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Hey, at least he's giving back. His dream could have been to fly a dildo into space like the rest of these assholes.

Happy Eddie Kingston vs Jun Akiyama day! Wishing a very King's Road to those who celebrate.

I get that people are complaining about broader things, but did they really not like this episode? I know I had little time to write anything up but.. The opening tag was great. Yes, it's a little stale, but there's also a ton of familiarity so guys like Danielson and Sammy who have wrestled a few times now can really mix and remix their spots. Both guys had awesome dives. Sammy vs Claudio was a fresh match up and in some ways, Sammy is the perfect opponent for both what Danielson and what Claudio want, someone who can go all out with them and bump huge for them and take all their stuff and let them base for him. Jericho had a few imaginative spots in here and got clowned by Claudio when it mattered and the Giant Swing with the bat was top notch. I am a massive Swerve naysayer from Lucha Underground days but I think he's a very effective heel and he was great here working over the shoulder. Bowens' is somehow one of the best strikers in the company. His stuff just looks so good and they had the fans in the palm of their hands with some of those late kickouts, with all of Swerve's stuff looking so nasty, especially the dislocation bit. The Joe interview could have been compelling but I really liked the pull apart, including the Dark Order getting out of Wardlow's way and the dive. I thought Anna's antics meshed well with Toni. Again, Anna's doing six faces between spots and it's so over the top that it goes from being ridiculous to sublime and really highlights the sports entertainer stuff in the best way. Plus it's not like they weren't leaning into stuff and hitting hard. And the six man was one of my favorite six man spotfests of the year. AR Fox worked his ass off knowing this was his big break and just hit everything so crisp and clean and Dante and Darius were both innovative and full of personality. The Death Triangle were mostly just there but they were fine and were in the right places at the right time with the right attitude. And there was an Ethan Page match I don't remember, but I'm sure it was ok, probably. This was a good show! That's a lot of good stuff. That's five bullet points of good, at least. The music video was fun too and it was great to see the crowd up for it.

Everyone is certainly welcome to feel how they feel, and I do understand, especially for people that were either extremely into the first few months of the promotion or the slapdash necessities (which breeds creativity!) of the pandemic era, which still sort of oozed through into the first few months of being back on the road in front of hot crowds. Gordi, while you are the last person I'd question on the generalities of this, because you're open, honest, earnest, and wear your heart on your sleeve, I do sort of question the notion that Cassidy isn't a major focus when he got the Shibata dream match a couple of weeks ago (Shibata!). There is a sense, I think, of the PPV for the sake of PPV being overinflated in people's minds due to tradition when the real money is going to come from the TV deal, right? The benefit of the PPV, like I said, is matches that they can build to and matches that don't have commercial breaks. They already built to Orange Cassidy's big matches, first with Pac, and then with Shibata over the last couple of months. The ebb and flow just didn't make sense to force it on a PPV with a bunch of other stuff they built to (And maybe Shibata's schedule didn't either?). And they need to constantly have fresh matches. Khan's going to have to come back out with something fresh next Wednesday and Friday and only so much of it can stem from the PPV. One of my first real interactions with AEW where I was really paying attention was being amazed that the Shaq match was so close to a PPV but not ON a PPV and thinking that was a really clever way to balance things. FTR isn't on the PPV, but they did have a highly promoted match against Swerve In Their Glory a few weeks ago and will almost certainly have a big match against the Gunns soon and probably a ROH title match against the Kingdom at the PPV in a month. Etc. and Etc. I guess I'm trying to say that even though there's a monetary value associated with the PPV, it's just not set up to be the be all/end all for AEW. There's a time commitment on a weekly basis as well. Anarchy in the Arena was on PPV. Blood and Guts was on TV. Etc. There are things that I think are totally valid and things AEW can do 100% do better, but it's also a case that people are wanting it to be something that it's not and that it's probably never been and some of the issues there are ones of expectations. And Gordi, in your case, it's about things they can do weirder! So that's not even part of the argument. You're planting your own flag and more power to you for it.

Seeing if the radio tells her everything it knows?

See? What do I always say? Every time there's a lame Dynamite, you get a baller Rampage, and this was that. I'm not sure which match to pick for the MOTW from this one. Ricky/Archer gave me the good feels of an old WWF or even IWA Japan/ECW crowd brawl before ending perfectly. Both guys had great chemistry. Then Taiga Style/HOOK had Hook having to deal with selling and an extended structure, which he was great at. Putting it together in pieces before our eyes is really cool. Athena is a beast and her vs. Mercedes is dope. THEN we get the Akiyama tag and shit Takeshita takes the reigns as insolent mean upstart right away. The teases of Akiyama coming in, the hostile eyes between him and King, the abuse they laid on a very valiant Ortiz, it was so good. And it ended intentionally abrupt. They knew how to poke you for the singles match. What a great show.

Give heel Athena both womens titles

Legit question: is Tony’s e-fed publicly known? Inquiring minds need to know if the women’s slot was a weekly 9:40 staple on 1995 Dynamite and/or if every promo started by interrupting another promo.

Sweet Jesus, no. Centering their programming around the pretentious, self-obsessed nonsense that was that Elite dominance storyline was horrible. AEW would be in better shape if Kenny & The Bucks left than they would be putting the titles and building the show around them again. Danielson I could see, but Mox was drawing fine until a week or so ago. Is it not at least a little bit possible that NBA basketball is competing for a lot of the same eyes as AEW? If this is still happening 4-8 weeks from now, I'll believe it might be time to make sweeping proclamations about TK's ability to book a show and how dead the crowds are. Personally I thought last week's crowd was fine. Better than the RAW crowd from that week, even. Whoever said that a big part of this is because TK went all in on Phil is spot on. There was zero reason not to use him as an attraction, rather than trying to build around a 45 year old who can't stay healthy. Putting the title back on him was especially egregious. And now I don't see how you could look anyone else in that locker room in the eye if you went crawling back to a guy who openly shit on a lot of your roster. Hangman getting hurt sucks, and I do think it's time to bring Miro & House of Black back, but some of y'all are eulogizing a company that's had two bad weeks in terms of eyeballs on product. It'll be fine.

Yes. Quite shocked, actually.

I'm pretty certain that AEW's never been particularly good at doing the things that people suddenly seem to be wanting it to do whereas it's still good at a lot of the things that it's always been good at, getting you excited that tomorrow Eddie Kingston's going to be facing Jun Akiyama or that we've got a Samoa Joe vs Wardlow vs Hobbs match in a day or two or whatever. The most exciting part of any Dynamite is when they announce the matches for Rampage and the most exciting part of any Rampage is when they announce the matches for Dynamite and the most exciting part of the PPVs is knowing you're going to see a bunch of matches not structured with the commercial breaks, which isn't great for all the time, but is good once in a while. It's a promotion that has a ton of talent, most of which are really fun to watch in the ring, that lets them wrestle the sort of matches they want to wrestle, and that has some slight patina of stories and angles to give them reason to wrestle. And that's great! I don't even know what's going on here right now. Is there a time where AEW was magically something different than that? Not in the last year and a half certainly.

What a great hour of pro wrestling! Come home, AEW, all is forgiven! I loved Archer vs Starks starting in the back. I loved the outa nowhere finish. You keep Archer looking special even in defeat because his matches are different. The side of the steps is the hardest part of the steps. Moriarty vs Hook is BattleArts-ian professional wrestling! Will DEAN also think so? I hope so. I'll look foolish if he has already said it wasn't. Hook's best match yet? I forgot both these guys in my fantasy booking post. I stink. Hey! Also Madison's best match yet. Wow. Athena is really very good at professional wrestling. Athena vs Mercedes. Homemade wings vs German engineering. YES! ORANGE AND BEST FRIENDS ON THE PPV!!! And Rocky!! Back to back spooky videos. Hold off on Kingston and Akiyama. Yes. That's how to lay it out. Mad King pays tribute to Kobashi and Piper one right after the other. Sweet powerslam from Ortiz. I was so happy while this was going on. I am still happy. Much more stoked for tomorrow, now, also.

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Based solely on this and Billy Gunn match I think Swerve is at his best when he's really going after a body part. Gives some focus to his weirdo offense and it tends to make his stuff look a little less loosey-goosey.

I hope they don’t go down that road. As a person that’s had multiple head injuries himself I don’t find it cute or good storytelling when wrestling companies (and AEW seems to do it more than most) tease head injuries. Look at how Adam Cole got concussed what two weeks after Britt faked one on TV? I agree they need to cover for Saraya, but her character is so unlikable that I’d prefer they just have Britt beat her.

@Hayabusa, are you doing a Natural parody gimmick now, brother? Apparently tomorrow's *other* matches include Hook vs Tigah Style and Athena vs Madison. Reportedly Starks vs Archer has been moved to the PPV pre-show. Not sure what we might get as a replacement. Bear Country vs Gates of Agony or Yuka Sakazaki vs Freya or Dustin vs Parker Boudreaux please! Or just let Mad King's Dream Match go half an hour. I don't think any of us would be unhappy with that. Edit: I guess I misunderstood. Actually Starks vs Archer on Rampage and Starks vs Cage on the pre-show. So presumably no Parker Boudreaux.

I think it's a sensible take to realize that AEW still puts on good weekly wrestling TV but that the Tony Khan EWR gameplan ran out of steam awhile ago. Right around the ROH influx/Owen tournaments/iffy Forbidden Door build, the plot got lost (literally). Which, yeah, OK, these things have ebbed and flowed in all companies since ever. There is a chance that ROH already has TV/Warner-backed streaming and that this will be announced during Final Battle. If and when this happens, you move a third of the roster in that direction and you re-establish the talent your viewership actually wants to see. And you give the book to somebody else and let ROH be the pseudo-developmental its suppose to be. It was still a stupid idea to begin with, because if you were trying to sell Warner on another hour of weekly TV you coulda just SOLD MORE AEW What doesn't get enough attention is Tony Khan's "we don't release people" shtick. AEW trying to present itself as an anti-Vince workers paradise is a moot point by now. Fix the roster bloat problem the same way any other company would. Create a booking commitee. Provide writers for talent that wants it. I'm optimistic about the running of new domestic and international markets. The video game might actually work out. Hunter's greener pastures will fade as all things of that nature do. God damnit, two women's matches on Dynamite every other week. An AEW reality show could really elevate some talent that could use it, Jungle Boy/Starks/Sammy n Tay come to mind. This is all very fixable, but its gonna take some objective outlooks, several sets of eyes and hands outside of just TK to get there

I get that they're building up a program but I think they should've just let her keep the heat and save Mercedes for some other day.

Fingers crossed.

FUCK and YES!

House of Black video was fucking awesome …they can’t mess these guys up again, can they?

Really good hour of wrestling and follows the good show last week. I would've killed to see Akiyama live and it's too bad the crowd didn't feel the same way. Takeshita just as good as ever. Starks is one of my favorite up and comers and I think he's a really damn good sympathetic babyface. I think he'll win the tournament. The 10/LFI stuffs needs to stop or be resolved finally. Too many Cornette geeks too.

All three. Invent two more titles and also give her those.

5/25/90: Terry Gordy vs Kenta Kobashi: So if Kobashi got his first win in 89 and then had the big series at the start of the year, and increasingly was featured in tags after that, and finally realized he had to stand up to Hansen and sort of went overboard on that, maybe, just maybe, this was the night that he became a man? Remember, Gordy is going to beat Davey Boy the next night. He's a hoss and a beast and a threat. A veritable monster. Kobashi takes it right to him, pushing him back, ducking a shot, taking him off his feet. Gordy feeds. A lot of the meat of the match is Kobashi fighting for a toehold, for a crab, for a Texas Cloverleaf, for the figure four. He's able to keep Gordy down, able to contain him. When they're on their feet, Kobashi hits and darts back. It's when Gordy's able to hit nasty corner clotheslines, rushing right behind Kobashi, when he's able to take him to the floor and suplex him, when he's able to muscle him over with a small package just to get him down so he can smother him, when he finally connect with a lariat out of nowhere, that the hierarchy sets back in. Still, Kobashi makes him work for it, survives the pile driver, fights out of the first power bomb, gets a believable nearfall even! It's not enough. Gordy puts him down with two power bombs (that in and of itself a demented sign of respect), but here, on this night, an ascendant Kobashi pushed a monster to his limit. Match below:

Maki Ito LARDS UP~!

Honestly, man, I agree. It wasn't the worst they've done, IMO. I think it's just a situation like with the Singh debut (which I admit, I overreacted wildly to) where the closing moments kind of soured an otherwise passable Dynamite. Combined with shit attendance and an underwhelming TV number, I kind of understand the reasoning for all the hullabaloo. But to be certain, I am 100% with you on what you consider the highlights. I probably ought to go back and watch Storm/JayAS again on the broadcast, though - the live crowd (at least in my section) was not into it, and were honestly pretty disrespectful at times - particularly the asshole behind me who tried both a 'Jungle Boy' and a 'CM Punk' chant during it, and the group in front of me who just would. not. stop. with the sexual comments toward them. I mean, I'm not blind, they're obviously both beautiful women, but act like you leave the house once in a while FFS. I'll give it to @For Great Justice that we DID definitely suck in that regard, for that match.

I don't like them or the feud but I'm hoping this is the blow off so they can move on.

I'd take Singh over Jarrett.

And here is why Akron/Buffalo might happen

Side note, Kevin Stefanski told reporters today that the Browns are going to bus it up to Detroit. Because there's no precedent for anything going wrong with that...

I would have much preferred Singh in that spot to Jarrett and would have been earnestly excited to see that but people would have complained anyway.

I agree with the tag match, and I say that as a big Darby Allin fan. But the Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus match is a major milestone in a storyline that's been building for months. Dropping that from the card sounds crazy to me. The solution to that, IMO, is to put a long-overdue stake in the heart of kayfabe and be completely transparent about what's real and what isn't. I realize it would piss off traditionalists, though.

Did you expect to see Bret working for Vince again after the double-cross? Pro-wrestling has taught me there's no such word as "never", OED be damned.

I can happily live without CM Punk being in a wrestling ring ever again.

I just think its funny, I have no emotional stake in the company AEW. Not everyone that watches wrestling is a zealot.

John from Cincinnati was trolling and all the crazies bit.

Definitely time to panic! Tony Khan should lead off Full Gear by coming out screaming, with his hair on fire, and just running in circles for 3 minutes while they play emergency sirens over the stadium speakers.

There's no way they can spin this as good. Tony Khan idiotically spoiling the return of The Elite, who didn't even appear last night. I mean why not? They've got a match on the pay-per-view. Why not actually have them appear to build up the PPV match? What has been the point of this whole Delete the Elite thing? Inconsistent booking. A lot of talents have cooled down as of late. The Firm/MJF angle has been booked terribly, and so has the Title Eliminator tournament. Drop interim title bullshit. No one gives a shit about interim champions. Strip Thunder Rosa of the title. Interim titles are f'n stupid and no one cares about them. Interim titles are a joke. This isn't the UFC, and interim titles are a joke there too. Tony Khan has utterly failed as a leader of this company. He needs to get off Twitter.

Hell yeah!

I think your exaggerating quite a bit. 3000 - 4000 is about what they're doing for TVs. I'll go on record as saying unless something catastrophic happens, he's not doing the filming in one location thing for Dynamite. The optics of doing that are far worse than the optics of having smaller audiences. He's dead in the water if he does a reverse TNA and starts on the road and ends up in one building. Unless there's a pandemic again or they lose the WBD deal and are legit on the brink of bankruptcy because of no TV (almost impossible for a billionaire by the way) zero percent chance of that.

Gonna need this made official for the buy in. Pure rules, please. https://twitter.com/GarciaWrestling/status/1593465285566255104

With a VPN and a $7 AEW Fite subscription. Well worth it.

Tomorrow, veteran Cal broadcaster Joe Starkey calls his final game as the Golden Bears take on Stanford. You know, THAT Joe Starkey. THE BAND IS OUT ON THE FIELD~! Still the most surreal finish to a football game you'll ever see.

I don't want AEW to go that way either. Hate when wrestling shows do worrying the fanbase.

I'll give you that, I can't disagree. They're probably the best of the bunch, and they've got ready made long-term angle prospects as long as Billy is w The Acclaimed. So maybe not quite all of them.

My theory? It's a work.