JLowe

Yeah, the first half of the show in particular had major pacing issues, weird pauses and gaps, just felt awkward. Second half was better. I liked the opener, it told a story, did what they could with face vs face (although the mostly lifeless crowd chose Briscoe), and Garcia’s win felt more like a smart wrestler than killing Mark’s big moves (as compared to, say Hangman doing the Fighting Spirit after 3 Orange Punches and hitting the Buckshot on OC just standing like an idiot). Also, I think it’s a reversal of how their CC match finished? Daddy Magic has gone way downhill on commentary recently, I’d be fine if he took some time off from Garcia matches in particular, it doesn’t make any sense for him to be a special announcer for them at this point, especially if Danny wants to grow up. I changed my mind on Jarrett, I don’t actually need to see him get one last ride. Also, how is it Aaron Solo’s only job to bump and sell for squashes and he sucks at even that? Crowd was lukewarm at best for Private Party (most heat was their entrance), colder than the NE for Rush and Action, and they were rewarded with just a total dogshit match that went on forever. Worst AEW tag match that didn’t involve Parker Boudreaux. They awkwardly threw in a house-style strike exchange and that absolutely looked awful in an already dragging match. Tag team division needs a hard reset, and it can start with an Outrunners title upset to give the fans something to cheer about. That Toni-Deonna match was better than their first. Quality storytelling, solid match. I think the only thing holding Deonna back is figuring out some better ring gear. I think it’s fun that AEW does old-school carny shit like matches with a cash prize. I like that they set this up as a spot fest with 2 fantastic young high flyers, a fireplug luchador who can do crazy shit for his size as well as base and bump smoothly, and a big athletic lug for catching the high spots. Only problem was, after all the jaw dropping flying, the roid monster with no personality wins. Hard to care about Komander and Dante Martin when they get treated like flippy fodder for stiffs. I don’t need to see Christopher Daniels have one last ride either. You have a massive, underutilized roster for fucks sake. Outrunners-FTR-Rock n Roll Express (my fave tag team as a kid) segment was amazing, perfect, no notes. Dax and Cash were cracking up. Main event actually had me thinking that, if they’re going to insist on trios champs, Rated FTR would be a good team to hold the gold. Good chemistry, and Copeland appears determined to do dumb a Sting lite run and do dumb shit in non-PPV matches. I enjoyed the match, everyone got to look good and Large William gets to look very strong. Closing segment was only lacking in crimson masks. I can’t imagine Ricky and Robert would charge much more for a small blade job.

I guess I can add that i don’t really care for live or sketch shows either, not just watching/listening to someone talk about stuff. I don’t listen to podcasts or sports/news talk radio.

I watched Ethan’s vlog a couple of times because I vaguely collect vintage figures, and it was enjoyable. I once thought about reaching out to him to see if he wanted to trade AEW tickets for some toys, but I also once posted here that he would be more over if he showed half as much personality in the ring as he did on the show. I watched Rosa’s taco vlog once to see where she was going in San Antonio. It was fun enough. In the end, I’m an old who has limited time after my work and other duties and sitting down to watch YouTube is not something that really appeals other than Dark and Elevation. I was one who complained about storylines being advanced on YouTube. I think there is a lot of room for a YouTube highlights and interviews show, like the old days syndicated stuff, but i would not want to feel like I had to watch that to know what was going on when i sat down to watch dynamite.

Anyway, everyone talks about Jericho being a heat vampire, but fucking Adam Cole saving Swerve has Jericho saying “damn, son.”

OC having his finisher no sold 3 times, pinned clean, beat down with save from refs and CD…thanks for carrying the company for a year, Orange, now back to the midcard with you. Sorry we’ve had all your friends abandon you. I liked the Mercedes video, not so much the in-ring stuff. I really liked the Mariah promo (but I am admittedly a huge fan). “Others have epics. I AM the epic” was a good line although it should’ve just been “I AM epic”. She needs some real challenges soon. Mox’s opening promo was full on Sephiroth. So over the Stop the Mox angle. MJF’s pretape was excellent, much prefer him that way. Hook, well, I just don’t care about him at all. Not a big fan of triple threats, many have mentioned the Ricochet attack was the most interesting thing. I think he should start calling himself Trevor, like he’s having a psychotic break. Swerve being saved by the worst faction in AEW was a fucking insult. Hurt Syndicate beating the shit out of Caster was glorious. I’m ready for Bowens solo, although people discussing him joining Hurt Syndicate could be interesting. He just has such natural babyface energy though. But he could learn some shit from Shelton. Hayter-Hart was fine, some hitches and of course the mist that wasn’t. I dunno, not sure why they’re sticking Hayter with weird nonsensical revenge angles ehenshe should be challenging for titles. Highlights of main event were Claudio absolutely creaming Cash out of nowhere with the uppercut during the tope, and Cope diving on Mox through the barricade, which was missed the first time. I will continue to rant about there needs to be a female counter for Marina, and soon. Sad to hear that the Max feed is like the YouTube on demand, where the PiP sections are not shown. Shit, just mute the feed and run a black box.

It’s so fucking forced and makes the whole thing cringier. it reminds me of late WCW’s desperate attempts for relevance and doesn’t help the comparisons people are making between current AEW and late WCW in terms of vibes.

I decided to start with the first Dynamite, since it was such a big deal. I didn’t make it very far before the UT game started, but I had no idea Brandon Cutler was more than a comedy Bucks stooge.

Fletcher-Garcia is a future PPV main event for the AEW title. So is Ospreay-King. There is so much young talent in the AEW upper-midcard right now (Brody isn’t young in years but young in never having wide exposure). Shelton-Okada was one of those matches that had no hype and then they’re doing their entrances and you’re like “huh, this should be great, and they’ve never actually wrestled?”. They said MJF-Cole will be the end of this all, please let that be true. Mox talking about having the heart of a champion when Hangman has actually had the belt and a good title run was a huge miss, and I’m so fucking ready for Death Riders to be done.

It was Ospreay. You have one of the most special talents in wrestling, who has actually become more interesting since he came into your promotion, and is selling shit tons of merch and selling tickets, and you’re having him lose like he’s Brian Cage

Jericho interrupting the obnoxious Boom dipshits is a face turn in my eyes.

Sacrificing your hottest babyface over and over again is a really bad idea, Bischoff I mean Tony K

So Rampage was good! We could have a long debate about the use of the term “meat” in the Hobbs/Davis vs. Takeshita/Cage (roided one) tag but it was a solid fight of larger men who can do thing larger men generally weren’t doing 20 years ago. Takeshita deserves better. Andretti/Lio have a squash match that would enrage Matt D. if it weren’t so easy to fast forward. Lio deserves better, I think. Andretti should be midcard ROH. Private Party show up which shows just how far the tag belts have fallen, given that this might be Action Rush’s first actual tag match. Then Top Flight come out and I remember that they probably were going to win the ROH tag belts (who the fuck has them?) when Dante nuked his leg during the ladder match. Shit, if the belts are gonna be meaningless midcard titles on C-shows let Dante and Darius have a brief run too. Harley Cameron is a damned treasure on promos who is getting better in the ring, especially at bumping and getting into position. I saw a mention of people saying she should go to Japan, and I can’t disagree from the perspective of her improving in the ring, especially if she’s going to be more than the jobber with talent and personality. Stat is making amends to Willow, including a save where she spends most of the time keeping her terrible outfit from malfunctioning. She’s gonna need to do a lot to make up to Willow as far as I’m concerned. Willow is very nice and might think otherwise. Penelope Ford and Harley Cameron in a program where they team and either have Ford cheat to give Harley her first singles win, or have Ford turn on Harley and then put her over for her first singles win? Brody King continues his singles star CC run by putting Komander over huge in what I felt was a very well booked match. Didn’t think Brody ever looked weak, but Komander took advantage of every one of his moments and Brody caught/bumped wonderfully.

I’d like to think that the DVDVR reading and posting, tape trading teenage Tony Khan would grow up into someone who would never want to mess with tapes of shows.

I agree completely, for the reasons you stated. Also, Tony seems to feel no need to protect Ospreay, I’m assuming he feels like Will is so over that he can be heated back up with no effort.

I’m super excited about getting to watch all the old PPVs and shows from before I started watching (and all the PPVs I couldn’t afford), but I would be equally excited to find out the stream with the non-PiP version (if not commercial free entirely, not sure what happens on the feed when there are actual commercial breaks).

My hot take is that other than lucha tornado trios matches, I don’t much care for trios matches and really didn’t want trios titles. I know you have HoB and had to make them happy but it’s killed the tag team titles. Ditch trios and make a women’s tag belt.

Timeless Toni Storm says “HOW DAAAARREEEEE YOUUUUU”

Rawwwwwrrrrrr! i would love for Mortos to get the upset but I’ll have to settle for a competitive match with some really close near falls. Mortos and The Outrunners are two excellent examples of AEW recognizing when they’ve got something super over and just running with it. Beef is getting there to a lesser extent. MxM were probably not expected to be as over as they are either, but they’re giving them tons of room to do their thing.

Anywhere I can read them other than that site?

The Continental Classic matches and the Willow-Hayter matches are absolute must watch! The Top Flight-weird jacket guys tag match was fine. The 10-man was fine. The Toni Storm match was quick and more about the angle (and watch the backstage stuff afterwards%

I’m a little drunk but Okada-Beast Mortos was like a perfect 80s territory traveling heel champ vs local face stat match. I bit on so many near falls and had myself almost convinced that there was a way they could give Mortos the upset win without throwing off the tournament.

I’m a little drunk but the Willow-Jayme match might have been the best AEW straight up women’s match I’ve seen. You could build a years-long division around them as faces who are friendly rivals who team up sometimes to take on a particularly strong, heelish group of foes.

Were you at Inspire A.D.?

They seem to be loading up Rampage before it goes away at the end of the year. Also, it allows them to edit out botches.

The graphics released for Rampage have the Toni-Harley match, so if it was intended as a dark match they liked it enough to broadcast.