NikoBaltimore

Yeah, this was the first time I felt a need to watch something back on mute which is admittedly pretty odd. But yeah they were really great on commentary.

I wonder how much Graves and Barrett knew when they were commentating during Grimes's last SD match. They both agree he's really great but wasn't given any real opportunities once called up. Which unfortunately that's what it was for his main roster run. I would have thought HHH would have found something for him since he seemed to like him but I guess that didn't pan out. But Grimes will tear it up once back on the scene.

So I ended up watching this again. But in order to take out the crowd's part in the way Matt mentioned I decided to watch it on mute. It goes against what the point of wrestling is meant to do but I didn't want the crowd to influence my view of the match. On rewatch yeah it really fucking rules. The story beats worked with Danielson knowing early he was in for a rough ride so he had to dominate. Then when the top rope Tiger was done it almost snapped Will out of it and he rose to the occasion. From there it led to a wild third act and it came crashing down with the worked injury. It almost reminded me of The Beatles "I want you (she's so heavy)" in that it would build up and up and up then it suddenly got silent and it felt jarring. First time hearing that song I was not prepared but have grown to love it. The ending of this match was essentially it getting suddenly silent and I was in all kinds of "Wait, what?" mode. So yeah with Danielson's history of real and fake injuries no thank you. But watching the match back I realized I was so caught up in the moment that I didn't pay attention to 1. The Storm Driver being done as safe as possible and 2. The gravity of the situation in Will's reaction. He had that post-match as well as in the media scrum and with that context this is one time where the fake injury works. I just hope Danielson never goes fake injury route again. As for ranking the matches Natural mentioned I don't know. Daneielson/Omega was loved by me for emotional reasons and Danielson/Sabre was a technical dream match that I ate up with a giant spoon. This one was a mix of everything and it all just worked so beautifully. I think it's a bit soon for me to say where it compares to the other two. The shock of the end has worn off a good bit but I also want to see how this is followed up on Dynamite and a couple shows after. I feel if the fake injury was concerning for some it might be worth a rewatch.

I might end up re-watching this match sooner than anticipated. A lot's been said about the match but I never considered the crowd's part in this. I mean how can you not go batshit insane watching this? Yet your reasoning for the crowd missing out on something makes perfect sense. I know I was losing my mind at all that was going on and maybe missed out too. Maybe that's why the ending felt like a shock to me and snapped me out of the euphoria I was feeling. It's something to think about and thanks for that awesome write-up.

I think Liv will beat Becky either at Backlash or the Saudi show so I'm fine with her not getting it tonight.

If it was anybody else I might have been initially more open to what was being done. But because it was Danielson with his injury history plus the fake injuries he's done to mixed results I just had a hard time opening my mind to what he was doing. I was also hung up on the staredown>Blade>pinfall being a much better result that would have ended things on a super high for everybody. That said Tim's and John's posts just now are helping a lot with what was being done and I can appreciate it. The intention was to make the Storm Driver more deadly and if it works in the long run then it's worth the awkward ending. Maybe a rewatch will help though that might not be anytime soon. I think it's also going to help for me to separate as much as possible what happened with Danielson before and focus on this in a vacuum. But awkward ending or not that feels like a maybe top 5 all time AEW match. Also, on a separate note the St. Louis crowd was really fucking awesome throughout the night. They were into the stuff you'd expect and also helped make me care about a Strong/O'Reilly match that I initially had no real investment in. So kudos to them and whoever from here went.

We saw that Saturday and it was only us and another couple. We love the show and especially loved the movie. And yeah what you said in spoilers had us howling with laughter. I'm glad it was an actual movie and not some BS like Demon Slayer did/does where it's only showing two older episodes and one new a week before it came to Crunchyroll. If I knew it'd be that I would have held off on going.

I don't care what anybody says, there was no Jericho/Hook match. No, I don't want evidence to the contrary thank you very much. But aside from...whatever the fuck that was the show was fucking great with two absolutely incredible matches. If Danielson had a fake injury it ruined the finish but if it's real then I hope he's okay. They could have ended it with Staredown>Hidden Blade>Pin and it would have been damn near perfect. But before they went one step beyond the match was fucking exquisite. And Pac/Okada not only delivered on all fronts but the pacing made every big moment matter. I really loved the shit out of that match and if not for Ospreay/Danielson it would have been an easy MOTN. The takeaway I have right now past all that is Swerve is the champ. He talked about this in the All Out media scrum about this happening and how much he's put into making this happen. The guy has earned every bit of this and I'm incredibly happy for him. Now for the love of everything please put him on every great media outlet you can. The guy is a star and needs to be seen by as many as possible.

Well Collision looks like a damn fine show and also a fine way to celebrate a holiday. So on that note:

This whole thing is incredibly awful and I feel horrible for Nyla. But despite that I'm glad to know she's feeling the love.

Preach! I unashamedly lost my mind when the song played. And I'll gladly echo all that Greggulator said because holy fuck all the Sami related stuff ruled so hard.

What in the flying fuck?! I have to watch this. EDIT: Watching it again I absolutely need to and will see this match. I know Brian is hyping a match but what he said about technology is so very much me (though Transformers were cool!) But this match is gonna be so much fun.

Yeah, I'm focusing on the Collective stuff and will likely check a show or two from IWTV. Only one I saw from there for obvious reasons was the Dean show. But as long as work's not busy I'm hoping to be good by mid next week.

If there's no time travel then my wife will be devastated. Do I dare ask?

Yipes! My bad, had a mental lapse there as I was trying to quickly finish the post before clocking out. But hopefully I can meet you one day to thank you for putting up with my dumb ass over the years.