wrestling / Columns

Botched!: Sami’s Sunglasses, Balor vs. Bayley Buddy, More

December 1, 2018 | Posted by Steve Cook
Finn Balor and Bayley WWE Mixed Match Challenge

Hi, hello & welcome to Botched! It’s been a bit of a quiet week in the world of wrestling, but there’s still plenty of fun things going on. And I’m kind of glad that this week we’re not featuring anybody getting thrown into fire or hit in the head with bricks. Our botches this week are more of the hilarious variety, which I for one prefer.

1. Sami’s ringside seconding needs work

Impact Wrestling likes to have fun on their Thanksgiving episodes. This year’s edition of Eli Drake’s Gravy Train Turkey Trot featured all kinds of whacky hijinks, including an appearance from my favorite Japanese wrestler of all time: Kikutaro! I love that guy more than Larry loves New Japan.

It also featured Sami Callihan wearing sunglasses at ringside, I assume because he was embarrassed to be part of this nonsense. His oVe running buddy Jake Crist wouldn’t let him go unnoticed though.

It might not have been a botch, but I laughed so I’m including it.

2. Who was champion?

I actually love it when WWE flashes back to things that happened more than a couple of weeks ago. Continuity is pretty cool. Unfortunately, sometimes these flashbacks result in the knowledge that some of our announcers have no idea who was champion at a given time.

Heck, I had to look it up because I didn’t remember. As it turns out, Nia was the Raw Women’s Champion heading into this match, so Michael Cole was actually right while The Great Corey Graves was wrong. Just saying.

3. Beware the Bayley Buddies

Finn Balor had a rough week. He ended Raw by getting assaulted by the not at all boring trio of Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley & Drew McIntyre. (To be fair, Drew isn’t boring. Not all the time, anyway.) He started the Mixed Match Challenge by getting attacked by a Bayley Buddy.

Judging from Dirty Dancing-inspired antics involving Bayley & Finn later in the evening, perhaps the Buddies have reason to be jealous? Something to keep an eye on. Come on now, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t be more interested in a Finn Balor vs. Bayley Buddies feud than Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin.

4. Japan has botches in their matches too

I’ve been using a lot of lucha libre in the column lately, so I feel like I should point out that botches take place on continents other than North America. Believe it or not, Japan does have matches where everything doesn’t go right. They do their best to hide it. I’m pretty sure Botchamania doesn’t have any Japanese stuff due to fear of the Yakuza. And Maffew’s smart to be worried about that.

Me? I’m not smart. And the guys that messed this move up are gaijin anyway, so I think I’ll be ok. It’s Jeff Cobb & Michael Elgin trying a powerbomb backstabber combo move that doesn’t go well because Elgin mistimes his jump.

I think we can show this. But if I’m not here next week, you’ll know why!

5. Your Moment of Pagano

I feel like this could be a long-running segment for this column. Pagano wrestled Aerostar on this week’s Lucha Capital show and did…whatever this was supposed to be. A powerbomb into a backstabber in the corner? Doesn’t sound like the best of ideas, but let’s see what happens!

Never change, Pagano. Bless Cubsfan for doing the Lord’s work and watching every Pagano match every week while producing GIFs for the people. If there was a Wrestling Observer IWC Hall of Fame he’d be a first-ballot inductee.

Thanks for reading! If you see (or hear) anything wrong in the world of wrestling, let me know via Twitter or e-mail at [email protected]. Have a good weekend!

More Trending Stories

article topics :

Bayley, Botched!, Finn Balor, WWE, Steve Cook

More Stories

loading