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An unexpected debut, The Great Muta!

Here ya go.

Made it through. Wasn't spoiled. It's 8:12 on a Friday morning. The 10 year old is up watching Doctor Who. I did make her eggos. The 4 year old turned 5 today. There are cakes upstairs that look like Bluey that my wife spent hours and hours on over the last few days. She's still asleep. We're doing ok here. Sting/Darby vs HOB was wild. Julia went full Sherri, down to the bumps. Hopefully she's ok. I've been spending a lot of time with 86 Muto so it was charming to see 2022 Muta. Sting laughing isn't a well they should go to every day but once and a while we can get Joker Sting. It makes this stand out against some of the other no DQ stuff we've seen out of him. Matthews was amazing eating that Dragon Screw. I really liked the hanging spot with King too. Bronson/Hook vs 2.0 was good for what it was. Bronson had some size and he was on the apron for most of it but past getting knocked off once when he was hyping up the crowd, there was no sense that 2.0 were better than him in any way. It was nice to hear Taz on commentary for it as I think he wasn't for Parker singles match. This was good in letting us see Hook sell a bit and 2.0 make quick tags and cut off the ring. The double redrum got a huge pop so you can't really fault any of it. If having Bronson there creates even a handful of fans for AEW and makes the people in the building feel like they saw something special, then it worked. War-Joe vs Nese/Woods: Woods screwing around was good. Wardlow's suplexes looked good. Hopefully his leg is ok because Joe finishing off Nese on his own felt weird. Joe just moving out of the way never, ever gets old. Jungle Boy vs Fenix: Urgh, let me say this. My favorite parts of the match were in the two commercial breaks, so DEAN has that to look forward to. I liked some of the holds and the escapes and the pressure being on in the first and I wasn't sold on the strike exchange in the second, until the fans started to really get behind it. Then it had me too. Overall, giving the one cold match on the show so much time felt like a bit of a booking error, but AEW is about wrestling for wrestling's sake sometimes. I'm glad Christian's still a part of things despite the injury. This is where we needed more of a Luchasaurus explanation though. Kingston vs Sammy: Loved it. So smart on how it started. Very smart on how it ended. He should have torn through Lynn too. That's all. I thought the transitions were good, that Sammy being in control when he was felt believable. Forget suspending Kingston. Force him to be a ref like Ronnie Garvin and have him ref all of Sammy and Jericho's matches. That's the angle! Jade vs Diamante: Hopefully Jade was just selling. The strength spot was impressive. Jade comes along with specific spots and exchanges, but the overall timing remains off. She doesn't know how much to let things breathe. It's not her fault. I'm glad Trina smiled at the end because she was a total cipher out there before that. Battle Royal was a very, very good Battle Royal. I loved the chaos outside during the break. Lots of great little character moments throughout. Almost every elimination had something interesting or compelling underlying it. They snuck in all sorts of things, whether it be Danhausen cursing people or the Best Friends hug or the payoff to the Hardy/Private Party stuff or Moriarty going after Garcia, or bits with the Boys and Singh. Mox is probably one of the only guys on the roster who can get a good match out of Page because he'll eat up all of his bullshit. I don't think he was nearly as over against Rush as he would have been two months ago though, so doing it in Cincinnati is probably a big mistake. I think that crowd is going to eat him alive? Hobbs vs Starks was a hell of a thing and it was good to see the crowd go up for Starks on the comeback. Some of those bumps were nuts. I loved Starks kissing hands and high fiving early. That was such a him thing and he should lean into that if he can marry it with intensity. This was really good at snatching hope away at every point right until the end. If the neck thing is still a huge part of Starks' matches two years down the line, he's done. That has to get cycled off at some point for people to really get behind him. It can be a (true) crutch for him to use to help structure his matches for a while, but not forever. Great stuff overall. I wish they'd announced more for next week. I want something like Danielson/Claudio vs Jericho/Garcia pretty soon. Someone should book that.

I am kinda tired from marking out nonstop for two hours Thursday morning, then again today. That's me. Basically. For two straight hours. Excepting the referee angle after the Kingston match. I want AEW to bring in Tay Melo's sweet, fluffy sister Marsha. I can't help but wonder how New Japan feels about Muta showing up in AEW. i don't care, I just wonder. Glad I avoided spoilers! I popped for that. Not too sure I'll pop as hard for him in the ring, but we'll see soon enough I suppose. I was kind of hoping that Chono would do a leisurely stroll-in to save Jungle Lad. Was Hobbs doing a Glacier tribute? Brody King! You did a Sting fling! A LOT of crazy, scary bumps today! Sting, Julia,Darby, Brody King, Kingston, Starks... Awesome show. Hope everyone is OK.

Popped big for MUTA! Thrilled I managed to avoid that as I had no idea that was coming, super cool to see Muta in AEW and with Sting. the Julia bump was insane. Joe and Wardlow would make a badass killer team if they stuck together. Jungle/Fenix was awesome, got a ton of time so it felt important. Diamante didn't get much, and Trina turns heel! The OG Baddie joins the Baddies. Battle royal was fun. Nice to see Brian Cage make a rare appearance and Archer back. The near-elimination at the very end was wild, had me wanting Rush to pull it off but he already had his Mox match. Hangman/Moxley is fresh at least. Solid main event from Starks/hobbs and a nice win for Starks. Even at 2 hours, Rampage still flies by more than any other.

Oh man, Brodie King picks up right where he left off with Darby Allin. I love how King is completely murdering Buddy Matthews because of Sting being elusive. MAN! Allin fucking CRUSHES Matthews with a Tope that hits Matthews on the apron! JESUS! King fucking knocks all of Allins teeth and gums out with a Lariat in picture in picture. And then he CRUSHES him with a Fat Boy Cannonball into the corner! Darby Allin finds a very high place to Coffin Drop off of! A LOT OF STUFF HAPPENS! THE GREAT MUTA! That was a great Dragonscrew. THE GREEN MIST! That was fun. I'm guessing Buddy Matthews checked a few things off his bucket list with that match. DADDY MAGIC! COOL HAND ANGE! It's Hook and Action Bronson. I just realized that Hook is the Barry Windham to TAZ's BlackJack Mulligan. Hook is a natural in the ring and his father was a legend but was limited in the ring. HOOK is a face in peril for the first time in his career. 2.0 are great as a heel tagteam. They are the Canadian Midnight Express. Bronson is a fun Robert Gibson. Double Tazmissions! Hook was good as a sympathetic babyface. Hook IS Ricky Morton! That was good because Menard and Parker can carry to guys really well and Hook is all dynamic and shit. Action Bronson IS Parker Boudreaux! AWESOME! SMART MARK STERLING! OUTLAW THE POWERBOMB! Jesus, this is going to be an ass beating. Awesome! Josh Woods and Wardlow are manhandling each other. WardJoe is pretty neat. I REALLY want to see Josh Woods versus Wardlow. That was the best part of the match. Rey Fenix is secretly turning heel, right? He is wrestling rudo early as Jungle Boy goes all Lucha early. He works on the taped up lower back. I wonder if Death Triangle turn evil and join forces with Andrade and Rush? That would be cool. NICE Brainbuster by Jungle Boy. This match is GREAT. They have a chop challenge as we are in picture in picture. This match is big wads of psychology. I wasn't expecting that. Rey Fenix is channeling RUSH. I want to see Jungle Boy versus Rey Fenix- hair versus mask. AWESOME ESCALARA by Fenix! JB STEALS WILL OSPREAY'S FINISHER! FOR TWO! Great fucking nearfall on JB's K-Driller! GREAT LOVE MACHINE SPLASH BY FENIX! MAN! What a GREAT FINISH! That match was fucking GREAT! Christian is a better version of MJF! Eddie Kingston is going to beat the fudge out of Sammy Guevara. Is Sammy going to lose twice in a row? Kingston BUMPS LIKE KENTA KOBASHI OFF THE APRON TO THE FLOOR! Sammy is fucking GREAT in this match. I love that Sammy is bringing enough ass beat to get the crowd behind Kingston's STRUGGLE to escape the smarmy offense of Sammy! Kingston goes COMPLETELY KING'S ROAD on his comeback. I love his Kawada sell of the two knees to the head. STRETCH PLUM for the win! THEN! SAMMY WINS! Kingston IS Wardlow! That was GREAT! SAMMY WINS! SAMMY WINS! SAMMY WINS! This Diamante/Jade Cargill match is better than I figured. I hate battle royals but here we go. Hey! It's Brian Cage! It's Danhausen! It's the BOYS! Okay, I love this battle royal. It's LANCE ARCHER! It's Jake Hagar! It's PRINCE NANA! This battle royal is like the first five episodes of the ROH tv show in all they are setting up. I am most interested in Lee Moriarty vs Daniel Garcia. Dalton Castle eliminates Brian Cage so Brian Cage and the Gates of Agony are getting the ROH six man titles. RUSH! RUSH! RUSH! BOOOO! NOT RUSH! That was fun. HOBBS AND STARKS! (Folks are definitely leaving to get the last subway to Yonkers. Or something.) They are wrestling for the hardcores and the night owls and that rules. Hobbs is great going up for the Rolling DDT. Jericho is great being the defender of honor! Starks takes the bump on the edges of the chairs. JAYZEUS! OKLAHOMA STAMPEDE ONTO THE PILE OF CHAIRS! Jayzeus, Starks is almost crazier than Darby Allin. Starks gets the gigantic Hobbs up for the Rochambeau FOR THE WIN! Hobbs was awesome going up for Starks offense. Starks was awesome taking all the fucking insane bumps. I think the Jungle Boy/Rey Fenix match edges out the Kingston/Sammy match for match of the night. All them were at least fun, most were really good. JB/Fenix was totally GREAT. So was Kingston/Sammy. But yeah, JB/Fenix was like a good Lucha Libre (RUSH) match. Jiminy Crickets, AEW RULES THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD.

Nyla Rose is a treasure.

I know some folks have compared Chris Jericho, ROH Champion to Big Show's ECW run, but I've thoroughly enjoyed it so far. "There's no honor in low blows, Tony!"

This cracked me up randomly. Great explanation

Sting in NOAH

TBH, before everything kicked off at the press conference, the Trios Finals match kind of felt like they might be inching in that direction, since he seemed more focused on protecting the Bucks and Kenny than trying to win the match for his supposed partners - and then in the end cost his team the match. Now normally that angle probably would have led to a DO/Hangman split with DO as the heels for daring to want to win a match. But it felt to me at least like it was being treated as an actual flaw in Hangman's character - and it wouldn't be that hard to pivot that into full blown heeldom if they need to. Dark Order was always there for him while the Elite treated him like garbage, but in the end he valued the Elite more because they were cool and he's too preoccupied with his own low self worth. This is one of the downsides of long-form narrative in the professional wrestling world. Page's character arc was neatly wrapped up when he finally overcame his doubts and won the big one... but unlike a movie or a novel where that would have been The End, he still has to stick around after his journey was resolved. And so you wind up retreading the same ground with diminishing results.

So where do we go from here? Looking by title: World: MJF / Mox (ugh) TNT: seems pretty clear that they had Starks win the blowoff in a lights out match so that it doesn’t affect the rankings and path to Hobbs / Wardlow. I expect that to be the Full Gear match. Maybe Miro in there as a triple threat? ROH: Jericho vs Indy trunks and boots dudes will be fun for a while. I presume this is Garcia’s destination eventually. Tags: 2.0 would be a fun first team for the new champs? Imagine a world with a Daddy Magic rap battle segment. Andrade/Rush would be a kickass feud. Maybe they run the Lee/Swerve rubber match to start AA: Is this the title Ricky Starks guns for now? That would be a banger Trios: Who knows. Best Friends need a crowning moment at some point as the heart and soul of the promotion Women’s World: Hayter/Storm, right? TBS: Jade keeps killing scrubs My priorities: - heat Miro back up - don’t let Claudio get Miro’d/Andrade’d/Malakai’d - Powerhouse Hobbs and Jamie Hayter to the moon

Piece in GQ about Jericho getting his body back https://www.gq.com/story/real-life-diet-chris-jericho

JESUS!

Kingston going full rabid Kawada was totally great. The only thing missing was the Ganso Bomb on an official to draw a fine and suspension. I am totally down with an angle where Kingston has a 8-44 record because he's constantly getting DQed for excessive violence after the bell. Muta came out and I was twelve years old again. Then I saw the grey in his beard and regretfully advanced in time to my current age. For a minute I thought we were going to get the Shining Wizard, but Matthews blundered backwards into the Stinger DDT. Probably a good thing since it took Muta like twenty minutes to get to the ring. Is Julia Hart taking bumping advice from Darby Allin? Because she really should stop doing that shit before she ends up crippled. That Lights Out match was depressingly blood free. At least Starks took those bumps as if he already had the proper number of cortisone shots waiting for him backstage. I co-sign Jungle Boy having the best performance of the card.

Excellent opening. The House of Black with opponents looming photo posted on page 2 tells a thousand thrilling words. Loved this opener. I need a Buddy-Darby singles battle. Small detail, but I wish sudden debuts could happen without a bad 'tron video. Maybe without music too - be creative. Seeing as it's a spontaneous moment in the middle of a match the production oughtta meet the purpose. Just a thought, certainly not a complaint on this fantastic opener. Great 'overbooking'. THAT JULIA FUCKING BUMP!!! And then Menard and Parker beautifully lead the 'Dream Partners' tag match. That was near perfect. These guys are tremendous foundational talents for this company. WarJoe-Nese/Woods follows and wholly delivers. Gimme some more Josh Woods v Wardlow! And then no big deal just a Rey Fenix-Jungle Boy classic! Jungle Jack's getting some good 'classic-match-run-rehab' after a couple side steps. I felt the same about Jade here. I really liked how Diamante ate her offense in this. This whole Trina angle ranks up there on the AEDub whack shit list. Obviously a small offense compared to the wackiest of shit - see being forced to listen to Jim Ross every week. Kingston v Sammy was a near perfect set of segments. I thoroughly loved this match and everything about it. These two are both incredible! All that said... why the fuck is Tay playing 'Miss Elizabeth' while Kingston has Sammy locked in the submission? Talk about illogical shit!? And where is the JAS, why is Jericho sitting on commentary still? If this plays out with Sammy acknowledging his being fucked over by his wife and all his friends then sure - makes sense! ANYWAY, I loved this finish! Reminded me of Bret-Lawler. Kingston-Guevara is truly a match I wanna see them run back sooner than later. I was feeling burned out watching the Battle Royal. I'm glad my exhaustion wasn't whilst seated in Queens at whatever ungodly hour. I had to skim thru some of this match. I liked hearing Jericho and Show have a genuine moment over comparing Dalton Castle to Leaping Lanny Poffo. Not a fan of - if your partner catches you it doesn't count as an elimination. Tho, both Castle and Lethal worked very well with this silly caveat. Dean totally nailed them setting up a bunch of ROH storylines here. I loved the finish. Great battle on the outside. I look forward to an Elite reunion. And the visiting team v Moxley 'Championship' bout! The idea that ppl would be excited for Starks and Hobbs as a Main Event after their silly PPV match seems like poor strategy. But so does trying to film so late into the night. All things considered, the match completely delivered! These two both looked as good as they've ever looked. Hobbs' powerslam into the chairs ought to have been the finish. The Starks back bump on the standing chairs was absolutely brutal looking. Great main event. I do hope Tony is learning something from the crowd exhaustion that is happening so clearly on PPVs and these Grand Slam shows (he's not). Sometimes less is more. Regardless, the show was pretty fucking fantastic!

What on earth is it about these whackamoles so intent on "exposing woke culture" that they self-own to an embarrassing level?

Seeing this back reminded me of Cactus Jack Nesta Plunge, what La Resistance did to Spike Dudley and Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara at AEW All Out 2020. Hope we get an update Julia Hart's okay.

YESSSS!

NSFW:

Considering the chaotic cuts during Dynamite I was impressed at how well the battle royale was produced. They focused mostly on hardcam and had the spots dead center in the ring. Jay Lethal was great, and the Rush/Page stuff was pretty wild.

Jungle Boy match was the best match of the night.

Great visual.

Enter Sandman

Brilliant.

"Oh, for sure, Bobby. You go first and we'll be right behind you. Totally"

That is not as big of an issue as fans make it out to be. Having the belts is at least 3rd or 4th in line behind how much they get paid, how creatively fulfilled they are, and how they are treated / how important they are presented. They already have 3 sets of belts. I think being presented as legitimately the best tag team of this generation, getting to be part of a main stable that got a War Games match, getting to main event a PPV with a 45 min tag match treated as the most important match on the show by far (ROH) are all more valuable to them than if they have AEW tag titles on their waist or not. They got to team with Punk. They get treated as legitimate stars. Dax's daughter got to knock a guy out on PPV and pin him. Even with Triple H in charge there's no way they get presented as lovingly / respected as AEW has presented them. There's no way they get as much importance and creative freedom. Triple H may love those guys and give them a 10 year tag title reign. But it's not going to compare to the feeling of Dax getting to have that moment with his daughter. That's not me saying they won't go back to WWE. They may. But it's not going to be based around them being mad about the number of days they had AEW tag titles in their carry ons.

Mr. Immortal being sued by his ex-spouses for support after he faked his death is pretty much exactly the type of shit I want out of this show.

Seriously. I know things are marginally better with HHH in charge but Dax isn't getting singles JTTS duty where he gets to have great matches against top guys in WWE. From your mouth to God's ears, my friend.

Just a small note on the commentary team tonight: the way Taz and Excalibur showed genuine concern for Schiavone, asking was he ok and did he need attention in a very low key way really added to the impact of the moment. Avoiding hyperbolic, "that diabolical MJF" type diatribes in favour of checking up on your beloved colleague is so much more resonant. Excalibur and Taz feel like real people on commentary and that adds so much to the presentation.

Jalon Daniels is a Heisman trophy candidate and probably a big thing stopping him is how historical awful Kansas football has been . Not sure if he is even top 5 now. Not sure if this is more a slight on Michigan but this is probably Maryland's best top-tier road game since being in Big 10. Especially after that first 2 plays.

I don't want anybody thinking it wasn't a very good show to attend. Sixteen god-bless-em quarter hour teevee segments and nothing was less than "great" - even the Battle Royal worked as a casual cooldown for the last two matches. But I truly think most of the crowd had been there last year and were afraid to get half as hot as they did for Omega/Danielson, lest they burn out. Maybe if StrickLee/Acclaimed wasn't so botchy or the MJF cutaways didn't distract from the main?

One of my favorite finishes ever is the Best Hart vs Jerry Lawler epic bloodfeud DQ from SummerSlam 93, so seeing it revitalized for Eddie and Sammy (perfect 2022 avatars for Bret and Jerry in terms of the feud dynamic) was an unexpected but very welcome surprise.

It's been said by the sheets that along with Adam Cole, Swerve was one of the people that alerted AEW/TK to what WWE was doing. And yeah if you listen to Swerve on Renee's podcast... he's pretty bitter about his time in NXT/the main roster. Maybe bitter isn't the right word, but he didn't enjoy his time there besides meeting his girlfriend - Jessi Kamea.

Yeah, it's pretty cool that there are more than a couple of places to work at this point. Not sure what it means for him financially, but at least he still has a place to put his talents to use and get some kind of compensation. He may end up doing on Impact what he was supposed to be doing in AEW, before his friends ended up showing up and made him a bigger deal.

Genuinely don't know if Julia missing the table or Darby and Brody taking a totally uncontrolled bump off the stage was nastier. Muta showing up ruled but seeing him hobble down the ramp did not put me in a mood to see him wrestle.

That's one of the most brutal things I've seen in my time as a wrestling fan. Poor Julia Hart.

Watched most of it, kinda skipped bunch of the Jungle Boy match, didn't watch the main. Most parts I saw were alright. Happy to see Sting and Muta reunited.

Did they know who that was? Even without Mike Tenay?

The sheetz are saying that when Bobby Fish left, he tried to get Kyle and Adam to leave with him, so they could all go back to WWE together.

This is also known as... gambling.

It just hit me that we went from: "Scott Steiner has a brown goatee and he bleaches the whole thing except a strip in the front" to "Scott Steiner has a white goatee and he dyes a strip in the front." Father time is undefeated, friends.

I was waiting for this to get posted first.