HarryArchieGus

Well said. The logic of this MJF-Wardlow storyline is absurd, but it's hard to argue with success. I'm all here for the Wizard, but not sure I'm down with the effect of flippantly fireballing. Tho, Kingston's post fireball make-up one week, none the next, also didn't do the Memphis Gold Standard any justice. Hangman floundered on the promo until nailing it with the 'doing it for AEW' talk. Game for the 'Nothing' Main. I dig Jade and I think Anna has great potential, but it's another good reason to watch the PPV on tape delay (and make some cuts) rather than burning out over the suspected 4 hours and 45 mintues! I was hoping for more of a bulldozing from Mox/King - I'll look forward to this on second view. Caprice Coleman joining in for the ROH tag title bout was a much needed breath of fresh air. FTR-Rappongi was good until the run-in-fuck-finish!? The botches, most notably between Khan/Trent, made it even less satisfying. Cobb and FTR are a nice pairing. Matt Hardy rambling on like an asshole suggests they're the heels!? A lot of big potential well loved players in the 3 way during and after the bout. The Lambert/MOTY/Sammy stuff is a bit baffling. Thunder Rosa seems like a nice lady. She's charismatic and I like her fire. She's also an inconsistent, often weak in ring performer. And an awful promo. The promos on these shows over the past couple of weeks suggests writers aren't the worst idea. It's not a great feeling watching a clearly better wrestler lose to a considerably weaker wrestler, but it was expected that the coasting DMD would move passed Toni. I want to care about Britt Baker v Statlander or Ruby Soho, but I really don't. Loved Joe-O'Reilly and looking forward to seeing how Cole-Joe plays out. I'm not without some complaints (rambling promos) this eve, but still a fine evening of pro wrestling.

I'm not very familiar with Big Damo, but he looked great until pretending he was dead on the shoulders of Spears. It felt wrong. So did a faux three count on Wardlow. Strange, kind of a babyface promo there, but it served the match well. I expect Spears will do a great job. Fun looking show as per usual. Stoked for the tag wars. O'Reilly-Joe's gonna be brutal-e-ful.

Absolutely! Great advice. I always wanna watch live, but these marathons are best viewed on tape delay with a (break) pause button and ffwd for the unnecessary bits (Inbetween sells, Jay/Jade? We'll see). All that said, it'd be great if the pacing of an AEW PPV was as good at the matches.

Eagles v Yuta was excellent. Thanks to you and everyone for posting suggested highlights.

This is incredible reconnaissance work! Much appreciated.

Knowing how good the names I know here have been, I'll be checking out those generously shared matches (of Saya Kamitani and Yuma Aoyagi) in the PREP thread. Speedball's been fantastic this year and earning his next and bigger contract. Alexander's been great. Maybe if I could go back and erase the memory of those awful dramatic angles with thespian Scott D'Amore I'd be more apt to vote for him. But then there's Hangman who, to me, edges out Alexander in ring and very much so on a microphone. Tho, not sure it's fair to compare the mic opportunities of Page, in good to great angles, to that forgettable TNA brand weak shit that the Impact team 'Writes'. All that said, impossible to choose anybody over the most consistently awesome wrestler on the planet - Tomohiro Ishii (aka 'Big Tom' - shout out to the late Larry Csonka)! JONAH needs to find his way onto one of these lists beside the blossoming Steve Maclin. Also, Deonna Purrazzo would be a fair entry to one of these lists if she were able to be matched up with comprably skilled talents. Unfortunately she hasn't been thru much of the last year.

There's a question I ask myself regularly, and it's one of the reasons I'm enjoying this Jeff Hardy run far more than I expected to: how much of the pain Jeff displays week to week is worked beautifully and how much is the real deal? Whatever the answer, I too completely believe his pain and it makes the pace, etc. of his matches all the better for it. I just hope it doesn't end in tragedy, but that's been said throughout his entire career.

I'm very satisfied with every single wrestler they've signed that once had a WWE contract. I wonder if I watched WWE programming if I'd give a shit that they were signing/giving opportunities to all these hard working and talented ppl?

Do you mean they have a lot of great wrestlers? I'll agree with that. Bring on more. There's an ROH roster to fill soon. I've only seen a handful of Gargano matches, but they were all terrific. I guess I'll have to wait and see what he does regularly to garner such loathing. Tho, can't say I'm looking forward to reading the same lame and repetitive Adam Cole-hate for Gargano in these weekly threads. Absolutely! The worst example of this was the focus on the Bucks/near miss of the Buckshot Lariat as the great Adam Page downed the great Kenny Omega at Full Gear. Just copying/pasting and agreeing to help WILL some better takes on the backstage segments.

Samoa Joe, supreme fighting machine, I've long missed you! I'm not sure how this wasn't an impressive debut for Johnny Elite, but I won't deny the sentiment of the room. Maybe it's my being (aware of but) pretty new to Hennigan's work. I thought he provided admirably for Joe's asskicking. Hoping to see him go 'Johnny Honor' when the TV is set. I'm okay with standing alone in loving that opener. I loved Hanger-Takeshita even more. Just beautiful pro wrestling! A little more love for the post-posturing dance between Punk and Hangman. Totally game for more Fuego-House of Black!!! I love the Work Horsemen, Swerve, Lee, Starks, P-p-p-powerhouse! I don't love three ways, but I'm game here. Statlander needs a promo class. Velvet needs one tone of hair color. Baddies are pure joy. MJF-Wardlow keep making lame on paper solid on camera. Loved MJF's intensity, didn't love the visual of Wardlow being pinned. I had hopes for Fenix-O'Reilly being this incredible! I don't care about strapping a belt on Rey Fenix, but he needs to wrestle and win more. Had momentary visions of him being crowned with the Owen Cup, and I really liked it. I couldn't help liking this loss tho. Beautiful finish! O'Reilly-Joe: yes, thank you! Jericho townhall was a bit overlong, but loving Y2J embracing the 'Wizard'. I loved everything Maki Itoh did out there. Her strange-style is welcomed and something I expect to flourish over time. Question going into the future is: can Toni carry Britt to a good match? I think yes. Deeb segment certainly wasn't perfect, but I liked her bad attitude here (more Bret reminiscent to me than a abdomen first turnbuckle bump). I do wish she'd laid out the Natural with a belt shot too. Man, I hated that Hardy-Darby finish. You gotta roll the Coffin drop all the way thru to the flash pin. The way it was, Jeff completely no sold his finish. Not to shit on Jeff, I'm digging beat up old man Hardy much more than I thought I would. And he and Cole really did the best they had with the limited time. Loved the early attack and match. The post attack was fun too. Stang!!! Yeah, the promos were hit and miss and overlong, but I loved this show!

Stoked for the Work Horsemen! Does Regal issue a challenge for Blood n Guts? Great looking card tonight and looking forward to the potential debuts/returns. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised by the (ugh, why are they doing another) 10 lashes segment.

Absofuckinglutely! That was an impressive Dark outing. JD Drake always does the Job well done, but it's nice to see him when he's allowed some quality offense other than his 2-3 routine moves. He and Henry are more and more impressive every time out. Excellent tandem offense. (When the TV is in place) This team needs a run at those ROH tag titles. Maybe after a fresh coat of paint? Some new matching gear? A new haircut and color for Henry? The Bears were good here too. A few more (less cute/less arduous to set-up) double team maneuvers would help. A new gimmick? New gear? All in due time I bet. (Strong show thus far)

Kingston wearing the bandage was indeed an attempt at 'keeping kayfabe alive', but when the bandage came off there wasn't even the faintest mark. I love Eddie as much as the next guy, but that was some ridiculous bullshit. As for the bout, I had nothing but fun watching Eddie and Ishii go toe to toe. No surprise.

I’m convinced I was in a bad mood after reading Dean’s review. I’m going for an encore determined to enjoy this show as much as him.

Yeah, ridiculous call. JR was a real chatterbox tonight - lots of comedy. I’m not against Dax’s turnbuckle tribute. They just need to dial back a little on the Hitman love.

Would it be unpopular to suggest the Dark Order ought to break up? Maybe I just miss Stu! Sonny Kiss would be so much more effective minus the awful splits leg drops, flippy corner bullshit and anything else that clearly doesn't look effective. But minus that there's some torque on the strikes and some strong fundamentals. And clearly some personality. Avalon has really upped his game in the last while, and been a real asset to Dark/Elevation. For a second there I thought we were going to get a hush hush youtube classic between Deppen and Silver. It was good for what it was and while it lasted, but would've loved more. Loved to see him get a shot in the new ROH. Lee/Swerve are slick as fuck and on a nice slow relaxed build. QT is fantastic. I like Commoroto like everybody else, but he does tend to get completely lost in there when things accelerate. 'I think we're gonna keep you where you are' is the smart play with Big Bad Ass Bruiser looking Nick.

I'm with you, I never saw a good enough reason to have more belts, but it's happening and I've loved more than a handful of six man tags. And I'm very much into the BCC, House, Elite and Death Triangle. No sense resisting the inevitable.

I wish JD Drake hadn't given up on the Big Bubba revival. I was under the impression that Takeshita was on an extended stay in the US? The Eddie Kingston's phone call segment with Jericho's fabulous reaction was gleefully awesome and 85-86 Slammy Award worthy! Starks was excellent there too. A great lost Memphis Wrestling segment. Did we get a 'Sports Entertainer of the week'?

C'mon TK, Willie Mack is at his worst a great gatekeeper babyface. I'm not sure we've seen his best. I'm not gonna ask to change my vote, but can I get all the Mack Lovers to help me WILL WILLIE MACK into an aew/ROH contract!?

Yes, 'fuck the stage'! Tho, I'm cool with most of AEW set-ups, it's the smaller companies with their needless 'Titan Trons' and cheap looking ephemera that need to go. There's no law that you have to try and look like Raw. The WWF MSG set-up that you mentioned is perfect, and I'm cool with the mechanical doors, but a simple curtain will do just fine.

I love seeing a Woods/Yuta Pure Title rematch listed on that recent Dark Tapings. That'll be fun. I hope if the ROH TV deal becomes a further down the road thing that they consider doing more ROH stuff on Elevation. Tully Blanchard Enterprises have now been dormat for over a month. I am also clamouring for more Dalton Castle. And I do enjoy the smooth sounds of Cruise and Riccaboni. Speculation (some Dark Spoilers)

I'm sorta down with... Thankfully, I don't see them suddenly taking on 'heel/face refs' nor the kinda confusing Captain/Non-Captain pinning rules. 2/3 falls would be fine, but those other lucha rules, even 2/3 falls, can often be potential momentum killers.

Precision. I only saw the first 40. The Brian Myers bump was worthy of more than a quick replay and no-stopping-move to the next segment. That kinda bump should render an opponent dead. It should have been sold like a much bigger deal than it was. The Grace-Morrissey double powerbomb-boot was fantastic. Cardona and Green obviously rule. A guy who can bump and sell like Myers is a huge asset to any company. Romero-Austin was very good as expected. Hilarious seeing Trey Miguel talk to the hardcam while the guy he's supposed to be warning is behind him. TNA! TNA! TNA! Masha seems to have that IT that Helmsley used to like to bandy about. Up next superstars Jay and Bey. Nice to at least get a Mack promo before the inevitable loss. Mack has endless potential with the right bookerman. Hannifan is spectacular. Wrestling fans have waded thru a lot of unsuitable and unfunny to decent commentators for a slick sonofabitch like Tom. Rehwoldt is good too

I love the love for Willie Mack. His terrific skillset and lack of a push makes him easily one of the most underutilized guys in any promotion. Impact doesn't always access their talent very wisely nor put them in potentially progressive situations - Mack is the epitome of this. He probably needs to breakaway from Impact to progress, but it's hard to imagine him in AEW as anything more than a Dark gatekeeper ala Cabana. Part of the issue with Mack is his weak presentation. He looks a lot better coming down to the ring in his sporty entrance gear than the belly over the wasteband traditional tights look he gets down to business in. Anyway, I love Mack and would totally draft him to my fantasy league promotion. Bey probably has the most upside of the men listed. His star will shine bright in the not-so-distant future. Maclin has been a treat in Impact, and I too would like to see him climb the ladder. I never saw him in WWE, but as a solo act he's been somebody I seek out when skimming the Impact 'brand'. I would love the task of retooling the Eddie Edwards presentation. First thing, lose the bad mohawk. It's a look that only fits where it fits. Let's get some new gear all around - the short long pant ala Taka doesn't work. Especially not in pleather with fake back pockets. Just awful. Presentation shortcomings aside, I'm completely sold on older Eddie in ring. He's so good, and he's showcased a lot more purpose in his current heel role. I like his lady too, and don't understand why they don't let her valet for him as a heel. She's so naturally a heel with that accent and promo style. A missed opportunity. I'm not sure who to vote for, but I'm in favour of the voters going for Women's talent. Clearly AEW could use all the talented ladies they can possibly find right now. I too haven't seen a lot of Grace due to having no interest in intergender feuds, which she seems to be placed in a lot. What I have seen I've liked tho. Seems like golden potential. I too dig Slamovich, but she seems like more of a project. Impact seems like a good place for her to get seasoned in this early stage of her career. Okay, Grace it is.

Some huge questions you raise. I've been thinking about this since he started on his killing spree. Going forth, seems like running thru a faction to get to its leader would be a bit too much like this MJF feud. I do like consulting your Andre/MSG/80s suggestion. What would Bill Watts do (minus the Patriotism)? Or what could we learn from the example of Taz being booked in ECW? Can we find a Bam Bam Bigelow? I'd be happy with JONAH. I guess that'd be another sorta example of running thru a faction. I like @JLowe's suggestion of a confrontation with Joe, but I don't see Wardy splintering off into their forthcoming new ROH. Anyway, great questions. I suspect MJF heels on the Long Island crowd, but we shall see.