The Man Known as Dan

I can’t express my sadness that this game isn’t a game with a giant cast, and any time one of your characters goes down in combat they die permanently and need to be replaced by a new one. Alas.

I’ll be the person who watched the 8 man and came away from it left cold. I though it had some damn good performances from the babyface side, and I’m becoming a fan of Jungle Boy rapidly, but Omega falls into his worst habits when he’s around the Bucks, and this was very much “overacting that would make Shawn Michaels say ‘okay, bring it down a feel levels guys’” level here. The Piledriver didn’t look good for a move that was supposed to take someone out of the match, the Bucks and Omega doing the pouty faces made me roll my eyes and almost change the channel, and the finishing stretch was a fun idea marred by some botched and off timing. And I know I’ve seen people give JR shit in the past for going in on refs not doing shit about enforcing the rules, but man, I can’t disagree with his notes on how much the ref was letting the Elite get away with. I know what they do is over, but fuck, I could really go for not watching those 4 and I think they are on my “do something else when they are on screen” list. Sammy/Fish was fine, but didn’t leave an impression on me overall. Sammy is a good bumper, that I can safely say. Comoroto/Darby was fun, though is the worst victim yet of the split screen stuff. I’ve liked what I’ve seen of Comoroto, and I know Darby’s great, but it’s hard to judge something when you don’t get to really watch the heel control segment. Serena/Shida had some awkward moments and a not idea commercial break timing, but they really felt like they figured it out in the end. I honestly expected Serena to win this match, and I’m glad she did, I think she is about as good of a worker as they have on the women’s side. Fun heel turn, and a good way to use them keeping track of records into an angle. The ladder match was about as well done as one of those can get. Some nutso bumps from Andrade and PAC, and the right guy one. I’m kind of over watching Archer and Moxley, and Matt Hardy is pretty clearly just there now, but overall the structure of the match was well executed and the big spots were big.

After just watching an Ali Hassan match on the Portland set, I say go complete half ass and just have Matt wrestle in black trunks that just say OIL in white on his butt.

My thoughts on a pretty fun show. Cole/Jungle Boy was super fun until it lost me to typical Adam Cole stuff late. The big Cole shocked face that Jungle Boy kicked out of his move that never finishes people, his shitty looking finish STILL being his shitty finish instead of a signature to the Sunrise (as stupid of a move as it is, if you are going to do it it needs to be a finisher), and what not. Jungle Boy is good. I’d even go so far to say “Jungle Boy is Adam Cole without the horrid habits.” I do appreciate it took cheating to beat him, and I think the match helped the story, but I was hoping Cole would escape his NXT habits now that he was away from Hunter and I should have know rejoining the Bucks and Omega wouldn’t do that. Cody tag match was fun, and I like Martin and Sydal a good deal. Post match promo from Arn was memorable and funny. Punk laughing over the name Lightning Spiral is even better that the last time he was calling that move it was Jimmy Rave doing it and it being called Gonorreah. The Mox, Darby, and Kingston tag was fun, but was mainly just a way to get Mox and Kingston on the show. Moxley is a guy I’m kind of out on right now, but I liked most of the other parts of this. The Dark Order tag was exactly what it needed to be. Matt Hardy’s stable being “the island of misfit toys of people we have on our roster but don’t know what to do with” continues to just kind of exist, but they fit the role fine here. Jay and Conti should be the go to for first women’s tag champs if they go that route. Jay is rock solid for her experience level, and Tay Conti is quite good. Main Event was a damn fine piece of work and while Sammy was good, that match was the Miro show. When he first showed up in AEW it didn’t feel like he “got it” the way I assumed he did, but he’s rebounded amazingly, and is one of the best talents in wrestling right now. Sammy was good in this for the most part, but was largely along for the ride. Give me Miro/Bryan please.

I get the point, but isn’t it pretty clear he’s not being dropped on his head there? I’ve always viewed Omegas Dragon Suplexes as clear “I’m using the quicker snap to them as a way to hide it’s just turning the move into a basic upper back bump” It’s a great move to make a conventionally rough move much safer, but I’m always surprised when people talk about how he’s dropping people on his heads when he’s not.

My usual description of Omega is he is fully capable of being this guy from the Christian and Danielson matches all the time, but chooses not to a lot of the time, and that’s more frustrating and annoying then not being able to do it at all. He can be absolutely awesome, but dumbs down his work to a certain formula most of the time, and I have zero interest in watching that. It’s something him and the Bucks share (and, honestly, Adam Cole too). Danielson/Omega was obviously great, and there are no real arguments against it being so. I don’t know how to place it on the Danielson “best matches” tier but that’s because Danielson best matches tier is like 25-30 deep for me. But it’s on the list. And credit had to go to Omega who clearly has made really smart decisions in working matches with Danielson and Christian, two all time greats recently. MJF/Pillman Jr. made Pillman Jr. look like a dork. Which is fine, because Pillman Jr. isn’t very good. His movement in the ring for that match was really not good. Sting is 62 and he actually looked much more fluid in his match then Pillman Jr. did here. I didn’t like this mini feud much, but not everything can hit well. Cody/Black was… interesting. AEW has kind of evolved to the point we’re Cody Rhodes has became passé, and I have no idea where he can sit on the depth chart. He’s clearly well below top faces like Danielson, Punk, Darby, Hangman, Moxley, and, imo, Kingston at this point in terms of fan reaction and feel. I’d say turn him heel but I have no clue where he’d be on the heel depth chart either at this point. With all the new talent coming in there was always going to be a problem of who will not feel like a vital talent at this point, and Cody feels like the biggest potential victim. But he’s so well connected into the company I’m not sure if they would be cool just being another mid match show. FTR/Sting and Darby was fun, but the match I think most hurt by the split screen. I love watching heel control, FTR tend to be great at it, but when the entire heel control can’t be hears and is only on part of the screen, it will drag stuff down. But overall I still enjoyed this, and Darby’s dive onto Dash was madness. Sting at his age still feels like he can work pretty well, and you can tell FTR loved bumping around for him. Main Event was hit or miss. They’d mix in some really fun moments with awkward. The finish was kind of just there for me, but Brit was the better worker in the match. Overall, super fun show I was engaged in the entire way through. Still am excited for Rampage.

I’ll be quick, as I was debating doing a long winding post about it, but no reason to go crazy on a show I didn’t really love I guess? Which feels weird about such a loaded show, but it felt like the pacing on the show wasn’t good, like they tried to do one segment too many. Dustin-Black was really fun, even with the finishing kick not landing. Dustin can always sell a limb super well, and it was the right direction to take this match. The Hobbs match was really good until Hobbs got knocked loopy. The Ruby match felt disjointed and not smooth, and the botch of the “wrestler tries for a reverse rana and the taker powers her back up for a spot” was fucking rough man, that could have gone horrifically. Hayter seems like she has a lot of potential but isn’t there yet pretty clearly. Six Man was fun, though probably could have been moved to a side show to give everything else more time. Mox vs. Suzuki was a pretty damned big let down for me, honestly. Started too late, and featured my biggest flaw in Moxley in that he seems to want to work the “Modern New Japan” style all the time when I honestly don’t think he’s very good at it. The commercial break in the middle of what was only like a 12 minute TV main event and all of Suzuki’s cool arm work (which was then not really sold by Moxley once the full screen came back) being hard to see. It felt like Mox just wanted to do your New Japan sprint when I think what makes Suzuki really good is doing stuff other then that. As for the mic work segments, it was a mixed bag. I liked Punks promo and job as a hype man, though I’m pretty surprised they are moving him to Team Taz. Not against it, just wasn’t my first, or even fifth pick for them to go to immediately. The MJF stuff didn’t hit me other then coming off as kind of desperate, but I also don’t think he’s actually that great or interesting on the mic. I actually like him in ring more, which is probably not a popular opinion. Could have done without the cheap heat attempts. Lambert is a great talker but needs clients that are a better fit, as stated. The Elite segment was fine, but man did that TV debut from Bryan feel underwhelming to me? Just felt like the motivations for both guys were not super interesting. There was good stuff here but this was lined up to be a home run show, and I think it was more a single or a double.

Well, it’s got Nico Minoru and Illyana Rasputin. So I’m in.

It's amazing how much you can nail simply by going "Maybe we should give one of the best mic workers of all time a microphone in front of a crowd begging for him to be there" Perfect hour of television honestly. Just perfect. Punks my guy. He's been my guy since 2004. He's my guy in 2021. Let's go.

Huh, so I just heard about a recent glitch in the game that might make the Criminal Mastermind Manageable, and now I need to find a team to do it. Al revolving around the normal (non-armored) Kuruma apparently being bulletproof. Need to test tonight.

Main trailer for Legends. Pokémon Breath of the Wild is such a perfect direction to go. Hope it plays as good as it looks.

Oh, wait till you get a Shotgun that is actually good.

The Kelly romance is barely a romance at all. The Samantha romance on the other hand is pretty charming and sweet, if short lived

How this thread hasn’t just became the “Ohtani is Japanese Babe Ruth, how is this god damned happening” thread, I have no idea. In an era we’re baseball is largely forgettable he feels must see. He’s incredible.

I think they do decently on this in Mass Effect 3 at times. 2 though? Hahahahahha