NEWS

It’s almost over. I don’t think it’s any secret that 2020 has not been the best of times for a lot of people. You can pick your reason for what has gone wrong or been the worst part of the year, but that does not mean the year has been a complete disaster. There are several parts of the wrestling year that have been better than others, even if they might have flown a bit underneath the radar.
That’s what we’re going to look at today: some of the good things that have taken place in 2020. Some of these might have a bit more significance than others, but at the same time they are going to be the kind of things that might make you smile just a little bit. Hopefully we get more of these for next year, but for now it is time to look back and see what kind of good things happened this year.
These are in no particular order and is not meant to be exhaustive.
AEW/Impact Wrestling Crossover Ok so yes Impact Wrestling has been the joke of the wrestling world for well over ten years now and no..

Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over ten years now and have reviewed over 5,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be?
Monday Night Raw
Date: December 21, 2015
Location: Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Byron Saxton
It’s the Slammy Awards! Tonight is all about picking the best of the year, or at least whoever the fans pick as the best of the year. The big award is of course Superstar of the Year which is likely going to Roman Reigns again. The other major story though is fallout from last week’s World Title change, which likely means Stephanie going after Reigns. Let’s get to i..

It’s like a championship! The year is wrapping up and a lot of people are likely rather pleased with that being the case. We are on the way to a new year but that also means that we are looking back on what took place over the course of the year. WWE has had a lot of problems in 2020 but it has also had some good news. Now WWE is rewarding those great things.
Back in 1986, WWE introduced the Slammy Awards as a tongue in cheek look back at the best parts of the year. This made for some interesting shows as the awards have been presented on and off over the years. The awards have not been around since 2015, but this is a unique year and that means it is time to bring them out of mothballs, which was done this week.
WWE presented the 2020 Slammy Awards on Wednesday with the ceremony airing on the Bump. There were seventeen awards presented during the show, with several guest presenters and R-Truth as the host. These awards only count for Monday Night Raw and SmackDown, as NXT has its ow..

You have to make it important. There are certain ways to make a wrestling match feel bigger and the easiest is to attach a gimmick. Just adding a special rule to a match makes things feel a lot bigger and there are several choices available. NXT is trying one of the newer gimmicks that they have to pick from and this time around it could be something special.
NXT is in a unique place as it has its own mini arena at the moment, meaning that it can set up all kinds of different things. It also helps that they are away from the main roster, meaning that they do not have all of the same restraints. As a result, one of the NXT wrestlers has a bit of a signature match, and now it is going to be coming back for a special event.
During this week’s NXT, Tommaso Ciampa attacked Timothy Thatcher to continue their feud. With Thatcher laid out, Ciampa said that he would see Thatcher in the Fight Pit, a match that Thatcher debuted earlier this year. The match was later made for New Year’s Evil on ..

Welcome back. With so many people on all of WWE’s rosters, it can be easy to see how someone can get lost in the shuffle. There are only so many spots available for any of them and it can become quite difficult to find something for everyone to do. WWE has a tendency to move them in and around from time to time and that can help a lot. Now we have someone back from Monday Night Raw on the NXT roster.
Retribution has been around for a few months now and their record is hit and miss. The team is starting to settle down but there were so many weeks where it felt like WWE was making this stuff up as they went. It helps a lot to have a set lineup, and while the team has only been around for a little while, the roster has already undergone a change. Now we know where one missing member is heading.
Here she is again. Check out a return on NXT:

During this week’s edition of NXT, Mercedes Martinez made her return to the show, attacking Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida. This comes after Martine..

It’s not me, it’s them. AEW has a lot of things going for it and one of the biggest seems to be its roster. With so many people around, AEW has a great selection to pick from and that means there are going to be some options with everything that they can do. Some of the roster is going to be more successful than others and one AEW star is not happy with the way they are being treated.
After a little over a year of existence, AEW Dynamite still has several names who were around at the beginning. Some of them have not been around the entire time though as several names have been spending more time on Dark, which tends to be the lower level show. Now one of those names was back on Dynamite, but he has already stepped away again.
During this week’s edition of AEW Dynamite, Shawn Spears sat down with Tony Schiavone for an interview. Spears talked about how he had a problem with the company’s management and knew that his issues were not because of his own actions. As a result, Spears said ..

Dynamite
Date: December 23, 2020
Location: Daily’s Place, Jacksonville, Florida
Commentators: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur
It’s the holiday season and for once this show isn’t going head to head with NXT thanks to an NBA game. I’m not sure what to expect from this week’s show but the Young Bucks are defending the Tag Team Titles. Other than that it’s time to build towards the next two weeks of New Year’s Smash. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Chris Jericho/Maxwell Jacob Friedman vs. Top Flight Jericho and Darius trade shots to the face to start with Jericho getting the better of things without much effort. Darius gets in a shot of his own though and it’s Dante coming in for a double kick to the chest. It’s off to Friedman, who gets dropkicked to the floor, meaning it’s a double slugout to put the Inner Circle in trouble.
Friedman is knocked outside again but Jericho clotheslines Dante down to take over. Back in and Jericho knees Dante in the ribs and hits a belly to back ..

This article features a spoiler, so proceed with caution. Earlier this week, WWE taped its edition of Smackdown that will air on Christmas night, Friday, December 25, 2020. The show featured a number of high-quality matches, including one that has implications down the road.
In the main event of the show, Big E defeated Sami Zayn to become the new Intercontinental Champion. This will be Big E’s second run with the championship. From our own Thomas Hall:
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: Big E. defeated Sami Zayn to win the title. The lumberjacks were all Smackdown stars, plus Angel Garza. E. hit the Big Ending on Zayn to win the titles and got hoisted on the babyfaces’ shoulders to end the show.
This match was set up with a segment on last week’s Smackdown:

Editor’s Opinion:
This is fantastic news! Ever since Big E was drafted to Smackdown, we knew that a singles championship was in his future. Putting the Intercontinental Championship on him is a fantastic move and allow ..