Zakk_Sabbath

Well said, fellas - this kinda "tonal discrepancy" thing is more or less exactly what I wanted to articulate this morning

Ha I didn't mean it derisively, I just couldn't think of a more concise way to be like, "You guys know the Chucky T/Liger butthole conga line gif from like ten years ago? Like that"

Nope, amazingly Cash has only had three AEW singles matches, all losses: Jay Lethal, Jeff Cobb and Dax himself during the Owen qualifiers

I had that thought too, way back when they first announced it - my thinking was, even if Sting doesn't have enough left in the tank for a singles match, Darby might be a light enough guy that Sting could play the hits both safely, and without getting too blown up. That said, the Bucks aren't exactly Bear Boulder so it wouldn't surprise me if there was a similar thought process at least partially in play, here. Also: don't ask me why, but after the ceiling entrance last night, I've got a weird premonition the Bucks are gonna come out to Voodoo Child or the stock nWo music at the PPV. They're only a few years older than me, and celebrate that era of Sting/WCW hugely. It would be interesting as a low-key nod to '97 being 'another wrong righted' - similarly to what Darby wrote in Players Tribune about Sting's forced 1st retirement having been corrected by ending this run on his terms.

I'll agree with this, particularly the dumb ass "do-si-do" spot. It's funny, they have the whole southern throwback tag thing going, but the second you put those guys into any kind of trios situation, you get a couple of those too-cute, PWG-esque moments. (Though I'm sure the Fantastics or another old school team escaping me probably did something similar as well - I said PWG before but I see the Memphis in it too) On the flip side of the coin: one of my biggest gripes with their whole presentation at times can be the overly-serious nature (particularly Dax's promos, which we've discussed ad nausem) - I don't think it's the worst thing in the world for FTR to show a more lighthearted side in these kind of TV affairs once in a while, I just think it would've worked better/been more enjoyable as a standalone piece with (let's say) Best Friends or the Assboys on a Friday Rampage, as opposed to a PPV go home where they're across from the team they'll be in with on Sunday. From a story perspective, you'd wanna see those guys on BCC like Hanger was on Swerve, right?

I don't know a ton about current lucha outside of what/who's been on AEW TV lately, but El Hijo del L.A. Park might be a cool one

That was the first time my girlfriend saw it live on TV, and she also went from a state of maybe-sleep to "holy shit!" (She had only ever seen it while I was getting high to monsoon classics or whatever)

Yeah it's understandably difficult not to have the thought, but the apparatus they had him in appeared to be super secure at least on TV, it was like a full upper-body vest (as opposed to poor Owen who was basically hanging by a keychain). I have no doubt they tested, re-tested, and tested again

I dig this a whole lot, the only thing is, I worry that another 'unlikely allies/will they or won't they' pairing with HoB involved is a little too close in proximity to whatever is going on with Skye/Julia

I could see an argument for Foley here too when he started taking it a little easier in '99 doing more comedy stuff. Keeping in theme: "Andy Summers is actually an insane guitar player, he just doesn't show off" is kind of the equivalent of our "Hogan always wore his working boots in Japan"

Thanks, I hate it

Ive said this before, but my interest in ratings and other metrics (specifically AEW's) are almost a direct result of the 2001-2019 WWE monopoly - I lovingly call it "WCW/ECW Derangement Syndrome." Like, obviously I have no skin in the game from a financial perspective, but as a fan of those two promotions over the WWF in the mid to late '90s, I feel almost what could be described as a small level of "responsibility" in making sure AEW succeeds so no one ever again has to live through stuff like the XWF, WWA, WSX, TNA and ROH's failure to launch on a meaningful level, god damn Wrestlelicious, LU, the WOS revival, whatever WRP was... i mean, the list goes on.

I would've tagged it "Dead bird, do not open"

Oh man, great call. I have been trying to figure out why I like the Moriarty/Taylor pairing more than the Moriarty/Stoke pairing so far, and I think that element might've been the missing ingredient

Damn, great memory by you. Despite the somewhat redundant title, I have always maintained that the recurring "Lucha Libre and the Mexican Luchadors" segment was a legitimately great crash course for the average American, pre-broadband, big 2 only fan (especially as a kid). I was just thinking a couple weekends ago that a redux of sorts might be a cool primer on the CMLL guys currently working AEW.

This is my memory of it as well - to add to this, I think I/we would have probably remembered them mentioning anything beyond the NJPW association, because maybe a year or so after this, Rick Martel debuted on Nitro and I found it really interesting that Tenay very specifically mentioned during his walk out that he was a former WWF tag champ (to the point that I was able to pull it outta my rear end just now 25 years later)

My list is your list, I think - I miiiiiight swap 2 and 1 just because it's Sting, but I'm sure that's just a matter of taste more than anything (like, I'm sure if our seats were swapped, you'd be replying similarly re: Bryan). In any case, this is definitely the most hyped I've been for an AEW PPV in quite some time. Probably Revolution '22, if I'm being honest.

Agreed, and it also makes me wonder about NJPW's future with regard to the States. My understanding was Rocky basically IS the Forbidden Door. Super curious to see how this affects the AEW/TNA partnerships, Strong, and stuff like that - not to mention the flow of gaijins the other way Love this idea. The conversation here yesterday and today makes me feel like if Cole had a little bit more of Roddy's intensity, folks might buy into him a bit more, so this is right in line with that Edit: @Matt DI agree with everything you said about MJF, but will say, I think he was well on his way to everything you wrote until the crowd turned him babyface. It was certainly something watching him pivot to doing Hogan spots in a similar spirit

Huge agree - I think with a few tweaks, Dan Lambert could have been that guy early on. I could also totally see Stokely excelling at doing a Stephen A kind of thing Edit: this is going to be a very, very weird choice, but you know who would actually do really well at that kind of thing I bet?? Ruby Soho. That Outcasts stuff largely wasn't my cup of tea, but one good thing about it is that it showed how well she plays sarcastic

I tried it for three episodes way back, and agree fully - he was oddly looser on 205 I thought (and is better today). I admit it's some kind of weird anti-bias on my part but I legit can't stay mad at Nigel for having a less-than-great instinct or two from time to time, when he's out here dropping Scott Norton and Fascination Street by The Cure and shit

I mean, the other side of the coin is the presumption that everyone knows everything, which is what I would argue seems to be the standard procedure on AEW TV when it comes to basically anything ROH-related (both the current incarnation, and the classics). It's like A bubble within THE bubble. FWIW, I still think there's a non-zero chance of a final Nigel/Danielson bout at Wembley next year - my thinking is that without Punk and Sting, they're gonna need something both left field and big for the English

Fully agree - I guess what I meant by that was, I didn't think it was that crazy of an impression for Godfrey or anyone to have based on the crappy back to back timing (I also thought when I wrote that, that it was two concussions fairly close together, like around Forbidden Door time - a bunch of guys got hurt around then so it's entirely possible I'm blending stuff together in my head)

Agreed on both points - the J.R./Heyman booth during the Invasion is actually one of my favorites of all time. It was super interesting to revisit their WCW stuff after that too I've unfortunately never gotten around to seeing a single Bobby Heenan match in its entirety but based on PWI covers alone I'd certainly buy it

Well said - with that idea in mind, I'll say I personally enjoyed the Cole/Page feud and it worked for me big, BUT I'll also admit that with it being one of the rare immediate rematches AEW's ever done, it felt like it was going on a bit too long at the time.

One of the other differences is the overall configuration of 2 voices in the booth vs. 3. What Nigel (and I guess Graves, but I haven't heard any of his recent output) has to do to be effective is more of a balancing act than straight heel commentary IMO, because he's also there to be the 'ex-player' voice, which to me is more of a de-facto babyface role (think Taz now, Big Show/Mark Henry on Dark, or going back a ways, Larry Z on Nitro or Randy Savage on those early RAW episodes) - it's gotta be tough for Nigel when he's working a booth which, at its core, is essentially two PBP guys in KK and TS, as opposed to the Vince/Jesse, Gorilla/Brain two-man situation. I think what Nigel does is probably closer to something resembling Heenan's role in the second hour of Nitro where he had to navigate having both TS and Mike Tenay in there, as opposed to anything from his WWF tenure.