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It's a travesty that @Gordlow is allowed to just walk the streets a free man when clearly he belongs in Dad Joke Jail.

Irrational fear due to

AH! Japan is Dad Joke Jail! THEY WON'T LET HIM BACK INTO CANADA!

Well, then I say it's official. QT Marshall is the absolute MVP of Dark/Elevation. He's really been an unsung hero throughout AEW's time and deserves a shitton of respect for his contributions to the company.

I still think QT works a little "strong" sometimes and I'd rather him work 20% more like a manager/coach who wrestles as opposed to a wrestler who manages/coaches. He'd just get more heat that way and put over guys (especially his own!). For instance, he has his jump up moonsault, and he makes sure to never, ever hit it. But even in the attempt, it's probably showing a certain level of athleticism which doesn't serve the need AEW has for him quite as much. Part of the problem is that AEW doesn't have heels that can take losses. That's why we see so much Jay Lethal, right? People complain all the time about that, but they don't want Miro in that same role eating losses instead. QT, Nese, Lethal. They're the guys who can lose but still give good matches and have a certain level of credibility due to heat (QT), title history (Lethal), look/athleticism (Nese). I'd just rather QT take a quarter step back and a Comoroto be that guy instead, boosted by QT.

Trent on Trent AND Seven on Seven violence in a four on four match? Oh, you KNOW that's a paddlin'! Will The Blade blade? Will Sabian try a kip-up? SO MANY STORIES TO TELL! Plus also a dentist vs a colour, which is a natural match-up (assuming she is the kind of dentist who makes a lot of money out of whitening).

New theme song confirmed:

I kept thinking Andretti reminded me of some older wrestler. He's a bit flashy, but not in a "holy shit" way like young Rey or Dante Martin. He's got a good look, but nothing that stands out too much. Then it hit me: he reminds me of young Chris Jericho. Have to wonder if Jericho feels the same about him?

Jeers to floor seats in general. Passed those first couple rows it's potentially awful sightlines throughout the night. I guess there good if you don't mind watching half the show on the Trons. That backstage promo lower audio situation is a longstanding issue that really deserves some awareness. Yeah, this was a fucking incredible show! Tears of joy for that Andretti-Jericho bout. A direct mainline shot of pure thrills! I gotta get a proper look at the Tay-Ruby contest. Sounds like I missed something special at 530 in the morning while making a sandwich. So much great wrestling on this episode, great promos (Kudos to the Hangman), and they set the table for weeks to come (especially excited for Moriarty and the Jungler). AEmuthafuckinDUB!

OK, Mr. D - if my match choice perplexed you, well then brudda, I am totally flummoxed with this one, more questions than answers yaknowwhutImeanVerne? Matt Borne is thee very definition of a solid raw-boned worker, every inch a PNW stud and one of my faves BUT I ain't never heard of this Danie Voges. I had to do me some googling and wikipediaing and cagematching on this one (not too much, RAF digs a mystery) and the results were... spotty. Apparently MB did a South African tour in '95, but even given the cultural lag of US fashion influences, this has gotta be late '80s. CLUES: y'see the camera frequently cuts to 2 Boer betties in their best Hill's Angels mall nu wave outfits, as well as the video quality and very light degree of grizzle and world-weariness in TAFKA Doink's dark visage. Therefore, we are in some Lethal Weapon-era Sun City kinda shite here, I hope the tears on those Krugerrands nae keep you up at night, laddie. Ah, well. As for Danie "The Hulk" (oy veh) Voges, he was active from 1982 to 1999, but here he is GREEN. I mean, grass can't describe it, goose shit neither - he is greener than Swamp Thing cuddling a leprechaun in a puddle of Mountain Dew slushie in field of kale in Emerald City. Borne audibly and visibly doesn't just call the match: he tells Voges what to do step by step. MB is patient, it must have been some payday, feeding and protecting this hapless Jo'burg baby. Old Afrikaaners serve drinks on trays, most of the men in the crowd look like Auric Goldfinger or a windburned farmer in an Ozploitation movie to my dull Amerikan eyes and the ring girl is so skinny,quoting the great Bo Diddley "she had to tie some knots in her legs to make some knees". The colors are white and ruddy and varicose. We got a UK style rounds system in play, and if you were not trained in that, it can be hard to keep your heat or tell a story. It hardly matters, as a fully competent 2nd gen Borne has to keep thing reeaal simple for the local hero here, who -to be honest- is over like heck. He makes Big Daddy look like a actual worker and Jack Veneno seem like Mitsuharu Misawa. Voges would later team with his half-brother Danie Brits as the Fighting Springboks in Puerto Rico for a short stay. In SA, he wrestled colorfully named opponents like The Mexican Mongol and Gypsy Roulette as well as US vets like Ox Baker, Black Bart, Bill Irwin and even a young Mark Calloway. DV placed #334 in the 1994 PWI 500. He appeared in the movie Prisoners Of The Lost Universe starring John Saxon (which is now on my Tubi queue). Thank you interWeb for the previous facts because there really wasn't much to talk about in this match. Nevertheless, I can still distill knowledge and learning from it. We can all learn the tolerance of a young Matt Bourne; if this was some late era bitter Reborne Again Tony, Voges would have gotten a mouthful of post-McMahon hydrocodone-fueled potatoes for his oafishness. Just when you think you got a handle on this rasslin' history thing, some wisenheimer like Matt D comes along and throws you a humbling curveball. Bive this thing a watch. It just as much a part of the wrestling mosiac as a ***** NJPW main event. Thank you, sir.

I am in awe of that Jericho match. Perfect pro wrestling. Masterful. He might have changed my Mox vote for WOTY. OCHOOOO! Good meaty story telling across the boards on this episode. AEW has shed its Punk skin. I heard somewhere somebody saying something along the lines of sprucing up the Dynamite set for a bigger show. Nah. Save that for the PPV. Let just Dynamite also be big. The weekly shows need to be important. All the time. More. Title matches on tv fucking rules.

According to Meltzer, Dynamite is getting a revamped look in January. Im excited to see what esthetic changes are made!

The person who got banned for that didn't get banned until after making a critical tweet about Elon Musk. There has been a huge increase of Nazis since he took over and has even brought back previously banned Nazis.

That *doesn't* get you banned these days.

Kurosawa Mode is great for GoT, but you're doing a massive disservice if you don't play it in standard color. It's one of the most gorgeous games I've ever played.

I...I don't even... I...

It's SAMMY GUEVARA! IT'S JON MOXLEY! Sammy attacks early! They brawl all around the ring! Sammy takes a Cutter like a FREAK! MOX lays it the fuck in to set up a Superplex! Sammy makes a comeback! Deuling Back Rakes! Sammy with a Double Stomp off the top to the apron! During picture in picture, Sammy rips out MOX's ear ring and THERE IS BLOOD! This is AWESOME. MOX'S BLOOD IN IN SAMMY'S MOUTH! Tay is fucking AWESOME smacking MOX in the face! This match is GREAT! Sammy with the Boston Crab! Sammy and MOX trade shots to the face! SAMMY HITS THE SOMERSAULT PLANCHA FROM THE TOP THROUGH MOX ON A TABLE! MOX with the Piledriver into the Bulldog Choke! Sammy takes the Lariat like Davey Boy Smith! Okay this match mirrors GUNTHER/Ricochet! Except THIS HAS BLOOD! DEATH RIDER BY SAMMY! SENTON ATOMICO BY SAMMY! FOR TWO! MOX rolls through the Spanish Fly off the top and PROCURES THE BULLDOG CHOKE FOR THE WIN! That was fucking GREAT. Sammy is fucking awesome. MOX is fucking AWESOME. Postmatch, Hangman fucking CRUSHES a security guard! I love that Evil Uno changed his shirt since it's NOW Friday! It's Britt Baker! She's a Yinzer! COOKIE TABLES! Butterfly Suplex by Britt! On picture in picture, Baker beats the hell out of Skye Blue! Jamie Hayter CHEATS! Baker is really beating the crap out of Skye. We are back! Skye has a little comeback! Britt Baker stomps on Blue's head for the win! Postmatch! Baker applies the Mandible Claw! Hikaru Shida does what everyone does, beats on Rebel on the ramp! Shida and Hayter face off! WARDLOW! EXODUS PRIME! Is he the NEW Action Andretti? No. Exodus Prime is not the new Action Andretti. Prime takes a Powerbomb LIKE A KING! Joe is the King of Television. JANE! TRENT versus TRENT! Oh, you KNOW that's a paddlin'! Trent Seven is fucking awesome. Kip Sabian USES A WALL OF LADIES! Oh man, Trent and Trent RULE the picture in picture. That is going to make me watch the International Feed tomorrow. Butcher and the Blade hit a DECAPITATION variation on Orange Cassidy! Kip Sabian then comes in and beats on Cassidy as Cawsidy assumes the role of our face in peril! Dustin makes the HOT TAG and its Power Slam Mania! Everybody flies to the floor! Bryce Remsberg milks the MOLTEN crowd for maximum effect of EJECTING PENELOPE AND THE BUNNY! TOPROPE EMERALD FROZIEN BY TRENT SEVEN! DUSTIN MAKES THE SAVE! DUSTIN WITH THE CANADIAN DESTROYER! MANY THINGS! HAPPEN! DUSTIN PINS SEVEN! Well, that was fun. MOX versus Sammy was fucking GREAT! AEW RULES THE WHOLE ENTIRE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD!

Picked up tickets to Dynamite in March. Even though we got them on the presale, we went with the cheapies. $45 is a lot better than $100. The arena is small enough that there really isn't a bad seat. It took some coordination, as we needed 8 tickets but they had a max of 6. Looking at the ticket distribution; floor seat are all sold out, most of the lower bowl facing the hard camera side is gone. Lower bowl opposite the camera has a couple sections wide open, but the middle three sections are all gone. Most of the upper bowl facing the hard camera is still available. They didn't open the upper bowl opposite to the cam and I would be really surprised if they did

I just saw where TK alluded to that in a recent interview somewhere. I'm hoping that with Michael Mansury's hiring from WWE that this doesn't mean LEDs all over everything - truss IS pro-wrestling - but I'll reserve judgment until I see it. And really, there have been very, very few times I've been let down by AEW visually/presentation-wise. They seem to have a willingness to accept feedback on those sorts of things, for example I remember TK giving credit to fans on Twitter for making suggestions on bringing back the natural crowd lights instead of the colored fills, and bringing back the announce table shot where the ring is behind them from the early shows. Hell, I remember one week during the Daily's era there were red mats around the ring - I and a few others said here the red reminded us too much of Raw, and they were never seen again. So even if it isn't absolutely perfect, I'm sure they'll make adjustments here and there. Overall, though, new or interesting venues/sets/entrance ramps/aisles are oddly one of my favorite aspects of wrestling-as-a-broadcast, so I'm looking forward to it.

I don't know an NFL GM sitting in a luxury box wearing a bow tie with no shirt would be hilarious.

I'd honestly replace Claudio with Joe. I think Joe has the name value and has been a world champion in numerous other places (TNA, NXT) so he has that big name that comes with him. Not a knock on Claudio, but for the fans eyes - I would think Samoa Joe would be a much better "name" to be at the top of the RoH hierarchy. Plus it gives the guy who beats him a "holy shit, he beat JOE" push as well. Plus AEW has MORE than enough hosses that they would suffice. Wardlow, Powerhouse Hobbs, BIG BILL, Archer, etc.

I am gonna enjoy me some プロレス　coffee while watching Rampage tomorrow. Then I am gonna enjoy crushing and trashing the Koji Kitao can.

Happy birthday to the late great Mr Brodie Lee xxx.

Yeah, the easiest and most believable way for MJF to retain in a match against Danielson is for Danielson to get himself DQed because he won't stop beating the shit out of MJF while caught in the grip of a vengeance driven state of blind fury. Maybe he even punches the ref?

YES!

The Moxley/Sammy match may have been the most AEW match I can think of in my tenure watching AEW. First it had Mox. Then it had one of the pillars in Sammy. The reason behind this match is that even though the neverending JAS/BCC feud is over apparently it's not. Match starts off really good and heated and then during the picture-in-picture Sammy bites off Mox's earring? WTF??? And Mox bleeds from his friggin ear??? Why did we have an earlobe ripping occur during the picture-in-picture? If you're going to have an earlobe ripping on some random Rampage, then at least make sure it's during live so we can get the full commentary and crowd reaction and not during some Kia commercial ad or whatever. Then we get to see Sammy do Sammy crazy stuff and Mox lay shit in on him. While Daniel Garcia watches with hopefully an angle that goes somewhere. Before Hangman comes out and we have a really friggin' great brawl. That was sloppy and needless. It was brutal and compelling. It was a lot of things in one glorious mess and I'm glad I watched that. Also, when was the last time there was a really heated face versus face feud where neither guy turned? Really great spin on things. The women's match was pretty bleh. Sky Blue is really green. (I had no idea what other word to use there, sorry.) I love Britt. She's like a heel Ruby in that she realizes her strengths are in character work and she can lean into that to overcome her not being a natural athlete. But Sky Blue is maybe trying a bit too hard and doesn't have great timing. It's still an average match, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. I also laughed really hard at Shida's outfit. I just love the thought of Shida sitting around the back trying on business suits with a sparkly halter in case the networking seminar becomes an orgy, all while wearing face paint and having a kendo stick. They did a nice job building to the match with Jamie Hayter. Joe as the "King of Television" rules so hard. May his reign never end. That main event absolutely ruled. It was everything I wanted in a Best Friends/Dustin versus Kip/Seven/Butcher + Blade. Another point for anyone who wants to make the argument that OC is the best worker of 2022. There was so much great stuff in this match from the goofy (Orange and Danhausen doing a fakeout on Penelope and The Bunny) to the really great fun dives with Dustin getting the pinfall in Texas in an awesome touch. Well-paced throughout. I am thinking that Dustin is a huge Orange and Best Friends fan. How can anyone who loves wrestling in all its ridiculous glory not be a huge OC and Best Friends fan?

Back for a match so John Cena's 2002-2022 streak will continue.

IYO SKY! DAKOTA KAI! TEGAN NOX! LIV MORGAN! This is the first time I've seen Tegan Nox wrestle. Tegan Nox is the Danny Glover to Liv Morgan's Mel Gibson in their Lethal Weapon of a tag team! Nox with the enormous PLANCHA off the top to the floor! Oh man! SUNSET FLIP POWERBOMB TO THE FLOOR! Great Dropkick by IYO! Someone kicks Tegan Nox in the face! Fucking BEAUTIFUL Moonsault by IYO for the win! That was fun! Iiiiit's GUNTHER! It's Ricochet! This will be a clash of styles. GUNTHER is more fun not in style clashes. He's more of a guy who does well against other guys who beat the shit out of dudes. Ricochet spends the early part of the match avoiding GUNTHER's skullcrushing. THEN! GUNTHER kicks him over the top rope and starts beating the hell out of him and we go to a commercial. We return and GUNTHER just REALLY beats the shit out of Ricochet. GREAT fucking BACKBREAKER by GUNTHER. Jesus, it must just SUCK to wrestle GUNTHER. GUNTHER is fuckin' Wahoo McDaniel. Ricochet's offense looks so weak in his comeback but he presses forward! SUWA Dropkick on Ricochet! Dropkick off the apron by Ricochet. A very large ASAI MOONSAULT! TOPE CON HILO by Ricochet! Jesus, what a fuckin LARIAT by GUNTHER. Shooting Star Press FOR TWO! The crowd is MOLTEN! POWERBOMB! FOR TWO! GUNTHER WITH THE EMERALD FROZIEN! FOR THE WIN! That was great! Ricochet did the Rey Mysterio match and GUNTHER sold it all like a champ. That was great. Oh gross! A tag team TRIPLE THREAT! I don't see any of these dudes takin the belts off the Usos. Legado del Fantasma are all about the springboards. Top Dollah doesn't hit the Tope Con Hilo! The gals get involved! Hit Row are going to beat the Usos? Oh, I don't know. That GUNTHER/Ricochet match fucking RULED.

Awesome!

Correct. My question is how you decide one is a draw and the other isn’t. WM main event aside, Charlotte and Sasha have had fairly similar careers. You can make a case for Charlotte being a draw just as well as you can for Sasha. But there are a lot of factors that we can’t know. I don’t who sells more merch or who is more likely to still be motivated in five years. I’d also want to know if Sasha has any physical issues that might make me reluctant to back the truck up for her. No way to know that unless you’re whichever doctor WWE uses. My guess would be Sasha, Becky, and Charlotte all all going to be physical wrecks in five years. I’d be inclined to pay Sasha whatever she wants. Not many free agents out there with even minimal star power and they don’t want her going to AEW. WWE badly needs star power right now. On the other hand, if I had to pick two of three to pay, Sasha would probably be the odd woman out. She seems most likely to change careers in the next five years. Then again, Becky is the one with the family. And, honestly, I might make completely different choices if I was running the business and was around them every day, had better information. Hard to say. Fans always think they know everything about everything, and the truth is we know a lot less than the owner, the general manager, the coaches, agents, etc.

A good portion of the main events are right place, right time. Austin vs. Goldberg should have been a main event. Never happened. The two biggest stars in pro wrestling the last two decades of the 20th century Steve Austin and Hulk Hogan should have been a Mania main event. Didn't happened. WWE much like boxing and UFC operate based on what they have in front of them come January going into late March/early April or whenever their hot season is. Injuries, contract disputes, hiatuses, etc. all come into play. You don't have the ability largely anymore to do 1 or 2 year storylines like you had during the height of WWF in the late eighties and sort of the rebirth in the late 90s. However, if it sells, it sells. If you have the ability to sell something and it works out, then maybe the people involved in deserve a payday. Does it mean that over the life of the deal, they deserve it? That's debatable. It's always been debatable. A Terence Crawford makes about 2 to 5 million per fight with Top Rank every 6 months and loses money every time Top Rank tries to put him on PPV. I cannot really be mad that Bob Arum decides not to renew his contract. However, a Terence Crawford can find a company to pay him $10 million for a one off tuneup fight like he just did and stay a free agent...I cannot be too mad at him either. WWE is in a much better place financially than a Top Rank. So whatever data people wanna use to determine who deserves what is largely irrelevant. They have the money to pay anyone. The question is will that person get it? If wrestling pay was still based on the houses, A LOT of folks would be in trouble.

Satnam Singh got a nice write up the New York Times Nothing too groundbreaking in the write-up but there's some good pictures of him horsing around with Powerhouse Hobbs and wearing a sweet-ass AEW jean jacket.

Man, i'm sure he's on the same kind of WWE Legends deal as Bret where it's prohibited, but GOD a Mick Foley one-off appearance where he tells Mox he's gone too far, and he needs to lay off it for the sake of his family, but Mox is just too hardcore and wants Hanger TONOYT? Put it in my blooooood Edit: realizing he can give Hangman the same speech about the head injury (not sure if they want to go there, as NFL owners, but that story about the phone wallpaper Page told in Wednesday's promo definitely had some 'cane Dewey' in it's DNA, IMO). Special ref?

The rotating in-and-out is great for the workers' health, and I know a lot of TK's more unconventional booking could be chalked up to a necessity for 'audience re-training' after 20+ years of what was functionally a monopoly, but Miro needs to be on TV - early, and often. Long term planning is wonderful -- and there's certainly a valid criticism to be made of much of AEW's competition for never having those types of plans in place anymore-- but in this TV contract year, where we've had more than a couple very noticable, very apparent swings-and-misses with regard to adjusting creative due to injuries (and possibly untreated personality disorders...) AND with a massive building booked for Revolution in March, I really, really think it would behoove AEW to turn every TV between now and then into an all-hands situation. This was a kick ass episode, and I have very, very little to complain about, but for me, now seems like the time to be throwing out cards with nothing but names, names, names. Don't get me wrong: Gunn Club is over as fuck in my house, and I 110% understand the value in planning for the more distant future, but if I'm Coach TK and I'm trying to max out every single quarter hour to the Nth degree in the service of expanded TV revenue, I'm going with no one but the pillars, and semi-already proven commodities for the next three months.

I don't think this game got nearly enough hype and it got plenty of hype. It's legitimately one of the greatest games ever made and it's probably the most artistically beautiful open world I've ever played. I get why someone would like to play Kurosawa mode, but the use of color in the regular mode is fucking amazing. If i ever play Kurosawa mode, it will be on maybe a 3rd playthrough, because I just want to ride through the countryside looking at the colors.

If that’s true she has every right to walk away! The same thing in WCW when Flair wasn’t getting paid the same amount has PIper and Savage!

Who are you to doubt Action Jackson?

No, copyrighted material is copyrighted material. The person that even releases doesn't technically own the footage once they upload it. Now they (the uploaders) have every right to take it down themselves per whatever agreement you agree to once you start an account, but the websites put the watermark on the video for a reason. Moreover, a good number of people who start uploading adult material behind a paywall hire services to scrub leaked material off websites with the reason being copyright violations. Most of the time, the websites agree to remove that material because someone (another website) owns that material that isn't the person who uploaded on their website. Now obviously, you can probably find stuff that was thought to have been scrubbed. However, you're going to have to dig for it. On a much larger scale, the whole 'I bought this high priced service/content so I must own it" thing kinda played out a few years ago when the UFC started going after piracy hard. Not only did they go after the various websites, but they also went after the bars and other establishments playing UFC PPV events. Now these owners thought, "well since I purchased the PPV, it's just like when I have a few friends over and watch the fight". They ordered it, popped it on one or two big screen TVs, and charged admission to watch it. They didn't know that is basically a huge violation of UFC copyright. They were selling material they didn't own. You see...UFC made a deal with a company called Joe Hand Promotions. In order for any nightclub, bar, sports bar, high school looking for an extracurricular event, restaurant, or movie theater to get permission to show a UFC PPV, they have to go through Joe Hand Promotions (they may have a new company now for that fwiw). If they don't, that's considered piracy as if you went online and watched it for free on some website. Yes, even if you paid for it with your ESPN+ account and purchased the PPV separately. Purchasing something doesn't mean you own the rights to it. You buy a copy of Thriller, you don't own a prized piece of Michael Jackson's publishing catalog. You just have the right to listen to it. The whole reason why more women and men (celebrity or not) are taking to these websites is they do have the choice to set whatever price they want. Now obviously, a Toni Storm can charge more than just some cute chick who works as a sandwich artist at Subway. However, that doesn't mean the latter cannot charge a ridiculous amount for a picture of her in a two piece. These websites are basically eBay for adult content (well, that use to be Craigslist and Backpage but you get my point). You're going to get jipped, but hey, you will find a gem or two along the way.

Played through a chunk of the opening of Ghost of Tsushima, only just got my sword back. Inject this into my motherfucking veins; it took more willpower than expected to not turn on Kurosawa Mode. Next playthrough. Glad I have an XBone, though; I wouldn't want to tie up SSD space on this thing with apps like Netflix and whatnot and then feel bad about it later. I don't know which tier of PS+ I'll sign up for, but it seems a given I'll pick one of them before the sale ends. Possibly Extra just because it lets me try out GoW and the Spider-Man games with no other commitment. I'm also morbidly curious how janky Skyrim & Fallout 4 are on this console.

Apparently Jericho wanted to do this angle after the QT match but they had to put it on hold due to him becoming the Ocho that's part of the fun

Just rewatched the Andretti-Jericho match, this is the type of shit that makes me love pro wrestling. They teased the upset masterfully a couple of times near the end but you could tell everyone was waiting for the eventual Judas Effect out of nowhere that ends so many Jericho matches. I love when you’re watching a guy having arguably the best moment of his life on camera, such a feel good moment.

AAA has uploaded the Meltzer-certified ***** Vikingo vs. Laredo Kid match from October:

Honestly took me several hours to get Seven on Seven violence.... With how slim Dustin has been looking and reports of Cody being up to 240 do you suppose their respective weights are in some sort of equilibrium?

OUR winner IS... Josh Alexander vs Speedball Mike Bailey- IMPACT!! Second place is Konosuke Takeshita vs Jon Moxley- RAMPAGE, followed closely by Darby Allin vs Samoa Joe- DYNAMITE!

Seconded - I was a massive QT hater for the first year or two of AEW, but at this point, he's done enough great things to totally shed the stink of being 'Cody's buddy' for me.

Dave Meltzer:

Fighting out of the NFC West champions corner, The San Francisco 49ers and BRRROOOCCCK (purdy) .

Ted McGinley was AWESOME on Married With Children. "Having sex with your pregnant wife is like putting gas in your car after you've already wrecked it."