Greggulator

“It’s not what you think! It’s not what you think!”

The one from Dustin of the Day.

Can someone help me track down a match? It is a DVDVR favorite // Freebirds and Bad Street versus Dustin/Scott Armstrong/Tracy Somersault from WXW Worldwide 9/15/91. Any ideas?

I just call him that. Even better, Vickie said in an interview she wishes she could be involved in the angle and her AEW contract is up. I have no clue if Vickie is interested in a full-time schedule but man her managing Dom for a few months would be perfection. This is also just another way of me saying I want Vickie back on my TV screen.

I think this show is going to be the hotness with the crowd. They built so much of this stuff up so incredibly well. 1) The main main event has been done perfectly. Everyone thought Cody was going to get swallowed up because of the reactions Sami got. The absolute exact opposite has happened. I thought that would happen. But they managed to weave Cody into the story seamlessly and he has hit it out of the park, and I say that as someone who was not a fan. But the secret to this is that Roman has been so little involved in interacting with him. It makes Roman both look incredibly important - less is more - and like an even bigger asshole heel. 2) Not much else needs to be said about the tag match. It is the most perfectly built match possibly ever. They legitimately have set up the biggest tag match in WWE history. They have four of the best performers of all-time firing on all cylinders (KO has been on fire with the whole reuniting with Sami story). They have made this a deeply personal and multi-faceted feud. This feud has done not just a lot for those guys but for wrestling as a whole. They showed that a storyline like this is possible. And they also have elevated the tag titles into the most important titles in the world right now, and that is not going to go away for a while. 3) Dom and Rey has been fantastic. This could by Rey’s last match and you know he wants to have a masterpiece with his son in real life. And they might be able to pull it off since Rey is the best babyface ever and has incredible sympathy headed into this. And Dom has become a wonderful heel based on leaning into this ridiculous stuff while also real sneakily becoming solid in the ring. 4) Seth/Logan has been fun. Logan is a great weasel. Seth is not always my favorite face but he just owned that crowd last night and knows how to use that to his advantage. That match is going to be a perfectly fine match of really athletic dudes doing really athletic stuff. 5) Edge/Finn is in a Hell in the Cell and is slept on. Heel Finn is so good and the Judgment Day stuff went from something DOA into a really fun group of asshole heels. Edge as a face I am not the biggest fan of but he is going to do some great over-the-top selling and vengeful face stuff that might not be good for Raw but is perfect for WM. 6) Rhea/Charlotte is not that hot a feud. But the basic premise of: “Rhea has been on a tear and won the Rumble and wants a second chance at the champ” is a perfectly fine way to build a match. I also think Charlotte is a fantastic in-ring worker (albeit way better as a heel.) But Rhea is just world class and has emerged as a perfect WWE wrestler. She is like a female Kevin Owens: She is everything all at once. She is a force of nature in the ring, a Chyna-style enforcer for a stable while also being great at smarmy gloating, and she has been aces with the goofball stuff with Dom. Crown her and let her rule over all for a few months. 7) I even like Brock/Omos. They kept it really simple — Omos has gotten the better of Brock twice, and who else can say that? 8 Cena vs. Theory is going to be a spectacle. Theory is at least pretty good in the ring and Cena is having a match with him for a reason. The match I am least interested in is Bianca vs. Asuka. That is pretty amazing because Bianca has had absolute classics at the last few WMs and Asuka is so consistently good and has been doing some good stuff with the goo in her mouth shtick. What a great job building all of this.

Caitlin F’n Clark…

That was some Ken Burns stuff last night. The whole tournament was an absolute blast.

I love Roman’s reaction as Cody dressed him down. It came off like a sense of realization that what Cody says is going to be true — Roman got the answer from Jimmy that as soon as they lose (and everyone eventually loses) then how Roman treated him is going to come back to haunt him.

The opening segment was one for the ages. KO and Sami are just the absolute best together. You can tell their relationship is absolutely real. KO also has the best sense of humor of any wrestling character ever. And Kevin's explanation about why he was so mad at Sami also was just yet another masterful job at explaining his psychology the past few months -- he knew before anyone else what we've come to know, and that Sami is as good as anyone to ever do it. I loved the touch of Jey being the one who wants the match. Of course he does, since Sami has been making him confront what everyone knows is the truth. It was a perfect next step to get to the match. I don't care if it headlines WM or not. I want this match to get about 30 minutes of time. It's arguably the best built storyline the WWE has ever done. It's the most anticipated tag team match in WWE history, and I don't think "arguably" needs to be included as a qualifier. It's The Usos and Sami/KO -- four of the absolute best wrestlers alive, at the peak of their powers. They are going to tear the f'n house down. Man, they're even making Cody grow on me.

OC/JJ was a Weirdo Wrestling Dream Match come true. That was one of the best AEW matches, period. It was just a perfect amalgamation of all things I love about pro wrestling -- goofball characters, struts, taunts, crowd brawling and most importantly OC's masterful job selling. I audibly gasped at a few JJ near falls, cheered when Aubrey did her mad-as-hell march to the ring and celebrated the ending. I want these guys in an Ironman Match that would have a final score of something like 24-23 and every single second of it would rule. OC is on the heater of a lifetime and is week-to-week the best wrestler on American TV. Jeff Jarrett is putting on a masterclass of how less-is-more. I hope every single person in AEW is asking Jeff Jarrett for advice.

“Truly great friends are hard to find. They are hard to leave. They are impossible to forget.” Michael Cole, yearbook quote artist.

I believe Purdue's main guards are all freshmen? That explains it, along with their love of throwing passes to a 7'4" guy at his feet for the whole night long.

That was one of the all-time best endings to a wrestling show. The whole arc of the night just ruled — KO’s explanation, Sami apologizing and saying the right things but KO still leaving, Jey trying to make his explanation while Sami rightfully pointed out what Jey really things and then the happy reunion all while Cody looks on proudly. The best storyline ever just continues going forward.

New Jersey commuter colleges seem to have a thing every year in the tournament. WTF?

WWE question: Am I crazy in thinking that nearly everyone on the main roster right now is at least very good? The one guy who actively isn’t is Top Dolla, but he is really green and should still be in NXT. Dom deserves all his rave reviews for his character work. But in his recent matches - he hit all his spots clean, he has a really killer frog splash and he has really good heel timing. He won’t have any traditional five star matches but he will Even people who make me snooze like Karrion Kross can have really good matches. It’s just the character and presentation aren’t for me. But an example of how he’s good: They botched a fireball thing against Drew and had to improvise and covered it really well. You don’t do that without being skilled. Maybe Omos? But he’s used in limited doses and just does a snarling mean giant thing, and that’s fine. Maybe Carmella? She’s more shtick and not put in lengthy matches. Even when she’s in a match against someone she’s usually at least passable. I am really hard pressed to think of anyone who just flat out sucks. Dexter Lumis is fine. Austin Theory has had some good matches. Dolph and The Miz are stale but good gatekeepers. (And The Miz isn’t even stale.) Bray’s current gimmick even lost me (the biggest Wyatt’s mark) but if you’re the leader of a stable who had one of the handful of best wrestling matches of the century and a bunch of other bangers you know how to work. Just he needs an editor real bad.