Aussies Abroad: Reed meets his match and Adelaide powerhouse dominates in-ring debut
The last week saw Aussie talent dominate the scene of overseas Pro-Wrestling
Welcome back to another week’s installment of Aussies Abroad, where we take a look at the Aussies kicking ass in the world of overseas Pro-Wrestling.
Let’s start this week’s coverage off with the hottest news out of NXT right now, Adelaide’s own powerhouse Zaria (formerly known as DELTA), who made her dominating in-ring debut last week. The Aussie giant made her official debut in-ring in a match against Brinley Reece at Halloween Havoc. The match started strong for Zaria as she instantly overpowered Reece before grabbing her arm and over-extending it backward. With a massive grin on her face, Zaria then picked Reece up with the bent arm before slamming her on the ground and kicking the elbow back in place (ouch). After some more vicious hits and a harsh backbreaker, Reece was able to get a few hits to the stomach of Zaria and pinned her for a quick count of 2. But it was a signature spear followed by an F5 by Zaria that had Reece down and out for the three count.
The drama only picked up from there though, with the arrival of Fatal Influence interrupting Zaria’s celebration, claiming she ‘stole their moment’ the week before. Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade also joined them in ‘welcoming Zaria’. The pack of 5 gathered around the ring, but just before they went in for the attack, Zaria was joined by Kelani Jordan, Stephanie Vaquer, Giulia, and TNA superstar Jordynne Grace. The STACKED women’s division broke out into a fit of punches thrown left and right before Zaria took center stage and landed another impressive F5 before teaming up with Grace to throw Perez out of the ring. This week will see another massive 10-women brawl as the two teams go head-to-head on NXT.
Adelaide favorite Rhea Ripley also made an appearance on NXT when she joined the newly landed Zaria to meet the tag team set for the massive tag match. The real drama happened later in the night when Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez were seen leaving the backstage car park with bloodied bats. Paramedics and WWE crew then rushed in to find a bloody Ripley at the foot of a car. Later in the week, WWE officials took to social media to claim Ripley was left with a head injury after the incident. Ripley responded for the first time since the incident with a simple message: “mistake no1, you left me breathing“.
Last week also saw another installment of Crown Jewel, where Aussie giant Bronson Reed went head-to-head with the recently returned Seth Freakin’ Rollins. The two hard hitters didn’t even get to the ring before they started going at it, with both landing some hits back and forth once finally in the ring. Reed landed a massive splash and dropped Rollins with a clothesline, followed by a double tsunami. Neither man was getting the upper hand for the first half of the match until Reed crushed Rollins before he hit back with a DDT. Rollins almost went down for the three count when Reed slammed him with a Death Valley driver, but was unable to get the win. Reed showed his beyond-human strength by getting back up after some nasty stomps to the steel steps, but it was eventually a super stomp from Rollins that held him down for the three count. Following the match, Rollins praised the Aussie for his performance and said he was truly tested by the star in the ring.
Over in AEW, House of Black powerhouse Buddy Matthews saw a surprising defeat against the recently returned Adam Cole. The usually dominant force finally found his match with Cole and suffered a number of brutal attacks throughout the night. Things weren’t looking too great for Matthews even in the first half of the match, with some hard hits sending him down and out. It was a few intense attacks on Cole’s injured ankle that got him the upper hand for a few minutes, even sending Cole walking with medical out of the building. It wasn’t until Matthews got on the mic and called him a “fragile little b*tch” that things got really crazy. Cole returned limping to the ring and the two went ham on each other before a giant stomp from Matthews almost saw Cole down for the three count. It was, however, a double sunrise and a boot to the back of the head that sent Matthews down for Cole to pick up the win.
Over in Japan, TMDK’s Robbie Eagles, along with his teammate Kosei Fujita, saw success with a match against the team House of Torture. The team is now the first to secure their spot in the finals of the NJPW Super Junior Tag League for 2024. Aussie Eagles along with Fujita will represent A Block in the finals. Eagles & Fujita are set to face the B Block winners in the tournament finals later this week.
Adelaide’s Kira Summer has also continued her road to stardom in Japan with another week of matches with TJPW. The Aussie unfortunately saw a loss in her match against Arisu Endo and Toga but has continued to bring the local name to the overseas women’s scene.
PWA star Charli Evans has also recently returned from a tour across the UK, and wrestled an impressive match with her Medusa Complex teammate with New Wave Wrestling. Hard hitter Kyla Knight will also be in the US until December 16, and recently had a match-up with Amanda Kiss with Premier Wrestling Federation.
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.
