JLowe

I can see both sides of the Harley booking. On one side, she’s been a comedy sidekick and occasional worker for 3 years before finally getting regular in-ring action. She’s had, what, 20 AEW matches and lost all but the last one. She’s paid her dues in terms of the humiliation she suffered as part of QTV, but also you have people who’ve been there for years and had only brief runs, if any. She’s not to have to mostly be led still, and with her record any title defense wins would need to be flukes to protect others. On the other hand, she’s one of your hottest acts, and in her hometown. Unless your goal is to have Mercedes beat Jade’s title reign, this was a good opportunity to move her up the card, and maybe move the TNT title back to Stat and Willow, or let Anna Jay be the next transitional champ. what would’ve been perfect would be for AEW to do another Australia/New Zealand show (or even a Japanese show), have Harley win in Brisbane, and then have Mone win the title back before heading back to the US. Classic old school booking.

Kenny has also only wrestled 3 matches since coming back from a year-long injury a sense where he had abdominal surgery and part of his colon removed.

Other than the Brawl, I thought it was an excellent show, and I didn’t even notice the ring size. I almost teared up when Toni won, what a culmination to a 15-month long story. Wish they had given another minute of time for her to bask in the glory, I was chanting “Feel The Wrath” instead of C-E-O, my wife was chanting “C-E-No. The rana botch was bad, the announcers did a decent job covering for it. Also, we noticed that Kenny does in fact have what appears to be an ostomy scar on his right abdomen a few inches from his navel, and then laparoscopy scars on his left side. Ospreay and Fletcher really tore it up.

My wife said after Harley lost (which she was very sad about) that they should have that exact tag team match.

Given that the Timeless Toni persona has incorporated old school wrestling moves and makes old school wrestling references, it was fully in character.

Dynamite was pretty great! Dustin and MJF really tore it up, and somehow Dustin avoided a crimson mask. The squashes were good and appropriate. Harley Cameron is a star (she’s nudged ahead of Timeless Toni as my wife’s favorite), and I think Mercedes is going to carry her to a very good match. Penelope Ford isn’t much on offense but she’s a fantastic bumper. Megan Bayne looks impressive (but was not billed from Mount Olympus). Only negative comment is that Gunns really needed a few warm-up matches, their timing was a little off, Colten’s leaping things looked soft, and their kicks had 8 inches of space in them. Grand Slam honestly looks better, and better built, than recent pay-per-views. I was going to watch it “live” but instead got invited to hang out with some friends (and I need to socialize).

That’s old Austin for the most part, Austin these days is getting overrun with the worst crypto tech bro douchbags. But Austin did have a Trans Rights sign!

Wasn’t the huge Acclaimed tag team title win over Swerve in Our Glory at Grand Slam? Like they lost at the PPV (where the Scissor Me Daddy song started) and people were pissed, but in retrospect they were setting them up for a big hometown win. If so, big things happen there, it’s not just another random named Dynamite/Collision.

He’s got a disproportionately long finger! He’s made for doing the Iron Claw.

Best of luck to Ricky, he has a lot of talent. Probably lucky that Vince is gone, so he won’t instantly be saddled with a name like Gravel (since he’s a small rock).

Remember how after a certain point in WCW (and WWF) the crowd started instinctively looking towards the entrance ramp anytime a match was getting close to a finish.

He’s in ROH but not sure what he actually does there other than keep his wife company on the road.

Especially since this isn’t a Dragon Lee/Stefanie Vaquer situation where they have to worry about WWE snatching them up.

I actually saw a preview of that movie for free, and would’ve walked out and asked for a refund if I had bought a ticket. I was writing for the entertainment section of the college newspaper at the time, and while I was not the reviewer, I had a long discussion with the reviewer and got him to see how terrible it was.

Don’t you do that to Mariah.

I think there are some great ideas in here, definitely someone you could send out into the larger media market for promotion, and as you said someone who will outgrow wrestling. I showed my wife her ventriloquist sketch with Mercedes last night and after she was like “She’s really good at that and really funny. Where did she come from? Do we like her?” To which I replied, “yes, she’s awesome, and she was the one who did the angle with Anthony Bowens where he came out publicly”, which she remembered.

I’m late to this but I’ve always gotten a Bob Backlund vibe from the way Garcia moves and wrestles, and I mean that as a compliment. Garcia also having some personality puts him above that threshold.

I would be let down by Mark Davis because I don’t know why he would turn over his few weeks off TV. I would be let down by Speedball Bailey because I think he’s just kinda of a guy with a couple of moves. I asked elsewhere and people said Trent, but reading here that seems not possible. honestly, I’m done with Don Callis for a while, and really don’t care if he has more guys.

All I know about darts is there is an older somewhat famous darts player with the same name as me, making it so for a long time I wouldn’t show up in a Google name search until double digit pages.

The best part of Harley and Bowens was him getting to come out publicly in ring and getting a huge ovation and a supportive chant.

Anyway, Collision was overall very good! Two women’s matches, including Harley’s big win! Megan Bayne, from Mount Olympus, squashed Hera and looked impressive doing it! Plus we get a fantastic Timeless Toni Storm promo, Harley doing ventriloquy, and Willow and Stat starting to slowly work things out. Street fight needed more blood but ended on a high note. I think Coach Tony K has heard all the talk about too many shows ending with heel beatdowns, Three-way was kinda goofy and contrived but fine, and the trios three-way will likely be worse. Lots of talk and angles, which felt okay this week. I forget the early stuff because I watched that Sunday but I recall liking that too. That was a good week of AEW, and other than too much Callis family they’re setting things up mostly pretty nicely through Grand Slam at least, with an eye toward Revolution. They’re also letting fans breathe and enjoy things again.

Oh no, they’re gonna have to cut the Costco twits loose, whatever will AEW do without them?? Harley Cameron’s interactions with them is their highlight.

I am a big Rocky fan (note that coincidentally I love less than a block from the church where he and Adrian get married in Rocky II) and that was my immediate thought as well.

Exactly, they put their stuff aside, team up solely for that reason, and then go back to bitter enemies.

Private Party’s win was so obviously a transitional championship, the question was always who the transition would be to.