Fighting a man with a perm

Couple of things I enjoyed in the Lexicon of Le Champion: Allen Jones (shoutout to the short lived Y2AJ team) and Jericho stopping on Marty. We see what you did there! AEW have been doing a good job of almost randomly elevating people at different times, they’ve now paired Darby, Scorpio Sky and now Jungle Boy with Y2J. With each one, I know Jericho is retaining, but there is that slight feeling of “anyone can have an off night” or “anyone can have the night of their life”. That feeling comes from some of the results so far - Darby v Cody, private party v Bucks, even Best Friends v Lucha Bro’s. Speaking of the Lucha Bro’s, thought there were some nice moments in the Trent - Fenix match. Some really slick counters, especially in the opening changes. Love how Rey uses the ropes in such inventive ways, the through-the-ropes sweep of Trent’s legs was a highlight. Can see the point about some sameyness with dark order/nightmare collective and also with Kong/Nyla. Happy to see where it goes on all those fronts, even though I’m not sold on Nyla (worried she’s gonna hurt someone soon like she almost hurt Nakazawa). Not sure how to post links etc, but it’s weird that AEW posted a video to twitter of MJF saying he paid for butcher/blade/bunny. Surely that should have aired during the show?

A bit of an “unstructured” show compared to some previous episodes. Still plenty to enjoy though. I like that Best Friends are getting a bit of a push, I think they have a charm to them that could really blow up. Not sure about OC in the turkey costume though. Dressing him up seems like way too much effort for his character. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Rey Fenix has swagger. Can’t think of a better word to describe it. The celebration had some good lines but could have been a bit shorter. Not a fan of bringing animals into that environment. Yeah, the SCU run-in fell flat, if they were right there, why wait so long to get involved? I do like me some Bea Priestley! She’s got something about her in how she carries herself. More Bea please! i think the commentary booth missed Tony this week, felt JR and Excalibur had to full too much time themselves and that led to some sloppiness. Did love Excalibur’s, “taint misbehaving” line though. Butcher and Blade have a great look, and I’m intrigued to see where they go with Cody. One of my favourite things in AEW is the fluidity of the stories. Acts don’t exist in single-rivalry bubbles and it feels bigger as a result - like a computer game with loads of side quests and interesting NPCs. I’m still convinced Dark Order will recruit Peter Avalon. Another nice vignette.

I loves that vignette too - looked great. Can see Peter Avalon joining Dark Order with how excalibur talked up the order targeting those on losing streaks and BTE kinda hinting at him growing tired of the gimmick.

About halfway through the show, I’ll watch the rest this evening. I wasn’t super aware of Rey Fenix prior to AEW, but along with his in-ring ability he has some serious swagger! He comes across as actually cool. Fun match between he and Nick Jackson. The blood helped make the Shida-Baker seem more intense. Shias is great in-ring but I’m struggling to understand her character and even her alignment. She’s full of smiles and plays to the crowd but is quite vicious and heelish in other ways. Battle Royale was fun, my highlights: Everything OC, especially him sliding around using the ring ropes. Jungle boy grooming OC from outside the ring. Wardlow looking like a jacked Marty Scurll. Jungle boy climbing the outside of the ring post. MJF’s shit-eating grin and Billy Gunn’s anger at missing out on fun with Sonny Kiss and then OC.

The “athleticism” trope is one I’m more aware of from soccer and how (normally older) commentators/pundits refer to players. Maybe it’s not an American/wrestling thing as much (I’m Irish). I think my basic issue is how JR seems to take a very shallow look at people and whatever is most obvious to him physically will colour how he describes them (rather than their character). PAC = British, must be like other Brits. But PAC’s Britishness isn’t really part of his character. Hope I’m making sense.

I also get a bit of a “real rocknrolla” Prince Devitt vibe from Sammy. His face being a cross between Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber just adds to the hateable. The thing I’m digging most on these shows is how much the performers seem to be enjoying themselves. It’s infectious. Jericho looks like he’s loving every minute, and he should. He’s doing incredible work. JR (while more enthused) still bothers me. Between constantly comparing PAC to the only 2 British wrestlers he can think of, always referring to the “athleticism” of Scorpio Sky and the discomfort you could feel from Excalibur and Schiavone when he referred to Danni Jordan as looking like a power lifter. He just seems like a dude out of time. Schiavone on the other hand has a way of acknowledging he’s from a different era but being open to new ideas. Really looking forward to Darby/Mox next week. Love me some plucky underdog Darby!

Long time lurker, first time poster! Having already subscribed to FITE to watch Dynamite weekly, I bit the bullet and ordered my first ever wrestling PPV in Full Gear. Have watched all bar the Mox-Omega match and feel I got great value for money at €23. Without repeating what’s been said in the previous pages, the one small thing I noticed that bugged me was during the Spears-Joey match. How often was Earl Hebner out of position?? At least twice Joey had to shoo him away. I don’t normally notice the ref but this was glaring.