Monday, April 20, 2015

Fave Five 4/13/15-4/19/15

1) Rich Swann: I'll be the first to admit that I haven't seen too much of Rich Swann. Still, after reading about his accomplishments this week, it would be hard to put anyone else ahead of him. First, he won the FIP Heavyweight Championship from Roderick Strong. Strong has been on the indies forever and is a multi-time FIP Champion, making this a pretty big win for Swann. That in itself was enough to land the top spot on a slow week but he wasn't done and would add more gold. He teamed with the excellent Johnny Gargano to win the DGUSA Open the United Gate Tag Team Titles, capping off a magnificent week for Swann.


2) The Hardyz: This week's episode of Impact was mostly focused on the Tag Team Titles. That is great for the titles as an episode dedicated to them does wonders for the prestige. Eight teams competed in four matches with the winners moving on to a multi-team Ultimate X match that determined new champions after the Wolves had to relinquish the belts due to injury. The Hardyz would defeat the Revolution to kick off the show before capturing the belts to close the broadcast. Not only was this obviously a cool moment for them but the TNA Tag Team Titles were the only major tag titles to have eluded the Hardyz throughout their career. It's a nice feather in the cap of a successful career.

3) John Cena: Over in the WWE, nobody really had a big standout week. I'd say that the top three performers in the company were John Cena, Sami Zayn and Neville. The reason I chose to put Cena here is because he was the one of those three to pick up two wins this week. On Raw, he opened the show by issuing his Open Challenge and beating Bad News Barrett in a very good match. Then on Smackdown, he issued is again only to end up in a tag team match. He teamed with the other mid-card Champion, Daniel Bryan, to best the WWE Tag Team Champions, Tyson Kidd and Cesaro in a non-title match. All in all, a successful week for the United States Champion as he continues to have a very good year from an in-ring standpoint.


4) Drago: Since getting into Lucha Underground, I've mentioned multiple guys that have stood out to me. Prince Puma, Johnny Mundo and King Cuerno to mention a few. However, Drago has been fantastic as well. Recently, he has engaged in a Best of Five Series with Aerostar, pretty much producing good to great matches each time out. This week, Drago was able to win the series in the deciding fifth match and ended up earning a shot at the Lucha Underground Championship. A future bout between him and Prince Puma should be nothing but phenomenal and I look forward to a lot more from him. He has an eye catching look for sure and the talent to back it up.

5) Texano Jr., King Cuerno and Cage: Things have been getting hectic in Lucha Underground. Recently, they started a tournament for the Trios Tag Team Championship. This has brought in tons of excitement as they produce awesome six man tag matches week in and week out. A huge one went down this week when three of the best faces in the company, Johnny Mundo, Prince Puma and Hernandez took on three of the top heels in King Cuerno, Cage and Texano Jr. The villains picked up the win and it was massive especially for Cuerno, who was able to pin the Lucha Underground Champion, Prince Puma.