Gordi the former AEW fan

Apparently this was posted 10 months ago, but it just came to my attention now. Apologies if it's already been posted multiple times here, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who missed it: 19 of the greatest ROH matches, from 19 years of the promotion. Over 9 hours of pro wrestling. 00:00 - 2002: Bryan Danielson vs Low Ki vs Christopher Daniels (Era of Honor Begins) 0:26:58 - 2003: Paul London vs AJ Styles (Night of Grudges) 0:55:40 - 2004: Samoa Joe vs CM Punk 3 (All Star Extravaganza 2) 1:29:35 - 2005: Joe vs Kobashi 1:57:15 - 2006: Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness (Unified) 2:29:19 - 2007: The Briscoes vs Steen/Generico (Man Up) 2:56:53 - 2008: Danielson vs Morishima (Final Battle) 3:17:34 - 2009: Danielson/Black vs Richards/Edwards (Tag Title Classic) 4:06:42 - 2010: Steen vs Generico (Final Battle) 4:43:23 - 2011: Strong vs Edwards (Manhattan Mayhem IV) 5:19:34 - 2012: Cole vs O'Reilly (Best in the World) 5:36:20 - 2013: Steen vs Jay Briscoe (Supercard of Honor VII) 6:03:30 - 2014: reDRagon vs Young Bucks (All Star Extravaganza VI) 6:28:49 - 2015: Lethal vs AJ (Final Battle) 6:57:19 - 2016: MCMG vs Young Bucks vs Addiction (All Star Extravaganza VIII) 7:31:23 - 2017: The Hardys vs The Young Bucks (Supercard of Honor) 8:09:12 - 2018: Briscoes vs Young Bucks (Best in the World 2018) 8:32:13 - 2019: GOD vs Briscoes (Manhattan Mayhem 2019) 8:55:35 - 2020: Gresham vs Williams, Pure Finals

That's amazing. And, it makes me feel very very old indeed. I used to work with his dad, Buddy Wayne, at Vancouver's All Star Wrestling. IIRC, the kid is only 16. Apple didn't fall to far from the tree, I guess. Looking forward to marking out when he makes his debut. Edit: Just remembered that Darby was trained by Buddy, so it makes sense that they sent him to offer the contract.

I'd argue that he's a Dragon. Or... Is he maybe both? Some kind of unholy Dragon/GOAT hybrid?!?!?

Whole lotta really fun post-modern tag team wrestling on tonight's show! Enjoyed that so much. "Bux going for the count-out" spot was great! Danhauesen = CHAOS confirmed. I have never had a Strong Zero in Roppongi, but I have at least one good friend who has. I've had plenty of Strong Zeroes in Dotonbori, though. Loved that opening match! Kind of hope Jim Cornette was watching and had several massive conniption fits. Dragon vs Taigastyle! That Hook pop! Young man has been studying his Samoa Joe tapes (or at least some "nope spot" gifs) I imagine the DMD match was good, enjoyed what we were shown of it... Hayter vs Mercedes is something to really look forward to (as is Dragon vs Moriarty and Beretta vs Switchblade...) Is it already TIME! for the MAIN! EVENT? This hour went quickly! Jungle Boy is all leopard style tonight, and Ass Boys new entrance gear is *****+ Enjoyed Jericho going all Jesse Ventura there Nice twist having Jungle Lad use the unprettier! I love pro wrestling.

Dynamite was just great this week. Can AEW keep the ball rolling? We’ll Hear From Bryan Danielson - I am in no way opposed to this. Presumably we are getting some fall-out from Mox teaming with Punk, and we might end up with Bryan, Moxley, Punk, and even MJF's storylines all woven together. Hook vs. QT Marshall’s top student Blake Li - I'm looking forward to this. My only question is: Will they use this as an opportunity to get another new young wrestler over (not that he needs to go over, just looking good against Hook should be more than enough) or will Hook just entertainingly steamroll the guy. Oh! I just realized I have another question: Will El Hijo del Tazmaniac pull out the head-drop no-sell in this one, too? Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. vs. Robyn Renegade - According to a tweet that @AxB posted, Charlette Renegade thinks her twin is going to do some stuff in this match that, to the best of my knowledge, has never been done on a pro wrestling network TV show before. Maybe it was just a typo. Roppongi Vice vs. The Young Bucks!! - We were supposed to get this match last month and I was really psyched for it, but Rocky tested positive for COVID-19 and the match was instead changed to Trent Beretta vs. Nick Jackson. I'm still psyched to see this. Plus, there's the whole Switchblade angle to consider this time. I kinda want Jay White to do a staredown with Danhausen here, just 'cause that seemed so unlikely a couple of weeks ago. AEW World Tag Team Championship Match: Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus (c) (w/Christian Cage) vs. Colten & Austin Gunn (w/Billy Gunn) - I'm not quite sure how it happened, but the whole "Ass Boys" thing has managed to get Gunn Club completely over with me, and I don't think I am alone in that at all. If you'd told me, like, three months ago that I'd be excited for this match... I would have believed you because it's AEW... but I am still a little surprised how excited I am to see this.

Look what I stumbled across today: Quality fan-cam footage of Andre & Giant Baba vs Misawa & Kawada from the '91 RWTL. There is so much to love here. The fans in Miyagi are just great, too, reacting to everything that happens.

It might also be worthwhile to consider which wrestlers come from the most populous areas. There are a lot of wrestlers (e.g. Tazz, Brody Lee) from New York City. Based on UN 2018 estimates, that's a population of 8.8 million in the city proper, 18.8 million in the greater metropolitan area. Makhan Singh and The Great Gama were billed as being from Karachi, Pakistan. UN estimates 14.9 million in the city proper, but "only" 15.4 million in the GMA... so it's maybe a less straightforward question than it seems. For the sake of argument, let's go with the total population of the Metropolitan Area. There are a ton of wrestlers (including Villanos I, II, III and V) from Mexico City (9.2/21.5) and Little Tokyo, who worked at WM III vs King Kong Bundy is presumably from Tokyo, Japan (13.5/37.4) so maybe Little Tokyo is the answer? HOWEVER Former Intercontinental champion Maximillian Moon was billed as being from Outer Space, which astronomers have estimated has a total population of roughly 70 billion trillion (70 times (10 to the 22nd power)). BUT Blitzkrieg was billed as being from The Cosmos. "Outer Space" does not include planet Earth (hence: "outer") but The Cosmos does. That's roughly 7.753 billion more people. So: in my opinion Our Top Three are: 1) Blitzkrieg 2) Max Moon 3) Little Tokyo

Special "Thursday" Dark (it's Friday here): Sonny Kiss vs. Aaron Solo: That's not a Pedigree. It's a Double Underhook Facebuster. Fast-paced, all-action match. Fun stuff. Abadon vs. Gia Scott: Did nobody tell Gia to sell fear w/r/t Abadon's gimmick? She worked this like a regular match. But she did a fine job of bumping and selling, and Mark Henry sold his fear charmingly well. Powerhouse vs Shotty: I liked the contrast in pace depending on who was on offense, with Hobbs biding his time and hitting his spots whereas Big Shotty ran around hitting the big man with everything he had. That spot on the outside where Hobbs fireman's carried Lee face-first into the ringpost was sick. I'll bet Hobbs enjoyed hitting a (great looking) spinebuster in front of El Hijo del Double A, too. Private Party and The Blade vs. Dante Martin, Matt Sydal and Lee Moriarty: Obviously that assisted sringboard flippy was meant to be the highspot that we take away from this match, but I honestly popped harder for: - Moriarty jumping up and down on the apron while waiting for the hot tag from Sydal. - "Oh my Gawd I'm so strong!" ? - The triple abdominal stretch spot.

So: You went looking for spoilers, and now you're angry because the surprises were spoiled? Seems reasonable ?

I was fully expecting that Good Ole would go full grandpa over a big man like Lee "voluntarily leaving his feet." Hearing JR mark out for Limitless Lee was straight up heartwarming. A very pleasant surprise indeed. One of the best things about the show, which is saying something.

That was such a great show. Great opening segment. Surprise dream tag match. Bloody, violent championship main event with a sick finish. Set the table for so much down the road. Including heel Jericho! I was more excited for Jay White showing up than I thought I'd be. Keith Lee's debut was perfect. Kassidy was the ideal opponent. That was the best looking Biel since Jessica. I'm torn between making a "Keith Lee looks too much like NXT v 2.0 superstar Bearcat" "joke" or being all "Who could have imagined that letting Keith Lee be Keith Lee would work?" Man, I love pro wrestling. Fuck Sports Entertainment.

AEW WORLD TITLE TEXAS DEATHMATCH: “Hangman” Adam Page(c) vs. “The MurderHawk Monster” Lance Archer So, this is pretty close to a foregone conclusion, right? Almost no way MurderHawk wins this one. But, I'd be willing to bet that they get us to buy into at least one close near-fall anyway. I've been an Archer fan since he came to my home town during the 2019 New Japan Cup and threw Will Ospreay all over the arena. It was one of the best matches I've ever seen live and in person. I think Page will be every bit as amazing bumping and selling for the big man, and making a fired-up believable comeback. I am very stoked for this match. MJF SPEAKS When MJF speaks, Wardlow listens. So does Gordlow. I'm interested to see how he heels it up about having beaten Punk, and curious to find out where the awesomely hateful little a-hole is headed next. FACE OF THE REVOLUTION QUALIFYING MATCH: Isiah Kassidy vs. ??? Whoever ??? turns out to be, you can't say that AEW didn't get us all thinking and talking about it. I'm looking forward to the aftermath on here almost as much as I'm looking forward to the reveal. INNER CIRCLE TEAM MEETING Speaking of "the aftermath on here" I know it won't be but I totally want this to be another musical comedy extravaganza along the lines of "Me and My Shadow" just to read all the takes people would have on that.

I was hoping your listicle of great ROH matches might lead to a regular gig on The Ringer. Happy to see it has. Now: It might be a bit early to go completely off-piste with your match selections, and it likely won't be the best match that AEW puts out this week (an argument could be made that it was only, like, the third or fourth-best YouTube match this week)... BUT One of the things I really love about AEW is how they can get us to care about damned near every wrestler on their roster and it's likely that no match will ever better exemplify that than Fuego Del Sol vs Serpentico (with Dr. Luther) on Dark. Kind of like how there might have been better WWE TV matches the week Koko B Ware had that 3-minute match with Barry Horowitz on Challenge but that match still stands out in our minds (and was therefore the very first match posted in the squash matches thread). I mean, these are arguably the two lowest guys on the totem pole in AEW but I feel like I know what to expect from both of them, and I like - and look forward to - watching both of them, and there were call-backs and twists based on what we've learned about their characters and have seen in past matches. Nothing too obnoxious or obvious, just fun stuff like how it was easy to predict that Luther would eat two topés in a row, but still satisfying when it happened. I think a write-up of that match might be a really good opportunity to talk about some of what makes AEW unique and special and why some of us love that promotion so much.

Just occurred to me (and apologies if someone already came up with this): What if the one coming through the forbidden door and slamming it shut on WWE is not a recently released wrestler, but a recently released producer, writer, and trainer? That's right! Ladiesangennelmen, children of all ages! I'm talking Road Dogg Jesse James! Bad Ass Billy Gunn! The Middle! Aged! Outlaws! Reunited to feud with the Ass Boys. And if you're not down for that, I got two words for ya: Fair enough. (But I bet they'd get a huge nostalgia pop and chant-along crowd response the first couple of times)

Who would be the worst possible signing that AEW could bring in as their huge surprise? There are so many options! Enzo Amore? Velveteen Dream? Marty Scurll? Lars Sullivan? Bully Ray? "Auntie Vax" Nia Jax? Michael Elgin? Alberto Del Rio? Taichi (without Miho Abe)? My top choices, just in terms of what would pop me, personally, considering who might be available: Tucky (to team with Bear Country and dominate AEW's trios division) 2 Cold Scorpio (as Flash Funk) Kizarny (seezo heeze ceezood ceezut preezumeezo eezeen kizarneezy about how they never used him right "up North") Chris Masters (to have a Hercules vs Billy Jack style feud with Dark Order #10 over who has the best Full Nelson) Damien Sandow (to do for "less talented Miz" what he did for regular Miz) Trevor Murdoch (to team with JD Drake, possibly as "The Murdoch brothers" in matching Dick Murdoch cosplay gear), (Oh! and maybe John Wayne Murdoch could join them, in the trios division) My actual dream pick: El Hijo del Vikingo (because El H del V in AEW would be too much fun) And one last one that might possibly only surprise and delight me: Kotoge, Harada, and Tadasuke (to reprise Momo no Seishun in AEW's new trios division)

Let's say that in 2019 I maybe had a wild dream that Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, Eddie Kingston, FTR, and Miro would all become regulars in AEW, and we'd get one-offs from some of my absolute favourites like Minoru Suzuki, Jeff Cobb and Tomohiro Ishii, and even left-field extremely unlikely choices like Nick Gage and Lulu Pencil would show up... Pretty wild dream, eh? So hell yeah. Dream big. It really seems likely we'll get it, and more, at some point, from this company.

It's hard to pick which Handsome Lad Title Match had the cooler finish. Kassidy's bump and Stark's reversal were both so awesome.

Adam Cole vs. Evil Uno I'm curious what percentage of posters here will be surprised when Uno is really good in this one. I think, for me, the Danielson match in November was the point where I finally started expecting him to be good every time out. It'll be interesting to compare that match with this one. Mercedes Martinez vs. Thunder Rosa Oh hell yeah! Hope I haven't set my expectations too high for this one. I remember once going to eat tonkotsu ramen in Fukuoka, the city that made tonkotsu famous (or maybe it's vice versa) and it was really very good and I was disappointed because I had been hoping for greatness. I kinda little bit felt that way after the Death Triangle vs PAC and PEZM match on Dynamite. Oh well, my expectations are sky high again. FTW Championship Match: Ricky Starks (c) vs. Jay Lethal TNT Championship Match: Sammy Guevara (c) vs. Isiah Kassidy It will be interesting to see where they slot these two handsome young champions. Which one will main event? (I'm guessing the TNT title match). Which one will be more exciting to watch? Out of the two handsome young champions, I've generally been more impressed by Sammy than by Ricky (which is not to say that Ricky isn't hugely entertaining, just that Sammy has so far been even more so in my opinion). But I think Lethal has been more impressive so far in AEW than Kassidy (understandably so, given his massive edge in experience). These both oughta be fun. This whole show oughta be fun. It's a good time to be a fan of professional wrestling.

"All I drink now is blood. And all I eat now are worms."

There is a whole thread here devoted to AEW navel-gazing ? Please feel free to start that discussion there! Edit: That's a big blind spot for me, the American indie scene from around 2005-2019, and I'd be interested in learning more about it.

I think our boy @The Natural is gonna have to expand his "Best of AEW" list because there are now more than 20 matches where you can't really leave them off... As it turns out, looking forward to a Spanky match in 2022 doesn't feel good at all. Mox vs Wheeler was great. Exactly what it needed to be. I love that commentary brought up the October Saturday Dynamite squash, and Wheeler's improvement since then. Also: Danhausen in Best Friends! Does that make him part of CHAOS as well? ? But that was all overshadowed by them taking the first big step in the Mox v Dragon storyline. Awesome. Don't know where they will go with this. Can't wait to see! And even that was overshadowed by a classic, long grudge match main event built almost entirely around sublime body-part selling. Pro Wrestling Heaven. There were a lot of nice individual moments on this show: Paige VanZant could be a nice addition to the AEW women's division.And that's all I have got to say about that segment. That blindfold bit in the tag match was really well done. Lars and Ruby! Sittin' in a tree. H-U-G-G-I-N-G! Impressive strength spot from Soho, followed up by a nasty-looking spinebuster on the floor from Rose. Tony not wanting to say "the s-word" and the rest of commentary straight no-selling JR's lame attempts at humour are both completely charming. On the upside w/r/t JR, I totally popped for "Bull of the woods!" "Doesn't know his flight for tomorrow is already cancelled" Mercedes vs Thunder on Rampage!! The MJF = Bullet Club false finish was AWESOME. Pepsi Plunge!! The Chicago crowd did not let me down. They made that great main event even better. Yes, please!

Understandable if it's true. WWE must be worried that Shane's awesome strikes will expose how phony Brock, Riddle, and other so-called tough guys are...

I'm all stoked that twos-day is on a Wednesday. What better way to celebrate 2/2/22 than with some wrestling! I want AEW to run a special named (premium live) Dynamite called "Chi Town Heat." (Though this probably isn't the best week for that, weather-wise). I remember thinking that was the coolest possible name for a wrestling show, back in 1987. That might have been the peak year for my personal National Wrestling Alliance fandom as well. Possibly the year I enjoyed pro wrestling the most purely as a fan (although there have been plenty of great years both before and since then). This is shaping up to be my peak year for AEW fandom, which is saying something. Though there are also potential future years with COVID restrictions lifted and the Forbidden Door flung wide open. So what does 2/2/22 have in store for us, AEW-wise? FTW TITLE MATCH: “Absolute” Ricky Starks(c) vs. Jay Lethal I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that there will be some exciting fast-paced action in this one. I'm also interested to see who will come out and even the odds when Team Tazz plays the numbers game (if they go that route). (AEW's website's Dynamite preview page has this match listed, but I think the Schiavone video says it's set for Rampage). Jon Moxley vs. Brian Kendrick It feels good to be genuinely excited to watch Spanky fight in 2022. I wonder of he'll bring something different out of Mox, or if he'll just get steamrolled by the guy who only drinks blood these days. Also: Maybe, just maybe, some Dragon involvement, too? TBS TITLE TOURNAMENT REMATCH: Nyla Rose (w/ Vicki Guerrero) vs. "Destination Unknown Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby" Ruby Soho There are so many great entrance themes in AEW and it really adds a lot to the shows, in my opinion. I really like a good David vs Goliath match, so I'm hoping these two bring out the best in each other. TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH: The House Of Black (Brody King & Malakai Black) vs. Death Triangle (PAC & PEZM) If this isn't excellent, I'm gonna be disappointed. I'm hoping they build and build to PAC and Black facing off and then the two of them burn the damned housed down. A HOMECOMING FIGHT: CM Punk vs. MJF It's not like I'm not looking forward to the wrestling here, but I am genuinely more looking forward to listening to the (presumably white hot) Chicago crowd than I am to watching this match. I hope that makes sense.