Zakk_Sabbath

Heh I was cheating you got me there. But yeah, just too good for me to be objective about. If we're disqualifying any that we're biased on from attending, then I change my pick to Winter Is Coming '20 too, I think

You're probably right in the grand (lol) scheme of things, but personally speaking I've got to respectfully disagree. You've got not only the tag Niko mentioned (which is maybe Sting's best AEW match) but a sadly forgotten Malekai Black/Cody bout which I thought was fantastic, and a really, really good Punk/Hobbs match from Rampage where they were aping a ton of spots from Bret/Diesel. Edit: Plus the big Kingston/Mox v Suzuki/Archer main event w Homicide!

That's totally fair - really as a bigger fan of Hobbs' than Wardlow's, I can't disagree with your logic. Its just frustrating as fuck because you're right, he really isn't - but dammit if he wasn't close for a period. Idk if he's quite as "rehabbable" as like a Jay White or some of the others mentioned, but I feel like it's at least worth a shot given the initial investment - though it's possible i'm falling into a "sunken cost" thing here This is going back a bit, but I think the whole "MJF plane ticket weekend" thing really took away from what should've been a much bigger, much more cathartic moment for his character. I'm not certain about this, because obviously both guys were hurt almost immediately after, but I felt that the pairing with Adam Cole and his guys might've been a bit of an attempt to recapture some of that down the line

Ok you win the day for teaching me this term lol

Co-signed to the fullest degree. Back in late '21(?) during the seemingly endless Joe/Hobbs/Wardlow feud over the TNT/ROH TV titles, I was hoping we'd eventually get those two teaming up against Joe and someone in exactly that fashion.

This is a fantastic idea which I would be glad to see on TV, but at the same time, Hangman's been on fire lately and I'm not sure he needs it. If I had the pencil, I'd hold off on formally retiring Satnam until Hobbs is ready to return, and have him do the honors. This gives a nice excuse to refer back to the footage from that big Jericho-verse tag where he took out Big Show on the hood of the car (which I felt they hadn't utilized enough at the time he was hurt).

I'm excited to see him mix it up with Hologram (and it's also been really nice having Komander around even if he's mainly been relegated to trios).

Note to self: refer to the Bloodline as "cinema" next annual review

Late to the party, but real life got in the way a bit this week. It was definitely a sad sight to see how scaled down it was, but I think the show itself was the best since year one (at least as a live experience). We were tired as hell by Collision, but the MxM stuff got a great reaction in the building and was a really nice way to cleanse the palette before Okada/Sammy. On the attendance front, one big positive I noticed was that they were pushing the upcoming shows in NJ and CT hard, at one point even putting a QR code up on the KhanTron to buy tickets which I thought was brilliant. It's a good first step, at least.

More tomorrow because 95 is a mess and I have no voice, but the verdict: still ruling the motherfucking world

I mean, obviously you never match the first shows in a market attendance wise, but this is always the time of year I start to have some very serious questions about the sales/marketing team. I live in the area and have seen no billboards, no commercials, no radio ads, no Google ads, zip. One interview on the FAN, that's it. I'm about to leave in the next hour or so, and everyone I've mentioned it to is like "That's today?" I'm not saying they could've come close to year one, but I have no doubt they could've had a better showing if this were advertised *at all*. Yeah, it's "the market" but at the same time it's NYC, we're not talking about Casper, WY here; people would've traveled. I had a great time chatting with a guy from Germany in line one year ffs ETA: this in no way affects my excitement level for the show btw, it just drives me nuts. I'm finally gonna see Okada!!!! Nigel/Danielson!!! Maybe!!!! Also mysteries!!!!

It could be recency bias, but I'd throw a pre-COVID Keith Lee's name into the hat for this one. In keeping with your AJPW theme, I'll also say Bossman - I forget what match it was I saw a while back where he was doing like a prototype version of the Claudio/Sami-in-NXT, run-around-the-post thing, but it was super friggin cool. Like, pick a similarly built modern guy - I don't think a JD Drake or a Kevin Owens could do it today as well as he did it then, even w the template already in place. Mans was sweating like Mike Tyson in whatever match that was where he had gonorrhea

When MJF was doing the renamed American title gimmick they should have had him tweet about refusing to work Saturdays, insisting "NO Collision!! Sad!!"

I was just saying before All In, wouldn't it be crazy if that was the finish vs Swerve. I could see it happening just for the shock value at least once before Bryan wraps up full-time, but IMO this isn't the match for it. I just read they moved like 4-500 tickets since announcing it, actually - I'd be worrying about pissing the audience off, since the appetite is clearly there

Not to pile on, but I kinda get the same impression. He got a fantastic TNT title run, they hired his then-wife for a bit... Even as an outsider, it definitely doesn't strike me as a situation where they didn't at least attempt to make the guy happy where he is. On the AEW side of things, it's easy to criticize Miro's usage, sure - but you never know. Years from now it might come out that he was "Doesn't work for me, brother"-ing every idea for him that wasn't "First I beat the entire roster, then I retire as Champion after 5 years holding all 72 belts."

Ah man lucha's a blind spot sometimes, super appreciate it. I gotta get back on Twitter, I'm outta the loop - I bet you money cubs posted about this like months ago

Not an AAA guy (to my knowledge) but beating a guy like Atlantis might be a great way to start prepping Hologram for the next level (ETA: nevermind on that - thanks Mike!) Re: Jericho - I think part of what makes this current character of his so GOD damn frustrating (at least for me) is that, yeah, he can absolutely still go when called upon. '21-'22 was one of his best ever years in the ring, but with every "Hi, guys!" it seems so distant, you might as well be talking about his friggin TV title run in '96. Lionsaults, table bumps, B&G matches, vicious chop battles with Ishii and Suzuki, all on free TV... Look, I hate this Learning Tree shit too, but we're not talking Roddy Piper with the fake hip here.

Bummer but makes sense and has probably been long coming. His match with Hobbs at last year's All out was friggin awesome, I was hoping they'd run that back at some point. Agree that the Best Man stuff was horrid, but the real sin there IMO is that they didn't do enough with the "Charles" Taylor as his Butler stip - they could've gotten weeks and weeks of vignettes outta that. At least Arcade Anarchy ruled (and gave us that kick ass Stat hiding in the Claw Machine return). I also really liked the handful of matches he had with Sammy. Wonder if he's WWE-bound, or pivoting to stuff outside of wrestling - he could probably have a decent character acting career as Henchman #4 for the rest of his life if he wanted.

LOVE this, even the name. Good shit pal. ETA: I've very often had similar thoughts about a JD Drake/Dutch Righteous team, btw

If by that you mean "a big time angle and a push in earnest," then yes, I wholeheartedly agree If they aren't outright involved in the match, I could see them doing a run-in on the trios title match next week and costing BCC the titles to further the issue. That said, I could easily see PP siding with the BCC guys as a twist, in a sort of tough love, "You gave us the fire we needed"-type story. Or maybe they're the ones to unseat the Bucks eventually, and similarly, they credit it to Mox's hammer attack giving them the motivation (but without siding with them). ETA: Ok, I'm seeing they're still the match. I wasn't sure if the idea was supposed to be that BCC/Mox were taking them out of it (as a roundabout way to further the story of Danielson not being cleared due to a similar attack by them)

You won't get your All-Elite Fleet card taken away as long as you get to it within a week and contribute to the Live+7 number (On the real, I agree, but as is well-documented, I also think the weekend B/C show is almost a lost art unto itself. I would expect either a renewed focus on that, or a more clear delianation of tiers/importance once the TV deal's announced and we get more of an idea of what the future looks like re: FOX & Shockwave, TNT possibly combining Rampage/Collision into a three hour block, what the deal is with ROH, and things like that).

We watched last night (instead of watching Diggs screw my fantasy week) and as badly as I wanted to be able to have a "Oh, cmon it wasn't that bad" post ready to deploy, I gotta agree - not a great outing. My expectations might've been a bit too high, but I'm still confident they've got a better one in 'em. There were a few nice moments where I thought the gelling would start, like the armdrag thing, but they never fully got there for whatever reason. I'll say this: I bitch and moan about Dark/Elevation all the time not just because I enjoyed having something to watch on Mondays/Tuesdays, but because of stuff like this match and the Baker/Mercedes match at All In - both women were coming off long injury layoffs, and probably should've/could've had 3-4 weeks of warm-up bouts on there to shake the rust before being put on TV/PPV. Without a house show circuit, or like a warehouse somewhere to just set a ring up (like WWE did in Stamford pre-PC), I see few other ways to get those reps in - it's one thing for a midcard or lower guys to pick up an Indy date or two or whatever it is, but you don't wanna take the shine off your TV or PPV by having a top star like Britt or Yuka make their comeback in front of 150 kids at my old high school or whatever. So, you get what we've got here today, which is the way he wants it. No I'm not sure why I ended with GNR either.

FHH but "American Made" > "Real American," don't @ me