Gordi the former AEW fan

Wow! The DVDVR Road Report crew were not kidding. SCHAFF got a HUGE reaction from the Seattle crowd. The DEFY chant makes me happy. AEW fans are INDIE fans! Hats off to Brian Cage for reading the room and giving Schaff a ton. Got some Lance Archer vibes from Schaff, though obviously he's not as tall. THE BOLLYWOOD BOYS are from Vancouver, my erstwhile home town! Kingdom are from 2003, style-wise. Vancouver is close to Seattle. This crowd loves Gurv and Harv, too. When I moved to Japan in 2009, I sold off my stock of protein powder, supplements, and training gear to "the boys" backstage at a Vancouver All Star show. I am pretty sure either Harv or Gurv bought my pea-based chocolate protein powder. Brush with greatness! HEYYYY I'M LIVINNNN! The Festival of The Wrong Guys Going Over continues as the House of Spooky Metal go over the superior in EVERY way (except tattoos) Wingmen. Matches are all REALLY good, though. I'll leave thoughts on Pretty Peter's hair to DEAN. Our first mostly one sided match is a Hobbs semi-squash, so it was also enjoyable. The finish, with Hobbs catching Pacifico on a dive and turning it into a SPINEBUSTER, was excellent. Marina twists people, Nyla mauls them, Vickie is upset about something. It's a reliable formula! I want my legs to look like Josh Woods's legs, and my upper body to look like Claudio's. Their match would have been a perfectly satisfying Rampage main event. This is shaping up to be an all time great episode of Elevation! Just like we predicted! Not to be churlish, but in my opinion Matt's dark shiny green and black gear did NOT colour coordinate with Ethan and Isiah's gorgeous lime green and black gear. Heel ATHENA is among my very favourite things in all of pro wrestling. ATHENA vs MARINA! Oh boy. That could be amazing. KINGSTON & ORTIZ! Speaking of favourite things! I guess Ricky Gibson's usual partner Robert Morton was busy the night they taped this. Seattle LOVES Mad King! Rightly so. I am happy Christopher Daniels can wrestle again, but he seems to still be knocking some rust off. Best Friends vs Chaos Project is the Platonic ideal of an AEW YouTube main event. 95 minutes just flew by, here today.

Yep! Kingdom vs Bollywood Boys, Claudio vs Josh Woods title match, Bandido vs Christopher Daniels, and an Athena squash! That would be a pretty good episode of Rampage! PLUS: Best Friends vs Chaos Project, House of Black vs Wingmen, a Hobbs squash, Brian Cage vs A Big Guy, Kingston & Ortiz... PLUS: That Seattle crowd! Yowza. We're getting PPV-quality TV and TV-quality YouTube this week.

There seems to be a genuine misunderstanding of what Bryan's intentions were in insulting Mrs. Friedman. It very much reminds me of the time Raven complained, quite accurately, that WCW was being written by people who had never been in a fistfight and therefore had no idea what actual men might actually want to fight about. In my opinion, when a man insults another man's mother what is actually going on is a challenge to the son's manhood. It's understood that nobody is actually claiming that anyone's mother has actually slept with a lot of men, or genuinely has her own postal code, or legitimately can't afford to pay attention. Also, with only a few unfortunate exceptions, nobody really thinks "your momma" jokes are legitimately amusing in this day and age. What is being implied is much more along the lines of "If you were as much of a man as I am, you would not allow me to say these things about your mother. Yet, here I am saying them. Thus, you are a cowardly weakling and less of a man than I." It's a (childish, immature, but very effective) way to goad someone into fighting you. Or to shame THEM, by backing them down. It's certainly not "slut shaming." It's not actually about anyone's mother at all. Bryan made " Human Suitor" jokes with a big goofy grin on his face to put MJF in his place after Friedman tried to challenge Bryan's manhood by implying that Bryan's mother slept with a goat. What was being implied, in MJF's insult and in Bryan's comeback was clearly, in neither case, actually about Mrs. Friedman or Mrs. Danielson. They were insulting and challenging each other's manhood. Now, if you want to claim that there are more tasteful ways to do that, you'll get zero argument from me. On the other hand, implying that Bryan really believes that Mrs. Friedman is unusually promiscuous, or that he is legit trying to imply such a thing, or that he even really cares about how she conducts her personal life, is either disingenuous or straight-up ignorant of the ways of the playground.

Jeff Jarrett in AEW has had me thinking a lot about the value of horseshit in professional wrestling. (My basic take: I like it a lot in general, but I genuinely dislike horseshit finishes in AEW). This match has one of the greatest creative horseshit finishes I have ever seen. There is a fascinating mental exercise being played out here. JYD is SO POPULAR with the crowd in the Sam Houston Colosseum. They LOVE him! Even if you were unaware of the story of The Junkyard Dog, you can see this is true by watching his entrance, with fans crowded right up against the ring, jumping up and down in time to Another One Bites the Dust and screaming at the top of their lungs. It's amazing. JYD was, like maybe Hogan and Goldberg and Billy Graham and The Road Warriors and Rikidozan, one of those rarest of gems in pro wrestling history: A guy who got COMPLETELY over as a superhero through a magical combination of a great look and/or image and booking and almost 100% pure horseshit in the ring. Well-suited to quick, dominating wins that send the crowd home delerious with happiness (or maybe lots of stooging to enrage the crowd if you're Superstar Billy Graham). So the mental exercise is this: You are Nick Bockwinkle, touring World Heavyweight Champion. How do you work an entertaining longer title match, keep the belt, and escape with your life? The crowd is BOISTEROUS. The announcer has to constantly remind them not to throw things. It is not at all difficult to imagine them rioting if JYD gets cheated out of a win. It would be hard to come up with a better solution to that dilemma than what we get here. Dog wins the first fall perfectly clean, and quickly, with his Big Thump Powerslam. Bockwinkle sells like crazy and works the whole second fall from underneath but squeaks out a pinfall when JYD misses a falling headbutt and Bock quickly capitalizes with a piledriver. In the meantime, you have firmly established that the ref, Nick Kozak, is a fair and reliable authority figure who won't allow Bock to cheat or Heenan to interfere. In the final fall, the ref gets accidentally knocked down while Bock is being slammed again. While the ref is recovering and Bock is being pinned, Hennan leans into the ring and slaps the mat twice. Kozak recovers and starts his count... but, the dog has heard the mat being slapped three times! He lets Bockwinkle up! Kozak explains that he only made a one-count. JYD figures out he's been cheated, hauls The Weasel into the ring and decks him. The bad guys beat a hasty retreat. Kozak DQs Bock because he saw Heenan in the ring. JYD wins! Presumably the moment that Bock and Brain are safely out of the reach of the crowd, they announce that the title can't change hands on a disqualification. Brilliant. Perfect horseshit. And, at that point in history, necessary horseshit. Other notes: Physically, JYD looks GREAT here. A bodybuilder physique. There is a great bit of in-ring storytelling where after an extended bear-hug Bock is unable to hit a move on JYD because his back gives out. There is a perfect echo of that sublime spot in the WAR match I gave Smelly! (Frankly, my dude, I am surprised you didn't mention that. It was beautiful). Both matches, in my opinion, get creative with the rest holds. In this match it's Bock operatically thrashing around while JYD catches his breath. In the WAR match I'd argue that there are zero moments where Hara and Iahikawa are "laying around in holds" but instead they are always struggling (though not as theatrically as Bock does) and often building to something, as when Hara tries whipping Ishikawa into a headlock for a third time, but gets backdrop suplexed as punishment for going to that well too often. I totally agree with you, Smelly, that Sumo has a lot in common with O-line play. I also wish ex sumo wrestlers would use more sumo-specific stuff in the pro wrestling ring. I loved Ishikawa's shoulder block out of the sumo stance that knocked Hara flying out of the ring. Surprised that didn't pop you. I have been to live sumo in Fukoaka and in Osaka with my wife, and I hope that you and Lady Smellington get to enjoy that experience some day. The cheap seats are just fine. It's way better live than on TV.

Smelly, this is not a random hilarious 6-man WAR tag match like you asked for.This is the other kind of groovy WAR match, which is two erstwhile sumo wrestlers just LAYING IT IN on each other. Big Meaty Men Slapping (and kicking, and shoulder-blocking, and forearm-smashing, and suplexing, and CLOTHESLINING) Meat. I LOVE this match but I can imagine people who would not love it at all. It is not the fastest-paced match you will see this week, I'd imagine. There is little that is graceful. There is much that is NASTY. The ending is kinda weird. Still, I think there is a chance you might just love it, too: @SirSmellingtonofCascadia

Two thoughts on that: 1) Six and a quarter out of five is the most completely stupid match rating I have ever seen. 2) He is not wrong. It's stupid, but it's accurate.

MJF is overrated as a talker and underrated as a wrestler.

OH MAN DARBY VS JOE WAS GREAT! They tried to out-insane OSPREAY VS OMEGA. Didn't get there, but they really tried. The celebration with Sting afterward was GREAT! THAT WHITE HOT SEATTLE CROWD was GREAT!! Hometown boys in the spotlight is so much fun. Joyous. A clear distinction from how WWE books guys in their hometown. That LONG FESTIVAL OF YOUR MOMMA JOKES to set up A BRYAN SINGLES MATCH EVERY WEEK was pretty great too. BRYAN vs TAKESHITA makes up for a lot. Which is good, because there was a LOT to make up for. In my opinion, TROLLING YOUR FANS IS SOME PURE WWE BULLSHIT and AEW shouldn't be pulling horseshit like that. They pulled it twice today, with that awful Dusty finish and the FTR tease. I prefer it when you respect your fans, AEW. In the moment before it became apparent they were gonna do a Dusty finish, I ACTUALLY thought to myself, "Well, at least this will free up a lot of time in my schedule." And we set up a "NO HOLDS BORROWED" re-match. Oh hooray. Endless Jeff Fucking Jarrett. DEAN is right, though. Gordlow needs his pee breaks. I love Jamie Hayter but in my opinion "we have been in AEW longer" vs "I have been a female wrestler longer" is a dumbass argument to build a feud around. I am kinda glad Mercedes Banks is NOT gonna be Saraya's partner. Because she would IMMEDIATELY have been treated as the most important female wrestler in AEW, ahead of Hayter and Athena and that also would have put a bug up my ass. On the other hand: Shida heel turn could be GREAT. I was worried that the new red and blue colour scheme would feel way too WWE, but it was relatively unobtrusive. This was a real "Homer goes for frozen yogurt" couple of hours for me. There was WAY more good and pretty great and GREAT stuff than shitty Burger King sports entertainment stuff, but oh boy was the bad ever bad today. AEW is clearly changing. In my opinion, changing for the worse... ... But the great stuff is unbelievable, and there were a ton of little things that popped me, too: MJF referencing Jim Cornette Action Andretti Hangman's jean jacket He called Jarrett "Jericho"! The massive rush of Shadenfreude I got from the FUCK YOU JARRETT chant. Jungle Hook Bryan's big honest smile Human Suitor! Mox just dropping an F bomb Darby hugging and Joe choking Buddy Wayne's son! BRYAN VS TAKESHITA! So my schedule remains pretty full.

Oh, man! Omega vs Ospreay was ABSURD! NOT AT ALL the match I was expecting those two to have. Incredible. For a show where my three favourite guys in the company (Ishii, Cobb, and Shingo) were all relegated to the Ranbo and MiSu and Naito both worked nostalgia trios matches, I still enjoyed the hell out of everything. But Omega vs Ospreay was on another level. I'm still freaking out about it now. Edit: for the record, I REALLY enjoyed Kairi vs Tam and Ren vs Zack, too.

Oh boy there is a WHOLE LOT of professional wrestling to watch in the next couple of days! I'm off to my buddy's house to watch (presumably 5+ hours of) Wrestle Kingdom this afternoon, then there's a huge Dynamite tomorrow morning. Time-zone-wise, probably easier for me than for folks who need to stay up late to watch WK 17. And a pretty darned good episode of Dark to kick off the marathon! I was gonna skip the write-up, but DEAN is dealing with family stuff (and all our hearts are with you, brother!) and also I'm back to work full time next week and this is likely my last opportunity to do a full-ish YouTube write-up for a while. It was interesting and a bit weird to see Christopher Daniels back in the ring! It does not seem like his genuinely emotional goodbye to wrestling on BTE was all that long ago. Sadly, the match was kinda sloppy and meandering. They did a lot of stuff but didn't really tell a story in there. But, there was a huge pay-off later, as ARN ANDERSON had a segment with Pillman Jr (who ate the pin after a Best Moonsault Ever from Danielson) and Brock (Anderson) to set up the two second-generation guys teaming up and trying to rebuild their badly-stalled momentum. Yeah! Gimme ARN! Gimme redemption stories! EMI is always great. Today was no exception. She's a treasure. Dak Draper has a great body! He did the job for Nemeth (who wore out his welcome with me due to horribly unfunny BTE bits, but seems to be getting more interesting in the ring). ALL HEART BLAKE CHRISTIAN (and AR Fox and Action Andretti) are all guys I am STOKED to see more from. Then, immediately after Blake's very good match, I get to see more of Blake and Fox, as they run out to save Leon Ruffin from a beat-down at the hands of the TRUSTBUSTERS after the very next match! The ensuing trios match should be just great! Seeing Rohit Raju and Jora Johl back to back makes me realise that I have been conflating them. Hopefully that doesn't make me a racist! Johl is way more roided-up-looking. Both guys looked fine in there, neither of them looks amazing... yet. I still love the Dark Order. The Varsity Athletes (Abs & Quads) look GREAT squashing jobbers, and The Skulk are one of the best AEW YouTube "enhancement" teams. Right up there with Pillars of Destiny. I heard that there's a Skulk vs Workhorsemen match coming up. Looking forward to that one! Kiera Hogan's match was extremely succinct. WE GOT TO. HEAR THE TRUSTBUSTERS THEME TWICE TODAY!! Slim J & Sonny Kiss have to be one of the most entertaining tag teams of all time! This is why I personally watch AEW. it was great to see CAPTAIN SHAWN DEAN again! His top rope splash finish is more basic compared to the TWO 450 splash finishes we got today, but no less exciting. WORKHORSEMEN vs TOP FLIGHT is a PERFECT Dark main event. JD Drake is genuinely great in the ring. Tomorrow we get the debut of the red and blue neon and lasers Dynamite. Some stuff I am super-stoked for (Will Bryan vs Neece be better than Bryan vs Ethan? What new variation of Joe murdering Darby will they come up with?) (How hot will the Seattle crowd be?) and some stuff that is just not for me at all (Jarrett and Saraya both being involved in major storylines and matches, for example). SO MANY wrestlers on Dark today I personally would prefer to see in the spotlight. Oh well. Enjoy Wrestle Kingdom! See if you can find Muto vs Shinsuke on YouTube! See you in Seattle! (Metaphorically).

Wow! Phil is capable of enjoying himself some fun, spectacle-style pro wrestling! Who knew? Great write-ups this week, as well as surprising and interesting choices. I fully endorse his "other" selection this week. https://www.theringer.com/2023/1/3/23537395/shinsuke-nakamura-the-great-muta-best-wrestling-matches edit: whoops, meant to post this in the "Phil's lists" thread.

Fuck's sake. Jeff f'n Jarrett on Dark Elevation (which I understand is meant to "elevate" young wrestkers who need more exposure and experience) somehow hurts WORSE than seeing him on AEW's network TV shows. I mean, it seriously and deeply bummed me out. Too bad that's likely to be my main takeaway from this episode as there was otherwise a whole lot to like here. Any time Shida is in action, Gordlow is happy. Did you know she started out as an actress and model in Japan and got interested in wrestling when she got a part in a movie called "Three Count"? I was STOKED to see Pillars of Destiny back in AEW. I think they had a fight with Butcher and Blade six or so months ago. Which I was tipped off about and REALLY enjoyed. I wanna see Pillars of Destiny vs Gates of Agony! I don't mind seeing Matt Hardy on Elevation, even though in my opinion he is not a young wrestler in need of experience and exposure. I like how the Hardy Party vs Ethan story keeps getting built up on the YouTube shows. I wish Marina still had that solo violin entrance music. She is still inconsistent in the ring, but at her best she is tremendous. Today she was so-so. Athena was TREMENDOUS. Athena is always TREMENDOUS. Arguably the best wrestler in AEW right now, which is REALLY saying something. D.O. vs SAP & Nemeth is EVERYTHING I want out of AEW. So weird, so unpredictable, SO ENTERTAINING! I am bummed Pretty Peter cut his hair, though. The hip-swivel stuff here was first rate pro wrestling. I was kinda bummed Leva Bates just got squashed. Boo Julia Hart for disdaining books! Satnam continues his run of nice suits! I was prepared to be bummed that Higane Shinno was being used as a jobber after his excellent performance vs Kenny... But HOB gave him a TON in this match. Brody King looks awesome. I hope the guy who ate the pin didn't legit hurt his knee. Jarrett in AEW is my least favourite thing in all of pro wrestling right now. Hopefully I can get over it, because he doesn't seem like he's going away any time soon and it's really hurting my ability to fully enjoy AEW right now. Fuck.

I think if you count all the plain white t-shirts sold in 2022, Bryan Danielson actually wins by a huge margin.

So, yeah, if anyone had tried to tell me, "Hey, Gordlow! The first match you watch in 2023 will have Horace Boulder in it, and also you will LOVE that match," I believe I might have been sceptical. Gotta love DVDVR and Secret Santo. Where else you gonna hear about stuff like this? Hulkster's nephew is UNRECOGNIZABLE in this, slender and long-haired. He and Atsushi Onita IMMEDIATELY brawl into the crowd, and all over the gymnasium. In the meantime, EL HIJO DEL SANTO and NEGRO CASAS are having a Santo vs Casas match in the ring! And the crowd is going CRAZY. And I am thinking about Tim Patterson. I am assuming he has this in common with Rick Fuller: a guy who was "just a jobber" in WWF/WCW but a main event local hero in their home territory. He seems to be here just to bleed and do one "malfunction at the junction" spot with Santo and Boulder. I wonder, when he's at the bar, does he talk more about the time he shared a ring with Casas, Santo, AND Onita, or about that time he did the job for Hacksaw on Superstars or whatever. Here's my memory of him: Jesse or Brain or someone jokingly asking if he was Pat Patterson's son and me and my friends having a hearty "we get that reference" laugh about it. And before I finish that thought, the match is over. And I am thinking , "That was extra succinct," but it turns out the match is 2 outa 3 falls which makes me unreasonably happy. More craziness! If I have a complaint, it's that the match is mostly Onita and Boulder brawling FMW style while Casas and El Hijo del Santo play the hits. If they crossed over more, the match might have been even more insane. It's still pretty nutzoid. For example: there are two refs (I think 1 Japanese and 1 Mexican) and their poorly synchronized double-dive-to-the-mat three counts are a genuine highlight. And there is the insane indeed visual of Santo standing high in the corner triumphantlywaving a JAPANESE flag at the end! What a way to start the New Year! Thank you, Curt.

Curt! Here's the match that stole WM weekend back in 2018. It's probably less astonishing to watch now than it was back then, considering most of us now know what a maniac old man PCO is and ALL of us are well aware that WALTER is the greatest practitioner of BMMSM in the postmodern world. It's still a VERY fun watch, though. Nice surprises keep popping up in my YouTube feed and I am happy to pass them on. Once again, my request: NO "GREAT" MATCHES FOR ME, PLEASE! No ***** Meltzer/Keith-style epics that go long, have tons of (empty) flash and multiple finisher kick-outs. I have seen too much of that. I am here for interesting/weird matches. I love Kenny. I love Okada. I loved Kenny vs Okada at Dominion. I DO NOT WANNA WATCH THAT KIND OF MATCH HERE. I wanna watch Kenny vs Little Girl. Gimme weird. Gimme crazy. Gimme violent. Please don't gimme self-consciously epic and flashy. Also do not give me Sports Entertainment. No WWE. WWWF is fine, if it's weird and/or involves Andre. Also, unless you specifically ask, I won't be giving out great matches, but rather weird or interesting or nostalgic ones.

酒ましておめでとう!ことしもヨロヨロしくおねがいします！

Here's my takeaway from Orange vs Trent:There's a time for love, and a time for letting it be. Chuck looking like Dave Grohl. (There goes Chris Hero! He's ordinary!) Powerslap is the DUMBEST thing I have kinda wanted to watch since... Since The Go Big Show, actually! Nice story progression in the Callypigian Title Match! Hogan & Cake vs Jade & Baddy #2 oughta be fun. Athena > Jade, clearly... but Athena > a lot of people in the ring. I wonder if Bryan vs Neece will be a better match than Bryan vs Ethan (my BOLD PREDICTION: Abs-olutely!) B-b-b-b-b basketball! C'mon c'mon gimme the ball because I'm gonna DUNK IT! There was a lot of nifty and neat-o wrestling in THE MAIN EVENT! but I was totally distracted by trying to figure out if Boudreaux was wearing Zubaz or not. I totally wore Zubaz and a fanny pack in the 1980s! All the damn time. I thought Boudreaux was wearing snakeskin Zubaz and was kinda bummed out it was actually fancy distressed jeans. Zicky Dice, baby! Cool show to end the year on! Sufficiently weird and indie to make ole Gordlow very happy! EDIT: the memorial graphic to start off was nice to see, as well. I heard Cole also said something on SmackDown. RIP

Don't be a dummy, be a smarty! You're the worst Jeff since Nemo Hardy

Last AEW show of the year! ORANGEY BOY CASSDIDY vs TRENT QUESTION MARK! Last GREAT match of the year? Maybe! I am.SUPER stoked to see how they work this one! Both of these guys are VERY good at the whole pro wrestling part of pro wrestling. It's for the ALL ATLANTIC CHAMPION'S HIP! I think Trent could also represent that region, but I BOLDLY predict that Orange will win. KIP SABIAN "in action" and I wanna joke that I BOLDLY predict Kip will win... but we all know what happened last time Jericho was in action, so I am afraid to make that joke. tbs Champion JADE CARGILL vs KIERA HOGAN in a match I BOLDLY PREDICT will be extremely callipygous! And also probably pretty good. WHEELER YUTA vs SWERVE (WITH BOUDREAUX AND WHITE UMAGA) which really could be the last GREAT match of the year. I think maybe Ren vs Zack at WK17 might be the first GREAT match of 2023. Maybe Go vs Nakajima? HAPPY NEW YEAR! よいお年を! Cheers for all the great discussion and all the lousy jokes this year. Here's to more of the same in 2023!

Hardy? EDIT: NOT that Jeff Hardy is WORSE THAN Dalmer Just, that could be who they changed it from.

I kinda feel sorry for Jay and Okada. Hopefully they will take the wiser course of working a more dramatic, face/heel storytelling match rather than trying to top the insanity of whatever Kenny and Okada are going to do in the ring. Seems like the rambo is gonna be stacked this year, I am excited for Zack vs Ren, and the crowd reaction for Muto will be interesting.

We didn't get two ladies matches, as I had heard we would, but at least the match we got was really good and got lots of time. Hitting a guy in the knee with a metal pipe is GREAT birth control Great show all around, too to bottom. 'You're the worst Jeffrey since Dalmer' popped me hard. Joe and Wardog did a great job building everything around the knee. Elite and DT are SO creative! Gotta go!

I slept in today (stayed up late fooling around with my Christmas gift, Switch Sports). So, I figured I'd browse on the boards here then catch Dark later. Then I saw this. Switched over to YouTube (no pun intended) just in time to catch the end of the Iron Savages match. Hey! Remember when I was being perfomatively outraged about Bear Country changing their name? Well... i do. I was kidding around by repeating the complaint repeatedly, but in fact I don't like the name change and it's tied in to my most recent post in the Navel Gazing thread. In my opinion Bear Country is a cool, kinda weird, very indie name for a tag team whereas Iron Savages is a second-rate generic corporate faux tough guy name. It's like when Handsome Kurtie and the Angry Sad Boys signed with a major label and changed their name to Nirvana. I also caught Mafiosa popping Taz with her character work, which was fun... but I am doubly baffled that for the second time in two days a match was ended with a simple basic transition move like the Canadian Destroyer. It's gotta be a rib of some kind! And then the match we ALL wanna see was the Main Event. Slim J came to the ring accompanied by Sonny Kiss and Jeeves K! They played the very Jane's Addiction TRUSTBUSTERS theme!! (I preferred them when they were called Peripheral Perry and the Sunset Boulevard Band) I am SO HAPPY the Trustbusters still exist! When Boudreaux came out with White Umaga to back up Swerve,and Davari teamed with Neese and Whatshisface, (Abs & Quads) I was afraid that the Trustbusters had busted and we'd never hear that theme again. HEYYYYY, I'M LIVIN'! Also the match was very very good. I will likely watch the rest of Dark later. I may or may not append further comments.

Awesome job on the timeline and the list, buddy! Although, you somehow seem to have forgotten that The Greatest Professional Wrestling Match of All Time took place in 2022. A match which in comparison made Bret vs Austin look like HHH vs Scott Steiner from RR '03. Of course I am talking about Brandon Cutler vs Pretty Peter Avalon Chapter IV. Other than that baffling oversight, though... Seriously, great work. What an amazing year!

Hang on, big write-up on the way! Have to switch browsers. I read that Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., Jamie Hayter & Rebel vs. Hikaru Shida, Toni Storm & Saraya is also booked for this show and I hope that's true for two reasons: 1) it's not on the graphic, but Ruby & Willow vs TayJay is. Which seems to address my concerns about Saraya being immediately positioned above wrestlers I care about, like Willow. 2) it would mean TWO BIG LADIES MATCHES ON ONE SHOW! Which would obviously be hugely positive and a thing AEW could do more often. So, I hope I am not mistaken about that, and it is actually booked for Rampage or something. MATCH 6 of 7. Falls count anywhere! We are mostly taking this series for granted, aren't we? The level of creativity here is just outstanding. Definitely a lot of us take the crazy athleticism for granted now. Like we're indulging in chocolate fondue at the buffet every week and now we are likely to complain if the bananas aren't perfectly ripe or something. Ethan vs Brian is gonna be a referendum on Ethan, for me at least. I never saw The North. I remain relatively unimpressed with Ethan in the ring thus far. How many dudes have had their best match vs Bryan? A lot! So: This could be very telling. i like how they have built to Claudio & Mox vs Top Flight. I hope they give the young guys a LOT of room to shine. And I also hope they kick their f'n heads in. And I hope for a show of respect at the end. Ruby & Willow doing a Rock and Sock variation where Willow's positivity rubs off on Ruby is so much fun! They built on it on Elevation today and it popped the crowd. I could not be more stoked for Wardlow vs Joe. Oh, baby! BMMSM time.