Go2Sleep

Men's side is Swerve and Ospreay freshening up the main event scene. Also heel Okada. Bucks have been effective in their roles, but I'm really hoping they don't get the gold. On the women's side, you have Mercedes coming in and where she's gonna fit, but the Toni/Mariah thing is simmering right now too, and Mariah should be a breakout star herself. Statlander always has killer TV matches too.

This makes me muse on the concept of age distribution in wrestling wondering why guys now are so old compared to the top guys of yore. I guess it's a combination of medical advancements, better training, and a bottleneck at the national level where it takes guys a long time to get those spots and not wanting to let them go once they get there. Also overexposure making guys feel older than they are. You look at the attitude era and the top guys were all young compared to the midcarders of today. Austin, Foley, Taker, and even Shawn were all in their early 30s when that era kicked off in earnest. Rock and HHH were both still in their 20s (and Rocky was mostly out of wrestling by the time he turned 30). Bret was practically a dinosaur at 40 and he was just putting guys over in big programs by 97 (whether he wanted to or not). You can't even fault the next generation, as Cena, Orton, and Lesnar were all at the top of the card before turning 30. Batista was in his mid 30s by the time he made it as a "late bloomer." Somewhere after that, though, shit changed. Copeland and Christian are older than Hogan when WCW went out of business, Joe, Punk, and Danielson are older than Bret at Montreal. Jericho is as old as Flair in WCW. WWE's top guys are all nearing 40 themselves, though at least in Roman's case, he's been at the top for a while. You have dozens of midcarders who get the 15+ year vet label, when guys who got that label in the 90s were either at the top or jobbers. Ultimately, I feel like AEW should prioritize youth in who they build around. Swerve is right about at the cut-off for time to pull the trigger. MJF at 28 is a prime asset who should be the centerpiece. Ospreay, Jay White, Hangman, Darby, Garcia, and even Hook are guys they should be looking toward in the future. If anything, AEW probably needs less midcard tag guys with 20 years of experience.

No argument about point B, but on point A, there's a lot more potential value in Drake than Henry. Henry is a stereotype indy wrestler in a company full of dudes who built (then mostly transcended) that stereotype. Drake at least has the "mobile big man" thing going for him, which makes him more useful even if you are just going to use him as a jobber. You could also put him in a team with just about anyone else and be instantly more credible than the Workhorsemen. Dutch and Drake, let's go.

Vance is one of Brodie's boys, he's set for life. I support the Wire reference, though. Was Dasha the one that said "by submission" on Collision? That'd be a shitty way to go out.

Definitely down for the first, second one is terrible for AEW, third is a lateral move. HOB are the best in-ring trio since the Shield, Gunther is the only 1 for 2 I'd even consider. I'd probably sell the farm for Gunther, though. Since it seems like Dustin is longing to go back, could we get Pete Dunne for him? As for the shows, this week, Dustin/Butcher was one of the worst televised AEW matches in years. Menard getting the hometown (province) punch-above-your-weight match was fun. I really hope they pull the trigger with Mariah over Thunder Rosa. Rosa just doesn't have it since coming back from injury and takes herself too seriously to fit into the Toni-verse. Mariah on the other hand, has been red-hot lately, the foundation has been set for her angle thinking she can be a better Toni Storm than Toni Storm, and looking ahead to Wembley, you've got potential big-time matches with Jamie Hayter or Mercedes. Starks getting hurt forced them to do the right thing and put Top Flight over. I can't believe they had seriously written the cold-ass Starks/Bill team to go over the obvious leaders of the next generation in the tag division. Nobody wants to see Bucks/FTR 4. The Archer/Righteous trio is 100x better than just the Righteous, probably because Vincent doesn't have to be in the ring so much. Nice pop for Cardona. I'm surprised TK hasn't worked out a deal with him for some special attraction matches even if he doesn't wanna be full-time.

I think Swerve and Ospreay have the main belt covered the rest of the year. If the timing works out, MJF/Cole 2 should be at All Out this year. Last year they did the double babyface glitz and glamour match, this year they get the gritty, bloody, hate-filled match. The worst part from Mercedes on commentary was fumbling the "which of these 4 would you most like to face" question. That's an easy "Willow, because I have history with her" not hemming and hawing trying to mention everyone and realizing you don't have anything good to say about Anna Jay.

MCMG would be an upgrade over the Hardys.

I guess we could argue about whether this should've been addressed on TV or not, but I feel like this is answered well enough with Mox and Claudio declining the invite for health/family reasons. A quick pre-tape from BCC or even Danielson off-handedly mentioning it during his screen time would make for optimal continuity, I'll agree with that. Just seems like such a small thing to worry about because only people who watch every second of AEW TV would catch it anyway.

FTR is made for life, winning or losing a feud to BCC makes no difference to their status. They could win the tag titles at any time and be credible doing it, nothing wrong with gate-keeping for a bit. If anything, out of the 4, Claudio needed the win the most.

I really don't like the idea of a 3 hour Dynamite being a regular thing from a personal viewing perspective, but it's probably good for business. AEW does at least have the roster to pull it off without too many people being in multiple segments. The best thing about this block was the women had multiple segments for 3 different angles and didn't feel like anyone got shorted. Wednesday is by far AEW's best night, so if they can get some of their programming out of those Fri/Sat death spots, that's a win for them. Hook taking Jericho to suplex city sure was something. That was a really good put-over by Jericho, so hopefully he won't ruin it by overstaying his welcome and dragging out this angle. Maybe just have him ask Hook to help him get revenge on the Callis Family and call it a day.

Trent Beretta as a singles heel on this AEW roster sounds like a good way to end up like Ortiz, right down to losing the blowoff match on Rampage. He's a million times more relevant and useful to the brand as a competent workhorse tag guy. Even if Chuck can't come back, Beretta/Romero is a perfectly fine low-card team with OC as the "big brother" who can help them punch above their weight from time to time.

Maybe Okada can win the belt, then throw it in the trash to discredit Eddie's legacy.

The bracket is underwhelming, but I don't think it's such a foregone conclusion the Bucks run away with it. I could definitely see Top Flight getting their breakout year going over FTR and the Bucks back to back. Bucks or FTR winning the tag belts when we're supposed to be entering some new era or whatever would be some really lame booking. FTR will always be ready to go for a program when you need them, and the Bucks are gonna be best hiding behind Okada. Toni/Mariah killing those jobbers reminded me of the long (lost?) squash match thread. This was so much better than a semi-competitive match vs. an ROH team. Julia and Skye could probably use such a match as well.

I honestly don't think it's a stretch to say Mercedes/Sasha is the most important wrestler this century. The 4HW all deserve credit, as do many others before them, but never forget crowds were always chanting "We Want Sasha." in 2014, people were still talking about Trish/Lita main eventing Raw 10 years prior as the high watermark of American women's wrestling, and the thought of getting anything better was not seriously considered. After Sasha's 2015 essentially wrapped up at Takeover Respect, it was 6 months before the word "diva" was purged from WWE lexicon, a year before women main evented a PPV, just over 2 years to main eventing a Rumble, and 3.5 years to main eventing Mania. Imagine telling somebody in 2012 that women will main event a freaking WM before the end of the decade. Looking back nearly 10 years now, it's easy to take for granted, but the opportunities that are available now for women in wrestling both financially and artistically in the US were unfathomable 12 years ago and it was Sasha's run of matches that pushed that boulder over the hill. I think about people like Julia, Skye, Billie, etc who were literal kids in 2015 and wonder if they would've even pursued wrestling as a career (let alone to what success) if the landscape for women's wrestling was still what it was 2013.

Ospreay's promos in AEW have always seemed pretty decent. He speaks from the heart and the accent plays well in America. "Bruv" is very charming and it's cool to see that catch on. It might not play as well memorizing WWE-written promos, so it might be a bit unfair to say HHH didn't see it as much as he didn't think it would be the best fit for the price tag. Ospreay in AEW is the most obvious thing ever, though. Perfect fit as a wrestler, promo, brand representative and the company has a top spot wide open. I hope both he and MJF stay healthy and can have a lengthy promotion-defining off-and-on rivalry. Okada fully embracing the American heel style is wonderful, and you can tell he enjoys trying something different. He'll have plenty of time for epics in AEW, but this is helping him stand out week to week.

AEW is on the upswing again. Mission accomplished with the Mercedes debut. Lots of time to soak up some well-deserved love, got the CEO chant over, stood tall at the end. Seems smart to keep her out of the Toni-verse for now, but Mercedes and Mariah for both belts in Wembley maybe? So glad to see the end of the BBSG too. It was befitting for 5 of the 6, but as the match with Darby demonstrated, it was well beneath Jay White. He's a lot better as a higher ranked heel, and time to unify the useless second trios belts. Loved the new ring gear for GoA, too bad they can't get a win. I actually think Hook benefits from working with Jericho a lot more than most of the AEW roster, though. Hopefully he avoids the Jericho partner curse. The final segment was cool not just because it was women, but because I think everyone involved except Mercedes is under 30, and Mercedes isn't over by much.

He goes by Dropkick Matthews now.

He beat Okada and ZSJ last year (yeah he gave the wins back in NJ, but still got the first one when it was a "dream" match), and recently Hechicero as well. I like Bowens, but I just don't see it. He's fine in the ring, but you put him next to Ospreay, Swerve, MJF... Even guys farther down the card like Garcia and Buddy... He's just not at that level. AEW's roster is so absurdly stacked, there's gonna be a ton of guys better than Bowens who never sniff the world title.

Malakai/Brody could definitely be the modern version of this in AEW. Gates of Agony job too much but they could probably be heated back up. Thought they had something going with Bill and (Brian) Cage before they abruptly dropped that for the Bill/Starks team.

The Acclaimed have a nice role as the NAO of AEW, but I can never see them being more than that. Entrance always pops the crowd, competent enough, but never gonna out-shine the top guys in the ring.

I'm glad Kevin Kelly is gone. He was useless in AEW. I kinda hope they do a rotating third announcer like they used to do for Rampage. Menard has been killing it in his test runs. Paul Wight has been decent in his appearances and is sharp enough to not get pushed around by Nigel. Riccabonni is always competent. I'm sure Taz could handle one extra show a month. Hell, throw RJ City in there once and see what happens.

Good lord, they're actually gonna make me like the heel authority figures aren't they? Okada as the Bucks' muscle, plus Matt using Eddie's money to do his own rain-maker thing (and also making sure to recover every last bill), and the Cody entrance... I also love the decision to bring Okada in as a heel. Not every big debut can or should get the huge babyface push. Reminds me of Cole debuting as a heel right before Danielson. The long game is obviously Omega/Okada with a Sting/Hogan build and, uh, that's gonna be pretty great. The rush-job on Joe/Wardlow gives me hope Swerve will be getting his belt soon. Kris Statlander is real good, yall. She beat the brakes off Riho yet still made the loss convincing. Will Ospreay is HIM. Basically turning the clock back 10 years on Kenny Omega. He's gonna be a perfect ace for AEW.

I wanna see Brody/Malakai get a run with the straps. Seems like the perfect monster heel team for the rest of the division to bounce off. Feels like it should be pretty easy to get 16 teams in for a serious tourney. HOB, FTR, BCC, Top Flight, Bucks, Kingdom, Best Friends, Patriarchy, Callis Family, Planet Jarrett, Hardys, Private Party, 2.0, LFI, Mogul Embassy, Abrahantes Family. That's 16 of just people on TV most weeks. You dig into the jobber ranks, throw some randos together, and snatch some established teams from Impact/NJ/CMLL and you could probably do 32.

They already pretty much gave up on Jungle Boy, so it shouldn't be too hard. I don't think this particular botch was Sammy's fault, but I do agree he's midcard for life regardless. They've got a new load-bearing Swerve and Ospreay they can keep the roof up with.

The only thing I didn't like about the show was not pulling the trigger on Swerve. You just gotta give guys their moment when it's hot. Joe has no value as a long-term champion, heel Hangman can do a million other things besides keep going after Swerve, and it's kinda obvious Will Ospreay is the next big thing so they're in danger of missing the boat entirely on Swerve if they don't get him that belt by Dynasty at the latest. It feels like Kenny passed the torch to Will at Forbidden Door last year as the guy who embodies what AEW is going for as a company, and Will taking down the belt at All In (no matter who has it) is a bit of a foregone conclusion. I really liked Takeshita/Ospreay, and the Sting sendoff was a fitting spectacle. Got a good laugh out of Sting not giving a single fuck about the TV cues at the end. For all the big names they brought out for the event, Scotty Riggs got the biggest pop in our watch party. I could do "remember this guy" with mid 90s WCW midcarders/jobbers all day.