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Waltman was always great. X-Pac the character was like a mall cinnamon roll; fun for a bit, but stale super quick. I always thought Waltman was like a really great leadoff hitter in baseball. A traditional leadoff hitter. You don’t necessarily have to have one to win a World Series, but it certainly makes winning one easier. It’s sad that he lost so much of his prime time substance abuse, because he was a fantastic tv worker who got reactions consistently during the hottest period in the businesses history…

Far as I can tell, this is from '51 Edit: most likely 10/3/1950 according to Cagematch https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=294335

My youngest is 17 and he just started saying the F WORD in front of me. I was aghast. I actually don't cuss much in real life though I use the word FUCK a thousand times a day here.

X-Pac was awesome.

If we ARE going into Punk vs Mox II... let's think about it for a second, especially looking at how Punk vs Page was worked and how Mox has been working all year. This could be leading to Mox as the out of control aggressive monster, a hungry shark, against a damaged Punk, an asshole, but 100% the crowd's asshole in Chicago with everything to prove, having to fight from underneath and brush up against his own sins and limitations, being broken inside and out, up against a man who overcame his demons only to express to the world that he wished for nothing more than to be a demon himself.... all in front of a molten crowd with high stakes. That's some pretty gripping stuff right there.

I think we end up with a Cobra Kai type deal with the Garcia/Danielson stuff. Garcia/Robby chooses Danielson/Larusso over Jericho/Kreese, which causes friction with Yuta/Miguel and Moxley/Johnny. Hopefully leading to Moxley creating his own Eagle Fang dojo of course.

It could be all of this or that someone just made the shit up. This is wrestling, being a flat out lie is always the most likely option.

A lot to unpack here; many creative and production choices:

Sammy is PERFECT heel. He is a total heat machine. He is the best heel. Dante Martin is totally different animal all together.

I don't ask for much but here's another look at Juan Gil Don's super mares (and a kick just because). If we aren't seeing 3 different guys doing this regularly in 2023, then what is the point of any of this, right? Come on, people. Steal this!

I spend like half my day at work in the bathroom, so I’m sympathetic to Rosa.

On that same note, and maybe some people who work with her feel different, as an outsider I'm not too eager to attribute malice or carelessness to every in-ring misstep taken by a person who's so banged up they sometimes can't feel their legs.

?

It was kind of getting to the point of sounding like a kid that was suddenly allowed to cuss. Like, my five-year-old said "shit" once, I made the mistake of chuckling, and it was on.

You can distinguish them as Hair and Bald now, too.

If the DVDVR boards didn't exist, I wonder if I'd feel alone in being ridiculously stoked for Dustin vs Claudio? Let's take it a step further: If the DVDVR boards didn't exist, would I even be super-excited for this match in the first place? But the DVDVR boards do, in fact, exist... so, I am all worked up about this and I know I am not alone. Remember how this was set up? ROH champion Claudio came out to tip his (metaphorical) hat to Ricky Steamboat and say he wants to be a fighting champion. Then Dustin came out to answer the open challenge. Then we all marked out. Because this is going to be good. Good guy vs good guy. Wrestling machine vs wrestling machine, if you will. Dustin is going to do his "hang on a second, I gotta catch my breath" thing. CeasaROH is going to Giant Swing Dusty's son. And we are all going to mark out some more. I don't ask for anything more than that from my pro wrestling, most days. I'm glad to see everyone having so much fun with the active rumour mill this week. My guess is it tickles some kind of important nostalgia for what it was like to be online during the attitude era for a lot of people. I lack that particular nostalgia, having been teaching in post-conmunist central Europe for most of that period. So, it seems I'm missing out on the "hot goss" fun. But I am all in on the good wrestling. So, we all have stuff to enjoy this week. Hooray! Speaking of: Dark Order vs House of Metal! I scrupulously avoid spoilers, but I strongly suspect I already know what the result is here, just from extrapolating comments I have read without clicking spoiler boxes. Nonetheless, I am stoked. I can hardly wait to see how these two trios interact in the ring. Odds are, every match on this show will be really distinct. This match and Claudio vs Dustin will be totally different kinds of matches, but I am excited for both. This is a thing I really like about AEW! Speaking of: Sammy and Tay vs Ortiz and Ruby!! For those of you into Hot Goss, are you more excited for this because Eddie Piefaced Sammy for calling him fat and Ortiz is Mad King's friend? I hope so! I kind of am, too! Damn it! I guess I'm not "above" the Hot Goss stuff after all. Who doesn't want to see Ortiz punch Sammy and Ruby kick Tay? And who won't kind of enjoy the, I dunno what to call it, frustration(?) when Sammy and Tay cheat and then tongue kiss? Anger? Whatever it is that makes it fun to boo. Speaking of: Ryan Nemeth! Boo! Kill him, Wardlow! Something that those of us who watch the YouTube shows will enjoy more than those of us who don't. Although, probably, everyone will enjoy this. Also: Jade speaks! Will she say "That bitch" and "Cut the shit, Tony"? I predict that she will. Also: "Iron Savages" my ass! But honestly I got so excited thinking about Claudio vs Dustin that I forgot I was doing a gimmick this week. I am bad at kayfabe.

lol linking to a Deadspin article. For fucks sake. Confirmation bias is strong.

Sleep paralysis but its Will Ospreay in the backseat of your car yelling "BRUV LET ME GET THE AUX BRUV" while you are trying to drive

I'll get there. Unless I blow my hamstring out or something. This is a marathon and the wrestling isn't going anywhere. Had a really fun night of watching stuff last night actually. 9/19/86: Takada (c) vs Koshinaka: I take these as they come. Obviously I have some sense of how I'm going to feel about certain things by now, but each match gets a fair shake as I start it. Informed, but fair. I know this one was fairly well regarded compared to some of the other junior stuff around it, even with the same wrestlers, but I'm happy to say it was really good. The story, as best as I can say it, and this reminds me a lot of the Fujinama/Maeda match actually, is that Koshinaka had to wrestle his absolute best match to stand up to Takada. He had to be one step ahead, ready for everything that came his way. And he was! It is one of those things that you can do with these UWF guys after a string of dominant matches from them, but I don't think it's all sustainable. In some ways, a big story of 1986 has been Koshinaka leveling up, first having no right to be in the ring with these guys, to losing his belt to one, to trying to find a way to solve the puzzle, to this where he's absorbing three kicks to get a takedown on the forth. There's a moment fairly deep into here where Takada slaps him across the face, mimicking the slap that Koshinaka did in a lot of their encounters early to try to get him to make a mistake. That, as much as anything else, shows how far Koshinaka came. Things were given time here. Nothing was rushed. Everything had weight. There was no real popping up. Things were built to. Towards the stretch the near-falls really mattered and were exciting. This isn't the best match in 86, but I do think it's the best match that these two could have and it's still a testament to how far they, and especially Koshinaka, had come. It's a great moment when he wins the title back, one of the best of the year, and I think the guy is super punchable, so good on them. 9/23/86: Fujiwara vs Yamada: Man, this was good. It was Fujiwara putting Yamada through the paces, but you could tell just how much regard he must have had for him, because he kept giving him openings to try things and look like he belonged in there. Yamada could have spent his whole career in matches like this, working the mat, trying some tricked out submissions using his speed and agility, fighting from underneath, working towards the rope, and yes, playing into Fujiwara's traps, and we'd think that he'd be great at that alone, and then he went on to do so much more still. For all that we talk about Fujiwara's skill or his attitude or his spirit or his credibility, he just had this mastery of the moment which is almost unprecedented in pro wrestling history (Terry Funk, Negro Casas, and that's just about it, right? Maybe a guy like Eddy at his absolute best?). Fujiwara just got it. It's like he could pause time and gauge a thousand imperceptible little things between his opponent and the crowd and every match that came before him and many that would come after and just could just pull and tug at he strings of fate and then start time up again. Like he was walking through air and everyone else was walking through water. The finish is amazing, with Fujiwara locking in the armbar, only for Yamada to get to the ropes and then try something different, just to end up back in it. Four times. It made Yamada look like a star for surviving. It made Fujiwara look like a god for being able to put it on him again and again at will. It's this sort of magical finish that felt so light and effortless and brilliant and was light years above what everyone else was doing and he just made it seem so easy. And after the match he seemed so happy to have gone through it with Yamada and so proud of him even if he wasn't one of his factionmates. Just magic. Fujiwara is magic.

If you couldn’t tell by my flurry of late responses, I just got to watch this afternoon, and mostly avoided spoilers (other than Rosa). That opening segment was how to open a show with talk/angle-building instead of a match. Agree with everything said about Garcia as an actor and really selling the “insecure jock asshole” character. He’s always reminded me in a weird way of Mark Wahlberg, and even more so now. Lethal-Dax was awesome, incredibly hard hitting, a little bit of a surprise at the end followed by a huge surprise after. I like Rosa, she’s been off lately and I’ve said for weeks I think she’s working hurt. Maybe she’s also a little mad about having to lose, but Baker is hardly the person to call her out on that, or on being unprofessional in the ring, and that shitty cheap shot about working hurt. Storm should get the title and Hayter-Baker should have a falling out. Baker-King was fine, I’d like to see more of KiLynn and less of Britt. The Father-Son match was a great angle in a very pedestrian match. I feel very correctly called out for shitting on NAO while praising The Acclaimed catchphrases. Difference is Acclaimed are likable and are good to excellent workers. Really looking forward to SitG/Acclaimed. Mox-Punk was a shocker, in a good way. The main was over-the-top in a way that I mostly enjoyed, with my quibbles about Davis’s weak strikes, Penta spamming as always, and the overbooking of the end (and a couple of the spots being a little too much). PAC is so fucking good. Ospreay is so good at being a prick who is incredibly athletic and mostly very smooth with his moves. Rey Fenix deserves a singles title for flippy dudes. Aussie Open are a WiP although they do bump really well for tall dudes. Penta gets on my last nerve. Looking forward to tonight!

Update (read in the Gene Okerlund voice from WWF "UPDATE" segments of the late '80s/early '90s) on WBD and AEW: "Makes no negative waves" seems like a gross underselling of AEW delivering good ratings especially relative to other sports/wrestling tv contracts.

Check out Tito Psicosis here.

The Ass Boys will now be the Butt Boys

My daughter has started using "Bruv" all the goddamn time. We live in Kentucky.

When the Iron Savages are turned on, are they....the randy savages?

I want the main event of All Out to be a 30 minute wrestling clinic with Mox defending against Colt Cabana, where Canaba hits the GTS at the end, only for Mox to kick out and come back for the win.

Fitting that folks are talking about X-Pac because my immediate reaction to the language thing was "You think you can tell me what to do? You know who you're talkin' to?" followed by multiple crotch chops. Since I think the hiding in the bathroom aspect of the story is complete BS (cause unless someone was hiding the bathroom with Thunder Rosa or sitting in a stall, how would you know), I don't really care about the whole someone is going to beat someone up stuff. However, I will say I give Rosa a modicum of credit for actually fighting in a reputable MMA organization. She could have done what A LOT of folks have done, gone down to Mexico and fought window washers, secretaries, and desk clerks, and built up a record with no one being wise to it. She also could have done what Ilima Lei-Macfarlane did and start her career in an absolutely reprehensible organization like XFS that makes their bones on criminal mismatches between people who have some training and folks that clearly have none at all. Hell, IMO at least, her career is probably still marred or overshadowed by her KO'ing that "soccer mom" who had no business being anywhere near a cage, a ring, a jiu-jitsu mat, or whatever fighting surface you can think of. There are millions of people who have seen that video who have no idea that Macfarlane went on to have a halfway decent career in MMA. Unfortunately or ironically, that video went viral again just weeks ago right around the time of Macfarlane's last fight (which would have been her retirement fight had she lost). So now there are people that think that fight just happened when it happened several years ago (January 2015 to be exact). Weirdly enough, when Macfarlane started her run in Bellator, there were actual MMA fans who thought she was a knockout artist when in actuality that video is akin to someone getting assaulted in a World Star Hip Hop video. That one knockout was in no way representative or indicative of what she actually could do or did in MMA. Rosa could have done that or won like 15 consecutive amateur MMA fights over like some sixteen year old blue belts and people that watch MMA instructionals online. The sky is the limit when it comes to papering your record. In this era of the sport, I don't think anyone can be a wrestler AND an MMA fighter at the same time. You either do one or the other. And the sooner you make that choice, the better. Which leads me to the Punk thing... I do give Punk credit for one thing: He could have easily wiggled his way out of fighting, period. His whole signing only happened because the UFC had no stars really at the time, was transitioning between eras (GSP retired, Anderson Silva's reign came to an end, Brock was pretty much gone, Ronda wasn't a big, big star just yet), and was desperate. In that time between announcing he had signed with the UFC and when he actually fought, the UFC's fortune had turned around immensely. He could have said "fuck it" and just told Dana "I'm good." That's likely what he should've done because he would gotten more credit just doing some lower level NAGA competition and winning a bronze medal or doing what Tom Hardy just did, competing in some charity BJJ event, and have videos of you submitting just some random people. Even if he had some aptitude for MMA, there is less upside as you go up the ranks. I think Jake Paul is gonna be proof of that, eventually. Jake Paul is 60x better than Punk was at any type of fighting, BUT because he has some skills and a name, he's going to have to fight someone halfway decent. And he's going to become a bigger meme than Punk could have ever imagined because said halfway decent person is going to put him on a spectacular highlight reel. It's going to trend on Twitter for at least 24 hours. At least Logan knew better and decided WWE was more his thing so he isn't pressured into fighting anyone relevant. Jake really wants to be taken seriously. To me, Jake taking this seriously is as laughable as Punk if not more just because there is virtually zero upside in fighting if you didn't take this up at an early enough age. Even with Brock, the fact he just entered the sport as a freak athlete with legit credentials (granted he won a national wrestling title against a weak field) wasn't enough to overcome he had not taken enough time to learn the other aspects of MMA. Hell, same with Lashley. If this isn't what you do all the time, wrestler or not, your ceiling is much lower than everyone else. That's the reality of combat sports. That's why I find the notion of "well, Rosa wasn't good in her one fight so theoretically, she cannot actually fight" silly because unless we're bringing back Brawl for All so the business can get more exposed than thigh slapping, it doesn't really matter. Pie facing people seems to be about the limit for actual physical confrontation backstage. If that's the threshold, then Rosa has nothing to worry about. Moreover, if you are confronting people backstage with the threat of a physical altercation or just the idea you might be a real issue backstage, your time in the company will not be long. Ask Ivelisse about that. Long gone are the days of the Harris twins hemming up Shawn Michaels at MSG and Jacques Rougeau fucking up Dynamite Kid at a TV taping. People will have disagreements all the time, but folks enjoy also having their (well paying) jobs.

I am sure if you asked Meltzer he would say that the third best match on a New Japan show is better then Dundee vs. Lawler Loser Leaves Town

The other is namesake of a famous Tito! Wait... Goddammit!

Jamie Hayter is from Southampton; that's got to be the equivalent of half-a-dozen MMA fights.

After Christian puts over Jungle Boy they should do a Starks/Christian program.

Watched Licorice Pizza last night and loved it. Took a bit to get into as the 15y.o/25y.o romance was a little off-putting to think about, but the performances absolutely blew me away. How Alana Haim didn't get nominated last year, I do not know. I do see how she would be drawn to Gary. She's sad and lost and doesn't know what to do with her life and here's this kid who also doesn't know what to do with his life, but is just attacking it with gleeful abandon. Tom Waits showing up in anything is always going to get my attention. I've seen people online saying that his character is based on Peckinpah, John Huston or Mark Robson. While I'm sure it is a pastiche, I choose to believe Robson, just because the Val Lewton RKO horror movies of the 40s are one of my favourite eras in film. I had no idea Bradley Cooper was in this, playing Jon Peters no less. Absolutely unhinged performance. Perhaps it is recency bias (probably definitely) but this is now up there with The Master and There Will Be Blood as my favourite PT Anderson movies. Between this and having recently watched all of Columbo, 1970s Los Angeles is where I want to hang out. You can see Old Hollywood in the buildings, but they've started taking on a seedy, run down look. The collapse of the studio system has left an anything goes feel, as images and lives are no longer so tightly controlled. Plus everyone is now on coke and into new ageism and just batshit insane. Take me to the decrepit Hollywood sign and let me watch the town in all its fading glamour

Exclusive "foot"-age

I think Log is on to something with his post concerning trust. I trust AEW. I mean… I’m not going to let Tony Khan fuck my girlfriend or anything. But I have little to no hesitation spending my time and money on 50 dollar PPVs after years of paying 9.99 a month. Dax Harwood is so my current WOTY that it got me off my dead ass and dropped a couple of bucks on ROH tickets. Top to bottom the best live show I’ve ever attended in person. If I were capable I’d do a cartwheel. I’m not blind though. As positive as I am about AEW. I even had the thought when ever I’d hear some podcast interview where somebody goes on about how much love, harmony, and rock n’ roll the AEW locker room is… I’d think “Yeah, that ain’t gonna last”. But so fucking what. That squash was totally awesome and memorable and a huge storyline milestone for the company. It got applause for the tie up. Obviously I’m All In. Because I trust AEW.

We really need an eye roll emoji on this board.

Why would anyone try Eddie Kingston like that? I am 1000% sure he has watched other men take their last breaths because of something he did to them. I’m not saying he’s killed someone. But I’m also not not saying it.

Allright! Come on, House of Black! I don't care if Dark Order has been there since the beginning of AEW, House of Black is much better group of wrestlers. I see they are planting the seeds of Hangman coming in with Preston Vance feigning a knee injury! Ah sweet picture in picture! I didn't know how much I missed you until I had to SUFFER through commercials during SMACKDOWN! House of Black are SOOOO much better than the Dark Order but I get the feeling we are getting a Dark Order win to advance the Hangman versus the Elite storyline. Which sucks. House of Black versus the United Empire would completely ROCK but neither are getting any farther. Dark Order vs the Elite is so much less. Miro comes out and distracts the House of Black to allow the Dark Order to win with a roll up! House of Black beat the crap out of Miro! Darby Allin and STING~! show up. As a consolation, the House of Black vs Miro/Sting/Darby will be good. Ryan Nemeth is from CLEVELAND! He THEN MOVED TO A REAL CITY! Wardlow didn't move to a real city! Hey! It's Chris Sabin. Man, the poor Motor City Machine Guns are gonna get JACKED UP by FTR and fricking WARDLOW. Private Party versus Rush and Andrade? Okay, I'm listening. Jericho getting behind Ashton Day is heartwarming. JESUS. That was a NASTY Lariat. That was GNARLY Spinebuster. GNARLY! The Factory actually did something! Awwww, poor Leila Grey. Tay Melo works the busted wrist of Ruby Soho! TAY IS EVIL! Ruby FIRES BACK! Tay fucking CRUSHES her with knee to the head! Tay goes back to the wrist! This match is filled with psychology. Sammy is fucking AWESOME being an annoying little prick. In sweet sweet picture in picture, Tay and Sammy double team Ortiz. Sammy hits a DBS Delayed Vertical Suplex! But Ortiz fight out! I assume the crowd is getting behind Ortiz' STRUGGLE to escape the dickish heel offense of Sammy and Tay! Ruby is great on the apron and she makes the HOT TAG. NICE Backdrop Driver by Soho. Sammy is awesome taking the Poison Rana from Soho! ANGELO PARKER! ANNA JAS! FUCKERY! That was a wreck but that was fun. Claudio and Dustin is awesome. Dustin bumps like he isn't 53 years old. While in picture in picture, Claudio wrenches Dustin's neck. Dustin looks fucking great. FRANKENSTEINER BY DUSTIN! CODE RED FOR TWO! Giant Swing makes nine rotations! GREAT fucking Powerslam by Dustin. Lowblow! European Uppercut by Claudio! FOR THE WIN! That was fun. The main event was good but could have used a little more time. The rest of the episode was kinda slapdash. AEW RULES THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD!

Oh my God ... HAS TONY SCHIAVONE FINALLY CUT THE SHIT?!?!

Well, now I feel bad for saying Rosa is difficult to work with if she can't feel her fucking legs. Jesus. That reminds of Paige in an interview with Renee a couple weeks before she returned to the ring saying that she wasn't able to turn her head at all in one direction and it cracks and pops to turn it in the other direction. Then a few weeks later at a house show she takes one dropkick and is fucking done. Like, no shit. You're just physically broken. I hope Rosa isn't in the same shape and isn't trying to rush back in a couple months when she should take more time off. Then again, my wife just this week couldn't get up out of bed and could barely walk because her lower back pain was so bad (probably from the new motion of constantly lifting up a newborn in awkward ways for a whole year). She got an x-ray and two of her discs are compressed. So maybe it's something like that and PT will help Rosa out a ton.

I'm fine with it. They seemingly went from being allowed to say "shit" once per hour to saying it multiple times in every promo. I vaguely remember during Christian's heel run, there was a multi-person promo battle where Christian said "carny piece of shit" at least twice and whoever else was in the promo let loose with it a few times, too.

Austin is the expressive, charismatic one. Colton is the new Kendall Windham.

"Pro Wrestler, Champion of the Planet, in space" "in a Dystopian Future, pro wrestling is the only solution" "the most 1980s pop culture professional wrestler imaginable"

And now, what you've all been waiting for: -This first segment was pretty good. Daniel Garcia, as so many others have pointed out, is incredible at certain things, and conveying a focused set of emotions. Jericho's recent promos are like Judd Apatow movies; trim the runtime by 20% and they'd all be classics. The only problem is I'm not sure how you get to Garcia/Jericho at Grand Slam, which I'd guess is their endgame, without Jericho going over Danielson. That result would cause other problems, notably that it would be fucking stupid. -I love Dax Harwood's old school sensibilities about the business and tag wrestling and the like, but I think sometimes guys like him romanticize putting other people over. Like it's the right thing to do. And sometimes it is, but that finish might've been a good time to drop a "that doesn't work for me comma brother." Getting MCMG into that 6 man is an unspeakably huge upgrade from the previous lineup. Great match, and Dax would catch a charge if he chopped someone like that in a barfight. -Thunder Rosa breaks my heart in so many ways. You can tell she cares so much about putting out the best product possible in her matches. And when she first got to AEW she was the kick in the ass that division sorely needed. It's just sad to see how much her work has gone into a tailspin since she won the title. As for the "why did Thunder Rosa only get three minutes to tell her story when Punk got fifteen" talking point that's been going around certain dreadful corners of the internet, Rosa isn't a native English speaker. That whole thing might've been a pretape. We don't know. There are problems with AEW women's division, but not making a woman who isn't completely comfortable speaking english go out in front of a live audience when she's clearly an emotional wreck isn't one of them. -"Sometimes your kids are just numbnuts." National Treasure Tony Schiavone, ladies and gentlemen. This whole Gunn Club situation is relatable to me, because my dad is one of my best friends and always has my back, but he loves giving me a hard time too. We never came to blows, but we would've thought it was hilarious if people chanted "Ass Boy" at me for no reason. This was more angle than match, and that makes sense. The Acclaimed are so goddamned over. -Britt Baker. Ugh. At some point we're going to have to stop pretending that she's a top level performer and not someone Tony owes a debt of gratitude to because she stayed healthy through a global pandemic. Her promos have regressed, and that's the strongest part of her game. If she wins the Women's title, rather than Storm or Hayter, it would be an unspoken admission that TK has no idea what to do with the division. -Swerve in Our Glory and the Acclaimed are gonna dance at All Out. This should rule, and I could see this going either way. I love SioG, but sooner or later you're gonna have to start adding acclaim to... the Acclaimed. Shit. Too many acclaims. -Holy shit. Holy mother fucking shit. For weeks I've said here and elsewhere that I couldn't imagine a feasible scenario where the CM Punk that's been present in AEW so far beats this most recent version of Jon Moxley, but not even I imagined this going how it did. I guess we'll never know if Punk ever gets the real-life ass beatings his actions so often warrant, but this was the onscreen version of that. I loved every second of this. I felt like that girl who watches Darnell beat up her shitty boyfriend in that one "When Keepin' It Real Goes Wrong" skit on Chappelle show. I savored that ass whipping. I don't know whether or not everything we hear about AEW's backstage environment is true, but I 100% believe this was the match that was supposed to happen at All Out. You don't come back from a shattered foot in 2-3 months, especially without the benefit of painkillers. I think all that "he jumped over the ropes" stuff was done in an attempt to hide that he's still too hurt to go. There was also a report this week that it was Jon Moxley's idea to do the All Out match this week on Dynamite, instead of at the PPV. I find that wording very interesting. It would make sense to me that Mox wouldn't want to squash Punk in Chicago and risk being the guy who killed that town for AEW. I also don't believe these two will be the main event of All Out. That wasn't the kind of loss you come back from in nine days, injury or not. Then you make both guys look like chumps; Punk for being a bitch and not being more competitive against a guy he could turn around and beat nine days later, and Mox for losing to a guy he smoked less than two weeks ago. Shit, even Cody had the good sense to let it simmer for a couple of months before coming back against Brodie Lee. That Punk loss is the kind of things you film vignettes over. Training montages and shit. Something will happen at All Out. It might involve Punk. But I highly doubt they're running that match back nine days later. -Christian Cage is doing some of his most compelling work here. He's talking like the guy in the movies that shows up from the big city and buys the factory that employs most of the locals and is going to fire all the local workers and replace them with robots & illegals. The kind of thing that would've gotten wagered over a high school basketball game in any number of early 80's films. And then the foreman's son who quit the team the year before has to come back and lead the squad of plucky undersi- Wait, what were we talking about? Holy shit. Anyway, great stuff from Christian there. -The unsung hero of this show might've been Ricky Starks. The live audience was clearly still a bit in shock from the Mox/Punk encounter, but by the end of his promo they were all in. No pun intended. That line about "where I'm from, we cut the heads off of snakes!" That's the good shit. The emotion from Starks felt very real, and if I were TK he'd be on my short list of guys to build to that tip-top level over the next year. Everything about this guy screams STAR, and from what I've read there's still some hurt feelings on his end after being told "no" by Triple H in the previous PC era, so he's a guy who's loyalty I'd be looking to secure, by both compensation and exposure. Fantastic fucking promo. -That Mox promo was the good shit too. Thay reminded me of the "Paradigm Shift" promo from after DoN in tone and intensity. He's so effortlessly menacing with an air of cool. Like Todd from Beavis and Butthead if Todd had a job with benefits. I think they'll play the "undone by his own hubris" card at some point to get the title off of him, but I don't think it'll be All Out. -This main event. First of all, let me say that when AEW announced they'd signed PAC at their kickoff press conference it was the best news I'd head that day. There was a time 2-3 years ago one could've made the claim he was the best wrestler alive. I think the pandemic slowed that more than any downturn in performance. It's such a joy to see him more regularly on tv, and if you haven't been watching his title defenses on youtube, that's a "you" problem. They've all been really good. I haven't seen much of these other guys. I really only know of Ospreay from when Seth Rollins called him a broke bitch on twitter a couple years back. That was officially the only time in his entire life that Seth Rollins wasn't lame as hell. Probably. I didn't know him in grade school or anything. This sort of match really isn't my style, but if you're gonna go out there and do that, be really good at it, and all of these guys wrestle that high speed international tempo really, really well. I'm so stoked for Kip Sabian, too. That dude has put the time in on re-inventing himself and has earned a chance. If they run with him and PAC at the PPV, I'll be even more stoked for him. As I'm not familiar with Ospreay, I'm really not familiar with any beef between him and Omega, but anything that keeps the Bucks and Omega away from the main titles feels like an absolute win to me. Like I said earlier, I really dug this show, and I'm not sure why people are harping on all these late match announcements. It would bother me if the matches they announced looked like they were gonna fucking suck, but I haven't seen one announced yet that doesn't make me want to buy the ppv. Do Tony Khan and AEW in general have issues that need worked out? Yes. Would I want to watch a show that felt this chaotic every week? No. But to me, this episode felt the good kind of chaotic like the episode from last year when Malakai Black debuted. Just good shit all around. All Out is shaping up to be both compelling in story and match quality, and this week affirmed my decision to pay actual American currency to either order the show or drive an hour to the nearest theatre showing it.