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You say that, but I'm still scratching my head about who the other other DZ might be. Edit: goddammit, I see it now...

edit: rehosted

If Original Recipe Law & Order comes back, this needs to be the DA and ADA shot James

If you're going to have that look, AT THE VERY LEAST give that person a clear, discernible gimmick. NXT and AEW have a problem that is completely on the opposite end of the spectrum from each other. AEW's problem is they want to give people different gimmicks (some straight from 1995 WWF) and it's too camp to really have much credibility with the live audience. With NXT...take the Forgotten Sons for example. I'm not sure what the hell they're suppose to be. Are they like a buff, roided up version of the United Daughters of the Confederacy? Are they some radical online right wing extremist group? If they are, at least have the balls to go in that direction cause otherwise it's no way for them to get really over and get heat. A guy like Tomasso Ciampa can get over on the fact he is a great wrestler. If the underneath guys have the same fucking look and just are slightly above average to good in the ring, what's the point? Just put everyone in solid black with kickpads and call it a day. Even if some of these segments are dogshit, AEW is at least showing me they are willing to die on the gimmick hill and make it actually be pro wrestling. One of these is going to stick...hopefully? ? Let's not forget post Hogan arrival WCW until mid 96 was bad gimmick heaven. That doesn't even cover fall of 96 to spring of 97 which was Glacier/Mortis/Wrath fighting over an amulet, a talisman, or whatever the fuck. Two months in, not all of these are going to be winners. You're going to have to sift through plenty of dog poop.

Them doing things through the commercial breaks on TNT is an issue, but it's seemingly because the Fite stream is constant for the most part so they have to fill those gaps with something. They could easily do it with filler, but that'd be a lot of filler since every break is 3-5 minutes. If they didn't have the deal with Fite, this probably wouldn't be an issue. Audio at the beginning of the show all the way through to about 30ish minutes in was touch and go. It started off fine, then the volume levels went way low, then they even out, and it disappeared again. Again, apparently the Fite stream has no issues with audio, so it's seemingly on the TNT side of things, which is weird to say the least. Onto the actual show. WARNING: Wall of Text! I was doing laundry during the six man tag, so I didn't see most of it, but it was your usual Young Bucks fare from what I did see. Dustin in Bucks inspired gear was everything. He tried to work at the same pace as everyone else, and for the most part he held his own. Sets up Bucks/PnP next week in a street fight, so that's cool. Later on, I did like Cody mentioning that everyone he could have usually called on for help is neck deep in their own issues. QT Marshall ain't gonna cut it against the Butcher & the Blade, that's for sure. Like I've said before, Page is solo because of frustrations with the Elite and how his AEW career has went so far, and Omega doesn't even know who he is anymore. So that really only leaves one person for Cody to call on in the weeks to come. Also very cool that he name dropped Beyond and Bar Wrestling. Cody offering $50K to wrestle MJF was straight up old school, I bet some people loved that. Appealing to MJF's vanity is one way to get him to agree to a match, since they don't want to play the hand of "Cody is an EVP so he can just make any match he wants". That's smart. Butcher, Blade & Bunny targeting Cody because they're sick of his face being all over everything holds water, given Allie's previous (aborted) feud with Brandi. Heels can face other heels, but I have no desire to see Allie or Brandi wrestle. Kong either, really, but it's going to happen, and I'm hopeful that Allie and Brandi both stay in a managerial role. Allie needs to add a woman to her group (unless she's going to be the female wrestler in the group). What's Rosemary up to these days? Words can't describe how excited I am that Kris Statlander signed with AEW, and also pinned the #1 contender. The sooner the belt comes off Riho, the better. I don't care which of them it is, but one of them needs to win it. I'm also sensing an impending heel turn for Shida, whether she joins up with Brandi or it's just a solo heel turn. Thanks @Goodear, you've planted this idea in my head now. I'm coming around on Nyla Rose, too. At the beginning of the year all the way up until Dynamite's debut, I wasn't really feeling her, but she seemingly becomes less green each time she's on screen. She didn't set the world on fire on Dark in the commentary role, but she showed personality at times. Not everyone can shine in that announcer role. If she can just find a way to roll that personality into her character, it'd be awesome. Just being another big monster woman isn't going to cut it when you have someone like Awesome Kong around doing the same thing, and better. Right now it just feels like she's playing The Beast character. I think in 2020 she'll find that nice middle ground. Can't complain about multiple women's stories going on at the same time, either. You've got whatever is going on with the Women's Title, Kong/Brandi finding a new minion in Melanie Cruise, Nyla and Shanna fighting whenever possible. That's good shit, pal. Pentagon/Daniels wasn't all that awesome (Fenix/Trent? was decent but I didn't really pay too much attention), but those matches showed me a few things. Fenix & Pentagon can exist both in the singles and tag divisions and it doesn't look out of place like it does for Trent. Daniels needs to hang it up and focus on being the head of Talent Relations (and maybe a producer too if he isn't already). Daniels just didn't look great tonight. I could buy Trent as a singles guy, but that leaves Chuck Taylor out in the cold and I don't want to see a tag team with Orange Cassidy either (even though I love both of them). They've got a good thing going with Best Friends & OC, don't ruin it by wanting Trent to exist in both divisions or transition to a singles guy. I'm not too hyped about Jericho/Jungle Boy, but his mission statement apparently is to make new stars in AEW and give guys some rub, and he's definitely done that so far. He can't push them all the way over the moon, it's up to the guys behind the scenes, but he's made Adam Page and Scorpio Sky seem like a big deal already, and lifted Sammy Guevara from just another flippy guy to one of the most hated guys on the roster, and PnP benefit from being around him too instead of just another tag team (that happens to be feuding with the Bucks). I guess the plan is still seemingly Luchasaurus vs Hager, since they teased that a few weeks ago. Jungle Boy vs Jericho will be good, I don't know how Luchasaurus vs Jericho would have turned out. Lexicon of Le Champion is a nice throwback, and I loved him bathing in the cheers for a minute before he flipped the switch back on and told everyone to get out of 2016. Moxley/Janela was about what we all expected, but it was still good. Janela was determined to kill himself to prove he belongs in a Dynamite main event, and he did it. A lot of people will say he doesn't look like a pro wrestler, his stuff looks sloppy, etc. I think that's part of the appeal, personally. He just looks like a normal dude who wanted to be a wrestler, and he goes out there with a chip on his shoulder because of those people saying he doesn't look like this or wrestle like that. That could be any one of us in there during Janela's matches. I like that a lot. Moxley is Moxley, and he's on fucking fire right now. He needs to be the one to beat Jericho for the title. Dude is red hot right now, and as much as I love Jericho's AEW character... Jon Moxley is on a different level and he feels like a big deal every time you see him on TV or PPV. This isn't a Cody situation, I was steadfast in my opinion that Cody would have been the wrong choice to beat Jericho and I was right. Jericho needed that win over a top babyface so it places doubt on his next big title defense. He could feasibly beat Moxley and set someone else up to be the guy down the road, but Moxley is for all intents and purposes the most popular wrestler on their roster (right now).

Show seemed to fly by but another enjoyable week. Thought the opening six man was awesome, super hot crowd and nonstop action. Shida/Kris was great. Felt like a tough match where Kris needed a win and Shida shouldn't lose if she's going to be #1 contender but it was done well. Liked the prospect of Statlander/Kong in addition to Riho/Shida, Shanna/Nyla, some cool stuff abound in the division. And of course Britt redoing her in the crowd cameo. Cool to see Melanie Cruise in the Brandi angle, always liked her. Cody continues to be the best promo. Daniels' springboard botch looked real rough, but overall solid match. Another great Moxley performance in the main event with Janela holding his own. Moxley/Jericho should be excellent, though I still hope that if/when they get around to doing the Match Beyond that Jericho and Cody are still involved in it even though they are onto other things now. Jericho v. Jungle Boy in 2 weeks should be a lot of fun.

Not that I necessarily disagree and this is probably WWE wide thing, but if we're getting on AEW for the Nightmare Collective/Dark Order/Butcher and the Blade, can we get on NXT for a bunch of dudes having the burned out jam band roadie/Confederate civil war general beard look that the Forgotten Sons/Killian Dain/Cameron Grimes etc. are all rocking? I just wish they throw all those dudes into one stable and be done with it. I'm completely over that look.

Honestly, this should be the final question of every game for a super ultra-prize. And regardless of the answer, no one ever gets it right.

Keith Lee popping up next to Balor like Jaws coming up out of the water is everything.

Stupid.. stupid.. stupid.

Depending on who shot first

Wade Keller hinted that his unapologetic swagger had won him some ‘pay your dues, kid’ purgatory in the short term but, whether that story is BS or not, it’s fantastic to see him being presented so well in everything since Takeover.

Yeah, anyway. NXT is boring. MJF is apparently behind the Butcher, Blade & the Bunny? And he picked QT Marshall to be Cody's partner? What? I can't even explain that.

I chalked it up to No Shave November except for Bobby Fish and Ciampa. Tomaso's a pretty weird looking dude clean shaven. The beard adds a grungy element that helps his gimmick.

Amazing.

Since we are listing what MJF can ask for: Pharoh. Take away his best friend.

AEW: 851,000 NXT: 845,000

I think there's a happy middle ground. WWE's approach is nonsense. It eats time, it's dull and repetitive, and it assumes the audience has the mental capacity of a goldfish. That said, I find that internet stuff (even though a lot of shows are consumed via streaming and are thus "internet stuff," but I'm too lazy to think of a better way to articulate the distinction...) works best as supplemental content. The things you need to understand the show ought to be in the show proper, especially when it's seen by considerably more people than the supplemental content. As such, MJF declaring that B/B/B were aligned with him probably should have been on the show, as it's presumably a major development. Funny you bring up Watchmen. I'm following just fine and I haven't touched Peteypedia. Presumably because it's supplemental content, and not necessary for anyone who just wants to watch the show week to week.

I think it's fine. Nowadays, you're almost expected to follow something on multiple formats in order to really get it. The highest-grossing movie of all time assumed that you'd seen 20+ movies previously in order to "truly" follow it. The best show on tv right now (IMO), Watchmen, assumes knowledge of a 30+ year old text and has an entire website of supplemental materials that you need to read to "truly" follow it. That's why I hate WWE's insistence that it's audience can't remember anything that happened more than a week ago. We live in an age where the biggest media successes are build on YEARS and YEARS of backstory. People can keep up. They love it, in fact.

I am a bachelor for 4 days starting Saturday so assuming I can keep my hand off my penis, reviews will begin in earnest

Manami Toyota and Jumping Bomb Angels, a true power trio.

Joey Janela runs the ropes like he earned sixth place ribbons on field day in school.

This was more like it. Aside from audio issues in the first 10 minutes, the sound production was good. I enjoyed nearly every match this week and liked the stories being told as well. Really good show tonight.

Sam Jackson is awesome in With a Vengeance. I love that shit so much and the New York City backdrop. I don't count the last two, they never happened... 1. Die Hard 2. Die Hard With a Vengeance 3. Die Hard 2 If you want to count The Last Boy Scout as part of the series you could do that too. An amazing movie.

Bad News likely would have refused to go - during a tour in Japan he felt that Dusty was racist and so refused to do a job to him in a tag match. Other matches in this alternate-history timeline that would be good: Midnight Express vs. Windham/Rotundo, and Rock-n-Roll vs. Adonis/Murdoch.

I'm not gambler FWIW but that seems kinda high. For as much shit as Wilder does and doesn't deserve for his fighting style, the Povetkin fight (and the Whyte fight as well you can say) shows that if it takes AJ three or four rounds to warm up, he can be hit fairly often and has to use his sheer athleticism to almost will himself into fights. The one thing I didn't like in the first Andy Ruiz fight is Ruiz was close to him early in the fight. I felt like Ruiz was going to hit him with something and we would see how AJ handles it. Then, AJ knocked Ruiz down and I thought "well...this one is over". After Ruiz got back up, it was the exact same song and dance. Just on that reason alone, the betting line should be much, much closer. Andy Ruiz isn't Dominic Breazeale. He isn't Eric Molina. I don't see him as just this also-ran who got some lucky shots in. If Carlos Takam can trouble Anthony Joshua with less than two weeks notice, Andy Ruiz should be able to do same thing. That's what happened in the first fight which ultimately went Ruiz's way, and no one should be at all surprised if it happens again.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary

I disagree. Thought the opening tag match was outstanding, Fenix vs Trent advanced the storyline of Trent seeking singles success and having it at the expense of the Lucha Bros. and now there's the question of where he goes from here, Cody's promo was on fire even if he did tend to bury MJF a little bit, Nyla Rose was a fucking beast and demolished Leva Bates and Rick Knox and Shanna, then you had Jericho's promo that was really funny and then played into building up both Luchasaurus AND Jungle Boy, Statlander got a big win in a good match that raises her profile and gives Shida something more to fight for, and then came the two worst segments with the weird Awesome Kong stuff and the sloppy-ish CD vs Penta match. CD has always looked weird with his paunch and his pants that look too long for him. And the main event was pretty good. I love watching Moxley work with guys smaller than him and you can tell he's having a blast as well. The ending sets up Moxley as the clear #1 contender and sets the stage for what should be Moxley saying "fuck it" and attacking the entire Inner Circle next week. Another positive to point out was that the commercials didn't take away from much and felt less frequent. They went to commercial each time when a submission or rest hold was applied or the heel (in the match) was getting heat on the face (in the match). I watched all of the P-i-P stuff and it was all skippable and when they returned they turned things back up a notch for the tv production. There's a ton of positives there with them mixing and matching good in ring segments with good story or promo segments and they're always building to the next week or two weeks away while making what's going on during the show important as well. If anything was skippable it was last week. This week returned to form and put on a good two hour TV show that went by pretty quickly.

A further note about the Assembly Hall: that photo that looks like a giant UFO? That's all seating, and the ground isn't the floor. The real ground, where the ring was, is four stories below that.

Well, it more depends on how exclusive the contracts are, and if they're comparable to their closest contemporaries (MLW and Impact). I somehow doubt that Impact is only paying Tessa, Rosemary, Young, Taya, and Grace $12k a piece and SIGNIFICANTLY less than male draws (if Ciampia was the low end at $20K, that's still 6 thousand less than then men for a top tier woman) You can argue Klein's and several other's skill/drawing power, but the gap is still an issue, and the pay scales in RoH are suprisingly low for the arguable Number 3 promotion in the US that's been in the conversation for #2 for close to a decade.

I agree with @DreamBroken this one really flew by. I enjoyed the pacing of it all, between the matches, promos, vignettes (which they were pretty light on again). Dustin looks like he go full Terry Funk at this rate and wrestle into his 60s but still work like a MF'ing machine. I have similar misgivings about all the cult shit. All they need now is for Nick to become Merch Freak and create Merch disciples in the crowd with a magical T-Shirt gun, then they can fill the whole 2 hours with the same gimmick. Rick Knox earned his pay tonight, Nyla just hefted him up and through that table. I can think of worse ways to go than being squished by Shanna though. Very impressed by Kris Statlander considering how little experience she has in comparison to the other strong women of the division. Jericho's been on another level for months now with his entertainment value. 12,000 bloody bottles of sparkling Riesling named after a meme with a tacky label on them sold in a week. He really does have the Midas touch. With quarterly PPVs, they feel that they can meander along with Jericho for now until things heat up again in January, and show off Jungle Jack in a high profile match the way they did with Allin. It's good for them to have a confident direction but they have to acknowledge the risk of channel changers, though it's still early to tell how that will pan out. I think it's just Joey Janela's body shape that makes him look like he shit his pants when he runs the ropes and that his tights are just about to fall down. But he is a charismatic son-a-ma-gun.

I thought it was a good show but I was bummed by how much was tarped off. Not that I'm freaked out or anything, because they're a young company and still putting the pieces together, but because I know that bad takes about it are coming. The Women's division is improving quite a bit. Statlander is becoming a favorite. Nyla murdered a couple people. I dig the shit out of Shida as well, I actually think she might be my favorite of the Joshi stars they've featured so far. So much to say but I must sleep. For now I just say that Dustin is timeless

Fuck ROH

ROH changes name of next PPV to "Tire Fire"

Ratings thoughts equals *fart sound. This company has put on some of the best television wrestling I’ve ever seen. I look forward to seeing it more than any show since twin peaks-the return. The roster is fantastic and the booking has been overall excellent. I have nothing to complain about. Further, I really hope they know to be more patient than the boo birds. I think they do. They came into an industry suffering a 15-20 year drought. Establishing stars and a weekly show is gonna take more than two fucking months. Really looking forward to tonight’s excellent line-up.

If Jedi Temple Challenge is like a modern version of Nickelodeon's Legends of the Hidden Temple or Guts then I think it's fine.

Just a heads up for anybody interested - I'm running a sale on my limited stock of my Brian Pillman book, "Crazy Like A Fox - The Definitive Chronicle of Brian Pillman 20 Years Later". I'm selling signed copies for £12 or $15, depending on location of course. If anybody doesn't have the book, has heard about it and interested in a signed copy, drop me a line at [email protected], or drop me a line in the old PM box.

Rollins vs. Morrison sounds like the match being played on a loop while my eyes are forced open Clockwork Orange style in my bleakest nightmares. So that's going to happen.

I get what you're saying but maybe he's doing the good deed in front of a camera so the 100K+ followers he has can see it, be inspired and do their own good deeds as well?