For Great Justice

Man, AEW is clicking on all cylinders right now. They’ve really come out of the lull they were in since last Summer over the past month or two. With the new stip, something big interference-wise is going to happen in that main event. I don’t know what, but they’ve got something cooking

Sort of along these lines, I got to thinking about All In ending with Hangman and Kenny owning the titles, and the AEW stars being aligned as they should be. Right back where we began. The main characters.

Music has become such a huge part of AITA that next year they need a “winner picks the music” stip match between two representatives the Dynamite before and it would get over huge Amazing, exhausting show

This was mentioned up thread, but I was thinking about it yesterday and can I submit Sabu in 1995 WCW as the most out of place a particular wrestler has ever been at a particular place at a particular time? It was like this alien being had arrived through a wormhole from some alternate reality. Like one minute there’s a “Sullivan, my son” skit and the next Sabu and Sheik are throwing a fucking fireball at some hamandegger and putting him through a table. It feels almost impossibly juxtaposed. A couple of others that come to mind are the Earthquake WWE dark match in 2001 and ECW showing up on RAW. But nothing tops Sabu in WCW I don’t think. Some serious David Lynch shit.

Man, this is a big one. Like others have said, you can’t tell the story of pro wrestling without telling the story of Sabu. He instilled that sense of real danger that very, very few wrestlers in history have been able to do: Abby, Sheik, Stan Hansen, Sabu, Onita. That’s probably the list. He wasn’t pro wrestling’s Nirvana because Nirvana was too mainstream. But he was at minimum pro wrestling’s Mudhoney or Dinosaur Jr. Pro wrestling’s Eraserhead.

https://x.com/tonykhan/status/1920854741204017374?s=46&t=JezDTqtGbK8qkBaDwTOzMw this makes me so happy.

So how exactly does this shake out? I’m not trying to go all DC Comics here and retcon the history of the universe every 3 years, but isn’t the logical option to present Cena’s title as the Bruno/Hogan/Austin WWE title, and Jey’s belt as the WCW/Batista WHC/Big Gold title? It all gets real messy with the Lesnar/Goldberg/Reigns stuff, but like…just put that all in the WWE Title continuity. That may be what they’re doing here, but I dunno. I think the typical fan sees it the way I describe here. Maybe most see Jey’s belt as a new, separate thing (I know it was presented that way at origin), but why not just do this.

I love the new pairing as the two have been completely separated from each other this whole time. It’s fresh. It will be interesting to see if they go with a Sith and Apprentice dynamic or if they present Bron and Seth more as equals. I think the latter would be more successful because in their heart of hearts I think the fans view Bron more credibly as a world title type guy. Seth’s sort of that long time main event revered guy, but no one really wants to see him as The Guy The Guy. Very cool pairing though because of how out of the blue it is, yet it fits. Sort of like if Randy Savage linked up with Shawn Michaels in 1994 or something

The problem with Kross is that he’s a “and then the bell rang” guy. If this were the late 90’s he’d be a strong candidate to remake himself doing plunder matches and promo work in ECW

None of this would have ever happened if the WWF still ran on Diesel Power

Late to the party here but this felt like the weakest Mania in a while. It had no juice going in, and has no juice going out. And that’s with playing the big Cena heel turn trump card. My theory is that the lack of Sami Zayn on the show is the same as AEW’s lack of Best Friends. No heart and soul. Sami has done more than anyone with the “ultimate fun and entertaining” Mania presentation than anyone, dating back to the Jackass match

Wow, what a main event. Hobbs coming into play with his own backstory with Moxley is perfect. He rounds out the Ops in the best way. Someone said it before, but Samoa Joe is the “default starting world champion in CAW mode” wrestler of this generation. Always 100% credible as a main eventer, always delivers.

I am such a sucker for stuff like the $400k purse tag match. It’s Mid South as shit and I just cant not love it. Coming up after the break, Boyd Pierce sits down with Anthony Bowens and we’ll have a Kung Fu demonstration from Speedball Bailey

Dang, Ospreay as BRB (presuming Omega is Thor in this analogy) is excellent And yeah, Hangman is AEW’s Cap. Has to be him. Darby is their Batman or Wolverine, who is The Guy in a lot of ways but not The GUY Guy

Absolutely dreadful, viewer-repelling ending. This is going to lead to Hangman and Swerve vs the Bucks. Who wants to see that?