Go2Sleep

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.

I'm quite happy they realized Cole isn't up to having a ppv-level singles match right now. Roddy hasn't had many big matches as a babyface the last few years, so this'll be a fresh one. Disappointed MVP didn't improv after Swerve said the wrong city. That was ripe for "Stamford? What the hell is in Stamford?" or something similar. Loved seeing HOB get the win. I was worried they were gonna force FTR into the match to start their turn on the Outrunners, but Malakai/Brody is an extremely under-utilized tandem. They project a monster vibe and always look great whether it's a squash, a workrate epic, or a gimmick cluster. If they stay leaning face, there are several appealing match-ups with Rush/Mortos, Claudio/Pac, and Lashley/Benjamin.

There's gotta be some shenanigans in either the Cole or Roddy match. They'd get dragged for trying the triple threat trope when one guy would clearly hit 3 before the other by virtue of card positioning. Don't mind Christian and Hangman as the pareja extraña or whatever they call it in lucha. One underappreciated aspect of AEW's glut of stables is they don't have to resort to this trope very often. In this case, the characters are similar enough that it's easy to kayfabe some motivation.

Revisionist booking points: Danielson should've gotten the belt after Brawl Out then lost to MJF in the Iron Man match as it was. Then Scenario A: Everything goes the same until Swerve wins the belt at Revolution, then holds it to All Out where he loses it to Hangman. Ospreay beats Hangman no later than Full Gear 24 Scenario B: They weasel Swerve out of the CC to win the belt at Worlds End when it's clear MJF is too beat up to continue. Ospreay wins the belt at Forbidden Door, defends against MJF in the All In main event, and is still going strong to this day.

I think they would get used about the same as Muta or Liger. You'd get some midcard bangers, but they wouldn't be displacing anyone even in the Flair/Savage/Luger tier, let alone Hogan/Sting/Nash. I don't think Okada is quite a missed opportunity on the level of Ospreay, though. He could be doing more, sure, but he's a few years older than Will and (fair or not) being a native English speaker is a big advantage when trying to be the face of an American company. Okada laying low, experimenting with American tropes, and not just relying on being a plus workrate guy has him in a significantly better spot than Takeshita. Plus nobody has ever been worse off for finding an over catch phrase, even if it's just the word "bitch." I suspect he'll get more time to shine now that the Bucks are out of the picture.

Kind of ironic that guys being too selfless has cost AEW big momentum at points between Danielson and Ospreay. I know their hearts are in the right place, but they'd be helping everyone in the company a lot more by embracing the ace status. Will Ospreay is a fresh face in America and has a real "you gotta see this guy" aura that could be drawing more eyes to the company as a whole if marketed correctly. Ospreay is a uniquely special worker like Omega and Danielson before him, and him not going 100% so he doesn't out-shine everyone is a far bigger drag on a young national promotion than him coming in and beating everyone. You'll have plenty of time to job later, plus it'll mean something.

I think we're in the midst of one of the company's biggest missed opportunities right now as Will Ospreay is not the center of the promotion. He was the most over guy in the company last summer and is clearly the best worker, yet he's stuck in an endless midcard feud with the Don's revolving door stable. You have Will, Swerve, Hangman, Okada, White, and now Lashley who are all varying degrees of hot right now/the last few months, yet the top program is Mox vs. OC. Unless they actually plan to strap up OC, I don't see the point.

Lio Rush vs. Komander Rampage series perfectly channels that Jimmy Yang vs. Paul London Velocity energy and I love it.

Jarrett's rep got ruined because the most visible stretch of his career (woman beater IC champ -> "ace" of Dying WCW/Early TNA) was also his worst.

Sir, this is the "Hot Takes" thread, not the "100% correct statements of facts" thread.

Bobby Heenan was an overrated announcer. The partisan heel schtick was lame even as a kid, and while not as overtly gross as Lawler or Zbyszko, he had plenty of racist/sexist jokes that are cringe-inducing on re-watch. I'd even argue that while Lawler was overall worse, he could sell a big angle/moment a lot better. Heenan's best work was the early NWO era that forced him into being more of a tweener and Dusty being so wild that he had to be the straight man at times. I'm not really sure what he brought to the table except early childhood memories.

Most of the show was meh, but that Brandon Cutler horror movie scene with the BCC was a perfect segment for the Halloween themed show. Unless there's some actual plan Hurt Business to square off with BCC, doing both angles concurrently makes no sense. I mean, kayfabe wise sure, Mox probably sees that they respect the business and are trying and all that so no reason to attack them. The structure of the shows becomes insulting to the viewers' intelligence, though. It also results in things like HOB being reduced to enhancement roles for an extremely rusty Adam Cole.

I'll just wait for Excalibur to explain it on the show.

Collision was one of those AEW shows that looks like nothing on paper but ended up being really good. Jay/Shane was a really smartly worked match that strayed from the usual AEW formula. Jay doesn't seem ideally suited to work babyface, but he's skilled enough to pull it off. He bumped early in the match to set up adversity, then gradually wore down the legs of Taylor to believably establish the comeback. Made Jay look smart and crafty and didn't diminish the power of Shane. Quietly a top AEW TV match this year. Outrunners/MXM was on the opposite end of the spectrum as a quality sports entertainment match. MXM is a perfect enhancement team for AEW and the Outrunners are getting better at working the longer matches. Both teams kept the crowd involved the whole way without going too crazy in the ring. Reminded me of early NXT. Lio/Ricochet was another good match where both guys added a good story instead of just hitting their spots. Lio had a chip on his shoulder and Ricochet came across as condescending enough to see why Lio would be annoyed without Ricochet being a true asshole. Ricochet was clearly better but he had to earn it. I do agree his axe bomber isn't the greatest finisher, he should be using that spinning roundhouse he used early in the match which stood out to cap the sequence of "who could out quick the other." Still doesn't negate the work both guys put in here.

TK has enough self awareness to realize he has zero TV presence.

Kyle Fletcher's promo was the highlight of the show. We've known he's had the moves for a while, but his match output this year combined showing the range to cut a top tier heel and face promo (his American dream promo against MJF) as well? Far and away the most improved in AEW this year and a no-doubt future main eventer. They're doing a nice job building up Shelton for Swerve. The MJF/Kingdom angle makes zero sense, but it re-casts the Kingdom (with AAAADAM) as goofy faces and MJF as the weasel-y heel, and I'm ok with that. That devil angle was trash, and sometimes it's better to just memory hole stuff and put guys in a better role. I guess Private Party is getting their big moment next week? It would be silly to break them up when they're at the center of defending the honor of AEW. Kamille/Aminata was pretty bad. It'll be interesting to see what Stat can get out of Kamille, but Stat/Mercedes should be a money match. The BCC stuff this week was very 97 NWO. At least it looks like they're not gonna waste too much more time, but OC, Darby, and whoever really need to start pushing back. Also extremely weird that there was no Pac. Did the BCC send him off to get fitted for pants? Hopefully they run Anarchy in the Arena at Full Gear.

HOB getting announced for a Dynamite appearance must mean they're either breaking up or setting up a big staredown with BCC. Probably the latter with how easily BCC dispatched Top Flight and Dark Order. I could see Mox wanting to re-create that Shield/Wyatts moment, and now that I think about it, when you look at current BCC as Mox's vision of the Shield, it makes a lot of sense.

Daniel Garcia is one of the leaders on the face side, and Pac's a Day 1 guy on the heel team, so I don't think that's a major dividing line.

I'm really looking forward to the 3-way tag they set up for Rampage next week (Kingdom/STP/GOA). Three solid low-card teams that could all use a win and would all honestly be good to get a push freshen up the top of the tag scene. The latter two moreso, as I think Taven and Bennett have more value as a trio with Roddy as the leader, but they're all pretty fun when they get time. Also a rare AEW non-ppv match where it's impossible to pick the winner. More matches like this and less JTTS to stuff please.

I was wondering what the deal was there. After Hangman laid there forever, I was wondering if someone forgot they had an overrun and sent them out early. Luckily, they had 3 competent vets in there who adapted relatively well with Hangman staying out of sight, and Christian/Jay avoiding that side of the ring, but it definitely had some early 2000s SD-retape vibes.

The nu-BBC stuff was pretty good, but it kind of overshadowed everything else on the show. Even though there was a lot of good work, everything else felt too low-stakes. The Elite tie-in was a step in the right direction. Mercedes/Aminata was a good match and felt more "vintage Mercedes" than most of her AEW work so far. Shelton/Lio was great as expected. Lio is really underappreciated for the way he plays up the size difference in most of his matches. He makes everything close quarters look like a struggle, is athletic enough to do lots of cool-looking quick-strike offense that looks credible, and of course, bumps as well as anyone in the non-Darby division. Shelton hasn't lost a step and his superkick is the new sheriff in town. Shelton/Swerve should be a banger before Lashley wrecks shit. This BOTB might be the most afterthought one yet, and that's a high bar. First mention is a 2-second plug at the very end of the show announcing a non-title match lol.