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Okay so I made a big mistake this morning and went on Twitter to see what people are saying about AEW. And it seems like the big topic is people shitting on Marko Stunt. The words used the most is "not believable". Listen if you are a WWE or maybe even a new japan fan and you are set in a certain way of wrestling then I can understand why Marko Stunt triggers you. I will let you people slide and you can go watch your seth Rollins matches. But for the last fucking year all I hear is "WWE is so bland. WWE is same old same old. We need an alternative". so AEW is giving us guys like Marko Stunt and people are complaining that he doesn't fit the mold of a wrestler. Yes he is 5 foot nothing and about 150 pounds with a brick in his tights. You know who else was 5 foot nothing about 150 pounds and looked like a 15 year old, Rey Mysterio in 1995-1998 ECW and WCW. The crowd loved him. No I am not saying Marko is Rey Mysterio but in all the times I have seen him live he has never disappointed the fans. Hell the reason he was in AEW is because he was just this "fan in the crowd" at a GCW show that nobody took seriously and then had an insane match against Kyle the Beast and here we are. You can't complain about all the ice cream tasting like vanilla and then bitch and moan when your strawberry ice cream doesn't taste like vanilla.

Remember when Sami and Bayley were slotted as can't-miss babyfaces for a generation of friendly millennials?

They need to do a spot at Full Gear where Bryce says “Stop Jon, this isn’t you”, and a puzzled Mox says “What”.

AEW's instagram referred to him as Clementine Cassidy.

And real quick, just getting back to the stars this company is making, here's all of the people they're making into stars if they weren't already: Riho Scorpio Sky Jungle Boy Santana and Ortiz Darby Allin Private Party You add those folks to people like Moxley, Omega, Jericho, Cody, Penta, Fenix, and more who are already established people. I could list more, but there is just no "wasted motion" with this company. Even dudes like Best Friends or other people doing jobs are made to look good or made to look like they're worth a damn. There was a criticism not that long ago that the roster was too thin, but you know what, there's a perfect amount of people in this company.

Loved this show. That crowd was hot and it made everything even better. Shit man Scorpio Sky's shoe was more over than 90% of WWE's main roster lol. Scorpio Sky was pissed at himself for not hitting that finish clean.I feel for him. He didn't even celebrate just put his head down in the buckle out of frustration. You could see Kazarian trying to snap him back into it and get him to celebrate instead of breaking character. Regardless of the finish, he came off like a star in that one. The squash was solid. Santana & Ortiz have a much better look in AEW. They've always been great but the basketball shorts look was a turn off for me. Custom overalls that match is a way better look. Agree with who ever said Ortiz kinda ruined Jericho's promo with his ranting. The women's match was rough. Britt used to be pretty solid. She fit in great at All In. My theory is her trying to shoe horn 1) the dentist shit and 2) trying to fit in Adam Cole spots to be cute for the smart mark pop is throwing her off her game. It's just too much going on in her head at once and needs to dial it back down a bit. Riho is over as hell and the crowd elevated that one. The women's division needs some guidance. JR is dead set on willing Jungle Boy into a name change. It's not a mistake. He's def doing it on purpose. I sense it being a deal where Jungle Boy doesnt want to live off his dad's name & is trying to make his mark on his own, and JR just doesn't care and thinks name dropping his real name is going to help the kid out. Who knows, JR may be right. But man I did not expect that match to be as fun as it was. Good on The Lucha Bros for not eating them alive and making that a hell of a segment. Omega, Mox, Hangman, & Pac are all in their primes and that tag match was also really fun. I didn't think Mox & Omega would gel as well as they did but man their ppv match is gonna be killer. Main was perfect booking. Darby looks even better in defeat. I don't think they needed the Hager spot. Should have just had Jericho move & have him miss the coffin drop / lost clean. But I get what they were going for. Weird choice to have rope breaks in a street fight tho. The crowd even chanted its a street fight at one point. Pretty tame for a street fight but it told a great story and I liked it a lot. They are 3 for 3 with me.

Bruce should be a bigger man and just take the W with grace.

I'd agree, but this is one of the most intense scenes in a tv show I can think of-

I really love Justin Roberts giving Moxley the John Cena "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNN" intro

I'll post my thoughts after I've had a good night's sleep and have some downtime at work later. As for your non-spoilered Dark matches: Joey Janela vs. Brandon Cutler Nyla Rose vs. Leva Bates w/Peter Avalon Private Party, Cima, T-Hawk vs. Young Bucks, Cody, Dustin w/ Brandi & MJF

This show fucking rules. Start the show with something big in CD getting his brains bashed in and the next thing you know they're making Scorp look like a certifiable star. Match was really good. When it originally looked like it was going to be Daniels and Kazarian I had hopes that Best Friends would win it. Speaking of stars, damn Dustin and Greg are the shit. They're on their way as well. Cody vignette was good shit. You just don't see shit like this in WWE. This is the type of stuff they need to be doing. I may not be the biggest Britt fan, hell, I don't like her at all, but her match with Riho was fine. Riho is so crazily over. Mox/Pac vs Omega/Page was awesome. That's the stuff right there. Hard hitting, everyone looking crisp and going all out, and the finish makes perfect sense when you're booking in advance. LOVED the double birds and the double arm DDT. THIS is the Moxley that could have set WWE on fire. I take back any bad thing I said about Marko. That match was fun as fuck, everyone came with their A game, and everyone looks better regardless of who won. I'm not sure what more I can say about that main event. I've been so used to shitty WWE street fights for so long that this was a breath of fresh air. Gaffers tape is so fucking strong so seeing Darby get his hands taped like that let me know that there was no way he was finishing that match with his hands. I can't believe the bumps he was taking and the moves he was pulling off. Eat your heart out, Orange Cassidy. And that finish was perfectly fine and well done. Not everything can be a clean finish and your heater needs to do shit to give you an advantage. Somewhere down the line someone is going to be challenging for the title and next to the challenger winning the title, the second biggest pop will be when that person takes out Hager. I fucking love this show. This is legitimately good TV. It's not even a good wrestling show. It's just a really well done TV show. This is everything I've wanted for years now. Yo @Nice Guy Eddie we need our road report and non-spoilery thoughts on what to expect on AEW Dark!

Yeah, that was 4 years ago. If you told anyone in 2015 what has happened in the last 4 years, they'd lock you in a cage and throw away the key.

I would still watch an animated series based off this.

The eight man was definitely worth sticking around for. Between the tag tourney matches; Moxley/Pac vs. Omega/Page; Jericho/Darby; and the eight man tag, a case could be made that any of them were the MOTN. Eventhough he wasn't there, there were still very loud Luchasaurus chants. There were also very loud MJF chants during the 8 man.

I kinda wanna see an NXT Japan promotion be done where every person on the roster comes out to the generic Orient Express music waving the Japanese flag, and every match finish is green mist/salt to the eyes, its either going to last a few weeks, or be so ironically bad it becomes inanely popular.

That was a really fun show. The wife watched it with me. She watched for twenty minutes and made this keen observation; "there's a lot less stupid shit on this show than WWE." I am inclined to agree. Namely, a lot less Seth Rollins. Moxley is awesome. PAC is incredible. The wife dug Jurassic Express and Scorpio Sky.

Oh, he tried, Jericho had some tough times those first few years in WWE.

I'm irrationally bothered by this social media post.

I bet those slots have better graphics than WWE2K20

Yes I think this price sucks. Yes I'm buying it to support the devs

So far WWE's venture into Japan is going about as well as the UFC trying to establish a foothold in Japan.

See I thought where they were going with that finish was that Darby couldn’t tap out so the ref used her discretion to stop it. The announcers didn’t put that over though.

I’ll say this about the Britt Baker match. They spent two weeks getting Britt’s new sub over, and the fans reacted right on cue.

I noticed some of the production gaffes and there were a few things in ring to nitpick (I think Britt looked really, really botchy and sloppy), but you know what? None of those things ever really bothered me or made me not like a wrestling show. Give me good characters, consistent storylines and a hot crowd and I'm in. Those two hours just flew by and made me want to watch next week again.

Bobby Heenan was right about Fuck Hulk Hogan all along. The Brain, indeed.

It was mentioned last week, and I'll reiterate it here: There's something in Adam Page as a tag wrestler at this particular moment. This would be the perfect thing to build him for the next thing.

Unique position? Bullshit. I can very easily turn on Raw or SmackDown and not see Murphy or Ali for weeks at a time!

Amazing!

Pretty sure recent trademark filings by both Jericho and All Elite point to them actually having their own brand of champagne in the near future. Good god almighty that's a hell of a match.

I'd hardly call it a memorable classic, but I thought Britt Baker vs. Riho was fine. Nothing really seemed all that off about it, and I thought the finish worked. Though I probably would've saved the match for Full Gear. I don't get why everyone is piling on Britt baker on Twitter. I've see far worse women's wrestling in WWE.

I'm going to post more after I watch the show OnDemand and see how things came across on tv vs. how they came across live. There were very loud CZW chants for both Janela and Moxley, both of whom bowed to the crowd and seemed genuinely moved. There was also a very loud ECW chant for Taz when he came out for Dark before and after the show. I thought Darby Allin should have gotten more offense in. At times, the title match almost felt like a squash. Rather than Darby shaking his head and verbally giving up, his head should have just hit the mat as he blacked from pain and Aubrey call for the bell. Either way, Darby was very over with the Philly crowd. Prior to the Leva Bates/Nyla Rose, Peter Avalon brought up the Washington Nationals going to the WS while Bryce Harper and the Phillies failed to make the playoffs. He also brought the American forefathers moving the capital from Philadelphia to Washington. That and SHHHHHHHHH'ing the crowd got the Librarians HUGE heat. Brandon Cutler also got huge heat. He didn't do anything in particular other than being a "squeaky clean nerd" that plays D&D and being against an area favorite in Janela. It was surprising that there was a squash match, but it absolutely worked in making Santana & Ortiz look like killers. They are very over as well. MJF teased a dive to the floor, but ended up flipping us off. He and Brandi were great trying to interfere. The negative: There were a few groups of schmucks in the upper deck that were seemingly there just to heckle. It wasn't creative, funny heckling. It was chanting nxt, 'We want Brock", chanting Goldust during the 8 man tag, "Lets go Cena", and other dumb shit. They were shouted down several times. They did get the Brutus Beefcake treatment and have "Kill Yourself" yelled at them amongst other things.

I hope those people lose their remotes, and never find them again.

Vince/WWE of the last 10 years hasn't met an amazing talent he couldn't completely fuck up yet.

https://411mania.com/wrestling/rd-evans-reportedly-signs-with-impact-wrestling/

This "Penta's a star" talk bums me out. Y'all should be ashamed if you're looking past Fenix.

This entire election has been about as stupid as Jinder's title reign. So sure, why not.

a shame that WCW didn't last long enough for Christopher Daniels to become Mr. Worldwide

I don't really care either way. About halfway through the Moxley/PAC/Page/Omega tag, I started overthinking who might take the pin and why, and then I realized "hey, they don't have to protect everyone in losing. That's some WWE shit."

I think it depends on how many drinks he's had in the dressing room -- in fact that's what I thought as soon as I saw it haha And hey, Buffalo Bill took time on his work! He wanted to look like he'd want to fuck himself, after all.

Jericho looked like he was really feeling those backward kendo stick shots after the match. Being hit by the handle couldn't have been fun.