Leaderboard

A friend and I were joking about Keith Lee and his intelligent vocabulary. It got me thinking they should start a thing with him where he says famous catch phrases from the past, but you know, Keith Lee style: "If your olfactory senses can pick up the aroma of the dish that Dwayne Johnson is currently preparing in his kitchen!" "That is the final word on the matter because Stephen Austin did decree it as such!" Etc

Full disclosure: I had seen the spoilers on this one in passing and I did, of course, watch sans commercials. I thought it was a fun show though. Dark Order vs HOB was a lot more of what I want out of a match like this. They had the 10 vs King stuff. I liked the standoff between all three. Reynolds got to hold his own and looked about as good as he's looked, had the moment with Black where they were both sitting, got to play FIP, got a hot tag. I liked when things broke down that it didn't overstay its welcome and that the HOB had an answer to a lot of the Order's usual tandem stuff. Things had weight (and in King's case, literal weight). 10's leg was on the backburner for part of the match and then paid off later which is always nice. Story beats instead of just spots. The Miro thing has been building for weeks and weeks so I didn't mind it. All of this felt like logical pieces on the road to different stories. I'm not going to watch whatever the Trios final ends up being so I'm not bothered that the Hangman thing isn't working for people. I'm just not going to watch. Problem solved! Nemeth's promo was like a bad parody. I liked seeing Sabin's reactions to things. You think Wardlow would have been even more over in Cleveland but maybe it was sound mixing or something. I liked the headbutt. I liked Nemeth being completely dead and not going over smoothly for the last powerbomb. Good touches. I actually think this was Angelo Parker's best promo in AEW maybe. Even better than his part of the post Blood and Guts (which wasn't nearly as good as Daddy Magic's). Weird if this is Grey being taken out of the baddies. It'd be bad if the Athena match ends with Velvet coming back as the big moment. AEW does that sort of non-surprise a little too much (like when Sammy came back during the Kingston/Jericho match; that's not a big surprise/moment/return). Hobbs squash was fine. Jericho saying it was the other guy's night was funny. I liked the mixed tag. On the one hand, you kind of want to just let them go full intergender with the rules but on the other, it does allow for certain narrative beats, whether it's affronts/cheating of the two sides interacting or the big spots that they build to. It'd be more of an issue of it was a regular thing, but there's been maybe four of these in the last year, tops; it's just that two of them have been in the last week or two. This felt like standard NWO mid-card, mid-feud stuff where the numbers win out over the faces. Because they hadn't caught the blood earlier, it made it seem like the cutter just magically wildly opened Ortiz up, which obviously it didn't, but it was a cool visual. Obviously the end result here should be Kingston going over and the booking is fine so long as the real life stuff hasn't disrupted that. Really liked the Dustin vs Claudio match. A few things about how Claudio is working. One, I think he's doing a lot of the small/close up/mean stuff in a way he wasn't in his WWE run. Granted, I haven't seen him much in the last few years, but I really don't remember it. I don't think the BCC is teaching him to rub his arms against people's faces or anything but I do think it's a part of their training sessions so it's on the front of his mind. I really liked how he'd go from a pin to immediately looking for the next hold too. It's all an interesting dissonance to his personality which is light and fun, but when he gets in the ring he's really grinding down and punishing people. Two, there's a certain moveset limitation in WWE. I noticed it the other day with Danielson having the freedom just to do a brainbuster because he wanted to. I think it's less likely that Claudio would have just been able to do a shoulder-breaker even though it made sense at the point of the match, so that freedom is nice to see. He can express himself so freely now just in general and he's making the best of that. The early chain-wrestling/oneupsmanship was a lot of fun. The twos in the face and then Claudio having enough of it. Dustin is a very unique character (let alone wrestler, given his size and experience) for guys to push up against and it's good to see someone really lean into it. As the match went on the focus on the shoulder, mixed with Claudio's recent tendency to really bear down on something, made for a pretty compelling story. Dustin had to fight from underneath because everyone has to fight from underneath against Claudio but Claudio respected him enough to target a weakness instead of just having a lark with it. Finish was odd and it's all about if it's going somewhere or not. Is this why Dustin's never won a title, because he doesn't have that edge when it counts in the end whereas Claudio does? Is Arn going to do something coming out of this like he did for Cody? Will he find someone else who can get the job done? Or encourage Brock to be different? Or is it all just going to be swept under and we'll see Dustin again in six months? A lot of the issue was that they didn't know how to frame the camera right. It was very focused on Claudio's selling the collision and low blow instead of Dustin being emotionally conflicted. Remember, this comes right after Mox wasn't conflicted even a tiny bit. It would have been good for them to highlight that as well. If they REALLY wanted to make it work, they would have referenced Clash XXI and Dustin refusing to capitalize in a similar situation (which led to the Windham turn). This is one of those situations where Khan probably went to Dustin with "Hey, I want you to do the Clash 21 finish!" and Dustin going "Which one was that?" which is something Dustin says happens all the time. Anyway, it's ok if you weren't feeling this one, but I enjoyed it for my Saturday morning viewing.

Really enjoyed Claudio vs Dustin, but the finish was kind of weird. This might be the week I get to vote for Emi in the poll! Claudio's shoulder looks all kinds of banged up. Looks like we really are headed for DO & Hanger vs Kenny & The Bucks plus Miro Sting Darby vs Spooky House at the PPV. Wardlow looks bigger. And leaner. FFS. Dude is a freak. BONUS HOBBS SQUASH! YES! I heard Sammy and Tay went to southeast Asia for their honeymoon and smoked a little weed.

"French impressionist American Dragon Bryan Danielson"

A gal with a gold collecting plan!

What will one do, sibling, when confronted with both the most enormous upper body appendages on this living sphere as well as my zealous supporters, and we brutalize your person?

This was one of the weakest AEW TV shows I can remember. Absolutely awful finish in that Dark Order-HOB opener. Goddamn, am I alone in not giving a fuck about Hangman Page and the Bucks' friendship? The Sting make-up/mist storyline is a classic Excali-planation. I'm going to try and forget this whole opening segment. Nice to see Daddy Magic and Ange. Do we really need the Ryan Nemeth local promo? Nice to see Wardy beat this shit out of him. Chris Sabin is here. I love the MCMG, but Sabin solo is the Madison Rayne on the Men's side. I always enjoy Andrade on the mic. Puh-puh-puh-Powerhouse! Fuck this remix, bring back the original. Terrible segment. Jade and Athena, sure. Can Athena work a miracle? Mixed tag was fine, but just compounds a nothing happening show. Even the Punk update video was fucking lame. Castignoli and Dustin was good, but short of a strong finish was a bit of a disappointment. Terrible show.

Really weird heat with Miro- HOB. The Preacher man comes out to interfere gets beat down yet we are supposed to feel bad when he started shit with 3 men? (plus no way am I going to side with a man who can't stop pushing his faith on to people over three metal heads)

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!

Have we done Val Venis yet? "Salutations, women!"

You definitely made me better appreciate the wrestling and the in-match stories on this show, so thank you for that.

Don’t give up Leila; becoming a Baddie is like converting to Judaism, you’re rebuffed three times to test your commitment.

Nah, see, Sting's got immunity because Muta hit him with the yellow mist in '89. He's sayin "Fuck you and your crew, Tommy."

Lmao that's awesome. Disco's anti-woke stuff is moronic even by the zero level of intelligence that kind of discourse (disco-urse??) typically operates at. I remember his enraged response to the Flair plane ride from hell fallout was essentially "we've all done horrible things so when someone finds out about someone else's horrible thing they shouldn't be allowed to hold them accountable for it".

His face has the infection, not the paint. The paint doesn't stick to the evil infected part anymore. True story.

"The sound that a firearm makes when it is being discharged, the sound that a firearm makes when it is being discharged."

That crowd was dead after the Wardlow match. Could’ve heard a pin drop after the Hobbs squash during and after the Factory video. And then they might have been even deader for the Anna JAS interference. And you know what, they were right both times. Really, just a weird night, about the only thing done right was the Wardlow squash. HoB losing the first round of a tournament they should be winning or at least in the final, in order to be YET ANOTHER trios match on the PPV. Hobbs having an impressive squash and then having any buzz killed by QT and the job squad. Jade/Athena finally thrown together in a backstage promo. The interference in the mixed tag that killed the crowd again, and the refusal to let Ortiz or Ruby finally have a fucking moment of glory. The excellent Dustin/Claudio main killed by a screwy ending for no particular reason. I was excited for tonight and brutally let down.

Feltman's were. Feltman's vs. Nathans for the oldest hot dog conflict is like McSorley's vs. Fraunces Tavern for the oldest bar in NY. https://www.6sqft.com/before-nathans-there-was-feltmans-the-history-of-the-coney-island-hot-dog/

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.

Ms. Marvel was for them. She-Hulk isn’t.

Ari tossing money around obviously.

Cole and KOR are, yeah. Fish is fine and keeping himself busy by milking dry his one good joke about shitty CM Punk kicks.

I know I'm way late to this, and I may have missed some posts trying to jam like 18 pages of reading in one setting. But I can understand if you don't like this direction. Perfectly acceptable opinion. But to say it doesn't make sense? Insert Dwight "False" gif here. So interim titles in a worked sport are kind of a forgone conclusion. The guy coming back is going to win. That's one thing to keep in mind. Another thing to keep in mind is they need a hook beyond that for the ppv. Mox being on fire and then just losing to Punk does more harm to both Mox & Punk than good. So with the benefit of a few days to see what's happening, it's all pretty obvious to me. Instead of just having Punk beat Mox in the unification match at All Out, which hurts Mox, and hurts Punk because people are digging Mox... they came up with this interesting story tweak. It's still gonna end with Punk as a champion and officially starting whatever story he was supposed to start in June but in September now. But the way they did it gave Mox some shine. He whooped Punk's ass. His interim reign became legitimate. He is the first 2 time world champion. It makes total sense to me. This is a way to make both guys better off coming out of the story than just Punk wins the unification. This is almost a thank you and a sign of major respect they are giving to Mox. They could have just had him lose. But they gave him this mini run and that great moment of the shock destruction of Punk. So now even when he loses, he can still hang his hat on all that.

I hear he's just incredible. . For a backup anyway. .

There are a lot of little hints and seeds being planted setting up a large-scale AEW “originals” vs. NXT/WWE guys. Even the Acclaimed/SioG (thanks @Gordlowfor reminding me of their proper name) set-up included a mention of that. It’s going to be a slow build since I think they’re still trying to get a stand-alone ROH set up and they have a lot of injuries to heal (Bucks/Omega versus Cole/ReDragon being one of the top rivalries in that angle, for example, plus whatever is going on with Punk). So maybe trying to salvage a Horsemen Babies tag team is part of that originals angle, or destined for ROH.

"I would appreciate it if the male demographic within tonight's audience who have less strenuous workout regimens than the one I myself hold to, would refrain from speaking whilst I remove my robe and allow the female segment of the audience to observe a more ideal example of the human form. Additionally, I would like the arena's audio director to resume playback of my musical selection." "I am a superior competitor to all other athletes who have competed in this sport in the past, are competing in this sport at present, and will proceed to compete in this sport in the future." "I HAVE ENGAGED IN A SPIRITUAL RITUAL THAT ALLOWED ME TO COMMUNE WITH IMMORTAL SPIRITS OF THE DECEASED ANCESTORS OF OUR SPECIES, SPECIFICALLY THOSE WHO PRIORITIZED A MARTIAL CAREER, AND WHILE IN THE TRANCE STATE REQUISITE TO THE AFOREMENTIONED COMMUNIQUE I HAVE BEEN INFORMED THAT THEIR PSYCHIC ENERGY, ALONG WITH THE PSYCHIC ENERGY OF THE JUVENILE MEMBERS OF OUR SPECIES WHO CHEER FOR ME DURING THIS COMPETITION AND ADVERTISE THEIR APPRECIATION FOR ME BY PURCHASING AND WEARING MERCHANDISE EMBLAZONED WITH MY LIKENESS AND TRADEMARKED LOGO, SAID PSYCHIC ENERGY SHALL FLOW THROUGH MY CIRCULATORY SYSTEM METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING, THUS EMPOWERING ME TO SUPERLATIVE PHYSICAL FEATS THAT SHALL MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPETE AGAINST ME DURING OUR IMMINENT ATHLETIC COMPETITION. [ADDITIONALLY MY NOSE IS CONGESTED, EXCUSE ME WHILE I ATTEMPT TO CLEAR THE NASAL PASSAGES MANUALLY.]"

“And if you take issue with the arguments that we have presented during this discourse, allow me to offer you this short suggestion, and that is to apply suction to a certain portion of my nether regions.”

Great to see that Theme Music Distraction Spot is now officially All Elite. Was concerned it would be unable to find work after Vince retired.

The suspension of disbelief required to understand why Sting's facepaint, that he paints on himself, now has the black mist infection is probably a step too far for me, especially when there's about a 99% chance nothing will come from it.

Change Colt to Matt Classic and I'm sold

Bloody hell.

Daniel Garcia reminds me of Channing Tatum from Foxcatcher.

Daniel Garcia reminds me of Wahlberg in “the Other Guys.” Macho to the point of being incapable of rational thought…

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

“We’ll make our way to the top of the pyramid and jump back to Baba’s promotion on the night of the finals…brilliant!”

"Mark Davis is the powerhouse of the team" Immediately followed by him gently rubbing his forearms across Pac's face. Also for a balls to the wall spotfest, we sure had long sections of Pac balancing himself on the top rope, making faces while everyone stood around

Check out Tito Psicosis here.

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

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

?

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

X-Pac was awesome.

I know others have said it, but joint practices are dumb as shit, there is no reason for them whatsoever

I just want everyone to know that Parker Boudreaux has 1 million followers on Instagram somehow.

There's so much potential in a sci fi souls that to this point really hasn't been tapped into, and I find it frustrating.

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!

This graphic reminds me of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' where Mac plans to sail around the world, then begins charting his course by doing a big X crossing out Africa.