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All right then. Having had a nap, finished the choring, and played with my daughters for a few hours, it is now time to go through that amazing, worth - getting - up - early - for PPV more thoroughly. It will help fix it in my mind, if nothing else. I was delighted by Cobb vs Dorada. Although it was in fact the second-most-delightful match I watched today where Cobb ragdolled a smaller-sized insane bumping machine (thanks to porksweats). I love how Cobb is a) freakishly strong and b) totally fine with,and really good at, letting the other guy shine in there. He's absolutely one of my favourite current wrestlers. So I am glad I didn't turn my alarm off. I had miso soup with pork and vegetables, smoked chicken breasts, potato salad, and two of the reduced-calorie Japanese energy drinks called Jungle Man that I can buy from the vending machine around the corner. They have become my go-to morning-or-afternoon wrestle-watching beverage. That, or green tea. I almost always do a conbini run the night before PPVs or big Dynamites. The convenience stores over here are THE BEST. I chatted online throughout the show with my old friend who used to post here as TheCobra2, who now lives in Tokyo and also woke up before 5 am. Also his friend (now also my internet friend) who does jiu jitsu and was able to join us because open mat was cancelled today. Cheeseburger! Seeing him always makes me feel like it's Wrestle Kingdom. 2.0 worked straight southern tag heel style, except I think they didn't do the spot where the ref misses the first hot tag, driving the fans crazy. That spot used to work like a charm. Speaking of crowds, oh boy do I love how organically over with the crowd Pure Babyface Willow Nightingale has become! What a joy! And I definitely remember Trish Adora from Dark and Elevation, fighting ladies like Emi Sakura. She eventually gets murdered with a pounce and a Doctor bomb. Willow vs Athena, eventually, will be molten. Both of my chat buddies thought that Top Flight going over counted as an upset. Not I. I expected the AEW homegrowns to win, and was delighted they did. The result also led to me winning the picks contest. Great preshow! Every match in a different style. Strength vs speed, southern tag, hard-hitting, pure speed and athleticism. I think this is the first time I have seen Dralistico working as Dralistico. I like that there were at least three teams of actual brothers on the show today! Also, I was delighted that there was a theme of "dudes catching other dudes" and marked out EVERY TIME it happened. Speaking of marking out: SPECTACULAR FINISH to Top Flight vs Kingdom! REPORTEDLY CONTROVERSIAL FINISH to the Roosh Brothers vs FoxHeart. Which I missed. Due to streaming issues. (As in, I had to go pee). A.R. Fox is, in my opinion, a very good addition to the AEW roster. Preston Vance cleans up real good. Good Heavens Athena is a GREAT heel. That was nasty. Hell of a fight. I like how they held off on the Lee vs Taylor BMMSM portion of the match. Reminiscent of the Kingston/Akiyama dynamic in their tag match. Interesting story, and some insane strength spots. Hopefully Taylor shows up on AEW TV again! Keith Lee vs Jeff Cobb, please!! So: Cages have gates. But so do Castles. Some castles have cages. Not all castles or cages have boys, but some do. And if boys are in a cage in a castle, it's likely that agony is involved. I loved that match, by the way. Cage, Liona, & Kaun are such great big walls for all the little speedy trios teams to throw themselves against. Long may they reign! I am stoked that Toa Liona is a champion. I have been a fan since he first showed up on YouTube. At this point I was physically pretty sleepy though my enthusiasm was by no means waning. I don't wanna be controversial but in my opinion both Wheeler and Garcia are very good at pro wrestling and also they match up well. Maybe it was the sleepiness plus the energy drinks but Daddy Magic's nipple talk gave me the giggles. 2.0 are really entertaining,he said, bringing on the controversy yet again. I thought they made excellent use of the Pure stipulations. I was kinda shocked that Double Dog Collars wasn't the main event, and I felt kinda bad for Juice and Joe and Jericho and CaesaROH that they had to follow that. It was great. Every match that FTR and Briscoes have fought has been straight-up great. Hats off. And thank you. All time crimson mask, all time sick bump, feud of the year. As Ian said, a violent masterpiece. I felt bad for Juicy Boy, but I guess Toni Storm can comfort him. Heel Joe is great. This was the second-best Heel Joe match this week, which isn't actually faint praise. My favourite juice is probably pineapple. Or sparkling barley juice. Also: Good job on quickly laying a new ring canvas after the blood bath, AEW ring crew! Oh! The crowd! Bless them for being able to keep it up after that tag title match! I liked Jericho's jacket. I loved the various OCHO! chants. We got an all-time cool reversal in the world title match as well! Jericho continues to make his case as an all time great pro wrestler. And Claudio is going to be a geat champ. I love professional wrestling.

a fitting 8 match run for the Ocho.

The finish to the FTR/Briscoes match was so awesome and fucking MANLY was because it incorporated the chain with a Bulldog Choke- it was truly the Terry Funk idea of one extra element to overcome the Bret Hart straight wrestling element. Dax could escape a straight wrestling hold. He couldn't escape the deathmatch hold. SO FUCKING GREAT.

Wheeler Yuta is a sympathetic babyface and Daniel Garcia is CHEATING! I love that Yuta uses up his rope breaks early. Garcia is so VOLK HAN/BUDDY ROSE, in that he is technically superior but also a great heel. Great Brainbuster VARIATION by Yuta! GREAT Lawler Brainbuster by Garcia. I loved the Dragonslayer in the ropes! I loved the finish! That was manly. The crowd wasn't really into it, but they kinda got into it by the finish. That was good. They show the FTR/Briscoes thing. Since they actually drew over 3000, it appears that they sold 1500 tickets between Wednesday and Saturday. And I imagine thousands more cashed in whatever good will they had established with their significant other to get permission to order the PPV. I know that my wife said this was my Christmas gift, so I was ecstatic that I married so well. Awesome! Mark Briscoe is ALREADY bleeding. He is the early ALL STAR of the match as he takes the first lunatic bump off the ramp onto Wheeler. Jay Briscoe is fucking AWESOME punching Harwood in the face with the chain wrapped around his fist. AAAAaaand Harwood is bleeding! AAAAnd Jay is REALLY bleeding! Mark is also REALLY bleeding. Mark is REALLY REALLY BLEEDING! THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME. Cash Wheeler is now bleeding but FTR isn't LEANING INTO the blade like the Briscoes are. Jay is the overall ALL STAR of the matcxh so far. CAsh and Harwood are now equalling the blood of the Briscoes! THE REF BLADES! YESSSS! MArk BUMPS GIGANTIC from the top turnbuckle to the stack of chairs on the floor! JESUS! JAY HITS A JUMPING C-4 ON HARWOOD! This match is fucking INSANE. Harwood with the LAWLER PILEDRIVER ON A CHAIR! Cash Wheeler yelling to Dax Harwood, "FUCKING MURDER HIM!" is the greatest thing in the history of wrestling. SUPERPLEX ONTO THE PILE OF CHAIRS! Jesus Christ, this match is fucking LUNACY. JAY MAKES DAX TAP! That was fucking great. That was the best match in the history of FMW. Jesus. EDIT: POSTMATCH, THE ASS BOYS PICK THE BONES OF FTR!

Yea can't possibly be part of the story, oh wait... You are trying too hard, there are plenty of legitimate things to complain about with AEW/ROH without just being a mindless troll, you can do better.

Should be renamed the "AEW nitpicking it all to death because it isn't EXACTLY how you'd run a wrestling company so bitch here so the rest of us can fucking enjoy something" thread.

Snoop Dogg owns a line of pet accessories. His face is on a bottle of mass-produced Australian wine. There is a Snoop Dogg themed DLC bundle in Call of Duty. He has created long-lasting advertising synergy with Martha Stewart - I think they even did a cookbook together. You're not gonna believe this one, he owns a weed brand. He has a YouTube channel dedicated to children's songs with millions of views for classics like "The Wheels on the Bus". Lest we forget his directorial debut that was named the best-selling title of the 2002 porn awards. Maybe, maybe maybe, his cousin is looking at all this and thinking to herself "it might be a good idea to own my personal brand and image".

Everyone talks so much about FTR being the best tag team. But man, The Briscoes should be in the conversation for GOAT in my opinion. It's really a shame that they cant be on AEW, unless they're playing the long game for them showing up. My daughter went crazy for Athena winning

The scrum is worth it just for Samoa Joe alone.

How much did the food and beverages cost at the concession stands at this event?

we’re not good with the metric system. Those were Euro swings…

A million stars for that write up DEAN! Uncle Dave should just do a cut and paste into this weeks issue. Posey tapping a gusher so as not to be left out of the fun was the capper. That was Sheepherders v Fantastics levels of carnage, better than any ‘death’ match since Takashi Sasaki was BJW champ and the best field goal since Harry Kane took an 88th minute penalty. In summary, fuck and yeah

It really was great, man. Fantastic, resurgent 2022 for Jericho, and a wonderful match to cap the year off (though, I do feel badly they had to follow Briscoes/FTR). One thing I'll say, though, is that timing wise and flow wise, it was a very good main, with a really, really cool finish - Jericho probably learned from his experience with HHH at WMX8 that starting the match hot, and keeping it short and sweet was the move, and he and Claudio both delivered here IMO.

My favorite part of Briscoes/FTR was right when you thought Cash was gonna yank Mark through chekov's table, Mark whipped right past it on to the even nastier chekov's chair pile. I let out an audible "Jesus fuck" on that bump. The match was every bit as good as I thought it would be, but that was a nice unexpected moment to put it over the top. I'll also always mark for the "double trouble bash at the beach bubble" screen. On that note, I was mildly annoyed at the Public Enemy/Nasty Boys erasure saying it was the first double dog collar match on ppv, but I'm guessing FTR being the students of the game they are looked at it, since the "clothesline on the chain from the hanging guy" spot they did early on was the finish to that match. Much like the last couple of AEW-ROH shows, it was solid overall, but FTR/Briscoes were a mile above everything else.

Add Hobbs to that group and take my money, please and thanks.

Mike White has taken two of the hardest clean hits I've ever seen on a QB, he's a tough dude but I can't help but think if it was Brady both would have been flagged.

Take this stuff to the finances thread

I'm glad I ordered the ppv. What more needs to be said about the Briscoes/FTR? This definitely wasn't a one match show. I felt like everything delivered and it accomplished the goal of making me want to sign up for Honor Club. I'm eager to see who the next set of challengers will be for the titles. Oh, and I'm so glad Jimmy Rave got a mention while Ian was talking about The Embassy.

Why don't you let an amazing match breathe before you start your shit?

Also, where is the Kingdom and who's the current monarch? Is it Maria? I enjoyed the match, but more context would help.

I don’t like how vague his name is. What type of juice is he? A video package would have helped, Tony!

What if you get Cole Karter in your stocking?

Lions covered. I hope a billion gamblers lost their houses.

I've been good, Santa Tony.. at least good enough. Please give us Keith Lee, Miro, and Samoa Joe (as a group) just running over people in vast swaths of destruction in 2023. AEW? ROH? Indies? Doesn't matter. Just give us big girthy men destroying smaller jumpy flippy wrestlers in a reign of terror.

thatsmyquarterback.gif One day he will die doing this but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Weekly 2-hour shows from Nashville - only $9.99, pal

I fucking love Wheeler Yuta so much. I know there’s some goofs on this board who don’t seem to think he’s worth investing in, but this guy has pure babyface energy. Tons of it. I love this dude. Also, FTR fucking rules. I predict a heel turn and AEW title win for these guys soon. To borrow a phrase from DEAN; ROH rules the motherfucking world!!!

a Group like that would need a name, suitable for the Apocalypse they'd bring. What do you think, @DEAN, the Four Hossmen work for you?

Did they have to peel him off the apron with a spatula?

This has all the cool ass Piledrivers.

Wow that opener was great if Lard Lad is Ricky Steamboat who is MOX? Bock? Race? Type of stuff will keep me coming back! DOES BUNNY EQUAL RATINGS? We will see... Let me just say this Kip and Blade are a couple of lucky fellas. just gonna leave it at that. Loved the match hated the inference spot. Something AEW needs to work on. These type of spot too often leave everyone involved looking like idiots, plus shouldn't have the Bunny been disqualified multiple times by pro wrestling's own "Logic". Similar situation happened on Dynamite when Sammy blatantly put his hands Claudio in front of the ref. Looking forward to Shida attempting to become Champ-Champ by taking the Women's Hossweight Title on Dynamite. Stokley was on The Sessions talking about how great the Lee Moraity v Hook feud was going to be. I love Lee but he has the worst Entrance music is wrestling history. Love the Big Bill gimmick, just a big ole sumbitch named Bill! sigh... I'm going to be the dissenting vote on this one this felt like yet another Youtube Main Event for OC. Laugh out loud reveal for Danhausen MOAR BUNNY!!! I await the ratings to see if people stuck around for a Forgone Conclusion Match

That hit that put him out of the game is about as vicious of a clean hit I've ever seen. They just showed him warming up his arm to go back in the game. I would have retired as I was writhing in pain on the ground.

It's almost like...repeated blows to the head are bad.

One thing about Athena is that she's got years of doing WWE media/charity/promo events under her belt now. Plus all the streaming. I thought she came off exceptionally well during the media scrum last night. Joe was great too but for different reasons, especially as everyone was calling him "your highness."

I went with Samoa Joe Vs Darby Allin in the end. I know there might have been better techincal matches but this match was the one I enjoyed the most.

A textbook example of how the "Shocked face after a kick-out" trope isn't inherently bad. It's badly overused, but it's fine when the kick-out is actually shocking.

Should I blade to make this post? Why not? All the kids are doing it these days. That is an absolutely perfect trilogy of tag matches. Applause, kudos, credits, and cartwheels in celebration FTR vs. The Briscoes. Worth every penny spent in both PPV and a pair of tickets to Lowell. I’m as guilty as anybody being entirely biased against Taven. He was the turd in the punch bowl at that MSG show and I’ve never gotten over it. He was pretty good here. Him following the code of honor at the end of the match also somehow managed to endear him to me. This must be a good strain. Nothing wrong with the content of Joe/Juice. Sucks it had to follow the above. Meanwhile, Juice is going to have some problems creating buzz if his hope is to get somewhere in transferring back to the States. 7 years in New Japan is a long time. Jericho was looking awfully Moongoose with that Ozzy tassels jacket. Kind of an original spot with Jericho chasing the ringside crew around. It’s all in the details. Say what you will about Hogan/Warrior matches. But that double clothesline spot was so well worked it’s emulated to this day and it’s great. The Swing reversal into the Walls was super. To think Jericho has been pulling that many tricks to catch that move for this long is something else. Then he quits to the fucking move? Never saw that coming. I’m certain there will be some debate over if it is appropriate for MJF dissing the NWA or CHAP shitting on the current status of ROH. But I’m going temporarily allow it as circumstances for either brand aren’t going to be worsened just because of these mentions. Later on I might change my mind.

A true classic! Well said, the Dean review is the perfect antidote to the burial hot take/witty takedown/loud voicing so exceedingly popular on the Super Highway '22. Dean's reviews feel free of the self-absorbed 'I think this should be happening' while indulging the actual decisions, good and bad, with an open mind and freedom to just fucking Enjoy! There's a lot one can learn about navigating thru the glut of modern pro wrestling on offer within these jam-packed and fucking awesome paragraphs.

ATHENA! ATHENA! ATHENA!

Will americans ever learn how to count a Giant Swing properly? They counted 3 numbers within one rotation multiple times...

You can literally make your whole day in one trip to a 7/11 or Lawson. If you hit up one of those drunk I’d imagine you would leave with a whole weeks worth of groceries. They are indeed, THE BEST!

Aw, man! I LOVED this. Jeff Cobb is absolutely one of my favourite current pro wrestlers. The 80s and 90s were full of big strong wrestlers with enormous steroid-feuled bodybuilding and/or powerlifting muscles. Some of them had impressive offence. A precious few of them could sell and bump a little (like, for example, Butch Reed). But Jeff Cobb is probably functionally stronger than almost all of those roid monsters we grew up watching. He's freakishily strong. (Keith Lee and Claudio are, too). And he has amazing offense. And he apparently does not mind letting the other guy(s) in the ring look strong against him. He's really, really good at bumping and selling and making it look believable even when he's (almost literally) twice the size of the dude he's fighting. Darby Allin is absolutely one of my favourite current professional wrestlers. I love the Morton/Kikuchi/Yamazaki/Xavier Woods tier of wrestlers whose speciality is bumping and selling and making the other dude look amazing and dangerous. I love the Mick Foley guys who take genuine risks to entertain us. I think Darby has studied all those guys. I think he really genuinely doesn't give a eff about his own well-being. He's the world's best bumper right now, which is REALLY saying something. So... what would you expect, putting the freakishly powerful legit Olympian in there with the literary fearless ragdoll? I expected exactly this. Cobb f'n RAGDOLLS Allin. But what I didn't expect was that Cobb also puts him over. Believably. This match might have been the match that MADE Darby, there in that particular indie promotion (in Maine?) Maybe without this match we wouldn't have Darby Allin the International TV Star to enjoy today. Certainly this had to be a big step for him on the road to where he is today. I got to watch Joe ragdoll Darby already this week, and Cobb ragdoll Dorada earlier today. And I also got to see Darby keep coming at a bigger stronger man and Cobb making a smaller dude look amazing TWICE this week. And it was awesome and delightful. And this particular match was succinct, which I appreciate. And it's only, like 4, 5 years ago but they both look SO YOUNG. But you can see the seeds of who they are now, it's already there and it's so cool to see it. Thank you, Porky McSweaty!

JESUS!

I agree with every word of your post, but especially this. Both men were silk smooth on it, too. That spot in particular, specifically was the highlight of the show for me, with similar third-commandment-breaking language to yours filling our living room. I'll actually double down and say it's my absolute favorite spot of any of the three dog collar matches in AEW/AEWROH so far (and I recall being super, super high on basically everything Brodie/Cody did in theirs, though I haven't seen it since it aired).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JbVkwY0hik Harley Race vs Rick Martel from 1978 in Australia. Fun little 7 minute sprint. I love how Martel works a hammerlock, it's so earnest and enthusiastic and I don't think I've ever seen a crowd pop for it as much. I love how Race works as a defending champ so differently to Flair as the cocky champ who underestimates the firey local guy and just does enough to survive with his title and Bockwinkel who tries to out-wait, outlast and out-smart. He absorbs everything that the face throws at him, he grits it out because he's tough AF, he waits for the less experienced guy to fuck up, and he only needs 2-3 big hits to put him away. It's almost like a modern Lesnar match in a way.

Did anyone else get vibes of Miss Elizabeth running back to get Hogan when Penelope Ford ran back to get The Butcher & The Blade?

I thought it was an excellent show, very enjoyable all the way through. Preshow was fun with Top Flight/Kingdom the obvious highlight. RUSH and Dralistico got screwed! Nice match before that though, AR Fox was on fire with the dives. Athena/Mercedes was solid although with a role swap since the crowd was 100% Athena in her home. The turnbuckle bit distracted a little from the finish as the crowd got pissed at security for taking the buckle back from the fan that caught it. The title win felt like a big deal and a nice moment for Athena, well deserved. Swerve/Lee v. Shane/JD was one of the matches I was looking forward to the most and it absolutely delivered. Keith was SUPER over as another hometown guy and I loved the massive pop for when he caught Taylor in mid air. Crowd was hot for any and all Keith/Shane face offs and they played that up nicely throughout. Bit on a few of the near falls. I still was holding out hope that Swerve/Lee would work it out and continue to be a team despite their differences. Once Swerve walked out, I thought Shane/JD should take it but ultimately it ended up a great overcome the odds anyway finish for Keith. Garcia/Yuta was great as usual. Finish felt out of nowhere and I didn't see it coming, totally expected Garcia to be retaining. Seeing all these title changes I started to wonder if maybe The Ocho had a chance and then I was really buying it when Menard said they were gonna make Claudio tag with Hager in a team called "Hat Trick" (AEW filed to trademark that term last week) Briscoes/FTR was amazing as always. I had a feeling the Briscoes couldn't go 0-3. Incredible war as expected, loved the dog collar stip. Kept thinking it wouldn't end until they went through that table outside. Mark's flip bump onto the floor instead was wild. FTR wearing white as Dax ends up with blood stained trunks by the end of it. Wondering if FTR lose all their other titles before bouncing back by finally winning back the AEW tags as the ones that eluded their collection run. The Gunns getting involved after had me wanting to see a triple threat tag. Joe/Juice was solid despite it's random feeling, more competitive than I expected. Main event ruled. Finish was an out of nowhere shocker to see the Swing actually get the win, but thought it was built to really well with the prior teases and the initial counter of the Swing rolled through in to the Walls was fantastic. Big pop for the win. The Ocho was a hell of a run, loved it. This was another cool title win moment for Claudio.

Just rewatched Jericho/Claudio (after making my wife watch FTR/Briscoes. She really dug it.) and it's really good. The Giant Swing at the end was a modern marvel of physical prowess. I really dug Claudio taking the Kobashi/Misawa 98 bump off the apron to the floor. It wasn't enough to make me part with forty bucks so it's good that it was on the same card as FTR/Briscoes. I now wonder what Jericho will do next.

Yeah, I think Lance Reddick is the new James Earl Jones. You hire him for a voice acting gig to hear his actual voice. He is not like Grey DeLisle or Wil Freedle whom you higher because they have the range to voice multiple characters if asked to do so.