The Silver Report: November 2018

Looking at things objectively, November was a great month for yours truly. I got to reconnect with some friends I haven't seen in a while, went to ROH's Global Wars: Toronto with my amazing crew of wrestling fans, met Juice Robinson and Kushida (who put the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship over my shoulder), and got to watch an unbelievable NXT TakeOver: WarGames with those same wrestling friends. Despite all the great things that happened in November, I've been a complete mess mentally.

While I have spoken about this ailment in other forums, I've never talked about it here. I live with anxiety and depression. Although it has never progressed into anything severe — and hopefully never will — it is a constant struggle. Lately, I'm just finding it a little harder to cope, especially when I start thinking about my dating situation or rather lack thereof.

But what does this have to do with wrestling?

As one of my greatest passions, professional wrestling has helped me through the toughest of times. From watching a match to fantasy booking a current storyline to pouring over the latest news, fixating on professional wrestling and its many aspects, both in the ring and behind the scenes, helps get my mind off of the negativity that permeates my thoughts from time to time. While this next statement might sound like hyperbole, I can't think of how my life would've turned out without professional wrestling. For all the frustration it can cause, it has brought me just as much or even more joy and more importantly, relief from the anxiety and depression.

Crown Dud

While WWE's 10-year deal with Saudi Arabia was controversial from the very beginning — due to the country's restrictions on women — recent events have put this business relationship at the forefront of public discourse.

On October 2, Washington Post journalist and critic of the Saudi government Jamal Khashoggi entered Saudi Arabia's consulate in Turkey. Khashoggi would never leave the consulate as he was assassinated within. The assassination caused an international incident that saw many countries and corporations cut ties with Saudi Arabia. That is everybody but WWE.

Unfortunately for WWE, this incident and the resulting investigation happened right in the middle of the build for their second show in Saudi Arabia, Crown Jewel. Despite being vilified by the media and most of the roster being against doing the show, WWE decided to put their head down and push forward. They put their head down so far, in fact, that they lost all common sense. To be honest, that's the only way you could explain the rather distasteful "respect is out the window" storyline used to build the Brothers of Destruction vs. D-Generation X.

As horrible as everything proceeding Crown Jewel was, it couldn't get any worse ... right? Right?!

Although the live crowd reactions may say otherwise, Crown Jewel was quite easily the worst pay-per-view of 2018. Confirmed racist Hulk Hogan was paraded out to "host" the show. The supposed WWE World Cup to determine the best in the world was filled with mediocre matches and won by Shane McMahon — who wasn't even in the tournament. Brock Lesnar squashed Braun Strowman to win the Universal Championship yet again, a result I should be frustrated over but I've stopped caring about the Universal Championship at this point. And as the awful cherry on top, the Brothers of Destruction vs. D-Generation was an absolute disaster as Triple H tore his pectoral muscle in the opening minutes, Shawn Michaels almost spiked himself doing a moonsault, Kane's mask slipped off at one point, and Undertaker forgot how to perform a simple Irish whip.

In summation, what goes around comes around. So hopefully, WWE's recent loss to karma will cause them to rethink the future of their business relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Source: SportingNews

When The Man Comes Around

WWE's handling of their women's division on the main roster has been laughable at best, but I'll give them credit for stumbling on gold in Becky Lynch's new badass attitude. Although this attitude started as a misguided heel turn as WWE creative tried their best to frame Becky as the villain despite overwhelming cheers, WWE finally gave up pushing Becky as a heel and started pushing her as a badass babyface, nicknamed "The Man", after Evolution. Positioned to face Ronda Rousey in a champion vs. champion match at Survivor Series, it looked like Becky's rising star in the women's division and WWE as a whole would be fed to the company's new golden girl.

Well, that wasn't how things would go down.

On the final Raw before Survivor Series, Becky Lynch would lead the women of SmackDown in an all-out assault on Ronda Rousey and Raw's roster of women. In the chaos, Becky would have a chance encounter with Nia Jax. Becky accidentally hit Nia a little hard, which caused Nia to retaliate with a wild fist to the face. The resulting blow gave Becky a concussion and a broken nose. Unfortunately for the women of Raw, that punch only fired up The Man as she laid waste to their entire roster before leaving through the crowd with blood smeared all over her face like war paint.

As a result of the concussion that Nia's punch caused, Becky was pulled from her much-anticipated match with Rousey at Survivor Series. Despite that disappointment, Becky's popularity has skyrocketed to heights unseen. You could say she has even surpassed Rousey as the most popular wrestler in the company.

Now fingers crossed that WWE can capitalize on their accidental superstar.

Source: WhatCulture

Must-See Matches of November

11/3/2018

Power Struggle
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki

11/11/2018
Global Wars: Toronto
SoCal Uncensored vs. Super Smash Bros.
Juice Robinson vs. Baretta

11/13/2018
Smackdown
AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan

11/14/2018
NXT
Hanson vs. Kyle O'Reilly

11/17/2018
TakeOver: WarGames
Aleister Black vs. Johnny Gargano
Tommaso Ciampa vs. Velveteen Dream
Undisputed Era vs. Pete Dunne, Ricochet & War Raiders - WarGames

11/18/2018
Survivor Series
Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

11/28/2018
NXT UK
Pete Dunne vs. Jordan Devlin

The Silver Report: October 2018

Good God Almighty, October was one wild month. A whole lot happened in the wacky world of professional wrestling. Some absolutely amazing, some very sombre, and some downright distasteful. Considering how much went on and how some stories bleed over into November — mainly everything involving Crown Jewel — I'll focus on two of the biggest developments from October.

Before you glance down and see there isn't a section on WWE Evolution, I wanted to write up a section, but noticed that there wasn't a lot of enough content for an entire section. I'd be covering the same points that I discussed when WWE announced the show. So, I though it would be best to give my opinion in the introduction.

With that said, I know my opinion on this show lies in the minority, but I found Evolution to be just fine. While it wasn't anywhere close to the dumpster fire that my friends and I thought it'd be considering the non-existent build, the show was plagued by WWE's generic match planning, their inconsistent rules (see the Last Woman Standing match), and an over-reliance on nostalgia acts and models. I give props to the women wrestling and all those managing everything behind-the-scenes for giving their all to make this show feel special. Unfortunately, everything rings hollow about Evolution when the women's division just goes back to its little representation and poor booking on the shows following it.

Roman Relinquishes the Universal Championship Due to Leukemia

Nobody could've predicted the topic of Roman Reigns' announcement to kick off Monday Night Raw on October 22.

The show started off rather normal as Reigns walked down to the ring to a chorus of boos from the live audience. The only thing off was his clothes as Reigns was dressed in a casual black top and jeans, instead of his regular black vest and pants. While the change in clothes might be easy to overlook, the kayfabe-breaking promo that followed was not.

Speaking as Joe Anoa'i, Reigns first apologized to the fans for not being the fighting champion that he promised before revealing he has been living with leukemia for 11 years and it has come back. As such, Reigns had to relinquish the Universal Championship. The boos suddenly stopped as the crowd just sat in utter disbelief, but that silence slowly turned to cheers and chants of "Thank you, Roman" as Reigns' promo continued.

While it might seem odd to those outside watching from the outside to comprehend this shift — to them, wrestling fans have booed face Roman Reigns consistently for the better part of three years to suddenly cheer him — nobody is heartless. The boos were originally out of protest of WWE pushing the Roman Reigns character to the detriment of the entire product; nobody in their right mind would wish the man behind the character to suffer. Plus, leukemia is a serious disease. Reigns may never wrestle again or he might — god forbid — lose his life to the disease.

In closing, I want to say get well soon Roman. We will all be hoping, praying, and cheering for you to conquer leukemia and return to the ring one day.

Source: India Today

The Fall of Gargano

Leading up to NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn 4, Aleister Black tore his groin at a NXT house show. To write Black out of his scheduled NXT Championship match against Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa, Black was found knocked out in the parking lot of Full Sail by William Regal. While this incident immediately to a stellar Last Man Standing match between Gargano and Ciampa at Brooklyn 4, it would eventually lead to something much more pivotal.

The episodes of NXT following Brooklyn 4 had numerous segments dedicated to Regal trying to determine Black's attacker before the Dutch Destroyer made his return to Full Sail. Despite finding a lead in Nikki Cross, Regal's efforts were in vain as Black got the information from Cross when he interrupted the main event of the October 17th edition of NXT. The following week, Black would again interrupt the final segment of NXT while on a rampage to find his assailant. Black's rampage ended by screaming at Regal, "Where is he?!" only to turn around to a superkick from Gargano and the reply of "I'm right here."

In one moment, this month and a half long mystery solidified itself as one of the best angles in NXT history and easily the best payoff to a mystery in WWE history. Although it was easy to predict that Gargano would turn out to be the assailant since he had the most to gain, sometimes going with the predictable is the best choice. Plus, this Johnny Gargano heel turn has been building subtly for months now, so to finally see it come to fruition was incredibly satisfying.

Although many may decry turning a natural babyface Johnny Gargano heel on the basis that it betrays his character, don't forget that even the greatest heroes can be corrupted by the darkness. The key to the fall of a hero is what they eventually learn from it. So don't worry, Gargano's redemption will come. For the time being, let's just enjoy this dark and twisted ride.

Source: Figure Four Online

Must-See Matches of October

10/8/2018

King of Pro Wrestling

Kushida vs. Marty Scurll

Cody vs. Kenny Omega vs. Kota Ibushi

Raw
Shield vs. Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre & Dolph Ziggler

10/10/2018

NXT

Adam Cole vs. Pete Dunne vs. Ricochet

10/24/2018

Mae Young Classic

Toni Storm vs. Meiko Satomura 

10/28/2018

Evolution

Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm

10/30/2018

Smackdown

AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan