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In Impact 14 years ago, there was a Wrestler called Rob Terry. He comes from Swansea, Wales. Taz' co-commentator, Jerermy Borash was attempting to put Swansea over by mentioning all the famous people who came from the area. Now Dylan Thomas isn't a very contemporary reference, but there were a couple of people who are. Tom Jones, and Catherine Zeta Jones. And mentioning those two back to back caused Taz to fixate upon the name Jones for the rest of the broadcast, and indeed all subsequent broadcasts.

The first Dynamite since Double or Nothing 2023. Only things confirmed are Adam Cole/Dr. Britt Baker vs. Chris Jericho/Saraya which I couldn't care less about and a Tony Khan announcement about Collision. We also hear from Konosuke Takeshita/Don Callis. Much bigger, this Dynamite falls on my Dad's birthday. Happy birthday, Dad. Thanks for everything you do for me. Have yourself a good un and I love you xxx.

Look, a match! This has the right mix of random, logical, and local.

Tony's gonna hear the grumbling and book Darby vs Rush. Everybody remain loud and cranky!

Everyone seems very grouchy. Let's go get an Impossible Whopper and relax.

Also, the Outcasts fucking rule. It was a rough first few weeks, but they’ve been one of my favourite things in AEW recently

Ok, I think I can step back from the ledge. That was a fun show. Not only that, but I like the direction they’re taking things after tonight. My highlight was that fucking Gates of Agony match. Holy shit! They looked great tonight. Pretty cool that Toa got to really shine on the campus where he played football. Darby and Orange were on, too and that one just rocked. I have little to no interest in anyone in the main event, but it was fine. One thing. What the hell is that thing Cole does with his hands while Jericho is trying to put him in the walls? He did it at the PPV, too. It’s weird. He should stop doing that. Oh, and I’m stoked Punk is coming back.

Isn't that already the state-motto of Florida?

I understand why you can't make t-shirts out of a quote like " People Have Been Giving Me a Lot of Hoopla About Biting the Big Lizard’s Finger" but I would consider buying a bumper sticker.

Really dug that episode. Every match was fun, promo segments advanced things. Has anyone been booed in AEW the way Callis was tonight? Even the heeliest heels always have pockets of support in the crowd. Big Bill's whale tail. That is all

When Nyla was World champion, Kris Statlander was the first challenger to really push her. There’s a lot of story to be mined in this rematch.

Kaun on a Wednesday!?!?! Man, I really picked the wrong morning to be an asshole lol

I remain pro brand split, but I am also violently certain that all of the wrestlers I don't like will be grouped together. It's all gain for me, no loss. How can I not be for that? Frankly, I think you people should be happier for me.

Speaking only for myself, but I have still been greatly enjoying the overall in-ring AEW I've seen lately. I'm probably higher on Double of Nothing than most of you were. My enjoyment of AEW has been being able to sit down on Wednesday evening and see a pro wresting show that was mostly absent of the things I've come to not like to see on pro wrestling shows. A couple of those things were authority figures and brand splits, so I'm not excited for those to be introduced. With WWE, I went from watching it religiously every week, to dvr-ing and fast-forwarding through long talk segments or whatever. Eventually, there were things about the presentation that caused me to just not want to watch altogether, but that's another topic for another time. I still enjoy AEW, and I'm not writing them off. I'm just hoping that they don't change things to the point where I'm not interested in watching live every week. It's really been nice having a live pro wrestling show in my life again. I hope the company can grow and change, but not at the expense of what made it enjoyable to me (again, personally).

I can clear my schedule.

I might be crazy. But here is why I think tonight might be a good show: 1) A lack of anything announced so far likely means TK hasn't thought much of all about what's going to happen for the next PPV yet in terms of specifics. Maybe he has a few ideas for matches. I'm assuming he knows who Max is going up against, and the basics of any kind of Collision split. But that's it. 2) That means there's a lot of time to chew up with matches. 3) That means we might get some peak level random matches coming our way. Come on man, give us Swerve/Big Bill vs. OC/Kommander for 35 minutes you coward!

Great work, Tony! I never questioned ya!

I, for one, am excited to see Toa throw around Darby OR interact with Orange Cassidy's shenanigans.

Yeah, this is why so many Succession watchers act like Shiv is the absolute worst person alive in the history of ever, but her fascist brother and dipshit naked power-grabber other brother are somehow sympathetic. People DO NOT like ambitious women. And when you make this critique, people divert by pretending that you think these IRL and TV character women are angels or something. Someone can be a bad person and still be a victim of sexism, geez.

Rick Ross for the GM of Dynamite.

Put me in the weirdo camp with Gord too, I guess. The jury's still out on tonight which, y'know, hasn't happened yet, but I definitely agree with aspects of what he's mentioned over the last few months of changes. I'm probably still a little higher on the show than he is, but even myself, I can't deny that certain things (like attempting a 30 min opening promo with the pillars a few weeks ago, nearly all of the visual changes to the show, though they brought my beloved black ropes/guardrail back) definitely have a bit of Stamford flavor to them. 'Setting up' the main event at the top of the show, for example, is something I never wanted to see here, but could easily happen again today. I don't wanna put words in anyone's mouth, but I could get behind the idea of those changes feeling a bit jarring for a day one fan.

Maybe I should save this for the navel-gaze thread, but if AEW does a brand split/draft and GMs, I'm going to probably lose significant interest in them. Two of my absolute least-favorite things in wrestling right there.

Authority figures suck, but Stokely is amazing so fuck it, let’s do that. That makes Collision even better.

I think that coming off the PPV, it's ok not to have alot of pre-announced matches. They shouldn't do it every week, but fine in this instance.

Yikes. Really?!?! They have only announced ONE match, and it is a combination of the least-liked match from the PPV and the outsiderz storyline? I really want to stop being negative, but.. Anyone else remember when actual pro wrestling used to be the focus on these shows? Happy birthday to Natural Senior, though! We are all wishing you nothing but the best and I personally am going to refrain from making an "I hope you like crap!" Norm Macdonald reference .

It is gonna be a really long time before I stop thinking "Damn - I wish I could have read Dean's reaction to this match." The Miz's performance was one of those ones where Dean would have had him like #18 on the 500 by night's end

Tell me you never watched Dark or Elevation without telling me you never watched Dark or Elevation

That was easily the best Gates of Agony match I've seen. Even if Darby and OC are that good, kudos to Kaun and hometown boy Toa for stepping it up. Further, tho I agree completely concerning Cole's Jazz Hands, credit where it's deserved, Cole and Jericho, especially Jericho, came out looking to redeem themselves. And I'd suggest they did.

Yep. I was all about the DOOM AND GLOOM but now I'm all about the NEVER ASSUME. Let the good times resume. I presume. Turns out prowrestling is still the focus. That Rampage. Love EVERYTHING about that. Darn near brings a tear to ole Gordlow's eye. What a molten crowd tonight! It makes SUCH a difference. THROW WIDE THE GATES OF AGONY! It was kind of funny when they cut to the crowd while Don was trying to speak and there were dudes in Bullet Club t-shirts vociferously booing the bad guys. (Because in my opinion Bullet Club are a "heel faction"). I will certainly watch the first couple of episodes of The Punk Show out of (morbid?) curiosity but I actually kind of hope it will turn out to be for-me-personally skippable. Partly (mainly?) because Saturday there is Sunday here and Sunday is when Papa Gordlow plays with his daughters (who are otherwise too busy with school, cram school, ballet, piano, calligraphy...) So my purely selfish hope is that they feature Punk constantly and Casey et al. just love it and are so happy but also they make JR permanent lead announcer exclusive to Collision and also move Jarrett and Saraya there but FTR still wrestle on Dynamite and Rampage etc etc... (Also Juice cuts promos on Collision but throws punches on Rampage and Dynamite). Kind of curious what everyone else's secret selfish wishes are for The Punk Show Brand Split and Draft Spectacular. Like, maybe Matt wants Hangman and Takeshita moved somewhere exclusively, where, say, Dustin never goes, Drew would most likely prefer at least one show with zero Matt Nick Cole participation, Natural might watch more of whichever show Penta and Sammy don't appear on, and Andy from Kansas would like Cody to be able to cross over...? I wonder if it is POSSIBLE to book three shows so that each and every one of us can see all of our favourites on two of them and have one show that's skippable-for-us-personally. Probably not. Personal tastes are not that logical. Anyway, I am mostly back to being a frothing-at-the-mouth fanboy for at least a couple more days. Feels nice. What a show!

One thing I want to mention in relation to Swerve: Nick Wayne’s debut is coming up in July against Swerve (on Collision, I believe). Darby & Sting are all of a sudden involved in this story between OC and Swerve’s group seemingly. I’m hereby requesting TK book Nick Wayne, Darby, Sting & Orange Cassidy versus Swerve, Brian Cage and the Gates of Agony.

I hate to admit it, but they’re sucking me back into caring about the Elite with this Takeshita turn, Omega out of the country (Japan?? to recruit Okada? Ibushi? Both?) and the Dark Order stuff. I did not expect them to do anything with the Dark Order in regards to this story, so that’s a nice surprise. Hangman dropped them like they were deadweight and it needs to be addressed. The way Matt just cockily laughed off everything Uno and Silver said… my blood boils. Rampage is stacked, but I’ll be at work, so I have to sail the seven seas this weekend I guess. Saraya is not Toni Storm or Jamie Hayter or anything, but being in the ring with Britt Baker makes Saraya look like she’s Manami Toyota. Britt is so, so bad. Great character and mic work, terrible in-ring. but… I mean… PUUUUUUNK!

Good episode! So much to say! I'm going to say none of it and bring up this different point WHY IS RAMPAGE SO FUCKIN STACKED???!!!

TK hearts Gordy That fuckin rocked, although I did stop watching at the main event. RAMPAGE HOLY FU-

We can finally stop wondering now. The questions have been answered. He's back. Thank you, Tony. Welcome back, Stinger.

I’m not saying that our grouchiness manifested all this, but...hi Coach Tony K!

OK. So far that's FIVE (5) matches announced (mixed tag, BCC trios, Stat vs Nyla, GATES OF F'N AGONY, & random as hell 3-way) vs FOUR (4) talky bits (Tony announces something, hear from Takeshita, what's up with Friedman, and hear from White Juice). In my opinion 5 > 4, so Actual Wrestling (Actual Exciting Wrestling? Actually Entertaining Wrestling? Altogether Excellent Wrestling?) lives to see another day. Also Natural's Dad's birthday has been saved. And my heart just grew three sizes * Well played, AEW, well played. *note: The announcement of a brand split and a draft may cause Gordlow's heart to shrink by a factor of >3. Right there with Log on that one. Trying. Trying REAL HARD to be cautiously optimistic on that front.

I’ve mentioned this before(probably in this very thread) but I could listen to Historian Cornette for hours upon hours. Podcast Cornette is a totally different story/gimmick.

Reading this thread for the first time, after already seeing the match announcements, that’s an experience. A lot of people really struggling with Post-Sports Entertainment Disappointment Disorder.

Heraclitus said that the only constant in life is change, and if you can't trust a pre-Socratic philosopher, who can you trust?

I really think AEW's insistence on having everything end on pinfall or submission has become counterproductive. Having the occasional DQ or countout is fine and is preferable to making the refs and wrestlers look like jackasses.

I'm not going to bullet point the last hour but basically everything was solid and fun, though Skye vs Alize felt just a little off. If interested, people should check out Christian vs Comoroto and Penta vs Slim J. The main was very good, like a prize for people who made it to the end. I thought ZSJ and Sydal, though not matched up a ton, were so fluid and unique when they were in there together. There was a good bit of oneupsmanship with Joe and ZSJ dismantling Daniels. Exciting finishing stretch. Good stuff. What a journey. This week looks very solid again btw, even if it's not a studio show. ZSJ vs Rocky Athena vs Kiera Shibata vs Coughlin Cage vs Willie Mack Vikingo/Bandido/Komander vs Cartwheel/Serpentico/Angelico Dark Order vs Righteous/Stu Kingdom vs Infantry Skye vs Adora Andretti/Darius vs Workhoresemen Diamante vs Promise Braxton Kip/Butcher/Blade squash Should be fun.

Me bitching and not saying much in coming…. The last two PPV’s were maybes for me. I ended up getting Revolution and was very glad I did. Excellent main event (becoming among an all time favorite for me), a wild tag team silly Willy four way, an intense Texas Death Match, and Christian Cage had a sleeveless turtleneck. What I’d want in an AEW event! Double or Nothing just didn’t have it for me and I decided not to get it way sooner. At least the Forbidden Door was a last minute no that I regretted. Outside of gifs, I don’t think I’ll go out of my way for the last event. Which is a shame for a company that even when I’m not sold on the stories usually makes me feel my money was well spent. Anarchy in the Arena I bet was a hoot. The last one was fantastic. I’m sure the Four Pillar 4-way Thrillar was fun, but I’m not really interested in that as a title match. I can see it being Tony investing in giving them these moments like when you draft a QB and feel the need to give them important playing time. This felt like a TV special main that could have either had a shorter build or not make me long for having Rush in Jungle Boys spot. I find Darby very unique and cool and someone you could really make money off of with great television and matches. I think MJF can be hokey at times but is a very good champion. Sammy needs help on the direction of his character. If he doesn’t go on a face attempt after the pregnancy announcement then what was all this for? If he does go on a face run, be very careful because you can only attempt this so many times. Don’t let him have dumb moments where he comes across like a douche. In a weird way, if you replaced Cole with him in that same Jericho feud with a beat up girlfriend (please no now that Tay is pregnant) then Sammy could have pulled it off better. More on that later. I’ve never been a Jungle Boy boy. I used to be in the camp where he is getting better and with his looks and a willingness to get more experience could really be a popular fella. I’ve now seen him in a build for a championship match and I don’t see him anywhere near there. This is dumb of me, I admit, but that was a factor in me not getting the PPV. Statlander is champ. Neat. Now hopefully we get good weekly women’s matches around this belt. Outside of the Ladies World Order that is now holding the World Women’s Title. TBS Championship can be the workrate belt. Even if you don’t want Statlander weekly, you have a number 1 contender match and can spread it out. ramble ramble ramble Sunny Matt D and Gord Julius are right, there are certain uncanny elements to the recent feeling of AEW that have a Sports Entertainment feel. I think the matches are likely still often better than WWE, but no one can out WWE the WWE. You can be less than, worse than, or different than. Give me the alternative. I like Jarrett shenanigans but we’re getting it along with JAS and the Outsiderz. The Elite have shenanned once and I could see them shenan-again. ramble ramble rambl i won’t spell check this and I no longer know where I’m going with this. ramble ramble ramble Nyla Rose stealing the belt from Jade was the best part of her title run. That was straight up neat and showed a fun side to both Nyla and Jade. Staying on Jade, what’s the deal with the Baddies. It came into existence almost randomly and I don’t know who is in and who is out. Red Velvet was a face that wasn’t getting cheered (often facing hometown talent) so she turned Baddie. But it was done not with a shocking in ring handshake. It was explained by the announcers, if I recall correctly. Wasted opportunity that tells me that if a show doesn’t care enough to show the talents character development, I shouldn’t care. You had bleach hair McNair having a bag over his head for like a year and when you finally do something, he just gets beat and it was revealed poorly. You wasted a year of My Chemical Romance’s Welcome to the Black Parades’ time and mine! The Dark Order was beloved and their slow disappearance is a disappointment and failure of booking. Absolutely embarrassingly bad. ramble ramble. I remembered I liked the Cole vs Hangman match from one of the PPV’s. It had a different feel from the other matches on the card and was a joy to end the show one. I was likely bombed depending what the date of that event was. I’m in the Cole is a better heel camp. I do know nothing on that matter and can very well be wrong. I agree his wrestling as a heel can be excitingly good guy moves, but he has such a swagger to him when he’s pretending to be mean. He either lost that as a face ORRRR is being booked to play victim and then tough guy which comes off awkward. I’ll wait and see. I think everyone here can agree that he is a big draw and regularly moves ratings and merch, so we can drop this. ramble ramble rambl I hope we get Danielson v Omega 2 this year and it goes to a hour time limit draw. ramble ramble ramble calm down Octopus. Everything is fine. Let’s see the next builds now that the current derp is over. ramblw ramble Rush is pretty neat. I hope with the new show that stable can be used well. Speaking of new show, if CM Punk comes back OR doesn’t come back and we get more stupid drama (after I make memes for likes and trophy emojis) I’ll be like “oh shoot” and it’ll really kill my enjoyment likely only temporarily. But for that time period, oh boy. I’m typing all of this while getting sweaty on a couch. everything sucks but everything’s fine and I’m just hungry but I ate so much noodles what the hell. karen Jarrett hitting Aubrey with a guitar is funny to me. Keep it up, Tony!

Was there one match on Double or Nothing 2023 that was a really good straight-up pro wrestling match with a clean, satisfying finish and without a bunch of (unnecessary) bells and whistles? I'd argue that there wasn't. MAYBE the preshow match? "Really" good is a bit of a stretch... Ethan Page did some really good wrestling. I'd, personally, argue that at this point Jeff Hardy qualifies as an unnecessary bell and whistle. I very much enjoyed the Blackjack Battle Royale, but in my opinion that was not a straight-up pro wrestling match. I'm not trying to be controversial,but in my opinion Wizard vs Bay Bay was neither straight-up nor really good. There was, of course, some good wrestling in the FTR match but it was a Jarrett match and as such it was non-stop prowrestling bullshit and there was virtually zero chance of a clean satisfying finish and we all knew that going in. It's not for me, but that's fine. I'm not arguing that there should be ZERO matches of this type on a PPV, just that it would be very nice to also get one clean straight-up pro wrestling match in addition. Again, not trying to be controversial but ladder matches with biting are not straight up pro wrestling, as far as I'm concerned. POSSIBLY if Hayter had been healthy her match would have been straightforward and hard-hitting... But probably it still would have been built around Saraya interfering. Regardless of circumstances, we didn't get our straight-up very good match here. House Rules came pretty close, certainly there was really good wrestling going on. but probably you noticed some wildly unnecessary bells and whistles in the background of this one. If you consider Jade vs Taya and Jade vs Stat to be two separate things... MAYBE Jade vs Taya? But as a whole it seems to have left a significant number of people unsatisfied. Good wrestling, nice surprise, somewhat unsatisfying booking, in my opinion. The Pillar Fight was, like the Jarrett match, never intended or expected to finish clean. It's the current champ's deal, and that's fine. Certainly a very enjoyable match. Anarchy was never meant to be straight-up, obviously. The Takeshita thing does not, in my book, qualify as a clean finish. Still enjoyed the hell out of it. Again: Not asking for zero bells, zero whistles, zero bullshit, zero fuck finishes. Just wishing we could get ONE match where the wrestling was allowed to stand on its own and the finish was determined by actual wrestling. People used to complain that AEW gave us TOO MUCH of that! Possibly they are overreacting in the opposite direction now. DoN 2019 had Cody vs Dustin. Bloody, but straight-up. Clean finish. Great story. 2020 had Mox vs Brodie Lee, 2021 had Bucks vs Mox & Kingston and Shida vs Baker. Last Year we got Punk vs Hangman. Hopefully I am not misremembering and all of those had relatively clean finishes. Probably I'm misremembering, but... You get the idea.

Joe, Goldberg, Roman, all World Champions having well-received reigns. This was for a midcard belt with people sick of the reign, and those are huge distinctions. Jade went Double or Nothing at Double or Nothing and paid for it. Thematic relevance trumps all.

Let's wait and see what kind of heat they get for the eventual Dynamite gender reveal.

Holy shit was that show great until the last 15-20 minutes which were...not very good to very bad. What a hot crowd, too! The heat for Callis and fucking Lard Lad had me worried someone was going to jump the rails. Somewhere, DEAN~! is saying to us “I hate three-ways but that was a great match. Sneaky Style, Tall Guy doing Tall Guy things, and Trent (is he one of the best wrestlers in the company?)” Plus we get Darby and OC, the two best damn pinballs in the company, getting repeatedly ragdolled and giving a huge rub to two huge young dudes. Both Toa and Kaun (and I will not engage in the hoss debate, by AEW standards Kaun is a hoss, Periodt) are really quick for their size. BCC vs. Lucha Bandidos was every bit as great as expected. Two of the top bases in the company vs. two incredible flyers, Penta there making the fans happy and challenging Adam Cole for the thigh-slapped of the year award, and Yuta being a dick and getting another win. I’m here for Death Jitsu. and how about the women’s title match? Fierce, stiff, competitive, both women looked great, good story throughout the match, a huge moment for Stat getting Nyla into the falcon arrow (?) and holy shit a 450 splash!! The show pretty much over delivered throughout the night in ring and out. And then a stacked as hell Rampage card! Willow vs Emi! I feel like that’s AEW literally saying “sorry for letting you down some recently John, here you go, enjoy!” AEW RULES THE MUTHAFUCKIN UNIVERSE

That was a fun fucking show. Firing on all cylinders all night. Great in ring and solid promos (Tony hilarity included) throughout. Molten heat for the incredible Callis/Takeshita promo! Unreal.

They fixed Eddie And they showed off the Young Bucks too.

Absolutely. Outside interference, beyond-logic-incompetent refs, and all thee 'bells et whistles' are being applied nonstop and ad nauseam. Seeing as the P(ay)PV reps the end of a cycle it shouldn't be a big ask for some straight up wrestling with a satisfying finish.

RIP DEAN. Those legendary reviews reinvigorated my fandom. 'DEAN rules the EARTH. GET ALLLLLLLLLLL THIS.'