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I'm too busy for a big write-up today (Road Report would suck anyway, we ate McDonalds before the show and drove straight home and went to bed after), but some highlights.... Pretty cool that Orange made a point to hop down off the ramp to give Harrison a high five (or whatever you call Orange's lazy version of it). He made a point to come over to him in Lexington a couple months ago, too. Pretty cool that it showed up on the broadcast this time. After Copeland's segment, he came over to Har for a high five and gave him a little head pat. It was really sweet. Har's been watching all these WWE videos on YouTube made by randoms, and I guess he saw something that really built Edge up as a legend, so he was SUPER excited he was even on the show. Biggest disappointment of the night was that Penta didn't come over to him. That three-way match for Rampage was exactly what you'd think a three-way with those three would look like. So, your mileage may vary. It was a fun show live. Place wasn't super-packed, but the crowd had energy. People were even into the last match of the Rampage taping (Garcia/Trent). Watched a bit of Dynamite this morning, and we could see ourselves a few times. I'm wearing a pink Bret Hart shirt, so it stood out a bit. I was feeling guilty on the way home for keeping him up so late on a school night. We didn't get home until almost midnight. But, on our way home, he said, "That was like the best day I've ever had!" It made me realize that one day at school being a little tired is nothing compared to seeing something he may remember fondly for the rest of his life.

This sucks and I really don't see the upside for AEW.

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

Timeless Toni gave Tony S an orange. While eating it, he got some juice in his eye... It... STIIIIIIIIINGS! Hey, Tony S, what is that thing Darby Allin is wearing around his neck to support his injured shoulder? It's (a)... SSSSLLLLLLIIIIIINNNNNGGGG! Hey Tony S, what sound does your penis make when you see Britt Baker? It's... I have zero notes about the actual wrestling.

Orange/Claudio was awesome, loved the finishing counter. Surprised the Embassy just won the trios titles back just like that. Thought for sure the Elite would hold them until at least Final Battle, their reign felt kind of pointless in retrospect since they never did any ROH shows. Great commentary banter when Callis was out there for the tag. Instinctively, one of my first thoughts was worrying that Paul Wight would turn heel when the match comes around, but I hope not. Thought Shida/Willow was very solid. Loved the swerve with Skye not turning. Cole telling Roderick "I can hear you, you don't have to yell dude" is always great. Fun main event and post-match. "You fucking scissor him NOW!" Happy 60th Birthday Billy Gunn!

For a lot of people, at least based on Reactions on the Internet, it's bringing in a known sex pest at a time when a lot of the hardcore fans are losing faith and interest in the programs.

I thought Claudio/OC was beautifully laid out. Claudio did some nice subtle (by wrestling standards) acting to sell his anger turning to frustration. OC's hope spots and Claudio's cutoffs were all timed really well. The sequence with the deadlift beach break to Claudio doing the OC roll out of the ring while Cassidy desperately tries to keep him in was a work of art and the very best kind of mirroring. And the finish with Claudio putting a little too much mustard on the powerbomb lift which gave OC the space to counter into the rana was a brilliant bit of business. I think my one knock is that you didn't need the Hook/Yuta stuff in the middle. Agree with Matt that Mox/OC two needs some kind of a stipulation. I popped pretty good for the blue mist, even if she mostly missed Julia's face.

It's bad that I was like "there are a lot of people who meet that definition, and I legitimately can't remember which fuckface this is", isn't it?

On screen? Sure I can agree with that. But he's one of the most recognizable wrestlers in the history of the business. There's a ton of ways to make money with him and off of his name that doesn't even require him to be on TV. Shirts, action figures, DLC for the game. Having a name TV & business to business execs will know and have heard of will always have value in negotiations. On screen I mean they can at least get as much use out of him as Arn & Tully & Jake. A random pre tape with MJF and Flair has character value for MJF. A random FTR promo with Flair or them needing him in their corner in Charlotte or Atlanta has value. Flair helping Andrade find his mojo has value. Flair doing promo shit with Lethal & Jarrett has value. There's things they could do that are worthwhile. I understand if he has worn out his welcome with people. That's totally fine to not enjoy him personally, but I find it pretty hard to believe all the people reacting negatively can't at least grasp the potential value he could bring even if you don't enjoy him personally.

I mean they really don't have a home video release component that would warrant needing a ton of footage.

Get ready for so much Wooo! Energy spam.

Yeah, conceptually the idea of a wrestler getting a lil crush on another wrestler and not knowing how not to be weird about it isn't a bad idea but the execution has missed the mark. The best part has been Billy and Bowen getting increasingly exasperated with Max acting like a weirdo. "Dammit, Max, we hid back here for nothing!" was a hell of a delivery.

I'm gonna start asking for a paycheck one of these days

Tony Khan hit an all-time low by making the ticket pre-sale date for All In 2024 as a big announcement tonight. Hyping that up like that was ridiculous and embarrassing. You don't advertise garbage like that ahead of time. You have the announcers mention it during the broadcast. You can even air a short promo, but hyping it up the way they did was utter nonsense.

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.

already on it!

Cross the line!

I'll be dead serious I haven't watched TNA in years but I happened to catch it on their YTTV channel yesterday and there's a four way tag coming up with Hawkins/Ryder, the MCMGs, Rhyno/Heath Slater, and I wanna say the Hooligans, that kinda piqued my interest from a 'what will this even be' perspective

No no, TNA is converting into TNA 2.0

I'm not enjoying AEW's conversion into TNA 2.0

I ran camera for them on three weekends in 2022. I'm not going to pretend like I was privy to all kinds of insider, backstage info or anything. I will say, though, that everyone I dealt with, from wrestlers to ring crew to any sort of staff, was very professional and very friendly and helpful. Because of that, I've really been rooting for the company since then. I'm glad to see that it's paying off. They were a ton of fun to work with and I hope I get to do it again sometime.

Well, actually... Anyway, about the episode: Opener was excellent, counter into the giantswing was ace! The post match was awkward. I thought fora second that Claudio was going to attack Moxley for some reason. OC vs Mox 2 will probably not dissapoint. Glad that Cage, Bishop and Toa got their belts back. Hangman Swerve 2 should kick ass. I thought it would be a Texas Death Match, though. The MJF segments throughout the show were really good character development. He also had the opportunity to team with the biggest slimeballs around, and he eventually chose to swallow his pride and team with The Assclaimed instead. Yet, he still hates Darby, and is scared of Joe and Wardlow. And Jericho still hates him. All good stuff. Paul Wight cold-cocking Fletscher was hilarious. In a street fight, Jericho and co should just keep throwing Callis Family members at him, so he can keep intercepting them with punches mid-air! Shida vs Willow got intense by the end. Yeah, Willow seemingly fought off the mist, and Skye Blue is embracing it in a different way that Julia expected. Timeless Toni will be the champion, though. Jay pinning MJF was huge for him, but MJF still won by growing as a human once again, after the match. Both Gunns are slowly but surely starting to show their father's "genetics", physique wise. Copeland is pandering a bit, no? Well, at least he's ready to fight Christian Cage now! Did I see a member of this message board in the crowd, there? Someone looked familar! Was anyone there in person?

New gimmick idea just dropped for a wrestler who won’t have conventional entrance music but will play a trumpet to announce his/her arrival.

The go woke / go broke folks want The Marvels to bomb, so fuck them. I'm going on opening night and taking my daughter and all of her friends with me.

Keep his wife’s name out your mouth, etc etc

I can't argue with anything Rich Eisen said. McDaniels and Ziegler should have never been hired in the first place. Garoppolo is going to be scapegoated, but he was doing the best he could against the Lions. Poor guy looked like he just got out of the hospital and was mugged on the way to Starbucks. Let me once again praise the Lions for helping get rid of two of the Raiders latest mistakes.

I mean if Moxley really *has* to get his boy Sami Callihan a job, this seems the best idea for it.

Really the only time a company at AEW's level is actively engaging with sponsors is when: 1) They're doing an in-kind trade for time, like if AEW was buying their own TV time and were responsible for their own ad buys (they aren't) 2) They're keeping relationships open so when one sponsorship contract ends, if another is interested, they can move on. And that's it. If energy drink companies like Ghost or Monster wanted to sponsor AEW by now, they would have. They didn't, so they have whatever flavored piss in a can that has Ric Flair's face on it instead. But hey! Free money! At least when UFC had weird sponsorships they'd be limited to individual fighters, like when a whole bunch of random mid-level folks had "CONDOM DEPOT" printed on the seat of their shorts.

Stacker 2

They’re energy drink people trying to glom off of Ric Flair in 2023. I figure they’re not exactly in a position of strength here The whole thing is almost destined to end with Ric getting bored and hoping that he can get released so that he go back to being a WWE charity case.

as for what Flair could do while under a contract... former ballplayers who become special assistants to the GM don't necessarily have to do anything public-facing so if Flair could have the occasional coherent piece of advice or observation of what he notices on TV, that's probably not bad as long as the energy drink people pay most of his salary.

Re: the MCU article, I’d be fine with High Evolutionary being revealed as a Kang variant and recast Iwuji as Kang. I think their overall problem is the perfect storm of the pandemic hitting and delaying everything at a time when they were hitting a reset with new franchises for Phase IV, forcing them to go without the bigger franchises/interconnected stores for a while.

According to Fightful's report, AEW sources said the main motivation was merchandising opportunities with Ric Flair, including general merch, video games, and action figures.

This.

Ric and Ashley vs Snoop and Mercedes to pop a number on Collision

The MJF through line of the episode felt very 'early-aughts WWE' to me. I really like that they're doing show-long angles and leaning on their best talents to do it but they've picked up WWE's reality TV style of shooting that kind of takes me out of it

Yes, Heather Thomas coming through swinging doors in a bikini and the theme song made that an all-time memorable opening. "It's true I hire my body out for pay. Hey, hey!!"

Said the following before, AEW needs to upload some full matches on YouTube like WWE and ROH does.

I mean... MJF has said no. He's not interested. To continue to press in the way they've been doing it, where Caster's coming off like a stalker since he's always where MJF is present, is creepy. I'm not sure why not respecting consent is seen as romantic (and yes, I see most 1980s teen romcoms as creepy), but there's ways to do an unrequited love story that doesn't involve "I'm always going to be where you are until you say yes".

Thank - you - nat - ural (clap x 5)

I asked for Samoa Joe vs. Minoru Suzuki and less than 24 hours later it was announced.

BONUS REVIEW: DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT (S.F. Brownrigg, 1973) IMDB REVIEWED BY @Curt McGirt Been wanting to watch this lil' chunk of sleaze for many years now. It was reviewed in John McCarty's Official Splatter Movie Guide (which I bought as a kid) and I knew it as a feature released on countless uncopyrighted and public domain horror collections out there, so it was an instant find on Youtube. What a hoot. This piece of crap was released to piggyback off the success of The Last House on the Left, so Hallmark Releasing tagged the same "It's Only A Movie..." catchphrase onto it, as seen in the trailer above. What was on the celluloid was... well, let's say, not quite as transgressive and powerful as Craven's seminal work. I think Z would about be the Grade on this one. We start with a nurse saying goodbye to what are clearly a series of loonies: a guy who thinks he's a sargeant in the Army, a big simple black dude who plays with a toy boat, a girl who cradles a doll like it's a baby and threatens to kill anyone who touches it, etc. She goes down to tell the doctor she's quitting her babysitting job for this gang of goobers while he's encouraging this guy to chop wood with an axe, and go figure, he axes the doc right in front of her! She goes into damage control mode but one of the patients in this "clinic" kills her too. Next day a new nurse shows up, and is told by someone who's supposed to be a second nurse but is immediately identifiable as also a patient and pretending tells her the doc's dead, but she can stay on as new nurse. And then we get an hour plus of people acting completely batshit. There isn't another movie with more bulging eyeballs, screaming, yammering, gesticulating, moaning, and general bad acting that I can think of. It's like every single person was shown Barbra in Night of the Living Dead and said "here is your spirit animal, find your own version". One lady is obsessed with somebody "loving" her. There's an old lady who ends up cutting her tongue off but not before she croaks some creepy warnings to the nurse. There's a curly haired, barefoot goof that jumps out and scares people all the time. Another guy thinks he's a judge and is SUPER overwrought. Why the legitimate nurse doesn't understand she's in for it and jumps ship immediately is baffling; there is no procedure, no phone calls made to authorities by her (they cut the phone too of course), none of the patients have any security procedures keeping them from wandering around and screaming all the time, and that's what we get, a lot of wandering and screaming. It's really pretty funny. Of course things come to a head and we finally get a fair amount of blood -- okay, a lot -- though without any, you know, effects or anything that would involve actual movie magic. Some of the murders, you don't even know how they happen, they're so poorly shot! It really is amateur night here, let's-put-on-a-show type stuff, but that makes it entertaining, if you can deal with the screaming. I'd advise getting some weed for this one. Again: Grade Z, with a bullet. EDITOR'S NOTE Can be found a lot of places. Full JustWatch listing

Had All-In 2024 actually been announced already? I thought that was the big announcement. I saw someone on Facebook said that with Edge and Wight AEW is starting to feel really old and I don't disagree.

Thoughts about what I caught from this episode: Kyle Fletcher looks like the Merovingian now Will Hobbs yelled "I hate giants!" Jay White needs to cheat more and for some reason the first person I thought of as a comparison was Super Delfin I liked the main event

I hope now that the payoff happened this MJF/Acclaimed thing can go away as Max Castor basically being a creep/borderline sexual harasser is something I'd rather not be a thing any longer.

I thought this was the best episode in a minute. I have more thoughts I'll share tomorrow, but I really loved Hangman going after Swerve and the pull apart in the back - it really sold the whole the fact that home invasions always trump titles - I say that jokingly, but Hangman brought the required intensity big. And shout out to Matt Jackson for a nice little foreshadowing Easter egg with beating the ring post with the chair ala Jericho's initial heel turn in WCW - it set up the interruption later during Jericho/Kenny's promo with Renee really nicely. And despite a bunch of good promos, and a hilarious Wipeout ad read by the commentary team, I think we can all agree Billy Gunn had the line of the night. Edit: @John E. Dynamiteb I didn't think it was bad at all, I thought the 'worst' match was pretty inoffensive save for one egregious spot that took forever to set up - im inclined to say it's brigading by bad actors

I really wondered for a second if the Jackson’s were gonna get to book themselves to go over 2 on 3 vs. three of the scariest looking dudes I’ve ever seen. Seems there is a modicum of Justice in this world…

A lot of people on Bluesky were like “Paul looks to be in great shape” and all I could think was “from the ribs up maybe, his legs look like broken toothpicks and his body is slightly crooked at the waist”. I just don’t know why he or they feel a need to him to wrestle again, even in a protected street fight.

Great review! So I think the movie works, but the book is 500% better. The movie shifts the characters and predicaments a bit and has a much darker ending. It’s also written brilliantly — no chapter breaks and a relentless pace of nonstop brutality. It’s one of my daughters favorite books! Highly recommended! Speaking of endings, when we rewatched it on paramount plus, the ending was different than I remember in the theater way back when. I think the second one is better for the movie, but again it’s all different and actually less dark than the book. And sorry about the falling down the stairs and the puncture wounds. As someone who recently sprained my ankle horrifically (and then was in trial for the next three weeks straight on a walking boot and cane) and also suffered puncture wounds (albeit from knives) I can relate. Get well and keep trucking. PS the new Panopticon is fucking brilliant.

So if they can get Billie Starkz too.... Rousey/Shafir vs Athena/Starkz is something I had no idea I wanted but I kind of do. EDIT: