Greggulator

I hate this tag match. Unless I am missing some backstory about AEW tag rules, but both Butcher and Blade have been in the ring the whole time without the ref ever telling someone w else to get out of the ring. They could have a good match with some better internal logic. But without the ref telling people to get of the ring by five, why doesn’t the dude waiting for the hot tag just go into the ring to even the odds?

That was literally the only thing I have seen him do to get actual heel heat by acting like a jealous bully. But even that had a bit of him being cool since it was insider-y shoot stuff to touch on his relationship with Britt/placating to the AEW audience.

Britt Britt knows how to be enough of a condescending jerk though to get her crowd pop and DMD thing over and still get some level of heel heat. Adam Cole is just bad at being a heel. He says the right things and he does heeling things in the ring, but he does not do anything to actively make the crowd hate him. I did not like the never ending Gargano saga in NXT either. But he has been a revelation as a comedy heel. That is the role he was born to play. He and some flunkies against the Best Friends crew would be really great (especially since I am pretty sure he is IRL best friends with all of them.)

I did not watch this yet. But out of the stuff floating around: 1) Vince and Linda were on this plane? I can’t believe the more insane stuff did not get out about this when she was running the SBA, which is a Cabinet level position. She had to get approved by Senate. I know the last president would not care one bit (and they bought her role in the government) but I can’t believe no one dug up a flight attendant to talk about this. You also really do not need to go in that deep for McMahon sleaze but somehow it never sticks with them. 2) How many other plane rides like this have happened over the years that we do not know a thing about?

It will always confuse me as to how awesome this version of Johnny Gargano is and how annoying I thought he was during his big pushes.

I only caught the last half of this because I have been attempting to assemble the "ALEX" model IKEA desk, which has resulted in four hilarious days of deities I do not worship choosing to punish me/wooden dowels snapping. I really loved what I saw. The Darby/Spears match was aces. The beatdown and wiping of the facepaint at the end was great. I only wish that Spears didn't do that in the match so they could sell it as the act of disrespect a little bit more. Just a nitpick. But I could totally just see how that unfolded behind closed doors. I'm thinking Tully had a notepad and was trying to brainstorm ways he could humiliate Sting in ways that had not been done before (at least to my recollection.) Finally, he called JJ Dillon who immediately had the answer of "wipe off their facepaint." Like a true evil mastermind, he needed no time to even come up with what they should do, and Tully and The Pinnacle just took it from there. I'm thinking that maybe they told The Chairman to wipe Darby's facepaint off during the match in the highly unlikely, like less than 1%, chance they could not hoodwink Sting after the match. But the plot unfolded perfectly as planned, and Tully arrived to The Pinnacle's locker room to see a text message from JJ that only had a smiley face emoticon. The final brawl was a lot of fun, too. They did a good job of setting up the 2.0 vs. Mox/King match, and the end brawl to set up the next match was awesome. Fun explanation as to why Suzuki returned, and I loved that he waited for his theme music to play to really emphasize the point and it let his partner get Kingston from behind. Awesome that their battle was 50/50 -- differentiates itself from the attack on Sting/Darby just a few minutes before and ending during an unsettled battle in a rabid crowd was great. I caught the very end part of Team Taz beating up CM Punk. I didn't see the set-up, but I liked how Hobbs expressed himself here, screaming and directing traffic. The only time I saw him before was last week when he made just one facial expression the entire time. Glad to see he read my post. Fun beatdown. I wonder if they worked the table to break that way so they could just reassemble it quickly during the commercial. (NOTE: If that was the case, this was clearly not IKEA.) Am I alone in not really having much interest in Danielson/Omega? A lot of that is because any of the BTE stuff I have watched has clearly not been for me, and I don't have any investment in Kenny Omega since I just started watching and Don Callis is just sorta there for me. But also a lot of it for me is that I got to see Danielson in the WWE for many years and we had The YES! Movement and then his awesome angry eco-warrior bit and the full circle ending with KofiMania. Since I don't have a lot of experience with Omega, and I haven't really liked what I have seen, this quick dream match thing isn't for me. But I'm really excited for the next few weeks -- at the very least, seeing a wrestling match at Arthur Ashe is some great Weird Wrestling. But I know the crowd is going to be really hot and there's a lot of really good stuff lined up.

I am going to say that's a very big yes. Bryce was in a sketch comedy group here in Philly for about 10 years or so probably. I performed on shows with him a ton. Really funny guy and a big comedy nerd.

I just hope that I've been granted permission to watch AEW by my overlords who will look the other way from my ignorance about the history of the usage of the Tiger Driver as a finishing hold since 2013.

I did not see the full episode of NXT 2.0 yet. But I really do think a reset of NXT is pretty called for at this point in time. I say that as an OG fan of this era of NXT. It was such an awesome weird mix of developmental talent and some indie vets who were trying out new personas. That era of NXT gave us some incredible things like Dancing Emma and NXT Champion Bo Dallas and Big E's 5-Count and Renee Young and The Wyatt Family's reign of terror and Sami Zayn being the best babyface and the early days of The Horsewomen and Enzo and Cass. Maybe I'm off, but it does not seem to me that the people angriest about the NXT reset were joining CJ Parker with his protests against global warming or would put the Summer Rae/Fandango vs. Emma/Santino tag match in their Top 5 all-time NXT matches. Not everything was great. The Ascension had the tag titles for almost one year. And a lot of it was just so incredibly goofy. But at the very least, everything was FUN and it was almost always good-to-great. The last time I was as into wrestling was when ECW emerged. I actually went to Florida to go see a taping at Full Sail a few winters ago. But at some point for me, NXT just sort of lost its purpose. They did a good balancing act for a very long time in trying to develop new characters while bringing in established indie stars likely headed to the main roster. But I just really lost a lot of interest in what was my favorite wrestling program over time. There are probably a few reasons why, but most of all was how it morphed from Developmental League to Developmental League That Is Secretly The Best Wrestling Show In The World to Not Longer Secretly The Best to An Actual Third Brand. I really have missed the first two or so phases of NXT a lot. There are a lot of elements of that still looming like tonight's wedding summit or the new faces floating around or Cameron Grimes and The Way. I'm excited if they stat to head back in that direction and give us things like Rick Steiner's kid trying to find his footing or The Creed Brothers ruining the spinal columns of some Orlando-based jobbers or In-Dex. I hope that's what we get.

I just saw the wedding segment. Bravo to everyone. Screw some seven star match. This is pro wrestling at its finest. Was Indi chewing gum the entire time? Who ever thought that Austin Theory would be hysterical? Johnny and Candace, too. I want something like this in NXT 2.0 every month if possible.

All in on these guys. Awesome lunkhead jock bullies. I laughed multiple times during this match when they just rag-dolled those fools. That clothesline finish is so nasty and my favorite move in wrestling right now.

I think the New Day are both in and out of kayfabe the greatest WWE stable of all-time. In-story: Longest reigning tag champs, if I'm reading Wiki right they've had 11 separate tag title reigns, two world champions, one Grand Slam champ in Kofi and another Triple Crown champion now in Big E. That's an unimpeachable record and may they never break up. Out-of-kayfabe: Saddled with a DOA gimmick that they made work by finding their collective voice as irritating nerds. Along the way, they became the voice of a certain section of WWE fandom who are into gaming and comic books and other parts of nerd culture, with Woods becoming a celebrity in that world. KofiMania is on the short-list of best stories the WWE has ever told -- his breakout in the Gauntlet match, the awesome Gauntlet where his partners had to win to save his opportunity (with The Usos doing the "We respect you and forfeit!" segment). On top of being a WrestleMania Main Event Act, they can also carve out a lot of time in the mid-card or in a comedy role and it's almost always entertaining, which is ridiculously entertaining. And, most importantly, being three black men having all of this success is the exact opposite of pro wrestling's racial dynamics over the years. Their podcast addressing George Floyd and injustice legitimately hit me harder than anything else I listened to or watched on those issues. Also:

I've been through this here many times before. I'm fine with it. I express unpopular opinions like "I like this WWE thing a lot" or "I do not like guys from the indies joining NXT and keeping their names and personas, it was more fun when they had to come up with new stuff" or "I wish AEW tweaked this." For some reason, it sets people off. Oh well. That's fine. To each their own.

There will be an inevitable Best Friends Breakup Feud based over what's better: Wawa or Sheetz

The ONE thing that I regret in not getting into AEW until lately is missing OC's rise. He's such a fun character. He's obviously just so completely different than anyone else in the history of wrestling. His commitment to the character in-ring is unworldly. But what's even more impressive with him is that he can fit on so many places on the roster -- a main event person to a comedy act to a tag pairing to etc. One of the reasons why The New Day became what they are is because of that versatility on the roster. You don't have that versatility without being in the upper echelon of talented performers. Also, "Where Is My Mind" is just such awesome theme music for him. Most theme music for faces is obviously over-the-top upbeat to pop the crowd. But him going out to something that's so slow-tempo'd (and is about Frank Black swimming in the Caribbean) works for him magically. Just a joy to watch and my favorite person to dig into so far in the backstories.

Just working through your VERY awesome thread and not sure if you have an update for Dr. Britt Baker DMD. But she's probably my favorite act in AEW -- what an awesome heel and overall performer. Her match against Thunder Rosa lived up to its billing, and then some. I've watched her Brittsburgh conquering hero promo so many times. It was pretty perfect in how to slightly shift a heel that you know is going to get a huge hometown welcome and is already getting cheers for being awesome. The Terrible Towels and her holding up the belt offering the entire city renewed hope was an awesome visual and line. But everything I've watched her do has been really great. Her relationship with Tony is so unique and really stands out. I'm pumped for her feud with Ruby Soho. Ruby should be an actress in how good she is as a face promo. I described her to someone over the weekend as "If our friend Megan was a pro wrestler." She just feels that real of a persona. Britt's a bit hammier since she's a heel and has lackeys, but there's enough of her in the conceited "I have two Plan A's and you all failed at life" stuff to make anything she does work. But Britt rules so so so so much.

No I didn't. But the buzz about it is why I finally decided to watch AEW. And guess what? I LIKED IT! There was a lot of the show I did like. I spent a lot of my weekend watching the back episodes that I could watch via Roku to get caught up to speed. I really liked Rampage a lot. But they did some things that I thought they could have done better. None of these are dealbreakers. I'm going to keep watching. But, in all honesty, the number one thing that's going to sour me on the programming are Comic Shop Guys about all of this who can't believe that I -- a person who did not watch All Out and who does not follow Japanese wrestling -- would want to see about 15 seconds worth of screen time to show me why this guy was a big deal, and why it was a big deal for Jon Moxley (who I do know) to face him. Why is this such a controversial statement or belief? I don't want to have to go on a big research trail to see who is fighting someone on a wrestling show. I just want to watch wrestling.

People are literally arguing for point 1. I just wanted one 15-30 second segment once to tell me who the f this guy is and why I should care. Nothing more than that.

Show don’t tell us the adage in good storytelling. A 15-second clip at any point in the show of him choking someone out or the like is all you need to do. Something that makes him look impressive and hooks in the person tuning in for the first time after hearing about how good the PPV was. That is literally all you need to do just at some point. The announcers talking about how good he is a few times throughout the show is fine, but that needs to accentuate the visual. Have you ever only listened to a wrestling match with no video? Wrestling is a visual artform, and you need to show don’t tell. And you can’t assume a large part or a majority of the audience knows who a person who has literally never been in the promotion before and from what I can tell has made only one brief appearance on national TV, and that was in Ring of Honor May years ago so that is more “TV.” And even for people who have heard of him, giving a 15 or 30 second refresher of who he is works really well for the folks who are familiar but are not weirdos like us who go on wrestling message boards, which is probably a huge part of the audience. I will add this — a major reason why I have not checked out AEW yet is because of the insufferable nature of many of its fans who believe AEW is the ultimate in human entertainment and a flawless enterprise. You are all being a bunch of Comic Shop Guys right now who live in this wrestling bubble. AEW airs on TNT - a network that shows AEW, the NBA and stuff that I assume is a Rizzoli and Isles or Men of a Certain Age spin-off, along with something like The Accountant. This is not some tape trading thing. It’s a nationwide wrestling show trying to get a mainstream audience but doing so by being more professional wrestling and staging things differently than the WWE and putting new stars and faces out there. You are all forgetting that really important point. I have literally only watched one Young Bucks match in my life, and that was over the weekend, let alone having any idea who a Japanese wrestler who has never appeared on TV before. But, hey, that’s cool. Insufferable fans limit an artist to nothing more than a cult status. I guess that is the intent? A show for people who know all of the times Kawada has fought Misawa? Because if it is — have fun with that.

You’re right. My not liking AEW’s decision to not tell the audience who one half of the main event is because of deep-seeded pathos buried in my soul, and I can only have it cured by having an encyclopedic knowledge of every winner of the NJPW/ROH Battledome Spectacular Fight Or Die Never Surrender Night 2 Tournament from 2004 to know who the hell I am watching.

I have spent way too much of my life in e-feds. This gives me full credibility when I state that Darby Allin is the most e-fed wrestler of all-time. Everything about him looks like an application for a majority of e-fed characters in the 00s. To wit: 1) Insane loveseat. 2) Half face-paint 3) Comes out to some kind of dark music (although in e-feds it would be some Nine Inch Nails derivative and not The Misfits) 4) “Formerly homeless skateboarder who has internal struggles” is the ultimate in a one-line e-fed biography 5) Has a mentor in an established older veteran character 6) NEVER GIVES UP is his number one listed strength 7) TRIES TO DO TOO MUCH is his primary listed weakness None of this is a bad thing. But he is absolutely an e-fed character come to life.

I have been going through the archives. I saw someone post on here somewhere about the Arcade match with Best Friends and Kip having an awesome finish. That entire match ruled. I love all of the goofiness of Best Friends so much. You can really see the Chikara influence in their stuff in how their big feuds come together at the end. The scene at the end with all four of them in the ring hugging, Trent’s mom in the mini-van giving a thumb’s up with “Where Is My Mind” playing and Tony screaming “Stay tuned for The Accountant coming up next!” is how every wrestling show should end.

This is the first full episode of Rampage I am watching. Am I nuts in liking this more than Dynamite in terms of how the show is formatted and works? The Pac/Andrade match was awesome. Both of those guys don’t just have crazy moves, but they know how to make them look like they hurt. That dive Andrade took when he did the 180 spin — that extra spin looked like it added some more impact to it. Same with Pac’s split-legged moonsault. I loved the heel distraction ending. Not sure of any of the backstory but seems like a good place for me to step in. This is also my first time seeing Darby and Sting. I like Darby coming out to some Misfits tribute band song. I had no idea why he dressed like that, but being a Horror Punk skater kid makes a lot of sense to me. Tully outsmarting Sting-ah (“You need to be more aware!”) allowing Spears to sucker Darby was classic. Great to see Sting having his strengths as a mentor to another darkened face paint wearing soul but still getting conned like California Sting all of those dozens of times. That should always be the case. Really cool that each of the Trios came out to one singular theme song as opposed to everyone getting their own entrances. Cuts down on time and such a pet peeve of mine in WWE, and also subtly puts the emphasis on the main feud. Big ups to Best Friends also coming out with Statlander. Very cool to connect that relationship. I liked that match — really quick sprint with all of the faces getting their shine, and without Britt taking the fall to keep up with the match. The Cole and Danielson little promo was a good side-by-side and makes me think they are going to toss Cole in BD’s way before he gets to Omega. Also, they are very clearly going to at some point do an Adam Cole/Omega power struggle angle. “I trust them with my life!” I like Henry hosting this side-by-side segment. This is my first time even hearing of Castor and Bowen’s. They did the same thing that other heels did on Dynamite where they mugged too much, this time during Pillman’s promo. Camera either should have just focused on Pillman or they needed to tone it down by 75 percent because it was distracting from what Pillman was saying. Heels ripping on a hometown for Heat is so stupid at this point, but it actually makes sense from an insult rapper. Pillman coming our house on fire and not even getting out of his vest with his mullet flowing is such a great 1980s babyface touch. Something really unsettling about Bowens shirtless at ringside — I love the obnoxiousness of some jacked dude going throughout his whole life shirtless and daring retail establishments to not serve him. Pillman is doing a really good “inspired by his hometown” baby face act. Good little match with the baby face overcoming the sneaky heeling. Mox making the save for the hometown kid also ruled. Really good hour of professional wrestling.

Can someone fill me in on Hook and the attention he is getting that I assume is ironic? I know he is Taz’s kid. Did not expect him to look like a heroin chic male model. My gay friends who like wrestling are all huge fans of Jungle Boy (duh) but I can see Hook becoming their new crush. Has he actually wrestled anywhere or done anything but look smug and pouty?

Oh, I know that wasn't their mindset. That's my dig at @NoFistsJustFlips-- hopefully it isn't too condescending. But thinking that the viewer at home should "do the work" is just beyond stupid, since I'm going to do the work during the commercials. Make it fucking as easy as possible for me to watch your show and know what I should expect.