie Kingston not always getting along with the Club members proper. That could be an issue in a match this intense.

Also, expect to see fallout from Forbidden Door, because it was a great show bound to reverberate through AEW programming in various ways.

WWE SmackDown – Friday, July 1, Footprint Center, Phoenix

Pat McAfee isn’t just a podcaster and announcer with the strongest leg in the universe. He’s acquitted himself well in a WWE ring so far, even if his 1-3 record doesn’t quite show it. Now he’s engaged in a war of words with Happy Corbin, and feeling good enough about himself to call Corbin out for a match at SummerSlam. Happy is expected to give his answer to the ex-NFL punter on Friday, and we’d be surprised if he doesn’t accept.

AEW Rampage – Friday, July 1, Little Caesars Arena, Detroit (taped on June 29)

AEW hasn’t released any info yet for this show, mostly thanks to it having two big events in less than a week. One thing to watch for is Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee, who were victorious on the Buy-In at Forbidden Door but then immediately under verbal assault from Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs. Another showdown between the two teams would make a lot of sense as the featured match on Rampage this week, but we’ll have to wait until Wednesday, most likely, to see.