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lemme put a summary of Darby/Takeshita in spoilers for Matt's benefit

That show was fresh and full of energy, felt like a reboot of sorts although I just saw the mention of lots of guys in Japan. Still... Dante and OC have a great match with Dante showing much more than just high flying while still doing a move that made Tony Schiavone just laugh in amazement. Mariah May (requiring SO much settling down) and Aminata have a competitive, stiff match and then the “surprise” debut of Deonna Purrazzo. So many possibilities to go with the current talent (and a returning Hayter). Takeshita just ragdolling Darby all over the Garden State. Good lord, such violence. The knee strike on the tope looked vicious, then just yoinking Darby from the apron to the edge of the ramp, and THEN THE DOUBLE ROLL DOWN THE RAMP INTO A GNARLY ROLLING GERMAN SUPLEX. Bah gawd almighty he broke him in half! Push Takeshita to the fucking moon. A showcase 4-way with (the probably not actually unsigned) Bryan Keith, Hijo del Vikingo, the perpetually underrated Trent Baretta, and also meh Brian Cage. At least Cage will bump and sell for Vikingo and Keith. Swerve and Garcia have a great match with some nasty shots, the possibly not a bitched sharpshooter on the announcers table, and Garcia being the master of kicking out at 2.999999. Once I saw Hangman walk in backstage angry I knew it would end with him going after Swerve, but the fact that Swerve was laughing like “yeah fine, let’s go again” ruled. And basically all the in-ring and backstage segments hit! My friends, AEW RULES THE MUTHAFUCKING WORLD~!

Credit to Cole for leaving the catch phrases behind. The promo was fine on 2x speed. My bigger issue is that Khan recycled the intro of the Firm, mentioning the belts everyone wanted. My read is that Wardlow feels like he’s using Cole and Cole feels like he’s using Wardlow which is the opposite of what Cole/MJF was supposed to be, so it kind of works

Taker had a real Fire Pro-ass name.

Shannon Sharpe explains the territory system to Gilbert Arenas:

WCW also had the crappy barbed wire cage when they did that Flair/Hogan first blood cage match that turned into a normal cage match because Flair bladed like 10 seconds in.

I half wonder if the way to go isn't to have someone (House of Black, Bullet Club Gold, Callis family, Cole's group) intervene forcing them to team and ride the wave of the crowd cheering for Swerve. The other option is having Joe intervene since he wants to take out his top two challengers at once.

It wasn't the 1980s, but I used to have a low-power station that had a "midnight madness" block weeknights at midnight, and I suspect it was called "midnight madness" because they couldn't say it was wrestling since they threw American Gladiators in there. It was WWF Superstars, USWA, SMW, American Gladiators, and ECW. The USWA and SMW tapes were definitely bootlegged because they were a few weeks behind, and I distinctly remember seeing an ad for a SMW Thanksgiving Thunder show in February. ECW was bootlegged to start but they eventually got legitimate because there was a major time skip at one point, I think we jumped from January 1995 to April 1995 in one week. I forget what replaced SMW and American Gladiators when they ended, but I know USWA was replaced with Music City Wrestling before the station outright folded in 1998.

Good Dynamite. Reset shows are AEW's best shows. Opening promo was a bit long and didn't like Cole/Wardlow doing the exact same thing as Christian/Luchasaurus, but we got a brief glimpse of fiery babyface Jay White before settling on tweener BCG. 3-way feud for the trios belts finally gives the Acclaimed something meaningful to do. May/Aminata was fine although Aminata came across as a bit more of a star in the ring. Good to see Deonna on board. Darby/Takeshita ruled. Darby really is AEW, and the shows have missed him. The 4-way was the classic "playing SVR with your friends and all agreeing to pick random" AEW match. I hope they find something for Bryan Keith to do besides trying to set the record for how many midcard titles he can be a filler challenger for. Main was good and both guys worked through the botch nicely. I like pissed off Hangman, but I think it's too soon to go back to Swerve. Hopefully they're just fighting because they love to fight tonight and they go their separate ways soon.

The Virtuosa is ALL Elite! Automatic great show in my book, one of my all time favorites. Sad to see her gone from Impact but thrilled to see her in AEW. Awesome 1-2 punch of Mariah's in-ring debut followed by Deonna's surprise debut. Takeshita/Darby ruled. The german suplex violence just kept escalating, culminating with the top rope version. Felt like it had been a little while since a Takeshita singles showcase, this was excellent. 4 way was fun. Was rooting for BK but another 4 way win for Trent. Also dug Brian Cage's Streets of Rage gear, that was cool. Fantastic main event with both looking great, lots of nice near falls. Liked Hangman showing up and saying he was just going to beat some ass. Love the Hangman/Swerve rivalry.

Adam Cole threatening to have Warldow win the title then just forfeit it to him is the stuff of nightmares, isn't one angle where the gimmick is "wrestler is made to look like a stupid bitch by his manager" enough?

For a hot second I thought we were getting MAIN EVENT DADDY MAGIC WALKING TALL to end it tonight, and let me tell you I was all in for it

I saw this match at a house show in 98

We have a NEW AEW CHAMPION! A man who overcame tons of adversities and has been wrestling since the 90's under the shadows of others. A man who fought and overcame every obstacle put in front of him. It's truly incredible to see how far he's come... Welcome, you're NEW AEW Champion! [[Spoilered for those who haven't seen World's End yet!]]

Relatively comprehensible Spanish commentary para este gringo. So they clip everything from this match that doesn't involve Chico Flores being the active participant. It's basically a long heat segment on Chico, then the hot tag to Madril that gets clipped 30 seconds in, then the finish of Tolos winning with a knee drop. Issue is as far as I can tell Chicho's the least interesting guy in the match. He's fine enough at taking the heat, and I might be underrating him just because I can't see the actual payoff. This is a chunk of what's clearly a fun tag match, what we might call a WAR tag match which has always been the vibe I've got from the limited amount of NWA Hollywood I've digested. The crossover between Mexican/border town talent + deep cut US guys who didn't get poached nearly to the extent that Southern and Midwestern guys did when Vince Jr. rolled around creates matches that are anything but played-out to my eyes. The tiny bits of Madril's brawling babyface fire seems as good as I remember it, and MAN does Pritchard look young. I'd have loved to see him do anything here but it's all cut. The heels are pretty interesting and Ox is always a plus but it's Gran Goliath who gets the brunt of the time and he clearly knows what he's doing with Flores. I think I know Gran Goliath? I think he did some work in the Vince Sr./NJPW realm?? He's the most interesting rudo here. This is a baffling cut of an under-represented time + place in wrestling that leaves some major unscratched itches. I want to see Madril vs. Gran Goliath, I guess. I want to see the Dos Caras main event they half-announced at the start of the video. This Armstrong Alley YouTube channel is a trip and a half.

Ok, here's something then that I have zero idea what it is but it sounds neat ... Al Madril, Tuco Flores & Tom Prichard vs. Ox Baker, John Tolos & Gran Goliath from 1980 https://youtu.be/kYs8bTybAps?si=nD_B2aYP5J7BxUKU

THAT PENCIL NECK GEEK LEE HARVEY OSWALD KILLED MY PRESIDENT AND I CALLED MY FRIEND JACK RUBY BECAUSE I WAS SO MAD ABOUT IT

really good promo from Adam Cole, took @MattD's words to heart and dropped the sing along Bay Bay and Storytime stuff Like the narrative of a lot of guys going after the new champ Christian said alot of nothing however Darby finds out what happens when you find a stranger in the alps We just ran the Trent wins a multiman to lose a title shot angle a month agon Daddy Magic has me wanting him and Big Paul to be the permanent team on Rampage

Double posting, but both Swerve and Page called out Joe. Revolution main event is probably a three way for the title, not whatever you guys are imagining.

I didn’t hate Darby vs Takeshita. Commercial break saved it. Darby is the best guy to take a dynamic heel’s offense. Only note would be that Takeshita did his little back roll headscissors deal too early in the opening stretch. Darby should have had to drive him to something so askew.

The whole idea of doing a Buckshot without the ropes reminds me of seeing a sunset flip from the 1930s that didn’t involve the ropes and how impressive that looked

BTW - With one game to go - Montez Sweat leads BOTH the Bears and Commanders in sacks He had 6.5 with Washington (1 sack ahead) and currently has 6 with Chicago (1.5 sacks ahead) No one has ever lead two teams in sacks in a single season (at least while sacks were an official stat)

I've got it. Take a page out of the Cowboy's playbook: Coal Miner's Glove on a Pole, Tuxedo, Loser Leaves Town Match Really though. Do a live feed from Zona 23 in Tultitlan. Let a bunch of scarred-up luchadors and drunk fans stand around yelling and using noisemakers while they throw each other into rusty wrecked cars.

Between this and the Dice Morgan/"Big" (or was he "Texas") Scott Hall picture that gets a lot of reposting, a bunch of those guys would have worked with each other years before they were established in WWF. We remember Malenko, Guerrero, and Benoit as well as Scorpio working in a lot of the same places. However, Bam Bam, Yoko, Taker, Hall, Godfather, etc. all either worked in Japan together or pop up on an Otto Wanz show or some other place together. It's too much of a coincidence. They must have had the same hookup that got them in those places.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd_y2aHDV8U You need to see all of this but especially 03:17, Eddie Kingston promo.

Now there’s a team that needs to wear half cut tee shirts and finish matches with the powerplex

So yeah, AEW is out of DAZN but back on Triller TV. So, I quit DAZN and subscribed to TNA+. I also need to resubscribe to Triller's AEW+ later this month. Well, this problem wasn't as bad as I thought.

Paid $45 and yeah, show was awesome.

Swerve is up 2-0 on Hangman and he said that this is far from over. With the Acclaimed and BBG going after Cole's group Hangman needs... something so I'm okay with getting round 3 already. Cole really hit that "heel making solid points" promo given Max's history. Don't know if I want a retread of UE now UK holding all the belts but this is a pretty cool faction with some great matches lined up. DEONNA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Swerve was part of a fucked up submission on the table spot. Saraya gets to say it's her house again. Darby/Takeshita was... holy smokes, AEW rules.

- Re: Adam Cole (and what Matt D wrote about him on Segunda) -- there's an old adage that every great heel believes he is right. And Cole nailed that tonight. I don't care for his look, his wrestling, or his catchphrases (or his friends) but that was pretty good mic work. - Toni going to Manhattan to raise Stephen Sondheim in a seance was fantastic. - Mariah May looks like she stepped out of an NXT skit... let's say, beauty contest? And then she dropkicks the living shit out of you just to show "yeah I was in Stardom". She got the piss slapped out of her too. - Christian was kinda weak sauce tonight except for finally breaking and telling the fans to shut up, and "Now and Forever" (TM WWE) - Darby? He dead. - Trent is probably the best guy to face Eddie out of that group. Then again, I had to be reminded that he was a base in Chikara so the Vikingo match might've been pretty good, albeit odd (to me). - I was really hoping for the Hangman run-in BEFORE a pinfall but to no avail. Hey, at least the Swerve stomp looked good this time. Insert joke about "a Sharpshooter on a table hurts more". Not a bad start to the new year.

Helping our dolfriend @Dolfan in NYC out by getting the 2024 thread going. I'd say "get this party started" to try and get P!nk stuck in his head, but P's Party and Princess Party shows have been discontinued so it's not really topical, and it's not funny if I have to explain the joke, and... you know what, moving on. Yuuki Mashiro's opponent for her comeback match on 1/27 has been decided, and it will be Makoto. Mashiro asked Makoto directly, and Makoto accepted. Mashiro and Makoto are close, and if you follow Makoto on social media, you'll have seen Mashiro pop up a few times during her retirement, including at Makoto's birthday party. The participants in the one day tournament are also announced, and they are Hamuko Hoshi, Kyuuri, Totoro Satsuki, Yappy, Saran, Kaho Matsushita, Tsukina Umino, Arisa Shinose, Mifu Ashida, and Asuka Fujitaki, so a ten-entrant tournament. Tsukina immediately protested her entry, saying she wasn't consulted and that she wasn't interested in participating if the prize was going to be a shot at Ibuki Hoshi, and Kaho had to tell her that the prize hadn't even been announced yet. (Because social media is social media and this has already spawned a couple of "ICE RIBBON IS IN DISARRAY!" bad faith comments, Tsukina's complaints are an angle; Tsukina's story for months now is that she doesn't want to compete for titles, just cause trouble for her rostermates. She's like a new generation Miyako Matsumoto, only dressed like a breakdancer instead of a ballerina.) Ibuki has also been listed as participating on the card, along with QUEEN VALKYRIE (Ancham and YuuRI), 1111 (Sumika Yanagawa and Misa Kagura), Yoshiko Hasegawa, and the rest of the Challengers (Mayuka Koike, Nanae Furukawa, Yuuki Minami, and Yuu Hanaya). It appears that the reason Yuu Hanaya missed the time between her debut in August and Ribbonmania was because she was injured in training shortly after debut, but she may be ready for more regular appearances now.

You should have took the $200 and then called out on Friday to spend it. Chess not checkers.

Sheepherders and Fantastics did a barbed wire cage match. It was like planks of wood in between strands of wire. It was fine under Sheepherders standards. Really if they don't do NRBW it's gotta be a cage. Any other gimmick they could come up with? Glass tubes? Razor boards? I mean they really wouldn't go CZW/FREEDOMS/BJW gross, would they? Maybe a cinematic match? EDIT: OH SHIT I'VE GOT IT. TAKE THEM DOWN TO... ZONA 23!!!

I'm not a big fan of Cole but his promo was fine as far as heels justifying their actions goes. Like everyone else, I think his insistence Wardlow wins and hands over the belt is stupid unless they have Wardlow explain that he doesn't care about the belt, he just wants to hurt MJF and take everything from him. That's still pretty dumb, but it would make more sense than what was initially said. Swerve needs to keep his momentum going and Page losing makes him look like a chump, so I wonder if they do some sort of fuck finish where there's a bunch of interference to set up the next feud for either guy.

I know Black Cat was probably a liaison for certain guys going back and forth between Mexico and Japan, and certainly A LOT of the same dudes end up on the same shows. I think Tiger Hattori was doing some of that as well.

I dunno if this would apply to @bobholly138 as he likely was in a different part of the state if he got it all, but I think I finally got ECW in Mississippi like eight or nine months before the ECW on TNN debut. However, it was very sporadic and late at night. With regional wrestling, we certainly got Memphis cause I was close enough to get WMC. So I was able to watch it transition in different eras all the way to the very end with those compilation/best of shows with Lance (who hadn't really been a part of Memphis wrestling for a minute), Lawler, etc. sitting down watching old classic footage. However, I am trying to remember any other wrestling outside of the syndicated WCW/WWF shows. We had WLBT (NBC affiliate out of Jackson, Mississippi), Channel 5/WMC-TV out of Memphis as I said, ABC affiliate WABG/channel 4 out of Greenville, Mississippi (keep in mind, right across the bridge from Lake Village, Arkansas), and our CBS affiliate WXVT/channel 8 out of Greenwood, MS. Mid-South ran Jackson obviously out of the Fairgrounds Coliseum (informally called the Big House) but also did shows in Greenville and Greenwood. I think my part of Mississippi (the Delta region of small towns like Indianola, Greenville, Greenwood, Clarksdale, Drew, Yazoo City) and Jackson was as east as that territory went. Like I've mentioned before the area two hours north of me was Memphis stomping grounds. The rural eastern part of the state and border shared with Alabama was Southeastern/Continental stomping grounds. So yeah, I basically remember bits and pieces cause as a kid before a certain age, all the wrestling was the same to me. I didn't make any real distinctions until about 91/92 when it was just WWF and WCW and the remnants of Memphis. It was cool this morning while I am working from home Shannon Sharpe on one of his podcasts (the one last night w/ NBA talk co-hosted by Gilbert Arenas) confirming that he did indeed grow up watching Georgia Championship Wrestling and went to a bunch of shows with his cousin in Savannah and the smaller towns near Savannah. He also brought up seeing Championship Wrestling from Florida and Mid-Atlantic, which caught me by surprise. However, in that part of Georgia, I am guessing he close enough to get those TV shows. I mean he even listed Pak Song as one of his favorites, and I don't remember hearing about him having much success outside of Florida. Doing a quick Google search, he did win the GA version of the tag team titles so I guess he had to be there at some point. He also listed Dusty, Bockwinkel, Arn, Ric, Ox Baker, Greg Valentine, Mr. Wrestling I & II as the other favorites I remember him saying. I am surprised he didn't list Thunderbolt Patterson. Shannon strikes me as a Thunderbolt Patterson type of dude and those areas he named off were Thunderbolt strongholds.

I gotta say, at least for me, they pretty much threaded the needle with Cole being the Devil. It’s still the most milquetoast option, but it works. I liked the sort of mission statement Cole gave and he wasn’t necessarily wrong. From my memory, everything pretty much lines up so he seems justified in his actions. The only sticking point is the expectation that Wardlow will beat Joe and just hand over the title when Cole is healthy. At the same time, AEW has never gone with a HHH-esque heel that is always right and always outsmarts the babyface so I’m totally fine with the eventual abuse Wardlow will receive for not winning the title or if he does eventually win it, not giving it to Cole. It does really put Wardlow in this Sting like corner where he’s just too dumb to know when he’s being used. For the love of Christ, put more than 1 women’s segment on the show. The tag team division feels Moneyball as fuck right now. Can we just have the tag division run by FTR, the Bucks, KotBT/HoB, and a couple others? No disrespect to Private Party, but they’ll never be ready for a top spot as long as a team like Street Profits exist. Same goes for the Trios titles. Seems like the Acclaimed are just holding those things hostage. OC vs Martin ruled and I loved that main event even if I’m a little weary of running Swerve/Hangman 3. Those guys can be mortal enemies, but each guy should be going for a separate title at this point. The only other option is the boring wrestling trope of putting enemies together in a tag team, which they just did with MJF and Cole AND Kenny and Jericho. So I almost feel like that’s the direction here just because TK has a habit of booking similar storylines at the same time.

I agree with Curt. I'm not sure what the expression on Wardlow's face after Cole said that was precisely, but it didn't look to me like "I'm fine with that.".

Numerous near-fatal battles with throat cancer. On a feeding tube for 2.5 years. Mouth can't make saliva any more so that's what is probably affecting the speech.

Random notes: It wouldn't be AEW TV without a random audio botch. Good to see Quen back, though. Orange/Dante was really good. Really, just great in-ring all night. Will anyone care when Luchasaurus decides to break free? And good lord, don't also build Wardlow to that. Luchasaurus is not Batista and we already had a "Wardlow breaks free" angle that got fumbled for various reasons. Hangman grew his mustache thicker and now looks like a cowboy in a 70s porno. Great move switching up Cole's music. He's a heel now and having the fans still sing along would be dumb. Looking forward to seeing Purazzo in the mix. Bryan Keith didn't get an entrance and that sucks. DANCEOFF BRO For a split second I envisioned Garcia joining the Embassy and dancing on the ramp with Nana as Swerve made his entrance. Falling off the table with the sharpshooter was brutal. Fuck the fans who think it's still the late 90s and chanting "you fucked up" is cool. Hangman/Swerve is fine, but where do you go after a Texas Death Match? I know if it was WWE where feuds run backwards, we'd get a straight wrestling match, but not here, right?

It's fixed now Slapnuts.

Yeah, I'm thinking Wardlow turns on Cole. If they're dumb enough to give him the belt. "What, do you think I'm as stupid as freakin' Luchasaurus?" In any case he'll be giving the symphony to Cole in a couple months.

didn't we have a multiman match a few weeks ago with Trent winning a TNT title shot on one of the shows where they aired Rampage and Collision on the same night

This was an AEW show filled with high-end wrestling, some fun character work, some awful character work, random matchups and general stupidity. This was like a definitive AEW show. The Adam Cole stuff is so boring already. Hard pass. The lamest part was Cole saying Wardlaw would eventually surrender the belt to him — it’s just duplicating what Christian just did and looks bad non-kayfabe and even worse kayfabe since The Devil is just taking someone else’s idea already. I like The Acclaimed getting back in the mix and Jay White as the rogue is a good twist but man do we really need another Gunn Family Reunion thing? OC/Martin ruled. Just another for the OC Hall of Fame reel. OC is just a genius at laying out matches and knowing how to tell a complete and simple story. This has a fun twist of Martin frustrating Orange. I loved the end with the trademark OC having one more chess move to clock Martin with the punch. I also loved OC messing with the “running around the ring” bulldozer trope with his hands in his pockets. The post-match shenanigans with that were baffling. I’m all for Private Party making a big re-introduction but they did so while everyone else looked like idiots standing by and watching. No threats to anyone in the ring. Just weirdness. Toni Storm stole the show once again with a great insane promo talking up Aldi’s and Broadway. Mariah May’s first match was perfectly fine in-ring. The presentation was awful. If you’re doing an understudy to an Olde Hollywood icon gimmick, coming out to crappy stock techno music while wearing an outfit best described as “The Bellas but trashier” isn’t what you want to do. I have little familiarity with The Vitruosa but that was solid enough on her end. Darby/Takeshita was a fun match with a pairing I was not expecting to see but now I want to see again. It’s always fun to see Darby risk paralysis. The rolling German spot was really nice. The four way was also a good pairing of four random names who did random stuff. I was pulling for Trent to win. Glad he did. Not sure of the Danhausen stuff but it’s silly enough. Swerve/Garcia was fun. Glad we got a dance-off. The table spot messing up made the match better, I think — it felt more out of control. We definitely don’t need Hangman and Swerve again. Nice weird show.

Things I Remember from This Week's Episode of AEW Dynamite: Adam Cole is one wheelchair away from overdosing on 1997 Bret Hart vibes. Night 1 of Adam Cole as a heel went reasonably well. There's multiple people mad at him that aren't MJF which should at least keep everybody busy since the main feud is a no-go until two different people recover. Presumably Jay White and Friends are only faces when going up against Adam Cole's group. Orange Cassidy and Dante Martin do things for awhile. Then Private Party returns from wherever they had been for awhile to put a bunch of teams on notice. Mariah May went for awhile, and then we got Deonna. I guess we're now into year 2 of "Mercedes Mone will debut on AEW TV this week" rumors. Guess she'll debut as a member of the Hart Foundation next week. Nick Wayne's mom might be the second best micworker in the Christian cult group. Takeshita just beat the fuck out of Darby for awhile and pinned him. This is the part of the show when I noticed the commentary table was at ringside. Not sure how the lineup of 4 top contenders for the Eddie Crown make the belt look in the echelon of AEW title belts. Then Trent wins the title shot vs Eddie in a few days. Hangman Adam Page is angry. We got a danceoff in the main event. We got Daniel Garcia putting sharpshooter on the table and falling off the table in the process. Only took until 9pm (central) for me to check about a scheduled overrun. Boy are they trying to sell that Charlotte show (which looks baaad on wrestletix). Daniel Garcia gets some kickouts before Swerve wins the match. They pretty clearly seem to be testing the limits of how heelish Swerve can be while still being cheered. I guess after a break of a month, we're back to a Hangman/Swerve feud. Well, for having a chunk of the roster in Tokyo this week, the show wasn't too limited. Sort of interesting to only have Joe on the show in a promo filmed on Saturday.

Its true. I'm 40 and I won my office fantasy league, the CEO asked me if I'd rather have $200 or Friday off, I'm now off on Friday. Time and rest is precious as you get old.

I haven't been this overwhelmed by a game in awhile Y'all didn't warn me how much time I was going to lose over selecting the correct dick for my character