3 WWE/AEW matches worth a rewatch (Week of Nov. 6-12)

We are now well into November, and for WWE and All Elite Wrestling, that means the procession toward their respective pay-per-views — Survivor Series: WarGames for WWE and Full Gear for AEW — has begun.

Before those shows happen, both companies have some weekly shows to work through, which means there’s still plenty of time to see some good televised matches before each starts asking for your money.

This week didn’t feature the same volume of quality outings, but that simply made it easier to pick out the good stuff.

These AEW/WWE matches are worth a rewatch.

Katana Chance and Kayden Carter (c) vs. Nikkita Lyons and Zoey Stark- NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship match (WWE NXT Nov. 8, 2022) (***1/2)

After the last women’s tag title match between these four ended with a Dusty finish two weeks ago, they met again on the Nov. 8 episode of NXT with the titles on the line. Wacky conclusion aside, these teams put together a pretty good match in their first outing, but would lightning strike twice in the show’s main event?

As it turns out, it did! While the rematch won’t win Tag Team Match of the Year, it lived up to its lofty position on the card thrilling the Orlando crowd with some compelling, well-paced action. For as odd as their booking had been over the last few months, Kayden Carter and Katana Chance have become a fun, solid team in the ring, and it never hurts to have an opponent of Zoey Stark’s quality. Lyons is still as green as a New York Jets helmet, but they wisely worked around her limitations.

In the end, Carter and Chance once again retained via pinfall, and we got the expected Stark turn on Lyons. Unfortunately, that means the big Lyons singles push is on the way.

The Usos (c) vs. The New Day- Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Match (WWE SmackDown Nov. 11, 2022) (****)

Way back in late May, right after The Usos unified the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championships, yours truly predicted that The New Day would eventually step up to challenge the twin brothers for those belts. Well, “inevitably” was probably a more fitting word given that WWE often matches these teams up to distract fans from how paper thin the rest of the tag team division is, but it is what it is.

Some fans have understandably grown tired of the company’s reliance on this match, but the context of New Day trying to keep The Usos from breaking the tag title record that New Day gave this match an additional context that separates it from the others. Plus, they always have good matches against one another, and this one continued that trend.

Sure, they got a little too cute toward the end, but a competitive 24-minute match that ends with a clean finish made this a match worthy of the stakes that it carried.

Bryan Danielson vs. Sammy Guevara- 2 out of 3 Falls Match (AEW: Dynamite Nov. 9, 2022) (****1/2)

Oh look, another rematch. Two weeks after producing a good outing on Dynamite, Bryan Danielson and Sammy Guevara ran it back in a 3 out of 3 Fall match in preparation for their participation in a Fatal 4 Way match with Chris Jericho and Claudio Castagnoli for the Ring of Honor World Championship at Full Gear.

How good you think this match is will depend on your tolerance for Guevara’s high-spot-heavy offense, but Danielson stabilized things with his selling, the timing on his comebacks, and his fire as a babyface.

As expected, Danielson got the 2-1 win, sealing things in the final fall by forcing Guevara to submit to the LeBell Lock.