Bryan

I understand Meltzer’s track record but if it was done for storyline purposes, you would think the announcers would have made clear he wasn’t there or they would have done a quick segment showing him arriving late. Punk called the baby face former champ a coward in his hometown and he did nothing. If it was done for storyline purposes, it’s weird booking by Tony Khan.

I’d personally prefer the blatantly transparent thigh slaps go. They’re on national television, not their buddies back yard. They should act like it and learn to wrestle in a way that doesn’t completely expose what they’re doing. Anyway, Meltzer said the Hangman stuff from CM Punk was Punk going into business for himself. If that’s true that’s really messed up. I don’t remember anything seeming to go too far in Hangman’s promo, it was kind of standard stuff you’d expect.

No way should Wheeler win against Jericho and get a title shot he’s not going to win (in a rematch from a match that happened like 2 months ago). It’s been done too often and too recently and not even Wheeler’s mom would believe they were going to make him the interim champion. IMO, you keep it simple and have him get the upper hand early on and then Jericho cheats to get the advantage and then goes too far “injuring” Moxley’s protege thus adding some more heat to the title match. And you have Wheeler set up to get revenge on Jericho somewhere down the road.

Tony Khan should consider trying to sign him away. I think they could potentially make a legitimate star out of him.

It’s been pretty underwhelming and he’s often not felt like the most important part of the show despite being the champion.

I voted for Deonna but I don’t believe there can ever be enough big men in wrestling, they are a big part of the novelty of pro wrestling, imo.

My guys: Danielson, FTR, MJF, The Acclaimed, Wardlow, Thunder Rosa, TayJay, Team Taz, The Butcher, The Blade, and the Bunny Not my guys: Young Bucks, Adam Cole, everyone in the dark order (except Anna Jay), the Best Friends

This was perfectly said, thank you! Based on BTE, I guess he got internet famous for falling off a building into a dump truck or something and amused the Young Bucks with his goofy promos but I was baffled by the signing. His physique was embarrassingly bad for a wrestler presented on tv and he literally looked like a child next to Moxley. And he was awful at wrestling. The last time I saw him wrestle he busted open Hangman and nearly dropped him on his head trying to a suplex he clearly didn’t have the strength to do. If AEW did cut people he 100% should have been cut after that match. Anyway, it’s good that he has a following on the indies hopefully he doesn’t hurt anyone and hopefully I never have to see him on tv again.

They killed the Pinnacle when the Inner Circle got all of their heat back immediately when they returned after the beat down, and Jericho put MJF’s head in a toilet.

It was the AJ and Jericho team. And according to Jericho he had them printed just to swerve everyone about when the heel turn was happening (they’re obviously not going to do the turn tonight if they printed t-shirts). Anyway, Jericho is much better as a heel and I think him having lackeys like 2.0 should hopefully make his segments more entertaining. The face stuff with him was honestly getting a little rough for me.

I’m pretty sure it was his first promo in front of a live tv crowd, and he kind of sounded like a guy imitating other people he’d heard cutting promos. But I think he’ll get better and “find his voice” with more experience.

Yeah, Cody was still drawing numbers, I’m pretty sure his ladder match with Sammy drew better ratings than Sammy and Darby. If the EVP title had become largely superfluous as Tony Khan took more control, I could see how money could become an issue. Cody was the top baby face in the beginning, his open challenge was one of the best parts of the pandemic era, and that got a lot of popular guys hired, and just a few months ago he literally set up himself on fire. If the reports of him wanting Jericho/Punk money were true, I could see how he could feel slighted for not getting it. Considering he was there in the beginning and a part of the reason guys like CM Punk (who Tony Khan approached in the beginning but who was unwilling to join a start up) were willing to sign, I could see how that could sting him and lead to this.

How many of those wrestlers are 38 years old though?

I don’t think he’s big or athletic enough to fit in with their new post HHH direction.

Is there actually a prototypical dad bod? I thought a dad bod just indicated you’d stopped caring about your physique, presumably because you’re tired from dealing with kids. A comparison photo going around comparing him to a Trenned up Enzo kind of makes it look he’s given up on the gym. I could see someone with that physique being a dad. Making a sign about it is pretty weird though.

This is pretty surprising:

Wheeler Yuta was a disappointing replacement. He’s the Best Friends job guy that was just squashed by him a couple of months ago. I would have much preferred a fresher matchup. The Danielson promo was intriguing and an interesting approach. I liked the tag match. I don’t understand why Brandi Rhodes and Dan Lambert are having a contest to see who can be more detested. But I’ll be happy if Paige VanZant is going to do something significant in the ring. I’m not sure what we did to anger Tony Khan that he felt the need to put Nyla Rose vs Ruby Soho out there but that was not a good match and it went on way too long. The main event was really good but the referee restarting the match after he found evidence of cheating was a little weird and kind of stupid since AEW referees usually allow blatant cheating. And in fact did just that later in the match. But still overall really good match.

It’s not because he has wealth and power, it’s because he started and owns the company. If it was important for Rush to stand up for a pretty terrible wrestler that was dishonestly burying the company he worked for to make herself look better (after they’d allowed her to save face in the initial release) more power to him. But all of the talent there should be aware that there is way more available talent than spots in AEW, so if you don’t deliver when you’re given opportunities, or publicly make the company look bad, or embarrass your boss you are very easily replaced. Keith Lee could easily show up on Wednesday (or whenever his 90 days are up) and people would quickly forget about Rush, for example.

That was probably the angriest most hostile crowd I can recall at an AEW show. Back when AEW knew there were states west of Texas, I observed that there were a few people too desperate to start chants but everyone seemed really happy to be there. I wonder if it’s a regional thing or if the honeymoon is over and fans aren’t willing to put up with the meh shows in between ppvs and their event shows anymore. Anyway, my Sling crashed so I missed the first half an hour or so but thought the show was decent. CM Punk squashing Spears was an unexpected and pleasant surprise. I liked Archer working more of a big man violent hoss style and not doing any of the high flying stuff but I think the match went on for too long when the outcome was obvious. Also, since they’re feeding him to Page him being more dominant would have probably served that match better. The Kings of the Black throne look like an interesting tag team, I’ll be interested to see them in a more competitive match. The Pac promo was okay but the reveal and challenge happening on video was kind of underwhelming. I thought the main event was a pretty fun match. Welcome to the black parade, bitch legitimately made me lol. The Acclaimed have good comedic timing.

Dan Lambert is a terrible manager. Hangman offered either of his guys a title shot but he passed to insult Hangman for calling himself a cowboy. Punk vs Wardlow was the highlight of the show. Hobbs losing was a bummer and I’m confused as to why Lethal helped him instead of Lio Rush. Matt Hardy vs Penta was a waste of time but at least it led to the Brody King debut. Bear Country getting a Dynamite match was cool. The main event was good but all of the chaos outside the ring and it being involved in the finish was a little too much for me. Oh and I hope they’re not planning on having Sting in the ring with Luchasaurus that would scare me.

It might not be a major issue here but I would say the “who cares wrestling is bs anyway, this will look cool” mentality that too many modern wrestlers seem to have is a contributing factor to why AEW is constantly in the 700K to 1.1 million range. Despite WWE probably shedding more weekly viewers than that over the past 10-15 years.

He just grapevined the leg and you could see he wasn’t even attempting to put any torque on it.

Great world title match. Going into the show I really thought there would be some shenanigans with one of the judges to set up Page’s next program for the ppv but knew that wasn’t happening when I saw who the judges were. It seemed like it was hard for the show to pick up after that match though. Jericho is doing WWE promo segments. I don’t watch WWE and don’t want to see it in AEW. If that’s what Jericho wants to do I don’t begrudge him for it but I just hopes he either takes it back to WWE or figures out how to do something different. Glad Jungle Boy finally won the big one and is a champion. I didn’t notice Fenix’s injury, even on the replay I was distracted by Luchasauras who landed awkwardly and it looked like the table broke into his midsection, so didn’t even look at Fenix. Crazy, I hope it looked worse than it actually is. The lights going out and coming back on during the match to reveal nothing was weird and kind of stupid.

The women’s street fight was crazy and should have probably closed the show. Didn’t seem like crowd ever really recovered for the main event which was a fine match. Not sure where they’re going with Andrade, the Acclaimed and Sting and Darby. It’ll be interesting to find out though I guess.