Custos

If only the COVID situation wasn’t such a clusterfuck that may have been a possibility, I feel it’s pretty unlikely now but who knows. As for the match itself, I wouldn’t be averse to seeing Lance Archer go on a Cesaro-esque perpetual motion Murderhawk murder spree tossing guys across the ring, into each other, out of the ring, moonsaulting into a pile of humanity, the total showcase. Show us what made everyone sit up and take notice last G1.

With the bragging about calling things early, I did make a comment weeks back about an OC Jericho feud turning into a mimosa marketing plan, but that was more the entrepreneurial stuff than within the feud itself. Getting more excited for the show and so glad they’re keeping with the Saturday PPV, watching on Fite on a leisurely Sunday brunch time here in Oz is great. On the one hand I get the criticism of the gimmick heaviness, on the other hand none of it feels too much like a crutch to make up for lack of talent or hook. Seeing (presumably) the visual of Jericho showing arse as only he can, flailing about and hamming it up in the mimosa is an example. It’s a great payoff without Jericho having to lose twice in a row in a standard match. Edit to add: Penta is my pick for the battle royal to break away from the Friends of Kingston and kickstart his singles push through the inter-PPV Dynamites over the next few weeks

Its interesting I was just listening to the conference call and TK was emphasising why the Buy-In was an equally important position for it, but I guess they thought better. Given they’ve got more of a fleshed our story than a lot of the card it makes sense too (certainly Bucks Jurassic Express).

Kingston as 911 but for poor Jumping Jeff Farmer saps flailing on their promos, giving them a verbal beat down instead of a choke slam sounds like genius. Good to see some quality women’s wrestling after the recent drought, it was worth having a more competitive Rosa match to have a good womens match on the show. The trade off for not having sterile my-turn your-turn too cute WWE promos is a bit more chaos, a greater range between the best and worst, and the occasional clanger. Ive been waiting for Excalibur to come back for weeks now, so nice to hear him back on the commentary. I agree Taz/Excalibur/Tony is a great regular team, swapping in Jericho or JR for an extra splash of prestige when the situation suits. I need to re-watch when he did it, as it may have just been low expectations, but I would be keeping a good relationship with Golden Boy to swap out the one of the oldies (sorry Skee a Vone) down the road and have the voice of someone under 40.

It's nice that Jericho is so pumped for the show but he was at Mauro-level excitable borderline obnoxious for some of the show. I'm still not over the novelty of getting to see Jake the Snake not just alive and well but cutting promos next to his pet monster heel on one of the biggest weekly wrestling shows. I do want the women to be represented on the main show and get their time to shine, but unfortunately it's no accident that the best shows have been the ones most devoid of women wrestling, especially in more taxing situations where they're almost set up to fail. Just do the NJPW Young Lions and keep it basic (although that seems to be anathema to the 'let the artist play their music how they want' approach that Cody and AEW have been espousing from the beginning). The puberty line was Moxley's usual top-shelf stuff, I like the framing of MJF not just as a chickenshit but also with an air of menace in his own right. The politician stuff is a bit arbitrary (though it does him some fun characters to play off), hopefully it gets shed when the American nation wakes up from its brush with autocratic government...ahem probably should stop there. It's a shame the Lucha Bros are both just faces in the crowd for now, but I'm sure their time will come around soon and the pairing with Eddie Kingston keeps it interesting. Pillman looks the part, seems more built than I remember seeing him before. Garrison's more gangly green look makes him all the better in comparison. And I am increasingly convinced that Sammy Guevara is trying to kill himself on national TV. That Twist of Fate on the chair made me think of Asuka's tweet after the brutal powerbomb to the floor where she said (paraphrasing) she was supporting herself with her neck so she didn't get hurt. It looked like Sammy did the same right there, never mind the slice upside the head.

Ryu watching the screen at an awkward angle. Bellissimo! A nice dose of levity too, amongst the creepery and all of the other shit.

Ibushi just needs some intensive training with our mate Swoggle

I enjoyed most of the show, can’t wait until Excalibur is back announcing. Jericho has always done the funky sell of the dragon screw (I remember it in his match with rookie Bryan in NXT). The other sloppiness, not so much excuse for, but I wouldn’t haul him over the coals for his occasionally bad physical performance. He does deserve it for the other stuff this week which was already well covered. I’m surprised there’s no comment on Scorpio doing the Davey Richards Special magic superplex revival pop-up in the Cody match. I agree he should (i) had a video package highlighting his achievements on Dark and then (ii) earning a steady string of 3-4 wins on Dynamite before the Cody challenge. MJF shoot-tastic comments are a turn off, there’s a way to do it in the confines of the crafted wrestling reality but some of his lines just lazily cross into Russo Wrestlecrap. He should really look at Moxley’s body of believable promos in AEW, always making sense even when alluding to his previous frustrations etc.

For as spot-on as his creative and business choices have been over the years, Jericho’s common-sense judgement leaves something to be desired if his openness to loony conspiracies isn’t a podcast gimmick, and based on this fucking idiotic concert.

Hippodroming and crookedness, through a system of humbug. Regal couldn’t have put it better himself. Also, the wall of Rocks is nightmare fuel, especially the ones with their tongues out. As is Schiavone in biker gear.

Wow, never seen the concept art before. '96 Diesel/Outsiders Nash is the reason I became a wrestling fan as a young'un, and the look was a big part of it. So playing that 'what if', I never would have discovered this great sport or you fine folks.

I was thoroughly sports-entertained by that debate, OC sounded fired up and talked the people figuratively into the building to kick the Demo God's arse. Jericho's facials were amazing as discussed, almost as good as a couple of weeks ago when he asked Santana whether he still smelled like OJ. 'Dammit!' (I couldn't get a decent picture) Cardona did a missile dropkick so automatically goes up in DVDVR Power Rankings right? I agree that Silver was the stand-out. Cody was an early highlight of AEW with consistently dramatic feuds all the way back to All In and great talking but when he's not got that major narrative hook or the crutch of the intrigue that comes with the open challenge, he goes way down to the bottom half of men and women I'm excited to see on a Thursday (Oz time and all). I'm not quite sure why Dax needed a 5-man entourage to the back but apart from that what an opening match. I really hope at 40 Brodie is able to stay healthy and wrestling at a high level, given how big he is and how he throws himself around. The straight tag was a pleasure starting off with nice gentile chain-wrestling from Chuckie T and Santana. I find it hard to get into Darby Allin's matches as I'm always half-cringing at what he's doing to himself but can respect and admire the match in a detached way (my problem, not his) but I'm always up for a good Moxley clubbering. All-around fun couple of hours.

Amen regarding taking care of your mental well-being with your choice of entertainment, especially in 2020. Leave the hate-watching and neurotic second-guessing, love loving stuff you do love. Sorry off-topic, will give my thoughts when I have a chance to watch.

I fear that Cardona will be Shawn Spears mark 2 - a bland and underwhelming ex-WWE guy who doesn't serve a purpose on the roster, especially now it's filled out more than at the start of the promotion when Spears came along. Warhorse feels like what everyone said that Orange Cassidy would be, namely a one-dimensional gimmick that plays great to an intimate indy crowd who's 'in on the joke' but loses the magic on a larger platform. There was nothing offensive to his performance but give me Kingston every day of the week compared to that. Apart from the questionable MJF promo, the talking was one of the more enjoyable parts of the show. Starks is more impressive and has more of a big-time presence than I thought he would after catching him a couple of times on Powerrr. The Colt/Brodie/paper smacking stuff was all fun too. I know Maffew has the dedicated 'inane Tazz commentary' segment on Botchamania but I have a soft spot for him on the announce desk, he and Tony have a good energy together. He's still great when he turns all-business in the middle of the ring too. I reckon Tony/Tazz/Excalibur would be a solid permanent announce desk, with the likes of Jericho and JR for the occasional big-time match. EDIT TO ADD: On Warhorse, I also don't think even with the usually giving AEW crowd in attendance it would have brought up the man or this match.

Haha looks like they started at the elbow then worked up so the Cobra and Pepsi logos on the collarbone. Clearly their arms are too short to box with God.

At the risk of descending into ratings nerd territory, AEW number 1 for male 18-49 for the night. I do think it’s relevant to the discussion, not in the ratings wars sense, but consistent and proven viewership in the right demo and the promise of big bucks for the next TV deal may be the only hope of keeping the lights on through the pandemic for the promotion that has become a favourite for many. Obviously I’m not intimate with their business plan but PPV buys and online merch sales must barely make a dent in the lost ticket and in-person merch revenue.

Not a gimmick, but apparently Ezekiel Jackson was around full-time for a solid 4 years from being TBK's enforcer in mid-2008 to when he got injured mid-2012. I do equate he and Koslov's tenure with the darkest days of WWE so that period is a bit of a blur.

I don't know what I preferred more - the truth spitting and violence of Eddie Kingston in the first match or Jake's raspy audio accompaniment to his charge's path of destruction. Jericho's stooging over his smelly jacket and look of sheer fatherly love at being reunited with his Spanish God was very entertaining too. Looks like I picked the right couple of weeks to get back on the AEW band wagon.

With Orange Cassidy's newfound power to bring forth a downpour of orange juice at will, given the enterprising folks at AEW (especially the Demogod himself), surely it's only a matter of time before OC and Jericho get on the same page, team up and we are introduced to a 'Little Bit of the Freshly Squeezed' pre-mixed mimosa? Then once Cardona debuts, he brings out the some god-awful Long Island Iced Tea, then FTR with a manly beer then Page with a bourbon. They could go from T-Shirt company to beverage company in no time. Anyway, I'm all for Miro coming in and wrecking stuff, however with the record of the previous recently-debuting physically-imposing gentlemen (Cobb, Brodie Lee, Brian Cage) I wouldn't rate his chances challenging Moxley.

Whoops how did I miss that? Sorry mate. The answer to your question is: at least one

My man ZSJ with the superior tekkers and Suzuki-gun with the superior teamwork for the win, earning the Brit’s first native gold. EVIL has a bit of an Awesome Kong vibe going with the new gear but it’s definitely an improvement and I loved the Milano interaction, the delicious super fan heartbreak. And poor lad Hiromu. Rehabs to get back to his boys and he’s the only one properly backing up Naito.

Xavier Woods bot in the hizzouse. The empty arena/COVID situation then the Speaking Out shit had me bummed about all things wrestling for a while but now watching NJPW’s interesting direction on Cup Final and Dominion and getting caught up again with AEW storylines has me hyped to watch this show. Too bad FTR / Lucha Bro’s match seems disappointing, I’ll still enjoy taking it all in.

Well he didn’t survive 2+ decades without being able to wriggle out of a hole or two. But I grant you, worst RAW ratings of all time is a pretty sizeable hole. Wasnt a 1.1 rating the running joke for TNA viewership in the mid-00s? Like no matter what they do and who they debut it will never break 1.1? Or was it 1.1m viewership? Edit to avoid double post being late to the party: I’m pretty sure Power Slam magazine in the UK introduced a section with humorous comments taken from DVDVR on their letters page sometime 2005-6ish and so I went to the source and mostly lurked since then. My memory may be deficient so perhaps another Brit can corroborate. I think it only lasted a couple of months, maybe because a DVDVR poster slagged off the lack of Lucha content in said magazine.

Surely it would be a significantly different from an expenses/structure perspective Lagana-less given he was like a Borash in TNA wearing all the hats (not least the Ten Pounds of Gold mini-docs which is what put them on the map before the studio show). Where would he even start in tiptoeing through the carny minefield? I mean, Pritchard’s not a free agent now so hope is lost in finding a five-tool player with integrity...

Reminds me of The ultimate defensive move against an agile competitor: fall over.