Steventon

Thought all the matches were pretty blah as expected. War Games has become another stale WWE trope I am over, you can skip 90% of them and not feel like you've missed anything significant. The Iyo dive was nutty and the best spot on the show. Bayley protecting her teammate only to lose the match straight after felt dumb and like a big plot hole. I mean sure I get the storyline there that that cost her the match, but if Kairi was getting to get feet when Bayley shoved her out the way, why wasn't Kairi able to then interrupt the 3 finishers and pin following? She was literally on her feet beforehand. Just went back to laying on the floor and selling for 5 minutes, I try to avoid the term 'business exposing' but that was jarring. All 3 singles matches having heels win clean was certainly a choice. Miz vs Gunther was good without being great, pretty mid-tier Gunther match at this point. Miz stepped up but he just isn't a physical enough, charismatic enough or smart enough worker for this to stand out. Escobar vs Lee was a solid spotfest if mindless. Orton's return was awesome. Great to see him back after such a long break, he brought the most energy out of anyone on this show, looked like he was having a blast, hit one or two big spots, and put Cody over at the end. The perfect role for him at this stage of his career and that would have been more than fine as the end to the PPV. Punk returning - I am a Punk fan so let's see. Punk is clearly a guy who loves wrestling but hates the wrestling industry and I wouldn't not be surprised to see this implode very quickly. Him returning when the faces were standing tall suggest he's feuding with one of them, so maybe this is him vs Rollins, which I personally have 0 interest in but will be amusing to see how quickly it ends in tears.

£100 says Orton turns on Cody setting up a placeholder feud to tide him over until whatever he does for Wrestlemania

Who are the WWE releases from earlier this year who they could debut soon? Feels like they are setting up one of them to be the Devil maybe by waiting until the no compete clauses expire

There was a Zack vs Darby match in EVOLVE at one point which was excellent. Darby took like zero bumps but got twisted and tortured in all sorts of ways on the mat. I'd love to see more of that from him some time.

Man I need to find that Chad Gable vs Arik Cannon match now. Awesome to see GUNTHER break the record. The company is obsessed with moments and making history but this one feels deserved and realistically is as high as GUNTHER may go. Liked the match with the count-out victory more and didn't like them exploiting Gable's kid crying but if we he does win it, it'll be the best payoff they've done in a looooooong time

Babyface MJF is the greatest thing and I will fight anyone who feels otherwise

Ideal scenario is OC survives a war with Moxley and then loses to a heel who will benefit from the run next week. Jay White would be ideal, otherwise they are struggling for heels at the top end of the card (evidenced by them doing ANOTHER tourney to decide the next world title contender)

"....because my name is Orange Cassidy, and I don't have a catchphrase"

Not sure if it was mentioned yet but one promo I loved was the Moxley vs Kingston promo where they talk about Kingston's mum. Both guys are soooo making at making this shit feel real dammit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_x3TNEN51s&ab_channel=AllEliteWrestling EDIT - someone help me out with the imbed here

That last segment and Jimmy's explanation for Summerslam was some of the dumbest shit

The Bloodline has jumped the shark now. It wasn't enough to have yet another painfully long, boring, schmozz-filled Roman title match but the finish was hot garbage. This whole program is just a mechanism to artificially pad this run out for the sake of breaking a record, I'm sure they'll now move on to Solo vs Roman soon to kill a few months. With Brock putting Cody over so strong like that, I wonder if they circle back to him for Wrestlemania to dethrone Roman. Which would be hilarious but not the worst thing imaginable. Enjoyed Paul vs Ricochet as as un-abashed stunt show and Gunther vs Drew. Does Knight get anything for winning the Battle Royale or was it just a way of getting him on the show? Rousey vs Baszler was not good, they really should have just have had a normal match, but at least Shayna won. Hopefully this is Ronda done for now. Didn't the last Rollins vs Balor match play out almost the exact same with Priest trying to help and failing? Time to put the belt on him, if for no other reason than it'd be something fresh and Rollins is insufferable. Bianca Belair working a leg injury then returning to the ring to break up the Figure Eight by very slowly crawling to the top in order to hit a 450 was maybe the dumbest spot I have seen in a while.

I'm with you, but is that ever going to happen? Certainly not any time soon seemingly. Either way, belts or no belts, Best Friends getting the last laugh on the BCC would be a tremendous moment if they pay it off.

Man everything about the parking lot brawl was fuckin RAD. I enjoyed the BCC vs Elite feud, but I prefer the dynamic of this program with the Best Friends. BCC vs Elite was your clash of the titans, but this has a clear underdog group and 'comedy mid carder gets serious' is maybe my favourite thing in wrestling. The last section with the BCC unjustly destroying them and tearing up the van was blood pumping shit. How can you not want to see them gets theirs after that. I really hope they put the belts on Mox and Claudio on Weds because the Best Friends getting the better of them to win their first tag titles would be an absolutely GLORIOUS payoff.

I can't see them having MJF vs Cole main event the 'biggest show ever' and have it just be a clean match with no twist. Gut feeling is they've set it up for Cole to turn and betray MJF, which will be NUCLEAR.

My prediction - Jimmy will return and accidently hit Jey when aiming for Roman or Solo, costing him the match. But Jey will forgive him and they all move on.

Main event ruled. Ilja does not miss and Hayes is probably the biggest success of the 2.0 era. Thought they really good a good job elevating him by having his mettle tested and survive one of the most durable guys on the planet (side note - Ilja / Darby Allin tag team would be excellent). Finish was a bit flat agreed but still worth going out of your ways for.

Blood & Guts are better than NXT WarGames, but below OG WarGames. Maybe on the same level as Lethal Lockdowns. But their problems are the same as the NXT versions - they go way to fucking long and are way too reliant on props. I don't mind so much with the BCC because deathmatch geek is Mox's thing, but this still went about 10-15 minutes past it's peak. And count me in with the guys who thought Ibushi looked solidly mediocre. That said, I had fun. Not as much fun as with MJF and Cole, but that's a high bar. Cole turning MJF babyface through the power of friendship is honest to God brilliant. Foreshadowing Roddy taking issue with it though makes me think they're going to have him attack MJF and leave Cole with the dilema. Jungle Boy going full old school rudo was a bit jarring. I don't mean that necessarily as a bad thing, but the massive pivot in his style was sudden.

Yeah it might be the MOTY for me so far. Funny, I always thought Jay White was super-overrated and cringey in NJPW, but take him out of the wanky, interference-ridden, Meltzer bait environment and put him in a more grounded setting and he is fundamentally a great worker. I mean the match was still fishing for star ratings but it actually delivered.

tag title match was a blast. give us more steenerico tv main events

I've been a vocal Cole hater but how can you not love the MJF-Cole pairing? I am all in on this story, give me Better Than You Bay Bay vs BCG for the belts. If this is the beginning of MJF - redemption arc babyface - they have something special. Even if MJF does predictably turn on Cole, it feel will meaningful now. Part of me was really hoping we'd get them vs OC/Darby in the finals, which would be a total barnburner, but I guess it makes more sense to have them against a heel team. I am really for this BCC vs Elite feud to be over so hopefully next week is the payoff. That said I did like how PAC ties back into all this with his ongoing rivalry with Kenny.

The fact this is the 3rd time they're running Roman vs Jey is in the same run shows how badly they are artificially padding out this title run. Jey is awesome and I am here for the ride, but I agree with the guy who said a lot of the melodramatics of this story doesn't feel organic. Have to wonder how they will play this - my early prediction is we get Solo and Jimmy interfering and it ends with Jimmy accidently costing Jey the match, with Jey forgiving him after. What would really tear the roof off the place is if Sami and KO come out to neutralise Sikoa and even the odds to help Jey win.

Most of the card outside the MITBs and main felt like a house show. Ricochet/Paul spanish fly table spot was nutso. GUNTHER vs Riddle was shaping up pretty nicely then just ended. Cena showing up and pushing a UK Wrestlemania was probably the highlight. I thought Austin Theory was a massive chud, but somehow there is a guy here doing a pound shop Austin Theory gimmick, Christ. Main event was snooze with a good final few minutes. I will be shocked if Jey beats Roman, this is just a further way to pad out the Reigns run until the next proper challenger at next year's Wrestlemania.

Considering the hype I thought the show was OK. Not great, not bad. My biggest take away was that the New Japan roster is still absurdly mediocre for the most part. MJF vs Tanahashi and Punk vs Kojima were perfectly solid matches I won't remember in a week's time. Tanahashi is Exhibit A of guys who rely on athleticism first and foremost aging badly. Time to switch things up and wrestle smarter and rely on his personality more rather than taking an age trying to not fall off the top rope. Kojima is almost 10 years older than him and looked better. Heel Punk was fun. The dickheady grapply guys fourway was good fun. Sexy dancing Garcia is great and I popped huge for OC stealing another win. Fuck Adam Cole, give me OC vs MJF double titles at the next PPV. I have seen maybe 2-3 SANADA matches over the past 5 years and he's still another athletic guy who doesn't get much about pro wrestling. He was getting out-chopped by the considerably smaller guy. Not sure what he really brings outside of Mutoh tribute spots. JB as a heel will be interesting to see how he gets on, not sure he has the charisma to pull it off but hopefully he can lean into that? The Elite vs BCC 10 man was good fun and another enjoyable addition to this feud without being a barnburner. That said, the spot with Kingston saving Moxley was the dumbest shit on a show with a couple really dumb moments. I assume it was a callback to the Bucks vs Mox/Kingston match but if so then that is 'pro wrestling as high art' disappearing up its own ass. Shota doesn't fit with BCC at all, he looks and wrestles more like a Tanahashi close. Feels like he has gone in the wrong direction from his young lion days. On the plus side, Duster Takeshita ruled and he was probably the best Japanese talent on this show. Omega vs Ospreay did not need to go 40 minutes, but man there was some parts of it that were really great. Especially in the first half with Ospreay really bringing the hate and paying Omega back by beating him a bloody pulp in front of the Canadian crowd. It was still and Omega vs Ospreay so there was inevitably some shit that was either dumb or convoluted, but some of it was undeniably compelling. I would agree it went overboard at the end and Omega's last comeback attempt was kinda bullshit - the fired up kickout was great, him just standing up and trading blows as if he hadn't eaten 2 finishers and been stabbed in the head was not. The foot on the rope was an epic nearfall though. All in I thought this was a big thumbs up even if it wasn't the 8 star epic it will no doubt get called. Sting 6-man was kind of a mess. Naito mailed it in massively and there was a bunch of bodged moments. Danielson vs Okada was..... a match. I am a low voter on these 'dream match' scenarios as it is, and this was just an OK match. Okada is one of the most overrated talents of the last 20 years and offered very little here. Danielson was Danielson but I'd agree the seizure spot was 1) ill-judged and in bad taste and 2) goofy looking - I did not buy it for a moment. The key to these Once In A Lifetime matches being special is do stuff which you could only see with this pairing. If it's just Danielson doing Danielson things and Okada doing the same stuff he does every match, it's just another match. And that's how I felt about this. The finish was a surprise but the crowd felt flat for it. Big result, and I am confident they will run a rematch at some point. This probably won't be the 10th best match Danielson has this year.

Damn, for a second I was hoping for Kingston to pull Blackjack Marciano out of retirement there.

Only caught the highlights but this felt like a big ho hum of a debut. Dynamite debut had the big angle with the Inner Circle forming, Rampage debut had Christian beating Omega for the Impact title, this had...... Punk doing a vaguely shooty promo on the Bucks? I am sure Kevin Kelly is a gent and great guy, but the very suggestion of him replacing Excal makes me want to barf through my ears. Excal is such a part of AEW's identity and charm, Kelly would just feel like another step towards corporate WWE-ism.