JLowe

JR and Tony mentioned JYD right at the start of the show, and again when a Eddie was wearing the shirt.

The other thing with the “lights out” is that they’re already using it for House of Black “run-ins”, so my immediate reaction was that we were going to be shifting HoB to ROH and feuding with Joe. Also, Singh had the same pony nub and almost the same outfit and shoes as Wardlow. And was slower than Marina Shafir.

Or, hear me out, have FTR win the belts and then let JE help King and P&P

I mentioned in my overview of the Austin show that there were people in the crowd who were trying to be clever with a Let’s Go Brandon chant during his Elevation match.

Regal is the fucking best. The Acclaimed are also the fucking best. Wonder what they cut out of Caster’s rap?

“Hey guys, great to be here. Listen, I saw that you signed some giant former basketball player who’s had about 4 months of training. Have I got an idea for you...”

1. 2 minutes of skin welting chops? Rule. 2. Better match than I expected but still not good and was indeed a mess. Penta is so fungible to me. 3. I was wrong. Fantastic match, Luchasaurus is so limited but his 5 moves of doom are very over. Surprised at the clean win. Having FTR confront the losers after the match was an odd choice. 4. Total crowd-killing squash. 5. I honestly expected blood but it had some good moments of violence from Eddie and Santana, and was a solid match before my predicted schmozz. Now that “Judas” has gone gold, they need to change Jericho’s theme so he can be a true heel. The knock-off on the WWF opening was funny though. 6. That one was a gimme. It’s getting old to me, but I guess we’ll at least get Wardlow back in the ring. 7. I got the match of the night that I didn’t expect! I’ve come around huge on Starks, he’s a star. Hobbs is coming along. Swerve and Lee, as I said elsewhere, are seemingly a natural tag team and I honestly would like to see that continue. Hobbs power slamming Lee sounded like a bomb went off. That ending reminded me so much of Nitro, where you’d have a bunch of really good wrestling and then some bullshit ending that killed the mood.

I saw one or two Dark matches and yes, she’s...methodical. Crowd could not have cared less for her.

I love cake...AND VIOLENCE was the line of the year. I lol’d hard. I may have to create a sig file for that.

I think Lee and Strickland could be an excellent tag team, they had a lot of chemistry and double team moves. Have they worked as a tag before? Swerve’s double springboard moonsault off Lee’s chest was my HOLY SHIT moment of the night,

Have they said whether the Owen Hart memorial cup finals are going to be on one of the regular TV shows or a PPV? That would be a great 1-hour (or more) live special.

I’ll be watching on a couple hour DVR delay tonight. I expect Suzuki-Joe to rule. I expect Penta-Punk to be a mess. I expect the tag match to have shenanigans that lead to a triple threat at Battle of the Belts. I expect Skye Blue to get squashed for angle advancement. I expect the 6-man to have some great moments of violence before turning into a total schmozz. Maybe BCC runs out to help Kingston and crew. I expect something different to happen with Dean-MJF because having Wardlow destroy security, while fun, is going to get old fast. I honestly have no idea what to expect from Lee-Swerve vs. Team Taz.

I want to see Punk slap the shit out of him when he does the taunt.

This maybe goes into the navel-gazing thread, but it definitely feels like AEW is leaning a bit into bleeding as another way to distinguish themselves from WWE programming. I don't consider myself a blood-sucking freak (like I don't watch death matches/extreme hardcore stuff, I'm very much a chairs/tables/random plunder guy) but I also feel that there are times when a little bit (or in the base of Yuta/Bunny) of color adds a lot to the story. That said, it should be a relatively rare thing. The Texas Deathmatch between Page and Cole makes some sense storywise (other than the fact that Cole doesn't deserve a rematch) but coming on the heels of the Moxley-Yuta bloodbath it's either going to pale in comparison or have to one-up the violence. I'd be fine if the next blading waits until a huge PPV blowoff.

I always appreciate Dean’s enthusiasm, but I didn’t really share it with today’s episode. It was very there. Top Flight and Solo-Comoroto didn’t mesh and had timing and flow issues. Dante also regressed to really weak strikes. Bunny was the star of the women’s trios match. Needed a lot more time. They could’ve taken the whole Penta-Johl match time, I mostly scrolled through Twitter while it was on because I just don’t care at all about either of them. Best match was maybe the 10-man with the comedy. Maybe I’m just being extra cranky because I’m really exhausted and didn’t get much sleep last night.

Suzuki/Danielson was on a PPV buy-in wasn’t it?

I went to see Sigur Ros a few years back with my wife, I was hesitant because I was expecting Bjork-ish elven shit. I turned to her about halfway through and said “well shit if you had told me they sounded like Russian Circles I would’ve been more excited”. I’ve been told it’s not always but mostly like that.

The standard used to be Flair and a broomstick to 3 stars. I’m fairly certain Bryan could recreate a five star match with a cadaver at this point.

True, and Another point against having Lambert on TV.

I’d argue that Ken the Box would work even better as a back alley match. Survival Tobita walking along, minding his business, and then a box turns into a Man-Box and he must once again save humanity.

Chip may be less controversial

I mean, 2 is more so that’s as fucking wack as the rest of his misogynistic shit.

I was trying to decide if a shit sandwich was something between two pieces of shit, or shit between two pieces of bread. I saw enough spoilers to know that Mox-Yuta was getting mega hype but damn that opener was fantastic and made me wonder if maybe Trent is better as a badass singles wrestler. Backstage stuff was there tonight, and good lord did Sammy, Tay, and Lambert kill the crowd and the show for a bit. Ethan Page possibly unintentionally doing the “as the father of a daughter, I don’t want her to be you” slut shame. This is WWE late attitude era garbage that isn’t building anyone. Swerve doing that boss thing where he flipped over the top rope onto the edge of the apron and then another onto the floor was the highlight of the match. The Willow-Velvet match was interesting as a perhaps unintentional mid-match heel turn for Velvet (who might work better that way). Willow should have won, I said on the YT thread that we need an upset and that was it, Tony needed to be on the headset telling the ref that ending changed. Either one is tournament fodder, and the cake is stale. That main event was, well, the pro wrestling example of blooding someone into a gang. While it certainly wasn’t a full Muta, we may need to acknowledge an AEW Yuta scale. There was a fucking blood arc when he did one of those Germans on Mox. If you had bet me $100 3 months ago that I would not only care about Wheeler Yuta but that he would be in two high 4-star+ matches in a week earning his way into a team with Mox and Bryan, well, I’d be $100 poorer but none of y’all did. and next week we get Minori Suzuki vs. Samoa Joe? I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention how fucking great William Regal is that he put over the entire announce team on multiple occasions.

My dream is that his reward for joining BCC is a pair of proper wrestling boots.

I agree it’s a badass name, and that used to be Coney Island as well, and I’m pretty sure still applies to the Jersey Shore. Think of Springsteen and the people he sings about.