Fighting a man with a perm

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.

I heard, "heel tunnel, Don" On the Pinnacle coronation, I groaned when I saw them being flanked by 5 women, especially when Tully had a line about how the Pinnacle get all the best things, including these women, icky! But something I noticed (and this is probably confirmation bias) but during the promo when the 5 women were chatting in the background, Shawn Spears (the dick!) seemed to turn around and shush them. Then 30 seconds later (lovely!) Wardlow, turned around and seemed to be engaging in the chats with the women like an actual human being, ignoring the promo, even missing his cue for the watches. In summary, boo Shawn Spears, Yay Wardlow!

On the Cody promo (which really was garbage), I (as an Irishman) found it really hard to get on board with the "America, Fuck Yeah" sentiment when one of his examples of how great America is, is that within the lifetime of 2/3s of their commentary booth there was racial segregation in the country, and "haven't we come so far now". I dunno, just hit all the wrong notes and seemed tone deaf to me. Anyway, even though it seemed to knock OC loopy, I loved the snap in the liger bomb from Pac. That and Darby's tope where he bounced off Miro were my 2 favourite moves of the night. I kinda love the way AEW builds to their PPVs longform but only announces actual matches 2/3 weeks out. Keeps ya guessing, which I enjoy. Kudos to the person who pointed out how incongruous the flute solo in Wild Thing is, I was laughing hard when that hit.

Yeah, the opening result was the right kind of surprise booking. Both look good coming out of it, even though Page never got going. Loved one bit of Taz commentary when Page went up for the Moonsault, "big mistake! Big mistake!" page hits it beautifully, "awww, not a mistake" ? Alex Abrahantes is so so good as the hyper little nerd and really adds something to Penta's presentation. Interesting to see Penta break out some power moves, liked it! Where's Chucky T?? I was laughing out loud this morning at Matt Jackson's expression after the dick punch! So good! There's something so satisfying about remorseless low blows. Apologies that I can't remember who, but someone here compared Miro to the ruthless mob boss who hangs out at raves and that is such a perfect description. The way he kept calling Kip "mate" as he destroyed him was *chef's kiss*

Tis also a staple of Irish weddings - who doesn't love the opportunity to shout "fuck" at the top of your voice while in the company of your parents, grandparents, parish priest etc

Well I'm feeling very smug this morning ? Much like Wandavision, I found myself a little disappointed at the lack of very obvious links to future films/serues. Sure, there's some little hints and teases, but nothing as obvious as a hammer appearing in the desert at the end of Iron Man. But that's just me, and hasn't ruined my enjoyment of the series. I dug the switch to "Captain America and the Winter Soldier" at the end of the credits. Wyatt Russell brought it again this episode, but also impressed by how well handled Sam's talk to the Senators was, they didn't whitewash or go too happyclappy which was nice. Roll on Loki now ?

Glad to see more people join me on the Sharon Power Broker Train (y'know, the old SPBT). I'm not nearly up on my comics enough to know who the Contessa character was, I was just thinking that members of this board would be excited about the Seinfeld connection. Seems they could go a few directions with her, good stuff! Is it just happy coincidence that Sam Wilson is called Sam so that his nephews can constantly refer to him as Uncle Sam as he's umming and aahing over whether to become Captain America?

Hell of an episode with no filler. This is moving along at a right pace now. Zemo stealing scenes left right and centre, delighted for Daniel Bruhl! I have a soft spot for him since Goodbye Lenin. Walker growing out the stubble to reflect his disintegrating mental state was done nice foreshadowing. The Dora Milijae did a real number on him! Was shocked to see Buckys arm just fall off, was wondering if he'd be able to reattach it. I'm sticking to my Sharon is Power Broker theory, no matter how wrong I am ?

Dunno if any of you have seen Hardy Bucks (mockumentary set in a rural Irish town) but Zemo was giving me real Viper vibes in that scene, "fierce reptilian in his movement", so I just couldn't stop laughing, imagining him as the primary hash dealer between Castletown and Enniscrone ? Was getting some red flags from Sharon in this episode, any chance she's the power broker?? I know they like to switch things up in the MCU.