Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Fave Five 11/21/16-11/27/16

1) Pete Dunne: A major title win this past week saw the "Bruiserweight" Pete Dunne capture the PROGRESS Championship. An injury to Mark Haskins caused him to vacate the title. There were qualifying matches throughout Chapter 39 to earn a title shot to end the show. The PROGRESS Tag Team Champions, British Strong Style, which consists of Dunne and Trent Seven, retained their belts early on and gained spots in the main event. In that main event, which also featured Matt Riddle, Jimmy Havoc, TK Cooper, Travis Banks and Sebastian, Dunne got help from a returning Tyler Bate to lastly eliminate Havoc. The win came as a shock to many and Dunne is now a double champion for PROGRESS.

2) Johnny Mundo: There was one other major championship victory during the past week of wrestling. The reign of Sexy Star only lasted one week. After taking the Gift of the Gods Championship from her earlier this year, Johnny Mundo used that to get a title shot and took the Lucha Underground Championship from Sexy Star as well. What a dick! Admittedly, this wasn't anywhere near the best match of the week. Both of their matches have lacked in quality but this is still the biggest accomplishment for Mundo since leaving the WWE. When he won, Matt Striker said that since the first episode of the series, you just knew Mundo would one day be champion. That proved to be very true as Mundo is finally at the top of the Temple.

3) Kevin Owens: Enough about guys winning titles. Time to focus on someone who retained his. WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens main evented Raw in a really good title defense against Seth Rollins. Their series of matches have not quite reached great levels and this didn't either, but it was much better than their Clash of Champions match and I think I liked it more than the Hell in a Cell one. They fought around the arena in a No DQ match and just when Seth might have had things won, Chris Jericho interfered in a Sin Cara mask. That allowed Owens to retain and move into a feud where he'll get to look inferior against Roman Reigns. 

4) James Ellsworth: Sure, the WWE has run the James Ellsworth stuff into the ground as they tend to do. However, the guy keeps getting a strong reaction and while he isn't a great wrestler, his acting skills are pretty strong. He got over in a way that most guys on the roster weren't able to. This week, he got his third win over AJ Styles (though he has never looked superior to the top champion, unlike when Kevin Owens loses on Raw). This was a ladder match that saw Ellsworth earn a Smackdown contract and he'll officially be sticking around. It wasn't a great match but it did what it needed to and had the crowd way invested.

5) American Alpha: Won a tag team turmoil match.