Go2Sleep

JR during the Foley/Taker HIAC was huge contributor to that match. I can't think of a single finer call of a specific match. Before, during, and after he had the right words and inflection for every moment. "He's broken in half" is iconic, but everything he uttered over that 30 minutes hit just right for the moment. I'll always have a soft spot for the Tony/Bobby/Dusty WCW team I associate with my first memories of wrestling, but even today I find their call of BATB 96 to be particularly good. They ratcheted the tension up all show, always sounding on edge while still being professional enough to call the other matches properly (something that became a huge problem in the later NWO days), and then they just let their emotions fly in the main event. I never understood what people even hated about Heenan's "Whose side is he on" line. It was perfectly in character, and Tony and Dusty's indignant scoffs set up the moment just right. Even after being proven right, Bobby couldn't bring himself to gloat in the aftermath. Everyone was so thoroughly defeated.

Definitely agree on Daniels. Even in that triple threat, he was a major third wheel. The Joe/Styles singles match a couple months later was way better (among TNA's best matches actually). Recently, the Kacy/Kayden team. All time, Dean Malenko. Maybe he's too good to qualify for the spirit of the question (Like it's not unreasonable to enjoy Dean Malenko matches), but I could watch hours of his random Nitro/Thunder matches and was always happy when he had any type of success.

Generally speaking, no one going to Mania weekend has any budget to worry about. Almost no one there is local, and is there with the intent of going to multiple shows, conventions, and doing other touristy things. I was fortunate enough to go a few times, and each one ran me over a couple thousand easily. Especially 31 in San Francisco. That said, you'd have to pay me a couple thousand to go to any Mania in the past 5 years.

I can't agree with Orton or HHH since both guys have a good amount of high-end stuff. Yes, they also have long bad/boring stretches, but I've enjoyed both at various points. Most of the other guys brought up would kill have to something as awesome as HHH/Austin 3 stages of hell or Orton/Foley on their resume. Or even something as good as their LMS against each other at No Mercy 07. I rejected bringing up Ziggler on similar grounds. No matter how many boring years in a row he can string together, he'll always have the Del Rio double turn match and the Survivor Series 14 tag. I can't think of a single Miz match I would want to re-watch.

Based on interviews, he seems like a super dude, so I feel kinda bad, but I think I'm gonna go with Chavo (Jr) for this one. His on-screen highlights are few and far between, and are pretty much all just the result of riding Eddie's coattails. His mini-feud with DDP as the overmatched "little brother" trying to stand up to the bully as part of the larger DDP/Eddie rivalry was probably my favorite thing he did. His best character work was probably him snapping after having to be Eddie's lackey, culminating with Norman Smiley feeding Pepe the stickhorse into a wood-chipper. Don't remember any good matches from that stretch, though. His entire WWE run was more of him getting paired with his more charismatic family members. He was the least of SD 6 guys by a lot. His singles work was completely generic, managing just a couple standout matches with Rey over about an 8 year stretch. He was also super out of place in LU and one of the worst parts of that series. Probably need to shout Miz here too. Occasionally cuts a great promo, but never could quite get there in the ring to make his act truly work. In his defense, though, he came up at the worst possible time where he had no career path except WWE monotony.

Overall, I loved the show. Had a very attitude era feel, in a good way. Every segment had some kind of "holy shit" moment, felt like most of the roster had something to do. Normally, I wouldn't want to compare AEW to WWE, but this show had that "Raw after Mania" vibe, back when that meant something 10+ years ago. Nice foreshadowing on the Jericho turn by not having 2.0 hit him too hard early on. One of those things you could catch as a viewer, but didn't make P&P look like total idiots. That Mox/Dragon match was a tremendous squash. I can't believe the main event was how I found out that Sammy and the girl he proposed to in the ring are no longer together.

I wonder if Punk will ever have occasion to dust off the Killswitch Engage song he used for the first half of his WWE run. Not sure if there's any wrestler with a better history of entrance themes.

Io Shirai vs. Pentagon was a damn good match on Lucha Underground.

I feel like this analysis misses that a key point of Punk's AEW character is that he's over the hill and struggles against the higher-end young stars. MJF's character is that he's a piece of shit, but he mostly backs it up in the ring which makes him even more obnoxious. Punk dominating the match wouldn't make sense for either of them.

Not much to add, but another amazing all-around show from AEW. House of Black vs. Death Triangle deserves a shout from the pre-show. Awesome tv 6-man. Jericho/Eddie was at worst neck and neck for MOTN, and relative to my expectations, it blew me away. I can't remember the last time Jericho worked that stiff, and him going back on his word after the match was a nice cap to his heel turn. It seemed to blend Flair/Foley and Misawa/Kawada 05 in just a totally unexpected masterpiece. Punk/MJF capped of their all-time feud with a fittingly violent match. Wardlow's turn was well done and sets up each guy to leave this feud behind them for now. Bryan/Mox would've stood out more on a lesser show, but it was stiff af, and the Regal moment gave it a big moment to stand out. Dragon/Mox vs. pretty much any top AEW team is a dream match, but let's start with FTR so Regal and Tully can go at each other. So, JR getting his notes mixed up and commenting on a new belt before the men's title match instead of the women's is one of those things I will think about randomly and laugh uncontrollably. *Hangman comes out* JR: Is that a new belt? Tony (over the crowd noise): What? JR: IS - THAT - A - NEW - BELT? Tony: Uh, no I don't think so. Anyway, the main was fine and didn't feel out of place on such a stacked show. Great finishing run with Hangman looking strong and getting adequate revenge on Cole for the Rampage beatdown. Everything else on the show was decent to good with at least one big-time moment, save for Thunder/Britt. That felt like filler, but when they hinted at the rematch in San Antonio in a couple weeks, it made a lot more sense. Also assuming that will have gimmick after all the interference in this one. A+ show overall.

Best looking tower of doom spot ever, Punk and Jade both dropping F-bombs, and Deeb's look of disgust as she yanked the "smart" jobber off the apron all made this show for me.

Agreed, trophies are a great way to give wrestlers "accomplishments" without having to bend over backwards with the writing and hurting other guys in the process. I loved it when they gave Jungle Boy the "first to 50 wins" trophy.

Don't get my hopes up that I will be able to go watch early 2000s NOAH on HBO max.

Misawa, Kobashi, and Akiyama were definitely doing apron death spots in the late AJ/early NOAH days. They were a staple of big NOAH matches by 05, and they started popping up in the US indy scene about the same time, since that's the style they were going for. I think Kevin Owens brought them to WWE with apron powerbomb, which was a killshot for maybe a year, but like most things WWE became devalued quickly.

It's not too late because he's washed up (I've seen no indication of that in the limited WWE I've watched the last couple of years). It's too late because AEW has a clear path forward with younger home-grown stars, and if they decide they need an established guy on top for whatever reason, Danielson is the obvious choice. Claudio will have a nice place on the card and his matches will be must-see, but I wouldn't expect him to be the guy in AEW at any point.

OC wins are the only thing that keep the Best Friends credible though. You know Chucky, Trent, and Wheeler are gonna lose every time out, but when OC is in there, they have a chance. The Best Friends and Dark Order are essential acts for building up heels, but you have to some guys in there who give them a legit chance to win or else the heels won't get anything from beating them repeatedly. OC and Page are those guys.

Yeah, I know the power couple bit is played out since HHH/Steph, but Cody and Brandi definitely had potential in that role. The only problem is that to be an effective heel, you have to be willing to lose feuds, and that was an issue for Cody in AEW (in fact, probably the main reason fans began to turn on him). Also, yay for Claudio getting out. I think it's too late for him to be a top guy in AEW, but he should definitely go there for the dream matches.

Taker used to do it in the 2000s on smaller guys as part of his "work the arm" routine to set up old school.

What a show for promos. MJF's was an all-timer. I really hope they don't do a "work" and have him say he made it all up to get heat. The fact that I was waiting for him to just obliterate Punk after "Is it true" and it never came was the right kind of swerve. I love the idea of 2 epic dickhead promo guys going at it for weeks, but instead of never ending escalation of dickheadery, one guy actually finally cuts deep. If they managed a double turn out of this feud, it would be the most epic since (and possibly, possibly greater than) Bret/Austin. Jericho was great as the condescending prick too. Definitely one of his finer AEW promos. Dragon and Mox at the end was suitably intense and made me even more pumped about their match. Starks little cut off on Keith Lee followed by the Lee/Hobbs stare-down was easy to overlook, but would stand out as awesome on a lesser show. Only thing I didn't like was the Death Triangle/HoB segment. Penta Oscuro is a million times better name than el Zero Miedo, but what was the point of debuting a "new" gimmick only to get a roll-up win (although Malakai choking on the mist was a cool kayfabe twist on that spot) and then get killed post-match? The whole thing would've made a lot more sense if Penta turned on Pac before the match as the third man, then Buddy showed up to even the odds. Buddy with Pac and Fenix makes more sense than him with HoB, but the 6-mans will be awesome either way, I guess.

Omos has to be the leader currently. Is there any answer to that question that isn't a giant stiff or an attractive woman?

It's kind of overkill at this point, but he's too good not to sign if he's interested. He definitely got screwed by WWE too, so it's good that he's getting another shot on national tv. He'll look good mixing it up with the AEW mainstays, and there might be an angle in there with him getting Acclaimed to the next level a la Christian with Jurassic Express.

It's really only about 6 in his current form (which is still way too long). In Brock's first run, he was presented as a monster, but still occasionally vulnerable. It's why his matches with Benoit, Rey, and Eddie all worked. His insecure heel run in 2003-04 was the best stretch of his career. Most importantly, back then he actually wrestled instead of just doing the same 3 spots every match. His second run, he was much more protected, but still worked a unique enough style and showed enough vulnerability to top guys that he was a bright spot through the first Roman match. Since the Taker program, though, yeah... Nothing inspiring or must-see about him and nobody has come out of a feud looking better, even if they got a win over him. The only interesting moment was him losing to Goldberg in under 2 minutes, and well, that only put over Goldberg in like 2017 or 18 (?) so that wasn't terribly useful.

I think people here are drastically underselling the possibility that Cole wins this match. Does Cole/Omega need the belt as the centerpiece of the looming Elite Civil War? No, but it would make sense and be a huge match. This was a good show, but it felt like they went a little heavy with heel stable beatdowns. Rosa/Mercedes was charming in its dangerous sloppiness. Gotta love that they just said "fuck it we can do this apron-table spot at a 45 degree angle right?" And that top rope elbow drop was one of the ugliest in history, yet looked like more of a killshot than any other top rope elbow I can remember.

If Turner insists on keeping a wrestling-based reality show, they should just do a different person each season. Mox, Miro, Tay/Anna, Jade, Sammy, Cole/Britt. There's no shortage of interesting material without overexposing or putting too much pressure on one person.

This is true, but Jericho and the Bucks are doing exactly what they should be doing: Midcard programs that either elevate other acts or with similarly situated vets who won't be hurt by a loss.