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Also, has there ever been a duel like finish like the one we had with Danielson/Ospreay? I think it's the first time I've ever seen two wrestlers charge at each other like the opening to the X-Men cartoon and try to beat each other to the punch with their best move.... Holy shit

Quite possible the first time I ever spent money on non-WCW or WWE wrestling was giving one of my parents a five dollar bill so I could buy an Comcast OnDemand PPV with a bunch of joshi matches. LCO was included and the Death Lake Driver left a proper mark on me. Speaking of proper marks, between the Reddit Cares Safety Squad going all-out on that first post & the thousands of takes getting mad at Bryan Danielson for selling too good... can every human being go away? I feel like I am trapped in a madhouse. The pro-wrestling fanbase simultaneously complains about no-selling and gets mad when you pretend a move hurts. This wasn't even exploiting Danielson's concussion history. He sold like his neck got compressed. Like he was in a ton of pain and had his nerves jammed. I've had that happen to me. I've felt the painful results of it every day for over a decade. It was a proper, realistic sell and I thought that was the point. God damnit, we can't have any fun. No nice things.

Mima Shimoda doing them for years as the Death Lake Driver and nearly looking like she killed people every time. She eventually loosened up so it was more like a normal flat back but there's a reason people stopped doing it for a couple of decades. EDIT TO ADD - Straight up murder version: https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/19bxvhy/mima_shimoda_hits_the_deathlake_driver_on_a/ - Toned down version, still murdery: https://twitter.com/SirLARIATO/status/1779948938487009402

they recreated their poster

That crowd was amazing, I had no idea St. Louis was capable of such a thing but it was the best crowd I've heard in a long time. They had unique chants but always about what was happening in the ring, not to put themselves over, and were involved in every match. The matches were great, no doubt, but having a hot crowd always helps and they were into it start to finish. Good job, crowd.

Man, I loved the suplexes. Far from the most graceful, but he fearlessly ate shit on all of them. Honestly, I think the match falling a little flat actually says more about Hook’s lack of development than Jericho. Jericho took a bunch of gnarly bumps for him, let him kick out of literally all of his shit, and Hook still couldn’t really get the crowd behind him. Hook really hasn’t figured out how to progress beyond squash/meme wrestler yet. I don’t think that’s talked about enough in regards to how lame this story with Jericho had come across.

Danielson is going to fine himself so hard

Mima was the first person I thought of when I saw that in the match. Goddess. I think the match is rightfully going to place Will as the best in the world currently (even if I thought the selling was spotty and inconsistent at times; this I believe is more generational than anything, as “selling” has become more about performative stuff around Getting My Shit In as opposed to the more challenging aspect of having that stuff having a match worked around it), Bryan as an all-timer, and amongst the sickos, second best match of the month behind the Blue Panther match. Also, I like that Bryan alluded to the Storm Driver being overkill a while back, then got hit with it in the match, played up the doctor bit, and then got OSPREAY TO KAYFABE RETIRE IT. He’s truly a master of the details. As said before, this means when Ospreay does dust it off, it’ll be necessary and get a much bigger reaction, and I’m sure it was Bryan’s way of giving him a rub to make the move mean more than it has been. I’ll get to the rest later, but suffice to say, I was satisfied with what they did and hope they get to do it again down the line.

I just can't get on board with the hate on Danielson's selling. Half the guys on the indies do twitching selling they just aren't good at it. I'm not going to turn on the guy because his selling is good. I refuse.

Amazing show with a definite all timer in Ospreay/Bryan, lived up to the hype and then some. Loved some of the flawless reversal sequences. The crowd was absolutely electric, loved the huge pop for the opening bell. I'm expecting the next 7 star breaker from Meltzer. Ospreay was pushing being so upset that he injured Bryan on the Scrum and announced because of it, he was retiring the Storm Driver 91. Bucks/FTR did a pretty good job keeping the crowd in to things. Thought Swerve/Joe started slow but ended up good. Figured Swerve had to get the win but was still kinda wanting to see Joe retain and was dying for him to move away rather than having to sit and wait for the Stomp, but a great main event anyways. I love Jericho as FTW Champ and hope it leads to some fun stuff like we got with Jericho as ROH Champ. Thought Toni/Thunder was very good even if never feeling the ending was in doubt. Hoping we get Toni vs Mina at Forbidden Door. Timeless is always a highlight of the scrums. She tells Tony no matter how many matches she wins or stories she finishes, she will never call him to the ring to celebrate. Roderick/Kyle was good solid stuff. Willow/Julia seemed very short for being the ending of Julia's reign. Great trios tag and an epic opener from Okada/Pac. Also really loved the OC/Shibata vs STP tag on the preshow and thought the trios unification bout was a lot of fun. Great finishing sequence where Jay White finally got to slay the Gunn. Overall, definitely another strong show as usual from the PPVs. @DaveMeltzerWON "Ospreay won with the hidden blade. If you see one match this good in your life as a wrestling fan, you should consider yourself blessed." @bryanalvarez "Ospreay beat Danielson in probably the greatest match that has ever taken place in the United States."

Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson was a terrific match but I HATE when Bryan Danielson does the seizure sell and with his history, when doctors come in.

Here’s why I thought Jericho vs Hook was straight up awful, even worse than Daddy Ass vs Knife Pervert. To start, there’s simply no reason to even have this feud other than Jericho is a succubus that thinks he’s capable of getting the youngsters over. So that right there is somewhat infuriating. This was an FTR rules match, which is dumb but whatever, but it’s still a no rules match. And it was a no rules match that looked like all of the lame ass, vanilla WWE no rules matches. Cheap trash cans, cheap trash can lids, tables, dumb stuff spray painted on the plunder, kendo sticks, and so on. Like, I don’t think these guys need to go full Nick Gage, but AEW is famous for their wild brawls and this felt like something that the other company would put on. Not to mention…no one juiced? I know we got juice in the tag titles match, but it’s not like AEW hasn’t had multiple matches on one show with people bleeding. The actual moves were just…bad. Watch Hook try to suplex Jericho and then watch Swerve try to suplex Joe. Swerve only suplexed Joe once. Jericho went up like he weighed as much as Joe for EVERY suplex except the flying t-bone, which was pretty fucking cool. And if Jericho wasn’t sandbagging, then it was straight up dangerous at times where Hook doesn’t check his surroundings and nearly kills Jericho on the outside. If he’s a couple inches further in one direction, Jericho isn’t waking up. Then there’s the fake as fuck drama with Jericho doing the “I’m sorry” thing. I get that this is the most subtle heel run in history, there problem is that it just looks hokey. So I’ll admit that it’s probably not the worst match in AEW history because there race been some downright awful women’s matches in the early moneyball era of that division, but it might be the worst AEW PPV match ever. Jericho just looks washed. He looked extra bad last night and it’s pretty clear he’s cycled off of TRT or is hitting the bottle again. While Hook isn’t the greatest wrestler or anything, AEW has something with him and he has the potential to connect with younger fans in a different way than Ospreay is connecting with them. Putting him up against Jericho, doing this 50/50 shit, and having him lose to Jericho is just really bad. Or to put it another way, Hook was hot as fuck to start the year against Joe and looked like he was moving up. Now he’s in Jerichos quicksand and his ceiling is quickly becoming Sammy Guevara.

Ospreay vs Danielson was maybe the best match I’ve ever seen. Off the top of my head I think it was better than Okada vs Omega 2/3 falls or Bucks vs Hangman/Omega. And I started getting that feeling halfway through that match not even knowing there was a whole other half coming. And the craziest thing is that it happened on a night where Okada vs PAC fucking RULED. Dickhead Okada is just the best.

I felt like Swerve showed a champion’s poise at the end, when they whiffed the top rope Swerve Stomp, and he just played it off and went right to something else, rather than try to redo it.

I went into this show pretty indifferent. It looked fine on paper but I think I just have wrestling fatigue coming off Mania weekend and all the shows I've still been catching up on. That and AEW has been a bit cold to me as of late. During Pac/Okada I was a bit distracted but enjoyed what I saw overall. Okada's finisher still sucks. The trios match and both women's matches were fine overall but nothing memorable. Roddy/Kyle was a damn good ROH match. Hook/Jericho was the only real stinker of the night. Of course there needs to be some sort of No DQ match on an AEW show and they still insist on using a novelty belt from the 90s for whatever reason. Jericho is a heel and should ideally be treated as such by the crowd, but he was getting straight up go home heat here. They can't just let this program be done, either. Danielson/Osperay is my MOTYC so far. The two just had such insane chemistry, coming up with counters and reactions to anything the other could pull out. I don't think I've ever seen an avalanche tiger suplex before. The knee to the back of the head counter to the springboard cutter was a nasty move, followed by them both almost playing chicken with their strike finishers only for Osperay to come out on top. I question Danielson's sanity in taking that ganso bomb at the end. The "legit" injury bit at the finish was a bit iffy, but didn't take away from the rest of the match. The ladder match stipulation didn't do much for me here as FTR and the Bucks tend to have pretty good chemistry with eachother. Still, there was some fun stuff here without any major botches or Bucks schtick. That powerplex off the ladders was nice, as was the callback to the first match where Cash went after a high flying move only to miss and crash. Jack Perry comes back doing a latter day Jim Morrison impression. Joe/Swerve was a bit slower and more methodical than I was expecting. Schrodinger's title belt surprisingly didn't come into play. This would have stood out a lot more had it not followed the last two matches, but overall it was decent. I think there was still more mileage in Joe's title reign, but Strickland's iron isn't getting any hotter and this was the best time to strike. I'm just hoping Page doesn't show up on Wednesday to challenge. This was a great show with a hot crowd. AEW has definitely had it's foibles lately, but this PPV delivered in-ring and isn't going to be causing any buzz due to the bad kind of controversy.

Incredible show. So good that nobody is even gonna talk about Roddy/Kyle, which would’ve been easy MOTN on just about any other night of the year, but was like a distant third tonight. Even the Jericho match everyone is hating on was, against all odds, completely fine.

2nd to Dean~!, I'm afraid.

Good on everyone recovering this show from the mess that is Chris Jericho.

I'm eagerly awaiting this Cannon Group production.

Well I've had enough time to recover from that show last night. I thought it was excellent for the most part. Only match I honestly didn't like was Jericho vs. Hook. I like Jericho, but he needs to take an extended break. What can be said about Danielson vs. Osprey that probably hasn't been all ready said? Was it the best match ever in America? I don't know. But it certainly was a great match. The ladder match was really good and I honestly didn't see the Jack Perry run in happening so I was kinda shocked when it did happen. Glad that Swerve won the title. I was surprised there was no Hangman run in post match. I kept waiting for something to happen, but I guess it wasn't to be. Overall a really good show last night. AEW usually delivers when it comes to it on a PPV.

I 100% get where everyone who didn't like the Danielson sell are coming from, don't disagree, and there's no right or wrong answer - but personally speaking, I didn't think this was anything approaching the seizure sell at FD, and I'd actually go as far as to posit that this particular sell was possibly even performed with the feedback for that one in mind. Yes, it was similar to the FD one in that it played off of a legit injury history (which, again, no argument with anyone who felt uncomfortable) but for me, it had enough hallmarks of being a work that I never really got that same "Ohhhh, poor taste" feeling: Ospreay's music having been re-started, the ref (of all people) shooing him away, the announcers rushing to the next segment with a somber 'The show must go on, as they say...' as well as emphasizing that Ospreay must be wondering whether he went too far on someone he ultimately respects, with him looking back unsure a few times while celebrating. My read on the sell was that we're likely building to a rematch where Bryan sneaks by because Ospreay isn't as vicious as he was here, and second guesses himself to avoid inflicting such a "serious injury" again - think back to that NXT title match with Sami Zayn and PAC where Zayn almost cost himself because he wouldn't stoop to PAC's level and crack him with the title and hesitated - something along those lines

So when is Christian feuding with Angelo Parker? Before or after the baby is born??

Why does the cynic in me expect splitting things into various groups to be just a trick to move all the losses into one of them for some sort of tax thing I don't understand

Assuming still its all a work, I enjoy these comments from Ospreay: I like it because he has probably been doing the move too much so now he has a reason to "retire" it, plus now if he needs a super finisher in six months or a year he has it in his back pocket as the move that always wins for him. Good stuff.

I thought Jericho/Hook was a solid ** match. Making it plunder-based was the right way to go as it helped cover for Jericho's speed and Hook's lack of experience. Jericho was having some decent matches not that long ago so I haven't "given up" on him like many on the Internet. Since he won't take a break, I am hoping this FTW storyline rejuvenates him a bit as to me his main issue the last few months is he's just kinda been floating around with no storyline and that lack of interest has bled over into his matches. I don't mind "old wrestler that can't let go and thinks he is awesome even though he isn't" as a character but they need to be smarter about his opponents/match types or no one will be interested.

C’mon now, guys. I expect this place to be a lot more knowledgeable than to go down the social media hyperbole vortex regarding Jericho/Hook. It wasn’t even bad, let alone nearly as bad as the Jericho/Cole PPV match last year, and certainly nowhere close to the company’s worst match ever. Billy Gunn vs. Jay White wasn’t even a month ago, and that was way worse and more counterproductive than this match.

Little something extra in the pay packets this week from Jacksonville to Campbell CA and Woodinville WA.

It's so when Ospreay turns heel, all he has to do is hit that move and have someone carted out. It's brilliant!

The Danielson hyper realistic selling has got to a spot where it didn’t ruin the match. But if he actually ever gets hurt I won’t believe it. So there’s that. Best Ospreay match I’ve seen so far. I’m not big into that style of super moves not ending things and leading to pandemonium, but boy this was exquisitely fun. I had a blast and this lived up to everything that was hyped. If this doesn’t break Meltzer’s scale then it confirms other people are snitches. Swerve is going to be a good champ. His character really is something special with the fans. Good job Joe saving this company and being a legitimate badass to beat. Bucks vs FTR had a hard job of following Danielson vs Ospreay. But they really got me back into the show after I wiped off my belly. They were probably the only people in that type of match that could do it. The 6 man was fun. I loved it. Opener was fantastic. Glad to see prick OkadAEW and PAC getting heavily cheered after the match. YAY WILLOW! Toni Storm vs Thunder Rosa was really good. I hope we see more of this but I could see Toni going to the next challenger. lol Jericho vs Hook made me naughty smile. Good stuff. I saw Wardlow got in a car accident so seeing him show up actually made me happy.

It feels like it happened a week ago, but OC/Shibata vs. STP was also like a Top 3 all-time Zero Hour match.

I don't care what anybody says, there was no Jericho/Hook match. No, I don't want evidence to the contrary thank you very much. But aside from...whatever the fuck that was the show was fucking great with two absolutely incredible matches. If Danielson had a fake injury it ruined the finish but if it's real then I hope he's okay. They could have ended it with Staredown>Hidden Blade>Pin and it would have been damn near perfect. But before they went one step beyond the match was fucking exquisite. And Pac/Okada not only delivered on all fronts but the pacing made every big moment matter. I really loved the shit out of that match and if not for Ospreay/Danielson it would have been an easy MOTN. The takeaway I have right now past all that is Swerve is the champ. He talked about this in the All Out media scrum about this happening and how much he's put into making this happen. The guy has earned every bit of this and I'm incredibly happy for him. Now for the love of everything please put him on every great media outlet you can. The guy is a star and needs to be seen by as many as possible.

I’ll be in the minority but I though Okada vs PAC was a dumb dumb spotfest with no structure and dumb stuff like an avalanche brain buster being used as a throwaway spot a third of the way in and forgotten about instantly. Okada’s heeling was great though, more of that and less movez please. Agreed on the rain maker being restored to a one shot kill move feeling refreshing after years of it being nerfed in new Japan. ospreay vs danielson was really excellent. As a ospreay sceptic, he’s clearly matured a lot over the past year and now uses his incredible athleticism to enhance his matches rather than as a crutch for lack of substance. Yes there were big spots but most of the match was built around struggle, grit, and beating the crud out of each other. This felt like a match designed to make ospreay as a top guy and pass on the mantle, and his passion and emotion matched that. No issue with the ending, I actually was glad such a move was presented in such a serious way, it makes a change from them just being another in a long line of predictable kickouts 6-man was really fun thanks to the babyfaces. Brody shines in these matches too. Murphy is mechanically fine but bland. Black feels like a guy who has long been exposed as average and whose time has passed. Copeland doing a regular superplex on Brody got a much bigger reaction than PACs brain buster because a) it was more impressive and b) it was better placed in the match. Just saying. we need to hurry with mone’s heel turn. I’m already turning on her garbage entrance, painful wwe dancing and lack of actually doing anything storm vs Rosa ruled and was the best women’s match in ages. Considering she has a rep for being a stiff, Rosa’s selling was pretty great. Both ladies laid it in, took some big bumps and showed a lot of energy. main event was ok. I liked swerve but have come to feel he’s overrated recently. Like most joe matches it peaked very early. The stuff with the arm work was good but was kinda filler. The flubbed finish was ambitious, shame they couldn’t pull it off. Good on Swerve and cool moment, can’t say there’s tonnes of matches im looking forward to from swerve though. I loved the Jimmy rave robe though, god bless nana for keeping that. I skipped most of hook - Jericho and the ladder match. Jericho is boring, hook is an over pushed nepo who gets to kick out of 2 Judas effects for some reason. Jack Perry being back is cool, i am down for him to cause some (on screen) chaos

I've known Anthony/Santino casually for about 15 years. I remember joking with him about how much better a Russian he was that Nikita Koloff. Dude is a legit judoka (he actually trained a friend's daughter to multiple championships) and I'm so glad for him to get this booking against a legend like Sakuraba. Edit: i bet he must be once again be training like a real aminal for this match lol

I've posted this elsewhere, but this would be the time I'd REALLY elevate HOB. I'd probably put the Trios titles on them AND the TNT Title on Malakai. I'd probably have Buddy win either Eddie's NJPW title (if AEW is allowed to make that call) or the Owen. Or both. If TK was letting me book the show, I'd have Brody steamroll Mark Briscoe for the ROH World title, too. Put gold on all those guys.

I also really liked that 6 man, too. I'm hoping this sparks a TNT Title run for Malakai Black. He deserves it. Cope doesn't need a long reign and I'd like to see HOB raise their profile this spring.

What I've really liked since Kazuchika Okada signed with AEW this year is how the Rainmaker is a one and done again like it used to be in NJPW for many years.

Chuckled at the "Please be careful" chants near the end of The Young Bucks vs. FTR.

Seconded huge. This one and Ospreay/Danielson were worth the 50 bucks alone - my expectations were high, and they far exceeded. The Bastard is just a nasty mother, straight up, and I thought that they were almost perfectly positioned as the opener (though it could've closed for the title and no one would've batted an eye) - if I had the pencil (or Tony's ear) I'd be pushing to open at least one of the 3 weekly shows with a PAC match on the reg, be it with Buddy, Komander, Sydal, Andretti, one Young Buck, whoever - his shit is just such catnip for the eyeballs.

Obviously, there was stuff here that I really, really liked, and stuff I didn't. PAC/Okada was The. Shit. Hard hitting. Snug. State of the Art. I could watch a best of 37 series between these two. Rosa/Storm was pretty great. This was the best Rosa has looked in a long time. Toni Storm is doing absolutely generational character work right now. Fantastic. Strong/KOR is just VERY not for me. Nobody in this UK group/angle is better off than they were 6 months ago, except maybe Adam Cole, because people have forgotten how not good he is. I'll have more later. I thought this was really a great show, and another show that AEW really needed to have.

Nice to see them do the right thing and put the belt on Swerve. I'm not expecting a long run but the crowd's been begging for this one.

I'm definitely going YouTube next time, I wish they had promoted that option more beforehand. Dragon/Ospreay was worth the price of admission alone. Great finish outside of the fake Bryan selling. Jericho/Hook was absolutely terrible. Every single move Jericho hit looked like crap and he's looking really rough in general. Would be nice if he took the FTW belt home and stayed there for the rest of the year. It was nice to see Swerve win but I'll miss Joe as champ. This was my first time seeing Okada and what a treat! Turning the crowd near the end was expertly done, dude has so much charisma. PAC was awesome as always. Has PAC wrestled Danielson yet? Overall another great AEW show, outside of that painful middle. Thanks to everyone in the discord too

Wrestling as poetry in motion: a slow-mo of Pac's springboard somersault to the floor against Okada https://twitter.com/m4rvelgirl/status/1782202739495141813

Best match was the opener. PAC and Okada laid out a surprisingly slow burn that featured Okada FINALLY turning into a great heel. So much smirking. He even mocked the kickout reaction face! PAC got an ovation after, too, which was sweet of them. I mean he deserved it after taking what even sounded like a shoot DDT on the ground. Second best was Danielson of course. The big deal in this one to me is all the stuff I typically don't like -- the reversals, the flippy dancy stuff -- was poetry in motion here. Art. Physical art. There are two or three 10-step reversal spots that are jaw-droppingly gif worthy. But this wasn't all gif wrestling, and based largely off the sheer Cult of Ospreay going on here, tackling the Master. Yeah, nobody likes Danielson doing injury sells anymore, but I thought it was legit his arm. At least he was kicking around so we knew he could move. Toni and even Rosa saved the bacon! You know why. Willow won, so good. And the ladder match did its best to keep people even chanting after they spent their load on what came before. The rest, I leave to y'all to discuss *sinister laugh* Oh man, Botchamania is gonna be a treat for the swear jar, too.

AEW Dynasty delivered. Two Match of the Year Candidates in Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson (the Match of the Night) and Kazuchika Okada vs. PAC.

I told you about an appointment with Dr Chadwick two months ago as I couldn't get in with Dr Eldridge who I'm seeing until Dr Jundi returns from maternity leave. He told me about a mental health nurse there called Jodie and I said I'd think about it only to get a text that an appointment had been made. I was pissed as I said I'd consider it. Dr Chadwick let me down. I cancelled and it was rearranged. It's Tuesday. I'll probably wind up going. I'm just nervous as it's the first time I've met Jodie, what to and not to say as I've had good/bad experiences when it comes to confining in people. All this is weighing on my mind including the bad stomach pains I'm experiencing. Here's to hoping said stomach issues are nothing to be concerned over.

The only reason they had to go from a company that makes and distributes movies, to a company that deletes movies for the tax write off, is the Fantastic Beasts franchise died on it's arse. JK Rowling's lack of talent killed the company. She's the Vince Russo of Warner Bros.

Now a couple of weeks ago, Top Flight were in a face vs face match, and it made FTR the de facto heels on that night, because the brothers Martin were the more beloved duo. Whereas last night, they were in another face vs face match, and they suddenly found themselves obliged to work heel because they were facing the beloved Eddie Kingston (and his friends). Eddie finally wearing Tenryu boots, black trimmed with yellow, feels like the look he should have been sporting all along. If they changed the alliances up in the match slightly, we could have a stable of Adam Copeland, Andretti & Briscoe. ACAB. Don Callis joined commentary for Hobbs vs Esparza, and might as well not have bothered because the match was over before he really got to say anything. Mox's IWGP title being on the line vs Hobbs is a pretty big deal, because it's not a belt that is defended frequently under normal circumstances. Like a year long reign is still single figure defences. So if Mox is defending it less than two weeks after winning it, that implies the plan is for him to not have it very long and he doesn't want to be Mr Zero Defences. Max Caster didn't screw up his rap (that angle, if it was an angle, seems to have been dropped), but he almost did, because he wrote so many lyrics he had to double time half of it. Something about legalising incest in there. I expected The Acclaimed to win the TV tag match, and then lose the trios titles match on the PPV, but then them losing this one doesn't imply they're winning tonight, because this isn't WWE parity booking. Nigel's apology to the Clamdigging community, when it didn't turn into a heel promo non-apology immediately, it got me thinking some actual clamdiggers had actually complained. Takeshita's Bunkhouse outfit looking like something from a Yakuza game was cool. Danielson's MMA braids seem to come loose immediately and he was looking unlike his usual AEW appearance. Some good blood in the Bunkhouse, too. When Mox's music kept playing after he'd finished entering and was brawling around with Hobbs, I thought they were going to New Jack it (redeem themselves after that singer in blackface that one time), but then it just stopped. Leyla Hirsch has had the worst luck since returning to TV. First Julia Hart hurt her shoulder and the match only went 3 minutes as they rushed to the finish to avoid exacerbating the injury, and then last night she slips going up for her climbing Moonsault - although considering they went right to Skye getting the win here, perhaps the planned finish was her missing the Moonsault, and slipping was an acceptable substitute for that. The couple of fans who tried to start a CM Punk chant during the Bucks' match got shouted down pretty quick. Watching FTR on the same show as Claudio, it really hammers home how, despite Sting spending years in AEW and retiring as a hero in AEW, everyone in AEW who does a Scorpion Deathlock calls it a Sharpshooter because they're doing it as a Bret tribute. I don't like AEW changing from cloth ring aprons to LED boards, but I can't deny that the change has made changing the show branding a lot faster and simpler. That one time Fite forgot to cut the feed and we almost got Rampage two days early, it took ten-fifteen minutes to change everything. This time it was like one second. RVD being well over 50 years of age, and going almost 20 minutes, hitting all of his spots perfectly (except he did ZERO of his chair spots), that's impressive. He might not have that Copeland/Cage super jacked and lean 50-year old thing, but he's arguably dealing with the ageing better than either of them. Certainly much better than either Hardy. Emi Sakura improvising to fill time while Yuka walks off her hurt leg, that really underlined what a great all-round performer Emi is. Book her on All In this year, she deserves that spotlight! The match was really good, too. Presumably they had to change up the match plans quite a bit, with Yuka being hurt and gutting her way through, but it didn't ruin things. Just changed them. Big congrats to Angelo and Ruby. It does make me wonder, is Angelo actually really good at acting, or did Ruby tell the office and the segment producers in advance, but surprise her actual partner on Wednesday? The main of Rampage, it was NXT Black n Gold as hell. Even though only half of the people in it ever worked there. It suffered from being in the "Are you still watching?" spot on a three hour show, where the last match was not the most important one with the biggest stars. But it was OK. All in all, three great hours of Professional Wrestling television.