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I feel like any discussion of the main event should really start with Jon Moxley giving a stadium-sized performance. From swaggering confidence, to drifting into madness as the blood started to pour, to his indignation at Hangman’s audacity to not stay down, and finally culminating in that moment of terror when he was caught in the chain and couldn’t escape, there’s a whole story in the range of emotions he goes through over the course of the match, and Mox played them all to the rafters. He gave his all to make this match work, to make it worth the wait, and I think he succeeded.

I’m just going to repeat myself from the Discord. In a world of shit it feels so fucking good to cheer on my guy, watch this with my daughter, be jumping out of my seat like a crazy person, and shed some tears because I’m happy and something good happened. Actual catharsis. Thank you pro wrestling. Hangman is my fucking hero. I fucking love pro wrestling and this was everything I love about. And it had all of the little things too, like AmDrag’s side plates still being on the title. I’m fucking spent and you’re all the best.

There’s so much to be said about how AEW told the story of a reluctant, self-doubting hero and his hesitant friends coming together for the common good, compared to WWE’s simplistic, alpha male, lone wolf, I am a tough guy and very badass characters and storylines. I am so thankful for AEW, its staff, and wrestlers for doing what they do and telling stories designed to appeal to more than just 14 year old white kids.

Hangman is visibly shaken when Swerve admits to him that he deserved what he got several months back. Hangman wrestles with that as the two circle each other with the overlap of the Bucks and the Death Riders. He then sees that maybe he has a way to process all that trauma by hashing something out with Swerve, even if it's just a confirmation of something he already knew. An honest-to-God therapy session with the man who he despises the most. Swerve then takes the chain left behind and figures if he's going to truly walk the walk, he will do for Page what Page did for him and give him the help Page didn't ask for but knew he needed. He hands him the chain after showing his value to Page, and Page knows the way to victory lies with how he won the last time he fought Moxley in the Revolution Texas Death Match, and hangs him over the top with the chain Swerve gave back to him, exorcising all his demons in one fell swoop as Mox taps out exactly as he did those years before. PROFESSIONAL. MOTHERFUCKING. WRESTLING.

Thinking more about Mox’s performance and what this might have meant to him… At the first Grand Slam, he worked a tag match with Eddie against Suzuki-gun. At the All In 2023, he was in a Stadium Stampede match with like 20 dudes. He wasn’t even on All In last year. Even his Wrestle Kingdom matches were midcard affairs for the US title. So this was really his first opportunity to prove that “Mox” is an equal to his Shield peers as a stadium-level main event act. Can’t help but feel like that was some extra motivation for him.

AEW RULES THE MOTHER FUCKING WORLD!!! RIP the late great DEAN.

If you all missed tonight's Swerve/Hangman segment. You REALLY should go out of your way to find it. Cinema.

AEW is so fucking good at wrapping stories up in a way to make fans explode with happiness. Hopefully some of y'all who are still scarred from years of WWE telling you to fuck off can start to heal

FUUUUUUUUUCKKKK YEEEEEEAAAAAHHH! What a show. Little dude was literally jumping on the couch in excitement multiple times during this show. Especially in the main. It hit me during the Bucks match that there hasn’t been a wrestling show in forever that I’ve cared about the outcomes of so many matches so much.

Holy shit, the Outrunners Newport cigs tights are the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.

I think this was the best wrestling show I've ever seen. There have been better shows as far as top to bottom match quality goes (AEW themselves have probably had several), but no show has ever felt so epic, so consequential and, ultimately, so life-affirming as this one, while at the same time getting almost every major booking decision right and all building to the ultimate feel-good crescendo that everybody wanted. Yes, it was a long show, and there were matches that could have gone shorter, but I was never bored and I think the match order really helped the show. I've never been a proponent of booking 'cool down' matches and I think this show vindicated that thought process as they just went out with the three biggest matches back-to-back-to-back and the crowd stayed with them right until they end. I sat on my couch for 8 hours watching this and it never dragged at all. And as someone who sat through those turgid long-ass Manias, I never thought I would say that. I guess the difference is that those shows were like a death march through the psyche of a narcissistic sex pest, whereas this felt more like a celebration of all that's great about wrestling, an event to foster a fanbase rather than to subjugate one. I could have wept tears of joy after the Storm/Mone match, so thoroughly and conclusively did they live up to the hype (remember when people wanted Athena in Mercedes' spot- not saying that was a stupid opinion, just that in the end I think it's hard to argue that Tony didn't make the right call). I did weep tears of joy after the main event. What an incredibly cathartic experience. What an incredible match. What an incredible company.

Life is too short to spend it watching Jimmy Uso vs Solo Sikoa anyway.

Danielson then immediately showing up on the biggest AEW PPV of the year and doing the Yes motion to get the crowd to chant it makes this even more funny. Either he was just being silly about WWE telling him that or he went out of his way to do the opposite of what they asked.

Meltzer: Bryan Danielson revealed that WWE sent him letters telling him not to do the “Yes” chant. He was always careful not to start it while on television. I guess they saw him doing it in one of his recent off television cameos and didn’t see it that way. Natural: Fuck off WWE.

Ill quote you so that you see it, but I truly hope everyone does. Yesterday was a shitty day. my 5 year old son went back to his mom's house, and bawled his eyes out when it was time to go. He hadn't cried like that in a long time. I don't know if you have kids or not, but it's a very special type of pain when something like that happens. It doesn't excuse the things I said. I am sorry for that. Truth be told, yesterday afternoon is kind of a blur. That's not an excuse. I just want y'all to know that there was an extenuating circumstance. @Casey, if I'm not on ignore, I'm sorry. I'd like to think I'm a better person than that, but there appears to be a least a bit of evidence to the contrary. I like it here. I like the community this place provides. I like the outlet to discuss something I love. But I also understand that people don't log on here to be berated. Y'all are good people. I might stay away a few days. Shout out to @Log for reaching out. You're good people, man. Y'all take care.

I drank so much Scotch. Great show.

Good news everybody! My Employment Insurance claim was approved. I am now officially suckling on the nanny state's teat!

ALL IN TEXAS ROAD REPORT FEATURING ALPACAS Thursday: Start, Hill Country. go to court in San Antonio with two of my teenagers, then drive to Magnolia Texas, to drop them off with my oldest daughter and my granddaughter, who loves everyone but is always a bit concerned when I hold her. Drive back to Hill Country, get back around 8. Keep working. Friday: Wake up, try to work as much as possible (hardly at all), then load up the car with Lawful Wife, Lawful Jr., and Lawful baby, who's three and not really a baby but she's the youngest of 7 so she'll always be the baby. Drive to Maypearl, Texas, to the home of the Legendary Alpacas. Arrive 6 ish. Feed the alpacas, jump in the pool while they stare at us menacingly. Feed them again, attempt to get Lawful Baby to feed them and she just throws the feed at them. Order pizza, get down, try to get to bed at a reasonable hour, Lawful Baby declares she's staying up all night. Saturday: Wake up 6ish, get to small town grocery store right when it opens get supplies Lawful Wife will need while she and Lawful Baby fend off the alpaca-lypse. Lawful Jr. and I have VIP Challenger tickets, so we check into Globe Life 9:30. Lawful Wife makes a bountiful breakfast, we go off. Hour drive to Arlington, get to Globe Life, parking literally across the street (for $55!)! Head in, get our lanyards and our first stop is the merch table, with minimal wait time. Look into the stadium and they're testing out various entrance themes, entrance videos, etc. There's actually wrestlers in the ring, but couldn't make out who was who (mostly women wrestlers - kinda maybe Skye Blue but not sure that makes sense). After paying $50 for a Y'all In T-shirt for Lawful Jr., we're ushered downstairs for a chance to take pics with championship belts! Also, VIP Bathrooms! Thank god. After waiting in line (we also got some swag -- actually I have no idea what it was. I'm thinking a little flag that says AEW All In Texas? After waiting in line, Lawful Jr. is now the International champion and I'm the new TBS Champion? Anthony Bowens comes out jumps on a table and announces that Daddy Ass is under the weather and can't appear at All In, but guides us to sing "Scissor Me Daddy Ass" to make him feel better. Gates of Agony appear (in suits looking sharp!) and Lawful Jr. gets a photo op. MXM Collection come out next for a Q and A and I shit you not literally every question was about either Anime or some video game I've never heard of. Get off my lawn. We head up to our seats and figure out there's a Golden Chick in the building! Of course it's on another concourse and on the other side of the stadium so at least we got our steps in. They were only selling tenders so none of that delicious spicy dirty rice, but we good. I'm not going to do a breakdown of all the matches, you know they were all fantastic. Show appeared to be packed. Yes, they closed off the outfield on the hard cam side, but it sure looked like every other seat was filled. In my section we had a Timeless Toni Storm cosplayer (one of several we saw walking around). During the FTR / Outrunners, there was several murmurs going around until people collectively figured out they were dressed as Newports. A slight "we want Newports" chant went out, hope it made it to the broadcast. Pop of the night might have been when Baretta pie-faced Big Justice, but the crowd came around to cheer for Big Boom AJ for the finish. Overall, it was a somewhat nervous crowd -- there was a lot of tension in the Bucks / Ospreay / Swerve match. Like, there was a legitimate fear that the Bucks would win. I sensed a similar fear in the Toni / Mercedes match and the Main Event. But in the end everything was fine. I hugged Lawful Jr. after the main event. Didn't quite get teary eyed, but it was a little dusty. Not sure how many of these I have left with him before he goes off into the world, so I have to cherish every chance we get. After the show, drove home in a horrendous thunderstorm and lightning that went horizontally across the sky, lighting the whole world up for a second or two, which actually was helpful in trying to navigate back to the alpaca farm. Sunday: pack up, feed the alpacas again -- Lawful Baby was actually brave enough to do it this time! She named one Hayseed and another Brainy. I have no idea why. Then the four hour drive home which with breaks and lunch and everything in between was like 8 hours or it felt like it. 10/10 best show I've ever been to, would do again. If you've read this far, I know you're a good person. Please donate to this gofundme. https://www.gofundme.com/f/join-us-in-giving-naomi-lynn-a-proper-goodbye My wife's stepsister Naomi died tragically Saturday night. She was only 32 and had a 10 year old daughter. Her mom Melissa had just lost her mother 7 months before and Melissa's husband recently had a catastrophic stroke leaving him bedridden and Melissa as the sole full time caregiver. Naomi was the sweetest, kindest, best. Always first with the hugs. She was the same age as my big kids, and her and my oldest daughter were best friends. She was an angel with my little kids, and if life didn't get in the way, she would've loved Lawful Baby. And now she'll never got the chance to meet her. Life is terrifying. Hug your loved ones, hug your babies, never forget what's important.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone’s head just kind of pop like that when Hangman stabbed Mox with the fork. Like, blood fucking sprayed out. It was super fucked up and it ruled.

Was watching a YouTube highlight recap of the show. For the main, a little touch I hadn’t noticed live, but I don’t think any of the people who ran into help Hangman ever touched Mox. They took out the interference, but left Mox for Hangman to beat himself. That’s cool. They evened the playing field, but didn’t help him win.

Those SOBs might have actually pulled me back into the ProWres. I was way into AEW the first couple of years and probably at my most active on this board from DoN 2019 through to the Brodie Lee memorial or soon after but since then, except the odd hyped WWE show, when I want any kind of fisticuffs fix its been pretty much UFC or nowt. But with this show and the build up, I’ve seen enough through odd dips back into wreddit and mates hitting me up about Mark Briscoe and Swerve promos, Hangman getting his early momentum back, plus Omega/Okada. Fuck it I’m in

When my wife and I were in Hawaii for our honeymoon, she very quickly got sick of me saying, “You know, here they just call them shirts.” every time we’d see a Hawaiian shirt.

Sir we are discussing professional wrestling not the wedding you went to last week

God no. It's Jericho. Jericho's should shift into becoming Paul Jones up against Mark Briscoe. It's the only role for him.

This is the role Mark Sterling was born to play.

We have to stop this "Ex-WWE wrestlers don't want to lose!" nonsense. Unless your name is Bryan Alvarez, there's no place for it here. First of all, almost all of the wrestlers have spent time in WWE at one point or another. Secondly, everyone out there is trying their hardest to put in the best possible work they can put in. Nobody has "creative control". All of the booking goes through Tony Khan. He literally just said this the other day. The Hurt Syndicate will lose when it makes sense for them to lose. Shelton has already dropped falls in singles matches. This is complete nonsense.

When the OWA is delivered by Omega, nobody besides Ibushi has ever kicked out. When the OWA is delivered by anyone else, everyone kicks out. Kenny is master of that move and is the only one that can put people away with it.

ooh, I wanna half-ass this Khet or the "physical body" - Moxley Sah or the "spiritual body" - Hangman Ren or the "name, identity" - Kenny Ba or the "personality" - Toni Ka or the "double" or "vital essence" - Young Bucks Ib or the "heart" - Darby Shuyet or the "shadow" - Swerve Sekhem or the "power, form" - Willow Akh or the "intellect" - MJF

I'm crying at Alvarez not understanding Dave's explanation on why the show went into SNME. Dave actually explained it pretty well. If you have 'ALL IN' going head to head with SNME directly a lot of people may opt to just watch the free show and say I'll catch the AEW results because AEW is $50. But what Tony Khan did, which was smart, was make sure he gets whoever is going to buy it at 3pm ET and then run the show LONG where all the most important matches are going on head to head with WWE. In my household I missed the first hour live of SNME and you know what? I didn't give a fuck I missed it.

Holy shit that was excellent. Not a single match that was unnecessary. I wonder what's gonna happen to the trios titles now? Does Hook come back? Are the titles relinquished? Men's casino BR was fun. Was hoping for a surprise or two, but the guys who were in it have worked hard and deserved the spots. Takeshita, in particular, is the fucking MAN. Tag Title match was fun as hell. Lasher and Shelty are bad motherfuckers. Bad, bad dudes. Cope coming back was pretty awesome. That dude is clearly having fun in AEW and I'm glad he'll get to do his thing with Christian. Women's Casino was also fun. Shotzi B was in the building. I wondered if she'd make an appearance. Athena winning ruled. Dustin Rhodes winning was amazing. Kyle Fletcher is a future cornerstone of AEW but the feel-good moment was necessary. I loved it. Toni & Mercedes got down. That ruled. I was mildly surprised by Toni winning, but what a match. i wonder if Mercedes is gonna start a crashout angle... Okada/Omega wasn't my cup of tea, but for what it was it was incredible. Okada delivered. SwerveSpray/Bucks was incredible. By far the best I've seen the Bucks. They more than held up their end of the deal. Ospreay getting taken out after made sense, but when Swerve didn't also catch a beatdown I was like "oh yeah. He'll show up again later." That main event was perfect. I loved the custom entrance performance for Hanger, and his old theme coming back. I got goosebumps. He is AEW's main character. And imagine thinking Mox isn't the fucking man. Twice now that dude has been like "oh, the company's floundering a bit? Fuck it, we ball." That RULED. Mox is a bad, bad dude. There is no one who could've sustained the hate the Death Riders got for a long time. He was at tv every single week, reminding everyone that he's a menace and should be stopped. It allowed babyfaces to get over and other stories to advance. I hope Mox gets to take some time before coming back & heightening the violence. Great show. Exactly the show AEW needed. Fantastic crowd. 10/10 no notes.

Everyone is sleeping on the "fireflies" behind her on the video wall as she sang it.

Whenever someone asks so what's the deal, I can't help but hear it in Jerry Seinfeld's voice.

Soooooo much to say but I'll just say for now I fucking love AEW so much. Excellent show that IMO is my favorite of all they've done. Don't know if anybody channeled Dean yet but if they had then very much all that and then some.

6 hours long but never dragged. Pretty much every booking decision felt right, although the Bucks losing was a bit shocking. I’m so happy for Dustin, once all the old plans got thrown it why not give him a short run with the belt as a thank you? When Mercedes kicked out after 3 Storm Zeros I thought that was it, Toni was losing. I literally did the Danielson “Yes Yes Yes” when she won. Her and Athena is gonna rule. What can you say about the main event? Perfectly booked, disgustingly violent, and the way I started happy crying when Hangman won… Really loved it all, although I had to miss some of the early parts of the Tag Title match. The Speed Racer gear for Jet Speed ruled. And the turn, then the save, and Cope “go find yourself” was a great line.

I was just thinking, as somebody who lives in Eastern Time, I'm really fucking happy they started this one at 15:00 and not 20:00. Not the only reason I'm really fucking happy, though. Great show. Near perfectly booked.

COWBOY SHIT MOTHERFUCKERS! LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My body is so fucking ready for the catharsis of Hangman winning the title again and putting an end to this Moxley reign. There is nobody in wrestling that looks as angry as Hangman. He was giving big Seth Bullock energy. Just a dude ready to blow up on someone at any minute. Holy shit. Is Hangman the Seth Bullock of AEW?!

Take this shit back to Twitter.

So many incredible nuggets throughout this show - Hobbs’ power slam on Yuta off Claudio’s shoulders. I said Goddamn Goddamn!

Watched the show last night after work and really, really enjoyed it even though I felt like shit. I've been pretty down on Mox since the Death Riders angle started, especially when he took the bump on Spike. I still wish the death match stuff wasn't a part of AEW, but I do think it's pretty remarkable that the promotion is as big as it is while incorporating it. BUT. Jon Moxley really, really does not have to put himself through glass, nails, tacks and forks. And while there's a part of him that genuinely likes doing death matches, he does it specifically for AEW. That's pretty fucking cool. As people have said here already, he really did cement himself and Adam Page as stadium main-event wrestlers last night. Also, it feels like the grimdark era of AEW was really an outgrowth of everything that happened with CM Punk. It really cast a pall over the promotion. For me, the lone bright spot was Toni Storm. There was very little fun to be had and maybe that was by design. That's probably reading too much into it. For as much as flak as the Death Riders angle got and for as much as I was in a rush for it to end, the end was very, very legitimately satisfying. It wasn't relief. It was earned, it had gravity and it ended the exact right way in a stadium full of people. Turns out AEW is pretty fucking good at doing the professional wrestling.

Pretty sure you could take the bristles of a toothbrush to his head and the same thing would happen. He's got one-ply toilet paper skin up there.

Yesterday was so fucking exhausting. The day before my cousins and I all got together and shared stories and shed tears because our aunt for most of us and parent to 3 of my cousins suddenly passed away the day before (massive heart attack but no suffering). So watching Superman then getting home right for the start of the PPV that then lasted 6 hours had me on an emotional edge. I pretty much lost my shit when Hangman’s old music returned. I think I said on here about a month ago how awesome that would be that finally, in this moment, he ditches the Black Hat music and theoretically wears a white hat again and his old music plays and out he comes in white pants. Everything I ever wanted happened. Well, except for one thing. I really, really, really hoped TK would give us a new version of My Way for Hangman and Mox. For as much as Hangman and Swerve are these mortal enemies that will sometimes put their differences aside, Hangman and Moxley have battled it out in big matches so many times. A big time music video set to something from the 90s because TK, much like some of us, really glom onto that decade for music. Hell, I would have settled for something new and after Dolfan’s Pink Pony Club title a week ago or so I thought, fuck it, lyrically it won’t make sense for this feud but the song rocks so set a montage to that. So other than My Way, which a fan made a killer Hangman vs Kenny video for a couple years ago that’s better than the Austin/Rock one. So if not My Way, then what would have been good for this that isn’t nu metal? I thought of Johnny Cash’s cover of God’s Gonna Cut You Down. Pearl Jam’s Animal was another that came to mind but that’s because I’m doing a rewatch of the Bear.

And THAT is what's truly "good shit, pal!". Crow Sting vs The NWO was WCW telling about 97% of The Illiad and The Odyssey in wrestling form and I never fully forgave them (Hogan) for fucking up the ending. AEW isn't perfect but from the jump the long term vision revolved around embracing Hangman Page as the closest thing to a Sting-like homegrown Day 1 franchise player they'll ever have and when TK stays on task wrt this AEW comes up with it's best stuff. Not rushing him there, not making it obvious they're "pushing him down our throats" and triggering the inevitable backlash, but letting him travel there more indirectly. Meandering. Getting lost and getting back on track. [An odyssey, if you weeeeeeeeel. ] A hero isn't a hero because they stand up, or even because they keep standing up after getting knocked down, but because they inspire others to do the same, and when everybody keeps standing up after getting knocked down is when things change for the better. Wrestling is so often a "morality play" but that doesn't necessarily have to mean cheap and reductive. It can be something more like this.

My wife was saying AEW was going all in on political allegories last night, in the best of ways- she loved it. She loves Hangman so much, and she loves Toni and the women in general, but especially Toni. We both really enjoyed the show, and both of us were so glad good won. I know I've seen several posts on social media lately saying AEW is like the one thing that's giving them hope right now. Reminds me of 2020 and the pandemic- I remember back in 2020, when the combination of the pandemic and my complete mental and physical reshaping has happening, AEW was really what got me through a tough time. I kinda expected more in-ring from the matches, which was unfair as hell, but that's the standard AEW has set, but the right folks won everything. I do think AEW has booked themselves into a bit of a corner due to a lack of heels right now. Someone's gonna have to turn in the next month or so. Ricochet will probably be Hangman's first challenge, and DCF will likely challenge some too. Thankfully they're good stories for turns with any of Swerve, Ospreay, Jay, or Omega (who is the EVP now) There's a reason the Jay/Juice/Toni threesome photo is in our house and is going with us to Ecuador. I really hope one day I can write an Ecuadorian indy lucha thread in there.

"You old enough to drink Tommy?"

I’m kinda fascinated by Mercedes reinventing herself in the mold of Zack Sabre Jr over the past few months. She’s just grabbing holds, any hold, all the time now. It’s been very good. Gives her PPV matches a different feel from anything else on the show, male or female. It’s also helped her to dial herself back from trying to do more than she’s actually capable of, which has always been her Achilles heel, and to just focus on the stuff that’s gonna hit clean.

I felt all of this too (edit to add: I even used the term catharsis on Bluesky) although I was by myself. I needed this, I think a lot of people needed this and have gotten into AEW because of the redemption arc and because good triumphs.

GIVE JUICE ROBINSON HIS BEARD BACK

Yall see how much more interesting Kyle O’Reilly got the second he got away from adam Cole? Adam Cole’s orbit is where charisma goes to die. It’s been a fantastic week of tv other than that, though. Hanger fucking rules.

Another booking idea: Mistico milks the crowd singing his Mexican slow jam so long we get 10 more entrances and the match ends before he can get in the ring.

Interesting bit of news here: