Body Slam Brigade # 70 – The Everyday Struggles.

By Ryan Joy
Updated: September 20, 2021
Featured

Body Slam Brigade # 70 – The Everyday Struggles

September 17, 2021

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“What you don’t see is the everyday struggle. The Battles. The Wars I have gone through to be here. To Be Who I AM.” – Thunder Rosa

As you read through today’s newsletter, think of the struggles and wars these wrestlers have been through to be who they are today.

Guys like Bobby Lashley and Big E who many consider to have been long overdue for their current success.

Someone like Kenny Omega who worked outside of North America for years before the launch of AEW made him a star domestically.

Even someone like Christian Cage who returned to wrestling after a 7 year absence to capture the Impact World Championship. He’s defending against up and comer Ace Austin this weekend.

Finally Kota Ibushi who has battled back from Aspirational Pneumonia just in time for the G1 Climax.

Everyone has a story. Those are just a few. Imagine what’s going on with all the others.

On to this week’s stuff!

Hope you enjoy!

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1. Big E Wins the WWE Championship
Big E captured his first WWE Championship by defeating Bobby Lashley on Monday Night Raw.

The decision to move the belt to Big E was likely already planned for the Extreme Rules PPV, but external pressures pertaining to television ratings seemed to cause WWE to pull those plans forward.

The start of Monday Night Football presented Raw with serious viewership competition, and WWE surely noticed that a competing company’s wrestling show (AEW Dynamite) put up a stronger key demo rating in the prior week.

Congratulations to Big E who had one of the biggest moments of his career.

From a fan point of view, I really wish WWE did a better job of building up our anticipation for Big E’s Money in the Bank Cash In. More on that subject in Episode 159 of the Daily Wrestling News Show.

Related: Daily Wrestling News Show Episode 159 – Big E Wins the WWE Championship on Apple or Spotify.

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2. Wrestle Grand Slam Appears to be a Gigantic Event
AEW confirmed that the Wrestle Grand Slam show in Queens, NY will be one of the company’s largest television tapings. The Rampage show, normally scheduled for one hour on TNT, will be a two hour block next week.

Here’s the advertised lineup (so far):

AEW Dynamite
- Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson – Non Title
- CM Punk Live Interview (48 hours before his first TV match in over 7 years)
- Malakai Black vs. Cody Rhodes
- MJF vs. Brian Pillman, Jr.
- Britt Baker (c) vs. Ruby Soho – AEW Women’s Championship
- FTR vs. Sting & Darby Allin
AEW Rampage
- Adam Cole & Young Bucks vs. Christian Cage & Jurassic Express
- CM Punk vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
- Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky vs. Chris Jericho & Jake Hager

The Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston v. Minoru Suzuki and Lance Archer match has not been announced yet.

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3. Results

PPV:

Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor from 9/12

Television:

Smackdown from 9/10
AEW Rampage from 9/10
Monday Night Raw from 9/13
AEW Dark Elevation from 9/13
NXT 2.0 from 9/14
AEW Dynamite from 9/15
NXT UK from 9/16
Impact from 9/16

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4. What to Do This Weekend
Always see if a local promotion is running a show and go if you can. Otherwise . . .

Impact is running their Victory Road Show. Here’s the lineup.

Christian Cage (c) v. Ace Austin – Impact World Championship
Josh Alexander (c) v. Chris Sabin – X Division Championship
Rosemary and Havok (c) v. Savannah Evans and Tasha Steelz – Knockouts Tag Team Championships
The Good Brothers (c) v. Rich Swann and Willie Mack – Impact Tag Team Championships
Rohit Raju v. Matt Cardona
Tenille Dashwood v. Taylor Wilde
Eddie Edwards and Sami Callihan v. Moose and W. Morrissey
Chris Bey and Hikuleo v. Juice Robinson and David Finlay
Steve Maclin v. TJP v. Petey Williams

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5. Something Else for this Weekend
One of the biggest tournaments in wrestling kicks off this weekend when the G1 Climax begins on Saturday.

Two Blocks of ten wrestlers compete in singles competition.

The 19 night tournament ends with the winner of each block competing in the finals.

Kota Ibushi won the last two iterations of the tournament.

For a look at the competitors, check out my A-Block and B-Block posts on Facebook. Leave a comment to let me know if you’ll be watching and who you think might win each block.

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Have a great weekend!

Ryan

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