HumanChessgame

I went into this show pretty indifferent. It looked fine on paper but I think I just have wrestling fatigue coming off Mania weekend and all the shows I've still been catching up on. That and AEW has been a bit cold to me as of late. During Pac/Okada I was a bit distracted but enjoyed what I saw overall. Okada's finisher still sucks. The trios match and both women's matches were fine overall but nothing memorable. Roddy/Kyle was a damn good ROH match. Hook/Jericho was the only real stinker of the night. Of course there needs to be some sort of No DQ match on an AEW show and they still insist on using a novelty belt from the 90s for whatever reason. Jericho is a heel and should ideally be treated as such by the crowd, but he was getting straight up go home heat here. They can't just let this program be done, either. Danielson/Osperay is my MOTYC so far. The two just had such insane chemistry, coming up with counters and reactions to anything the other could pull out. I don't think I've ever seen an avalanche tiger suplex before. The knee to the back of the head counter to the springboard cutter was a nasty move, followed by them both almost playing chicken with their strike finishers only for Osperay to come out on top. I question Danielson's sanity in taking that ganso bomb at the end. The "legit" injury bit at the finish was a bit iffy, but didn't take away from the rest of the match. The ladder match stipulation didn't do much for me here as FTR and the Bucks tend to have pretty good chemistry with eachother. Still, there was some fun stuff here without any major botches or Bucks schtick. That powerplex off the ladders was nice, as was the callback to the first match where Cash went after a high flying move only to miss and crash. Jack Perry comes back doing a latter day Jim Morrison impression. Joe/Swerve was a bit slower and more methodical than I was expecting. Schrodinger's title belt surprisingly didn't come into play. This would have stood out a lot more had it not followed the last two matches, but overall it was decent. I think there was still more mileage in Joe's title reign, but Strickland's iron isn't getting any hotter and this was the best time to strike. I'm just hoping Page doesn't show up on Wednesday to challenge. This was a great show with a hot crowd. AEW has definitely had it's foibles lately, but this PPV delivered in-ring and isn't going to be causing any buzz due to the bad kind of controversy.

I'm wearing my shirt from the NOLA Museum of Death right now actually. "Not a great idea looking back" could describe a bulk of what went on in XPW. It's kind of funny that a minor guy like GQ Money would up being a producer in WWE though.

I've always thought of both those guys as the opposite of an "and then the bell rang" guy.

Have they specified what Rhea's injury is? If she worked hurt with Becky then that's even more impressive. As much as I like her and it sucks she has to drop it and miss a chunk of time, there really didn't have any new credible challengers set up. Everything going into the Sami/Gable match was fantastic, though when it ended I just thought the two of them had a better match in them. With more of an angle and an actual heel/face dynamic put into it I think they've got a really hot program on their hands.

Penta and Edge over-delivered. The Bucks basically doing the heel authority figure fits in with their characters and they're much better off on than as faces, but their promo was just cringe. The backstage footage accomplished nothing but made it look like Punk is living rent-free in the heads of multiple people in AEW. Punk and Perry have words backstage. Punk shoves Perry, who lunges at him and gets facelocked. Everything is broken up in seconds, then Punk yells at Tony. In the history of backstage dust ups, this was a big nothingburger. Airing this did no one any favors whatsoever. I saw someone say that Schiavone's face as they came back to the arena showed "late WCW PTSD". As much as I like FTR their promo was just rambling and didn't really do much to help the situation. I get they're trying to make this shoot situation work somehow, but really everyone involved needs to quit and concentrate on the promotion at hand. Speaking of which, Osperay taking a shot at HHH didn't help matters either. The promo was good on a whole though. Julia Hart cuts another good promo. There aren't many people you can call AEW Originals, but out of them all she's been the best so far. I don't know what the deal with Jericho, Hook, et al is but I don't really care. At least Lee Moriarity got a victory. Ogogo still being on the roster is a noodle scratcher. Jay and May have a good match, as do Joe and Dustin. It's a shame that the actual good wrestling on here was overshadowed by a bunch of nonsense.

I also looked his record up after this as the match with Nakamura made me think he'd be a natural there. As good as it was to see Ilya and Roxanne on the main roster I wondered the point of it considering they're both still champs and obviously not getting called up. Then again Bron was drafted to Smackdown and is still a tag champ.

I'm surprised Matt left as I was fully expecting one last Hardys/E&C match.

Here is the full Indy Hall of Fame ceremony

Night 2 kicked off with elaborate entrances that made the whole thing feel a lot more big time. Not saying every match needs this, but for the bigger ones it definitely adds a level of specatcle that adds to the whole thing. A Prince Karhis reference at Mania was not something I thought I would ever hear. Drew winning wasn't a surprise but I thought the match itself was just kinda there. I get they were playing off Rollins being banged up from last night and has a bad knee, but this seemed short and not as much a struggle as I was expecting. That all makes sense with the post-match activities. Didn't expect Punk to get physical at the end. I had predicted Priest would finally cash in at the end of the match, and for once the MITB winner doesn't end up looking like a geek. Drew has really been operating at a high level lately, but honestly I think this was a fantastic piece of booking. Punk gets his revenge on Drew and we get a program between Drew and Priest with plenty of fuel for the eventual feud when Punk comes back. Six man tag featuring Bubba Ray was a decent enough ECW tribute match. Normally I dislike sports entertainment style hardcore matches but they didn't do anything too obnoxious here. Didn't pay much attention to Knight/Styles but it seemed fine for what it was The US title three way would have been much better as a one on one. Paul continues to be a total natural at wrestling and took a great beating early on. Owens and Orton doing the "we hate this guy but we can't both win" thing and eventually going after eachother was a nice story. Owens' running shit talking and conversation was a good touch. I think they rely on the no DQ aspect of multi-person matches a bit too much but the brass knuckles and other spots they did in here all made sense. Paul's mascot probably didn't make any friends saying fuck repeatedly. The WWE didn't waste any time signing The Boys after their release. I thought it was funny how no one on commentary knew what to make of Bayley's entrance. Great match with excellent selling of the leg by Bayley and some innovative offense by Io. It really picked up in the closing stretch and the crowd went home happy with Bayley finally coming out on top of the feud. Throughout the first half of Cody/Roman it was just a matter of waiting for the inevitable run-ins and other dog and pony show parts to start up. I'd been expecting Uso and Rollins (even though his bit was just a distraction more than anything) but Cena and Taker wre a surprise (especially the way Taker was able to get in and out of the ring as fast as he did). A massive wave of relief hit me when Cody ended up winning. Samantha's inflection during her announcement at the end really helped seal the deal too. Overall this was miles better than the first night, but half the matches having a no DQ stip was too much. Was there some type of Nascar pit crew repairing the announce desks between every match? It seemed like somebody threw the crap off of them in every match.

The cold weather in an open air stadium in Philly lead to Becky dressing like Santa Claus. Meanwhile the band playing Rhea out dressed up like her. Hearing about Becky's health issues made me set my expectations accordingly. Sick or not, Becky held up her end of the match and the finished product was fine, though not anything super memorable. The Riptide into the buckle looked nasty. The tag title match was the expected clusterfuck, but there weren't any spots that looked to hospitalize anyone. This was a creative enough way to split the titles back up, though Waller and Theory are the least interesting choice. That ladder buckling while Miz and Priest were up there looked like it was moments away from causing a botch. Truth got his lifetime achievement award, I wonder how long he and Miz end up keeping them. The lucha guys tag match would have been a decent Raw or SD match but didn't seem like anything special here. It looked like a vehicle for the football guys guest spot. I went to get a snack and missed almost all of Uso vs Uso. It seemed like the hype package was longer than the actual match. Odd that the women's trios match wasn't in the cooler spot. This was basically a Jade squash. If anything could put some oomph on this show after the last three mediocre matches it would be Sami and Gunther. Both guys got to play to their strengths with Sami taking an ass beating and Gunther being his vicious self. Holy shit Sami broke out the turnbuckle brainbuster (this is the first time he's hit it in WWE right?)! As much as I wanted Gable to dethrone Gunther, this was underdog Sami at his best. The amount of offense Cody and Rollins kept getting in continuously surprised me and every time I thought they were going to take it home the longer and longer it went. Going in we all know the limitations Rock had and even in a tag situation this was never-ending. On several occasions I thought there was going to be a swerve and the faces would actually win. Per cagematch, this was 44:34. All the other wrestling on the card - 1:20:12 Splitting WM into two nights because of what a massive slog the show was getting to be was a good idea, but they just padded it so much with promos, adds, and all other manner of filler that seven matches (three of which were pretty short) took almost four hours. This was a one match show. I wouldn't say anything was actively bad, but almost all of it was just Raw/Smackdown level.

The opening tag match really smoked. Frazier and Axiom are two of the better fliers on the roster and seemed to have an answer to anything the larger opponents threw at them. I'm really surprised there was no title change as Breaker is ready to be on the main roster full time and Corbin is..well..Corbin. NA match really over-delivered for me. Femi is still green but good at doing hoss stuff, Dijak is always solid in the big guy who is surprisingly agile, and Briggs held his own. I thought breaking up Bro Country was a bad move as it seemed a case of the sum being greater than the parts, but Briggs looks like he might have some solo potential. The women's trios match was definitely a thing that happened. It might be just me but a lot of the current crop of NXT women just kind of run together. Maybe it's the cringey names or not enough of them having that established of characters? What I caught of Lyra/Roxanne was fine. Maybe it's because I get Perez and Cora Jade mixed up a lot but I'm just kind of tired of her, even though she's good in the ring. Tony D has improved a hell of a lot as far as his wrestling ability goes, but the gimmick is really holding him back. Ilya is one of the best guys on the roster right now in terms of looking unhinged and explosive on offense but also making his opponents look good. There was never any doubt of the outcome here but the match was fine if a bit long. Main event was solid but I guess I was expecting a bit more intensity for a feud blowoff match.

This year's Bloodsport didn't have any really brutal matches, but was very solid overall. Thatcher/Tischer, Masha/Shayna, and Dempsey/Makowski were the standouts.

If you're lucky you had a cool boss who would give you something form petty cash because you knew that after you submitted all your mileage and other receipts it would take about two pay cycles to get the actual reimbursement check.

I forgot Supercard was tonight and tuned in right before the main event, so I'll have to go back and watch the rest. Briscoe/Kingston was an MOTYC though. You've got two guys who are near the top of this generation in the "I don't believe this is real but I believe this person" criteria and have a really emotional storyline going into the match. They beat the shit out of eachother, Chicken got color, they didn't do anything too ridiculous and had plenty of FIGHTING SPIRIT telling the story of a guy who never made it to the top and is trying to do his brother proud against the guy who took the long, hard road getting where he is. The match seemed like an actual struggle and even though the outcome was a bit predictable, it was a hell of a ride.

I watched the second half of the show this morning. Arez has been a favorite of mine to watch for a while now on account of the unorthodox stuff he comes up with (even by lucha standards) and there was an interesting contrast with Makowski's more shooty/mma based offense. I wonder if Makowski was just worn out from competing in Bloodsport then high-tailing it over there but the match was shaping up to be one of the best on the card and seemed to end kind of abruptly. There were a number of guys on the card I wasn't familiar with, including Demus and Connelly but this match had an extra edge of viciousness to it. I don't know if there was any kind of feud leading up to it, but there was just this sense of urgency both guys were coming out with to try and put the other away. Nothing fancy or creative spots, just old fashioned pain on both ends. Slim J has always been a generic early 00s indy guy but you know how you can be completely indifferent to someone then out of nowhere they pull off a great match and you wonder where that's been? Priest has impressed me for a while, though most of the stuff I've seen of his has been more hardcore stuff in ICW-NHB and it was cool to see him showcase a fuller display of his skills here. The main event was fantastic. Just a lot of really painful looking grappling.

Next week they're going to start a tournament for the "Wobbly Furniture Support Title" so if you come out victorious you'll have something to prop it up with. I thought Danielson/Archer was really good on account of how Archer is basically their Kane/Big Show "big guy they try and heat up once a year to make him look imposing for a new program then forget about him" yet Danielson made him look like a threat and got a great big guy/small guy match out of him. It wasn't until reading about the promo here that I realized Edge's promo was supposed to be some response to Punk's interview. With some more time and a proper buildup you could have thrown Osprey/Hobbs on a ppv and it would have really cooked with gas. The match was great but AEW has a bad habit of putting two guys who don't need to lose in a program or match with eachother.

Really fun show so far with a lot of randomness that I think Dean would have loved. Anyone else's feed keep freezing during the Krule/Warhorse match?

This means the next person who goes to an AEW show needs to hold up a "Make Shartnado All Elite" sign.

Cardona coming out was a surprise, then I remembered he was one of Edge's former stooges. For something with no hype it was a damn fine match and I'm sure both guys got a kick out of working with eachother on that sort of stage. Black/Edge is a program I can get behind. The Top Flight/Big Starks match was awkward. Starks clearly didn't kick out of the first pin attempt even though he was clearly supposed to, and then it looks like an audible was called for the awkward finish. Starks is claiming to be OK on twitter. Infantry/FTR was a great tv bout with The Infantry getting in enough to make it look like they just might pull it off. There was an awkward leapfrog spot near the end but otherwise everything was solid. That was one of the funnier backstage segments from Storm and company. The main event was fine with Shibata being a better fit than Moxley in the group, though Claudio was really the standout in here.

Since everything gets a spinoff, prequel, and reboot nowadays I don't see why they don't just do a Moneypenny spinoff. You could even do an M prequel and have Judi Dench bookend it by telling a newly minted 00 Moneypenny about what it's like to be a woman in the spy game and go on to do a 60s/70s espionage movie with a young M on her first mission.

Didn't The Infantry confront FTR last week? I figured they'd be wrestling them instead of HOB. People mentioned wanting to see a surprise in the tag tournament so I guess this is it. Good on The Infantry as they've been putting in the work on the undercard from the get-go though I'm bummed about less HOB in the tournament. Really good match between Danielson and Shibata without any cringe moments. Is Julia Hart the biggest AEW original success so far?

Seth could always turn on Cody during the inevitable dog and pony show of the main event. Though I question how effective that would be if Cody still wins.

double post

This pretty much covers it. I thought he was good as an underdog babyface who was somewhat exciting in the ring when everything clicked just right and was the first case of someone having a really catchy licensed theme. After a promising start during the covid era he really plateaued. Regardless of how accurate or out of context him not wanting to take advice or work on his promos was, he never got any better and while his heel character was a bit different, it just didn't fully click. Honestly I think he'd be better off joining Pillman Jr at the Performance Center.

The Chikara 2005 and 2006 Tag World Grand Prix tournaments both had 32 teams. It's been several years since I've watched it, but the 2006 tournament was fantastic.