A Conversation with Wrestle Crate UK's Richard Penaluna

 

We recently got the chance to talk to the man behind Wrestle Crate UK, Richard Penaluna. We originally spoke to Richard in September 2013 as part of our Five Questions with... interview series, back when he was editor of Calling Spots magazine, you find that interview here. In this interview we chat all about what's happened since our last interview, the creation of Wrestle Crate UK, what makes the product stand out in a crowded market, Richard's favourite people to work with and a whole lot more.  

ATPW: Same question as always to begin, what made you a wrestling fan? 

Richard Penaluna: It was either October or November 1997, I should know the date, and it was Badd Blood PPV. In Your House: Badd Blood, that was in particular. I'd seen bits of wrestling in the build up to this. I used to go to my Grandma house on a Saturday afternoon, there was nothing on the telly, so I would watch WWF Superstars, I wanna say. It was an hour recap show, they still have those hour recap shows now. So, I kind of watched that, but it was more in the background. Then my best friend at the time had gotten into wrestling a year before that and he used to collect WWF Magazine. So I used to flick through those magazines without really knowing what they were. I became interested by the characters, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was just coming up and I remember reading a profile about this Texas Rattlesnake badass who was after the boss. I think that's why I've always had a soft spot for wrestling magazines.

Ultimately that lead to Badd Blood. Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels, first ever Hell in a Cell match, to this day it's still my favourite match. That was the moment that I just fell in love with wrestling. That match was just superb. It was a mix of Undertaker, larger than life character, Shawn Michaels, just a regular bloke but completely flamboyant, athleticism and then this character Kane turns up. I remember being young and thinking "This isn't like anything I've ever seen before. It's not sport, it's not entertainment, it's somewhere in the middle and I love it!". I've been a wrestling fan ever since. 

ATPW: It's interesting that you mention the magazine. I find it interesting how many different ways people can get into the WWE product. I've spoken to people who've got into because of action figures, video games, there's just so many different ways that people have been drawn in!

RP: Yeah, that's a good point. One of my friends, his son is starting to get into wrestling. He's maybe six years old and he's getting into it through playing the WWE game on his Xbox. He got a trial or something, didn't buy the game, he just trialled it and enjoyed it. After that he started watching YouTube videos of people playing the game and he now watches that more than he watches actual WWE. Now he's started to collect the figures, he collects the Funko! Pops, but his way of getting into it was literally playing a demo of the game and then finding it on YouTube and watching YouTubers play the game and then he bought the game itself and that's what made him a fan. So I suppose you're right there's lots of different entry points. 

ATPW: In the previous about Calling Spots, you mentioned you'd wrote about wrestling before, so I was wondering when did you start writing about wrestling? And what made you want to write about wrestling? 

RP: That would have been 2007. Ten years ago. I don't know actually. I felt like I had a different ethos now. At that time you'd go on Twitter, you go on the internet blogs, not all blogs, but a lot of blogs, there was so many opinions ten years ago and even to this day, it was all just kind of negative and what wrong with RAW last week and armchair quarterbacks as the cliché goes. I just didn't enjoy reading that and I thought well "I feel like my opinion, is just that, it's my opinion, but my opinion is a lot more positive and when I have conversations with people about wrestling I talk to them because I enjoy it, so I'm not going to talk too much about the things I don't like unless it's particularly pertinent or relevant at that time. The majority of the conversations I want to have about wrestling are about the good stuff, the fun stuff". So I just started writing about that. The ethos was "Wrestling's fun, lets just enjoy it!" and that was the reason why because I felt like I could put something forward and it would just be an opinion piece of a random wrestling fan. I've got no external credentials that would entitle me to have that opinion, but I felt like I had an opinion that was positive and if people wanted to read positive stuff, I would be one of the people that was putting that positive thing out there. That was my goal at the time, ten years ago. 

ATPW: I like the positive aspect. Whenever I get reviews sent into me, they're either all positive or all negative. And I have to say "I can't put this up", because if you've only ever got bad things to say then there's nothing to compare anything to and vice versa. 

RP: Oh yeah, absolutely. I think you can be positive about wrestling without saying that every single thing is great. It's about the balance. It's like watching a bad movie, you can watch a bad movie and go "That was absolutely terrible movie, that was a bad movie, but you know what the way it was shot was excellent" or "That one character was fantastic" or "I really liked that scene". You can watch a movie a movie and say "that was terrible" but pick out something and talk about that's fine. You don't have to like everything, but when you talk about how bad it was, don't just talk about how bad it was, pick out something you did enjoy. Don't just shit on something for the sake of it.  

Relevant because Shit Movies.

ATPW: In between our last interview and the start of Wrestle Crate UK, what were up to? Just to fill the gap between the two interviews. 

RP: Calling Spots grew more than I thought it would. It was a fanzine and it still is, it's just nothing to do with me anymore. Calling Spots grew quite quickly, I guess to a level where we had a decent sized, quite ardent reader-base. That was really good, that was really positive. I thoroughly enjoyed being the editor of Calling Spots. As a hobby, it was great, I got to engage with the readers and the readers would take to different opinion pieces from all the writers and talk to us about it on social media. I used to enjoy generating buzz around the covers, I used to think back to records back in the day when the cover art was something unique and special and people used to take pride in that, so I put a lot of focus on the front cover and I used to love releasing them before the magazine.

I got to tick something off the bucket list, in between the interview in 2013 and starting Wrestle Crate UK in 2015, which was release a book. So we got to write basically Calling Spots: The Book, which was a compendium of the best articles from the first ten issues, but also I got to write about some of the experiences that the team and I had had through Calling Spots. So that was quite good, getting to release a book and having collectors want to own that and buy that so that was probably biggest thing that happened magazine wise.

Then through Calling Spots that's actually how I ended up running Wrestle Crate in the UK. So in 2015, I noticed the company Wrestle Crate in the US, I noticed their Twitter page pop up and I was like "Okay, lets keep an eye on this, this looks interesting" because I like merchandise, I like buying things physically and I like wrestling, obviously, it would be ridiculous if I didn't! So I was keeping a close eye on what they were doing and when I realised they were legit and they were recent boxes and seemed to grow a customer base reasonably quickly given they were the first of their kind in the world, the first wrestling themed subscription box, I reached out saying "This is what we do over here, this is the magazine and I've sent you some samples, here's what we're doing etc. etc." and basically set up a great working relationship with Ed who used to the owner of Wrestle Crate in the US, quite early on in Wrestle Crate's days. That relationship initially being just selling stuff, so "Do you want to buy some magazines?" and fairly quickly that turned into Calling Spots producing a bespoke product for Wrestle Crate. Limited edition versions of the magazine with different covers, artwork from the artists, things like that, so basically there was a Calling Spots presence in Wrestle Crate for six months, I would say. 

We actually worked on a pretty cool project where we worked with Rhyno. The owner of Wrestle Crate used to love trading cards, he used to collect baseball cards, stuff like that and that's a lot bigger in the States than it is over here, obviously. One of the things that they do a lot of in the trading card world, apparently it was new to me, is trading cards that have got a bit of relic, so a bit of match worn attire, like some cloth from a baseball shirt, that's built into the trading card. So we got to make these really cool Rhyno postcards but with that was a bit of Rhyno ring-worn attire, some of his wrestling gear, one of his old ECW t-shirts, things like that. It was quite a unique piece of merchandise, I'd never been involved in anything like that before. Working directly with a wrestler, also with an artist, also with the person buying it and then creating a product and getting it to them. That gave me a taste for it a little bit. So long story short that's how I went from being editor of Calling Spots to where we are in 2015 which was thinking about starting up Wrestle Crate UK.

ATPW: For anyone who isn't aware, can you let them know what Wrestle Crate UK is all about? 

RP: Wrestle Crate is the first ever in the World, monthly merchandise subscription service for wrestling fans. It's a mystery box of wrestling goodies that's sent to your door every single month and I know that sounds a bit catchphrasey, but that's what it is. We've got a team who handpick items, that's nowadays grown to the point where we create content that's actually exclusive to Wrestle Crate. You'll get a t-shirt in every single box, you'll get autographs, you'll get DVDs, you'll get collectibles, you'll get lapel pin badges, you'll get figures, Funko! Pop Vinyls. Basically, you'll get wrestling merchandise from all over the world. They'll be a couple of things that you could go into a shop and buy, the Funko! Pop Vinyls that sort of things, but what makes it unique is that we get to work directly with wrestlers, wrestling promotions to create content that you can't get elsewhere, t-shirts that you can't get elsewhere, the autographs, the print itself will be something unique that the wrestlers don't sell themselves, so even if you have that person autograph, you're not going to get a duplicate in your collection.

So basically, if you collect wrestling merchandise and if you spend money on wrestling merchandise every month, then if you sign up to Wrestle Crate, you'll pay less money and get a larger value than what you've paid box of wrestling merchandise. With the aim particularly being on good quality. I think we're at a point now, particularly in the UK with Wrestle Crate UK where we know who are audience is. Our audience is what I like to call the "modern wrestling fan". We're at a point now, in 2017, where there's sooo many flavours of wrestling, but wrestling fans know what they want and that's why you get people who are so passionate about supporting PROGRESS, people who are so passionate about supporting WWE and even TNA...Global Force Wrestling...I don't know what they're called these days...Impact fans, they will defend Impact because that's their particular flavour and that's what they love and you know what that's fantastic. As a wrestling fan, we are in the best time possible to enjoy wrestling, because we can get it easily and we can pick the flavour of wrestling that we want. So, with Wrestle Crate we get to sample all of these different flavours and bring a little piece. But ultimately, we know our fan base and we know the flavours that our fan base like the most and we will bend over backwards to get exclusive items that we know our fans will enjoy.

ATPW: Since Wrestle Crate launched, there's been a lot of similar products come out, different crates, different companies, in different forms, what makes Wrestle Crate stand out from the new pack?

RP: A couple of things. If you look at the wrestling subscription landscape, you've got there's a clear divide. There's some absolute garbage out there if I'm honest, there's some bad wrestling subscription boxes. There's some particularly niche wrestling subscription boxes and then there's the three front runners. 

So without naming names, you've got one that is very specifically, just for WWE fans, 100% for WWE fans, which is powered by Loot Crate. So, they know their audience which is clearly more collectibles, for lack of a better phrase. If you've ever bought Loot Crate, because Loot Crate as a company are the pinnacle of the subscription service, the founders of Loot Crate are geniuses, I've got the upmost respect for the people who started Loot Crate. But Loot Crate work with WWE and they have their own box and it's very like Loot Crate but with WWE stuff in it. So there's them. 

Then on the other side, there's a company who just work with independent wrestlers. That's it. That's their kind of business model because they already have contracts with these people, because they sell items for them already. 

Then there's Wrestle Crate, the original, who will give you the best of both worlds. We're in an advantageous position where we are able to curate officially licensed WWE products. For example next month's crate has officially licensed WWE products, last month's crate has officially licensed WWE products. But we also can work with anybody in the world that we want, we're not restricted by contracts. So we've worked with Ring of Honor directly this month, we've worked with the British Strong Style lads, who are absolutely on fire, we've had an exclusive agreement with PROGRESS Wrestling to produce items that you can't get anywhere else. So we're in a great position where we can offer customers a mix of every type, every flavours of wrestling in the World.

ATPW: It's great to have that mix. I think it's great that we're at a time where you find whatever you want for whatever you're into it...

RP: Yeah, you know what, if I just watched WWE, I wouldn't subscribe to Wrestle Crate, that's fine, that's not really our target audience. At the same time, if you don't watch any WWE at all, then that's probably not our target audience either. So those two particular niches, there's other option out there. This goes back to what I was saying before about understand our customer base. Our customer base is the modern wrestling who watches WWE, who watches RAW, SmackDown Live, NXT and enjoys that, but at the same time will go and watch PROGRESS, will go and watch ICW, will go and watch Fight Club: PRO in the UK and in Germany, because Germany is by far our second biggest customer base, so in Germany would go and watch wXw. That's our target market, the wrestling fans who do enjoy WWE, but also enjoy the different flavours that are a bit closer to home.

ATPW: It sounds like a pretty good way if you were someone who only watched WWE, but were looking for an in to other wrestling products, because sometimes it is difficult to know where to start, because there is so much out there. So perhaps Wrestle Crate could work as a sort of tester for someone like that.

RP: I'd like to think so. That's actually quite an interesting point. Something that we've done as a company over the last year, we get to work with the biggest wrestling companies outside of WWE in the world. To be able to create exclusive Ring of Honor merchandise, where you can't buy it on the Ring of Honor website, they won't sell it, but their team helps us make it and helps us market it and to me that's still mind-blowing. Ultimately, we get to create these different flavours and pull together premium items.

At the same time, something we've put an active effort into for the last year or so is working with smaller companies so not quite your Ring of Honor levels, not quite your PROGRESS levels, basically companies that aren't going to fit 1000, maybe 1500 people into a building, but companies that are slowly doing their own thing, creating their own unique way of doing things. Good companies, but companies that haven't yet made that break, that jump, to get to that Ring of Honor level, that PROGRESS level, that Fight Club: PRO level. What we've been doing is working with them for the last year, to say to those companies that "We'd love to work with you. Why not introduce your product to our subscriber base and show them what your product is?" and what that's allowed us to do is, in the last twelve crates or so, have a download. So you can download a free show or maybe access their on demand for a month to give Wrestle Crate subscribers, as you say, that taster of what these companies are. So it's not these premium items that you've paid for, but it's an extra bonus for being a Wrestle Crate subscriber. If you've been a Wrestle Crate subscriber for the last year, you would have got something like eight full wrestling shows, from all around the world, from Australia, from New Zealand, from Canada, from Germany, for free to download to your ipad or whatever. Then also on demand and things like that. That;s on top of everything that you get in there, the physical stuff. It's just bonus loot. 

Yeah, I do think there's definitely value in introducing wrestling fans to good wrestling, from around the world that they've potentially not come across yet. 

ATPW: Have you had any particular favour items that you've included in your boxes? Anything that you were particularly excited to send out to people? 

RP: Yeah, a few. I mean, genuinely, I tend to curate it all, I've got a team that I can bounce ideas off, but ultimately I like to plan it all out in my head and I've got this book that I carry around religiously so I can jot down ideas and stuff. I plan maybe three, four, five months in advance, so I can write down "Okay, we're doing that here, we're doing that there", so I can paint a picture of what the next few months are going to look like. So I can think "Are our fans getting enough of this? Are they getting enough of that?" We like to announce items each month, so I can plan in advance "This is this big announcement this month, people are going to excited to hear we're working with this person, so we can announce that next month". Those are the items that I get most excited about.

We recently worked with Marty Scurll, I really enjoyed that. Marty is just fantastic, so well-rounded, great in the ring, such a great character and I think the fact that his merchandise sells so well on Pro Wrestling Tees sums up his popularity. I think he's fantastic. So we worked with Marty, we got to make an exclusive print, which he hand signed and we got to make an exclusive Marty Scurll t-shirt, which again you couldn't get anywhere else. So I'd say they were some favourites. We have a Jimmy Havoc lapel pin badge this month and we've made it in the style of the old Hasbro WWF figures, which to me the concept of Jimmy Havoc the character as a Hasbro kids figure is just hilarious. That's a personal favourite, we've done pin badges for about a year now and this is my favourite, I love it. Early on we worked with Kurt Angle to get some signed prints, which was obviously really cool, because it's Kurt Angle! The British Strong Style lads, it was an absolute pleasure working with them, we got to do an exclusive t-shirt and an exclusive signed print. I think those are my favourite items, but if I'm honest it was more the people that we get to work with that make the items. The items are just a bi-product of working with a great wrestler and a good person.  

ATPW: Is there anyone left who you'd love to work with? 

RP: Let's not give too much away about what's potentially on the cards. I guess, Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart are two that would be just perfect for Wrestle Crate. I think, realistically we'll have, at least, one of those two in Wrestle Crate in the next month. Closer to home CCK are fantastic, Travis Banks is on fire. The beauty of British wrestling at the moment is we lose people, we lose Marty to Japan and America, we look like we're going be potentially losing Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, obviously we lost Jack Gallagher and Noam Dar, but as we lose a fantastic wrestler, there's someone else who's coming through. The British wrestling scene is so good at the minute, although I've named CCK, Travis Banks, Martina the Session Moth is on fire at the minute. She's just taken off because people just get it. People look at her and go "Yes, I know what your character is and that is fantastic". I'd love to work with those three, so I'd love to work with those free but I'm sure that when we do hopefully get to work with the CCK lads, Travis Banks and Martina, six months down the line, if you ask me the same question, I'm sure the British scene being the way it is, I'll be able to give you three or five names of the next group of guys coming through. The guys and girls of the UK at the moment are just fantastic. 

ATPW: What wrestling have you watched recently? 

RP: I have to be very clever with how I consume wrestling these days, because time isn't something that I have a lot of. I still love it, I don't love it any less, but Wrestle Crate has grown to a point where, ultimately it's still a family run business, with me doing the creative and the day-to-day running of the company, the majority of that is just on me. I've got a fantastic team that I work with, so I've got a packing team and I've got an art team and I've got a curation team, but it's mostly me, so with that in mind, consuming wrestling isn't as easy as it was when I was editor of Calling Spots when I could stick the Network on all day and I could watch PROGRESS on Demand and I could watch the latest Ring of Honor iPPV and I could buy DVDs to watch. I just physically don't have that same level of time. So the way I consume wrestling has had to get cleverer, because I still need to stay on top of what's going on all over the world. I need to know what people are enjoying, even if it's not to my taste, because I've got an obligation to the Wrestle Crate subscribers to make sure it's not just one persons views and it's not just what I think is good, because that's selfish. A lot of the way I have to take in wrestling is through social media, through picking bits and bobs, if I'm honest.

So to answer you question, outside of WWE, because lets be honest I have to watch WWE, the last wrestling that I enjoyed and went out of my way to watch is a company that's quite local, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and they're called NORTH and they've been on my to-watch-list for a year or nine months. Basically after that first show I was like "This looks interesting, I need to go and watch this and scout this and see what this is". So, it was half a mission, I guess, to go and check it out, see if we can work together, go and meet the owner, which I got to do, a really nice guy. On top of that it looked like a good wrestling product, it looked like they'd got to grips very quickly with understand what their audience was. Which was people who like wrestling, who want to go out, have a few drinks and a laugh and enjoy some...I don't want to say "Punk Rock Wrestling" because that's obviously another companies thing, but you can see the similarities, you can see the underground type feel that they've gone for. It's set in a nightclub. So that was the last wrestling, which was maybe a week or two weeks ago, that I went out of my way to watch. From that show, standouts were once again were Martina, "Flash" Morgan Webster who we've worked with before, but watching him do his thing in that intimate setting was really good and he was moved into the main event after there was a few dropouts, so that was really good to see "Flash" thrive in that, obviously he's having a hell of a year coming off of BOLA. El Ligero is just class. You can put El Ligero anywhere on the card, from the hot start, literally you can put El Ligero anywhere on the card and he will deliver. So yeah, NORTH Wrestling, first time I'd seen them, if you'd asked me a month ago I couldn't vouch for them, couldn't say anything about them, but genuinely really enjoyed it, they're definitely a company to keep an eye.

ATPW: Just to close up, where can people find Wrestle Crate UK online and anything else you've got to put out there? 

RP: Wrestle Crate is on Twitter @WrestleCrateUK. The same again for Facebook, just search Wrestle Crate UK. The website is WrestleCrate.co.uk. Have a look, if you're a wrestling fan, if you like me enjoy buying wrestling merchandise, t-shirts, autographs, DVDs, then I would love you to come check out what we're doing. We're a family run business, I'm a big advocate of supporting wrestlers and what they do, as a fan of wrestling, I'm conscious that wrestlers put their bodies and their livelihoods on the line to entertain us and I think that can often be understated. I feel like I'm in a really privileged position, where I'm the owner of a company who gets to work directly with wrestler to put some extra money into their pockets and to give something to our fans, it's like a win win for everybody. You get great merchandise, you know that indirectly you're supporting the wrestlers, whose product you get in that box. If you like mainstream wrestling too, you know you're going to get some WWE stuff in there as well. So if physical wrestling merchandise is your thing, then do check it out. We'd love to have you on board.

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A big thanks to Richard Penaluna for taking the time out to chat with us, we wish him and everyone at Wrestle Crate UK the very best. 

Interview by James Marston - Conducted 15th September 2017

TV Review: WWE Smackdown Live #886 - Dolph Ziggler & Dean Ambrose v The Wyatt Family

With World Champion Dean Ambrose teaming with Dolph Ziggler against The Wyatt Family and Alberto Del Rio taking on Randy Orton providing two marquee matches for Tuesday night, would the penultimate Smackdown Live before SummerSlam be affected by the absence of AJ Styles and John Cena?

Opening and closing Smackdown Live this week, we had the on-going feud involving World Champion Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler and Wyatt Family members, Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan. The curtain up was arguably the strongest part of the show, starting with an intense promo from Wyatt covering Ziggler's victory over him on #885, as well as his desire to make Smackdown Live "his show". The Eater of World's looked like he believed everyone of his words and built the promo towards a crescendo, for Ambrose to interrupted him. The difference that are being show between The Lunatic Fringe and The Show-Off, like Ambrose being reluctant to fight Wyatt Family, whilst Ziggler rushed into the action, are what's keeping their feud interesting. The segment concluded with Wyatt standing tall after throwing Ambrose into a superkick from Ziggler, before finishing off the #1 Contender with Sister Abigail. Having Wyatt show intelligence to use the two World title rivals against each other in the scrap added an extra depth to their tag match that was later booked by Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan. 

The tag match between the two was a simple tag bout, again used to showcase the relationship between Ziggler and Ambrose and the capabilities of Wyatt. Ambrose worked the lunatic in peril role, taking a prolonged beating from Wyatt and Rowan, but the best action of the contest actually came in a sequence between Ziggler and Big Red following the hot tag. The #1 Contender attempting to knock Rowan off his feet was a cool twist on two wrestling cliches and carried the contest towards it's finish well. Ziggler would pick up the pin on Rowan following a superkick, but the closing sequence was damaged by Ambrose slipping when hitting Wyatt with a suicide dive. A respectable main event, but nothing that's worth seeking out. Ambrose hitting Dirty Deeds on Ziggler following the bell felt a little tacked on, but I'll reserve judgement completely until next week's show and wait to see how the storyline plays out.

Randy Orton's disqualification victory over Alberto Del Rio was the strongest match this week, but like the main event, hardly pulled up any trees. It was weird seeing ADR placed in such a high profile match, after the first two week's of the re-formatted Smackdown Live, have seen him exit a Battle Royal early and then not even feature on last week's outing. He did, however, put in a strong enough performance for him to be considered for a more prominent role on the show going forward. He produced a spirited and technically sound approach to the match, targeting Orton's arm and bringing a concentration to the contest that has been too few and far between since his WWE return last October. It was the first time he'd got to work a TV match with Orton in over three years, so perhaps getting to face a formerly familiar opponent, as well as the jump up the card motivated him to bring a little more to his game here. 

The finish felt a little out of place, as ADR took a chair to Orton's arm (which he'd sold terrifically all match) after being thrown into the time keeper's area, causing the DQ. Perhaps it was to show how much of a beating that The Viper can take and still manage to spring up for an RKO, ahead of his 21st August match with Brock Lesnar. However, considering how ADR has been presented on programming over the last month and half, with only four singles matches since June, with only one victory and losing to Cesaro and Darren Young, it felt odd for WWE to protect him from the pinfall victory, against an Orton who has a major match coming up on the companies second biggest show of 2016. Perhaps it was to set up a bigger No DQ bout between the two on next week's episode, which I'd look forward too, especially with the prospect of a much cleaner finish than this. 

In the lower half of the card, Alexa Bliss would take advantage of Eva Marie's distraction to upset Becky Lynch in a brief but well-worked debut. Bliss didn't have much time to make an impression on the new audience in the ring, but got her character over nicely in short promo when accepting Lynch's open challenge. The main storyline however, was Marie initially being unable to compete for the second week running, because the straps on her top came untied, which got one of the biggest pops on the show, because yanno breasts. I'm feeling like Marie's various excuses to not compete are going to become my favourite part of Tuesday nights, as it's only going to make portions of the audience hate her even more. It also means that when Marie finally ties it up with someone in the ring that the match will be a much bigger contest than it would have been last week or this week. Lynch presents a nice juxtaposition to Marie and extenuated this well with her promo issuing the open challenge. 

Also in the Women's division, Carmella got revenge on Natalya with another short but solid debut clash. Rabobank Arena seemed to quickly warm to The Princess of Staten Island and began to get behind her, as she battled against her rival, who has taken on the role of a cocky veteran bully. I feel like Natalya's performance had a lot to do with keeping the crowd warm, as she was constantly posturing, mouthing off to the fans whilst locking in wear down holds and putting on purposefully lackadaisical pins. Whilst it gives Carmella some huge momentum straight off the bat, I was disappointed to see her pick up a four minutes submission victory with the Code of Silence, as I was hoping that the contest would go for another five minutes or so and such a conclusive finish seems to put to bed any momentum that the feud itself could have picked up after just two weeks.  

Rounding off the most notable action, Rhyno picked up his first (non-NXT) WWE singles win since a victory over Simon Dean on Sunday Night Heat in February 2005, to deny Heath Slater a Smackdown Live contract. The Bakersfield crowd was pretty mild for another short encounter, which lacked urgency and any of the entertaining antics that Slater brings to his mic work. It's an odd storyline to expect an audience to get behind, Slater is working as a comedy heel trying to earn a job, are the crowd supposed to be against him being hired by anyone and cheer for his opponent (a guy who has only just returned to WWE) to keep him out of the company? It was a strange decision to have Rhyno reveal that he'd already been given a contract in a backstage skit beforehand, as if both had been fighting for a contract then we might have had an interesting contest that the crowd could have got behind.

Best of the Rest 

• American Alpha (Jason Jordan and Chad Gable) picked up a squash victory over California duo Mike Vega and Mikey O'Shea, before fending off The Vaudevillains (Aiden English & Simon Gotch), The Hype Bros (Mojo Rawley & Zack Ryder) and The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor).
• A preview for AJ Styles v John Cena at SummerSlam on 21st August aired.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.29/10

Watchable is probably the word I'd use to describe this week's edition of Smackdown Live. The two top matches were both decent encounter, offering storyline development in the main event and solid action in the Orton v ADR match (which admittedly seemed to be just treading water for Orton before SummerSlam). In mid-card was entertaining again for the most part, expanding a couple of storylines (especially in the women's division) but not giving enough time or space for the action to develop into anything significant. Putting on match on Smackdown and the other on Main Event would have allowed for them both to be much more satisfying encounters. 

With just one more episode til SummerSlam, I'd be expecting next week's go-home edition to have a lot more to offer.

All content - James Marston

TV Review - WWE NXT #205 - Nia Jax v Bayley

After two weeks of very good - superb television, NXT presented a show with three big matches on it, in hopes of continuing it's fine run of form. With Nia Jax facing Bayley, American Alpha finally getting a match with The Authors of Pain and NXT Champion Samoa Joe in action against Rhyno, would this week's episode continue the show's strong run of form? 

A real shining moment for the women's division here, getting to main event such a strong card, as Bayley defeated Nia Jax in a match that built and built into a very good television bout. Having said that, the first portion of the match didn't do much for me at all, and it seemed like it took the wind out of the live crowd also. It was weirdly based around Jax being over-confident and putting on cocky pin-covers, whilst also constantly throwing Bayley outside of the ring. Jax would control the opening portion, until Bayley was able to throw her to the outside. I can kind of see where they were going story-wise, but it was just a little bit lame. It was a disappointment not to see Bayley's supposedly injured knee, the knee that Jax had injured herself, play into the story of the match. There wasn't even a hint of this and it felt like a missed opportunity. 

Okay, James, you said this was a good match, but all you've done is moaned so far. Well, erm, yes, but here's some positives. Following Jax being sent to the outside, the match kicked up a gear, shifting to an idea of Bayley attempting to knock Jax off her feet. This lead to the former Women's Champion getting to show a whole lot of babyface fire, as he layed it on thick with a series of knees on the apron and lovely crossbody that would finally take her opponent down. The crowd would finally come to life when Jax had a nearfall off a Jaxhammer and the expression of anger on her face was spot on, instantly igniting the crowd as they began to push for a Bayley win. The final moments would bring back the themes from the beginning with Jax deciding against hitting a normal leg drop for a diving one, confident she'd have enough time to move Bayley and hit the move, only to get hit with middle rope Bayley-to-Belly and lose the match. With Jax moving onto RAW from Monday, it certainly makes sense to have her put over Bayley clean on the way out, but it's a real shame that it's not Bayley getting the leg up to the main roster. 

The Authors of Pain (Gzim Selmani & Sunny Dhisa) would pick up an impressive victory over American Alpha (Chad Gable & Jason Jordan) in a match that was surprisingly well-worked. I say surprisingly because no one really had any idea what Selmani and Dhisa could do in the ring, beyond a squash match from #200, but they looked more than competent in the ring, whilst Gable & Jordan allowed them to look like world beaters. A pre-match attack on the ramp fueled the match, as American Alpha were always fighting from underneath after fighting through the initial attack. Both of Authors of Pain took Gable and Jordan's series of suplexes very well, bumping crisply for their opponents, making them American Alpha look brilliant in the process. The finish was put together nicely with The A.O.P. able to take control on the outside, Jordan running into the steel steps, leaving Gable to fall to his rivals. I'm not a fan of the A.O.P's leg sweep, clothesline finish, as although it's done with a physicality it doesn't look as a devastating a move as the teams finish should be. With American Alpha drafted to Smackdown Live from next Tuesday, this may have been their last match for NXT, which would explain them doing such a convincing job here. 

The weakest of the heavily promoted contests was NXT Champion Samoa Joe beating Rhyno via submission, in a plodding bout. The crowd never seemed to pick up as Rhyno had only recently returned to the brand, and suddenly become a babyface and therefore didn't have a whole lot of supports from the fans in attention. That meant that the pedestrian pace was shown up even more, because the crowd had little to get excited about at all. It was however a strong and dominant match for Joe against a performer who will not be hurt by a loss but will provide extra legitimacy to "The Samoan Submission Machine" as Champion, in a similar way to how NXT bought Eric Young into job for Joe a few months a go. This was a good match for Joe's title reign, but not a good match to watch. 

Austin Aries' feud with No Way Jose would continue to gather steam as Jose would attack "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" after the former had squashed Patrick Clark. I'm interested to see where this feud is heading as we got a different side of Jose here, that I'd be interested to see how it could be worked into his fun loving, dancing gimmick situation he's got going on. The idea of Aries escaping through the crowd sold the beating nicely, as well as putting Aries over as a cowardly heel, which is a role he happens to excel in. This rivalry could end up helping both men in NXT, but only if it's done correctly and plays true to the two characters! 

Results 

Singles Match: NXT Champion Samoa Joe def. Rhyno in 6 minutes, 20 seconds 

Tag Team Match: The Authors of Pain - Gzim Selmani & Sunny Dhisa (with Paul Ellering) def. American Alpha - Chad Gable & Jason Jordan in 6 minutes, 34 seconds

Singles Match: Austin Aries def. Patrick Clark in 1 minute, 54 seconds 

Singles Match: Bayley def. Nia Jax in 13 minutes, 35 seconds

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 5.3/10

Certainly this episode didn't have anything as strong as American Alpha v The Revival or Shinsuke Nakamura v Finn Balor, but this was still a solid hour of wrestling with a lot of different things to be enjoyed throughout the card. The mixture of focus of NXT's three distinct division was done rather nicely and gave each match it's own feel. This was helped by wonderful performances from the likes of Bayley and American Alpha, who both showed their capable of taking on any opponent and making a good match, and in the case of Bayley facing the same opponent on multiple occasions and producing different ways of approaching each match. There was also the added bonus of no random squash matches this week, as whilst Aries smashed through Clark it was all a set up for the Jose angle. Therefore everything meant something and everything had a reason for the viewer to stick around, whilst simultaneously keeping a solid range of action.

A case of it not being the most memorable episode, but a number of competitors will have benefited from it existing and for the most part it was an easy watch. With WWE snapping up Finn Balor, Nia Jaxx, American Alpha, Alexa Bliss, Carmella and Mojo Rawley for it's separate brands drawing the draft on Tuesday, we could be seeing some big changes to the NXT landscape over the next few weeks and months.

Article by James Marston

TV Review: WWE NXT #204 - Balor v Nakamura (James Marston)

The 13th July 2016 edition of NXT may have been one of the most anticipated episode of the show since it's inception in June 2012. Shinsuke Nakamura and Finn Balor would go one on one for the first time in the United States and only the second time in history. There had been weeks of build up, with interviews and vignettes and promos, but it was finally time for NXT to deliver the match. Could it live up to the lofty expectations? 

In the only match on the show, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Finn Balor, after delivering a middle-rope Kinshasa, following by a running Kinshasa and boy, what a match it was. Things were electric from before the bell had even been rung and even before anyone's theme music had hit. The tension and anticipation for the match were expertly manipulated by the production as the match came closer and closer throughout the show. By the time Balor was standing in the ring, the crowd was so ready to see a fight and so was I. We had to wait just that little bit longer of Nakamura to come out, which made his entrance even sweeter. The in-ring announcement were also a nice touch, recognising the anticipation and playing with it even more, in a ceremony that is usually only reserved for title match. 

For two lesser workers the anticipation would any match that would follow a let down, however these are two of the greatest workers around today, both among the best of all-time. They put on an excellent match and made it look easy. Effortless. After some early joking around by both, the action got serious when Balor nailed a dropkick to "The King of Strong-Style"'s knee as the main narrative of the match began to develop. Corey Graves did a brilliant job of explaining how the focus of Nakamara's left knee would effect his game and benefit Balor. The former NXT Champion would attack his opponents left knee hard and often for the rest of the match, including a surfboard stretch, a heel hook and a dramatic knee bar, also using the injury as a way to stop Nakamura from gaining to much momentum and as a way of blocking the Kinshasa, all with some lovely selling from the Japanese star. I'd have like to have seen Nakamura's offence a little more affected by the attacks, to add a further depth to the story, but that's only a mild criticism, that problem only worried me!

The action would build and build throughout the final third, with both men hitting variations of their finishes for near falls, whilst riffling through a tremendous back and forth strike sequence. With both being put over as equals in the closing stages, it was Nakamura who would manage to be one step ahead of his former NJPW colleage, managing to doge a Coup de Grat attempt, leading to the finish. Everything in closing stages was fluid but powerfully hit at the same time, with the duo logically moving from one stage to the next and lifting the crowd time and time again as they headed towards the pinfall. I think a couple more believable false finishes and this would have been a five star bout, that rivaled Nakamura's debut against Sami Zayn in April. If this is Balor's last hurrah in NXT then he certainly went out with a bang, with the bonus of having his handful of finishes protected, whilst putting over Nakamura, in what was arguably the Irishman's strongest singles match to date, on his way out. 

Whilst there was no other wrestling conflicts on the show this week, NXT Champion Samoa Joe did make his first appearance on television since bettering Balor in a Steel Cage match in early June. The segment saw Joe cut a strong heel promo, chastising those that cheered for him as hypocrites and criticising fan favourites Balor and Nakamura for believing a win against each other would entitle them to a NXT title shot. Delivered with conviction Joe look like a beast and every inch of the World champion that he is. "Shinsuke, if you are the king [of Strong-Style] then say hello to the Emperor" was superb line that lay the foundation for a new inevitable feud with the 3 time IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Before that though it appear's Joe will be feuding with Rhyno as "The Man Beast" would interrupt the NXT Champion with a challenge. After returning last week, it seems Rhyno is going to be used to bolster "The Samoan Submission Machine"'s title run. The two have previously battled all over the USA, Canada and England for over ten years, having collided for the likes of NWA, JAPW & TNA, as well as NXT, where they their last singles match in July of last year. 

Also on the show, it was announced that next week's episode will feature a trio of big matches with Bayley facing Nia Jaxx, American Alpha finally getting their hands on the Authors of Pain and Samoa Joe going one on one with Rhyno.

Finally...

ATPW Scale Rating - 8.06/10 

What an episode this was, showcasing the full potential of what can be done with the one hour a week slot. Shinsuke Nakamura and Finn Balor created magic, in one of the best matches that will air this year. Certainly one of the best non-Takeover matches the brand has produced. Outside of this there was a strong characterful performance from the group's Champion on the microphone, which provided a match that will add weight to his title reign opposite Rhyno, whilst setting the stage for a huge feud with Nakamura that looks set to headline August's Takeover: Back to Brooklyn special.