Fighting a man with a perm

Was I the only one distracted by JDS looking like he was hanging by the pool in his gear? Every time I saw his boots I could only see blue flip flops worn over white sports socks like a German holidaymaker or something.

Ditto for arse. Heard JR drop an "arse" instead of ass on Dynamite this week and couldn't help but smile.

My absolute favourite band of the last 10 years, love them dearly! My username is a riff on one of their songs. Saw Zack come out to Mother in Rev Pro (I think, certainly a UK indie) and the place came unglued as he went absolutely bonkers kicking the ropes and corners along to it. With a fan base like AEW that loves a sing along, I want this to happen so much! PS, how is that Metallica covers project? I've only heard the Idles one so far.

I'd sign him and pay all the money to IDLES so that he can come out to "Mother". Give me all the promos about the calibre of vegan food in a given city and how he is fuelled by tofu and a hatred of the British Conservative party as he goes full bendy boi against Angelico and Garcia and Danielson.

Well that was wonderful! The only downside was that I had to get up at 5:30 to watch it (on replay) before work. Looking forward to Ful Gear being a Sunday morning treat with a Full Irish Breakfast! Ooof! Miro's chest! Hell of match to kick it off, leaves it open for a second round too which I'm well up for. I'm not well versed in Japanese wrestling, but the crowd certainly made Suzuki seem a massive deal. Statlander is a beast in the best possible way. Loved the OC fire. Britt has improved so much in 2 years. Tony calling Callis a piece of shit, then Ex apologising on his behalf and then Tony doubling down was delightful! That match slapped so hard! Kudos to Brandon on the throw, the crowd would have eaten him alive if that went wrong. Punk match was more a moment than a great match, but what a moment it was! I'm maybe of the minority that would have preferred Darby to win (purely down to always wanting the young up and comer to triumph over the vet) but Darby still looks a star anyway, so all good! Skipped Jericho and QT matches to watch later with the 10 man from the pre-show. Woof! That ending! I'm still smiling and just disappointed there was only 23 pages in this thread. I want more! All the opinions, all the content, all the predictions and fantasy booking!

Welcome to the Cutler Cult! He has consistently gotten genuine laughter from me for weeks now without detracting from the main action. I can't believe how much better he is in this role (and I liked his feud with Avalon but this is so much better). Was worried that we were gonna start the show with an in-ring promo which AEW has avoided so far so was happy to see that subverted. Fair play to 2.0 taking their shot and running with it. I get the nostalgia of Sting wrestling on TNT but if they are priming us for Darby v Punk, why not have him seal the win rather than the old dude?? Having said that, they seemed to be steering towards Mox being Punks first interaction, what with him in the main event Friday as well as his promo at the end. Nothing is very obvious at the moment and I'm loving it.

I now want a Jason Mantzoukas Howard the Duck Disney+ series thank you very much

I liked Kenny's Mr Burns line as Christian and JX were leaving "were you singing woahh oh oh oh oh or nooo no no noo?". His deranged heel shtick is great. I had a feeling MJF would ban the Judas Effect so that when he loses to a surreptitious Judas Effect he can still call himself undefeated as he did after losing to Mox. They continue to plant seeds of Max pushing Wardlow too far with his line about losing to Cody (lovely call back) and this is one of the best long term stories they have going. Please please no more of the "oh the adversity I have faced!!!" promos between FTR and PnP, just tell me why they hate each other instead. There has to come a point where someone, anyone doesn't look terrified of 60 year old Sting, doesn't there? That Andrade Chavo promo was messy, Chavo cutting across Andrade all the time followed by Andrade, "I'm the boss", line but then Chavo ignores that looking forward to him against PAC though, should be a hell of a match. Maybe AEW aren't a PVP focused company, because the build to All Out is overshadowed by TV shows, which might make sense if the TNT contract is good enough. Good for me because I enjoy my 2 (soon to be 3)hours of AEW on the Fite app.

What has happened to the paradigm shift? It seems to have just become a throw nowadays. It doesn't look particularly hurty or impactful anymore. Cutler continues to rule as my favourite stooge, cutting across Kenny to tell everyone he cheats now and likes it, looking for any opportunity to spray Hangman or Kazarian with the cold spray, good stuff. Not a fan of another series of overly serious FTR/Santana & Ortiz promos. Please don't talk about your mothers or kids again. Just wrestle with hatred.

Absolutely loved the Dark Order entrance, had me feeling like the room was very dusty in all the friendship talk. I am so, so invested in that group. Felt really deflated when Hangman lost. Like, actually heartbroken. Then when Darby was mentioning "Best in the World" my 7am brain had me thinking he was going after Kenny, which while I'd love that feud, made me think they were completely cooling on the Hangman. I'm struggling to see how they get back to Page but I'm here for the journey. Brandon Cutler is so, so good in his role. Even the way he moves is perfect and the cold spray is such a great prop. He's grown on me so much and BTE has played a huge role in that. Similarly, was so happy to see Fuego on TV in his Nightmare Family jacket. All these goofy little touches are what I love about AEW.

Yeah, that segment was just poor. Chavo is boredom incarnate to me and he's coming out acting all face-y, but then Andrade is trying to be super manipulative and in the middle of it all Chavo actually drops a decent burn on PAC but immediately backtracks because he's enjoyed getting a pop?? Not super familiar with Andrade's work but he has serious charisma and carries himself like a star, why continue to hitch him to lame ducks like Vickie and Chavo???

As a long time of lover of Ortiz's tendency towards tiger style and pointing at his big brain, I'd be down for (if I wasn't) Proud & (then I wouldn't be) Powerful taking the belts off the Bucks. I see what others have said about Santana and star factor. Do ye think that maybe the lockdown (and inability to get to a barber) may have helped? He was a bit generic looking with the short hair, but now (especially when rocking his leather jacket, not the biker style one) he has the look of one of the detectives backing up Denzel in Training Day and it's a great look.

Another example of Rick Knox missing the most obvious cheating

Whole lotta focus on that Jefferson High School pen in the scene between Ravonna and Mobius. Any ideas if that references anything else in the marvel universe? Without being too familiar, had someone mentioned that in the comics there are multiple (infinite) versions of Mobius working in the TVA? Could another Mobius be the "agent you keep hidden from me" Mobius asked Ravonna about? Enjoying this show so far, some lovely back and forth dialogue, Owen Wilson is on his best Wes Anderson form, and now Amy from Flowers as (maybe) Lady Loki. Lovely hurling!

I'd completely missed Chris in my rundown of Irish MCU interactions and was wondering how the hell I managed that. Then I saw he was in Thor: The Dark World and it all made sense.

Why do I suddenly feel bad for Chuck Taylor?

On the Finn Balor WM entrance, I listen to the Wrestle Me podcast (it's very good by the way, 2 British DJs working their way through every wrestle mania) and when they came to that they raised the point that Finn is by all accounts a straight guy (certainly seems to be an ally, but doesn't seem to identify as LGBT) and whether it was appropriate that he be the first to really make that kind of statement on the Grandest Stage of Them All. I know they raised Darren Young and how underutilised he was at this time. Be interested to know what the take on it from the LGBT community was at the time, and how its viewed now.

Some auditory highlights for me: Don Callis's, "Shit! Shit!" as OC hit the orange punch on Kenny really made me think that could be it. Isaiah Kassidy's scream as Hobbs spinebustered his soul from his body (side note, private party look infinitely better in this gear!) Couple of other things that stood out to me: Hate animals being involved in entertainment full stop, so was unhappy seeing Jake come out with the bag. Figured once Miro yeeted it, that it wasn't a snake and was happier again. Some great organic pops tonight for those not necessarily considered big stars, particularly Evil Uno and Max Caster in the BR. Acclaimed face turn seems inevitable, but not sure how well that translates (see Cena, John). Was expecting Christian Cage to win it, and was a bit "meh" about the idea, so delighted to see Jungle Boy get the win, and got a bit emosh when Marko came running to him as he celebrated. My girlfriend (contemporary ballet dancer) walked in during Stadium Stampede and in the Sammy/Spears spotlight in the ring of chairs segment, she commented that it was not too dissimilar in movement from the "fight" scenes in the contemporary version of West Side Story we saw on Broadway just before the pandemic hit. Not a bad shout. She has some interesting observations about wrestling from a movement perspective sometimes, like she thinks Kenny Omega has had dance training based on his movement.

I've got two: Praises a racist (or two) from 50/60 years ago as the best examples of people who've used moves. Compares all Mexican wrestlers to Eddie Guerrero/compares all British wrestlers to the Dynamite Kid.

One makes good whiskey, has lots of redheads and is known for getting a bit flighty, the other, eh.....

To paraphrase my girlfriend, "please stop telling me about how many of the cast appeared in Skins, I don't give a fuck, I'm trying to watch this period drama in peace" Hoo boy, just thinking about how many accents he could cram into one of those characters.

Looking forward to Barry Keoghan becoming the first Irish non-CGI or voice MCU actor in Eternals (Kerry Condron voiced Friday and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor voiced/played Ebony Maw). Keoghan's an actor I've a real soft spot for, he's from a really rough part of Dublin and had a rough childhood, so he's not the usual kid with connections who normally hog all the Irish roles (looking at you Domhnall Gleeson!). Plus, he looks like every kid who's ever stopped me outside the off licence asking me to buy them a naggin of vodka. G'wan Barry!

It's one thing I dislike about their presentation. I may be in the minority, but as someone who has struggled with gambling problems (1 year clean in 18 days ) I'm a lot more perceptive of the insidious nature of gambling advertising. Soccer is incredibly bad on that front, approx. two thirds of Premier league clubs have betting companies as shirt sponsors. I know gambling is a different proposition in the states to here (my hometown of 4k people has 4 bookmakers on the main street), but for a company that has shown itself to be progressive in some ways (LGBT+ presentation, facilities for those with sensory issues etc) I find if a bit disappointing.

"vile thing! You make my butt sting! I detest you" Max Caster's Tegan & Sara t-shirt was a low key highlight this week. Wrestlers wearing non-wrestling t-shirts is always a good look! Ortiz bringing the innovative mic handling. I need much more Ortiz on my screen, I miss seeing him wrestle, breaking out tiger style back rakes and pointing to his noggin. Where do I get one of those Hangman floral shirts? I think I could just about make that work in Dublin. This has somehow become a minor fashion watch post.