JLowe

Oh, I thought that was the free one. Oh well.

Which league did I send you $25 for?

That would be smart strategy on Swerve’s part, to explain why he wanted a Cage match.

Bryan Keith was booked for the main event of the Inspire AD (Austin indie he’s worked before, where Ricky Starks got his start so not just a fly-by-night) next weekend and was pulled earlier this week, which makes me think he’s probably signed with ROH/AEW.

That show was fresh and full of energy, felt like a reboot of sorts although I just saw the mention of lots of guys in Japan. Still... Dante and OC have a great match with Dante showing much more than just high flying while still doing a move that made Tony Schiavone just laugh in amazement. Mariah May (requiring SO much settling down) and Aminata have a competitive, stiff match and then the “surprise” debut of Deonna Purrazzo. So many possibilities to go with the current talent (and a returning Hayter). Takeshita just ragdolling Darby all over the Garden State. Good lord, such violence. The knee strike on the tope looked vicious, then just yoinking Darby from the apron to the edge of the ramp, and THEN THE DOUBLE ROLL DOWN THE RAMP INTO A GNARLY ROLLING GERMAN SUPLEX. Bah gawd almighty he broke him in half! Push Takeshita to the fucking moon. A showcase 4-way with (the probably not actually unsigned) Bryan Keith, Hijo del Vikingo, the perpetually underrated Trent Baretta, and also meh Brian Cage. At least Cage will bump and sell for Vikingo and Keith. Swerve and Garcia have a great match with some nasty shots, the possibly not a bitched sharpshooter on the announcers table, and Garcia being the master of kicking out at 2.999999. Once I saw Hangman walk in backstage angry I knew it would end with him going after Swerve, but the fact that Swerve was laughing like “yeah fine, let’s go again” ruled. And basically all the in-ring and backstage segments hit! My friends, AEW RULES THE MUTHAFUCKING WORLD~!

I was looking through her socials and she was out injured and also possibly on grievance until recently. So I think she’ll be an ROH regular and AEW jobber for a while.

I think there will, and should be a competition, and I also think the Mannings are fine with Arch as back-up next year if it happens that way. But I think Ewers absolutely improved significantly this year in terms of leadership and connecting on deep balls. He rushed back hurt after missing those two games mid-season and didn’t even have full green light until Okie State.

Ironically, Texas was the closest to beating that 2019 LSU team.

Glad they reviewed that, that’s the 4th or 5th bad spot by these refs.

Fuck these refs though

And somehow I pulled off the championship despite being the projected underdog the last 2 weeks! Plus 3rd place in the free league. Way better than my last place finish in my work league.

Wait, didn’t Cole give him the ring? Wardlow made his face turn not giving MJF the ring when he lost to CM Punk (I think).

Ah, that explains it, I was wondering WTF was going on because Sting definitely looked like this wasn’t part of the script.

But the Continental Classic was great! Is anyone disputing that?

Other then the opener which may be hazy drunk memory, and I don’t think Abadon is cool as fuck (or even interesting), I agree with all of this. Which is weird because they had been doing pretty well match-wise recently. Also the live crowd (who admittedly weren’t great) didn’t care about Abadon nearly as much as online wrestling nerds.

I guess I forgot about the botches because they worked through them and the match was at least interesting.

First two hours were a slog, ranging from mid to meh. Honestly, the Stat-Willow match opening Zero Hour was the best match up until Cage-Copeland. Just felt like a lot of filler combined with a dead (or WWE-trained) crowd. I like Ricky and Big Bill but I also think they’re not doing enough with the tag titles when for a while that was the best division. Toni-Riho was fine but also weird in them acting like Toni was some giant that Riho Misterio Jr. had to overcome with a power slam, like by women’s wrestling standards Toni is average. Swerve should’ve fully squashed Dustin, and as far as I’m concerned Miro can join Andrade in WWE, curtain jerking for Roman Reigns. The No DQ was a solid brawl with storytelling and blood and Edge had his working boots on. Nick Wayne took gnarly bumps. I guess we have the mystery of what Christian has over Luchasaurus...if anyone gives a shit. Mox-Kingston was perfect and I would really like Danielson to do more commentary with Taz, they added so much. Main was way better than I expected given MJF’s injury, and they saved the BS for after. Cole was the right choice.

She is pissed that Adam Cole betrayed MJF! I’m glad that the Devil angle is over and the original, obvious answer is what they went with. Lots more meat on the bone with MJF finally trusting someone and being betrayed.

Btw my wife is a Britt Baker fan, so she might get a double surprise! She also loves The Acclaimed (I meant everybody does, but still) and she might be be disappointed to learn they’re not on it.

So when I told my wife I was thinking of skipping the PPV, she told me “No you’re not, I need to know who The Devil is”. So there you have a casual fan getting a “smart” to drop $50 on a PPV.

I’m fairly certain the plan was for Cole to be the Devil, and him nuking his ankle ruined that. And then maybe they thought they could string it out but they sense the angle fatigue. I was thinking Cole could still be the mastermind behind the Devil, taking out MJF as revenge for his own injury. But the payoff would be delayed for months and that wouldn’t work either...

I really enjoyed the 3-way and booking wise it needed to be Mox but Swerve is ready for a run at the top. All of the sports entertainment was fairly bad, but to be expected for the main go-home show to a PPV where they had to hotshot more matches. I will say that Riho looks less like a teenager in street clothes. And Sammy was right about the Callis family not doing much for the wrestlers but good grief that whole segment was brutal other than the Callis and Fletcher poster. Free Lard Lad! The Cope-Cage brawl was notable for seeing all the random guys like Bryan Keith and the Von Erichs. The Stat-Skye match was excellent, the heel turn has really been good for Skye. The first Code Blue was the best it’s ever looked, had a ton of snap, and the Super Code Blue was impressive. As said above, the Danielson-Kingston semifinal may be my favorite AEW match of all time, that kind of shit is what keeps me watching wrestling. Main blew, the Devil angle is toast and I don’t know that there’s any way to salvage it at this point. Rampage wasn’t very good. I am impressed that Saraya found a protege with an accent and an ample enhanced bosom. Sydal in a Pure match was a little different, glad for Yuta to get a dominant win; the Danhausen aftermath wasn’t necessary as Yuta was allowed one closed fist punch anyway. I enjoyed the main and was glad to see Dante get a big pin and Top Flight Action go over. I’m on the fence about the PPV. I actually care less about the main event now. I’m most interested in the Continental Classic final. Mildly interested in the Cage-Edge match. Most of the rest feels like thrown together filler.

I mentioned needing to settle down a lot, but I definitely noticed her outfit on Saturday and how quickly they had to change camera angles on near falls.

Perfect. Mox even touched on some of this in the post-match promo duel. That might be my favorite AEW match of all time because of all the backstory, all the storytelling in the match, the stiffness, the psychology, and the outcome which had me on the verge of tears.

All I remember about that is Cody sweating off all the flame repellent and burning the shit out of his back on a dumb flaming table spot.