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Csonka Reviews Free Matches With Roman Reigns, Sami Callihan, & More
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...Csonka Reviews Free Matches With Roman Reigns, Sami Callihan, & More
OFFICIAL RESULTS
– From WWE Elimination Chamber 2018: Roman Reigns won @ 40:04 via pin [***]
– From WWE Elimination Chamber 2017: Becky Lynch defeated Mickie James @ 11:45 via pin [**¾]
– From Impact Wrestling vs. UK 2018 – Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Death Match: Sami Callihan defeated Jimmy Havoc @ 17:51 via pin [****]
Universal Championship #1 Contenders Men’s Elimination Chamber Match: The Miz vs. John Cena vs. Braun Strowman vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor vs. Elias: Miz, Balor, and Rollins will start us off. Miz tries to make alliances early, but Balor & Rollins refuse. Balor & Rollins attack Miz, but Rollins then tries to roll up Balor for 2. Miz send to the floor, as Rollins grounds Balor. Rollins fires up, knocks Miz back to the floor allowing Balor to hit a dropkick. Miz back in and cut off immediately. Balor maintains control, and covers Rollins for 2. Rollins finally cuts off Balor, hitting a knee strike and covering for 2. They all go for roll ups, and Rollins hits a back breaker on Balor. Rollins hits a springboard clothesline on Miz, hits a suplex and rolls through, doing the deal with the falcon arrow for 2. Rollins and Miz work back and forth, and then Rollins hits the blockbuster on both, covering both for 2. #4 is Cena. He takes his time and talks shit with Rollins, they push and shove and Cena attacks, Rollins fights back, but Cena hits the proto bomb. Cena hits one on Miz, and looks for the shuffle, and connects to both. Balor cuts him off, rolling him up for 2. Sling blade follows on Miz, but Rollins cuts him off. Cena looks for a double AA, Rollins & Balor escape. Cena & Balor brawl on the floor, as do Miz & Rollins. Cena fires back with rights, pulls Balor up top and Rollins & Miz work up top in the opposite corner. Cena & Rollins hit superplexes, and all four are down. #5 is Reigns. He fires away with rights, taking control with ease. He goes face to face with Rollins, but Miz runs them together and DDTs Rollins for 2. Miz takes his time and then lays in IT kicks to all. Reigns cuts him off with a clothesline, but Balor attacks from behind. He tosses Rollins to the floor, and Reigns hits a clothesline for 2. Corner clotheslines follow on Balor. The single armed powerbomb follows, and then the Samoan drop on Cena gets 2. A sitout powerbomb to Miz gets 2. #6 is Braun. Get these hands son. He slams Rollins to he chamber and attacks everyone. Miz runs, as Braun just kicks everyone’s ass. Rollins & Rollins attack together, but Braun suplexes them both. He tosses Balor into Reigns. Miz climbs the chamber on top of a pod, but Braun follows and catches him. Brain repeatedly slams Miz into the chamber and tosses him off onto the pile of bodies in the ring. Braun stares down Elias, and then attacks Miz. And then Reigns. Rollins attacks, but he gets those hands and is tossed to the floor. Braun powerslams Miz and eliminates him @ 20:05. Elias is in now. As the other four attack Braun. They agree to work together, and Reigns calls for a Shield bomb, and they hit it and dog pile on Braun, but he kicks out at 2. Cena hits an AA, but Braun kicks out at 1. Spear by Reigns, but Braun kicks out. Black out by Rollins, and the double stomp by Balor follows. It breaks down as the alliance is over, as Braun is down on the floor. Elias in and covers Rollins for 2. Balor for 2. Reigns for 2. He clotheslines Balor and works over Reigns and Cena. Elias up top and hits the elbow drop on Rollins for 2. The sitout powerbomb on Reigns gets 2. Braun is back and misses a charge, posting himself. Elias tries to power him up, fails, powerslam by Braun & Elias is done @ 25:45. Braun picks up Reigns, but he escapes the powerslam and Rollins & Balor attack. Cena & Reigns join in but Braun catches him and powerslam him and Cena is done @ 27:15. My god, will poor John miss WrestleMania? There’s always the Andre battle royal. Braun continues his path of destruction, but Balor starts fighting back, and hits the shotgun dropkick. Balor up top, the double stomp connects, but Braun kicks out. Rollins & Balor brawl, they trade enziguris, and Balor hits 1916 for a near fall. Sling blade to reigns, and the shotgun dropkick follows, The double stomp follows, but Braun hits the powerslam and eliminated Balor @ 30:35. Down to Rollins, Braun, and Reigns. Reigns & Rollins get to their feet, and agree to work together. They attack and take control, double teaming Braun. They slam him into the chamber a few rimes, but Rollins attacks Reigns and hits a superkick, misses the stomp, but hits the buckle bomb, but Reigns rebounds out with the superman punch. Braun is back up, grabs Rollins but Rollins climbs away and up the chamber. Braun follows, Reigns is up and attacks Braun with a Samoan drop on the flooring. Rollins is in top of a pod, and Braun rolls back in, high fly flow to Braun, but he kicks out at 2. Rollins & Reigns look for the powerbomb, but Braun fights out and dropkicks Reigns. Rollins hits superkicks, but Braun cuts him off with a powerslam and elimination @ 36:30. We’re down to Reigns vs. Braun. They trade strikes and they work to the floor, and Reigns escapes a powerslam. Reigns then dives over the ropes onto Braun, Braun charges and crashes through a pod as Reigns sidesteps him. The superman punch follows, and back in, Reigns hits another. Reigns backs off, and the spear is countered, Reigns escapes the powerslam and hits another superman punch. The spear follows. Reigns hits another spear and wins. Roman Reigns won @ 40:04 via pin [***] Roman Reigns is WWE’s guy, and they held serve here, having him win. They let Braun run wild and eliminate everyone in an effort to keep him hot and not hurt him. But that was really ultimately done to make Reigns look like the man in pinning him. Reigns is the chosen one by WWE, he puts on some good matches, but to me, he doesn’t feel like the star they think he is. Braun continues to feel like the more organically grown star. He’s over, he feels like a larger than life star, and the crowd reacts to him like one. I really fear that by the time they pull the trigger on Braun that it will be too late. I don’t dislike Reigns at all, but I also don’t get the company’s obsession with him either. I guess they feel that after all of this time and effort put into him, they have to stay the course and continue on. For the most part, I felt that outside of Braun killing folks that the match was good, but extremely flat and predictable. I easily enjoyed the women’s match much more.
Mickie James vs. Becky Lynch: The crowd is into this early, as they lock up and battle to the floor. Lynch looks to work the arm, but James slickly escapes; Lynch sends her to the floor. Lynch sends James to the post and follows with a diving forearm to the floor. Back in, but James cuts her off on the way in and plants Lynch with a DDT. James then works the arm, nice clean work by James here. James continues her assault on the arm, looking to one up Lynch by beating her at her own game. Lynch fires up with forearms and uppercuts, but James goes right back to the arm and posts Lynch. Lynch escapes, they trade strikes, and Lynch hits the clothesline and a leg lariat. The XPLODER follows for Lynch, but James fights back, heads up top and hits the seated senton for 2. Lynch hits the kick out of the corner, follows with the missile dropkick and covers for 2. James counters a pump handle slam, hits the head kick but Lynch is in the ropes. James pulls her away, covering for 2. James follows with ground and pound, telling Lynch it’s over, but Lynch counters the DDT and looks for the arm bar, they trade pinning counters and Lynch wins with the jackknife pin. Becky Lynch defeated Mickie James @ 11:45 via pin [**¾] I thought that they worked a pretty good match in terms of the action, but the booking of match and finish made it appear, to me, that Lynch stole a win and wasn’t exactly on James’ level.
Barbed Wire Baseball Bat Death Match: Sami Callihan vs. Jimmy Havoc: They talk shit and work into a fast paced back and forth. Sami knocks Havoc to he floor but Havoc cuts him off and gets a staple gun. He staples Sami in the chest and then the ass. Sami cuts him off and tosses the gun away. Sami then misses a chop and hits the post. Havoc eye pokes him and then throws a chair at him. Havoc sets him in a chair, takes a lap and pokes Sami in the eyes. Chair shots follow, and he then whips Sami to the barricade and throws another chair at him. Sami cuts him off with strikes, and rolls him back to the apron. They trade strikes and Sami rakes the eyes and hits the cactus driver onto the apron. Sami spits at the ref and tosses Havoc back in. They fight over the staple gun, and Sami staple Havoc to counter a sunset flip. Sami gets a magazine, rips out a page and staples it to Havoc. He then staples another to him, and then one to his head. Sami rips them off and low blows Havoc. Sami pulls out the spike and starts laying in shots on Havoc; Havoc is busted open. Sami gets the bat from the stage and brings it into the ring. Havoc shoots him the middle finger and then does the paper cut spots on Sami. Sami spits at him so Havoc paper cut his tongue. Havoc now gets a lemon and squeezes it into the paper cuts. Sami cuts off the acid rainmaker and grabs the bat, ripping into Havoc’s arm with it. Sami now uses the lemon but that fires up Havoc. Havoc “staples” his wounds shut and gets up some chairs. He takes Sami up top and they battle and Havoc hits a DVD into the chairs and the PK follows for 2. Havoc hits another DVD onto the chairs for 2. Havoc dumps out some thumbtacks and unwraps the barbed wire from the bat. He wraps it around his arm, but Sami cuts him off and sends him into the tacks.. Havoc low blows Sami with the barbed wire, but Sami hits a drop toehold on Havoc into the tacks. Sami now rips off Havoc’s shoes and socks. Havoc keeps fighting, hits the acid rainmaker with the bared wire for 2. Havoc up top for a double stomp but Sami moves and Havoc lands in the tacks! Cactus driver into the tacks and Sami wins. Sami Callihan defeated Jimmy Havoc @ 17:51 via pin [****] Your mileage may vary on this, depending on how much you enjoy the death match style stuff. But they worked to the stipulation very well, the crowd was into it and they did some insane shit. This was on the level of Havoc vs. Martinez from ROH in the UK, but also worked very differently to Havoc’s credit.
The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 96. On the show, 411’s Larry Csonka & Steve Cook talk the latest news (More NXT Japan Speculation, Dark Side of The Ring Returns, More), review this week’s AEW vs. NXT TV, & preview WWE Elimination Chamber. The show is approximately 90-minutes long.
* Intro
* News Roundup (More NXT Japan Speculation, Dark Side of The Ring Returns, More): 2:00
* AEW Dynamite (3.04.20) Review: 22:00
* NXT (3.04.20) Review: 48:45
* The Head to Head Comparison: 1:03:25
* WWE Elimination Chamber Preview: 1:07:55
* iTunes
* Spotify
* Stitcher
* Google Play
– End scene.
– Thanks for reading.
