TimLivingston

He said it after the Ospreay match: the first half of the match was nothing but the crowd doing chants about how awesome the fact they were seeing the match actually happen was. There was no response done from anything in the ring for nearly the entire match until basically the stretch run. I have no doubt Mox charging Bryan to start the match during the entrance was them putting in a failsafe so that wouldn’t happen again, and also, given how the crowd responded in the post-match? Mission accomplished. They had no choice but to basically be silent because of what they saw. Bryan wanting to face certain guys on his way out as emblematic of AEW’s booking woes is a fallacy; it’s TK’s fault through and through, and putting it on the wrestlers when he doesn’t have the wherewithal to actually plan something out and stick to it is a lot easier when so many of them don’t know any better. It’s easier to dream match book than anything else. Time to grow up.

Bryan literally said earlier this year he doesn’t understand modern wrestling fans and so many of these responses are why he said it.

People are too caught up in what should be instead of what is.

I think like many Netflix shows, they were given a budget and when they realized they had more meat on the bone but no room to expand, they had to compartmentalize and compromise, sadly. The showrunners leaned too much on some aspects for drama when there was plenty there in how the wrestling was actually presented. Think they severely underestimated the audience.

The Nigel stuff is falling flat. He doesn’t have the juice to hold this together without a retort from Bryan. The match is gonna be the thing that makes it, but the lead up has been essentially to crickets.

A fantastic series; fast forward button is slammed on towards the end to wrap up all the story beats, but it was a true success. The Hair match re-creation gave me chills, especially with the entrances where they threw out some of the same camera shots from the actual taping. Well worth the time, and I wish there was more.

I’m three in and digging it big time. It’s a J Drama, so historical accuracy gets booted to the side in many instances, but holy crap, the wrestling here is top notch. Chigusa and company really trained the actors well, and they do a great job throughout. Really committed all the way through. Incredibly impressed by a lot of this, even if, as said before, the accuracy leaves a lot to be desired in some ways.

Outrunners rule the goddamn world.

It’s not for the title. Yeah, I could see Fletcher and Ospreay even win, then have turn and give the title to Davis.

When they win it’s gonna be Acclaimed-level huge. Probably bigger. Tough crowd. Tony needs to figure out arena sizes.

Literally the next day? WWE Vault uploaded the Badd Blood HIAC match.

I don’t think AEW has put on a more impactful PPV than this. MAYBE All Out 2021 when Cole and Bryan first showed up. There were production choices that were note perfect. The big chances they took match-wise and angle-wise hit big. Top to bottom, the in-ring work was good at worst, even if there were things that got a bit sloppy or convoluted at points, which comes with the territory in AEW. You come away with two major occurrences that push the envelope in different ways but both succeeded, you set up a ton of stuff going forward, you had some star making performances both overtly and subtly…it’s as big a success you can have with a single wrestling show.

Cathy Kelley literally has a comment on a Rhea IG post that says, “Bench press me”

They’re pushing Tiffy to the moon and they let Fatu not only do the BME, but throw in his split legged finish to it, too. The absolute beast of a man.

So, just to recap, Fatu gets his surprise debut in the hottest wrestling city in the country, and then gets an official debut with a sick entrance in Madison Square Garden and powerbombs PAUL HEYMAN through a table IN MSG. I acknowledge him.