By Brian Argabright
It has been a rough week for many of On the Mark’s readers this week.
The cold weather, lack of electricity for many and a loss of water for nearly everyone in this community has tested the mettle of readers and contributors alike. Maybe a brief few minutes of escapism through this column will help, but please know that we, at the 830 Times, hope everyone is as safe as possible during this tough times.
Now, it’s on with the show.
There was a lot that took place this week in the world of pro wrestling, including the start of the AEW Women’s Championship Eliminator Tournament, but I’ll start with NXT Takeover: Vengeance, which aired Sunday on the WWE Network.
Spoilers ahead, so if you still want to see what happened for yourself please skip ahead a few paragraphs.
No title changes took place at the event, which isn’t so much a shocker as it is a build up for the bigger Takeover that will probably take place WrestleMania weekend. Most of the matches were solid, but the best of the night was Finn Balor defeating Pete Dunne to retain the NXT Championship.
In the aftermath of the match, NXT Tag Team champions Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan, running buddies with Dunne, attacked Balor but were eventually run off by members of the Undisputed Era. After helping get Balor back to his feet, it looked as though UE members Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly and Adam Cole would accept Balor as a member of the group, especially with fourth member Bobby Fish still out due to injury, but Cole then dropped Balor with a superkick much to the dismay of O’Reilly and Strong.
As Cole argued with Strong, he then caught O’Reilly with a superkick as well to signal the end of the UE as we know it. Balor and O’Reilly had an uneasy alliance built out of mutual respect, but now it seems we’ll see them first deal with Oney and Lorcan and then Cole and Strong after what transpired Sunday night.
The other big news to come out of Takeover was the apparent signing of former Impact world champion Eli Drake. Drake, who most recently wrestled in the NWA’s latest iteration, was introduced as LA Knight following a contract signing that took place before Takeover began.
As I mentioned earlier, the AEW women’s tournament got underway with one match on the US side of the bracket and the complete first round of Japan’s side of the bracket in the books. Thunder Rosa advanced as did Japanese stars Yuka Samazaki, Emi Sakura, Ryu Mizunami and Aja Kong. You can see the women’s matches on YouTube through the official AEW channel.
