kafkonia

Yeah, I love Wade Bryatt (tm Mick Foley) but they really are in danger of overloading the roster - because this week showed what happens when they try to give everyone a match. You had a triple threat tag match, a tag match, a 6-person match, and a 5 v 5 match and it was still too many matches, and that was with Andrade on his honeymoon, OC injured, half the Acclaimed injured, and Miro MIA. Add in Bray and CSRO on top of Rush being signed and the PPV might still be going on today.

You don't put the world title on the Honky Tonk Man. In all seriousness, MJF's entire appeal is that people want to see him get his ass kicked. While you can't let it happen too often or it loses the appeal, you also have to realize that nobody's going to pay money to watch him win.

I felt like it was verging on overkill, to be honest. It was starting to veer into that Bret Hart vs. McMahon match from years back, where the protracted beatdown was resulting in diminishing returns.

Took me two days to watch. Jeepers. Thoughts from yesterday: -Jade vs. Anna had its moments. Jade is not as good as she thinks she is. Anna is not the person to cover for her flaws. Stat should take the belt off of her stat. -Multiple shitty sharpshooters/scorpion deathlocks. Multiple scary-looking dive botches. -I felt bad that they'd turned Tay heel. Then I saw how great she is at it. I just wish they'd gone all-in on Page and Scorpio being faces, Kaz's Youtube-only winning record was not enough to carry a heel/heel match-up. -PVZ definitely has the "I know how to hit you for real so my worked strikes look like shit" thing most MMA guys do when they get into wrestling. And I feel like the bookers were expecting the crowd to be more into her. -My roommate, who is outside the IWC, remarked on his spaghetti arms. At first she thought he was an announcer. -Rosa and Deeb had the best women's match of the night, but Ruby stepped her game up vs. Britt. Thoughts from today: -Triple threat tag match had great spots, some clunkiness near the beginning. Anyone who thinks have JE wear the titles is a mistake needs to listen to the crowd when they come in, then listen to the much quieter one for Swerve and somewhat quieter one for Lee. -I'm glad they didn't pull the trigger on a heel turn for either guy in the main event. Heel Punk would be cheap and lazy booking, and Hangman's character wouldn't be well-served by a heel run yet. It was a little too melodramatic, but dammit this is wrestling that's what it's supposed to be.

I wrote and deleted many introspective paragraphs and will sum it up as this: Why am I so un-excited for a pay per view featuring so many great match-ups and my favourite wrestler in the main event? Somethings not clicking.

I don't often agree with you, but I agree with you.

I was hoping for Andrew Everett.

You really can't tell the difference between this: and this: EDIT: Oh shit I just realized you might have been joking...

So is this going to be streaming somewhere? Because otherwise how do they have pre-show matches? Wait... Alistair Overeem?!!

I thought Mark and Paul did a good job on commentary together. They hit a good mix of relaxed comedy and actually paying attention to the matches, since Paul was de facto play by play man. Max Caster vs. the Jersey Shore guy was kind of ugly at times. Jersey Shore Guy hasn't been outright bad, but it feels odd that he has a win and gets an entrance when there are much better/more popular guys working as pure enhancement talent. Liked the women's tag quite a bit. The main event was probably better suited to live-event-only, as the Dark Order multi-man matches are basically just an excuse to send the crowd home happy (or get them hyped for Dynamite/Rampage.) Colt Cabana conspicuous by his absence, as they say. Hope this wasn't Stu's final appearance on AEW programming.

Which would be odder: that they'd keep one half of Stu/Uno and not the other, or that their contracts would be up at different times?

That's why Marvel kept making new Captain Marvel series when nobody cared about them. Actively defending it is also important so you don't wind up like escalator or trampoline. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_generic_and_genericized_trademarks

Watched the second half of Elevation and then Dark back-to-back. Overall, the women's matches on Elevation were better by far. The Bunny is underrated, and I like the ongoing Youtube storyline of her and Emi seemingly trying to find a third partner who will hold up their end. Where's Penelope? Marina Shafir did not look comfortable in the ring in that match. She also has weirdly lanky monkey-arms, although that may have been her posture. I almost bought that Dark Order might pick up the win against Team Taz. Glad Starks wasn't hurt, but don't think it's fair to blame Stu Grissom for it - you can't really control where your opponent is when you're somersaulting through the air over his head. Keith Lee's cardio seems to be improving. Looking forward to him getting back in top form.

I remember right after the new (at the time) Punch Out for the Wii came out and was doing well, and Cena made a reference to it in a promo, and a recapper complained about how he was talking about a decades-old game. We're all one step away from being Vince McMahon telling Freddie Prinze Jr. "We have Santino". And yeah, Big E's a big missed opportunity, and unlike a lot of the missed opportunities of the past it's not like he has an attitude problem. I think if he was a few inches taller they'd have given him a better shot.

That's six guys deep already, though. We've all been saying one of AEW's weak points is cramming too many matches onto a long card. Six lengthy matches + some pomp and circumstance does pretty well.

He's secretly the FSW to Cody's Punk.

Something was bothering me for a while but I couldn't quite put my finger on it til recently: It should be Battle for the Belts. Battle of the Belts suggests champion vs. champion matches. Which, come to think of it, would go a long way to making the specials feel, well, special. Make them non-title exhibition matches and utilize the forbidden door, and you could set up some interesting storylines down the road.

Hot potatoing the TNT title isn't ideal, and I fully believe they always intended to put the title back on Sammy. But with the fan reactions it was probably the best choice anyway. They weren't going to have him lose the feud this quickly, because he's still clearly over Sky in the pecking order, and the chase is really a storyline that only works if it's a face having to overcome heel shenanigans. By having Sammy cheat to win, they a) solidify his heel turn rather than trapping him in Codyville, and b) give more legs to a feud that otherwise would have been dead despite clearly being intended to continue given that PVZ and Tay have yet to have a match. That being said, the booking heading into all of this didn't do the title or the wrestlers any favours. But kudos to them for at least having the sense to pivot.

Red and green (Jade) are complementary colours. So don't be surprised to see Orange Cassidy and Skye Blue team up next!

You better recognize! Sonjay Dutt has the feel of an ROH guy. He had a similar trajectory to a lot of guys who came from there, similar build, wrestled a lot of the same opponents. It wasn't til it was brought up here that I realized he wasn't one. Weird choice for an ending. Will Joe be ROH's Hogan, fighting a variety of monsters of the week while the Lethal Family tries to get the belt off of him?

Yeah. Really, between Dynamite and Rampage, you're practically getting a Clash every week. Maybe if they did something more gimmicky, like a Lethal Lottery special, a Battle Bowl special, a World War 3 special... something that would make the shows distinctive without eating into their regular programming.

I am stoked for the idea of Penta/Punk. I'm not as down on Penta as most, and I feel like the style clash will lead to something interesting.

Glad to see Tea Leoni getting work after all these years.

Was Bandido okay? It's always concerning when a wrestler doesn't make their flight - unless it's Sid not having his passport to fly within the US...

Valid point, but wrong guy to use as an example when he's been on the main shows consistently since his return.