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I know we've been positive about it here, but I'm not sure it's been emphasized just how fucking great that Danielson/Rush match was. That was a goddamn war.

Clearly, the Khan booking style puts a lot of emphasis on fresh matches/interactions, and to the point of frustration. The lack of title rematches in particular has always felt like a mistake and a hurdle for this 3 years in booker. The Dax Harwood pod this week talking about the first Bucks match and the frustrations with having no follow-up is a great example of this. That said, when laying out the fantasy book, is there enough consideration of the reality of the situation - the injuries, the politics, and all other unforeseen circumstances? You make mention of Miro, who is a great example. We certainly don't know all of the details, but the talk is Miro turned down booking plans because he didn't like them - I think this is pretty well known. He turned them down while his wife takes to podcast interviews stirring up shit with headline leading remarks. Maybe the booking Miro was offered was shitty and he was smart to pass. Or maybe the Meltzer-shared talk of these ex-WWE superstars, with WWEPSTD, refusing to do jobs, etc. is a more accurate account of what's happening. Maybe beloved Miro isn't being a good team player? House of Black is another great example. Matthews and Black were both asking for releases as soon as 'Paul' got in charge and illegally came calling. Are those the kinda guys you really want to put over your company guys/top stars having excellent matches on TV every week? I don't disagree with your Claudio remark, but it's also pretty clear he's long been earmarked for the upcoming ROH show. A show that has taken a long time to get going. Annoyingly long perhaps, but who here has ever tried to negotiate a TV deal while trying to relaunch an entire company? A situation which changes drastically when it's launched on a little known App as opposed to national television. Further, it's fairly safe to assume the increased size of the roster over the past year or so has something to do with this soon-to-be-arriving ROH weekly. I love and see great potential with the Gunns, but I agree they aren't there yet. Oh well, something didn't hit as well as it should have. Not such a big deal. I haven't seen any significant reports of any Mercedes-AEW negotiations, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened, and seems like a stretch to assume it hasn't. I'm not so sure we can rightfully assume it's a simple matter of money with Ms. Mo-nay. I agree that the Khan booking is sometimes frustrating, but it's a lot more difficult for me to overlook the amount of FUN and successes happening every goddamn week. Rush-Danielson just had one of the best TV matches I've ever seen. And it was followed up by a Trios title match that has become the norm as opposed to the jaw dropping talked about match it would have been before AEW started. I watch WWE these days (with a FFWD button close), and it's such a good reminder of all the little things AEW does so well that get overlooked. Simple things like pinfall/submission finishes, respecting tag teams and tag team wrestling, the lack of longwinded promos, the abondment of magic cameras, and all the other awful formulaic McMahon tropes. Complaining is easy, but so is being grateful for what this terrific pro wrestling company is working fabulously hard to offer on a weekly basis.

Because EVERYBODY loves the Acclaim

Ruby is pretty much #1 of someone who went from good to great jumping from WWE to AEW. I absolutely love everything she's doing.

All the monster movies - have Dom fighting The Mummy, Invisible Man, Wolfman, etc...

Gonna tell the kids this was Sting and Big Poppa Pump

Dynamite keeps dishing out PPV-level bouts while Rampage goes kinda indie and weird and unpredictable and I am LOVING IT!! Mox, Claudio, and Wheeler vs Butcher,Blade, & Kip! Sure! Why not! Mox and Butcher gonna LAY IT IN on one another for sure. Marina vs Ruby! Should be violent! Orangey Boy defends the All Atlantic Championship Title Belt against Tiga Style! Yes! This is the kind of match that I personally watch AEW for. This, Emi vs Hayter, Eddie Kingston vs QT Marshall... Just two folks who are very very good at pro wrestling going out there and having some fun beating each other up. Nothing better, in my way of looking at things. Reportedly also: Jungle Boy vs Hollywood Hunk! Random enough matchup for me. Can Perry pull a fun match outa Nemeth? Probably! JAS come out to confront The Impractical Jokers w/r/t the rightful ownership of Floyd The Bat in a segment I simply cannot imagine anyone I know giving half a runny shit about but who knows maybe it will be entertaining. We'll hear from Mark Briscoe! That is a positive development! Will he announce a new tag team partner? Will it be the start of the tastefully executed non-"I did it for Eddie" style Mark Briscoe face run I wished for on Dean's thread? Will Terry Funk be name-dropped? I'm actually stoked for a "We'll hear from" segment! About 24.5 hours to go! I like having stuff to look forward to every week.

Hey do you think Wheeler's emerald green and white/silver gear is meant as a tip of the hat to someone or something from pro wrestling's past? Like how Eddie Kingston's black and yellow gear is a nod to Toshiaki Kawada? I think It might be. Not sure who, though. Ooooo. Darby & Ortiz vs Mad King & ? YEAH! LET'S GO! I think the Impractical Jokers were actually talking about Jericho's penis. You might have missed that because it was so subt!e and clever. Swerve vs Dustin should be great. I think if I HAD TO choose one, I'd rather watch Dana White Presents Slapfighting over Impractical Jokers. Fortunately, I do not have to watch either. I CHOOSE PRO WRESTLING! I enjoyed Ruby's confused/conflicted facial expressions. Josh Woods vs Mark Briscoe should be great. "Swoleverine" is pretty funny, in my opinion. But so is "Gordlow" in my opinion. So, my opinion about what's funny might not count for much. Speaking of: "I ate his ass..." - Hangman Page. Nice pop for The AEW All Atlantic Champion. VERY fun main event with a couple of ROUGH-looking bumps. As always, hats off to Satnam's tailor.

Regal Plex!

"It's miiiinnnneee! All MIIIIINNNNEEE!" *snooooooooooooorrrrt* "Ok, now I'm ready to put over The Bushwhackers in a non-title match for the third time this week... fired? The hell you mean fired?!?"

No arguments to speak of - I'm not a star guy (my personality is such that I want to rate most matches I watch as 'Everyone tried really hard, hopefully had fun, and made good money') but just for fun/boredom's sake, if I had to rate these three, I think I'm with you Natural on Friedman/Takeshita, and I'm with Dave on the six-man.

Amitriptyline and Trazodone are the anti-depressants. Trazodone works great the first two weeks, shame you can't bottle that up for the rest. Amitriptyline been decreased giving me headaches. Thank you for opening up about your mental health, I so can identify with what you said. Further thanks for the much love and well-deserved peace, I hope to find that. Thanks to JL Sigman, gatling, you, twiztor, NikoBaltimore and Shartnado liking my post. Conscious too that I don't sound like on repeat detailing my mental/physical difficulties with the Cerebral Palsy when everyone here has their own things going on, not needing mine alongside. It's been difficult this week which is why I haven't replied sooner sorting out Mum's belongings properly since losing her nine years this June giving some of her clothes to charity. Really emotional. Years ago I got rid of some jumpers Mum knit as they were too big for me having lost all the weight I had. I wasn't to know what was to happen to Mum. Hindsight is so not a wonderful thing. It's a right bitch. Regretted it ever since and always will. I've found two cardigans my Mum knit her Dad, my Grandad today. My Grandad was like a second Dad to me which fit me so that was a most moving moment. Been talking to a new counselor called Deborah the last few weeks. Hope it doesn't go tits up like the last who really upset and let me down. Mental illness is really difficult, depression and fighting your mind, your thoughts daily. The self-harme and suicidal thoughts. Just have to cancel out the downers and carry on fighting the good fight. We can be our own harshest critic. I can identify with Robin Williams: "I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy. Because they know what it's like to feel absolutely worthless and they don't want anybody else to feel like that". There's two quotes I go by, the first by far from my late great Mum who said: "As long as you try your best, that's all that counts." The second: "When there's love, there's hope but a little luck wouldn't hurt" from Batman: The Animated Series. Thanks for reading and the support. This community is the best. Paul xxx.

I...

BABYFACE FUN FRIEND DERP I think Mox is the Ace and very much the MVP of the promotion when he was needed most. Very likely he will always be that figure of the protector of AEW. I will exclude him from this super baby face list. I will also exclude Jericho who is the original big name and Danielson who I don’t believe wants the role. Any of these people could be put as the face of the company and do a wacky cereal commercial, but this ramble derp is for new potential top stars. Also, I’m not going off of personal favorites. This is more throwing names on how I think it might work to sell toys. Adam Cole - Merch mover and beloved by his fans. He is a sweetheart and a I am dearly in love with him while he plays video games. Likely could be a genuine kind believable babyface. My concern is that he plays the character of cocky arrogant slimeball so perfectly, can he muster that cool aura as a face? I’m not familiar enough with his work to know an example. His kindness points to him as a potential face. But on UUDD he is very ditzy and self-deprecating to the point of being the butt of the joke. I’m not sure that can be transitioned into top star, but maybe? If he can combine the confidence of his heel persona with his real life softness, you got a star. Hangman Adam Page - He was the focal point in what may be the best story arc of the company (so far). Great baby face that adds a relatable dimension of overcoming personal flaws and shortcomings. He could be an advocate for mental health and a positive role model. My concern is what is next for him to transcend him to the next level of super star? More Elite stories? Another title run? Like everyone else, it’ll be completely depended on booking. The Elite - BTE was a big part of why this company exists. The Bullet Club merch was insane. They have super fans. Elite is in the name of the company. My concern is they prefer being kinda heels. They’re odd tweeners at times, which I like but maybe might not be good examples for what I’m rambling about. Brit Baker - So much charisma. Already a big part of the company and it’s history. She’s been in great matches and as a heel has won the respect and admiration of the fans. My concern is she’s a better heel. Even getting cheers, her being mean to rebel and mocking the fans might be the best way to go. Eddie Kingston - He’s your Mic Foley. When he defies the odds and becomes Champion we will all cry and celebrate. My concern is that never happens. Be it booking reasons cutting off his momentum or just the opportunities not being there. Hopefully he is the one to beat MJF. Darby Allin - All the children will paint their face like his. He could be the It guy. Sting giving him the super rub and pass the torch could be what leads him. Very daring and tackles all comings head first (literally). My concern is he’ll be booked to always be beatable because of his style. Which may not be a bad thing, maybe fearless vulnerability adds to the aura. A few of you want him to beat MJF. Personally, I want him to overcome a monster. Swerve Strickland - He has the cool factor and a lot of connections. He could legitimately be in movies and music videos with Rick Ross and other cool artists. It just makes sense after his heel run to eventually turn him face. He seems like a nice person in interviews. My concern is I really haven’t seen enough of his work and I’m speaking out of my ass here. He just comes across like a star. Ricky Starks - Hot dang he has charisma. Very unorthodox with his delivery and stature but I feel that’s what makes him special. Like a lot of the people I mentioned, very handsome. He looks like money. Could be a great face or heel. My concern is he is in the Jericho vortex. Once he wins that feud, hopefully he can capitalize on some big moments. Jade Cargill - SHE JUST LOOKS LIKE A STAR. Everything about her presentation is just so money. My concern is the experience level. She’s not ready now. But if she keeps improving, the world is her oyster. Wardlow - I don’t think he’s ruined. With the right booking and the right wrestler, anyone can bounce back from loss of momentum. The trick is after his biggest feud, he should derp against the Sterling Studs. Powerbomb Symphony is cool and the fans get into it. If done right, him fighting Joe will be good and get him back on to. If he can manage good competitive matches while still looking strong, neat. My concern is that after powerbombing fools does he have enough to maintain interest from the core fan base? I assume so but I’m an optimist. Fennix - He had a singles run before his first injury that was very impressive! He wowed a lot of people. I assume he can do that again if booked in a position to be a singles star. My concern is his manager. Also, I do the will be given the opportunity and will stay either a trio or a tag. Pentagon - The perfect wrestler. No concerns. Jungle Boy - Super cute. Son of an actor. My concern is he’s nowhere near ready and an awkward promo. I don’t see it anytime soon. But he is very young and very good looking. Hook - read Jungle Boy but replace actor with Taz. Luther - read Jungle Boy and Hook but replace actor and Taz with Satan. Will Hobbs - He’s the right answer. My concern is we don’t deserve nice things. CM Punk - Whaaaaat? Probably not but if it is true that the Young Bucks will leave, why not keep the biggest draw they’ve ever had? My concern is everyone fights each other and he gets hurt after winning the title again. Not worth it despite how much I loved his run here. I’m tired of typing. The end.

Because he supported Regal and Regal turned on Mox, Yuta no longer respects him as well.

AEW is so frustrating to me, because they've got all the pieces to be one of the best promotions ever, but the way the company is booked is always holding them back. It's like, there's all these cool people, but half of them don't interact with one another, or just disappear for weeks on end, while you have guys like Jericho (who I still think has value) just constantly in my face. I mean, Claudio is one of the best wrestlers in the world, but what is he fucking around with? They couldn't come up with anything for Miro? Come on. Don't give me the trying to be an actor bullshit. Give him a fucking angle to sink his teeth into. Cut the supernatural/talk in riddles nonsense with House of Black. You've got three badass wrestlers with unique looks and their spooky gothy chick and they never do anything cool. Have them roll over the Elite and dominate the trios division, or have Brody and Buddy win the tag belts with Black talking for them. Instead they put the belts on those mid as fuck, London and Kendrick Smackdown tag title challenger-looking motherfuckers the Gunns. Tony has fuck you money, so throw the fucking bag at Mercedes already, give her a big-ass entourage of hangers-on/lackies and have her feud with Hayter. This is an incredible roster of talent, but I feel like its only being used to like 50-60% of its potential, and that makes me sad.

It's a perfect 40! I think I know what I'm voting for- RUSH vs Bryan Danielson. I'm just baffled as to why Meltzer didn;t give it 5 stars. Your best WWE match was JD McDonagh vs Cormello Hayes, though I really dug Damien Priest vs Angelo Dawkins. New Japan BRUNG IT with the Zack Sabre Jr vs Tomohiro Ishii TV title match and the Naito/Kenou match from AXS. All the CMLL is good. The best fringe stuff is a.) EDDIE KINGSTON in CWFH against Danny Limelight, b.) the far weirder HAMMERSTONE in CWFH against Ortiz, c.) the TRULY GREAT WOW match between the Mother Truckers and Miami Sweet Heat. What a great week of wrestling.

That Dustin/Moguls promo was something else. Maybe I missed the set-up but was there any reason why Dustin, wearing half face-paint, was hanging around a commercial property development construction site? I thought “I like Doritos!” would be the quote of the night but… Then Moguls affiliates comes out are there. I love the wrestling ridiculousness behind it. Did they just follow Dustin around all day and then saw he was doing an interview in the future basement of a mixed use property and decide it was time to strike? Or were they already at the site because Swerve, as a mogul, has invested in future workspace opportunities, and saw Dustin and an AEW announcer wandering in and decided to lay The Natural out? Treach or whatever his name is also has a very steady hand holding a camera. Either way, Swerve wishing Dustin a “Happy Black History Month” was a great line. This was a great “let’s analyze wrestling logic” segment and man we are getting a Swerve versus Dustin Rhodes match, which is something I did not know I needed but man we need this more than anything in our troubled time.

We need more Texas tornado tag team matches in wrestling.

I loved the acknowledgement of the invisible backstage camera at the end.

Sheamus and Drew McIntyre take on Hit Row! Ashante the Adonis bumps all over the ring for Drew! Then for Sheamus! Then Sheamus beats on Top Dollah! Then he goes back to beating on Adonis. Yakuza Kick by Sheamus for the win! Hit Row's push looks a little suspect and appears to have hit a sort of roadblock. It's Lacey Evans! It's Little Mean Kathleen! Evans lays it in! COBRA CLUTCH! It's Ricochet and Brawn Strohman! They are up against JIMMY! And suddenly JEY! Ricochet gets in a lot of offense and Brawn Strohman and he hit some really great double teams before Ricochet settles into taking an ass beating from the Usos. Strowman is lumbering freight train of a house afire! Several SUPERKICKZ PAAARTAY! Ricochet tags in and it all kinda comes to a halt. On the Shoulders Swanton FOR TWO! Jey ducks Strowman into the POUNCE AREA! FUN finish as Jey secretly tags Jimmy and Ricochet hits a Shooting Star Press on Jimmy as Jey hits the Splash on Ricochet for the win! That was good. Allright! Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville are tagging together. AWESOME! They get to get beaten to death by Raquel Rodriguez! And there is Liv Morgan! Is she still crazy? Morgan and Deville are good in the ring together. Deville and Green are trying to avoid the VADERIZATION of tagging in Raquel. Raquel tags in and VADERIZES Deville and then REALLY CRUSHES Green! That was fine. OH CRAP! A FOUR WAY! It's Scarlett! I wish she would wrestle more. She is a secret good wrestler. It's Madcap Moss! I had forgotten about him. It's Santos Escobar! It's all the guys we've all kinda hadn't thought about much lately. It's Rey Mysterio! We've been concentrating on his HEAT MACHINE son a lot more lately. I guess Karrion Kross vs GUNTHER would be the best match out of this since just did Rey vs GUNTHER. Moss runs a lot between turnbuckles. Escobar and Rey is pretty cool. Moss makes these cameo appearance of running across the ring. This is kinda awkward and clunky as a match. Madcap Moss gets the win! I don't think he will beat GUNTHER! That was perfectly okay pro wrestling.

Because of problems with this board, I had to write it down all over again.... AJPW army and Nextream have combined into one. Two of the rookies would like to join Nextream. So it's now main unit/Nextream, Voodoo-Murders, GOA, Suzuki's 新ユニット or just "New Unit" in english. Evolution is a tag for now with Nagata with them as in Co-op relationship.

Back in my day, all you needed to impress a woman was an '82 Mustang 4 cylinder, a mullet, and an "I broke Wahoo's leg" shirt.

Yeah. Oh, just on the mic? Nevermind.

I've got one of the Andre hoodies and I love it. Yeah, stuff's expensive there, but it's quality. One of these days, I'm going to pull the trigger on a Bret hoodie.

The hilarious side note to this is that according to the Indianapolis Star, Saturday has apparently been calling Irsay directly and appealing his case to stay on. He did so after finding out about a Colts' fans petition to not re-hire him.

Mika Kafka and Brian Callahan are also out per Jeremy Fowler. lol it's really gonna be Jeff Saturday again.

lol Brody King liked a tweet that said CM Punk did nothing wrong

Even the haters have to admit that Punk winning the belt the second time got Tony to get off his "interim" bullshit. So it wasn't all bad.

Blindsided by this announcement. Hate to hear it, but glad it isn't due to injury. I hope she has a healthy and happy next phase of her life. Thank you Himeka.

When I decided I wanted a Vita, I bought PlayStationTV instead. I was one of the few. (For anyone who does not remember this, it was a short-lived Vita spin-off that connects to a tv or monitor and plays most Vita games that don’t require the touch screen. It flopped almost immediately.)

Meltzer: MJF vs. Konouske Takeshita: ****1/4. Bryan Danielson vs. RUSH: ****3/4. The Elite (c) vs AR Fox/Top Flight: ****1/2. Natural: MJF vs. Konouske Takeshita: ****1/2. Bryan Danielson vs. RUSH: ****3/4. The Elite (c) vs AR Fox/Top Flight: ****.

Surprised that Don Coryell wasn't in the Hall of Fame already. Granted he wasnt a very successful playoff coach but extremely innovative coach and could argue one of the coaches responsible for turning the NFL into a passing league Good seeing Chuck Howley and Joe Thomas in there. Thomas has to be top 10 in greatest players in last 20 years that was on terrible teams.

Ooh, maybe a Nassau County policeman costs him the title because he's the knucklehead who made their job that much more difficult for a few days.

Mark Wahlberg is FAT!

Weird no one is talking about Orange Cassidy.

I popped the trophy for completing Tsushima NG+. All that's left are these Legends trophies that I will never even try to get. MP-dependent trophies suck. I had (and still have somewhere) a GBA SP, but I mostly played FirePro on it. The GBA NSO app is definitely the one that allows me to play stuff that I missed out on more than any of the others. I was glad to start playing the Mario 3 port, which I still have the physical cart for. I also started Superstar Saga and Minish Cap, which are GORGEOUS games. The best GBA games had some elite-level sprite work and art direction.

Hope Satnam and the gang are ready. https://www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/aew-paul-wight-big-show-hoping-to-return-to-action-in-march?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Hindsight's 20/20, but Hangman should've beat Punk.

Lost an update to the DVDVR login gremlins. Shoulder is more like 64% I'd say, but I don't count my chickens. Seeing a physio next week. Got a PR on the SSB Pin GM - 110kg x 3. Reverse band machine hack squats tomorrow.

I agree that the narrative walls that are put up between segments / programs in AEW seem higher than other promotions. Every segment is its own little universe with practically zero cross-pollination. I’d love to see TK lean into his inner Heyman or…dear God…Russo, and have the personalities on his roster interact more. It doesn’t have to be huge stuff, but little things backstage or or coming to / from the ring where these characters from other parts of the map interact. Like how fun would a 30 second HoB / Danhausen interaction be? Stuff like that to glue the roster together.

Ricky Starks and Darby Allin are the two guys off the top of my head that they should be building towards for that spot, or at least thinking about. If we're talking about someone who's ready to step into the role of top babyface now, I'd say there probably isn't a real need. Hangman should really be the guy and hopefully they can get him back on track because they really messed up with him.

I am also not an action figure guy, but I have to admit that this new Jamie Hayter one looks AMAZING!

Honourable mentions to MJF vs. Konosuke Takeshita, Zack Sabre Jr vs. Tomohiro Ishii and Ruby Soho vs. Marina Shafir.

Jalen Duren's response to the Wiseman trade: 30 pts, 17 rebs, 3 ast, 4 blocks. Yeah, it's double OT against the Spurs, but if there was ever a time to come out and stake your claim...

Lol, my wife thinks HDMI switchers are the worst invention ever. What happened is that, when I found out hdmi switchers were a thing, I installed them on all our tvs and now we have sooooo many more devices connected throughout the house. I have the Xbox, Switch, and PS5 connected to a tv in one room snd several retro consoles connected in another. The downside is that we have lots and lots of power cables everywhere and it bugs the heck out of her when she cleans. She’s a bit of a neat-nik.

Damn.. that's bad news. hope they return!

Thanks to MJF for that bullshit

A.i. Dave Meltzer has his delivery down. For real, I showed the Roman Calling Into WOR one to my girlfriend and she thought it was real. This is going to be the downfall of humanity

Now that the various things distracting me from old NXT (College Bowl Games, the Australian Open, late time slot College Basketball, books, etc) aren't in the way, it's time to get back to 2012 NXT. S6 E20 (October 31st, 2012) The Usos vs Johnny Curtis and Curtis McGillicutty: We start with more Usos. We start with more Joe Hennig. A fitting way to resume watching this show. The heels squabble amongst themselves before the bell. Got some early "Samoan no-selling of headshots" in this one. Interesting inverted atomic drop/clothesline combo move since there probably weren't many inverted atomic drops being done in 2012. Hot tag to Jey, and then Usos win after pinning McGillicutty with a top rode splash. Afterwards, the Ascension stares menacingly from whatever you'd call a balcony in this arena. TV Announcer talks with Trent Baretta before a glasses wearing Kassius Ohno interrupts. I believe Ohno was almost wearing Terry Richardson shades here. ROMAN REIGNS DEBUTS (on NXT) TONIGHT (is he gonna be good?) Antonio Cesaro is still hanging around this show and he'll defend the US Title against Tyson Kidd Xavier Woods vs Leo Kruger: Xavier Woods with lots of lights on his tron and generic music. Stellar hair too. Leo Kruger is still acting weird. Kruger wins after a few minutes with his neckbreaker. Byron talks to Big E. Langston about his five count. Big E., and his long since dropped accent, loves the number five. Vickie Guerrero shows up to interrupt this speech. Big E claps some weightlifting powder towards her to drive her off. Jinder Mahal wants a match for the NXT title but Justin Gabriel cuts that off to get some mic time to suggest Seth Rollins vs Justin Gabriel. Drew McIntyre comes out to also talk about beating Seth Rollins. Then Bo Dallas comes out to also talk. It's his turn (I wonder how he didn't get over as a face). Dusty Rhodes decides to come out before any more wrestlers emerge. All four of these guys will face each other next week in a #1 contenders match. CJ Parker vs Roman Reigns: With how Reigns' upperbody looked around this time, naturally they put a vest on him for years after his main roster debut. Nice leaping forearm and single arm DDT-ish move from Reigns that he probably hasn't used much in years. Reigns wins with a back suplex into a sidewalk-ish slam. All the trademark stuff wasn't used here. Nice of him to show up on this show before the Shield debuts on the big roster. Antonio Cesaro vs Tyson Kidd: For the record, Jim Ross is still showing up to commentate main events on this show. This was a really good match which you could probably guess from it being Cesaro vs Tyson Kidd. Elevated uppercut and Neutralizer and Cesaro wins this one. S6 E21 (November 7th, 2012) Kassius Ohno vs Trent Baretta: Early ring apron-aided stomp by Ohno. Ohno wins after a few minutes with the roaring elbow. Baretta foils a postmatch beatdown leading Ohno to tumble to the floor. Corey Graves vignette talking about his tattoos. Big E. Langston vs Memo Montenegro: I'd describe Memo as looking like "what if Alberto Del Rio's ring announcer was a little taller and decided to work as NXT enhancement". Big E wins with the Big Ending really quick. The ref denies him a five count to save Memo Montenegro's dignity. Another Big Ending and Big E does a five count. Vickie Guerrero pops up to put a $5000 bounty on Big E. Chad Baxter shows up to try and take the bounty, gets the Big Ending and gets five-counted. Jason Jordan vs Luke Harper: Hey we got Bray back on this show for the first time since a July 2012 episode. "All you do is talk" - Jason Jordan (just wait, Jason!). Bray and Jason Jordan exchange words before Harper comes out to make his NXT show debut. Harper beats Jordan with a spinning Bossman slam. Bray announcers Harper as the first son of the Wyatt family postmatch. Roman Reigns comes out to talk to Byron Saxton. His suit game is on point. Roman dismisses Byron quickly. Amazing it took like 7 years to get Roman's character work back to this point. Justin Gabriel vs Drew McIntyre vs Jinder Mahal vs Bo Dallas: Nice Superplex/Powerbomb combo involving Gabriel/Drew/Dallas. Jinder tried to get pins from that. This is an elimination match as Bo Dallas eliminates Drew and Gabriel within a minute with his shitty spear. We finally see that Seth Rollins is hanging out on a stool on stage when this gets too Bo vs Jinder. Mahal just flings Bo with a full nelson slam. Jinder beats Bo with the Camel Clutch and we're gonna get Jinder vs Seth again next week. Seth tries to make a save for Bo and gets beat up a little before driving Jinder from the ring. S6 E22 (November 14th, 2012) We open with Jinder Mahal before being interrupted by Bo Dallas, who talks Jinder into putting his title match on the line vs Bo tonight. The Ascension vs Yoshi Tatsu and Percy Watson: Yoshi Tatsu slumming it on NXT this week. The Ascension wins quickly. We get Aksanna and Layla talking backstage. Corey Graves vs Oliver Gray: Corey Graves looking like someone with active warrants out on him this week. JR is getting to work more than the main event this week. Graves wins with the Fuller Leglock. Big E. Langston has an interview. Camacho jumps Big E. from behind and runs off. DID YOU KNOW? CM Punk's DVD is the #1 sports DVD in America! Layla vs Aksanna: Finally, Lithuania clashes with Great Britain. Aksanna has apparently gone solo from Cesaro but JR's the source for that information and he's pretty checked out on things overall. This goes on for awhile and then Layla wins by kicking Aksanna in the head. Earlier Today: Bray Wyatt is wandering around outside yelling. Luke Harper is there. We are gradually descending into the Brayverse on this show. Roman Reigns vs Chase Donovan: Chase Donovan has the name and look of a guy who did jobs on WCW Saturday Night in 1998. Roman's offense was still a bit generic as we get a shoulder nerve hold quickly. JR mentions how Roman is said to have the intangibles to be a star. He does have the roar before he does his sidewalk slam finisher to win the match. So we're getting extra JR because Byron needed to ring announce to be harassed by Roman. Jinder Mahal vs Bo Dallas: This goes on for awhile without really having anything interesting happen. Bo Dallas runs into the turnbuckle (not even the post!) and taps to the Camel Clutch again. This is a match that probably didn't need to happen. We do the same thing as last week with Seth Rollins saving Bo Dallas from Jinder Mahal. S6 E23 (November 21st, 2012) We start with a TV announcer mispronouncing Kassius. Somehow in the WWE, the babyfaces and announcers default to the lesser known pronunciation of Kassius. Also, Ohno vs Beretta in the main event tonight. So that Seth vs Jinder match was gonna be last week until it wasn't, and it won't be this week either. You gotta milk a match like that. The 2012 Survivor Series took place on November 18th, 2012. So let's see how long it takes for the commentary on a way in the can episode of NXT to acknowledge what happened on that show with two NXT regulars. Alicia Fox vs Paige: Paige had a weird kind of energy to her stuff back then. Paige wins with the Pageturner. Camacho vs Big E. Langston: This threatens to be the first Big E NXT match that isn't a total squash. Big E wins with the Big Ending in a few minutes. Big E immediately doesn't stay on Camacho to ask for the 5 count but the fans want a 5. So Big E. gives Camacho another Big Ending and does a 5 count. JR proclaims Big E to be the Bull of the Woods and also someone who covers the ground that he walks on. Big E does a third Big Ending to Camacho and five counts him again. Trent Barreta is in pain on the floor backstage. Leo Kruger is looking weird one corner over. After the break, a TV announcer says that Trent hasn't been cleared. Well, yeah, it's been like 3 minutes. BRONSON~! vs Nick Rogers: JR is here to tell us about Nick Rogers football career at the University of British Columbia, which is the most JR commentary cliche thing ever. Bronson wins with a unique looking leg lock. JR is selling Bronson on commentary as inherently evil which is a contrast to him winning with a finisher that looks like a backyarder failing to do the Figure Four leg lock correctly. Mike Dalton vs Luke Harper: The Brayverse was more fun when it was Bray trying to be Max Cady than all the Fiend and post-Fiend stuff. Harper wins with the spinning sidewalk slam. I think we had back to back segments of trying to sell the heels as being evil, with Harper/Bray being a bit more convincing than Bronson. Earlier today, Seth Rollins got jumped by Jinder Mahal. The Raw Rebound: Paul Heyman is celebrating 365 days of CM Punk's title reign. CM Punk has his eyes set on passing Bruno Sammartino in 2018. But before 2018, Ryback comes out, and gets jumped by the Shield. So Seth Rollins is the babyface NXT champ on NXT and a heel protector of CM Punk whenever NXT acknowledges what happened on Raw. Congrats NXT, you're big time now, the main show is taking your top guy and contradicting your taped TV shows. Kassius Ohno vs Trent Baretta: Before Kassius can get Trent counted out, Dusty Rhodes shows up to announce a new opponent. Kassius Ohno vs Richie Steamboat: Hey, Richie Steamboat is still around. This went on for awhile and Richie gets the win with the Slingblade. Maybe it's the "knowing Richie doesn't go anywhere" thing that kinda makes it hard to fully invest in these matches or what. S6 E24 (November 28th, 2012) We start with Daniel Bryan announcing that he's returning to NXT tonight. He's here with Kane and there's arguing. Aw, Team Hell No. Trent Baretta vs Leo Kruger: Trent opening this week's show like the MLW doctors have cleared him to resolve any potential continuity holes. Kruger looks more like Wish.com Roman Reigns now that they're both on this show regularly. We got some rib work on Trent. Kruger wins with his neckbreaker. We got a face to face confrontation between Seth and Jinder! The Seth/Jinder rematch is moving along as a snails pace. Team Hell No takes on Johnny Curtis and Michael McGillicutty! Xavier Woods vs Memo Montenegro: We're getting more Memo Montenegro matches than Seth Rollins matches during this stretch of NXT. Oh man, I made my joke about Memo Montenegro earlier not knowing that he's Alberto Del Rio's brother. Also, what an amazing show this is, everybody's second generation status is mentioned unless it's Camacho. Xavier beats Alberto Del Arroyo with a flipping clothesline and then dances. Aubrey Marie vs Emma: I believe this is the first Emma sighting on this show. Aubrey Marie wins wins with a spinning slam. Roman Reigns is taking a raincheck on his backstage interview until a later date. Well, he's busy in the main show, afterall. Michael Cole gets his own introduction tonight. He says that you're gonna see these NXT guys on Smackdown, Raw, Main Event (!!!!!!!! whatthefuckmichaeldontbethathonest) one day.. he's gonna moderate the Mahal/Rollins face to face to spare JR from having to do any extra work tonight. JR saying Seth Rollins is the most popular man in the arena is a tribute to the fact that this commentary was taped 7 weeks before it aired. Oh good, this match finally has a date, it's airing in 2 weeks. It was announced for November 14th three weeks ago. This show has some real "MLW running pre-pandemic footage and ignoring COVID" vibes with Seth being a face on this show after he's debuted in the Shield. This is a heated face to face confrontation as both of them are able to strip down to their tights before being told "hey, don't have your match just yet, guys". Jinder accuses Michael Cole and the American media of bias before jumping Seth and putting him in the Camel Clutch. Can Seth recover in time for the December 12th episode or will this match be put off until December 19th? For The Tag Team Championship: Johnny Curtis/Michael McGillicutty vs Team Hell No (C)- It's nice that the WWE main show title reigns are lasting long enough during 2012 that some of them can be defended on 7 weeks delay on NXT without any problem. Johnny Curtis going down the ramp like a man about to find his gimmick ticket to the main roster. Hey everybody who was lured to Full Sail University, you've waited patiently, here's Kane! As for the actual match, it's perfectly fine in the squabbling partners genre. If you're gonna feed anybody to Team Hell No, might as well be Curtis/McGillicutty. Bryan beats McGillicutty with the LeBell/Yes/No Lock as Kane chokeslammed Curtis. For five episodes of this show, these weren't great or as good as the ones before it. This show is in sort of a weird holding pattern before it emancipates itself from the main shows and becomes good. We're within 2 months of TV away from Arrival and we have a stable core of dudes and the cameos are getting slightly better although they sure are doing their share of cameos for a show that is airing on Hulu and whatever foreign markets are syndicating this show. There's more JR in these shows and it's very possible that JR has been washed for a long time although it's mean to openly say that. Roman Reigns is probably the clear all-star of these episodes, although there's lot of "in retrospect" to that, even if people at the time probably liked Bray more. So, i'll watch December 2012 whenever I feel like it. There's still a few weeks until Spring Training Baseball takes priority on my TV so I can pull it off.