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WORST EVENT

Unlike my previous write-up, I've got a pretty firm grasp on what I feel were the five worst events I watched this year.

#5: NOAH Great Voyage 2021 in Fukuoka

This ended up being the best of the worst for me due to having a couple of fine matches on the undercard, but this is the show where it felt like NOAH went off the rails for me. The main event was Keiji Mutoh, fresh off his inexplicable title win over Go Shiozaki, defending against the young man that is being groomed to carry NOAH into the future Kaito Kiyomiya. Admittedly, Kiyomiya is still young and growing into that position but he's closer to being that guy for NOAH than just about anyone else they've had. So what does NOAH do? They book him to struggle against a man who looks old enough to be his grandfather and can barely stand. Mutoh is completely done about two minutes in and the match goes for another thirty. Then Mutoh wins. Clean. With a roster as good as theirs, they have no business putting a main event this poor and Mutoh has nothing to give to wrestling anymore. Can't wait to see him against SANADA at the NJPW/NOAH crossover show. I'm sure that's going to be a real banger. <_<

#4 WWE Survivor Series 2021

Probably some recency bias here, but I can't think of a more pointless show this year than Survivor Series. There's a WWE show I think is worse than this one that I'll talk about later but even that had some kind of purpose to it. No one cares about SD vs. Raw, they largely feel like the same show with an interchangeable cast. They didn't care enough to make a storyline on television for putting together the teams this year instead opting to announce them via Twitter. Then they ended up shuffling all the teams around because this company has no vision except the same one they've had for the last seven years that has driven off most of their casual viewing audience. The matches mostly stunk (Becky/Charlotte was good but had no stakes at all), the booking was some of the worst WWE has put together, and another sacrifice is made to the altar of Roman Reigns. I doubt anyone is going to look back at this show save for doing reviews for podcasts in a few years like so many do with 2000 WCW.

#3 NWA When Our Shadows Fall

Hey, remember how pre-pandemic the NWA had some buzz about it and was putting out enjoyable programming? Nothing groundbreaking or exceptionally great but it was an easy, fun promotion to watch. Well, due to a number of reasons, that's gone and When Our Shadows Fall really drove that point home. Fred Rosser/JTG and Kamille/Serena Deeb were about the only things that were fine on this show. This was the first and only time I saw Tyrus wrestle this year. I'd like to keep it that way. But what makes it really bad to me is that they capped this middling show off with a Dusty finish to Murdoch/Aldis. Whole thing felt like a waste of time and left me with no confidence in NWA moving forward.

#2 GCW Acid Cup

This is technically two events but Eddv okayed me considering them as a whole event. On paper, this tournament could have been good. You had some good prospects like Lee Moriarty, JJ Garrett, AJ Gray, Calvin Tankman, and Arez as a part of it. Laredo Kid was even announced for it (he wrestled the first show and dropped out of the second probably after seeing what a crapfest this was). Then the tournament started and it all fell apart. First off, the tournament was held in some random parking lot in Florida in front of seemingly 20 people. It must have been some really crap weather because just about everyone seemed off their game and poor JJ Garrett ended up vomiting in the middle of his match due to heat stroke. These conditions didn't help the bad performers in this, Jordan Oliver and Edith Surreal, who were booked to wrestle each other for an unreasonably long time on the first night and had one of the most amateurish showings I've ever seen for a supposedly upper tier indy. Then they took Jordan Oliver, easily the worst wrestler still in the tournament, and booked him in three more matches on the second show before winning the whole thing. And to top it all off, you had to endure the obnoxious commentary from Kevin Gill. I'm certain that GCW has had worse shows this year because this company has no concept of quality control and their fanbase are largely a bunch of inebriated mutants who do not care, but this could have been a quality showing from them and they chose to make it garbage.

#1 WWE Superstar Spectacle

Be honest - you forgot this happened. This was a show that was done to "highlight" all of the "wonderful", "exciting", and "talented" superstars from India in the WWE. I think all the quotations there made it clear what I thought of these showcases. Watching guys like Finn Balor and AJ Styles work ultra basic, practically first match out wrestling school caliber showings in front of nobody was worse than watching Jordan Oliver wrestle in front of 20 drunks in Florida. It had a purpose, unlike Survivor Series, but there wasn't anything good here to boost the show (which is why I put it above the Acid Cup) and I don't even know how many of the Indian wrestlers featured here are still employed.