Matt D

Anyway, great job this time around guys. Thanks for participating. Past Casey, I'll see the rest of you for the next round this summer.

To be fair, he has a terrible history of trusting the wrong people. (See Curt, a joke).

For me it’s the deconstructionism and winking irony, even when they chose to go through more conventional motions. There was probably a window where metatextual heels were novel and even additive but that was years ago and at the margins, not the center.

I will admit that I find the idea of Flair turning and spending the next year in a track suit with the Bucks pretty funny.

RANKING: Athena/Billie Starkz Hardy Boyz Nemeth Brothers Young Bucks Hardy Boyz but Jeff is in no condition to wrestle and Sting has to immediately hit a Scorpion Death Drop.

Pop quiz: would you rather have the Revolution match be the Young Bucks or the Nemeth Brothers. It hurts like shoving a pen into my eye but I’m leaning Nemeth. One should never lean Nemeth.

I've been playing Zelda: A Link Between Worlds emulated because I got annoyed it was on so many "Best Zelda Games Ever" lists and I'd never played it since I didn't have a 3DS. I'm enjoying it. It's weird not having a money limit, using magic for all items, and having paper mario mechanics but the gameplay feels generally right and there are lots of secrets.

Through everything but the main. As noted, I liked Claudio vs Hangman. Hangman matches are better when he's fighting from underneath for two reasons that are, I think, self-enforcing. One, the matches where he's not are often when he's against someone smaller and/or younger. Because he lacks early and mid-level offense and most of what he has are bombs, if he's controlling things early, he's throwing those bombs too early. It also means he's more apt to be the one calling things. I should just write about this next week. But this was fine. The strength spot was amazing. Etc. So on. Part of why I want to write about Claudio vs Hangman is that I don't really want to write about the 8 man even though it has Dustin and I should be obliged. Basically, Khan put us in a position where we had to suspend our disbelief. The Anna Jay match was one thing. She didn't necessarily turn on the Dark Order so much as she turned towards the JAS and against someone like Ruby Soho, right? 10 turned directly on -1 in what should have been the biggest heatseeking angle in the last two years. And it just wasn't. Anna's had some character since. Vance really hasn't. You can take a breathe given the sanctity of the moment and accept that he should be there in this match, that he was playing the role that he was playing, etc., but it all just felt weird not because of any pro wrestling need for logic in general, because you can look past that in some circumstances, but because he turned so hard on -1. He even had Jose out there and I get why. The stuff with Anna is leading to a match with Julia. Is this leading somewhere? If so they need to deal with things moving forward. As a match itself, you just try to look at it as something that doesn't count, as a "Very Special Episode" or something. An elseworlds. But the Mogul Embassy had more beef with Archer than Dustin or Cassidy did with Vance. I liked the match. I loved the suplex tradeoff thing. I liked how Mogul Embassy had an advantage because of their superior teaming experience but then blew it due to an inability to work with Archer. And then you had Jake punching Jose and Archer admonishing him it was all just weird. The build to the chokeslam is great. The rapid fire stuff at the end was great fun. Watching Copeland take Kaun's lungblower thing is just weird! But Vance did literally the worst thing anyone has ever done in AEW and I think we needed just a little more than "Maybe Tony Khan is trying to bring him back to the light." Thought Starks looked good for the most part against Sammy, but babyface Sammy is just so lame. He needs grit somehow. Needs a House of Black Feud where they take out his eye or something. At this point, I do think Roddy needs to beat Cassidy very soon. The Kingdom needs the belt more. Keith match was good but he really does need a couple of wins here or there so it matters more when he gets beaten. I'm excited for Bandido to eventually get back. Luther laughing at Mariah May was great. 8-woman tag had some fun stuff (and some rough stuff). Saraya interacting with Skye Blue and Julia felt like two worlds colliding. They've made Rosa feel like an attraction by having her come out last and not having an immediate follow up to the tag in San Antonio (where normally that might have been detrimental). Anna's presence felt a little more organic. They did the multi person suplex spot instead of the crazy criss-cross and that's why they're all alive today.

I will say the upside is getting a pissy ironic segment where the Bucks just say whatever about Flair. In general, the match should be fine but the build will be painful, past said Flair bit. (and I would have preferred Danielson/Mox, but I would have also preferred Athena/Billie so maybe that’s not saying much.)

How many times in ROH history has the Pure Champion challenged for the ROH Title?

I wanted her to be the Devil so this isn’t far off.

Imagine thinking the overrun might be a big debut like Mercedes and then it ends up being the Bucks to screw up Sting’s retirement tour. Amazing.

Wrestling isn’t math but almost every Hangman match can be judged on when and how he uses the Death Valley Driver. As a big comeback move bridging two sections of heat as per the AEW tv house style? That’s one of the good ones.

Cagematch is really bad for PR. It's been a shock doing the SC project and not having that as a resource to use.

I watched him some in AJPW. Wiki does say he's King Curtis' son.

Can you imagine if they try to steal this TJPW spot in the 8-woman tag…

Eddie asked for a match too, but I can see that getting bumped to Rampage.

Leyla (in the tag vs Diamante/Mercedes) did a version of the cartwheel into a German that I think Jack Cartwheel does and if she can hone it just a bit more, it's going to be a super over spot for her.

They should rush a HOOK match for Collision. Have him beat a Brian Cage or Lance Archer.

Just assume I have access to anything. If I hit a wall in the months to come, I'll let you know.

Speaking of that, the first episode of Echo was better than probably anyone expected.

They’re letting -1 book parejas increibles matches for Wednesday.

PWG? Post-Danielson ROH? STARDOM? What’s your poison?

As we did not draw this time around, I am willing to discuss a scenario where once (1x) a month (starting next month) @Casey and I exchange a match, primarily in good faith, in as I will mostly pull from the top 10s of DVDVR 80s sets, but on the understanding that yes, I will primarily give him 80s matches and that he should act in similar relative good faith. Independent of this, here's the C+A for Aoyagi. People should at least watch the Kurisu matches. https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2013/03/complete-and-accurate-masaji-aoyagi.html

Thought it was an excellent Collision. Saw some people complaining that it felt like a Thunder where stars were facing non-stars or mid-carders or whatever, but all of the action was good and it all drove the story forward and there was a great main event. People are so used to these stacked Dynamites and that's really not what wrestling TV should be. There should be a balance.