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Cash is money.

FTR is a balanced tag team. Dax never stops posting and Cash is a reply-guy.

He'll be in the same block as Yano. People will talk about their match for years. "I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats." Calling it now.

I'm kinda sad about Rebel/Reba. She was around for soooooo loooooong in that position and her genuine enthusiasm and dorkiness (and hotness) will be missed.

Guys, please post here if you start gambling on wrestling. It will make getting the rest of the board together for the intervention much easier. Thanks.

I’m glad they opened up the All-Atlantic to the other oceans.

Somewhere, right now, there's a wrestling fan convincing themselves that Trish Stratus is going to be Jade's opponent next week and they are going to be irrationally mad when it's not.

Goddamn, TK. Write that shit down and maybe run through it one time before you go on tv to talk. That all made ZERO sense. I hate the dumbass corporate tie-ins for movies and whatever, but I understand that it's a fact of life for them. But, Jesus, at least try to make some sort of connection between the movie and the title name change. It was just, "Shazaam is coming out and we're naming the All Atlantic title the International Title!" There was literally no attempt to tie them together at all. "Shazaam promises to be an international blockbuster, and we've got a blockbuster announcement of international proportions, too!" There. I came up with that in 30 seconds. Yes, it's terrible, but it's at least an attempt. That promo felt like they found out they had to do it like a minute before he went on air. Anyway, I am glad they're dropping the All-Atlantic name. It never really made sense.

I blame Elon Musk for this.

On the one hand, I really liked the idea of Ruby as Crow Sting. I think it would have been good for her and good for the program (with Athena as crazy Macho Man). On the other hand, she did a better job of explaining the story up until now than I think Toni or Saraya possibly could (it's been brutal so far), so the turn probably overall helped everything.

I have to agree about Wardlow's promos needing a lot of work, but that misses the forest for the trees: why is Wardlow ever even speaking? This is fresh in my brain from messing around in the WCW thread yesterday, but Bill Goldberg made a million dollars on the back of two words, and the second Russo had him giving 10 minute soliloquies, the mystique was gone; I don't want to see the same thing happen here.

"Buddy Matthews? Whose man's is this? Ain't been the same since he lost his moment of Bliss!" "Murdering goths, but still got an alibi, No one's afraid of a dude named Malakai!" Qnd then he conveniently skips over Brody King because he doesn't have a death wish... Also, if Gary Hart were alive you could imply that Julia is his grand-niece or some shit. "The evil runs strong in this family!"

TK: “Hey Renee, I need one more thing. (Rambles on about Winnipeg, Shazam, the history of the All-Atlantic Title and god knows what else.) Renee: “Uhm… oh, I have laryngitis. Can you do that?” (Renee flees to catering as Tony rubs his nose frantically.)

Just imagining it: "I went to Hong Kong. Home of some of the most brutal, sadistic people you'll ever meet. I tried to get two of them to fight Brody King and Buddy Matthews. To a man, these men, some of whom who wouldn't be scared of attacking the Devil on his throne if the money was right, didn't want anything to do with them. I thought that was the highest mark of respect. Respect that's lacking from the two Jacksons and one Kenny Omega. Let me tell you something, folks. If I knew that I was going to have a match with the House of Black, I wouldn't be hamming it up on no YouTube show! No sir. I'd be training, saying a prayer every night to God, and fillin out my will, because I know God don't like me that much to save me from the House of Black. So when the first bars of Carry On Wayward Son starts to play, that's the beginning of the end! Right There! That's the sound of the trumpet heralding Apocalyse. And you can't outrun the end, Elite."

Allright a two hour FIST of wrestling right to the face. Tony Deppen was like Mark Haskins and Tracy Williams at the tail end of the former ROH- guys who were good, but you can't really see them anywhere else except maybe eternally NXT. Joe re-enacts a bear mauling with Tony Deppen playing the role of dude in a sleeping bag with the zipper stuck. Acrually, Deppen gets in a comeback and makes with a nearfall. He even gets Joe into a pinning predicament before being crushed in a Muscle Buster. WHOA! Mark Briscoe challenges for the ROH TV title! Dalton Castle on the MIC! Fannyburp! DENSE FURNITURE! Markus Cross does not have his hair done for victory. Dalton Castle is so AWESOME. He hints at Steiner but tags in the Boys. Guillermo Rosa is quite the fireplug! Castle goes COMPLETE Steiner suplexing everybody across the ring! BANGARANG! The Boys are twirling, twirling, twirling to VICTORY! The Kingdom is on the MIC! SERP! Angelico! RUSH! Dralistico! Oh man, RUSH versus Angelico are MAGIC! SERP gets beaten to DEATH. SERP is FIRED UP! SERP hits a Tope Con Hilo! Angelico shows back up! SERP gets killed by Dralistico's Canadian Destroyer. That was kind of a wreck but it was fun to have Serpentico get in a bunch of offense. It's BILLIE STARKZ! It's TRISH ADORA! Tope by Starkz elbowed by Adora who CRUSHES Starkz on the apron. GREAT EVEREST SUPLEX by Adora! Starkz makes a comeback and Adora cuts her off with a Yakuza Kick. They start laying it in. Starkz gets in a giant batch of elbows but Adora fucking DESTROYS Starkz with a Lariat Tubman! Mannn, Trish Adora versus ATHENA and then Jamie Hayter is the dream. Trish Adora is fucking awesome. That was great. Jake Crist looks pretty good against Slim J and Ari Daivari. Slim J makes Manscout tap to an STF. This is all to set up Blake Christian and Metalik vs Slim J and Ari Daivari! That'll be good. TIMOTHY THATCHER! WHEELER YUTA! For the Pure title! This match is great! GREAT Elbow drops by Thatcher. Yuta with an Octopus Hold for a rope break. Wheeler Yuta is fucking awesome. Timothy Thatcher is fucking awesome! Hammerlock by Yuta for the second ropebreak! Third ropebreak by Thatcher! KEYLOCK by Thatcher for second ropebreak by Yuta. Butterfly Suplex by Thatcher! Knees to the kidneys causes Yuta's third ropebreak! Wheeler Yuta CHEATS by using a second CLOSED FIST and Octopus Hold in the ropes! That was fucking great. It's Tracy Williams and Rhett Titus! It's Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher, AUSSIE OPEN! Aussie Open hits a great first flurry. Mark Davis destroys Rhett Titus with a chop to the chest. Williams is great after the hot tag. Williams and Fletcher are great in the ring together. Fun nearfall after Aussie Open hit a DDT Doomsday Device. DOUBLE SUBMISSIONS BY TITUS and WILLIAMS! Many nearfalls on Aussie Open! GNARLY FUCKING PILEDRIVERS BY AUSSIE OPEN! So fucking GREAT! That was a THOUSAND times better than I thought it would be. Aussie Open is fucking AWESOME. Tracy Williams is fucking awesome! Rhett Titus is good! HEY! Ben Dejo is SERP without a mask! Eddie Kingston hits an Exploider! and Urican! And SECRET SERP is done! WILLOW NIGHTINGALE! ATHENA! ATHENA! ATHENA! ATHENA is so fucking AWESOME- making Willow look like a total killer. THEN ATHENA beats the fudge out of Willow. ATHENA is like the first time Fit Finlay showed up in WCW- just gloriously violent. ATHENA is so fucking awesome kicking Willow off the apron. WILLOW makes a combeck with a Powerbomb on the apron and a DEATH VALLEY DRIVER on the floor! This match is fucking great! SPINEBUSTER! FOR TWO! ATHENA is fucking great destroying Willows arm. GREAT Nearfall after ATHENA hits a secondary finisher. POUNCE! FOR TWO! DOCTOR BOMB! FOR TWO! ATHENA leaves! Willow grabs her and ATHENA rakes her eyes and REVERSE Samoan Slams Willow on the ramp! O FACE for the win! That was MOTHERFUCKING GREAT. ROH! ROH! ROH! ROH TRULY RULES THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD! That was fucking great.

I honestly would have preferred a straight-up hoss fight between Hobbs and Wardlow. Just Big Meaty Men Slapping Meat. With a relatively clean finish. The bells and whistles really detracted from the main event, for me personally. There are still a lot of really good and great and fun and entertaining wrestlers getting to wrestle long matches so I am still a fan, but I am nostalgic for the days when the wrestlers were booking their own programmes and doing all kinds of weird indie shit. I dig the current WWE-lite style booking and storytelling and bells-and-whistles heavy style with plenty of fuck finishes WAY less. They are catering more and more to a very specific " Attitude Era " and ECW type of nostalgia that doesn't really hit with me, personally. But it does seem like plenty of folks here are happier with this "Burger King" version of AEW, so I'll try not to constantly piss on that particular parade moving forward. And I already miss making "All Atlantic" jokes! On the plus side, it was like they booked this show specifically to allow me to make the MAXIMUM number of terrible dad jokes. o For example: I was joking that Toni Storm should marry Ricky Starks and then exclusively wrestle in iron man matches (because she'd be "Toni Starks") and then JUICE ROBINSON came out to attack Starks after his match and I got to yell, "Dude! I was just kidding!" Also: Absolut and Juice is a natural match-up. I also think Skye Blue should marry AR Fox. Or Scorpio Sky. LOVED the crowd reactions for FTR and the Takeshita vs Vance announcement. Lufisto, maybe? That would be cool. i wonder who Don was thinking of as the BEST wrestler from Winnipeg? Roddy Piper? Chi Chi Cruz? Moose Morowski?

Most every "oh no their limb gave out" spot looks bad, but that man just threw himself headfirst at the canvas to make it work. I'm not a Lethal fan but rats off to him for that.

And to someone’s surprise OC bangs out another golden opener. Jay Lethal - most underrated. Jarrett-Orange in the Prairies, fuck yeah! What’s Ricky Starks up to? Is he flirting with a leave to Titan Sports? Ha, hook-line-n-sinker on the Jay White tease, but fine with the alternate Juice flavour. A mini feud or bout here with Juice, to continue Starks’ momentum, is warmly welcomed. I suspect a Switchblade in this program. Ruby Soho’s heel promo was fairly on point. ‘The fans are to blame’ WWE cliché works fine when you have Ruby’s solid logic. Skye Blue is getting better every week, but that sticking her head thru the ropes spot was a touch embarrassing. She was good elsewhere tho. I think we all might want to band together to try and WILL a move away from the silliness of this ex-WWE v homegrown nonsense. I mean keep the teams, but let’s just hate each other, yeah? Hangmin was spot on with the stick! FTR promo was good clean pro wrestling fun. Jade opens the door for a wack ass Canadian. Jody Threat’s the most deserving, no? I walked into the Toronto show during that infamous battle with Athena. It was thrilling! Top Fox and the JAS gave us a nice bout. AR Fox is an outstanding performer. Not generally speaking a fan of three ways, especially with 9 guys, but it’s hard to imagine next week’s Main Event not being absolutely incredible! TK promos are awesome in a Jim Crockett or Linda McMahon kinda way. BCC v DO was so fun. Hungee and Mox need a solo venture. Uno could use some encouragement to zip it up. It’s just a better look. Loved that post match attack. I’ll take a trios feud here, gladly. Dug the Acclaimed-Cool Hand/Daddy Magic promo. Can we get a Daddy Magic-Daddy Ass Rampage singles out this? I loved the hoss-tastic battle of the bow-he-muths - Wardy and the Puh-Puh-Puh-Powerhouse! I’m thinking I might be the first person to post how much I loved seeing the return of QT! Powerhouse and QT are an exciting new Bockwinkel and Heenan! But let’s throw Commoroto a heater bone, yeah? I thoroughly loved this show.

Fox's Unrestricted appearance is worth listening to. You get a real sense that despite the guys he's trained and the places he's been and the people he's wrestled and just being a wrestler for almost fifteen years, he's still in awe at being in a locker room with guys like Hardy and Danielson and Jericho. So I'm pretty sure Jericho taking all of his stuff was a big deal for him.

Happy 2nd Birthday to this

If the did Kazaam instead they’d be able to bring Shaq back. Edit: I was so tired and now I’m wide awake writing mediocre Shaquille O’Neal jokes. What has my life become and why do I make the bad decisions I do?

New title lineage just dropped. Rick Rude in now a former AEW International champion, it’s canon

No longer cowards!

I was trying to think of the last AEW match I was looking forward to as much as Jarrett vs Cassidy but then I realized it was probably either Danielson vs RUSH or Joe vs Darby III so it's not like it was all that long ago regardless.

They should suspend Watson for a year, after all he was generally aware that he was helping the Texans circumvent the salary cap. No, I don't think the penalty he got previously was ridiculously light, why do you ask? (the true punch line is "generally Aware", I will never give up being bitter about that)

To be fair the TNT title has changed hands at a Battle of the Belts and Rampage before, but you are 100% correct. BOTB needs titles to change hands more, and Rampage should get some prestige too.

They need to start doing some of these title changes on Rampage and Battle for the Belts.

While Ruby being solidly on one side makes the issue a little less wishy-washy, the outsiders vs homegrown stars stuff is still doing nothing for me. Maybe because caring who is or isn't "homegrown" in a midcard division is only a concern to the perpetually online. But the booker is one of us, for better and worse, so this is what we get. Speaking of perpetually online, there's a whole bunch of people out there who would convince you that FTR have go-away heat because Dax has a newsworthy podcast that people make headlines of. How about that, they're as over as ever.

Even the caricature stuff was gold, because you could really follow Vince's descent into madness as he was repeatedly humiliated by Austin (and occasionally Taker). Re-watching the Attitude era a few years back, I was blown away by the fact that Austin had the upper hand on him 80% of the time. The character of course wore out its welcome by 2000, but the arc from Montreal into the corporate ministry days was great stuff.

Not proud of this, but there may or may not be an episode of Rampage from last February where you can hear me drunkenly slur "OH MY GOD, CODY'S GONE, WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?!" preeeeetty audibly during a QT promo. Hard agree, and I'll take it a step further: I'm strongly thinking Willow (or another babyface) gets taken out early or prior to the match and we get either Jade Cargill or Mercedes Monet in the Hogan role for a BATB '96 redux

When Cody left I said to my friend, well at least I don’t have to see qt on my tv any more. That’s not the ending I wanted to see. What a flat victory.

Surprised no one's mentioned Athena yet, because she'd be note-perfect for the Outcasts once they go full-on gang war vs the AEW women.

Can I say it...? Eh, fuck it, I'mma gonna say it. I WANNA TALK TO SAMSON

Every time QT is on TV, I'm like 'Ah, this his Steve Lombardi vs HBK at the Garden moment; a nice, little 'thank you for your service' run.' And then he's back six f'n months later.

Probably the only company where writers/bookers/wrestlers who know shit and still bet would actually lose money betting on wrestling.

I like Hobbs as a champ, but I don't think rehabbing QT from comedy jobber to serious threat is gonna work. Bryan channeling Dean Malenko with his dejected promo was great. Time for "Metalik" to win the casino battle royal for a #1 contender spot. OC/Lethal was great and built off their previous matches. Not sure why Mox/Hangman is continuing. I like the full heel turn for BCC, but I don't think we need any more Mox/Hangman matches for a long while.

Is it possible to have a Lucy situation and still kick the ball. I mean we all remember the last time a Packer QB maybe past his prime was traded to the Jets

Especially the first few months to a year of it before it really went into caricature. The early stuff where he was getting more and more frustrated with Austin were gold.

Lucy pulls the football in 3... 2... 1...

Mostly through everything now (all but the main). Just a super solid show with a lot of good wrestling. Almost every match leaned clearly into the face/heel structures, had meaningful selling, had good hope spots and cut offs. You started with the dueling limbwork and deep familiarity between Cassidy and Lethal; Skye probably worked her best match ever (even if maybe not her most explosive or violent) where she sold huge and got in a lot of solid hope stuff where she'd sneak in a roll up or try to get a reversal but fail and then came back big. I liked the simplicity of the finish too; she went for Skyfall once, got countered and immediately, with the hairpull into Destination Unknown; JAS vs Top Flight/AR Fox was so much steadier and more grounded than a lot of the normal trios stuff and having Jericho/Garcia/Sammy as a trio to base everything would make the division so much better. Jericho was still eager to take all of Fox's stuff; Garcia worked really well with Dante; I loved the antics from the JAS overall. It's all the stuff they should have been leaning more into months ago and Garcia trying to do it too is like an alien trying to understand humanity in the best way. BCC vs Silver/Reynolds had double heat, some fiery work from Reynolds, some mean work from the BCC, and Claudio matching up well with Silver. All good stuff. I thought the PPV was well put together (ultimately) and had something for everything but this is the sort of show which had a lot for me specifically. Wait five years until you're directing SHAZAAM 2 with Sinbad.

Wardlow is Samson. They cut his hair and now he falls into mattresses.

It was written in the Book of Hobbs. It was destined to happen. I didn't see the point of hotshotting the belt to Darby just to give him a win in his hometown and then put it back on Joe. But here we are. I think the belt had to go on Hobbs. It's time to do something with him. Dude is money.

If next week they don't refer to ALL weapons as international objects, I will refuse to support AEW anymore. It's TBS and it's right there, bruh.

You know who can't wait for the Acclaimed (I'm guessing Daddy Ass as the 3rd man) feuding with the House of Black? This guy. Caster is going ETHER him. I think I got a sneak preview: "Yeah we got Buddy Matthews....the only reason his career is even alive is simply, is only because he's dating Rhea Ripley, No, with all those muscles he ain't no average Jim, But how is it his girlfriend still looks tougher than him?" Matthews might try to put that motherfucker through the mat. We might see a live death on TBS or TNT.

Wardlow is so lame. Liked the show, not an all-timer, but a nice reset after several months of the same angles. Well, except Hangman-Mox which...must...continue. But I suppose that is to get the Dark Order closure. I am jazzed for next week. Gonna be screaming from the cheap seats. If anyone should come out to challenge Jade next week, it should be Winnipeg's champion Jody Threat

AWESOME!

It always cracks me up the HOB has a member named Buddy.

I think they were like "It can't be time for the match to end, Mox hasn't bladed yet!"