Last week was dominated with the end of G1 matches. The winner of last week was, G1 Climax Day 17: Jay White vs. Tomohiro Ishii, beyond being a great match from both, it also ruined Jay White’s life a little; so that’s always a positive in the wrestling community.

This week looks much different! There is only 1 NJPW match, and surprisingly it comes from Strong.

Let’s see what we’ve got for the Top 5 this week!

Quick Top 5:

1. WWE Hell in a Cell: I Quit Match: Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs Jey Uso
   Rating: **** 1/2
2. Impact Bound for Glory: Impact World Championship: Rich Swann vs Eric Young (c)
   Rating: **** 1/4
3. WWE Hell in a Cell: SmackDown Women’s Championship: Sasha Banks vs Bayley (c)
   Rating: ****
4. NJPW Strong Ep. 12: Jay White vs Rocky Romero
   Rating: ****
5. WWE Hell in a Cell: WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre (c) vs Randy Orton
   Rating: ****

Honorable Mentions:

• Impact Bound for Glory: Impact Wrestling Tag Team Championships: The Good Brothers vs Ace & Fulton vs The North vs Motor City Machine Guns (c)
  Rating: *** 3/4
• NJPW Road to Power Struggle: NEVER 6 Man Championship: YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii vs ZSJ, Taichi & DOUKI
  Rating: *** 3/4
• Impact Bound for Glory:  Way Scramble: X Division Championship: Rohit Raju (c) vs Jordynne Grace vs TJP vs Chris Bey vs Trey Miguel vs Willie Mack
  Rating: *** 3/4
• AEW Dynamite: Penta El Zero M vs Rey Fenix
  Rating: *** 1/2
• NJPW Strong Ep. 12: G.o.D. vs Brody King & Flip Gordon
  Rating: *** 1/4
• Impact Bound for Glory: Knockouts Championship: Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs Su Yung
  Rating: *** 1/4
• IMPACT!: Sami Callihan w/Ken Shamrock vs Eddie Edwards
  Rating: ***
• WWE Raw: Kofi Kingston vs Sheamus
  Rating: ***
• NXT UK: Kenny Williams vs Trent Seven
  Rating: ***
• NJPW Strong Ep. 12: ACH vs Karl Fredericks
  Rating: ***
• SmackDown: Seth Rollins vs Buddy Murphy
  Rating: ***
• IMPACT!: Willie Mack, TJP & Trey Miguel vs Jordynne Grace, Rohit Raju & Chris Bey
  Rating: ***
• Impact Bound for Glory: Ken Shamrock w/Sami Callihan vs Eddie Edwards
  Rating: ***

3t. WWE Hell in a Cell: WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre (c) vs Randy Orton

From Mitchell’s Coverage:

They both make it halfway down and McIntyre hits back! Orton bumps McIntyre off the frame! And again! McIntyre wobbles but he clubs back! Orton CLUBS McIntyre’s hand off the cell, McIntyre falls THROUGH THE ANNOUNCE DESK!! Orton takes his time climbing back down while McIntyre stirs in the wreckage. McIntyre spits up some blood! But he’s still moving, so Orton slithers over. Orton stands over McIntyre, drags him around, and McIntyre sputters and gasps as he tries to get to his feet. McIntyre crawls, Orton stalks him, a little confused as to how and why McIntyre is still going. They somehow make it back to the cell door, and Orton hauls McIntyre up. McIntyre scrambles around the way but Orton puts him in the ring.

Orton takes his time following and revels in McIntyre writhing and shuddering. Orton hears the voices in his head, and they all want McIntyre to get back up. McIntyre somehow rises, Orton leaps, but into a backslide!! TWO!! McIntyre manages to run to CLAYMORE!?! But Orton gets sent out of the ring! McIntyre goes out, despite the pain in his ribs, to fetch Orton. McIntyre drags Orton up, despite Orton being dead weight. McIntyre gets Orton inside, hobbles to a corner, and still wants Orton to stand! Anger overtakes the pain in McIntyre’s body, and Orton rises, to drop under the Claymore! RKO!!! Cover, ORTON WINS!!

Winner: Orton via RKO

3t. NJPW Strong Ep. 12: Jay White vs Rocky Romero

From My Results:

We start to see the cocky Switchblade come out as he dominates the match after that. Utilizing an interesting Hammerlock Neckbreaker submission, and just generally bullying Rocky, even a seated Bear Hug is opportunity for Jay to taunt him with the Too Sweet. The jawing is priceless with Jay condescending rooting for Rocky by saying it’s his big moment and time to do stuff, but Rocky starts slumping over and can’t even stand, so Jay just chops him for his troubles.

Jay’s cockiness gets the best of him, after patting Rocky on the butt and helping him up to hit him more. Rocky peppered in some elbows and finally started his comeback which rocked Jay a bit. Rocky focused a lot of offense on Jay’s arm (which Jay sold beautifully during the match), but the other clever aspect was Jay never looked out of control. Even during Rocky’s big offensive flurry, Jay laid on the ropes, getting the referee to break them apart and saving himself some punishment.

Rocky had great hope spots, where he had the Armbar on, but Jay got his foot to the rope. A Running Shiranui gave Rocky his closest near fall, but another attempt at the original Shiranui, proved fatal. Jay countered with a backbreaker, and ended the match with Blade Runner.

Winner: Jay White via Blade Runner

3t. WWE Hell in a Cell: SmackDown Women’s Championship: Sasha Banks vs Bayley (c)

From Adam’s Review:

Sasha taking out her frustration and anger early on, kicking the symbolic steel chair out of Bayley’s hands and outside of the cell. Sasha taking it to Bayley heavy until Bayley begins to target Sasha’s neck more and more, even grabbing her neck constantly from it but Sasha doesn’t give up at all. Spraying a fire extinguisher in Bayley’s face to cause separation, hitting a Meteora to the outside on a table and still fighting to the end. Bayley trying to get innovated with weapons in and out of the ring, taping Kendo sticks together, using them to clothesline and hit Sasha in the throat, it becomes more and more devilish as it goes on. Desperation and frustration, Sasha doing a Bayley to Belly on a Ladder but even then, it’s not even enough to put Bayley away. The chair however, is the end of the match. The chair that signified the injury that Sasha had to the neck… put Bayley away with a Bank Statement, chair wrapped around Bayley’s neck and stomping on the leg to close around Bayley’s neck for the victory.

Winner: Sasha via Modified Bank Statement

2. Impact Bound for Glory: Impact World Championship: Rich Swann vs Eric Young (c)

From My Results:

After fighting back in before the 10 count, EY had a new target. EY peppered multiple shots to the head and neck and went for a huge Avalanche Wheelbarrow Neckbreaker, but only for 2, Savage Elbow to the back of the neck also for 2. This was Rich’s cross to bear in the match, and honestly, it may have served as a great distraction as to avoid damage to his ankle.

EY got very cocky, verbally berating Rich telling him to just stay down, and then when Rich got to his feet and dragged himself to the corner, EY was condescending with the “You’re almost there, so close, good job!” and then he’d pummel him some more. But boy when the match flipped, hot damn it fired up fast.

Rich was finally over the verbal assault by the third turnbuckle and just absorbed a few shots before charging EY, landing a few palm strikes, then throws him into the corner, EY Flair Flops the corner, walks to the other turnbuckle, climbs it and Rich jumps up in an Avalanche Takedown or something, it looked cool. The pacing became more of Rich’s forte at this point and it was blistering.

EY had the story thread spot, when he was able to slow things down enough to grab the Spinning Toe Hold, which prompted him to basically tell Rich he told him he was gonna get the ankle. Rich fought valiantly, landed some big moves, EY tried to counter with a Reverse Fireman’s TKO, but Rich fired well. Rich laid out EY with a stiff kick, Lethal Injection, then he went to the ropes, Phoenix Splash, and we have a new champion!

Winner: Rich via Phoenix Splash

1. WWE Hell in a Cell: I Quit Match: Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs Jey Uso

From Adam’s Review:

This was a God damn amazing story. Jey had an out, he could have quit and none of this would have happened. The entire thing felt like it was legit and each hit told a story. Roman did enough to take Jey down every now and again to make sure that it didn’t go too far. Being stubborn comes with consequences however and Jey wanted to be resilient through and through. Drive by with steps, hell, the Referee wanted to call the match but Roman didn’t want that. People wanted to see this work out and Jimmy going out at the end of it, getting choked out and having Jey quit the end of the match to protect Jimmy. Roman wins, all hail the Tribal Chief. Don’t believe that? The Wild Samoans do because they gave Roman the lei of being Head of the Table.

Winner: Roman Reigns

Thoughts

OH NO! What is this sorcery that WWE managed to grab 3 of the Top 5 slots this week? I mean they actually paid off their major storylines fairly well. I’m as shocked as the next person.

With that said, Roman Reigns vs Jey Uso, is my easy vote this week. What the match lacked in “workrate” it made up for in story telling and character investment. If you can’t appreciate this style of professional wrestling, I really don’t know what made you a fan in the first place.