WRESTLING REPORT
In the aftermath of elimination chamber, new talent debuts this week
Feb 20, 2019, 5:38 am
WRESTLING REPORT
Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio shows www.facebook.com/nerdthugradio!
This week kicked off with a solid Elimination Chamber event here in Houston, with Shane and Miz losing their titles to The Usos and Finn Balor winning the intercontinental belt in a handicap match. The event had some surprises and great moments, the most important being crowning Sasha and Bailey as the first women's tag champions in WWE history. The finale of Elimination Chamber wound up being much better than expected with Kofi Kingston going off for the second show in a row and going the distance against Daniel Bryan before eventually losing what was honestly a great match between the two.
This week on Raw and Smackdown both shows made the interesting decision to showcase some new call ups from NXT with Aleister Black, Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa and Ricochet. Both shows had them putting on quality matches against the likes of Cien Almas, Elias, The Bar, and The Revival, among others. It's certainly an interesting choice to say the least considering recently EC3, Heavy Machinery, Nikki Cross and Lacey Evans were also called up from NXT. That's a lot of new faces to integrate into what is currently a fairly stacked roster of talent.
This leads right back into AEW, as all roads seem to lead currently, with ripples being felt throughout the wrestling world. On Nerd Thug Wrestling, Brock Baker, indy wrestler formerly of Booker T's program Reality of Wrestling, talked about how the entry of a new big fish in the market has opened opportunities on both WWE developmental schools and throughout the indy scene. With AEW snapping up quality talent from the upper echelons of independent wrestling including former Reality of Wrestling's own Kylie Rae, and forcing WWE to respond by bringing in it's own new young talent so as to not be left out. All these signing means the one thing for every wrestler, an opportunity.
With this week seeming to be a showcase week and less of an "advance the story" week, there wasn't a ton of twists or turns or announcements for Fastlane or Wrestlemania, with the exception of the announcement of Degeneration X being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame including controversial figure The Ninth Wonder of the World, Chyna.
The Houston Astros square off with the Detroit Tigers in game one of the Wild Card series this Tuesday afternoon, and now we finally have a clear picture of what the Astros roster will look like.
Most importantly, Yordan Alvarez made the roster and will hit third against Tigers fireballer Tarik Skubal.
Astros lineup for Game 1. pic.twitter.com/fmyNoRQNFC
— Julia Morales (@JuliaMorales) October 1, 2024
MLB.com's Brian McTaggart is reporting that manager Joe Espada moved Alvarez to third in the batting order, after originally penciling him in second.
Astros have flipped their lineup, Tucker hitting second and Alvarez third.
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) October 1, 2024
The other big news revealed today was the status of Justin Verlander. He is not on the Wild Card Series roster.
Our ALWC Roster. #Relentless pic.twitter.com/nyfoBsJZFp
— Houston Astros (@astros) October 1, 2024
However, Chas McCormick did make the squad after dealing with a hand/finger injury recently. You can see the full roster above. The Astros are carrying 15 position players and 11 pitchers.
Framber Valdez and Skubal face off at 1:32PM Tuesday afternoon in Houston.