HarryArchieGus

Adam Cole is a fantastic commentator. His mic work in general is so good and totally overlooked by the exasperated club of hating death val posters.

What a fantastic debut for Athena! Nice shining moment for Kiera as well. Tho brief, this is the second underwhelming Stokely promo for a guy said to be 'great on the stick'. Would've prefered to hear Kiera's beautiful shittalk. Loved Jade's anxiety post-match. Loved Bucks-Luchaz. Condolences to those with no capacity for enjoyment of such a beautiful aerial assault. Punk's out, oh well. Due to the presumed abundance of overbooking/interference, I was never a booster for an MJF title run, but I find myself wondering if it's not the best route. Not a fan at all of a worked over Battle Royal winner fighting Moxley on the same night. The bye seems silly. Scorpio-Dante was good. Tho not as worth the derision of ppl getting booed and working babyface, Scorpio feels out of place as a heel. I wanna buy him as a hard ass, but he just seems far too happy-go-lucky. He also feels better suited for tag wrestling. His matches are solid enough that I won't register that as a complaint, but it feels like there are so many better choices/more interesting upward mobile characters on this roster that could benefit from a TNT title run. Dear AEW, can Ethan Page wrestle a little more?

How does the price of the (2 hours of) Dark and (an hour of Live) Rampage compare to say a Dynamite/Rampage combo?

Matt Hardy made some alarming comments on his pod concerning Jeff being KO'd early in the PPV match that perhaps raises some discussion concerning concussion protocol... Maybe having him do a Swanton onto the stairs isn't such a good idea in that state?

Oh man, a few pages back there was some conversation about the new ROH doing smaller theatre style venues. Somebody mentioned the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Here's hoping!

Criticism of obvious wrestling style 'high flying' compared to his less flashy 'slow methodical' style doesn't seem so business exposing to me. The only portion of that interview that is 'cause for concern' was the head drops, but again feels easily read as I don't lack sportsmanship like some of my peers who think it's cool to injure their opponents. There was clearly detailed care and an intention for this to not read as written by (knee jerk) Vince Russo. I'd be with the shooty-haters if this hadn't been so beautifully crafted and delivered.

I like David Finlay. He's very good as expected, but he badly requires some reasonably decent ring gear. This feels like a JR touchstone. God bless anybody that can orchestrate a whole thread of JR quotes. I mean, let's really enjoy Jim's work. I await things getting right and just in the pecking order of this Women's division. I know very little of Athena, but I certainly trust your opinion. I already dig Kiera Hogan. Very much looking forward to Rampage.

I 'like' that. Too many details working perfectly to cut it down for the slow mic cut. But, of course, a certain taste from certain ppl will feature terrific reasons why that wasn't a fantastic piece of work.

Great show. MJef was expected to have a 'shooty' promo and ppl were ready to hate it. When you hit every note and take a crowd out of their seats like that it's hard to argue that it's not great pro wrestling television.

Best Friends?

I just saw it mentioned that MJF is paid less than goddamn Mark Henry!? Curious who else is above young Friedman's pay level? I read Danielson, Punk, Cole and Malakai Black. EDIT: maybe Bischoff should try out 'Mark Henry is the biggest financial flop In Wrestling history'. Just for the sake of Tony's amusing defense of said choice in a post scrum.

Well here ya go. Just for the record, I'd gladly take FNM 'War Pigs' over whatever muthafuckin Ruckus they're likely to bring.

I love the idea of Hayter getting a run at Rosa, but it's hard to imagine her defeating the much inferior Thund-y. It just seems a bit silly with all the greenhorns and less than stellar competitors to have her dwindling in the mid-card. She should be on top killing everybody waiting upon another Storm.

I prefer the black magic and unstoppable force of the original. It feels otherworldly to me. I also much prefer the more subtle less busy/flashy groove Bill Ward brings. It's not even a question mark on this end, Black Sabbath 1970-1975 are one of the greatest bands of all time. I have no flavour for Mike Patton's overly gimmicky vocals nor rap/rock predecessors Faith No More. Solo Ozzy post-Blizzard is not much in line with my tastes either, so not really surprised he'd be down with it. I mean the guy is a muppet vegetable cartoon (tho likable) character not a tastemaker. Ozzy's preference is no fuel to this conversation. Again, to each their own. I prefer the Troggs 'Wild Thing' too.

How long is this company going to drag their feet on pushing Jamie Hayter?

Great idea that I assume a few of us had kicking around under the hat when they started talking 'Pig'. That said, to each their own, but I'll take the original...

Curious what Big Dave did?

I think you're right, but tact isn't always Excalibur's strong suit. Too often his storytelling comes off like he's trying to convince children. I long for the day that we either get a foreign language feed option or even better no commentary option.

Ha, yeah, I agree Dave showed some awful shortcomings as a fantasy booker, but I don't see any issue with that or the 'emergency pod'. It was a breaking story that was clearly exciting posters here (see 'HOT'). Dave's 'Pillman' comments and updating on his arrival, if he knew what was up, played into the angle - so? I don't really see why either comment/tweet were serving any sort of injustice. To each their own, I find Dave to be an excellent historian and analyst. I don't read the Observer so maybe you have more insight into his modern day writing. He's not an orator or great broadcaster, but I nonetheless find the observer radio AEW post shows interesting/enjoyable to listen to. I don't share the same view of what's good and great and bad as Dave, but feel no reason to bury him for it. He's got his reasons and it's all pretty subjective, no? The job requires sources that could potentially mislead - not unlike a telephone game. Which is not so much problematic as it is lightly dubious, but nothing to get upset about. Dave's the definition of an incredible mega nerd, but that certainly doesn't mean he isn't without his charm. Again, to each their own.

What would you think about willing in a rematch of the excellent Dark battle between the Work Horsemen v Bear Country? I'd like to see some of these better Dark bouts get a bigger stage rematch, and that one seems like a great place to start. I wouldn't be too upset if they quickly opened up another chapter in the House of Black-Death Triangle feud. There's far too many exciting singles and tags to just move on. I like Buddy and Pac. I also like Buddy and Fenix. And I think I'd like to have a look at Brody/Malakai v the Lucha Bros. And yes, let's all get behind WILLING INTO EXISTENCE TAKESHITA HAVING A MATCH AGAINST ANYBODY! I wonder what a Takeshita-Dustin Rhodes match might look like? Or dare I say a bout with Sammy? I can't see anybody having issue with him battling Scorpio for the TNT title. Maybe even winning? No better time for an 'upset' victory. But I don't want to get greedy here - a match will do just fine.

What's the NJPW schedule looking like - is it safe to assume we're getting more than Big Hikuleo from the New Japan side? It's not far out from this epic international clash.

I just revisited the reference source, and now I wanna see some nose-y 'Jake Gittes' type take a similar outer nasal slash.

When I first saw Eddie Kingston in the early aughts I thought he looked like a goof, but he clearly had great heel charisma. I just thought he'd fizzle out with injuries like all those other CZW dudes. I didn't follow the years between then and AEW, but from his first night in I was made aware of his talents like anybody else that didn't know. That said, I still didn't realize what a special talent he was/is. Pulling a great match out of Chris Jericho is shiny proof. That a guy like Kingston with his limited athletic ability can be credibly identified as one of the best on this incredible roster is a testament to what a great wrestling mind/talent he is.

Love the Honky Tonk Man comparison. Tho, he was the 'Greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time'. I like Friedman fine, but Main Eventing on these shows should be an exclamation point. MJef with the title seems like it would need to feature a lot of interference and overbooking. Wherever he goes from here I hope they put a moratorium on his character somehow booking all his feuds and running them like story mode in an N64 wrestling game. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the propagation of flight info and much of the weekend's MJF 'hysteria' was from that Sean Sapp dude. Dave spoke pretty cautiously about things on any of the shows I heard. Whatever Meltzer-hate-strange-jealousy ppl have his AEW news is pretty clearly tapping the correct sources.

Tough luck for us all, JR just signed a new deal. Is Jim Ross' 'sustained push' AEW's version of WWE's Reigns or babyface Cena down the throat push/shove? Maybe not, the crowd's big applause at the live events for Jim's entrance is still fairly hot. Tho, could be more because it's an indication the big show is starting. That's probably part of the execuse (see metrics) that TK uses to justify his presence. Jim got a lot of goodwill coming out of his cancer treatment battles, but preserving that while continously stepping/stomping all over the matches won't last. The longer PPVs, if not the regular TV, always exposes how out of touch and delusional he's become. Tho, 4 hours plus consistently makes me want to eliminate Schiavone too. As good as the wrestling is in AEW, presentation and production elements are not something TK has proven to be terribly discerning about. Hence the inanity of JR and Tony over 4 hours on a PPV-also, 'total bonehead style'. Please AEW, at the very least split the PPV broadcast into two teams. Clearly to anybody listening, JR and Tony get tired and fucking stupid (see worse) as the show goes on. Note, I love Schiavone as the interviewer. Caprice Coleman is a perfect fit, but he's earmarked for the new ROH. Maybe if anybody there is listening and are seeing what his enthusiasm brings they'll mercifully try out some new talent. In a right and just world, 'Tom Hannifan is All Elite' when the time arrives.