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Funny how things change. Back in 2008, screaming YOU-MAGA was referring to a mindless savage. These days... wait a fucking minute, nevermind.

I know it's been a few weeks now but I just wanted to say RIP DEAN and send some love to his family and friends I've been a lurker here since the early 00's, posted under a different account in the green board days. Found this place thanks to DEAN's relentless pimping of THE MIGHTY DEATH VALLEY DRIVER across the internet, I even remember seeing him in the AOL Grandstand in my earliest exposure to the IWC. An absolute legend, right down to continuing to recap AEW from his hospital bed

At this point?

Well, I for one think Jamie Hayter is a super champion. Hmph.

My list is always changing so next week it might be something else. Also going to have a lot of recency bias but here goes: 1) Sami vs. Roman. The most electric atmosphere arguable ever for a match. It might be the last time I ever fully and completely lose myself in a wrestling match on an emotional level. It has the most devastating loss in wrestling history. I do not think I can ever watch the match again knowing how it ends. 2) Shield vs. Wyatts, Elimination Chamber. This is a perfectly structured and laid out wrestling match. All six guys lay so much shit in and they also really up the character shtick — Dean being the first guy to jump, Harper giving Brat an offering, Roman “seeing the play before it develops” a bunch of times, Seth’s cocky jubilation after a bunch of wild dives, Bray’s look of bewilderment when Roman is about the break free of Sister Abigail. Just a perfect wrestling match. 3) Revival vs. DIY, 2 out of 3 falls. Tag team wrestling the the best wrestling and this was just an awesome classic between clear good guys and bad guys. 4) Emma/Santino vs. Summer Rae/Fandango. Pure magic comedy match on some random NXT. 5) Sasha/Bayley I and II: Hard to rank these separately. I like the Ironwoman better because that is my favorite gimmick. But each one is just two women hitting a new level by the minute. 6) Raven/Richards vs. The Pitbulls, 2 out of 3 falls dog collar match. This match came at a really weird moment for ECW. The company had to deal with its first wave of people shipping off for WCW (Eddie, Dean, Benoit) and Sabu was also gone. This was the first show after and it felt like a major crossroads to see if ECW would have legs going forward. A ton of great stuff on the card (Rey/Psichosis make their ECW debuts) but this stands out as the ultimate Heyman match where a whole bunch of nonsense happens, Raven nearly gets decapitated, somehow 911 is involved and I think Tommy Dreamer even makes the cover at one point? 7) Steiners vs. MVC, Clash of Champions 19. This is the Clash where it is the first round of the NWA Tag tournament. One of the best shows in WCW history. It has some crazy shit: Doc/Gordy wrecking dudes in a jobber match, an awesome Jushin/Pillman vs. Benoit/Beef Willington match, an amazingly awful bizarre matchup of The 90s Freebirds (Jimmy Jam Garvin!) against The Silver Kings. But MVC vs. The Steiners is this slept on masterpiece. It feels like the closest thing to a real wrestling match I think I can remember. Just dudes tossing each other around. Absolute must watch. 8 Dustin/Steamboat vs. The Enforcers. One of the most quoted matches between me, my brother and our friends. Everything in it rules, from Dustin’s mystery partner reveal to Arn/Larry doing the most over-the-top selling of Steamboat’s arrival (“He’s just a man!”) and all of that. Epic match. 9 Acclaimed vs Double Jay Lethal: This is probably my favorite AEW match. I know there are “better” matches but I got so caught up in this match. Just a spectacular throwback for the weird kids like us who stayed up to 11 pm on a weekday night to watch wrestling on a sketchy local TV station that only showed wrestling, infomercials and Good Times reruns. 10 Arcade Anarchy, AEW. Fun brawl with the best ending to a wrestling show in ages. Stat seemingly hiding out in arcade game machinery for weeks, Sue, Best Friends with a group hug as “Where Is My Mind?” plays and Tony screams at everyone to stay tuned for The Accountant. This list has already changed when I remember Owen/Bret, Bret/Piper, Flair’s Rumble, Midnites/Fantastics at Clash 1, etc.

I had my car broken into and the bastard left 3 tickets to Double if Nothing on my dashboard. LOLOMEGASUCKS #tellinitlikeitis

Rumpidge baby! Acclaimed/Daddy Arse v LFI was a solid opener. And the crowd goes BANANA for Billy taking off his t-shirt! Could've used a little more aggression and less cooperation from Roosh here. The Gunns/Page v The Enhancers was alright. I kinda liked seeing the heels manhandle some j-bro'N'z. I dig Page, the Gunns, the Hardys and Hook, but the creative/production/presentation of this and the previous Firm feud feels like 'Total Nonstop Action'. Am I wrong to blame the dull pencil of Matt? Dustin/Keith Lee promo was fine. Er, did 'the Natural' miss the memo? Or did they suddenly decide to make the Battle Royal not for the title, but for a shot at the title? The lack of attention to detail with this promo is indicative of the lack of attention to detail with this whole show. And weekly. Baker/Shida v Shafir/Nyla was, umm, really really awesome, I totally didn't fast forward right on by. I prefer to read MattD's review of this match than actually watch it. Oops, did I miss an Outcasts segment. Totally dug the review better. I hadn't thought about Nyla v Willow, but I like it. I like it a lot! I'm okay with the video packages hosted by Mark Henry as opposed to his conducting the 'Main Event' Interviews (from time to time), but I think the Besties, Bill and Lee could have benefitted from some talking here. Besties v BilLee was alright. The work seemed good, but I just wasn't compelled to offer my focus. My mind was wandering and seemed more concerned with whether or not the standing Varsity Athletes were blocking paying customer's views? Fucking Varsity Athletes! Not that any of this tired Vegas crowd gave a shit anyway. I really like Swerve and Keith Lee, but every week their pairing is making me feel contempt for this product I genuinely love. They were a good team. Maybe they oughtta just hug it out, and finally fucking end this rotten creative. I assume no talk or info concerning the Blackjack Battle Royal means it'll be a straight shitty battle royal as opposed to Rumble rules. I'll be watching the PPV on tape delay with my good friend FFWD, so... no sweat! I don't understand why in the history of this show, and especially on a PPV go home show, they don't have the 'A List Stars' on here cutting promos? And, uh, that was Rampage (baby).

It’s funny to me that two guys, whose whole schtick was “come into every AEW thread and do nothing but shit on AEW,” got Cash’d, and we still have posters who do just that. To quote our master thespian Wesley Snipes, “some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill.”

It's interesting. This all plays back to Jey being beaten into submission and if you think about where most of this started, Jey has always 100% had Jimmy's back and has protected Jimmy several times. I still think Jey is the one who throws the first shot in the eventual Bloodline War.

You guys wanna hear a unbelievable story that I swear is true - when I went through my 'oh shit I am poor' phase from 2012 to 2017 and needed a roommate to pay my mortgage, over that time period I got FIVE different roommates off craiglist (three of which I didn't meet in person until the day they moved in), and all five were normal people that paid their rent on time and left when they were supposed to. To this day my mom says I'm the luckiest person on earth.

OK @Matt Dwhat if they replicate the "Nyla steals the TBS belt and defends it" angle that was the most interesting thing done with that belt in 18 months, but add in Nyla taunting Willow saying something "You don't deserve a belt like this!". edit to add: I love the Moriarty dance and guitar. The way Bill interacts when he's doing it adds a lot and shows their unique chemistry. I think my favorite time was during a squash when Lee looked to the corner and Bill mimed tossing a guitar to Lee, who "catches" it and starts playing, then "tosses" it back to Bill.

Ok, I'm here. LFI vs Acclaimed/Gunn: We live in strange times when we get to see RUSH vs Billy Gunn. If you told me that would have been a thing back in 2014, I would have imagined Gunn super over in Arena Mexico as the new Marco Corleone dialing numbers on his abs. I thought Bowens and Dralistico matched up ok. The best act in AEW and AEW-adjacent programming is Athena. But LFI opening up a match by throwing everyone into the guardrails chaotically is pretty damn great. Finishing stretch probably needed just a little more focus? Page/Gunns vs Enhancement Talent: I liked Page whipping them the guy into the 3:10 to Yuma because Page has the deal where he whips guys into his own power slam but in general, we saw a bunch more teamwork/chemistry with the Righteous/Stu the other day (Yes, I watched ROH, can you tell?). You can't deny that the Gunns are much more credible than they were a year ago. The title run helped them without hurting things too, too much. Britt/Shida vs Nyla/Shafir: Still lamenting the loss of Shida's theme. Britt got a pop from the tired crowd. Shafir really should be working the house show loops. I'm happy for her now that Strong is there and I'd be curious to see something with them together at some point. Cole/Britt vs Strong/Shafir could be interesting someday. If Rocky Romero uses Sneaky Style, Shafir uses Stilted Style, and yeah, it's not smooth, but it always feels awkwardly competitive in its own way, which is actually better than collaboratively smooth like you get from a good chunk of the roster, even if just barely. Nyla had the great laugh as she was choking Britt from the corner and posted on twitter how happy she was with it. I still think she should be putting over an ascendant Willow on the pre-show! I liked the finishing stretch here, everything from Nyla slamming Shida onto Britt to break up a pin to Shida saving Britt from the knee to some of the Britt vs Marina stuff which worked better than their initial exchange, to Shafir yelling for Nyla (taken out) to help her as she was about to get double teamed and lose the match. Best Friends vs Bill/Lee: Lee's histrionics just don't work. I think he's improved a ton in the last year and a half but that's more with the aggression than the character. I like the idea of character but the dancing and the air guitar just aren't hitting. I'm not sure what would. TRENT always has a chip on his shoulder and an edge to him. They should turn them heel someday no matter how counterintuitive that might be on paper. He has such a unique way of hitting German suplexes where he lift the guy up as high as he can and drops him straight down. Bill could really be a break out guy on the new show. If Punk goes heel, he'd be a good heater actually. Jericho ripped Mil Mascaras for eliminating himself from the royal rumble and being a jerk during the commercial break. Bill's Bossman slam was good but not as good as Dutch's from ROH this week. Then he took the double superplex. Anyway, he should have a good showing tomorrow. Post match wasn't the best choreography they ever had. Show was pretty solid overall though.

In between people showing up with titles out of thin air, changes that didn't actually happen, changes that did happen but got struck from the record for political reasons, the same change happening five nights in a row (thanks, Memphis!), champions leaving the territory while still champion and taking the belt with them so nobody could know they got beat for the belt as long as the office didn't have a copy of the belt handy... ... sorry, what were we talking about again? Oh. Right. Wrestling is silly.

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I had a long rough week and was exhausted Friday night, went to bed at 8:30 but also was not particularly excited for this card. Acclaimed-HoB huh. Could be interesting, wonder what the dealers choice will be. Decent trios match, would be more interested in some Rush-Bowens singles maybe. Gunns and Ethan Page are almost a natural faction in retrospect. Squash. I know it’s been said by the late great DEAN and others but Austin Gunn really is Brian Christopher redux. Such a natural nepo baby heel. Womens tag was a mess, no surprise there. Main was a shocker in terms of Big Bill getting a clean pin on Best Friends, not how I saw the pecking order. Although the way the announcers were talking about the longevity of the Best Friends team seems like foreshadowing. I’m glad that AEW has seen the potential of the Moriarty-Big Bill team and giving them a push, they’re working really well together and their personalities really mesh well. Post-match brawl was a natural go-home thing but I mostly leaned on the FFWD. I wish OC wasn’t in the match because I would like to have someone like Swerve win and then have a title match later...maybe on the first Collision. I was considering going to a theater to see the PPV but tickets are over $30 with taxes and fees and when I looked there were two tickets sold, so it’s not like I would be in a huge group of fans. Cheaper to watch at home with a six-pack of local craft.

I at least have the excuse of the Fite showing for some reason being 2 hours later than the TNT one. So, 5am UK time. Plus apparently the premiere was only available in Spanish. It was an OK show, but petered out. Lee and Bill beating Best Friends should have been made a big deal of, but they had to get to the post-match "Everyone in the battle royal has a big brawl" spot, which lacked the out of control chaos aspect you would like it to have. Perhaps because a lot of the guys who got entrances to run-in, just sort of strolled down there. Ethan Gunns beat three nameless guys. Britt and Shida vs Nyla and Marina was a bit disjointed, but Britt and Marina both tend towards disjointment, so putting them together was always going to flirt with clumsiness. Bill Gunn has really mastered the art of milking everything for maximum crowd reaction. Like he took ten seconds to even tag himself in because he got the fans to do a big WooooooOOOOOAAAA for it. And then before doing any moves, he first stopped the match so he could build to his pop for taking his shirt off.

I’ll get there. Card looks fun. Still have an hour of ROH left. Too much fun wrestling is always better than too little.

Has to be, bud. If Rampage falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Man. Show's been over for at least three hours and ZERO of us have commented on it. Is that some kind of record for an AEW TV show? I have to admit, I tapped out less than half way through. Just wasn't feeling it today. More so: I have to work Monday morning and won't be watching Double or Nothing live, and so the hype for the PPV was bumming me out, mildly. Probably shouldn't have watched the podcast on YouTube before Rampage... Hopefully I'll at least be able to catch the Anarchy match after the fact. Not too hyped for the show, otherwise. Also, probably not going to Dominion this year. Cobb vs ZSJ and Ospreay vs Archer both look good... Guess it's just a "me" thing. Hopefully I'll get my hype back for Forbidden Door.

Sheamus/Theory was good. Pretty Deadly's interference played well into the finish. Raquel/Shotzi vs. Bayley/Io was pretty solid. Both teams worked rather well together. Only off part was the finish which was fine but weird with its execution. I assume its supposed to build into the eventual Io/Bayley breakup. Grimes/Adonis was short but decent while it lasted. Had similar thoughts from the above with Knight/Boogs. Thought the street Profits on commentary were fun if just a little distracting. With how over LA Knight is they really should do something more with him soon. Kross/AJ was one of Kross's better showcases with him busting some good offense and AJ bumping around and selling for him well. The Sami/KO/Bloodline segment was wonderful. Loved Heyman's reaction to Jimmy's tribal chief comment, and the the end with Jimmy refusing to give the belts over to Roman while Jey did was good stuff. Just fantastic tension throughout all of it.

don't remember if it was the Full Gear match where Hayter won the belt, or the Dynamite afterward (@the Natural's post implies that it was the post-PPV Dynamite) but Coach Tony K promoted Hayter to full champion and retroactively made Toni's title reign for the full title, not the interim. YMMV on if you see it that way, but that's how AEW officially records it.

The Sabu vs. Terry Funk barbed wire match is one of my favorite matches ever. It is less of a match and more of a reflection of the decay of society.

Going to re-tell my Sabu story that I posted on here back in November 2021.

Someone mentioning how they should've done the lights out gimmick for Sabu's appearance on Dynamite tonight made me think of Dean's reviews whenever it would happen on a WWE show. "Sabu!! The Undertaker! JAKE THE SNAKE~!" And then it would just end up being, like, Edge or some shit.

Wasn’t the offence that did ‘em in less of a “won’t stop shitting on AEW” and more of a “wouldn’t stop being a shithead and didn’t know when to walk away”?

He did indeed. One of the Pitbulls got taken out with ether or chloroform on a rag, Dreamer put the collar on himself, pinned Raven, crowd goes nuts. Fonzie, absolutely correctly, overturns the finish because Dreamer wasn't part of the match "you've still never pinned Raven." Big Dick Dudley gets Tommy in the goozle, Fonzie "unbans" the chokeslam just for this night, Tommy gets chokeslammed, crowd immediately knows what's up and 911 finally gets to chokeslam Fonzie. Ethered Pitbull comes back and they win the belts anyway. Utter chaos on the surface, but underneath one of the tightest bits of booking Heyman ever did, weaving like three or four major storylines into one match and having all of them either hit a satisfying conclusion or take another notable step forward.

I loved that it was Jimmy who turned first. It plays off the origins of the Bloodline, when Jimmy returned wearing an " Nobody's Bitch" shirt and at first wasn't bending the knee to Roman like his brother did after getting beat by Reigns in HITC.

Okay, hear me out: The Dynasty vs FTR.

That’s me right there. I went last year and it was great but I can just watch this one at home.

that sums up "championships" in pro wrestling quite well. that being said, i'm certainly a bit of a mark for title lineages, so i guess it's working.

my new name for the Dustin - Keith Lee team

The Bloodline Saga is one of the best things in all my years watching wrestling. Started at 5, I'm now 38 years old.

Well, I love both of those movies, so I'm good to go. Side note: I know two groups of people planning to rent theaters for private screenings of the Barbie movie, so um... the excitement is very high for at least the circle I'm in.

Jey Uso: "MAN, I DON’T GIVE A DAMN WHAT THE TRIBAL CHIEF SAY!" Jimmy Uso: "I AM THE TRIBAL CHIEF!"

Somewhere Bobby Fish weeps

E-Fed legend and 13x behind the Walmart street fight Champion

I missed most of Smackdown but that final segment was fantastic stuff. That was probably the best Bloodline related segment since WrestleMania.

It's part of an elaborate multi-step plan to get the perpetrator a free burger. No, I don't know what the intermediate steps are.

The restaurant was messaged and it’s not a promotion they’re running. Someone literally just printed off a sheet of paper and then stuck it up as some sort of gotcha. People are fucking weird about wrestling

But it was a link to something that portrayed AEW in a negative light! What's he gonna do, not compulsively post it as soon as possible? Think of all the discussion we'd be missing out on.

Context since you can't be bothered to do so when cross posting from Reddit.

Here's your reality show, AEW: OC and Shibata hanging out in Vegas

Why do you come on here and just lie like this? This story is made up!

Important update: Someone showed up when they said they were going to show up, paid me 40 real dollars for my couch, and got it out of my house without damaging anything. There is hope for humanity!

The "Ignored Users" feature can be your friend.

I don't think I have a ton to say, not really. Let's talk about some wrestlers. Pillars: You come into 89 thinking that Takano might have a higher upside than any of them. I came out of the year thinking Kikuchi was my favorite guy in the Super Generation Army. That's probably a me thing. He works the most like a traditional selling babyface and that appeals to me because it really goes against the company style. None of them are exactly what you expect them to be in the back half of 1990. They're all developing. Misawa takes on a ton of responsibility immediately and manages it well enough. He gets a lot of mileage out of the magic forearm. The crowd buzzes whenever he's in there with Jumbo. Kawada was the biggest victim of the Hansen/Tenryu team and floundered a bit from mid 89-mid 90. He's still secondary to Misawa by the end of the year but likely higher on the hierarchy than Fuchi or Inoue and able to do honest damage to anyone in the company. Kobashi is off with Ace a lot of the time, kind of doing his own thing. He doesn't fit into the templates quite as well. I've said he seems a little like a NJPW guy in the midst of AJPW and I stick to that. He's creative in the way the others aren't, and that will probably be good for the next couple of years, right until it isn't. And then there's Taue. it was pretty brutal watching Taue develop at a snail's pace but as we got into the tag league stuff (and a little before it) he started to wake up and assert himself. Some of it was the budding rivalry with Kawada who he could push around but also would get mauled by, but a lot of it was .... The Hosses: Because it was the American monsters who ruled the back half of 1990, not Jumbo, not Misawa. Doc. Gordy. Hansen. Spivey. Abby (well, North American), Kamala II. These weren't sympathetic technical figures like the Funks. They were absolute beasts, Doc and Gordy coming out to Kiss, Hansen realizing that the world was starting to catch up with him but putting his head down and charging despite that (and even Land of Giants who were fumbling about riding the wave). In the end, it it was the Doc/Gordy/Hansen trio who captured the titles. They brought this bruising style that makes the late 2010s super heavyweight video game finisher spamming WWE scene seem lame in comparison. It's just war after war. Doc especially is a force of nature, unpolished, earnest, given, with just freak strength and intensity at times. Jumbo and Friends: The crowds tend to be more split than you'd expect at times, sometimes pushing for the underdogs against Jumbo and co, but often respecting them and getting behind them and certainly getting behind them against foreigners (thus the Taue turn, so Jumbo would have a partner). I find Fuchi to be so versatile, able to go from comedy matches to technical junior hevyweight title bouts to big six mans, playing any role imaginable. Inoue carries himself like someone to be respected and can have a believable comeback against anyone from Kikuchi to Hansen. We lost Kabuki early but some of the pairings we have with him before he left were fun. Like wise "Babyface" Fuyuki. I could have used another month of him. In the end, it's a little striking how few people Jumbo has to team with relative to years past. You get to missing Yatsu for instance. And that's coming from someone who is as high on Inoue as anyone and plenty high on Fuchi (but everyone's high on Fuchi). As for Grumpy Jumbo, it's not all that different than Gladiator Jumbo I'd been seeing before, especially because he's valiantly up against those hosses quite often. He sure loves violence by this time, the ultimate victory of Choshu. Others: Johnny Smith brought a different energy to the bulldogs which was enjoyable. Dynamite was in a literal land of giants relative to years' past and couldn't eat up guys nearly as much. I never like the Fantastics around this time because they're up against smaller guys and DO eat them up. Ace was increasingly good at seeming credible and leaning into his size even if it he was a bit of a dork but I find a lot of the All-Asia tags to be formless and annoying. He was earning his spot and portraying himself the right way though. You wouldn't want Abby in a long match but he brought a ton to the table. Kimala was still working on asserting himself. Spivey was more than credible for his role but you almost always wanted someone else. Deaton was fine. Slater was fine. You'd still rather have Hansen or Terry. Eigen was a shitheel in the comedy matches and a little hero against monsters. Okuma was stoic and credible except for when he wasn't supposed to be in a comedy match. Rusher could do one thing but he did it extremely well. We didn't get a ton of Momota or Teranishi or Ogawa, not enough to really comment on. We just got a bit of them but it was special to see the Funks dropped into this world that missed them so fondly. I wish we had more Malenkos. Bam Bam and Davey Boy really didn't make a mark for their small runs. Scotty the Body did though! Slinger did ok too. Baba and Andre: They remained legendary and so good at doing what they did. Everyone treated them with such respect and they brought such gravitas to serious matches and mirth to comedy matches. The world rotated around them but they shined warmth as only celestial bodies could. Even immobile they were more valuable then almost any other wrestler and were savvy enough to know exactly what to do when, even if it was hard. Overall, it was a very strange half year and the stuff I expected (the Pillars coming into their own, Grumpy Jumbo) was actually overshadowed by the monsters running amuck.

The Sundome holds a little over 7000 people iirc, so this could wind up being a pretty massive show. Eastern Washington has a large hispanic population too so they're smart to have it be lucha themed.