Matt D

Hobbs didn't always look great in the Daniels match. There were times where he was anticipating stuff just a little too much. We don't usually see him in longer singles matches like that.

This is a good little episode for @Gordlow to watch. That was probably Bononi's best match ever too.

I was going to post Skye Blue's tweet about how this is a match (vs Storm) that she always wanted, but I got distracted and baffled by the idea that Gunns vs Top Flight somehow has a motion graphic.

Watching only Dynamite is the worst way to watch AEW.

Accountant was the lead-in to The First Dance.

I kind of like the idea of Heyman with him, the two of them selling some sort of new American Dream, the "New Heroism." It feels a few years out of date, but there's something in there in the current conservative mentality of a return to a myth of old American values that was probably never a tangible thing in the first place. I'm sure Cody wouldn't want to go full heel with it, but he could be sort of a "something for everyone" with that sort of a character and tap into all sorts of emotions, boos and cheers.

Jason Geiger might have something if he learned how to throw a good (or even decent) looking worked punch. ... Nevermind, he's been wrestling since 1999 according to cagematch. And he feuded with Dan Severn in 2005. I kind of want to find that.

10/10/90: Abdullah/Kamala II vs Hansen/Spivey: This is a pretty considerable match right here. We have the whole thing. By the end KII is bleeding all over the place and Abby is jabbing everyone with a fork and taking out refs. There's also a long nerve hold on Spivey that isn't great. Most of it is pretty good though with Hansen trying to assert himself at times but Abby and Kamala being just too much and holding the advantage. It was a very complete match. I'd put it that way. It didn't have any visuals nearly as cool as the headbutt cutoff, BUT when they're working on Spivey and he's starting to fire back, Kamala hits a hell of a neckbreaker drop out of nowhere to cut him off. 11/15/90: Momota/Teranishi vs Ricky Santana/Furnas: Handheld. Man, Furnas needed Kroffat. I mean he didn't really but Santana wasn't doing it for me in the same way. He was fine and had some fun suplexes and stuff, and took dropkicks well, but it wasn't the same. Momota and Teranishi were able to hold their own against Santana, but less so against Furnas. It still was pretty back and forth since Santana was in there more. Just an opening match but not a bad one. Just kind of lacking drama, though Momota was over as usual. Furnas won with an over the shoulder backbreaker submission out of nowhere. They cheered for Momota after the match.

If we want to play the Bray secret sign games, one of the last times Accountant led into AEW TV (though probably not THE last time) ... Kind of makes me wonder if @TimLivingston is about to finally win our bet.

No, see, he was the back up plan in case they couldn't get Hogan to... I could see it being Jungle Boy just as easily to play into that storyline. Edit: IT’S STIIIIIIIING!

The QT vs Buck match was pretty good actually.

One tiny step closer to bringing Casas in for a shot? Plus what a meeting.

It’s DC. In five years he’ll be Captain BloodDeath.

10/27/90: Jumbo/Inoue vs Misawa/Kawada: Last match of the tour. Inoue outwrestled the crap out of Kawada to start so that was fun. Then when Jumbo came in, he just tossed Kawada into the corner so Misawa could come in. That didn't go well for him (ducked clothesline, leaping back elbow), but he took over on Kawada and they beat on him a bit. Kawada reversed a suplex on Inoue eventually and Misawa came in. Kawada had been beaten enough that Misawa didn't immediately come back though. That's one of the joy of this style. Sometimes you get a hot tag in come in hot but a lot of the times, your team is down in points and even after the tag you have to fight back. Here, Jumbo dragged Misawa into a rare Fujiwara Armbar and they worked the arm for a bit. Inoue kept the arm but Misawa just handspringed over and forearmed him in his face and forgot to sell his arm for the rest of the match. Inoue made of fight of it including a cool double dropkick on both guys and the lucha headlock/headscissors tandem combo. He was working a bit too much like a face maybe? Anyway, this kept going back and forth with short periods of advantage. They finally took over on Inoue in a more considerable way (Inoue had Kawada in a hold and Kawada threw knees into his skull repeatedly). After Jumbo hit a bunch of stuff, Kawada leaned into his new signature thing and slammed Inoue on the floor. Some holds later, Inoue came back by turning a move into a headscissors takeover (he was good!). There was some stuff as they went towards the stretch of Inoue slapping a Fujiwara on Kawada, Misawa coming in to make the save and Jumbo coming into stop him and them going at it. That led to tags and a faceoff between the two that was very good (elbows and clotheslines and knees). And then Kawada refusing to stop beating Jumbo in the corner, pushing the ref away, and Jumbo firing back with repeated knees to the skull. All good stuff. Then we got a good final stretch between Inoue/Kawada and Inoue/Misawa with the tiger driver (once stopped by Jumbo but hit the second time) finishing him off. Long story short, this had tons of good moments but overall lacked focus and direct narrative. 9/29/90: Baba/Andre/Rusher vs Fuchi/Okuma/Eigen: Just a few minutes here but it was fun to watch them all try to tackle Andre and get tossed about. At one point they get his legs and Fuchi goes up the middle and it staggers him at least. Second try? Baba rushes in (best he could do at least) and gets a foot up. 9/29/90: Abdullah/Kamala II vs Dynamite/Johnny Smith: Pretty good few minutes of action here. Abby is the perfect late-era Dynamite opponent as he won't take any of his crap and makes him work for everything (which he then does). There's an all time cutoff here as Dynamite is headbutting Abby and mid-headbutt, Abby gets in the throat shot. So good. Kamala's not in long but he's very high energy when he is in. They extend the finish as Dynamite breaks up a Kamala splash with an elbow off the top but then gets knocked out so Abby can hit the elbow.

You’re not helping.

Yeah, Nord. I was going with Nord. It’s Nord. The answer is Nord.

My wife: “This is too long and I don’t care about any of it.” The 10 year old hated it too for what it’s worth. I was ok with it.

How do I put this sans spoilers... That Glenn Gilbertti answer was rough! Thanks for these as always.

It’s a cry for help now that Vince is back in his ear sometimes.

Two good Little vs Big matches on this one. I would have liked the Hobbs match to end after the powerslam though. Everything after seems extraneous, but I guess Fenix is a guy to protect. Always like seeing Alex get destroyed and I'd be up for Hobbs for PAC and Hobbs vs Penta. Garcia's stooging was great. He always had it in him but I'm not sure he was nearly as capable of it in 2021. All I want for Q4 2023 is BCC vs Garcia/Moriarty/Hook/Top Flight. Nice Stu promo too. Perfectly ok 2.0 tag, though they sort of diluted things by putting them up against another Canadian team. Loved the Stoke training video. Dynamite looks fun. Gunns vs Top Flight. Mox vs Stu. Toni vs Skye. And maybe I'll see if I can find Bockwinkel vs a Viking.

Anyone going to the house show this weekend? Mox/Claudio vs Bill/Moriarty Britt vs Anna Darby/OC vs Butcher/Blade are all fun matches that you definitely don't get to see usually. Darby and OC have never tagged before. Mox and Bill are old NXT roommates. Britt will get to try out babyface stuff against Anna. Plus the undercard will probably be full of some of the younger talents against each other.

Really like the Proving Ground stip of "beat the champ or last ten minutes." It adds an element not in those Elevation Eliminator matches. There was plenty to like here in the Mack vs Claudio match itself. Mack was dealing with someone more powerful than he was used to, someone that can create narrative opportunities through his strength alone, but likewise, Claudio was dealing with someone he couldn't just power over. He had to work at everything. That meant going to punches and strikes more than throws to open him up. It meant that every actual move Claudio hit felt impactful and impressive and meaningful. Likewise Mack, even with something like a Samoan Drop. I thin we're starting to see an almost Jumbo-ian hypocrisy from Claudio where he feels like he's honorable but his actions start to say otherwise. There were things I liked in Dante vs Bennett. The pile driver on the ramp, the idea that Bennett took things personally and was trying to hurt Dante. Dante's selling and fighting from underneath. I like all of that. It's so important for a babyface like Dante to find that balance between selling and selling and selling and always trying to swipe up and get a shot in. I have nitpicks. I don't know about that package pile driver into a powerbomb with Dante's hurt shoulder. He could have just fallen down with the pile driver instead? I didn't like the second strike exchange. I wish Dante would have hesitated for just a half second before his finisher even though he did sell after. But overall, this was a solid TV match and Dante has so, so much upside. Speaking of great babyfaces, Slim J is a great babyface. Here though, he's a guy getting legitimate heat in 2023. He and Davari did a great job taking all of Blake and Metalik's stuff. Another thing I really like about Slim J is that while he has all sorts of crazy, innovative stuff, he'll also just do a snap suplex to control ring positioning and move things along during the heat. It's not what you do but how and why you do it. I would have liked the Eddie match to go another couple of minutes so I could write about it on Monday but it was exactly what it should have been and the Claudio moment was a good "bump" by Claudio as he really got the coffee all over himself. Athena vs Hyan was good. Athena has to hit the initial forearm/elbow without any twists and turns at least half of the time so it's good whenever she does. Doing that allows for the inversions to resonate and matter. That's part of the purpose of squashes anyway, right? I liked Hyan's intensity early and Athena's instinctive motions. She has this great, electric way of moving that reminds you of an early Randy Savage or heel Piper where you just don't know if she'll zig or zag and it makes everything feel unpredictable and dangerous relative to everything around her. I'm glad the Yuka match is still on. Silas Young does a bunch of stuff I wouldn't expect Silas Young to do (and some of the stuff I would). I don't know how I feel about this yet. I'll hesitate to say "Let's tag him with Lance Archer." yet. Maybe he's more of a Brian Cage partner instead..... Lee Moriarty? Is that a thing? Liked that it took both boys to chip away at one member of the Embassy. Brandon sure took a beating. Dalton as a hot tag is basically like a Steiner Brother. This did feel a little like a match they were obligated to get through before moving on to the next thing and at least the next thing will be fresh. While it's a bit of a shame Adora wasn't focused more over the last couple of years in AEW, at least she adds something that makes ROH feel different than other AEW TV. Daniels/Sydal vs Outrunners was a blink and miss it sprint. I liked the call that both teams were just trying to score a quick win and putting it all out there but it was pretty insubstantial. Connors is kind of amusing as a guy who just charges at you like a doofus. This is the first of these title defenses where Yuta starts to feel like he's coming into his own with certain holds/manipulation, the use of the ropes and the punches, etc. Being a tweener/heel lets him do that a little more. It's a lot of wrestling! But it's good.

Oh and while I'm not big on the Saraya stuff, her shouting out. "I am a miracle!" was a good bit.

My only response there is that it’s likely best to decompartmentalize. I want Jarrett because of certain skills he brings to the table that no one else is doing in 2022 and love he can accomplish so much with so little. That, to me, is so much more enjoyable than watching wrestlers do so little with so much, which is kind of what I feel about the trios division. I don’t want Saraya and think her influence has set the women’s division back. It would have been good for Jade, Mathews (Nicole), Matthew (me), and Gordi (you) for Matthews to get ten minutes against Jade before bringing out Taya. I want BCC as Tsuruta-gun vs the guys under 30, not feuding with the Elite (I want them to go to WWE so there can be more time for Comoroto, Drake, and Bear Country). We all want different things. And no two of us want the same things. It’s a zero-sum game with X amount of TV time. My hope is that by coming in and playing ball there might be something for Matthews in the future. Like a program with Athena maybe?

Ratings say they have to run back Cassidy vs Jarrett. Logic says it needs a gimmick. I suggest a blindfold.