Go2Sleep

That would actually be a good story. Eddie finally has a good year, but gets too deep into the 90s AJ cosplay and eats shit. Lots of directions you could take that. His reaction after getting rolled up by an 0-4 Garcia in the final garbage time match would be priceless.

That would've been a must-see match in 2007. Haven't seen Maru in years, but if he's looking as washed as Ibushi these days (which wouldn't be surprising given his style), then yikes.

Also, just watching Collision... Was something wrong with Gravity in that match? Dude was botching everything from the word go, and moving at a speed that made it look like he was trying all these spots for the first time.

As a union guy, I gotta say big NO to this. Unions don't work with management to help fire other members. Not a big fan of TK just legitimizing a wrestler's court for his personnel decisions. I know these guys are his heroes, but at some point, you have to understand they are real people and your real employees too. He should've just paid Bryan some extra money to put that tweet under his name.

This is definitely a heat-of-the-moment overreaction, BUT... I also think losing QT is unironically worse than losing Punk. Not for anything on-screen obviously, but having a never-WWE guy in a position of creative and development is an underrated aspect of having and sustaining a truly alternative product. That said, I think if they build around their real 4 pillars of MJF, Ospreay, Swerve, and Hangman, they'll be fine.

Cody was the only one of those three that mattered and he's been gone for nearly 2 years and AEW is trucking along at the same pace. Punk was on TV for like a month of his last year with the company and everyone was ready to move on from him. Jade was pushed hard, but was never a key piece of anything. Stat did more for the secondary belt in a few months than Jade did in her whole 60 match streak. If there's one thing that's become abundantly clear over the last couple of years, it's that WWE is the clear #1, AEW is a healthy #2, and no amount of talent movement changes that.

Swerve would work just because it's Swerve and people are ready to see him get the belt. I like the idea of Britt Baker being the devil over Cole, but I don't trust AEW creative or announcers to pull it off. If this is about Punk, lol, no it's not. Just as he didn't vault AEW past WWE, he won't widen WWE's lead or shrink AEW's base either.

I don't watch too much WWE anymore, but I was getting snowed in so decided to give this show a look. Miz fighting for his life against Gunther was some good shit, and Rhea and Santos still rule. The WG matches all kinda ran together. After watching, I can say Gunther is the only person who should beat Roman in a modern Hogan vs. Warrior type match. If they aren't gonna do that, just let Roman pass Bruno at this point.

Gold group is fucking sick. Even though Lethal is a step below the other guys, he should be fighting for his life against all of them, so the dynamic is interesting. Blue group is fine, but it feels like we've seen most of those match-ups in the past year or so. Brody is the only fresh match for most of them (not that it isn't a great match) and Danielson/Eddie will be interesting.

I have no idea what Pac is up to, but he should be in this if he's healthy. My original idea for this tourney was to have Swerve win. He would lose his first match to Wheeler Yuta, then have to win out, eventually beating Danielson in a "win and in" match. He would beat Eddie in the finals. After that death match, though, I don't know that Swerve needs this tourney as much. I also don't think he should face MJF unless he can win, and I don't know if that can happen in NY, unless Swerve is the devil (which is workable I guess). In NY, you could run MJF vs. anyone and be fine, so that's where I'd put the Joe match which probably doesn't sell as a ppv main anywhere else. Swerve vs. MJF seems like a natural Revolution main, it's just a matter of keeping Swerve hot in the mean time. The tournament would go a long way to do that and Triple Crown Swerve vs. 2-belt MJF just screams awesome ppv poster. My other option is kinda boring, but Kenny Omega. With Danielson winding down, it's back to just Kenny as the king-maker for a bit. He's dropped a lot of falls this year, and something like this gives him a lot of wins culminating with a sure-fire epic while keeping him out of the world title picture. I respect him putting guys over, but you gotta keep yourself strong too or else those "rubs" get diminishing returns real fast.

I feel like the thing that needs to be acknowledged the most in the main was MJF's ballsy-ass, all-time botch-recovery. That weak table could've easily ground the match to a halt as that was clearly one of the biggest planned spots. However, MJF didn't miss a beat and just went to the top did the elbow straight to the floor. Makes perfect kayfabe sense and he had about 5 seconds to figure out to best land for a much more dangerous version of the planned spot. Amazing stuff under pressure from MJF that shows why he is one of the best going today. Overall, I wasn't crazy about the sports entertainment style main at first, but by the end, I had to admit they pulled it off well and it felt different at least, if not bigger, than the rest of the card. Adam Cole played his part very well, blurring the lines of whether he was the devil trying to throw the match or if he was the most genuinely virtuous-to-the-point-of-incompetence babyface friend of all time. One could argue the devil should've thrown in the towel or that true friend would've taken the match with Jay and immediately whacked him with a crutch, but I think they generally did the nuance very well. I don't think Jay comes out looking all that bad. His role here was ultimately to be a heater for MJF, and they ultimately had a great back-and-forth moves-y match, they just got there in a different way. MJF out-cheated him at the end, and Jay can easily rebound with a good Continental Classic showing or any other number of feuds. You knew Swerve/Hangman was gonna be off the charts when Page was literally drinking Swerve's blood and Swerve was walking through staple gun shots to the chest like the T-1000 in the first 5 minutes. Crazy shit where both guys came out looking good. The rest of the card was solid and all the right people went over. At first I was a little disappointed with no devil reveal, but thinking about it later, I admire the restraint. Much better to let the story play out than rush "a moment" just because it's a ppv.

It's good to see most of the elite get back to the best versions of themselves. Fired up Hangman and whiny Bucks are where it's at. The arena brawl was fun as usual. I thought they did a good job protecting Hobbs and definitely made Cage look a lot better than they had to with as much as it took put him down too. I loved Kota running in with the shovel after the pin and being like "Oh, we won?" I like that they're putting some effort into explaining MJF's babyface tropes, particularly why he wants to be a fighting champion all of a sudden after years of doing as little as possible. One thing I'm very sure of, there's no way TK is doing a "higher power" angle where the devil is MJF. I'll admit I'm excited for the reveal, even if the most likely candidates are disappointing.

Based on Vikingo's tenure in AEW, I'm gonna say they either don't mind or whoever is in charge doesn't watch AEW.

If we're guessing the field, I think there should be a "King of the Ring" mentality where this tourney should showcase your young studs, but champs should generally stay out. The winner of the tournament getting a guaranteed world title shot as another thing on MJF's plate would be fine. My field would be Danielson, Yuta, Garcia, Fletcher, Swerve (winner), Kingston, Darby, Matthews, Hangman, and Takeshita. The luchador would be Vikingo if available. If not, then Fenix. If he's not healthy, then Penta. The Euro spot would go to ZSJ if available. Claudio if not, I guess.

If they did a 10 or 15-minute time limit for the matches, it would be interesting. Encourage more sprinting and leave plenty of room for draws to make the standings work. Not interested in a tournament with 60 epic matches.

Bill was already noticeably better during his time in Impact. I think getting canned by WWE was a big wake up call for him. It's just taken a while to sink in that this isn't the same guy that ran around with Enzo, and now he's actually featured as a champion. I'd say Skye Blue has shown the biggest talent jump this year. The endless losses to Ruby and Toni didn't make for good tv, but no doubt it's greatly benefited her in the ring.

FTR vs. Kommander/Vikingo was super fun. It reminded me of a peak NXT Takeover match. I'm glad they didn't go too long and just sprinted for 90% of it. I was already in love with the Ruby/Angelo story, but now there's tension between Saraya and Menard too? That's quality sports entertainment. Roddy popping out of his wheelchair to hit his finisher on some local jobbers is also quality sports entertainment. The Kingdom as a serious tag team never did anything for me, but Taven and Bennett are can't miss now. I kinda hope these guys aren't involved in the devil story because their act is perfect right now.

I love the intrigue of the angle, but I'm struggling to think of a realistic resolution that isn't a letdown. If it's Punk, then it's the greatest angle of all time. I would also accept being Cole or Britt if the injury was an elaborate work and he does the Keyser Soze walk.

I could probably recall something special from every show I've been to. Dates would be fuzzy, but wrestling is all about the memories. Here's part 1: Some WCW House Show in 97 - I was 10, and less than a year into wrestling at this point. I made signs because I didn't know what a house show was. I legitimately thought I might see Sting. I kinda figured out this wasn't gonna be that kind of show when my mom drove through some dingy parts of KCK and we did not end up at Kemper Arena. Oh well. I did see young Goldberg padding his streak against Mongo and Luger beating Scott Hall in the main, which was awesome because when did a WCW guy ever get a clean win? Nitro 5/98 - Ok, now I made it to the big time. My dad got tickets through work and I got to see the show from a suite. Bret Hart cut a whiny promo and The Giant joined the NWO for the second time. Raw 9/04 - After a long hiatus of live wrestling, my dad once again came through with tickets (this time aisle seats). Had an up close view of HBK, Gene Snitsky's in-ring debut, and Randy Orton's failed babyface run as he got beat down by Evolution. SD - 3/06 - This was the first show I bought my own tickets for and went with one of my best friends who you can assume is at every show from here out unless otherwise noted. I got a kick out of Paul Burchill doing his Jack Sparrow gimmick, who also busted out the avalanche C4 which was fun live. This was the last show before Mania 22, and Kurt Angle beat Mysterio in the main. I was obsessively tracking my WWE.com fantasy points because I had a legit shot to win the grand prize which was... Summer Slam 06 - My knowledge of WWE booking patterns finally paid off, as my first place finish in WWE fantasy netted me 2 front row tickets to Summer Slam with airfare to Boston, hotel (a nice one too), and limo transport from the airport and to the arena. Being 19 at the time, we couldn't enjoy everything Boston had to offer, but we were within walking distance of the city and got to spend a couple days wandering around before the show. The show itself was incredible, mainly because it was my first true front row experience. Absolutely blown away by the size of everyone and the sounds. Seeing the Big Show up close was something. The Flair/Foley I Quit match was super violent and crazy to see up close. I could've probably grabbed a couple tacks if I really wanted to stretch. Safe to say this experience will never be matched, but I can say I "earned" it lol.

I think angle #1 plays better if Max&Max retain. It's not like any ROH belt really means much right now, and having 2 guys named Max with belts has to be good brand synergy if nothing else. Angle #2, but it's Wardlow who kills Caster. There's a lot of different ways they can go, and I think it comes down to how long AAAADAM has to be off TV. If his 9-month time frame is legit, getting a couple months of comedy out of MJF/Acclaimed isn't a bad way to kill some time. If he can get back sooner, then you unload the heavy stuff.

Based on last week's TV, I think there's a decent chance we get Golden Jets/Young Bucks, HOB/FTR, and Miro/Andrade. I wouldn't be surprised if Penta takes that AAA belt off QT on the preshow either. I'd be surprised if the TBS title is left off the show, and a Stat/Willow/Julia/Skye 4-way seems reasonable. Oh and MJF's mystery partner has to be Caster, right? Fills the comedy niche left by Cole and and should balance whatever the serious angle is with the devil payoff.

I agree that Dutch has some redeeming qualities, and is held back trying to fit Vincent's gimmick. He'd probably be fine in another role, whereas Vincent would likely suck doing anything.

I have no idea what TK sees in the Righteous. Here's a spoiler: Old Jake ain't gonna get 'em over. I don't think they even to deserve to be a warm-up match for the Darby/Sting/Copeland trio. I do like the general chaos of the tag division. I hope it gets to simmer for a while, with all the factions getting turns at each other. This was a show that was trying to fill a lot of time, and would be Exhibit A for "Put another women's match on the show." You could let Dalton/Acclaimed build for a week or two by ending it after the trophy break and fill the time with something more productive. Build the Stat/Skye tension by having them vs. The Renegade Twins, Athena/Billie, or even Ruby/Saraya if you really wanna pack in the angles.

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that heel Skye Blue and babyface Marina Shaffir would have one of the better women's matches in AEW this year... I probably would've believed you because that kind of stuff happens in AEW, but it was still nice to see. Is there anyone even close to Skye for most improved this year? I also like the totally off-the-wall possible love story with Angelo and Ruby. Paul Wight was great on commentary all night.

MJF's booking is one thing AEW has done consistently well this year. At least they have that piece down. I was ready to hate on everything related to the 6-man titles thing, but Matt Jackson actually saved it by reverting into a whiny baby. He was completely right about all the plot holes the last couple of months, but rattled them off in such a catty way he basically turned the team heel instantly. Bucks vs. Jets at Full Gear is way better than them vs. Ricky and Bill.