Gordi the former AEW fan

Better be careful. dude, this "Pedro" seems like the type to challenge you to fight him in real life!

OK, @Mollusc, you more or less asked for this: Epic? Check! Story? Oh hell yeah! Something for you to really sink your teeth into. (Do octopi have teeth? I think this one does). Classic joshi? Double check! Hokuto? Kandori? Nakano? Triple check! And throw in Aja Kong!

My current navel gazing minor obsession is about one very specific thing I enjoy about AEW-style professional wrestling. It is about the idea that, even in the world (Universe?) of pro wrestling, friendship can be for real. I was already 20 years old, and attending University, when Paul Orndorff shockingly turned on Hulk Hogan, later to re-unite with Bobby Heenan and draw a huge crowd vs Hogan at "The Big Event" in Toronto. I was also shocked when Andre turned on Hogan, ripping the cross from his neck. And they went on to make history and draw a massive crowd etc etc. Hey! Remember the Barbershop Window Incident! That was shocking. And awesome. Don't think they made a ton of money off of Michaels vs Janetty per se, but heel Shawn worked out pretty well for the WWF, in my opinion. But eventually it just became this ultra-predictable trope. ZOMG! That one wrestler betrayed that other wrestler even though they were friends! It got to the point where you'd be, like, "Isn't it about time that (slightly better, larger, or more over member of the tag team) turns on (slightly less gifted, tall, and/or popular member)? It stopped being shocking and stopped being a way to draw a huge crowd a long time ago. It became just the standard way to move a story forward, turn someone, and/or set up some new matches. And here's where AEW can have some fun subverting the trope. Like, how Swerve and Lee are still together, and wearing championship belts. Like how Hungee and Hangm'n joked around about screwing each other over. Legit funny and legit heartwarming, in my opinion. And today. Battle of the Belts. I wasn't worried about Storm turning on Rosa. I knew she'd have her friend's back. And she totally did. Maybe it became such a predictable trope in the WWE Universe because the WWF made so much money from that kind of stuff back when I was in my early 20s and Vince was always hoping it would happen again. And also Vince has some kind of crazed notion about a strong man standing alone being the most heroic thing. I also pretty strongly suspect that at least part of the issue is that McMahon has spent literally years literally surrounded by lickspittles and yes men and has literally zero idea how actual friendship even works any more. It's likely been decades since the poor dude has experienced what it is like to have someone be nice to him without wanting something from him. Since he spent time with someone just because he enjoyed it, and wasn't surrounded by psychopathically ambitious people kissing his ass and telling him what he wants to hear. Could be completely wrong about that. Never met the guy. Can't necessarily believe everything you read about him. On the other hand, I find it easy to believe that Tony Khan, Matt and Nick, Kenny, Jericho, Bryan... Deeb, Bates, Rebel, Vickie, Regal, Luther, Shawn Dean... and etc etc involved in running AEW actually have lots of real-life friends and understand deeply how genuine friendship actually works. I've met some of them, seen how they interact with the people around them, read their books, listened to their interviews... I don't actually know any of them deeply, but I don't think it's crazy for me to think that they don't 100% buy into the "a strong man standing on his own is the most heroic" point of view. They probably watched,understood, and enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy, for example. Maybe shed an empathetic tear at "We are Groot." I think that movie would have baffled Vincent K. McMahon. Distasteful speculation aside, a thing I love about AEW is that the good guys (and ladies) are allowed to have friends there, and the friendship is allowed to be real. As a guy who is lucky enough to have a lot of friends who I trust and enjoy spending time with, whose backs I have, from whom I want nothing more than enjoyable companionship or conversation - though I often get much more - I am delighted that there is a pro wrestling company that reflects those values (in fact, more than one, but Japanese factions are a whole other topic). I also love having friends I can enjoy that shit with!

That was a whole lot of really good pro wrestling, capped by a great NOAH-style main event. I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea, but oh boy am I personally ever delighted to see that kind of pro wrestling on American TV in 2022. It's fun. (Skip-able side rant: It's too bad, in my opinion, that a lot of my internet friends -and others- have convinced themselves that no-selling pop-up, hit a move, then collapse sequences and you-hit-me, I-hit-you fighting spirit strike exchanges are by definition bad pro wrestling. That is less incorrect than the take that it is by definition great pro wrestling, but still... When it's done as well as it was here, it really can be pretty great). I LOVE how everyone in BCC uses hammer and anvil elbows to set up their finishers now. Love it. LOVE the El Generico shout out followed by the "Hell of a kick!" call. Nice Easter egg for us wrestling nerds! We appreciate it. The Cinnabomb! Nice old fashioned struggle over a vertical suplex during the pitcher in pitcher. Loved that match. It's gonna run away with DEAN's poll. Zero percent chance of it making Phil's Ringer list. Wardlow looks even bigger. F#@&'s sake. Maybe he leaned out a bit, and it makes his giant pecs, lats, and traps stand out even more? Nice tease of the powerbomb on Satnam. Sets up the next logical step for Wardlow very nicely. Hayter? No, man. We all love her. I get the sense that the roof would have blown off the building if she'd won. Hell of a match. It was very hard hitting indeed, but... Come on, Taz! Have you never seen Hokuto vs Kandori? Kong vs Kansai? Devil Masami? What a great time to be a pro wrestling nerd this is!

That was beautiful, @porksweats

To show that he's really in charge now, HHH should make some big dramatic symbolic gesture. Like, maybe, come out with his sledgehammer and bust up a big prop throne or something. I don't think that's ever happened before.

I wonder how much money I could have won betting on Mawks not bleeding today. If this is to set up Jericho beating Moxley so that Mad King can get his huge moment in the tennis stadium, then well done! It is pretty funny how commentary went all in on it being a huge risk for Mox to fight Mance before his title defence but Takeshita fighting Nemeth before his title shot was obviously no big deal. Busier than a fruit merchant? Crossraynes ? Does she have a Raynebuster and a Raynemaker in her arsenal? Dudes got yeeted in the main, so I am happy. More AEW tomorrow, so I am ecstatic.

1) Tell us what you ate, and where, on the way to the show. 2) Give us some backstory (something funny that happened on your trip, something going on in your life, someone you met, background about the atmosphere at the show/merch you bought..) 3) Tell us about every single match on the entire card. 4) Epilogue, including thoughts on the experience and anything interesting that happens after the show.

Not even close to the first, my friend. Wrestlers with both a submission and a pinfall finisher have been around for, literally, over a hundred years. As @The Great ML pointed out, Lou Thesz had both a submission (STF) and pinfall (Thesz Press). Bobo Brazil had the Coco Butt and Abdominal Stetch. The earliest example I could find with a reliable record (Tim Hornbaker, in this case) was Jim Londos, who started his career in 1914 20 years before Thesz, and used both the Airplane Spin and Japanese Armlock as finishers.

Claudio vs Takeshita!! (ROH World Title) Wardlow vs Jay (w/ Sonjay & Satnam) (TNT title) I wonder if Wardlow's gonna powerbomb Satnam. T'under (w/Storm) vs Hayter (w/ DMD & Reba) (Women's World Title) Good Lord I would mark out like crazy for a Hayter win here. Don't need a title switch to be happy, though. I'm happy with getting three fun title defences as extras a few times a year.

Mox vs Mance! Mox vs Mance! It's gonna be a fight! AEW continues their long streak of giving us exactly what we want before we even realise we want it. Also: Limitless House vs He Has Abs & He Has Quads. In a street fight. A Friday Night Street Fight. I, personally, don't tend to think of Keith Lee, Swerve Strickland, Tony Nese, or Josh Woods as street fighting brawler types. I am interested to see what they do in that environment. I do tend to think of Mox and Mance as street brawling maniacs. Perhaps they'll throw a curveball and do lots of elaborate chain wrestling? I'll bet they could pull that off. On the other hand, I predict they'll (literally) beat the blood and snot out of one another. Also Madison Rayne will fight Leyla Grey or Leila Gray or however she spells it. I don't have enough time to watch impact. Presumably Mean DEAN and others have opinions on how good this is likely to be. I like watching new-to-me wrestlers. I don't need no video package explaining who she is. I can let her show me, in the ring. I wasn't all that taken with Rayne's commentary during the (excellent!) Shida vs Emi match on YouTube. I look forward to watching her fight, though. I think only three matches have been announced. Should we manifest a fourth? Bryan vs JD Drake? Takeshita vs Sepentico? 2.0 vs Bear Country? Edit: I went and checked and Madison Rayne was not an official option in either of the "Who should AEW steal from Impact?" polls. So I am tempering my expectations accordingly .

A distressing percentage of AEW discussion (here and elsewhere, now and earlier) overall is and always has been people asking Picasso to paint people "normal looking." Like, say, wanting Hobbs to have a stereotypical big man finisher. Or complaining about the guy wearing sunglasses and wrestling with his hands in his pockets. Or more or less demanding that Cole and the Bucks get on the gas. Or Mad King go on a diet. Or that Hangman stomp mudholes in people and drink beer instead of sipping whiskey, hanging out with nerds, and doubting himself. Or that Hook needs to talk, Keith Lee should wear a singlet, Japanese wrestlers should get video introductions explaining who they are, and Kenny needs to stop making weird gestures. It's not even necessarily that all of those ideas are wrong. It's that... Can't we please just let the creative people be creative instead of trying to cram them all into pre-existing moulds. Some of the "weird" ideas have ended up working out really well. I am glad we have slightly tweaked OC, Anxious Millennial ex-champ, and short-shorts-wearing Keith Lee to enjoy, week in and week out. I used to say that, "If you want to watch a wrestling program where everything is micro-managed to fit existing cliches that any pro wrestling grandpa would be comfortable with, it already exists and is not difficult to find." Possibly that is no longer the case! Hooray! Free the creative spirit! Let your freak flag fly! And, yeah, if reading a "wall of text" is too much work for you, maybe you don't deserve to enjoy DEAN's pearls of insight and comparison. ?

BUT: Any reasonable list of "pro wrestlers who are way way way way way more over, famous, and popular now than they were three years ago" would definitely have to include Orange Cassidy, Darby Allen, Adam Page, MJF, and Eddie Kingston. So, I don't think there's any reasonable way to argue that feuding with Jericho actually hurt any of those dudes. Honestly, how much hotter could, say, Darby or Kingston possibly be?

I enjoyed the dumptruck match even more than the dumpster match. Which I really enjoyed. Very enjoyable show. I enjoyed myself throughout. Orange Cassidy being exciting without ever getting excited is something special. Yuta vs Jericho was some darned fine pro wrestling! I think Matt vs Christian has run longer than Flair vs Steamboat ('77 through '94) or vs Sting (which ran into the TNA years). Maybe Sheik vs Bobo Brazil has them beat in number of years, but I doubt even they fought 182 times. (169 according to Cagematch). 182 has to be a record of some sort. I wonder if Caster, Bowens, Austin, and/or Colten will end up fighting a hundred or more times in their careers. Let's hope so! Do you think Christian has lost his edge? Matt has definitely lost his jeff. LOVED the Bojack reference! Love how they are using the All Atlantic. Just an excuse to show PAC fighting British guys. Perfect. Loved the JCP/AEW crossover! LION TAMER! Speaking of Europeans: Claudio is European. Takeshita is Oriental. Who the hell are we meant to cheer for here? Sammy vs Mad King Starks vs Hobbs Miro vs Malakai Darby vs King Mox vs Mance! Takeshita vs Claudio!! The list of potentially great upcoming matches is - unlike Jamie Hayter - bottomless! Crying kid was the best thing on the show. Which is REALLY saying something. Don't worry kid, BTE is more entertaining when Matt and Nick are good guys. Do you want to know what makes Daddy Magic's nipples hard?!? Refence-getter Jones ?

Oh. Hell. Yeah. I dig this. I dig this very much indeed. I love watching Blackwell. In one of these Santos, Matt assigned us a "self-pick" week and I picked Blackwell & Bundy vs The Road Warriors, Blackwell vs Andre, and Blackwell vs Hansen. For myself. They were also good picks! Furthermore, I started a thread on these here boards in the early days of The Plague called The Clubberin' Thread or It's Clubberin' Time! or some such. My Grail at that time was matches that consist purely, entirely, and completely of clubbering and nothing but clubbering. They are surprisingly difficult to find. This match comes oh so very very close to being the platonic ideal of Clubberin' Time. Sadly, Bruiser Brody throws a dropkick. In my opinion, dropkicks are not clubbering. (They are high flying). Also Crusher Jerry Blackwell slams Brody at the end, just before the whole match breaks down into glorious, bloody chaos. But in my opinion one bodyslam is acceptable in a pure clubbering match. One dropkick, however, is not. That being said: The dropkick led to the most delightful thing about this match, which is the colour commentator twice referring to the dropkick as a wrestling hold. I am no longer a professional pro wrestling television personality, but in my opinion a dropkick is not a hold. (More of a move, I'd say. Or, a manoeuvre). The second time he said that, I laughed hard enough to wake up the neighbours. (It's just after midnight here). He just brings it up a second time, out of nowhere. Delightful. It was also a pretty nice dropkick. Second most delightful thing was the crowd popping like mad for a babyface run-in for the save... by King Kong Bundy! Face Bundy always feels like a glitch in the matrix to me. In my opinion, Jerry Blackwell 's clubbering is superior to Bruiser Brody's clubbering. But Brody has enough physical presence to absolutely make "sympathetic babyface Crusher Jerry Blackwell" make sense. That is impressive. He also sold more effectively than his reputation might suggest, once Blackwell's comeback began in earnest. The opening promo really seems like the deal then was 100% that we are meant to hate Adnan Al-Kaissie completely and entirely because he is Arabian and we are meant to also hate Bruiser Brody because he's associating with an Arabian fellow. It was kinda hard not to get wrapped up entirely in just thinking about that. But then Brody busted Blackwell open as soon as the match started and I snapped out of it. Also Al-Kaissie did heel stuff during the match, which I think is a better reason for us to hate him. From the point where Brody rammed Blackwell's head into the ring post, this was exactly - exactly -what I was in the mood for. Thank you, reverend! And, I hear ya, w/r/t nimrods posting video game footage disguised as pro wrestling match footage. Grinds my gears, too. I'm thinking of having my craw removed, to keep stuff like that from getting stuck in it. Edit: I believe this is the only match I have ever found that is literally 100% Nothin But Clubberin' It is awesome.

My take on this show was that I am more excited for Claudio vs Takeshita on Rampage than for any of this, but still excited enough for all of this to have literally picked up some popcorn on the way home from work, probably least excited for Undisputed Elite to appear or return or whatever, probably most excited for Hayter and Storm to put on a dumpster match of their own if you get my drift... (My drift is that there will be hip attacks) But, yeah! Kenny! I am more stoked now. Good call! I'm also unreasonably stoked to watch a Hobbs squash. Someone's gonna get yeeted!

I watched all three hours. That's enough f'n Sports Entertainment for me for another year at least. Not nearly as rough as I expected it to be, though. The camera work seems way more under control than what I'd expected. A lot of terrible acting and stilted, unnatural talking. All of the wrestling was good. Some of it was really good. Loved Booker T getting a big reaction in Houston. Loved the US title video package. Cutting the KANA match short was a massive kick in the nuts. Pretty much coming right out and saying, "This is not for you, Gordlow." Could have turned it off right there, really. Glad I stuck it out, though. It's not for me, still, but it's nowhere near the awful travesty I'd built current WWE up to in my mind. I guess I can see how people might enjoy this. No doubt, there are a ton of talented wrestlers working in WWE, and the lights and pyro and set dressing all looks very good.

And even better European uppercuts!

O I was there, live and in person, 7th row ringside, for that match. I was also a bit disappointed at the time. I had hoped I'd get to see a legit MOTYC live. I was still at that point in my fandom where I was obsessed with great matches. And, as you said, this one was merely a solid Budokan main event match. Now, I am just grateful I got to see Misawa defend the title live, and to see Samoa Joe, and to have had good seats at the Budokan. I would still like to see a legit MOTYC live and in person at least once in my life. I had my hopes up for Mox vs MiSu at Osaka Castle Hall, but it was merely a solid brawl. Difference is, this time I enjoyed it for what it was and didn't feel too disappointed.

@thee Reverend Axl Future You've yet to do us the courtesy of laying out what kind of match you'd like to be given, but according to this interview you have the excellent taste to count Adrian Adonis among your influences. This may not be the best Adonis match I could find on YouTube (That would probably be Adonis & Murdoch vs The Briscoes) but footage of a full 20-minute bell to bell AWA match is a rare enough treasure, I think. Plus, you seem like the type to appreciate the sublime stooging of Jesse Ventura. So: I present for your viewing pleasure: The East-West Connection vs The High Flyers I look forward to reading your thoughts thereon.

The actor who originally played Jeff the cabby is Don Harvey, who couldn't play him here because he was playing this guy in We Own This City: "I can't be on the Breaking Bad adjacent show because I am busy working on the The Wire adjacent show" has to be right up there among the best possible legitimate humble brags any actor has ever been able to make! Edit: I might as well be the one to make a "Scheme Gene" reference, since I'm here.

I couldn't choose between Mox vs Rush and Bryan vs Garcia... So I went with JD Drake. That was a really great YouTube match. I stand by my choice. My friend who still honestly likes sports entertainment raved about Drew vs Sheamus, but he also said that the camera moves and cuts and corporate speak are still in place (for the time being?) so I (sadly?) can't see myself sitting through 20+ minutes of that just yet.