Go2Sleep

Darby/Ospreay delivered, but the best part was that it wasn't a forced epic, it was just a really good TV match. Yes, with inflation, a really good TV match now would've been a blow-away generational ppv match 25 years ago, but it works. Mercedes/Anna was good too. Felt like an early NXT women's boom match. Definitely didn't like Swerve calling Ricochet "Trevor," but his "oh you read my wikipedia" response was pretty good. Totally fine with them having a match of course. Toni continues to be a genius. Harley's commercial was great. Really good show except for the flat ME angle which is extremely mid-2000s WWE in a bad way. Also, why does everybody only wear black now?

Ospreay vs. Darby was the match I was most looking forward to when the CC lineup was announced. Although if Ricochet caps his slow-burn heel turn against Darby, that might top it.

Toni speed-running her career show by show would make for some incredible content.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a three faces of Toni gimmick at some point. She needs a strong third character, though, Outcast Toni isn't it. I also would've definitely put her return on Dynamite if not ppv, not because it will necessarily draw more, but simply as a matter of respect. She's carried the women's division when they needed her, treat her like it.

Wow they actually did put her return match in the middle of Rampage. Ok then.

I feel like Okada/Ospreay should be the obvious final. Fletcher is pretty much guaranteed to win the Blue League, which means Ospreay comes in second for a rematch in the semis. That means Darby or maybe Ricochet wins the Gold League to face Okada on the other side.

I don't know that they were ever "friends," but there were definitely some times they had a common enemy. Thinking of when Austin returned to help Rock beat HHH at Backlash 2000, and when they were both feuding with the NWO at WM 18. I'm kinda sure they were on the same side of tag matches leading up to that.

Disco's match with Jackie was one of the three worst things in 1997 WCW. I think Disco was a guy who could get a great one-off match against a strong opponent precisely because he was a joke 99% of the time. They pulled it off with Malenko and Saturn as guys he could garner sympathy against because they were able to push the ass-kicking he usually deserved into hard-to-watch territory. No one actually wanted Disco to win a bunch, nor did he have the chops to evolve his character into a serious midcard act, but he could pull off the sympathetic goof to great effect on occasion.

I just couldn't imagine AEW having Toni's return match being in the middle of Rampage with no build. Plus they filmed Rampage in reverse. They had the Callis family promo, then Takeshita/Archer vs. Hobbs/Davis was announced as the main event by Roberts. They played the Rampage intro before Cardona/Keith even though it was the last match of the night, so who knows what the final cut will look like?

Glad the show came across well on TV. They had enough of the T-Mobile Center tarped off that it looked like the Independence Events Center, so I was worried the acoustics. Seems like the crowd noise for Dynamite was captured thankfully. Don't expect much from Rampage, though. It's a nothing show and it looked like half the people bailed. Other interesting live notes were they taped the Jericho/Cardona contract signing for ROH here despite the rest of the show presumably filmed elsewhere and they also had Toni work a regular length dark match against Harley Cameron. I'm guessing they learned from Cole that they should probably give wrestlers some time to work off rust after a long layoff before a big TV match. Thought Brody/Ricochet was really good. Ricochet taking some notes from Mercedes and embracing the "welcome back" moment, then just kinda doing nothing and let the real goal of being a heel come out organically as he works against the true faces. Even his early-match selling here was pretty heel-ish. If he keeps the "heel who thinks he's a face" going into the match with Darby, that'll be wonderful. I'm sure he'll join up with Hurt Syndicate, hopefully in a more creative way than just costing Swerve another match against Lashley, though.

I don't like the "adding time for injury" shit, but I have no problem with keeping talent off TV for the remainder of their contract, so long as they get paid the full amount. AEW doesn't have enough "premium" TV time to go around as is, no reason to use it on people who have one foot out the door.

I have to agree AEW would be a lot better "getting back to their roots" with Hangman and Anna Jay title wins by the end of the year. For the former, it's easy to craft a redemption arc, and it doesn't even have to end with the title win. With a decisive enough win, Mox can bow out for a bit, claiming his work done. Or have Darby crash a plane into him as he's leaving the building. Or both. Hangman vs. anyone besides Swerve at the top of the card is fresh. For the latter, no one is really positioned to take down Mercedes at this point, so why not go for the big upset and throw Anna a bone? If they want Toni to headline GS: Australia, the right partner is Mercedes, not Mariah. Who would turn down a GS: Australia headlined by Toni/Mercedes and Hangman/Fletcher?

Loved Swerve/Max turning into a glorified squash. It's always nice when a match accurately reflects the level of both participants. They're onto something with Max as a heel, though. Kinda surprised to see OC back so soon, but he would be good filler for a multi-way title match. Good crowd all night, and I loved them getting behind Shelton and Brody as full babyfaces. Only minor complaint is both CC matches ending with the heels cheating. I was ok with Fletcher doing it, but I don't think anything would've been hurt if Claudio went over clean.

Wait what? The Death Riders angle isn't the most exciting thing in the world, but what am I missing here? 2 guys in the group have shaved heads and one could pass as German to an American audience I guess? DOA was neo-nazi gimmick, and the Harris Brothers were like actual white supremacists with SS tats and everything. Death Riders is just another generic NWO ripoff.

Komander picking right up where Juice left off as the 0-5 guy is very on-brand. I hated Juice in there from the beginning. Last year, Lethal was the only 0-5 guy I think, although they definitely teased it with Briscoe and Garcia. I think having an even field where a couple of decent names struggle does a lot more for the tournament and even the individuals than throwing in obvious jobbers to pad everyone else's stats.

I definitely think Starks is overrated, but it's his attitude that will always hold him back. Nothing could make that more clear than seeing how Bill recovered from that failed team by embracing his next opportunity while Ricky allegedly turned down angles he thought were beneath him. Ricky is not anywhere near as good as he thinks he is, especially on the mic. He's going to end up much closer to Pillman Jr than Cody when he goes to WWE.

Extremely looking forward to Darby vs. Ospreay. Would love to see a Darby/Okada final too, but Ospreay/Okada can probably sell World's end by itself. You can run that as the main with a Mox/Hangman/White/Christian 4-way for the belt below it. Would've liked to see Lio replace Juice as the 0-5 guy, and Pac or Yuta in place of Claudio for fresher matchups, but otherwise great lineup.

Stat/Mercedes, Hangman/Jay, and Ospreay/Fletcher was an A+ stretch of wrestling. Mina being ready for Mariah's shit was good too. Mox/OC was a pretty good match but that WWE finish killed the crowd. I feel like they had something going with Hangman coming out after, but the rest of the chaos fell flat.

What ever happened to Hologram? He was getting a steady push over the summer, but then he got beat down by LFI and we haven't seen him since.

Death Riders looked like it was going in the "higher power" direction with some big reveal coming, and it just hasn't. Other than when they bagged Bryan, the whole thing just doesn't feel very "top of the card." I think if the exact same feud was for one of the secondary belts while Ospreay/Fletcher was for the main belt, the show would feel much more fresh and AEW-like.

Even though Garcia should still take the belt off him, I'm kinda digging post-Bucks nihilist Jack Perry. Also good to see Swerve recover from his case of stupid babyface disease.

Their HIAC match in 2002 was top tier, but other than that, yeah. All of the second-run Brock vs. Taker matches were really overrated. I was with you until this. Austin 3 stages of hell, Rock Iron man, Shawn's return match, Orton LMS, and the Danielson Mania match were all legit great.

That 8-man graphic made me realize I now want Davis and Hobbs to be the modern version of Fire and Ice (only less jobber-y and lasting longer than 3 months).

I gotta disagree with pretty much the whole post. Sammy's not a pillar anymore and has barely been on TV this year. Shelton lost to Swerve on the first finisher, and the announcers were giving Swerve the injury excuse for why he was eating so much offense. He definitely was not presented as being in more danger than his match with Hangman a month prior. Finally, Shelton is not only better in the ring than Hobbs, I dare say he's more imposing as well, which is kinda the main thing Hobbs has going for him. It's also not like Hobbs is getting completely buried for Shelton, he came back in a separate angle teaming with Ricochet and Ospreay. While not as hot as the Hurt Syndicate, it's hardly a bad spot and definitely not a sign the company has given up on him.

I'd also say they aren't investing in Shelton specifically as much as Hurt Syndicate as a whole, which is definitely one of those big WWE misses that deserves a real shot. Lashley (who admittedly isn't any younger, but has a lot more main event cred) is gonna be the main guy in the group, Shelton's gonna be the Claudio, and they'll probably use the group to elevate someone else like Ricochet, Lio, or even Caster.