Another week is in the books and in the third week of doing this column, a company other than WWE and a wrestler other than Will Ospreay had the match of the week. Going in, I'd have probably predicted the AEW International champion had a good chance of having the honor once again but the opening match at Saturday's Bad Blood PLE for WWE ended up as one of the best matches in company history and should contend for match of the year honors at the end of 2024.
CM Punk and Drew McIntyre ended their near year long feud inside Hell in a Cell and did it in spectacular fashion. Both men bled. A lot. Unlike most of these matches, the action stayed in the ring. There were callbacks to earlier moments in the feud. At the end of the day, though, it was just two men who hated each other doing whatever they could to win and putting their bodies through, pardon the pun, hell. Punk ended up on top and Drew McIntyre sold the loss like a prime Bret Hart. He was beaten and he was pissed off. It will be interesting to see where both go from here.
It was a very good week overall for WWE. The Last Monster Standing match that I wrote about last Tuesday, did very well. They also had the NXT debut on CW which was presented like a PLE with several very good matches and the SmackDown before Bad Blood produced one of the best TV matches in WWE this year. They took 7 of the top 10 spots for the week of Sept 30-Oct 6. Keep in mind these are matches I watched during that time period. Some took place before it.
It was a lighter week of wrestling watch for me than usual with "only" 56 matches watched. That included: WWE RAW, WWE Main Event (from Sept 28), NXT LvL Up (From Sept 28), WOW (from Sept 29), NXT, AEW Dynamite, ROH on Honor Club, GCW Tha G Code (from Sept 15), WWE Smackdown, AEW Rampage, WWE Bad Blood and AEW Collision. TNA Impact cancelled their new show and aired a "best of" due to the hurricane where they had planned their taping.
Listed below are my top 10 (and honorable mentions) along with my star rating, Dave Meltzer's (if available) and Cagematch rating (where available):
1. 5.25* CM Punk defeated Drew McIntyre in Hell in a Call at WWE Bad Blood October 5. 9.4/10 on Cagematch
2. 4.5* Tanga Loa and Tama Tonga retained their WWE Tag Team titles in a triple threat ladder match over DIY and the Street Profits on WWE Smackdown October 4. 8.19/10 on Cagematch
3. 4.25* Braun Strowman beat Bronson Reed in Last Monster Standing on WWE RAW September 30. 8.08/10 on Cagematch. 4* from Dave Meltzer
4. 4.25* Will Ospreay and Ricochet went to a no contest in an AEW International title match on AEW Dynamite October 2. 7.52/10 on Cagematch. 4.5* from Dave Meltzer
5. 4.25* Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes beat Solo Sikoa and Jacob Fatu at Bad Blood. 6.44/10 on Cagematch
6. 4.25* Trick Williams won the NXT title from former champion Ethan Page at WWE NXT on October 1. 5.77/10 on Cagematch
7. 4* Bryan Danielson retained his AEW World championship over Continental champion Kazuchika Okada at AEW Dynamite. 7.92/10 on Cagematch. 4.25* from Dave Meltzer
8. 4* Roxanne Perez retained her NXT Women's title over Guilia on WWE NXT. 6.44/10 on Cagematch. 3.75* from Dave Meltzer
9. 4* Masha Slamovich retained her JCW title over Man Like DeReiss on GCW Tha G-Code
10. 3.75* Wes Lee beat Zachary Wentz in a street fight on WWE NXT. 7.63/10 on Cagematch. 4* from Dave Meltzer
I also rated the next two matches at 3.75* but thought Lee/Wentz was a little better than either of them:
Private Party and Katsuyori Shibata beat The Young Bucks and Jack Perry on AEW Rampage Oct 4 on AEW Rampage. 6.67/10 on Cagematch
Nia Jax retained her WWE Women's title at Bad Blood. 5.47/10 on Cagematch
