The Silver Report: July 2018

Ever since I started the Silver Report back up, I've had one problem: I can't watch all the wrestling that I want to in a month.

With the accessibility of the Internet, it has made watching wrestling easier than ever before. Where you would be stuck with what was available on TV or at your local DVD store back in the day, you now have so much wrestling at your finger tips. With a constant source of wrestling nowadays, you run into my problem more often than not, especially when you report about the industry professionally or for fun.

Personally, I am so behind on a lot of wrestling. I have a months' worth of Raw and SmackDowns saved on the DVR and 40 matches of the G1 to still work my way through. That's not counting my huge backlog of wrestling DVDs and getting around to finally watch Stardom for the first time.

While this may seem like a little concern for many, I worry about it because I want to try to encapsulate the world of wrestling in a month through the stories I feature and the matches I label as "must-see." Despite my backlog of wrestling continuing to grow, I will always try to watch as much wrestling as my eyes can take in order to provide you all with the best Silver Report each and every month.

Making an Impact in the T-Dot

It has been a turbulent few years for the company formerly known as TNA. Plagued by years of horrible management and horrendous wrestling, everybody wrote them off. Everybody, myself included, thought that there was no way Impact Wrestling could come back from all the setbacks.

Well, Impact Wrestling has been proving everybody wrong for the past four months and it was hammered home with the excellent Slammiversary XVI. From the opening match to the closing moments, no match on Slammiversary felt the same — even with three hardcore matches on the card. From the all-out spotfest of the opener to the gruesome brutality of the Mask vs. Hair match, each bout told a unique story. While a couple matches, mainly Eddie Edwards vs. Tommy Dreamer and Madison Rayne vs. Su Yung, fell flat, they were much better than anything WWE's main roster is doing.

Considering Slammiversary took place in Toronto, yours truly made the trip to watch the show live. Despite a few criticisms I have over the mishandling of general admission seating in the balcony, the show well overshadowed any misgivings I had. The smaller venue made the show feel much more intimate than any wrestling show I've been to and the balcony view gave my friends and I a perfect angle to see the ring and ramp area. 

I cannot stress how good this show was. It quite literally made me forget that I stood for four hours straight. So, if you are a lapsed fan of Impact or are curious considering all the positive buzz surrounding the promotion, I highly recommend making time to watch Slammiversary XVI. You'll be happy you did.

Source: Uproxx.com

Women's Evolution? I Think Not

The weekend before the July 23 edition of Raw, WWE started teasing a special announcement by Stephanie McMahon to open said show. Considering how the company has done everything to make Stephanie seem like the patron saint of women's wrestling, it was easy for many to deduce that the announcement would have to do with the women's division. What exactly the announcement was to be was a toss up between a women's tag division and an all-women PPV. Come time for the announcement, it turned out to be the latter. 

Along with some speeches talking up the journey to this "historic" announcement, Stephanie and Triple H shared a few details about the show. First of all, the PPV, WWE Evolution, will take place at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island on October 28. It will include over 50 women from WWE's past, present, and future. Plus, all women's titles (Raw, SmackDown, NXT, and NXT UK) will be defended on the show, along with the finals of the 2018 Mae Young Classic.

While you can't discredit how huge this announcement is for the women of WWE, let's remember the truth of how we got to this moment. The reason for this so-called "Women's Revolution/Evolution" is because of a problem that the WWE created. They were the ones that emphasized looks over wrestling ability, thus holding down their division, and quite possibly women's wrestling in North America, for decades. 

Yes, they're making efforts to fix the problem now, but it rings hollow when WWE puts themselves on a pedestal for doing it. And in the case of #GiveDivasAChance, they're literally rewriting history in order to not give credit to former employee — and advocate for this change — AJ Lee. Plus, there have been plenty of all-women wrestling shows from the likes of Shimmer, Eve, and Stardom. Even, TNA ran all-women PPVs from 2013 to 2016.

While I can go on about the problems and fallacies of WWE's portrayal of their women's division, you don't have all day. So in summation, I find it hard to trust WWE's promise of an all-women wrestling show when the most visible part of its women's division — the main roster — is so poorly handled and they seem more concerned with hiding that fact rather than fixing it. How am I supposed to believe that WWE Evolution will be a step in the right direction, instead of more baseless "Women's Evolution" propaganda?

Source: CBS Sports

B is for Best

Well it's time to talk about the G1 Climax, New Japan's huge 91-match round-robin tournament which takes place from mid-July to mid-August. Much like the Best of the Super Jr. tournament, the G1 is known for its match quality. In fact, some of the top Match of the Year contenders usually come from this tournament. And if you have been following along with this year's tournament — correction: this year's B Block — you'd understand why.

Not to devalue the match quality or effort of those involved in A Block, but B Block is stacked this year. Just look at the Must-See Matches I listed from the G1, all of them are from B Block. Other than Tama Tonga, who seems more concerned with making a statement through interference and DQ losses than putting on quality matches, the guys in B Block brought their A game. Even Yano has been putting on good to great matches!

But if I have to single out two wrestlers that are the stars of this year's B Block and the G1 as a whole, I'd say Tomohiro Ishii and Zack Sabre Jr. While these two might not be the biggest stars of the company, they are certainly the workhorses — and a long tournament like the G1 allows them to flourish.

Individually, each one has their own unique style that can easily adapt to any situation. In the past year, Sabre Jr. has learned how to perfectly adapt his unbelievable grappling and submission skills to the New Japan style. What were once slow plodding affairs during last year's G1 are now expertly paced wrestling clinics with an added pinch of body horror. On the other hand, Ishii is the epitome of strong style. The man deals out the stiffest and strongest strikes you'll ever see and he can take an exceptional amount of pain. Ishii's best matches, such as this year's showdowns with Goto and Ibushi, are literal wars of attrition.

Despite my problems with A Block's over-dependence on stretching the rules and the BC OGz constant interference in Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga matches, this year's G1 has been loads of fun. Now to watch the last 41 matches before the end of August.

Source: ProWrestling.com

Must-See Matches of July

7/7/2018
G1 Special in San Francisco
Young Bucks vs. Evil & Sanada
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee

7/11/2018
NXT
Mustache Mountain vs. Undisputed Era

7/15/18
G1 Climax 28 Night 2
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Toru Yano
Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Kenny Omega vs. Tetsuya Naito

7/18/2018
NXT
Candice LeRae vs. Kairi Sane vs. Nikki Cross

7/21/2018
G1 Climax 28 Night 6
Sanada vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii

7/22/2018
Slammiversary XVI
Fenix vs. Johnny Impact vs. Petey Willaims vs. Taiji Ishimori
Pentagon Jr. vs. Sami Callihan - Mask vs. Hair Match
Austin Aries vs. Moose

7/26/2018
G1 Climax 28 Night 8
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

7/28/2018
G1 Climax 28 Night 10
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Kota Ibushi