James F'n X

This is probably my second favorite all time Raw moment, behind the night the heels actually won out for once in Vince's territory - the night Undertake got his face broken by Mabel and Mabel/Yoko/Dean Douglas/Owen/Bulldog standing tall over every face on Raw. Some truly unseen booking before on Raw. Sid fucking rules (I'm not even convinced he was a bottom third worker) and today sucks.

I am not a regular AEW watcher, but I got to catch a fair amount of this show and, while it had its ups and downs, the ups (May/Storm, most of Ospreay/MJF, Danielson/Swerve) were much higher than the downs I saw (the way too much overbooking in the final 5 minutes of Ospreay/MJF, Baker/Moné, the abruptness of Allin/Perry) and I didn't see stuff I didn't care about in my break from the show (Hook/Jericho, the tag title match) so it was a thumbs up from me. Mariah May and Toni Storm overdelivered on the promise of their match, outside of the randomness of May slapping her mother at ringside. There were a lot of antics in this match which kinda led me to believe either Luther was turning or May's mom was going to interfere on her behalf but May won mostly clean. This felt a lot like how Trish Stratus/Mickie James should have gone had they been allowed to have a blood feud. Really good work in the match too - I was very, very impressed with both women. I came back to the show in the middle of Will Ospreay and MJF and came into the top end of what Ospreay can do for me as a worker. I'm old, I'm jaded. I need guys like Ospreay to breathe in between spots, and for the most part, the two men let the big moments breathe. Then you get to the closing stretch and there was just too much between the ref bumps and belt shots and all of it. The right guy won and in the right way, but this didn't end up as more than the sum of its parts to me. The last couple years in the WWE system really killed Mercedes Moné's work ethic and enthusiasm for wrestling, or it at least seems that way. Playing permanent second fiddle to someone you're a better worker than but has more name recognition (Charlotte) and someone who the company got behind in a big moment in a way they never did with you (Becky) seems to have sapped all of that goodwill Moné had for the craft. Even on this big stage, this felt like cruise control, and Britt Baker isn't the dance partner to bring the best out of someone. The Money Maker is just a dogshit finish too. It was gonna be hard for these two to recapture the crowd after the emotion of Ospreay/MJF, but they didn't do themselves any favors with their work. Darby Allin and Jack Perry felt like they got told just before they went out that they lost 5-10 minutes of their original match. They made the most of it in my opinion, and while it's tough to sell Allin as a world championship caliber opponent after what basically ended up being a squash, I think you can tell a tale of Darby getting overconfident about 'his' match, and a sadist like Perry having built a revenge plan after Blood and Guts. Also, it's kinda refreshing to see the 'bind your opponent' spot actually work for once. What can I say about Bryan Danielson and Swerve Strickland that hasn't already been said. This is easily the MOTY to date for me. Pro-wrestling perfection told by both sides. Swerve's timing as a wrestler and a performer is absolutely top notch. His work is good enough to sell the rest of the package (I think he's better than John Cena as a worker and Cena made $TEXAS off of his selling and timing) and the package more than stood up to the test of making compelling moments where you could believe Danielson was taking the fall and ending his career in Wembley. The trash talking, generalship around the ring after the bell shot, all of it leading up to Danielson powering up out of Swerve's steal of the kick combo, the Busaiku Knee no-sell, and the finishing drive with Hangman Page providing just enough of a distraction to not end the match, but turn the tide. Wrestling is sport and art and at its best, those two elements dance together to create emotion. This match was everything you could want from pro-wrestling.

At least WWE still has the opportunity to do the funniest fucking thing of all time. Give Seth his WM win back over Cody. DO IT YOU COWARDS

I think 'Bucky' in this context is Kevin Dunn, referring to his teeth.

Bron broke when Taker came out too, you can see the smile on his face when the gong hits even though his eyes are trying to sell shock.

This is EC3 in his first WWE run on the old pre-black and gold NXT Redemption that was web only (I think? Maybe it was in syndication too or on Hulu?) - some real weird stuff in that run, with Johnny Curtis (now Dango) as the highlight.

The fire story is mentioned at the start of the episode amongst the other 'urban legend' stories about Bam Bam. It was treated as lore and not something that actually happened.

The other problem with two top line championships... why wasn't Damian Priest out there when Roman Reigns was out, beaten by Jey Uso? Just have him approach the ring and have Solo get in the way. I know storywise you want to let Jey have his moment, but Priest comes off as the dumbest dumdum there is when things like this happen.

Kind of a mediocre show. I enjoyed the Women's MITB and thought it had a really clever ending. GUNTHER was good, but the match was a glorified squash. Rollins/Balor was looking to be decent in the beginning with Rollins slowing down to work the ribs, but forget that after like 3 minutes. Main was a slog, Cody/Dominik was a nothingburger, and the only thing I remember from the men's MITB was Ricochet's dive through the ladder to the floor (which was pretty sweet! All props to him for the kind of spot that is new and isn't escalating ladder idiocy.)

Caught the show this afternoon and outside of Bad Bunny/Damien Priest (for obvious reasons) and Bianca/IYO, this felt like a big house show. Which isn't a sleight. House shows have great atmosphere and are usually pretty fun even if the matches are very by the numbers. The PR crowd was unreal hot all night and it took a B or B- show in ring and pushed it to an A experience. WWE should run more major events in neglected markets or smaller buildings and embrace their audience reactions instead of doing as much as they can to homogenize the TV product.

Christopher and Taylor were such good stooges. The platonic ideal of Memphis heels, dirty fighters always looking for a shortcut and never afraid to embarrass themselves to get the face over in the comeback.

'Diseased eggplant of a shoulder' is a phrase that's going to stick with me.

Mick is the last name. Shirt's on PWT.

It's amazing how much NXT has made me miss the fake woke Joe Gacy gimmick over the past couple of months. Bron should go over here, Gacy is a good enough and experienced enough worker to be a good foil for Bron. Kinda wish this was a spot for someone like Roderick Strong as an experience builder for Bron, but this will be fine and overbooked and I'll hate the overbooking. The whole of Toxic Attraction have to be close to being called up at this point - two fairly large roster spots are opened up and they're the most TV ready group of women in the promotion. I don't think Wendy Choo is the woman to take the belt off Mandy, but I really like a switch to Kayden/Katana. Not sure who the next challengers are after that, though. Rose/Choo should be very good. Grimes/Hayes one on one should be very good as well, and a title change here wouldn't surprise me. It's hard to tell if Hayes and Williams are going to be heading up post-Summerslam or not, but they're pretty good candidates. Hayes's gimmick translates well to the big stage, Cameron Grimes does not. I can see them putting the belt back on Hayes to elevate someone else Summerslam weekend or keeping it on Grimes to give some stability to the title. Pretty Deadly/Creeds has a decent chance of being match of the night and I expect Pretty Deadly to retain so they can cement the Creeds face turn vs. Roderick Strong. It actually feels like all of the Diamond Mine folks are likeable and I kinda expect the resolution to this angle is all of them kicking Strong out. Decent chance that within a year of the group starting, everyone that was in the initial Diamond Mine group will likely be out of it (and most of them out of the company entirely). I don't care about the family feud. Santos is languishing in NXT at this point and probably either needs to be called up or released. Should be a pretty good show as usual. NXT has a great track record of delivering on these events, even when the cards are a little lackluster.

Daniel Bryan did as well, and then cashed in/heel turned in the Big Show/Mark Henry feud.