Zakk_Sabbath

Nah AEW was just doing em like two months ago during the Edge/Malekai lead-up. We even got a Gangrel cameo!

I noticed that too, and it got me wondering if that was by design just to give the people a tiny little taste of them in a cage together before they eventually have a 1v1 in one - we've all kinda said variations on this, but there are really very few other places to go from that Texas Deathmatch (other than the 'exploding barbed wire with fixed ending' idea floated earlier in the thread - I'd credit whichever of you came up w that, but I'm on mobile so if I navigate away to check, this post is gone)

https://wrestlenomics.com/articles/2024/vince-mcmahon-moves-to-prevent-janel-grant-from-getting-evidence-in-state-petition-against-peak-wellness/ If I rolled my eyes any more, they'd be falling outta my head

Ah yeah, I'm with you, but this is a tough one - obviously in terms of importance, I don't love the preshow relegation, but at the same time, if that means getting four women's matches throughout the entirety of the night with two on the main card, I think overall that's a net positive

Just adding to your points (which I fully agree with) that All Out was actually like, a sneaky good show last year - I could definitely see either match being the low-key show stealer kinda like Miro/Hobbs Grand Slam might even be a better choice than All Out for the women, tbh - both are Long Islanders, and everyone was really bummed the year we didn't get to see Stat beat Jade because of her wheel, so I could see us being a great crowd to run that for. Ya know, for the promotion and both ladies' sake, not just cause I wanna be in the house for it... No selfishness in this comment, no sireee...

This, too - I didn't want to re-litigate the Raven thing from some years back, where he had people on his ass because he said "You know, there's a right way to do it..." But yeah, there's a right way to do it.

The match ends as a no contest due to a run-in from a re-debuting, newly-renamed Jinder Halal

I think in the modern era, you can repeat things as long as there's either some sort of refinement, meaning either a different outcome or a different path of getting there, or if it's outright addressed as referential or self-referential (e.g. 'My God, it happened again! We saw this just six short years ago, when...'). I'd argue that it's almost like a comic book, in a way - Superman's been around since 1938; everything you could do with that character has *probably* been done by now in one form or fashion - but they keep making stuff with him because there's always a chance to refine ('What if he and Lois Lane are married and have kids this time, no secret identity') or to self-refer ('Oh, no, not the Kryptonite, everyone knows that it's the only thing...') I'll end with one of my favorite Kevin Nash quotes: "I mean, look man, really, there's like seven fuckin' stories you can tell."

You gotta change your catchphrase to 'F Brie Bella' now instead (On the real, I am super-hoping this is merely the second in a long line of Terry Funk-type vacations - I'm not ready!!)

I had a REAL down year once in like '12 or '13 (Idk which, I just know I was drunk-posting about Dolph Ziggler a lot) and learned all about the joys of using diesel to replace home heating oil.

Same, I figured it out once he threw it at Swerve in the opening stretch because I noticed it had his "Scapegoat" logo on it, which I figured was probably a visual signifier to everyone not to use/break it before whatever spot (the old Balls 'n Axl trick)

Another thing I hadn't considered 'til mentioned - that's an excellent point. Maybe that's another part of why I found the finish a little anti-climactic? I'm sure there will be a lot of fair, good-faith criticism about that here and elsewhere today

I won't lie, I completely forgot about all of that PAC stuff 'til you mentioned it, and I'm a fan of the man. We got a bit of time yet, maybe we're headed for a three way dance - might be a nice way to avoid the pressure of trying to top the TV match by mixing it up a bit ETA: the American title thing is just to build heat, correct? Like a play on Ospreay turning the IWGP US into the UK title? That poor belt is always having an identity crisis.

Agreed on all of this - awesome debut for her, and I too get those vibes from the pairing. Mercedes/Kamille vs DMD/Hayter at All In?? This was a great show top to bottom. Jericho/Suzuki was just fantastic - I forget who said this a while back, but Jericho doing the aging Japanese heavyweight style just works SO well. The main event was dope as hell, but I found the finish a liiiiiittle anti-climactic, I think if the two big table bumps happened a little closer to Darby's whole thing (or even while he was on the mic) it would've worked a little better, but that's total nitpicking. It was otherwise perfect

Same but I am choosing to believe he is now fully shielded from death by the Harry Potter scar he got from the glass in the Sting match