Gordi the former AEW fan

Weirdly, perhaps, I kind of expect zero titles to change hands at Double or Nothing. More or less obviously MJF retains, it would be kind of nuts if FTR don't retain, Wardlow is not likely going to drop the belt to Christian, I f'n hope Hayter retains, have to imagine Jade retains until Stat is ready to come back... Orangey boy could conceivably lose in the Battle Royal, of course, and he's doing a great job in the "beat up and worn down champion" role... But he's the dude I MOST want to see retain out of all those championship defences. So, yeah, I could be completely wrong and AEW has certainly shocked us all before, but I'm kind of expecting/hoping everyone retains.

Oh HELL no. The Navel-gazing thread is for overthinking about "the deeper meaning" of AEW. Bullshit rumour speculation is the POLAR OPPOSITE of navel gazing. (As is, for the most part, fantasy booking). (And DEFINITELY knee-jerk ratings reactions). Navel gazing -overthinking- implies actual thought. The ONLY thing in this thread I would personally welcome in the Navel-gazing thread would be No Fists' thoughts on if AEW without the Elite would still be AEW. (It would not be. If they brought back Punk, brought in Goldberg, and allowed Kenny, Matt, Nick, and Hanger to leave they should change the name to Member Berries Wrestling. And, sadly, there are plenty of prowrestling Grandpas here who would be perfectly happy with that). Overthinking about the meaning of AEW these days is just kinda sad. (They are booking Motley Crue to headline Lollapalooza. The big corporation has taken over my favourite microbrewery and people are complaining that the pilsner is still too bitter. Five guys has started buying frozen fries from the same supplier as McDonalds and people are ecstatic about it). <-That kind of bullshit is, in my opinion, Navel gazing. Twitter-level bullshit rumour speculation is something else entirely.

I wouldn't hold your breath. Dude is basically Hulk Hogan when it comes to putting dudes over in AEW. The only two people to have beaten him were MJF and Mox, and in both cases he "got his win back" in the rematch.

Hard to imagine how different pro wrestling would be without his influence. He was a true original.

You have to keep in mind, we are talking about a guy who is so entirely "out of his goddamn mind" that he actually thought he could fill Wembley stadium. Ha ha! Remember that? Crazy.

If I was Charlotte, I would be unable to stop saying this now.

Is this the first time we got two Cage match main events in one week? Dustin & Lee vs Gates of Agony should be fun. The Storm match was way more back and forth than I had anticipated. Enjoyed that. Got a new hamster for my younger daughter yesterday. Cutest thing ever. So we're all in good moods today.

That there main event? 'Taint nothin' but a dang pillar fight!

There's some delightfully prowrestling irony to the fact that the only match featuring a ton of interference and a fuck finish was the match with the cage [which is, of course, (theoretically) meant to prevent interference]. Genuinely, thoroughly, enjoyed the whole two hours. I soda'd several times. Cannot choose between Claudio vs Fenix or Orange vs Garcia for my MOTN. Both were such a great mix of wrestling, action, and character work. I did NOT foresee Garcia being the one to get into Orange's head! Claudio is a GREAT bully. I soda'd hard both times a flying luchadore got swatted out of the air.

Cheers, nine-brains! I can tell that comes from the bottom of one of your three hearts. This is indeed the first time I have felt properly stoked for AEW since the ROH PPV. So many intriguing, unanswered questions! - Cage Match Omega vs Moxley: Will Mox bleed? Will Kenny gesture? Can Kenny hit a gesture so extreme that it busts Mox open? -Double Jeopardy Rey Fenix vs Claudio: Will Rey fly? Will Claudio throw a mean European uppercut? Will Claudio nail an uppercut while Fenix is flying? -International Title Orange Cassidy vs Daniel Garcia Will Orange do sunglasses and pockets stuff? Will noted sports entertainer Daniel Garcia be forced to wrestle, and if so how will the crowd respond? - NHB Anna JAS vs Julia Hart: How will Anna counter Julia's vaunted Big Hat Game? Will either lady out-bleed Mox? -World Trios Title Open House Match House of Black vs Best Friends/Bandido: Will this be fully awesome or just kind of awesome? I am hoping for "fully." I really want Bandido to pull off an insane strength spot in this one, like doing a massively delayed vertical on one of the big spooky dudes. I kind of expect Mox to lose a pint of blood, Garcia to lose his cool, and me to lose my shit.

Dropped by the new location of The Bodybar tonight. Literally, almost precisely, a 5 minute walk from the place I work on Tuesdays. Had a beer and some beans without oil or salt (Bodysnacking). Then some of Bodyguard's (very friendly and apparently filthy rich) friends dropped in, bought champagne for everyone, sang karaoke with us (I absolutely wailed out Whole Lotta Love), then INSISTED on picking up our tab without knowing how long we'd been there or what we'd ordered. Good times!

Yeah! Johnny Cash makes a comeback!

Amateur Style Match: Manabu Nakanishi vs Jake Hager Vikingo, Bandido & Komander vs Kaientai DX vs Blood Generation JD Drake vs Fuminori Abe * AEW Women's Title: Hayter vs Prime Aja Kong AEW Tag Titles: FTR vs HDA FTW Title: Hook vs Kikuchi AEW Trios Titles: HoB vs Zeus, Bodyguard, & Tigers Mask * IGPW US Title: Kenny vs Super Porky IWGP Jr Title: Hiromu vs Fenix * NEVER Openweight: David Finlay Jr vs prime Sr. KOPW: Taichi vs NOAH-era stoic gunslinger Misawa NJPW TV: ZSJ vs Billy Robinson ROH World: Claudio vs MiSu * ROH Women's: Athena vs KANA ROH TV: Eddie Kingston vs 1990 feisty Kobashi ROH Pure: Shibata vs Volk Han ROH Trios: Embassy vs Tenryu, Hashimoto, and Ishii TBS Title: Statlander vs Jaguar * All Atlantic: Orange vs Prime Liger TNT: Wardlow vs Hobbs vs Strong Man vs Bear Boulder (edit: vs Jeff Cobb) * AEW World: Danielson vs Negro Casas * * = could actually happen. Come on, Tony Khan!

I remember that! I think you at one point typed something like "Gordberg is FAT!" to show how little you appreciated my recommendation. That got a 100% legit lol outa me. Speaking of sincereposting: THANK YOU for making that sign and getting it on camera. What a fitting tribute. I am sure "it got a bit smokey" in a few places when people saw that.

Not to be mawkish, and not to try and make it "about me" but.. My bullshit heel turn is officially over. (I wanted to do an MJF gimmick, where I am trying to be an edgelord heel but almost everyone can see through it). The part about not digging current AEW as much is 85% real, though. But right now who gives a shit. Like, I think it's safe to assume, a lot of us, I am suddenly confronted with the stark realization of how important my online wrestling friends are to me. I can still barely see to type through my tears. Fucks sake. Wrestling is awesome. We are so lucky to have each other to discuss it with. I will miss "PEE! GORDLOW! PEE!" and " GODDAMMIT GORDLOW! " so much. SO much. i appreciate all of you here, even (sometimes particularly) those of you I almost always disagree with. (Except for that one hateful. racist, sexist, homophobic prick that we got banned. Fuck that guy). How lucky am I to have a place to Navel-gaze about wrestling and have other people join in? What a gift this place is, and you folks are. Hope I never take this for granted. Absolutely made my day. Every time.

I will miss him so much. We all will. It helps to know I'm not the only person who only knew him online who is absolutely in tears now. The world is a less rich and joyful place now. Please take care, all of you.

　It sucks that you can't get the ignore button to work on a tablet. It would almost be worth buying a PC just to use it once. Oh! Maybe I can go to one of those internet cafes while I am in Osaka today. I might be able to do it there.

Yes. Absolutely. The problem is that they are not yet ENOUGH like WWE. Nailed it. Honestly, I think most AEW fans are intelligent enough and have memories that function well enough to retain the idea that Lee and Swerve have beef and Garcia is really a wrestler at heart, even without the use of a spreadsheet. Certainly no need to LCD things further, in my view.

So apparently last week Dynamite started with a (kind of tone-deaf) 20-minute promo segment then this week we got mostly fuck finishes? Looks like I picked the right time to stop watching! No need to navel gaze here. Just go ahead and change the name to AEWWE or AESE already.

Osaka Pro's Billyken Kid and Tigers Mask got a card in the NJPW Collection game (because they are in BOSJ)! Had to trade one of my rare Ishii cards to get it. Well worth it, for me. Edit: not in BOSJ. Just in the Festival.

Cheers, lads. I'm honestly not even watching AEW/ROH right now. I'll be back for Forbidden Door, though, most likely. Not into the changes in how the "product" is being booked and presented recently. Need time to adjust to the new reality of AEW/ROH being just another "Sports Entertainment" brand rather than a genuine alternative. (I think honestly bringing up the idea of a brand split, Goldberg being brought in, Punk returning... I'd rather not be around for any of that, even in theory). I'm sure I'm missing a lot of good to great matches, but really I have seen enough good to great pro wrestling to last most people several lifetimes. Also, there is other stuff going on that requires time and attention. I'll definitely be back though. I enjoy watching and discussing pro wrestling too much to ever walk away for good. Still going to live shows/events/drinking parties over here. I can get my fill of what I personally want out of wrestling that way for now. Except for the in-depth discussion that you can really only get here. (Although I get some of that with my real-life gaijin in Japan friends Rod, Chris, and Juan. But we mostly agree with each other). I'm pleased so many people seem to be tickled by the Member Berries/WWE Lite version of AEW that we're getting now. I'm kinda surprised that No Fists seerms to be the only other person freaked/bummed out by it. Don't see much point in my posting about it right now. Don't want to repeat myself every week. Don't want to rain on the parade.

Happy birtday @DEAN

Using some of that 9.3 billion to stock up on Just For Men, I see! (Alternate joke: I guess 9.3 billion ain't enough to buy a modicum of self-awareness). And you KNOW the lickspittles he surrounds himself with are all, like, "Did you get a new haircut or something, sir? You look SO much younger!"

Fuck this shit. Why would you deny your fans BOTH chances for big cathartic emotional moment? We can't get what we want ALL the time, and we shouldn't.. but this was the wrong time to teach us that lesson. That was some Vince-level troll booking. I am legit done with AEW/ROH for a while. Edit: With a moment to breathe, I am surprised how bummed out I am by the results of two pro wrestling matches. I guess I'm spoiled. But it's legit how I feel. I don't even want to watch Spring Break now. Why the hell would anyone CHOOSE to book those two matches to end that way?