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I hope that every week they run a new angle that make people assume they’re writing out Regal and he just keeps coming back.

I love that the All Atlantic gimmick has basically become “Orange will agree to literally any kind of match because he doesn’t care.” It’s fun and different, and by extension it makes him look fearless, which is a wonderful quality for a top babyface to have.

It's 2022 and even our dirtsheets don't have good sources. We know nothing. We are the blind men touching the elephant. We hear Dax say on a podcast that he talks to Punk every day but that he just wishes he finds happiness in life and then extrapolate the 27 things that could possibly mean for the future. We know nothing. We listen to a clip of Meltzer saying "There's a story, but I can't say what the story is, but the story is that if there was a story, then it would probably be the kind of thing that would be an interesting story, but there's something there, but I just can't say what it is, but we should know more soon, and then maybe I can say something, but for now, just know that there is a story." and find arcane secrets about the true WM 3 box office number in the pieces of paper strewn about his floor. We know nothing.

-I dug this opener. Mox and Hanger are two of my top five favorite guys right now (Starks, Jungle Boy, Yuta) so seeing them get to run this back is a pure joy. I feel like AEW doesn't do enough "backstage chaos" segments (good ones, anyway), so Mox & Page brawling in the back was even more fun. -Dax and Danielson did exactly what we all thought; they burned that bitch down. Holy shit was that fun. I saw that Dax said that he and Cash's contracts are up in April. Here's to hoping TK does the smart thing and backs the Brinks truck up to their houses. They have gone from "Hey look, it's those guys from nXt we like" to "how the hell is there ever an AEW show without these guys on it?" -AR Fox is a joy to watch. I saw him numerous times at ACTION Wrestling in my hometown of Tyrone, Ga. He rules and Joe rules. Wardlow/Joe is going to be carnage. -For whatever reason, Hager's obsession with that bucket hat is exactly the brand of horseshit that I love. -This MJF segment is.. something. I think I figured out what my issue with Max is. He burns through material so fast. He's incredibly inefficient with his cheap heat. He could get a reaction with 10-15% of what he does. It also seemed like the crowd was mic'ed funny, as they went from super hot to crickets almost arbitrarily. I do think TK has a problem on his hands, and AEW can't afford to hemorrhage viewers while MJF cosplays Papa H. The easiest solution would be to have Mox whip his ass at the next PPV, but I have a feeling all this is gonna take some serious course correction. I don't see how TK can let Regal leave while saying "no" to Malakai, Buddy and Andrade. Someone said it earlier, but when you compare MJF to someone like Christian, and it becomes very easy to see how valuable tv experience is. I'd seriously consider having Christian and Luchasaurus (probably unmasked and retooled) join MJF. He'd benefit so much from having a polished tv presence with him every week. -Ricky Starks, again, is everything guys like MJF wish they were; effortlessly believable and cool. I'd think long and hard about Starks taking the title off of MJF. There's too many guys who would do well as champ in AEW to let MJF do this "2024" schtick forever and ever. Also, Stokely is awesome and Ethan Page has really plateaued. I think he's a super talented guy, but this intense heel thing is not in his wheelhouse. He comes off so likable in his vlogs that I think he should just embrace it fully. -Willow Nightingale is one of the rarest things in pro wrestling; a naturally likable babyface that gets the reaction she's trying to. She's really great and TK was smart to lock her down when he did. I think her signing, along with Bandido's, RUSH's, and AR Fox's, is signaling a return to what AEW was doing really well; highlighting the best indy talent in the world while building their show around select stars. Anna JAS has regressed, and as I said before, I think working a few house shows a month would do wonders for her, if she can stay healthy. Ruby is a sentimental favorite and I was very happy to see her return. I thought her booking was pretty poor before her injury and I hope they've figured out something for her to do. I'd love to see a title reign in her future. -God am I tired of hearing Britt Baker talk. -Jade Cargill is a star. She has the "IT factor" by the bucketload. She is exactly who she says she is and who TK is portraying her on tv. Having said that, I think she would really benefit from having a "hype man" type around her. Someone to say all the standard wrestling things, freeing up Jade to talk about how awesome she is. Very, very happy to see Red Velvet. We'll say it's because I missed her ring work. It's not true, but we'll say that's why. -Am I.... enjoyin this best of 7 series? Yes. Yes I think I am. The Elite entrance is super cool with the "Carry On Wayward Son," and I'm impressed that they managed to offer a completely different match structure here. I'm still not convinced doing that 4 more times is smart, and I'm glad they're taking a week off, but Nicholas, Matthew, and Kenjamin are SO much more palatable to me when they aren't the focal point of every show. I still wonder how much having the show built around those guys hindered AEW's growth during that period. Anyway, really good shit here. All in all, this show has been like every AEW show the last month or so; some good, some bad. I'd be very tempted to build around Hangman and Mox for the foreseeable future, but I understand why Tony feels like he has to find out what he has with MJF before committing to him long-term. It's smart from a sports perspective and a business perspective. However, he cannot be as shy about course correcting as he has been in the past. I'm looking forward to watching the next phase in Ricky Starks' development, and hope this is just the start for guys like him and Jungle Boy and so much of AEW's young talent.

Having listened to a ton of Regal's podcast certainly gives you a sense of him. He brings up the story about how he told Bill Watts that he absolutely would not get out of his prior commitments to join WCW earlier, even if it meant he wouldn't get the job. Watts loved him all the more for that and Regal says that with pride. He goes at length that he would never talk to Triple H about what he was doing in his current job because he's not over there and vice versa. The thing with Regal on the podcast is that he repeats the same stories/same "truths" a lot. he talks about how when he worked in WWE, he and Hunter never actually spoke because they didn't have to. They just knew what they needed from one another all the time. You get the impression that him standing in the ring as MJF talks about Triple H would not be his favorite thing in the world. His kid is over there. They're apparently going global with NXT again. From what he says, you figure he'd love to be an on-screen villain again, who really gets to be a villain. But who knows. He's an interesting human being, so it's interesting; he also seems to be struggling with some short-term memory issues and other things because of his health situation. He seemed to be having a lot of fun.

The collective gasp from the crowd when he turned his back on Danielson was a thing of beauty.

Sounds like a presi- I mean, sounds like a guy I used to know...

MJF's belt cracks me up because it's very in character with a try-hard who mistakes name brands and gold with actual class.

MJF is on pace to be Cam Newton. Elite talent, but the coaching staff takes his most dangerous yet self-destructive attribute and runs it into the ground causing him to flame out way earlier than he should. TK has shown some willingness to reverse course on things before, so hopefully he takes a good look at this segment and sees that ain't it. MJF needs to stick to "I'm better than you and you know it" instead of "bidding war of 2024." Both are mega-heel catchphrases, but the first one has the subtext that AEW features the actual best wrestlers in the world, while the second has the subtext that AEW is a cheap small-market team that isn't trying to put out the best product. This is where a shadow authority figure could be real handy. Just have whoever say "Actually per your contract, as a champion, you are now subject to AEW champion standards and regulations which means you will defend the title whenever we say" and then run the same number of Dynamite defenses as everyone else with him. If we get a baseline of MJF from the Darby Allin feud, his reign will be just fine.

One of the Ass Boys (Rod, I think) basically worked himself into a shoot over something Jungle Boy said and accused Boy of getting pushed because he hangs out with Tony Khan. I don't think either Ass Boy has much of a leg to stand on when it pertains to "only getting a spot because of who they know..."

Let me take this completely earnestly from you, separating you from other posters. So I was pretty critical last night, and everyone watches for their own reasons and to fit their life, but this feels like an extreme reaction in some ways. If you were to say "I'm not going to watch live anymore." or "I'm going to avoid the main event scene." or "I won't drop money on the PPVs.", I hear you! I'd even encourage you. But the value of AEW is in stuff like Dax vs Danielson or Shinno Hagane v Angelico. If you don't care about that stuff (or some subsection of it! Maybe Hayter vs Storm is for you instead, or spotfest six-mans, or Mox doing his Hansen impression) first and foremost, I'm not sure why you're watching/writing about/interacting with people about AEW. Yes, you need stories and promos to help justify the matches and give them stakes and meaning, but you're always going to have an e-fedder's mentality to how that should work in this company. Just save yourself grief and watch it the next day using a source (FITE or otherwise) that has the PIP full screen. Skip through the stuff you don't want to see. You'll be happier. WE will be happier because you'll be happier. I want the company to succeed so more people can have work and there's stability, but I mainly want it to succeed so they can give me more matches I want to see. I'm actually in agreement with @Gordlowto a degree that I don't want them to score ratings and attendance success if it means giving me less of what I want. It's just that what I want and what he wants aren't exactly in unison. What do you want? If it's "well balanced storylines with compelling characters" first and foremost as opposed to "really strong matches that have at least a patina of meaning behind them," there are definitely better uses of your time than watching AEW and I'm happy to suggest a bunch of older wrestling and the means to find it. Yes, we probably should be able to have our cake and eat it too (though how many prolonged runs in wrestling history hit on both marks successfully), but it's probably not going to happen, so for the sake of your own well-being, try to maximize your happiness is all I'm saying.

Welcome back.

WWE and AEW having relations diplomatic enough to trade disgruntled talent would make the world a better place. Shit, I'd give up MJF for Sasha if they threw in the naming rights. Also, the best booking TK could do is have MJF's reign end very early. With the ratings in a slump, I don't think you want to gamble on a "go away" heat champ who constantly says WWE is better for a year plus. They've been pretty good booking MJF thus far, but committing to the 2003 HHH act is not gonna work well for anyone. Imagine the pop if Starks actually beat him in a couple weeks.

I don't get to watch Dynamite live often and that might have clouded my judgement but I thought this was a pretty strong show top to bottom. I wasn't blown away by Dax-Danielson or anything but it was still a pretty darn good TV wrestling match to [i]open[/i] the show.... Guess I'm in the minority (so far) but I dug MJF turning on Regal like that. It was totally telegraphed there at the end, but I dug it and thought it was kinda perfect storytelling for what they want his character to be. MJF with a veteran mentor never made sense. MJF using and manipulating that guy the way he did makes complete sense. Don't care for the "this is serious now guys" voices with Taz/Excaliber trying to pretend to hold back tears at all....but if you're gonna do this angle with Regal you kinda have to I guess I'm someone who actually likes MJF the wrestler a lot more than the promo/character. MJF tries way too hard sometimes, comes off like someone trying desperately to be a character, and he comes off as exactly that to me way too much. I totally had a moment in the middle of this where I thought to myself, "kid, I watched Piper, and you are no F'n Piper....." tho I guess it's hard to be without the gimmicks. That said, while he didn't hit a homerun with his first promo as champ, I definitely didn't hate this overall. It covered a lot of ground and it set up his character and a number of future opponents perfectly. I also loved how smartly they booked things to explain all of the BCC being elsewhere (and Bryan recovering from his match), though I'm wondering why all of a sudden they are taping at a studio in Nashville....... I loved the hot open with Hangman's return. Him and Mox feels organic and natural going back to the promo Mox cut on him before the injury, now it's even better. Mox almost killed himself twice here (a theme repeated during the main event brawl). This feels like a strike while the iron is hot program between two main eventers away from the title picture for a bit (but not too far) I'm getting such a kick out of Orange the "whatever" champion who'll defend against anyone at the drop of a hat. That promo with QT ruled. Jade is a star but that segment made me think Dynamite slipped back into the Codyverse for a moment.....wtf was that I haven't posted in a bit but I'm a pretty big Omega mark, I love Death Triangle, and I'm a big Bucks fan too so this best of 7 is right in my wheelhouse. I knew I wouldn't get sick of it because of matches like this. It's not like they won't repeat spots, but I have high confidence in these guys to have 7 different matches while telling an overall story. Loved this match, loved the first two, shit like this is why I'm here for AEW.

I just watched the International Feed of Dynamite and Anna JAS looked even better. I noticed that lately she seemed to be aping Britt Baker in the ring and it really shows here. Anna isn't Joshi based like the best parts of the AEW Women's division but she has mastered how to be a Southern heel, which is what Britt Baker brings to the table. She just lets the crowd tell her what to do which is something it would usually take years for a wrestler to learn. The way she knew when to cut off Willow was really great. (I'm sure Willow was helping her.) That was one of the better non-Storm/Hayter/Emi/Shida/Deeb matches in AEW, especially from a HEAT standpoint.

Another positive thing. We may not like the way that Khan got there, but this is where Khan anticipated being, more or less. I'm sure he had the Triple B in mind for at least a year and probably longer. Omega > Page > Punk > MJF was the plan. As solidly as Bruno > Graham > Backlund was the plan. Punk wasn't going to feud with MJF and the Firm forever. He still has most of the pieces he thought he'd have a year ago, and a couple that he didn't anticipate like Claudio. Cole and Kyle O'Reilly are the two big ones missing right now (with Andrade and Christian). MJF has a pretty wonderful list of babyfaces to run through: Starks, Jungle Boy, Darby, Sting, Kingston, Danielson, Claudio, Page, Wardlow, Lee, PAC, Cassidy. And there are guys like Takeshita or Bandido or Dante Martin or a Dax or a Hook that could be elevated into a contender's match. Not to bring up absolutes again but when you look at a new heel champion about to get a long run and potential challengers out there, that's one of the best lists imaginable, right? AEW may have a heel problem but it sure doesn't have a babyface one.

I've never been happier to have named my old dog after Emi.

Mox talking was good, the brawl with Page was great and has me excited for a hot angle. Bryan-Dax was as good as everyone expected, incredibly enjoyable and stiff AF. Joe-Fox was fun, my wife was impressed by Fox doing the flip over the top rope onto the floor landing on his feet (with a somersault, which is understandable on a hard surface). Some nice back and forth, Fox did some sick bumps for Joe and Joe sold Fox’s kicks and was a great base. The Joe playing possum moment was great. I liked Willow-Anna, mostly because I like Willow and I especially like it when she gets to go from Willow Banner to the Hulk. Anna is at her best with her sports entertainment mannerisms, but she had some good moves. Post-match was fun because I had totally forgotten about Ruby Soho, glad she got a home state pop and hopefully they have something good in store for her. Trios match was a mixed bag. Start had a decent brawl and some big spots. Then it devolved into a sloppy repeat of their typical match. Then we had the whole hammer nonsense. Then they traded bombs. I’m over this already. Free Rey Fenix. The rest was pretty shite. MJF just sucks and it took them 2 weeks to make the angle utterly confusing and nonsensical. Also I hate shooty stuff. And then there was Jade, possibly even worse than MJF. She is lost on the mic at this point, and they have no clue what to do with her. Audible groans at the Bow Wow stuff. Red should have shoot turned on her just to make it interesting. Ricky Starks deserves something better than this.

I got bored, my wife got bored and noticed the crowd was dying, i fast-forwarded for 5 fucking minutes and then he attacks Regal which was burying the lede big time. I’m telling y’all, Max is a 3rd rate long winded troll on the mic.

I don't think I'm getting the logic in the world champion of a promotion saying he wants to go to the much bigger and more famous promotion.

Where I think things went wrong is AEW struggled to adjust on the fly. It's great to have a long-term storytelling arc. But you also need to have the ability to pull off a Plan B if an injury happens or if your top star decides to go crazy at a live press conference (or both.) That requires some quick pivoting and turning. And it's hard to do. From the different drabs that came out, there was going to be some kind of extended MJF vs. Punk feud and The Firm was going to be MJF's interference. Then the Punk stuff/injury happened and you have to figure out how to make that work. But every step along that path has been poorly done. Mox as the emergency champion makes a ton of sense. Mox is the man. But as opposed to having MJF doing the dumb "in the stands making hammy faces" bit, maybe it probably would have been just a lot easier to get to where they are now if MJF was given a bye into the finals of the tournament. He acts appalled but sleazes his way to victory via The Firm. Just a nice, simple and easy story to do. Instead we had such things as: 1) Yuta Wheeler wanting to bludgeon MJF (which was awesome) followed by Yuta Wheeler wanting to shake MJF's hand after their match ended the next week. If MJF's despicable, then reacting to him like that's the case even if he beats you cleanly it the right way to go. 2) MJF trying to come off like a possible good guy in all of this and The Firm turning on him and no one caring or wanting to see these dweebs involved in a main event match. They're flunkies. Now they're flunkies who turned on their ruler who never actually used them except for one ladder match a few weeks ago. No heat and no hierarchy established with them at all. Imagine if those dudes just tore about the BCC while MJF smirked from the luxury box as opposed to what we got? 3) The convoluted Regal angles. I guess we're going to see Dragon go on the warpath to try and avenge Regal. And while I'm for that, what happens with Ricky Starks? There could be a really interesting thing at play with that, but I don't think we'll get anything interesting. It's just such an overthinking of everything. And it's the downside of getting locked into really long-term booking ideas. It's probably better to say "We'd like to get to A in a year. But let's take a look at where we are every three months to see how we're doing getting there."

Very happy to say that my close, personal, longtime friend Andrew Lazarchik of Wildcat Belts (Hot $hot Drew Lazario from Steel City Wrestling) made the Daniel Bryan belt.

We are less than 2 weeks into MJF’s reign, maybe we can hold off on any assessments of whether he’s delivering as champ or not for a bit.

Man, MJF. So he rightfully deserves praise because of the tools he possesses to be a great, maybe even all-time wrestler - his verbal delivery is excellent, good in the ring, good physical charisma. But he very much can still come across as a guy playing pro wrestler, regardless of those tools. Its like a slam dunk 1/1 NFL Draft quarterback prospect with a huge arm (verbal skills), running ability (in-ring) and size (presence), but he’s in his rookie or second season of a team handing him the starting job and…I don’t know which direction this is going to go. Is he Zach Wilson, is he Patrick Mahomes, or is he something in the middle. Zach Wilson is a guy playing the role of quarterback, Mahomes is a quarterback, and both posses similar, elite physical skills. I don’t know which one Max is yet and seemingly every time he hits a home run out there he seems to follow it up with whatever that hell that was last night, or the one in Cincinnati on Pillman Jr, or some other god awful thing that pulls me back to thinking the other way.

If the crowd is dying for their World champion on his first promo as champion, Tony Khan needs to hot-shot the title off of MJF asap. It's only going to get worse and eventually the crowd won't react to a thing he says because there won't be that many people reacting to it. His complaints about how fans are tired of him (almost blaming them for being tired of him) probably shouldn't have been said; it will lead to a decrease in attendance and YouTube views (right now, his nearly 20 minute bore-a-thon got 450k viewers on YT vs the over 1 million views during his feud with CM Punk). An out of touch idiot like Jim Cornette thinks MJF is great because MJF is doing promo work for him. Not sure Tony Khan cares since it's his fantasy booking fed made real. Look at Christian, Chris Jericho even Dan Lambert's promos as heels. They are better and get to the point. You hate them because of the dastardly shit they brag about. To me, Christian would be better in MJF's spot as World champion because he would do what MJF spent 20 minutes trying to do but in 5 to 10 minutes. Christian runs down the town and its fans, but he doesn't dwell on it. You hate him because of his attacks on Jungle Boy and how he got Luchasaurus to stab Jungle Boy in the back. Chris Jericho wastes a lot of time in his promos but you hate his guts by the end of it. Dan Lambert gets over feuds really well (almost a throwback to heel managers back in the day too) and would probably build up the World champion in his stable as being 'it' for AEW. Honestly, MJF as World champion just doesn't move the needle.

Also, I saw making the rounds that Tony Kahn grew up e-fedding and in many ways AEW is just a continuation of that. As someone who has e-fedded for a few (ugh) decades: 1) It's a really common occurrence for whoever handles the world championship of your e-fed to disappear for things like "My girlfriend found out about my e-fedding hobby and I'm rightfully embarrassed" or "I have a job with actual health insurance" or "I have to do better in school if I want to get into Rutgers, oh wait, I forgot to tell you I'm 15." And ciliquey in-fighting is also a huge part of the e-fed world. TK has experience with this drama, is what I'm saying. 2) He handled it in the most convoluted and complicated way as possible as opposed to doing anything that made narrative sense. That is EXACTLY how it is done in e-feds.

Best case fantasy scenario is that Regal turned on BCC because they got too soft with their Regal father figure and it leads to mean Danielson stomping the heads of dorks.

Opening segment worked. It was short and sweet and to the point. I think I hoped for half a second that the Briscoes would answer the challenge so that they could heat up the ROH PPV with some sort of dream match, but I'm glad Page is feeling better (even if I generally don't want to see him wrestle). Mox is one of the better opponents for him and they should have a pretty heated match that's more about them hitting each other than Page hitting springboard clotheslines or whatever. I'll write more about Dax vs Danielson on Monday, but it was very good. There were a few moments in the first third where Dax seemed to be almost stutter stepping heading into things and I don't know if that was nerves or what. It didn't negatively impact the match because it generally led to something that wasn't supposed to work (a series of counters) instead of something that was smoothly supposed to work, but it was a little jarring. Like the best part of the AEW house style, they had to work for things, which is good for Danielson because he has so many different things. Here it was just his kick, so that when he finally did hit it, even once, it was a viable near-fall. A lot of Dax being in control here, aggressively, but without major heat, so it made for a different sort of match than even some of the more neutral Danielson ones from the last year. Loved the fake out punch before the pile driver, as that was a different twist but it fit the match and the specific things they'd been doing/trying. I could live with the endless clotheslines, because again, it fit Danielson and was a different take on that idea. Best part of the whole thing might have been Dax faking out that he wasn't going to shake his hand post match. Enjoyed AR Fox vs Joe a lot too. Heel turn was a good thing for Joe as there are a lot of guys he can base for as a heel and I'll take a flyer vs a base over a flyer vs a flyer anyday. First walk away from Joe was about as gif worthy as you can get due to his facial expression. Second one directly led to the finish after Fox's really good flurry. Fox took all of Joe's stuff in the corner well. Post-match was a little rough. Joe's King of Television shtick is good. Wardlow's World really needs to be rethought. Going back to a bunch of old ROH matches for the PPV is probably a bad idea. I'm ok seeing Yuta vs Garcia again, but the progression has been unstable to say the least. MJF thing is still best described as a shame. I do hope this isn't it for Regal. The idea of Regal lost and confused on who he's supposed to be and what he's supposed to represent in 2022 is kind of fascinating but I'm not sure he'd be interested in exploring that. The perfect place for that to lead him would be to Adam Page or Eddie Kingston, actually, but it's kind of moot to go too deep into that when most likely scenario has him leaving. Starks should have probably said something on the mic on the way out to register what just happened, something about how MJF may not respect wrestling/the company/etc., but he'd damn well learn to respect him in two week's time. That sort of thing. Davari jobbing so much and showing so much ass makes it look worse when he actually does well elsewhere. They should protect him at least a little and use Slim J or Sonny Kiss or JVSK in that spot. Hardy made the most of his ten seconds there. I'd say that the Hardy/Page stuff is the second or third best storyline over the last month or two in AEW (up there with Athena), but a lot of people aren't even seeing it. Willow was super over. I'm with DEAN on the idea that she's over enough to challenge Hayter, but only on the idea that she loses to set up her win against Athena later. One thing I liked about the Anna match was how the idea that she went to a chinlock when she was behind Willow during the PIP instead of the Queenslayer was validated by how easily Willow crushed her when she put the Queenslayer on later. Obviously someone as strong as Willow had to be sufficiently worn down first. Ruby's appearance post match probably would have worked better as a save with Tay and Anna beating down Willow, right? I think I blinked and I missed the Jade thing but it's leading to Kiera Hogan vs Jade, right? Match 3 of 9: Nick Bockwinkel (c) vs Jumbo Tsuruta 6/22/80: This was in AWA territory and Baba was in to commentate for Japanese TV. That means, Heenan was there, Mean Gene did the Ring Announcing ("Tommy" Jumbo Tsuruta) and Verne said before the match he'd wrestle the winner. Heenan then shoved him for no good reason and Verne clocked him, which made Heenan sort of a non-factor for much of the match. Match itself was very good. They worked the entry point much differently than the last two, more of the format of Bockwinkel trying to abuse Jumbo and then Jumbo firing back tit-for-tat. If Bock would get an arm drag and slam him then Jumbo would get the spots as revenge and show him up. Bock took over with some real chippy stuff, just a double leg that looked like they were shooting and hard, hard shots onto the arm. He was trying to contain Jumbo but Jumbo hit the jumping knee and started to meanly work over the back. Bock may have unlocked grumpy Jumbo years early with how hard they were going at it. Less long holds here, but definite focus to try to set up the double underhook suplex and abdominal stretch. Bockwinkel would try to figure up from underneath but Jumbo stayed on him. When they finally got to the hold, Bock was able to push them out of the ring. He came back in with a bunch of headlock cheapshots to the throat. Two of the things I tend to give Bock credit for are his total engagement and full body selling as the match goes on. The cross-section of the two is how he just throws his entire body into everything he does. If he throws a punch, he'll sort of recoil back with it. There's a spot here where he goes for a pile driver, can't get it, and Jumbo gets one shortly thereafter, and as he's up, he's just flailing his feet perfectly. But he does that with almost everything. It's just this amazing performance presence in the moment that almost not other wrestler can live up to (Terry Funk and... maybe Negro Casas and Buddy Rose and I'm not even sure who else?). Jumbo kept coming back with the crowd definitely behind him, with Bock trying to slow him down, including with a King of the Mountain. Ultimately, they ended back up in the stretch, but Bock was able to hiptoss Jumbo right into the ref. Great ref bump but the follow up was muddled. Heenan took too long to blatantly interfere. They couldn't get the ref in the right place soon enough, etc. Shame as the match itself was great. So three matches, three different feels and structures, all good stuff.

I thought the MJF thing would have been fine if it was like six minutes shorter. Come out, talk about the e-mail from Regal, run down Ricky Starks, unveil the belt, attack Regal, bing bang boom. The biggest sin (aside from the length) is that the new belt looks like shit. The colors on the strap are too muddy and dark to read as Burberry on TV. I think the turn makes sense for both characters; MJF having a chip on his shoulder about needing Regal's help to finally win a big match, Regal being a little soo self-satisfied with his own intelligence to realize that MJF would obviously turn on him. The real chad booking after a too-long promo about how he'll be the longest-reigning champion and only defend on PPVs is to have him lose to Starks at Winter is Coming and then start a blood feud with Danielson over killing his fake dad, but that ain't gonna happen. Speaking of Danielson goddamn did I enjoy that match with Dax. The opening sequence made total sense in that a tapehead like Dax would have Danielson's stuff scouted and counters planned out. Dax also did a bunch of great little stuff, like pushing on the back of Danielson's head to keep him from slipping out of the headscissors. The upkick from Danielson activating Angry Dax could have been a cheesy NXT-ish spot but they made it work. Doing the super-nasty suplex over the barricades onto concrete during the commercial was a bit of a head-scratcher, but goddamn that was a good bump. And for a guy with his injury history Danielson has a real commitment to landing on his neck at weird angles. My only real criticism is that some of the I-reverse-now-you-reverse sequences went on a little long, but fuck that was a good match. Loved the opening brawl, too. Mox falling off the ramp was one of those serendipitous accidents that made it feel even more chaotic. They should have kept cutting back to Mox and Hanger fighting in different locations: in the back, on the street, at a McDonalds, &c, &c.

If Tony lets Regal go back to WWE he's a fucking idiot.

Well, AEW had to pull the trigger on an MJF title reign so here we are with overlong, business exposing promos about him being the heeliest of heel champions. If you are a bad guy, you don't have to say you are a bad guy. The crowd knows you are the bad guy. The only worker in the world who could ever pull off announcing he was a bad guy was Scott Hall and MJF is no Scott Hall. I was perfectly fine with MJF turning on Regal. It was the only part of that long ass segment that made actual pro wrestling booking sense. Regal had outlived his usefulness and MJF disposed of his pawn. The only thing I really like about MJF's heelish demeanor is his shamelessness. Use a diamond ring as weapon and punch an old man into a coma? Why the hell not? I feel badly for Jade Cargill. She's an absolute star, but she's the victim of her own push now. AEW is infamous for underutilizing talent like Ricky Starks, but Jade's undefeated title reign is just blah because she has a rocket strapped to her back and there is nothing to do now but freefall and crash to earth after the fuel runs out. Her victories are foregone conclusions. She either needs a quality opponent that will really push her to the limit in victory (Is Mercedes Martinez the only worker to accomplish this feat?) or she needs someone to kick her ass. Preferably Athena or Kris Statlander when she returns from injury. Hell, put the TBS belt on the returning Ruby Soho. Reward her for her hard work by giving her a hard-fought win over the nigh unbeatable Jade. Then maybe we can start believing in kayfabe crap like veteran's presence again. I am all for Page vs. Moxley being a personal vendetta. Let them kick the shit out of each other one more time, but without injuries. I thought my match of the week was going to be the CWFH slobberknocker that was Alan Angels vs. Danny Limelight, but I think I'd have to be stupid not to put Danielson vs. Harwood at the top of the list. Joe vs. Fox was what I expected it to be. AR will be a gatekeeper / jtts while on the roster, but he is a good addition that probably doesn't cost millions of dollars. Willow vs. Anna JAS was a match. Nothing blown, but I think they've got a better match in them. I am just happy that Willow is getting wins on Dynamite. I knew for sure this was going to end up as a screwjob loss. I thought I wanted Elite vs. Death Triangle to go Best of Seven but Best of Five is good for me. The winners should drop the belts to Best Friends in a Best of Three.

@Cobra Commander that was the best crowd in weeks by far. On their feet just about the whole time, tons of chants and reactions throughout the matches. Awesome crowd.

Feels like this needs the Price is Right loser music.

On a positive note... In the last 2-3 weeks to a month we've gotten back from injury or other issues: House of Black Darius Martin Ruby Soho Red Velvet Bucks/Omega/Page and at least one or two other people I'm missing. That's very good for the company.

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that everyone who actually watches QT vs OC really, really enjoys it. OC had wonderful matches with Tony Nese, Ari Davari, Jack Hager, and Ethan Page this year. Of course QT is going to be a great foil for him.

I really require Falling Down monster Mox who just wants to… no, needs to burn down everything he just tried so damn hard to prop up. Heel Renee cackling idly at the flames and protectively enabling him would make it even better but we’re not getting that.

There are so many billboards in Missouri, they made a movie about them! It was probably a documentary.

Adrenaline, in my soul! Santa is coming! Ho Ho Ho!

Not that anything outside WWE and a potentially profitable AEW isn't a money pit, it's that boxing is the ultimate boom or bust business. And not even like an audible boom you can show off. More closer to a very low roar. If I have an investors call, the last thing I would tell them is I'm going into boxing. Even if they wanted to go the Tyson Fury route, he is already splitting the pie with Top Rank on the US side and Frank Warren on the UK side. It would be silly for him to hand out another portion to someone else when he himself isn't a huge draw. If they wanted to do it with Logan Paul, that celebrity boxing interest is dissipating fast. We're having big name ex NFL players fight and either no one knows the fights are happening or the people who do know just don't give a shit cause the fights suck. Granted, it started off with way more interest than the original run of celebrity fights 15 years ago. However, it's cooled off tremendously. I mean they probably could be the third wheel co promoter when he fights some Youtuber, but that's a weird way to piss away money when the last several years they've been risk averse. If they try to go all in where they try to build around one huge star (none out there really so yeah), the America Presents promotional model 20+ years ago proves that ain't going to work. They (a combo of businessman Mat Tinley and late boxing promoter/hustler Dan Goossen of the famed Goossen boxing family) were able to woo Mike Tyson for a handful of fights in his final years of relevancy as a fighter in the hopes of luring away a potential megastar in the making. At the time, they said as much themselves saying they were looking for the next Mike Tyson. Guess what? Almost two and a half decades later, folks are still in search for the next Mike Tyson. America Presents lasted 3 or 4 years and then went away quickly as they appeared. We're talking about a time in boxing where the landscape was much more open and friendly to promoters that weren't Bob Arum or Don King. You had the aforementioned America Presents, you had Cedric Kushner Promotions which had Sugar Shane Mosley and Virgil Hill, you had Square Ring promoting Roy Jones Jr., you had the revival of Forum Boxing that Jerry Buss started which had Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson and a bunch of great Mexican boxers like Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera, you had Main Events which promoted Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Vernon Forrest, and Arturo Gatti, and a few other notable promotions. Now? It's Bob Arum, Eddie Hearn, and Al Haymon with De La Hoya's promotion Golden Boy barely hanging on. If you're not with those first three especially, good luck trying to be a star or running a show that makes ANY money. That monopoly is so strong it absolutely ended an American premium cable staple in HBO boxing, which was around for decades. No one is going to break that monopoly. 50 Cent didn't do it. Jay Z didn't do it. Triller certainly hasn't done it. As already mentioned, Dana White didn't even get out of the starting blocks. He got so frustrated he just decided to fucking promote slap boxing instead and get it legalized as an actual sport in Nevada. If Dana White the most equipped person for something like that (even with all his shortcomings) doesn't want the smoke, Nick Khan and Paul Levesque definitely don't want that smoke.

i'm excited for the MJF vs Elite turf war to determine which side gets blamed for the ratings

Daniel Bryan for the win hands down. My favourite custom belt ever.

I’m not going to be watching if they stretch this out another year. MJF doing his worst impression of 2003 Triple H is unbearable, and dragging it out endlessly won’t help attendance or the ratings.

I'm not going to say the pieces aren't there with MJF. I like to eat duck parts. Red meat chicken, what a glorious thing. And they've got delicious hearts and livers in em too. A ten minute MJF promo is a Peking Duck made entirely out of duck foie gras. Maybe the tastiest part of the bird on first bite, but not what I want for an entree. But I guess if that's the metaphor I pick I can't complain about being force-fed something I got sick of after the third pump.

Shoutout to Kenny Omega. Here's someone who has nothing to prove to most fans, he could have easily retooled his work in a major way and dialed things back and taken it easy. And here he is, a handful of matches back, hitting the Kotaro Crusher on the stage and trying to break his dang butt. It's not thing I'd want to do, but he loves wrestling the way he wants to wrestle. Stay safe, please don't need a hip replacement in like a month's time.

Cocaine Bear is just missing Samuel L Jackson yelling "Enough is enough! I've had it with this motherfucking bear snorting all the motherfucking coke!"

Bad News Brown basically was Austin in 80's WWF. Bald, plain black trunked badass who didn't like the faces or the heels.