Weekend 3 Count 5/14/17

By Brandon Albright, @B_Rock1978

Wrestling Lockup with Brandon, brought to you by Triple Threat CLE brings you the Weekend 3 Count. W3C brings you wrestling news, rumors and recaps from around the wrestling world. You'll find news rumors and recaps involving WWE, NXT, Impact Wrestling, ROH, Lucha Underground, NJPW, House of Hardcore, NWA, ICW, CZW, FIP, AAW, EVOLVE, SHINE, SHIMMER and any Indy promotion that I find an interesting story or a cool discovery in. Be sure to check out the W3C every Sunday afternoon at @TripleThreatCLE

This week's theme song of the week goes to a band called Bleeker. Their song entitled Highway will be the official theme song to WWE Backlash next Sunday night on the WWE Network.

*** WWE ***

- Braun Strowman Injured: WWE announced this week that Braun Strowman will be out of action for the next few months due to needing surgery on his elbow. WWE Officials have noted that WWE is now in the process of changing storylines due to Strowman's injury. Strowman was scheduled to face Roman Reigns in some kind of a gimmick match at WWE Extreme Rules and then was supposed to face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship at WWE Great Balls of Fire. It's unknown at this time on who will get the push to Lesnar now.

- Rusev's Return: This past week Rusev posted a video stating that he will in fact be at Smackdown Live this Tuesday and will be demanding answers from Shane McMahon. In case you missed it, last month when Rusev was drafted to Smackdown Live, Rusev stated that he refused to wrestle for Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan unless he was given a WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match at WWE Money In The Bank in June. Shane McMahon has ignored all demands and has continued his day to day regime. Rusev has stated that if he doesn't get what he wants then he'll quit Smackdown Live and go back to Bulgaria.

- Is The Dollhouse Coming To The WWE?: Sources are saying that former tag team partners and friends from Impact Wrestling, Jade and Marti Bell, who went by the team known as The Dollhouse both could be on their way to the WWE. WWE is looking at signing as much women talent that they can find for their 32 Women Tournament this summer.

- England Tryouts: This past week while touring in England, the WWE held performance tryouts with some of the UK's top wrestlers. The following wrestlers tried out with their hopes of getting a WWE contract.

** Jurn Simmons: Is currently the Unified World Wrestling Champion of Germany's Westside Xtreme Wrestling.

** Adam “Flex” Maxted: Is from Belfast, Ireland and has actually had a past feud with Drew McIntyre.

** German Cruiserweights Axel “Juvenile X” Gress and Christian “T-K-O” Tscherpel: Both were trained by former WCW wrestler Alex Wright and wrestle for Wright's wrestling organization, New European Championship Wrestling.

** Welsh cruiserweight Flash Morgan Webster: Webster actually competed in a WWE Cruiserweight Classic qualifying match last year in PROGRESS Wrestling.

** Travis Banks and Chris Brookes: They are the reigning Revolution Pro Wrestling Tag Team Champions, a promotion based in the UK. They go by the tag team name of The Commonwealth Catch Kings.

** TK Cooper: From New Zealand, Cooper wrestled with PROGRESS during their show at Wrestlemania Axxess this year.

- Brie Bella Has Her Baby: This past Wednesday, Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella welcomed their first child into the world. Birdie Joe Danielson was born at 11:58pm and weighed 8 pounds 10 ounces and 21 inches.

** 205 Live Recap **
This week Jack Gallagher thanks Austin Aries with an old fashioned England toast. The main event of the show saw Brian Kendrick battle Akira Tozawa.

- Jack Gallagher Toasts Austin Aries: 205 Live kicked off with Gallagher showing appreciation to Aries for helping him last week. Aries says a simple thank you would've been fine and says he's more of a red wine guy as Gallagher wants to drink a pint of beer with Aries. Neville interrupts, calls England a parody and mocks Aries for failing twice at beating the King of the Cruiserweights. TJ Perkins suddenly attacks Aries' knee out of nowhere as Neville goes for Gallagher, after Gallagher spits beer in Perkins' face. Aries makes the comeback with the Discus Five Arm and clears Neville and Perkins from the ring.

- Backstage, Rich Swann mocks Alicia Fox and Noam Dar that they're back together. Alicia says she'd never leave a real man like Dar. Dar promises Swann that they haven't forgotten what Swann tried to do.

- Tony Nese vs. Mustafa Ali: The match closes out with both men trading chops and slaps. Nese counters a lariat, hits a series of strikes and then gets a near fall double foot stomp. Ali sends Nese into the turnbuckle and then hits a second rope DDT. Ali hits the 450 Splash on Nese and scores the pinfall.
Winner: Mustafa Ali, by pinfall.

- Backstage, Ariya Daivari yells at a stage hand for not shining his boots incorrectly and then yells at Akira Tozawa for getting his sweat on his suit. Tozawa glares at Daivari and does his "HA" chant until Daivari walks off.

- Brian Kendrick vs. Akira Tozawa: The match closes out with Kendrick hitting Sliced Bread #2 on Tozawa on the floor, but Tozawa just beats the ten count. Kendrick is in complete control of the match until Tozawa finally comes back with kicks and elbows. Kendrick retaliates with a standing drop kick and a Dragon Suplex, which he turns into the Captain's Hook submission. Tozawa escapes and counters Sliced Bread #2, but gets trapped in the Captain's Hook submission again. Tozawa escapes, counters another Sliced Bread #2 attempt by Kendrick and scores a rollup pinfall. After the match, Kendrick attacks Tozawa and sends him into the ring steps repeatedly. Kendrick then stomps on Tozawa while he's pinned in between the ring steps. Kendrick says this is Tozawa's life lesson and it's "No one messes with Brian Kendrick".
Winner: Akira Tozawa, by pinfall.

*** NXT ***

- Ember Moon Injured: WWE announced that NXT women's superstar Ember Moon was injured last week after Asuka attacked her, Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross. Ember has suffered a grade one shoulder sprain and will not be able to compete at NXT TakeOver: Chicago on May 20th. Doctors estimate that Moon will require four to five weeks to recover from the injury.

- NXT Takeover: Chicago Card: The following is the current lineup for NXT Takeover: Chicago so far:

** "NXT World Championship Match": Bobby Roode (c) vs. Hideo Itami

** "NXT World Tag Team Championship, Ladder Match": Authors of Pain (c) vs. #DIY

** "NXT Women's Championship, Triple Threat Match": Asuka (c) vs. Nikki Cross vs. Ruby Riot

** "WWE United Kingdom Championship Match": Tyler Bate (c) vs. Pete Dunne

*** Impact/Global Force Wrestling ***

** Impact/GFW Recap **
This week's show saw Impact Grand Champion Moose defend his title against Marshe Rockett. The main event of the show saw GFW Global Champion Magnus defend his title against Alberto El Patron.

- "Fatal Four Way Match": Matt Sydal vs. Andrew Everett vs. Desmond Xavier vs. Caleb Konley: The match closes out with all four men hitting aerial moves. Xavier with a frog splash on Konley gets him a near fall. Sydal hits a leaping head scissors on Xavier, but Xavier lands on his feet. Everett comes out of nowhere and plants Xavier with a Frankendriver to score the pinfall.
Winner: Andrew Everett, by pinfall.

- Jeremy Borash returns sitting in the crowd behind Josh Mathews with his "Free JB" and "POS" signs again.

- Earlier in the day, Ethan Carter arrived to the arena. EC3 insults James Storm, calling him The Coward and promises us that Storm will be here tonight.

- KM is shown in his hotel room receiving a pizza, but refuses to pay the delivery driver and threatens him.

- Ethan Carter Promo: EC3 arrives dressed like James Storm. EC3 mocks Storm's country voice and calls himself E Cowboy 3. EC3 pretends to mock himself as Storm and then turns his attention to Storm. EC3 loved the fact that he cost Storm the Impact World Championship and badly sings a country song about it. Storm hits the ring and beats down EC3. EC3 hits Storm with his cowboy boot and then handcuffs Storm to the ropes. EC3 grabs a strap and starts whipping Storm on his back repeatedly. EC3 lays in over 30 whips before Impact Officials, Bruce Prichard and Scott D'Amore finally pull EC3 off of Storm. EC3 gets a few whips in on a Impact stage hand as well.

- Josh Mathews gets irritated with Jeremy Borash and steals one of JB's signs.

- The Laredo Kid and Garza Jr. vs. Hakim Zane and Idris Abraham: The match closes out with Garza getting double teamed, but Garza lands a power bomb on Abraham right on top of Zane. Garza and Kid hit some aerial moves and then Laredo hits a 450 Splash on Zane to score the pinfall.
Winners: The Laredo Kid and Garza Jr., by pinfall.

- Laurel Van Ness vs. Ava Storie: The match closes out with Laurel making quick work of Ava. Laurel hits a double foot stomp on Ava and scores the pinfall. After the match Laurel claws at Ava's eyes as Kongo Kong looks on.
Winner: Laurel Van Ness, by pinfall.

- Rockstar Spud is still in recovery from Swoggle attacking him last month.

- Backstage, LAX arrives in their lowrider. LAX are in face paint and promise to pay respects to The Decay tonight.

- LAX Promo: LAX arrive with urns in hand, Konnan says they are not paying respect to The Decay and LAX dump the ashes from the urns that represent Abyss and Crazzy Steve. LAX then send a warning to all the tag teams that they will be in the upcoming GFW World Tag Team Championship Tournament. Konnan insults America after seeing a fan waving a flag and threatens to use the flag as toilet paper. The Veterans of War suddenly hit the ring, take out Santana and Ortiz and chase LAX from the ring.

- "Impact Grand Championship Match": Moose (c) vs. Marshe Rockett: Moose takes Round 1 on Rockett with a 30-27 judges score. The match closes out in Round 2 with Moose making quick work of Rockett with a Pop Up Power Bomb, a moonsault and the Go To Hell chokeslam for the pinfall. After the match, Tyrus distracts Moose allowing Eli Drake to jump Moose from behind. Tyrus hits the Heart Punch on Moose as Chris Adonis hits the ring. Adonis fakes the save, starts beating down Moose and puts Moose in the Adonis Lock submission. Drake grabs a steel chair and drills Moose with a chair shot. 
Winner: Moose, by pinfall, to retain the Impact Grand Championship.

- Backstage, Dutch Mantell announces an Ultimate X Match for the Impact X Division Championship next week.

- Angelina Love vs. Alisha Edwards: The match closes out with Angelina going for her finisher, but Alisha counters with a Future Shock DDT. Davey Richards gets on the apron and Alisha takes a swing at him. Angelina wraps her hand with a chain and hits Alisha in the back of the head with it as Richards distracted the referee. The referee, however, turns around and sees what happened and DQ's Angelina. After the match, Richards and Angelina attack Eddie Edwards from behind and work on his back leg, hitting him with his own crutches.
Winner: Alisha Edwards, by DQ.

- Backstage, Impact World Champion Bobby Lashley reminds us that he's won every single major title in Impact Wrestling and says the GFW Global Championship will soon be his too.

- "GFW Global Championship Match": Magnus (c) vs. Alberto El Patron: The match closes out with both men going to the top rope. Magnus tries a superplex, but ends up in the tree of woe. El Patron goes for the double foot stomp, but Magnus moves. El Patron hurts his leg on the landing and then takes a power bomb from Magnus. Magnus picks El Patron up on his shoulders, but El Patron counters out and traps Magnus in the cross arm breaker submission. Magnus tries to fight it, but ends up tapping out giving El Patron the title.
Winner: Alberto El Patron, by submission, to win the GFW Global Championship.

- New Signee: Impact Wrestling announced the signing of MJ Jenkins. MJ has worked at past Impact tapings and One Night Only events, but was never an official roster member until this week's signing.

MJ Jenkins Career Highlights:
- Debuted in 2015
- Trained by Johnny Rodz
- Has wrestled for EVOLVE, East Coast Pro Wrestling, Legendary Action Wrestling, Women's Wrestling Revolution, AIW, CZW, World of Unpredictable Wrestling, Impact Championship Entertainment, Bronx Wrestling Federation, BriiCombination Wrestling and Impact.
- 1 Time World of Unpredictable Wrestling Stunners Champion

- GFW World Tag Team Championship Tournament Announced: This past week on Impact, it was announced that a tournament will take place soon to crown the first ever GFW World Tag Team Champions. Impact and GFW teams are expected to compete in this tournament.

*** Ring Of Honor ***

** ROH TV Recap **
This week's show saw ROH World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks defend their titles against The Spirit Squad. The main event of the show saw Adam Cole and Cody Rhodes battle ROH World Heavyweight Champion Christopher Daniels and Dalton Castle.

- "ROH World Tag Team Championship Match": The Young Bucks (c) vs. The Spirit Squad: The match closes out with Nick Jackson tagging in and unloading on The Squad. Mikey plants Nick with a snapmare driver. Kenny tags back in as Mikey hits a spinebuster. Kenny misses a top rope leg drop, which opens the door for The Bucks to unleash the Super Kick Party. The Bucks hit the Meltzer Driver on Mikey and score the pinfall to retain the titles.
Winners: The Young Bucks, by pinfall, to retain the ROH World Tag Team Championship.

- Matt Taven hypes his ROH World Heavyweight Championship Match against Christopher Daniels at War of the Worlds Dearborn.

- The Briscoes promise to retain their ROH Six Man Tag Team Championship against The Rebellion and promise to run Shane Taylor out of ROH.

- Punishment Martinez vs. The Beer City Bruiser: The match closes out with Martinez and Bruiser trading shots. Martinez connects with a spin kick and gets a near fall. Bruiser hits a dropkick and a Bossman Slam for a near fall. Bruiser misses the corner cannonball allowing Martinez to hit the choke slam for the pinfall.
Winner: Punishment Martinez, by pinfall.

- ROH Television Champion Marty Scurll hypes his title defense against Matt Sydal at the next ROH pay per view.

- Adam Cole states that The Bullet Club is stronger than ever.

- Adam Cole and Cody Rhodes vs. Dalton Castle and Christopher Daniels: Jay Lethal was on commentary for this match. The match closes out with Daniels hot tagging and unloading. Daniels hits the Iconoclasm for a near fall. Daniels with an STO on Cole as Cody tosses Castle outside. Cody attempts Angel's Wings on Daniels, but Daniels counters out. Cody counters the Best Moonsault Ever, but gets taken out with a Blue Thunder Bomb. Cole with a super kick on Daniels and hits The Last Shot. Cody puts Daniels away with Cross Rhodes, pinning the world champion.
Winners: Adam Cole and Cody Rhodes, by pinfall.

- The Bullet Club Promo: Adam Cole, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks are all in the ring stating The Bullet Club is stronger than ever. Jay Lethal interrupts and says he's really irritated that Cody Rhodes was added to the ROH World Heavyweight Championship Match at the upcoming ROH pay per view because he wanted Christopher Daniels one on one. Cody shoves Lethal into Daniels who's still in the ring and then attacks Lethal. Lethal and Cody brawl until Lethal lays Cody out with a Lethal Injection. Lethal then hits another Lethal Injection on Daniels, sending Daniels a warning.

* ROH War of the Worlds Dearborn *
ROH and NJPW was live this week in Dearborn, Michigan for a special live non televised show to hype their upcoming ROH War of the Worlds 2017 pay per view, which I will recap for you next Sunday. The main event of the show saw ROH World Heavyweight Champion Christopher Daniels defend his title against Matt Taven.

- Dalton Castle defeated Bobby Fish with the Bang A Rang.

- "Six Man Tag Team Match": Jay White and Motor City Machine Guns defeated The Rebellion.

- Silas Young defeated KUSHIDA.

- War Machine defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jay Lethal.

- "ROH Six Man Tag Team Championship, No DQ Match": Bully Ray and The Briscoes (c) defeated EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI to retain their titles, after BUSHI was Bubba Bombed through a table.

- Tetsuya Naito defeated Punishment Martinez, hitting Destino for the pinfall.

- "Instant Reward Proving Ground Match": Cheeseburger defeated Beer City Bruiser, Marty Scurll, Frankie Kazarian, Will Ferrara, Gedo, and Vinny Marseglia, making Cheeseburger the #1 Contender tonight for the ROH Television Championship.

- "ROH Television Championship Match": Marty Scurll (c) defeated Cheeseburger, to retain his title, making Cheeseburger tap out to the Crossface Chicken Wing submission.

- "ROH World Championship Match": Christopher Daniels (c) defeated Matt Taven, by pinfall, with Best Moonsault Ever to retain the title.

- "Eight Man Tag Team Match": Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay and Roppongi Vice defeated Cody Rhodes, Hangman Page and The Young Bucks, after Ospreay pinned Nick Jackson with the OsCutter. 

*** New Japan Pro Wrestling ***

- New IWGP Title Announced: NJPW announced this week that they will be bringing a new title to the promotion when they tour the United States over the summer. The new title will be called the IWGP United States Championship and the inaugural champion will be crowned in a two day tournament on July 1st and 2nd.

And that's this week's W3C! Join me every Sunday afternoon as I bring you news, recaps and rumors all around the wrestling world!