A_K

I had to turn it off. When the man is sitting there with a broken ankle, viciously calling Poirier's wife a "hoe" who is in his DMs, inviting her to the Wynn etc. in front of 15k people I mean yeah .. its a genuine insight into his soul. I was at MSG to see him beat Alvarez and god, how he's descended since. Maybe it was always there to this degree ("I would invade his favela on horseback"), but now it tangibly feels to have gone from scampish to depraved.

That post-fight was utterly depressing and dark -- McGregor often maintains civility/a 'charm' of sorts on the outside, but he seems to have declined into a rabid state on par with any of fighting's champions-fallen-to-excess, underpinned by a very unpleasant sheer anger. In terms of the fight, given where we know his cardio is historically at and with how comfortable Dustin seemed to be with the boxing, there was likely no coming back anyway.

Not a good showcase of O'Malley's power ..

The story they seem to going for is ex-legends ruthless wife giving new-legend a leg up; almost like a mobster’s widow getting back in the game. Unfortunately Vickie Guerrero has been framed as such a comedy act for so long it is a completely nonsensical presentation, and does nothing for Andrade. They should pair him with someone else.

Think he was a great catch to open the company given public perception of him as one of the last true-blue WWF AE faces, but yeah ultimately he is really, really old. Heenan was basically done entirely by his mid-50s; Monsoon was taken off lead duties around his mid 50s too. Ross is 70 in 6 months. They definitely need to transition away from him ASAP purely on that basis. Maybe Henry or Wight works .. whoever it is, hopefully they give a non-carny focus.

I mean, a bunch of anons indulging in herd-talk covertly implying a total stranger of being a racist misogynistic pervert based on a few vague comments is pretty high up there, but yeah, we could probably get right in the reeds and find worse if we tried, you’re right

Yup. The internet at its insidious worst.

Omega is legit. I didn’t care for his dime store presentation after the Page separation (it was v lame), but he’s evolved into a fun character. He’s also physically legit. Bit of a throwback to the Benoit/Eddie/Angle style Main Eventers - not huge but with a legit physical presence, and able to move themselves and others around the ring. Would be good to see him in a programme with a physically bigger dude (not that AEW has many of them really .. Big Show would have been (maybe would still be) an interesting short programme). The Bucks are greatly improved but they have an insurmountable issue of just looking so ... physically weak? They give up like 4 inches on even the Hardys who some would historically liken them to .. and the Hardys in their tag run would often enough look like total fodder against bigger guys as it was. So yeah, an all conquering tag tag pushes the envelope a little too much .. but this is definitely the funnest incarnation of their characters in AEW so far relatively speaking.

No - it’s perfect for him. Since he took the belt I’ve again & again & again rounded back to a Kurt Angle-like goof reign as being a good fit; a nerd & a technician, who has a streak of cowardice in some contexts but backed into the corner will fight to the death. The worst Omega is the pompous, serious-without-irony Omega. The same went for the Bucks, really. This is Ok

Actually liked the Andrade video. It’s a nice touch having the mask represented as a necklace rather than literal face mask. Pretty sharp intro package. The Miro/Uno UFC-style hype video with the super-serious start/voice over that then is revealed to be a chubby middle age neck bearded white dude in a mask before progressing to a dude in a gimp mask saying “I hope Miro doesn’t take me lightly” was, conversely, the height of buffoonery.

Momentum is def an issue. To be honest the Dynamite cards have looked so utterly boring I’ve barely been interested enough to catch the YT highlights let alone the shows themselves. The Inner Circle shouldn’t be a thing anymore either; going to be a real chore sitting through anything remotely related to that

They should have invited the option to go up against Smackdown as a barometer against how great their pull is at present

RE title reigns - I’m not for a second suggesting they put a short reign on Jack Perry (they shouldn’t), but he has the quickness / agility to pull the narrative off if it’s a quick roll up pin / capitalising on a distraction etc. Perry 5”10, Omega just over 6”0 - there’s enough equivalency there to make a bout competitive. Competitive sports frequently have out of nowhere shocks (McGregor / Aldo OPKO; Andy Ruiz beating Joshua etc); it would be absolutely fine to replicate in this environment if it’s believable.

Everything is mood & rhythm. The music, attires, characters .. all swell together to create the effect. Long reigns across all belt classes creates, by definition, monotony. Belts should not change hands simply for the sake of it, but if the narrative can provoke short title reigns in ways that make sense & create relevancy, then it is an interesting direction to take. Mankind's couple-of-weeks reign in 99; Kane's one-night reign. These were all provocative events that contributed to the electricity of the time & sense of anything-can-happen. Enough time has passed at AEW with consistent, stable reigns that they could carry a surprise here and there. Catching this show in drips & drabs. Did watch Bucks/Mox/Kingston. To be honest its one of the first really "Big Leagues" bouts I think they've really pulled off. The entrances were epic & sincere; crowd reactions were intense; closing action great. A really, really effective bout in my opinion that moved away from the "playing at epic-wrestling" I think they've been guilty of on occasions, and towards a sincerely unique experience on its own merit.

A surprise (temporary) title change on Dynamite would be a good way to go

Twinkle toes wouldn’t be twinkle toes without having had some training ?

Announced as “The Son of a Common Man”. Wow. May be the most emotionally manipulative act I’ve ever seen at a professional level. Sociopathic without a hint of irony.

Bucks should win

Good outcome. They'd be crazy not to leverage Wight for at least one title-challenge program.

To be honest I quite like the PPV Main Event. Feels like a 90s or 00s hastily thrown together, disposable-but-fun Main that'd come out of nowhere and enjoy a few week build between monthly-PPVs. They can build to the next big narrative afterwards. The Omega/Moxley run was pretty drawn out by the end so they need a breather on epic-programs. Didn't see last night; caught the Bucks on Youtube and their heel stuff does continue to amuse. Could do without that shoes silliness at the end there - bit too much vaudeville going on there. That Mox/Acclaimed segment was absolute gold - they should have put it on AEW. Absolutely smoking it.

Ouch. I'd never had reason to check but that is dire. Any intern with a vague familiarity with Squarespace should be able to whip something far greater up within a week. Scroll-bars that don't scroll & all that did grey-space as you shift down the page! The Youtube lag is also really unacceptable; content needs to be up within hours. I know they've been shooting for WCW on occasion, but that website is giving me early 00s WCW vibes and not in a good way. Whoever is leading on that media/socials aspect of the business should probably be ditched - poor.

Called the Miro swing to greatness pretty early on. To be honest there wasn't much wrong with his presentation fundamentally ever; the problem was assigning him Sabian who is very vanilla/mediocre, and having him in ring with Janela/Kiss at the very beginning. In an era where Youtubers are running up multi-million $ deals boxing Mayweather, the gamer-gimmick in of itself even was not too much of a problem gaining commercial resonance. You just take it in a very dark Mr Robot style direction, where Miro with his blonde hair & manner was reminiscent of Vera. The Butler work was very good; he's developed on a strong track since. My posts from some month back would have been considered complaining but theyve almost wholly come to fruition - amazing the impact when you start focusing on your best singles wrestlers, nail some of the natural role types for the talent instead of having sickly/disingenuous presentations (Face Bucks; a snobbish/privileged Omega that has a limousine instead of $10-an-hour shots girls waving dust-handles etc.) and way way ramp up the quality of attires (these are different level now to late 20/early21). Rhodes is the last problem left really but he's a beast unto himself ..

Rankings are a v good idea. Nice way of adding mild seriousness & legitimacy to the product without having to be so severe. A passive-elevation, as it were. They should find some more serious / presentable / article journalists to underpin it however. All feels very hammy at the moment, which is a waste. They have enough cool, young, athletic guys to really pull it off.

This is the funny part. He’d make such a good heel, as the Bucks do. They’ll yield to my recommendation eventually, most other points have been captured ?

Caster has been very, very good from day 1: I’ve said since his first appearance that Caster/Bowen’s have clear N.A.O ability to resonate as comedic duo on mic with good old school heel approach in ring. They keep it nice and simple, less emphasis on acrobatics, which works for them. I think he’s probably relaxed into the role a bit which shows. He seems very switched on; genuinely seems like an intelligent guy and he’s quite a unique talent. I don’t quite know how they transition, but at some point it would be good to see AEW cultivate an active tag-belt gauntlet whereby the titles are changing fairly frequently between a handful of teams as in early 00s WWF. They have that depth of young teams, and so far the belts have followed with quite linear feuds.