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Apologies for posting mid-show, but if you saw Orange hop off the ramp to high five a kid, that was my son!

If little man can stop being such a shitass at school today, we'll be heading to Dynamite this evening! He has informed me that we will NOT be singing along to Judas, though. "It's a terrible song." I support him on this decision.

if only there was some way to predict that Josh McDaniels would be a shitty head coach before hiring him

OC/Claudio sounds amazing and all but more than anything I am heavily pro-Daddy Magic getting notable matches.

I have a conspiracy theory. TK bought BET, which is currently up for sale, from Viacom just so Stoke can watch the Tip Drill video on BET Uncut. Watching it on YouTube just ain't the same. You heard it here first.

Penta vs. Vikingo vs. Kommander has been added

Now that the precedent has been set, I'd like to see more people-given-as-gifts, personally. "Chris Jericho, as a token of appreciation for all you've done for the company as first signee and inaugural World Champion, I've gotten you your very own JJ Dillon."

If you've never flipped a beer pong table at the moment 1 AM turns to 1 AM again while wearing an offensive pun-based costume and yelling about being a time traveler, are you truly even American?

I'm picturing "select members of the organization" to just be a room of various mirrors that his father used to own and also "consulted" about the team. I'm also guessing those same members tell him his hairstyle looks great.

Does this mean everyone has to hate Tool now?

I stopped reading when he suggested to end Collision.

You realize you've opened the door for there to be a segment where Santa gives Danhausen a mini-Danhausen, just like how Doink got Dink, right?

I got something in my inbox that said it was a free ticket to Fozzy at I believe the Forge in Joliet. I laughed. They'd have to pay me.

Orange vs Claudio: I kind of hated the fake press conference deal. You can get away with it if you don't do real scrums, you know? Wrestling Journal. The actual content was fine. The promo package that followed was good. The match should be great. They should put (and advertise) Mox on commentary. Shida vs Willow: Fresh match up with Shida against a different sort of opponent. Feels a little like worlds intersecting as Willow's been more involved in the Statlander stuff. We'll see if they loop in Julie and/or Skye Blue. It's AEW so you can never tell. Jericho/Omega vs Menard/Parker: I'm looking forward to this a lot more than most Jericho or Omega matches. 2.0 can work a really grounded, very entertaining match. I'm not sure where this is headed overall. I can't imagine them ending up as part of the Callis family so they probably get steamrolled, but if not it could be a fun twelve minutes. MJF vs the World: Again, I don't know where it's headed, but I'm interested. I can't see Wardlow possibly working with him. I'd enjoy seeing Joe run through Juice and the Gunns. Just lots of stuff up in the air. I do hope it doesn't end up with some sort of multi-man. There are a lot of big shows coming up, the biggest for MJF being World's End since that's in Long Island. Tony has a big announcement: I'm assuming this has something to do with the women given the Doja Cat tie in that launched this morning, but who knows. The women focused on that were Britt, Nyla, Saraya, Ruby, Toni, Shida, and Stat (unless I'm missing anyone). Could be MAX. Could be some new show. Could be women's tag belts. Could be a tournament. Could be anything.

Ah, the good ol' days when "Fall back" in the US happened the last weekend in October. Many a college Halloween party were granted that extra hour.

If you’re not watching NXT you’re really sleeping on a tremendous little show. It’s the best it’s been since it’s pre-AEW heyday.

Dia De Los Muertos with the one who's most Muerto of us all.

This is as good a topic to start out with as any... After a two year delay, the WWE dropped this doc over the weekend:

I love OC and Claudio and really dug the match for the most part but getting a little burnt out on "heel controls most of it then the face hits one or two killshots," guess I'm still annoyed at Seth/Nakamura LMS from a few weeks ago. When OC lost his title I was hoping it would let him explore other avenues like building himself back up, maybe Best Friends chasing the trios titles, or maybe building himself up to face MJF. Him getting back the title never felt right and I'm hoping he doesn't drop it to Mox for a rewind of what should have been Mox's run? I guess OC gets his win back at Full Gear. Loving the locker room not having MJF's back in this for totally valid reasons. When he said he had one group left I was REALLY hoping it was gonna be House of Black and he was going to have to go into their spooky red room. The Planet Jarrett reveal was fun though. I noticed Willow's eye looked normal tonight which I think was the first time since she got misted. I like how there's a little ambiguity now of Skye not being with Julia now but also not with Willow again either. Hoping this storyline is a showcase since all 3 of them seem to have really good upside. The Julia Hart Glow Up has been really fun to watch this year. That post main drama with Billy getting in MJF's face "AFTER EVERYTHING HE'S DONE FOR YOU" was -chef's kiss-. I really hate reading about how AEW's ratings are down when this is the most entertaining the overall show has been in a while. Little long term touches still having an effect. Jericho rightly not wanting to give MJF the time of day, Wardlow and Max's history, Jeri-show of all things. Also, Shida shit-canning Toni Storma Desmond tonight was pretty great.

I wondered if that was y’all!

I only watched OC/Claudio because Survivor takes priority for me. But man that was an absolute banger and one of the best AEW matches flat out. Those two guys are a perfect pairing as dance partners — Claudio is not just a beast but he is also one of the most creative wrestlers ever at alternating his spots, and OC is one of the best “thinking man’s wrestler” archetypes we have ever had. Those two are such unique storytellers and I want to see a Best of 7, High water mark for both guys, and think about that. The only TV match with Claudio I can think of at that level was the crazy match against Cena for the US Title. But man this was just so fun

Nice one. Here's the video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t2y6wUAgNSQ&pp=ygUXb3JhbmdlIGNhc3NpZHkgZW50cmFuY2U%3D

AEW: home to a group of exciting young luchadores. And also Penta.

already on it!

I didn’t know which thread to put this in, but whatever. I realize nobody but me will likely care, but the Amalgam event in the 90s got me into comics (along with the X-Men and Sensational Spider-Man) and I’m so giddy that I just got the complete run of all 24 of the one-shot #1s, the initial four crossover Versus books, and the later All Access/Unlimited Access books for a little above $100. They’re all super fucking minty, too.

Pulp Fiction would be more fun. Dick Dale is probably cheaper than Axl Rose, too.

Random thought looking at the new month: with all the great music licensing choices AEW has made recently, I really hope one of these years we get an ECW-style 'November Rain' hype video for Full Gear.

I like picturing some low-level Raiders intern frantically trying with a pair of tweezers to get the "real" fortune out of the cookie without breaking it so he can insert Davis' hand-written fortune in it's place.

(It's allegedly not true... but god I wish it were.)

Best match from each AEW event: AEW Revolution: MJF vs. Bryan Danielson, 5th March 2023. AEW Double or Nothing: Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes, 25th May 2019. AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door: Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada, 25th June 2023. AEW All In: FTR vs. The Young Bucks, 27th August 2023. AEW All Out: Bryan Danielson vs. Ricky Starks, 3rd September 2023. AEW WrestleDream: Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr, 1st October 2023. AEW Full Gear: Toni Storm vs. Jamie Hayter. AEW Full Gear, 19th November 2022. AEW St. Patrick's Day Slam Dynamite: Thunder Rosa vs. Dr. Britt Baker, 17th March 2021. AEW Grand Slam Dynamite: Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega, 22nd September 2021. AEW Winter is Coming Dynamite: Adam Page vs. Bryan Danielson, 15th December 2021. AEW Rampage: Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki, 15th October 2021. AEW Battle of the Belts: Claudio Castagnoli vs. Konosuke Takeshita, 5th August 2022. AEW Collison: Dax Harwood/Cash Wheeler vs. Jay White/Juice Robinson, 15th July 2023. AEW Dark: Athena vs. Marina Shafir, 10th January 2023.

Could it be possible that two of MJF's partners are Richard Holliday and Alexander Hammerstone?

So, does Bill bring him back to New England this week, or wait until the off-season?

Guess Mark Davis watched that Monday night game too.

I just came across this video of Kingston too:

I'm so glad to see Grand Slam I make someone else's list. I think my post here the next morning may have been the longest I've ever made. @Just Davemade a great point above about AEW still being new enough to feel like counterculture at the ATL Dynamite he went to, and in a way, I think Grand Slam I may have been kind of the culmination of that; I imagined it was like what ECW fans must have felt like at Barely Legal, and thought about Paul Heyman's speech in Beyond The Mat about making it to 'the dance.' It's interesting to read you talk about taking in the show with a sense of mindfulness, because I was (coincidentally) the polar opposite, and felt pretty ungrounded in an 'Am I dreaming?' way - I know that sounds hyperbolic, but I really think 20 or 30 years from now when we're talking about this show on the DVDVRMB microchip implant, I'm going to look back on it as every bit as important to my fandom as some of the stuff from when I was a kid.

Knowing that TK has an announcement and we're going to be right by the stage, I'm debating wearing all my Illini gear to get his attention.

How about if he gives all three partners title shots, and it's Wardlow, Samoa Joe, and Sting?

I've been fortunate to go to so many shows in my life from WWF/WWE to ROH to local indies to AEW. Trying to pinpoint the best times is hard because fun was had for many different reasons. But I'll try to narrow it down. -First show I went to was in '94 for a house WWF show which was really fun. Then the next year my dad took me to Superbrawl V which might have been not much of a show but cool to check out. Both of those stand out because it was a time period for Baltimore and the arena that I still think super fondly of. Whether it was wrestling, Orioles games or even the one CFL Stallions game there was something about it as a kid that I just loved. -No Mercy '03 was the first one I went to with my then girlfriend/now wife which she loved. A sign we made got on TV and I still remember how split Baltimore was for Cena/Angle. It was deafening and made me think it gave the company the idea that he could work as a face if they wanted to. Not sure what happened to that Cena fella though. -ROH TV tapings when they were at Du Burns Arena was fun. Best one was when some friends joined for the first and only time. They loved the Briscoes and at the after show party we hung out with them for a while. I told the story a few times but you just can't beat doing shots with them and Mark acting incredulous I would dare drive a Honda and not a Dodge. -AEW's first Dynamite show was something else. Walking into the Capitol One Arena and seeing the setup I immediately got emotional thinking about how all that's happened with ROH and indy wrestling led to them being on TV. It's a feeling I'll never forget and we were treated to some cool-ass moments. From seeing Jay and Silent Bob in the crowd to Mox driving Kenny through a glass table to Nyla possibly winning in her hometown. It really set the tone for what AEW TV is about and I loved every bit of it. I do wish I paid attention to the fact that Kevin Smith was actually there for the whole show while Mews ducked out after their part of the show. Had I known I could have headed down and gotten a selfie with him as he was leaving. I mean he was happy doing that with others so why the hell not? -Then there's the first Grand Slam. I went into detail recapping the whole thing before but it's super rare for me to have a true sense of mindfulness where everything just magically worked all at once. That's exactly what happened during Danielson/Omega. It made me really glad I went by myself as having the time to process everything just felt so, so right. If I wanted to I could have left and felt completely satisfied with what I experienced. But I stayed throughout and got the lovely bonus of seeing Suzuki live so yay me.

Maybe all the mercs only work for heels and since MJF’s a face, they’re demanding too much money to work for a good guy

Will have to look out for you both. Hope little man gets to see Orange Cassidy and Britt Baker up close again like last time. Glad he's growing out of the Penta fad :).

I just grabbed seats on the aisle right next to the stage. He's going to get to see everyone close up. I will say he's growing a bit away from Penta. He's more of an Orange Cassidy guy now.

There's an article in the Guardian today where they asked viewers what scenes scared them most in movies, somebody brought up The Thing ('82 of course) and said the theater operators turned down the heat in the building for the movie. Brilliant.

The addition of Collision has really made it hard for me to write up any AEW here. I am cognizant of that, especially because some of my recent commentary was more negative. I think one some level we all have been trying to fill the hole created earlier this year though none of us can. For ROH I tend to watch the first 30 mins-hour on Friday and then I catch the rest on my commute into work. Before that was Tuesday but I'm in Weds-Thurs for the rest of the year. Starting January I have to pick up a third day in the office so that'll probably be Monday. But it doesn't facilitate me writing this stuff up in any meaningful way. I really did like the Starkz/Athena vs Diamante/Mercedes tag though. It was a tornado tag so it was all action but they made the momentum shifts make sense and the characters were entirely at play. It was just very well put together for something that's generally quite difficult along those lines. I like that Athena and Billie have tandem offense worked out already. I think Ellering has looked ok so far and if they did tag belts (and they should, specifically attached to ROH while maybe sunsetting the trios titles), her and Willow would make a ton of sense as a team. Karter and Griff are starting to come together a bit though it's crazy that tag only got 3 minutes or so. The 4 way, on the other hand, was all spots and didn't wear out its welcome. It felt like one of those Nitro Spotfests. Gringo Loco having Blake to work off of helped too, I think. And yeah, great to see Slim J in there. I'd add him to Toni Storm's act as her Peter Lorre. And everything else I saw on Friday so it's all totally gone from my head.

I love both these ideas and would be thrilled if either is what we got - it kind of subverts the expectation that whatever three guys he chose would be part of the same collective (say either the Acclaimed or the Kingdom). Another bit of inspired fantasy booking/guess-work I saw elsewhere online: how about if the devil is Britt Baker doing Cole's bidding?

Last week one of my friends looked at me and said, "Wow, you're really committed to growing into a curmudgeon." I couldn't even deny it.

Am I crazy to think it's going to be The Kingdom? MJF gets a call from Cole who convinces him to give Roddy and the boys a chance. They fail and it plays into Cole's turn down the line. It's all leading up to MJF accepting The Acclaimed's help but I don't think they're going there yet

Spurs are crazy for this one

I think the newly found confidence that Lexi has been showing during the Minion Empowerment is definitely showing during her backstage interviewing duties as well. The "Absolutely not"-deadpan in response to Nementh's request for a good luck hug on AEW tv last week was 100% proof of it working!

Spoiled by living in WWE's home market, but: - Austin-Bret, Survivor Series 96 (Honorable Mention HBK-Sid on the same card) - HHH-HBK-[Name Redacted] at Mania XX. - Bayley-Sasha at Takeover Brooklyn - Cactus-HHH at Rumble 2000 Those are the best matches. The best live experience was the story I've told a few times here. Summer 1993, I got to see WWF live at the James L. Knight Center. Had decent seats as there couldn't have been more than a thousand people there. It was headlined by Yokozuna vs. Crush for the WWF Title. Quick Googling said they were running this to build up Yoko(!) to face off against Luger at SummerSlam, where Lex was the heavy favorite (lol). Anyway, the match ends as it normally did. Crush getting beat after a Banzai Drop. But the crowd had been restless throughout a pretty lackluster show, and essentially turning on the whole face/heel dynamic. This was one of the first times, I'd head a crowd vocally cheering for the heel. Yoko did his post match victory gimmick where he hit the Drop again on the face to make him seem more scary. So he did and I guess he was bored too because the crowd face popped BIG for the second drop. And he started actually talking back, breaking character because Yoko did not speak a word back then. The crowd was cheering "ONE MORE TIME... ONE MORE TIME..." Yoko: "Yeah?? You motherfuckers want one more???" Us: "YEAH!!! ONE MORE TIME!" Yoko: "Fuck yeah. Let's do it." Crush (who'd been selling) sees Yoko going up and says "Rod, what are you doing?" Yoko: "These fuckers want one more, so we're doing one more!" Crush: "ugh...fine." BANZAI!!!! I'd been a fan for years long before (see my Mania thread for the "Slick looks like a cricket!" moment to see when I became a fan for life). But this was the first moment I ever got to see behind the curtain and see the characters become the performers. Brian rolled out of the ring and got out of dodge quickly after that third drop. Rod stayed around and shot the shit for a couple of minutes with us. That was the best moment I've ever had as a fan.