HumanChessgame

This is good news in theory as ROH isn't a bad product in and of itself, but they need to figure out a better way to record it. Adding an extra hour or two onto Dynamite or Collision is just giving audience fatigue in a half-filled arena. They need to find a way to go back to the pre-covid process of finding some 1000ish seat venue in the northeast/mid-atlantic area and taping a few hours of TV twice a month then having a bigger live event every other month or so.

It was a foregone conclusion that Cole was winning, but I hoped there would at least be something of a decent match in there. Playing up re-injuring his ankle was one thing, but Cole almost being taken out by ref stoppage only to come back in and completely disregard selling the leg by hitting a flurry of kicks and offense that utilized his lower body was just egregious. Bucks/PP was a lot better than I was expecting. Both teams are capable when not doing a bunch of schtick, but things really started clicking here. I was worried the Bucks were actually going to go over towards the end, but the finish was the right thing. A bit too early for Kamille to be losing, but it was a nice showcase for Stat. The main event was fine and basically just a setup for Lashley to come out. While I thought Lashley's WWE run was great, I'm not sure if he's needed in AEW long-term. If this is just a short term thing to get Swerve over until he gets in the next program, then that's all well and good. For a minute I thought they were going to do a super speed run of Yuta turning face after being the BCC's whipping boy, but I guess they just want to show how loyal he is to the Moxley cult.

MVP and Barnett are apparently working eachother on the next Bloodsport card. Interesting how that is going to work out as I thought MVP was done due to injuries and looked like he needed a cane to walk.

Oba definitely has a bright future, but Tony D is quietly becoming one of the better in-ring guys in this current crop of NXT people. I hope he can overcome that cringe 90s gimmick somehow. The current NXT women's roster is really good but there's something about them that's kinda off that I can't quite put my finger on. A lot of them show promise in the ring, but I don't know if it's the awful NXT names or what, but so many of them just come off as generic or kinda sorta have a character but not enough to set them apart. Is Booker the worst commentator in mainstream wrestling right now?

Adding to this, no more "Three ways and other multiperson matches are no DQ". I don't know how long this has been a rule, but it seems like it's a stipulation that's being taken advantage of more and more all the time. You don't need a table bump in every match.

I thought that was Heidi Howitzer at first. Is this Zaria any good? Looks like she's only been wrestling about 4 years.

There was already a stable in CHIKARA called The Throwbacks which featured Thunderkitty who did an old timey woman wrestler gimmick which would have complimented her pretty well.

A Wyatt/Shield moment for me would be the BCC tuning up some midcarders for the lights to go out and House of Black to show up. Given that it looked like Brody started out on his own last week I don't see that happening though.

I don't have a problem with the finish of the main event from a storyline standpoint (agreed with the ref stoppage being too sudden though), just putting the title on Moxley and using him as the top guy yet again when he's still terrible. Wheeler turning was about 50/50 for me, but I think that made sense as I predict he eventually turns back face and will elicit a massive pop when doing so. People have been speculating on who the next top of the card face is going to be and I had another idea based on the results tonight - Brody King didn't come out in the usual HoB gear and entrance and acted like a face at the end of the match. He's seemingly out on his own now and while I think he's a natural heel, he'd be a great wrestler to groom for a main event role. Did a match get cut? I swear there was another women's match booked and just double checked to see Mercedes didn't defend her title.

Was that a Motor City Machineguns coming soon promo?

I was unaware there was a new V/H/S installment being released, but V/H/S: Beyond was a decent watch with all the shorts having a sci-fi/alien theme. The better segments are definitely at the beginning and get less interesting as it goes, but nothing is flat out bad. The wraparound doesn't amount to much however. Of all the forgettable Stephen King adaptations, Salem's Lot was definitely the most recent. I see why this was shelved for so long. Strange Darling was promising a twist of some sort and I kind of had an idea where it was going, but the non-linear storyline made how it ended up playing out more interesting. It's a well-made thriller with very intense performances. Kyle Gallner is really good at playing a sleazy creep.

I wonder how much of it is also related to the WWE women working a lot more often and being able to get more practice? Granted plenty of the better women in AEW have several years of indy experience where they wrestled more often, but I'd think that when most of them are wrestling a few times a week and often working whomever they're feuding with on the house show circuit they're going to have more polish on the tv matches. Someone else upthread mentioned Sara's input and coaching, which also makes me think of if and to what extent the women's matches are being agented on each show. Are they just given the finish and time limit and told to do their own thing, or is there a veteran presence or two helping produce whatever it is they end up doing?

This time of year I'd normally be preparing for a couple of mountain trips but that's all come to a halt over the past week. Hearing about disasters on the news is one thing, but when it's a place you have a deep affection for and are able to see places you've walked or driven through in ruins it hits a lot harder. I used the money I was going to spend on some new camping gear and dropped off a few loads of supplies to one of my favorite bars that's distributing aid out of their Asheville brewery. It's going to be an uphill battle in that area for a long time to come.

Did Drew get the Muta gusher when Punk whacked him with that box? Punk was bleeding at the time and I wondered if Drew was going to gig himself too then all of a sudden he was leaking like crazy. The WWE tendency to book for a gimmick match rather than just let the feud evolve towards it has been an annoyance of mine for a while now but I thought they did a good job with the build in this program. I'm cosigning with everyone else saying this should have been the main instead of the never-ending Bloodline shmooze.

Nosferatu full trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nulvWqYUM8k

I don't see any mention of Danielson/Roddy on AEW's social media or any wrestling sites, just the following- Jon Moxley set to appear at the start of the show AEW Women's World Championship Eliminator Match: Mariah May vs. Queen Aminata Tag Team Casino Gauntlet Match - Winners to face The Young Bucks for the World Tag Team Title at GrandSlam Sammy Guevara vs. Ricochet TNT Championship - Jack Perry vs Lio Rush

Has there ever been any official statement regarding the working relationship with TNA or is it just a thing that's happening occasionally?

With the needle spot being gimmicked and not sticking it through Swerve's cheek like it's normally done, I wonder if they're going to play it off like Page was injecting him with some sort of sedative a la Dexter Morgan? The ether rag has been used before so that's actually a decent play on a way to KO someone in an underhanded manner.

I don't get the pearl clutching over the main event either, but having watched far worse deathmatch stuff both when trying to view a blurry Big Japan .mov clips on dialup or watching IWA-MS later on this wasn't that bad. That said it had the right level of violence and intensity for a big name show. And yeah, it's too bad it took some of the focus from Stat/Willow because that was probably top 5 or 10 in AEW women's matches for me.

The preshow was the typical "get as many people a ppv spot as possible" deal. Nothing was bad but not all that noteworthy either; basically just matches that would have been home on one of the weekly shows. It was nice seeing Skye Blue get a segment but I'd rather have seen another women's match on the preshow. Garcia/MJF opened hot and was consistently good. Both guys, Garcia especially, looked like they were legitimately struggling with eachother and desperate to win. In a promotion where headdrops and high spots are the norm, they even made a fairly simple piledriver look devastating. MJF even took a step back from his usual cocky heel self to wrestle more viciously than normal, up until going back to his usual underhanded tricks to win. Tag title match was fine but nothing groundbreaking. They really need to have a fresh team holding the tag titles. Osprey/Pac was very much the shit. I'm pretty over every AEW ppv having some homogonized sports entertainment hardcore match, but I have to say this one far exceeded the normal offerings. Both women are great and they really brought the rage along with some innovative spots (I cringed at Stat's thumbtack bump). This was one of the best women's brawls in AEW. The four way match for whatever random singles title was what it was. TBS title match had a weird ending to an otherwise average match. The last minute or two of the match were really awkward. It looked like Mercedes was trying to dodge or block the Katana but didn't completely, so she kicked out at one and rolled out? As always, the Moneymaker finisher looked like crap. She's just too small to hit a move like that. I don't know if that was a miscommunication or what but the finishing stretch was awkward at best. People were quick to blame the last match on Brit, but after this I'm not so sure. Jack Perry's strength is in his bumping and selling and he did an admirable job of that here. This kind of reminded me of the 123 Kid/Bret Hart match on Raw where Waltman came off looking like he could hang with Bret, though not quite as good. I still think Perry peaked as an underdog face. When Moxley showed up at the end I figured his turn was coming but didn't predict Claudio joining him. With everything Swerve and Page have done to eachother, it's hard to really call either the heel or face, but that didn't matter so much as they just went in looking to kill eachother. Unlike most of the AEW brawls, this didn't come off as a watered down version of an actual deathmatch. I've seen plenty of cinder block bumps in deathmatches, but Page's back hitting the corner of that block was just painful. The powerbomb on it looked almost as bad. It didn't look to be gimmicked either. I figured they'd continue with showing that no matter what Page tried he wouldn't be able to beat Swerve but him winning by KO was a good way to conclude this. Great show overall with the TBS title match being the only thing that under-delivered. The four way was nothing special but it was perfectly fine as a cooler/filler match. Osprey/Pac was my favorite of the evening.

Hot damn that Mortos/Takeshita match was good.

In the main wrestling discussion thread, there's some conversation about people pushed as top guys that you just didn't see and Page would have always been in my list. Since he morphed into Silas Young and went full arsonist (was he in front of a green screen at the end?) I've come around on him. His faux tough guy cowboy promos were never that great but he really captured the person who was pushed too far to the point of becoming deranged and finally realizing he had to one-up his tormentor. Page and Swerve's matches have always been good so this should be no exception. This card is actually more appealing to me than All In was.

I met him at an IWA-EC (promotion Madman Pondo ran briefly) and he couldn't have been a nicer guy. His deathmatch stuff was a lot better than the standard mindless plunder spots, and he proceeded to get in great shape and focus on being a better in-ring worker. From what I heard he got involved in one of those q-anon adjacent churches after going to rehab.

Wasn't David Jericho Kid Kash's name when he was starting out?

Christian winning the title shot was underwhelming enough, but he's a totally decent heel to have a quick two week program with. Perry is even more underwhelming than him, so I wonder if Christian cashes in mid-match to make this somewhat interesting. I wasn't as high on Danielson/Swerve as everyone else, mainly because the melodrama was built around the retirement stipulation when it was obvious Danielson was winning, but it was a great match in a vaccuum and this is going to be something in the opposite direction Swerve and Hangman had a segment with some actual omph to it, even though I can't figure out if there's a heel or a face here. Mariah did a gender swapped Rick Rude promo Ricochet's match was good and while I've always liked his work I don't think AEW really needs him with everyone else they have, although there will undoubtedly be some good matches to come.