3 AEW/WWE matches to rewatch (Week of Sept 25.-Oct. 1)

We have concluded another week in the world of professional wrestling, which means it’s time to reflect on some of the great matches we saw on WWE and All Elite Wrestling (AEW) programming during that time.

Fortunately, both major promotions gave fans plenty of interesting offerings to choose from. You know wrestling fans are spoiled when they get matchups like Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio (in a match that doesn’t require either to poke the other’s eye out, no less!) and it may not even make the list this week.

Of course, you’re welcome to make your own list if you feel that match deserves some praise (and it does). But before you do that, you should take a look (or re-look) at these bouts.

These are three WWE/AEW matches worth a rewatch.

Bianca Belair vs. IYO SKY- Champion vs. Champion match (WWE Raw, Sept. 26, 2022) (***1/2)

Nearly two months after their previous match ended in a no-contest (which sparked a small Twitter discourse about televised non-finishes), Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair and co-holder of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship IYO SKY reacquainted themselves with one another on the Sept. 26 WWE Raw.

Even with this match experiencing some clunky moments, Belair and SKY put together an entertaining match filled with slick spots that accentuated each’s respective in-ring strengths (such as the spot where SKY escaped a waistlock by running through the bottom ropes and hanging Belair out to dry, and basically anytime Belair used her strength to overwhelm SKY), which is a testament to how amazing both are in the ring.

This match ended with Belair hitting SKY with the K.O.D and scoring the clean pin. With Belair set to defend her title in a ladder match against Bayley at Extreme Rules, WWE made the right choice by putting her over SKY, but the promotion has to stop using its tag champions as sacrificial lambs for the REAL STARS.

Willow Nightengale vs. Jamie Hayter (AEW: Rampage Sept. 30, 2022) (***1/2)

During the Tony Storm vs. Serena Deeb lumberjack match on the Sept. 28 episode of AEW: Dynamite, we saw Jamie Hayter and Willow Nightengale brawl up the entrance ramp during the contest’s closing moments. This sparked some hope that fans would see these two face each other in the near future.

That near future came on the following Friday.

Nightengale and Hayter picked up right where they left off on the Sept. 30 episode of AEW: Rampage, as the two powerhouses battered each other as soon as the opening bell gave them license to. They kept that pace up for the duration of the match.

Of course, once we saw Britt Baker and Rebel join Hayter at ringside, we knew how this one would end. And as expected, Baker and Rebel’s interference led to Hayter hitting her ripcord lariat to score the pin.

After seeing the high in-ring quality from these two and hearing the strong crowd response to their work, two things became clear after this one concluded: AEW needs to sign Nightengale and push Hayter as a babyface.

Chris Jericho (c) vs. Bandido- Ring of Honor World Championship match (AEW: Dynamite Sept. 28, 2022) (****1/4)

Who would’ve thought that Chris Jericho would have an in-ring resurgence while portraying a character that has embraced sports-entertainment silliness? We saw this dichotomy play out on the Sept. 28 AEW: Dynamite when the Jericho Appreciation Society opened the show with a party celebrating Jericho winning the Wing of Honor World Championship and when Jericho defended his title against Bandido in the show’s main event.

Bandido deserves the lion’s share of the praise for making this match work, especially considering that he came in as a relative unknown to wrestle in the main event. He won the fans over with his patented minute-long delayed vertical suplex, and they were into every nearfall from that point forward. No wonder AEW signed him after this match.

Of course, Jericho deserves credit for this match’s quality, too. Yes, it helps to have a good worker bumping around for you, but Jericho has faced a lot of good workers in his last few matches and the 51-year-old has held up his end of things in those outings.

There are PLENTY of reasons to not like Jericho, but he has stepped his game up in 2022.