Aussies Abroad: Storm hits Japan and tag team devastation
Last week saw Aussies dominating the international Pro-Wrestling scene
Welcome back to another week’s installment of Aussies Abroad, where we take a look at the Australians kicking ass in the world of overseas Pro-Wrestling.
Let’s start this week’s coverage off with the disappointing outcome of Aussie Kyle Fletcher’s attempt at holding the AEW Tag Team belt. Fletcher, along with his tagmate Will Ospreay, secured their spot in the match after winning a Number One Contenders Tag Team Gauntlet earlier this month. However, things didn’t go quite to plan at Grand Slam, and despite an impressive fight, The Young Bucks retained the belts. Things were off to a rough start for Fletcher and Ospreay when they were taken down by The Young Bucks early on. The two retaliated with a pair of moonsaults off the top rope to the champions outside the ring, but it wasn’t long until they were down and out again. Fletcher and Ospreay were almost counted out before Fletcher dove back into the ring at the count of nine, which was followed by some impressive hits from both men. Fletcher also nearly used a screwdriver to get the victory, but Ospreay stopped him just in time. It was eventually a super kick and BTE Trigger to Fletcher that saw him stunned long enough to lose the match.
On Rampage, the Aussie icon Buddy Matthews continued to bring the domination to the overseas audience along with his House of Black crew. Matthews picked up another win in a match against Action Andretti and Lio Rush. Although Rush and Andretti’s quick thinking was able to land the pair a couple of hard hits against House of Black, it was rare to see a moment where Matthews was struggling to keep the ball in his court.
Collision saw another appearance by Aussie Harley Cameron when she came to assist Saraya in her match with Jamie Hayter. The ongoing feud reached a boiling point when Cameron choked Hayter out outside the ring before helping Saraya land some nasty hits to the head.
Over in WWE, things are heating up even more between the newly formed Terror Twins team of Adelaide’s own Rhea Ripley and the former Heavy Weight Champion Damian Priest and The Judgement Day ahead of Bad Blood next weekend. Last week’s RAW saw another run-in between Ripley and her ex “dirty” Dominick Mysterio and her long-time rival Liv Morgan. The two exchanged verbal blows back and forth before Ripley announced that Mysterio will be locked in a shark cage during their upcoming match for the Women’s World Championship, as the punk can’t stop meddling in the girls’ business. Ripley put the cherry on top of the promo by landing a hard headbutt to Morgan (that whack was heard across countries).
The Aussie giant Big Bronson Reed is also dealing with his own drama; his ongoing feud with Braun Strowman. The big meat Bronson has been bringing the Aussie heat to this feud with Strowman, showing international audiences just how hard South Australian talent can hit. After interrupting Strowman’s match earlier this month, Reed got his match interrupted when Strowman broke up a fight with The Miz. The interruption wasn’t enough to stop the carnage though, with Reed absolutely dominating security, staff, and talent in what was an epic display of big meat chaos.
Over in NXT, Grayson Waller hosted a special episode of the Waller Effect with guests Nathan Frazer and Axiom, which, as you might have guessed, ended in a bit of a scuffle between the two groups, with Austin Theory letting the audience know who’s boss. The interaction led to an interesting moment later in the night when Fraer and Axiom attempted to interfere with Waller’s match with Je’Von Evans and Cedric Alander. The attempt failed to slow the team down though, with the team of Waller and Theory getting the clean win. The pair have also officially challenged Frazer and Axiom for a shot at the NXT Tag Championships.
Across the world to Japan now, where Aussie Toni Storm wrestled her first match back in Stardom after five years. Storm teamed up with Mina Shirakawa over the weekend to take the victory against IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani and AZM. Storm is now set to challenge Iwatanu for the title at Stardom Nagoya Golden Fight this weekend. Storm also addressed the Mariah May issue in an interview after the victory, when she told Shirakawa that they “are the best tag team, no no, the best friends. You are like family”. “We are good family, you and Mina and Mariah,” Shirakawa responded. “I’ve never heard that name in my life,” Storm said.
A number of Aussies have also continued to dominate the Japanese scene, including Henare who had a match against Shingo Takagi at NJPW Destruction in Kobe, Xena who completed in a three was 12 man match at Stardom, Ryukyu-dog Dingo who wrestled last week in Okinawa defeating Orion and Teeland Shisa, Chris Vice who wrestled in the 2AW Active Advance Tournament and Adelaide’s Kira Summer who continues to kick ass in TJPW.
Over in New York, rising star Lena Kross made her House of Glory Wrestling debut in a match against Megan Bayne for the Women’s Championship.
Meanwhile, in England, Robbie Eagles went head-to-head with Robbie X at RevPro Live in Sheffield. He also faced Speedball Bailey at ETU Wrestling.
Till next week folks!
News Writer + Aussies Abroad. Based in Adelaide and winner of the 2023 CPA Young Journo of the year, has been a news and arts journalist for a number of years working across radio and print, but has decided to take her wrestling addiction to PWDU. You can find her at any local wrestling night across the state with a beer in-hand and a front-row ticket to the action.
