Brandon Bones

If Thunder Bae doesn’t win… I riot. Like… beware and stuff.

Another enjoyable weekly wrestling program that will most likely be damned with faint praise. But with such high standards week to week… it’s bound to happen. That being said there was a lot to like and possibly love about this show. I’d be handing out bonuses for whoever has been an agent(s) on some of these matches. Statlander taking the close loss didn’t hurt her at all and STING is chugging along at high level efficiency. Andrade was fucking awesome putting over Cody. Really liked the Punk match and promos afterward. I’m going to guess Punk finds a way into the upcoming battle royal? After two weeks of promos (and Bryan/Page not being able to touch) a bit of contact for Punk and MJF is due. Especially, if Punk takes that ring from him. More Hayter! Lets get some safety rails for the ramp. Because Bryan almost ate shit too. Good times, great short term memories!

All that and a bag of chips. Even a bag of chips pays off in AEW. That’s good gravy. Those burns in the promo got me running to the ER. Well fucking done delivering an all time classic promo battle. When STING made his way out and was just standing there. I’m like “What’s he smiling about?” Then BLAMMO! ”Oh… that.” I’ll gladly sit through a shitty Gunn Club match if that’s the payoff. Thunder Bae and Hayter was so great. Probably one of the best segues to commercial I’ve seen in a long time with Hayter really showing off her power and strength. Rosa hit that slap so hard. Hayter now pronounces it “Cleve-a-land”. ? Take notes Vince. Hot crowd. I’m no Bucks hater, but it was nice to have a night off. Dante actually signing with Team Taz. I did not see coming at all. Successful plot twist. Bryan is just the best. But I’m going with patience with the eventual Page match. It’s seems to be a little ways off before it finally happens. I got a real kick out of the main event. Good action. Great teases. The fans sacrificing a token for a great tv moment. Andrade seemingly panicking over the fans potentially taking over the match. I can see how the belts presence could have got out of hand and ruined the match. But they handled expertly. Overall, this show did really great work in advancing the plots without giving away a goddamn thing. The poster who compared it a well executed RAW formula was on point. I won’t call it flawless. But I’ve no reason to nitpick this week. I love you AEW… but I think you love me more.

Well… Brandon is my unfortunate real life first name. I chose Bones as a last name for a bunch of reasons. I used to be a skinny little fuck with boney ribby ribs and buggy whip arms. I guess the alliteration made me think it would work as a wrestling/screen name pseudonym. Plus my real last name is 12 letters of unpronounceable nonsense. I’m half to actually changing my name for reals.

I’m not going to swear on it. But I’ve heard it mentioned (through some sort of media I consume) that AEWs merch side of things is really disorganized to the point they might not be doing what they could be doing. The suggestion being that while they manage to sell out on T-shirt’s and popular items. They could be doing more but don’t seem to have the inventory to meet it. I don’t know. I’m not even particularly sure of where I’m sourcing this from. So take it with a grain.

Well now. This is relevant to my interests. From what I can take from this at least. I might be willing to throw down some dollars if the game will translate well for my sim league. Game intelligence is of course paramount. So the more capable the game is of selling something of a television presentation, while keeping it compelling for the guys who have a character in the game? The better and more likely it is I’ll continue to run the league. I still use 2k19 at this point. While it’s stretched pretty thin with what it hasn’t done, it continues to surprise. Keeping in mind I book, but don’t decide winners, losers, or finishes. But goddamn, pal. I’d love to have a game good enough to freshen it up. The AEW game seems forever away.

I think the thing to remember when it comes to issues with JR is that ultimately, it’s not really hurting (at least) the overall enjoyment of AEW. I’ll admit though that I have a golden editor installed into my brain to only hear what I want to. I manage to almost never see Peter Avalon matches because his moustache hurts my eyes. I gather I do much of the same with JR because to me he is largely muted. I barely notice him there. I prefer to focus on Tony and Ex because one, I haven’t heard much of in recent years. The other, I’ve hardly ever heard before so what he offers is fresh and new. I’m really glad I posted this instead of an anecdote about “Hey! I did commentary too.” Then tell you all about how I called Boys Varsity Basketball in high school as if it were Monday Night RAW. So what I lacked in product knowledge. I made up for in unbridled enthusiasm and a word set of Vinceisms. To this day I’ve no clue what a Full Court Press is. But I’m pretty sure Billy Kidman does one.

Hello, Season Premier! Now let’s shuffle the deck. Things continue to chug along in AEW. I enjoyed this episode. As I often do. I haven’t seen much of Uno prior to AEW. But he did really well with his role here. Boosted by the celebration segment before it. Unos obvious loss here helped cement this heel construction for Bryan. Cabana next week should really put it over the top. Just stay out of the Pacific Northwest for awhile. Good starter match to get the wheels rolling on the new deal. Bryan continues to be the best dude that ever dude-ed. Ishii’s debut seemed kind of muted without some sort of highlight reel to get the uninitiated up to speed on who he is and what he is like. At least he didn’t seem weird standing next to OC. Decent match. Probably could’ve been better. But I’m nitpicking. Lethal is not my favorite but he was very good in ring here. He did alot better than Ishii did in not having a pre-match video. That Sammy dive was big nuts crazy. MOTN. I understand some of the confusion over Lio Rush wrestling incredible flashy baby face, while the story suggests there is something exploitive in his recruitment of Dante. This one remains a “let it play out”. It’ll most likely be there in weeks to come. Some of the signs in the crowd suggest there may be a level of frustration beginning to bubble up from under the surface. Hopefully, it gets addressed before AEW gets swept up in this insane contrarian culture war. Great show. Some random thoughts. I continue to love AEW. I hope you’re all having as much fun as I am.

What an exhausting show! So much good stuff. On a macro level this show is nearly spotless. Great matches, good conclusions, and the continuation towards future shows. At the micro level there is a fair amount of nitpicking to do. I’m with many of you in the opinion that much of this show could have been either shuffled off to the buy in or somewhere later this coming week. Take your pick. The UFC guys were horrible and seemingly unprepared. I was of the understanding they did work with Arlovski and Junior. But as far as the celebrity match goes… there have been many better presented than this. The finish to Miro/Bryan came across a tad awkward until they called it as a KO making the attempted choke unnecessary. The selling of “conchairtos” has had my attention as Cole seems entirely unaffected by the hit he took. Matt Jackson did come out selling during the ME. It would seem the hit he took basically precluded them from doing the Bucks normal attempts to interfere. But it remains questionable that Matt (at least) would be well enough to be there at all. Though storyline wise they had every motivation to want to be present at this moment. Otherwise, I was pretty drained by the time of Women’s title match. But the show was relentless in its energy and drive. It swept me up in it. AEW remains the best bang for your dollar in wrestling and then some… and then some… and then a bit more. I love you AEW.

I enjoyed this. Especially the first 2/3. Shang and Katy are so charming and the action was pretty great. The bus scene and the scaffold fight are shot fantastically. I was grumbling on the app menu about this whole “IMAX Enhanced” feature. “What the fuck does that mean?” Well it really pays off in the Jackie Chan tribute on the scaffolding. Whatever lenses they used for some of those shots really sold the “fear of heights” the scene was trying to impress. The ending was kinda there. But mostly because the charm from the earlier part of the film isn’t present. Wong rules. When he invited Katy to come along I popped because I didn’t want her to be left out.

Oh…. right!

Well I came in here ready to compare the over kill of a top rope brain buster not being an MDK finish to QT MarSHALL having the nerve to even use a tombstone piledriver. But y’all seem ok with it so I’ve decided to change my mind. Fucking great match with PAC and Dax. I will smoke one in its honor today. The more Andrade hangs out with Black. The darker his color scheme gets. Bring on Goth el Idolo! I’m ready to see Dan Lambert pin Jericho. Paraphrasing: “We’ve banned The Dark Order and The Elite from the building and we think this is a good idea.” Crowd: “Boooo! Boo your good idea!” The Trios match was really great and set up the title match just fine. “Respect don’t mean shit.” Jungle Boy acknowledged his promo studders. Probably shouldn’t sell that. But the middle finger/submission was tops. I guess the real challenge of Full Gear isn’t to convince anyone that Adam Page can be a worthy champion. They’ve already done that. We want it. The real challenge is The Young Bucks to win the haters over to loving their match, in spite of themselves. I love you AEW.

When he said that Omega was fucking Riho as an explanation for why she was in AEW. I was so out. Fuck Cornette.

That article made my day. Shitty mood can fuck off, now.

There was this one match Inoki had with Vader at the Dome. Inoki could have sandbagged him all he wanted in a Vader German Suplex. No matter. Inoki went up and got super killed. To this day, one of wrestling’s most satisfying bumps.

If Lambert gets the pin? He is Danny Davis, not Bobby Heenan. ?

There was a lot of good camera work tonight. Two Jungle Boy spots during the big brawl. Darby’s cactus clothesline… all top notch stuff. I think Omega/Angels was my MOTN. It’s nice to see Alan evolve from fratboy punching bag to someone who should be taken more seriously. The commentary did good work here. I continue to love what AEW is putting down week after week. I cannot wait for the PPV. I love you AEW.

It would certainly be weird to NOT put Hangman over. When considering all the time and effort that’s been put into bringing him around from the loss to Jericho. There are a fair amount of good to great choices to go with that we’re not on the table prior to AEW putting Page in this path. But putting my booking hat on here. I’m going for it with him as champ.

It’s been a long long time. But you’re both correct.

I could get into that idea. I think part of my concern of any Hangman title defense being dwarfed by the eventual Omega/Bryan rematch on the same card, might be a bit over blown. In WWE that result would be almost predictable regardless of the quality of the matches. AEWs execution, even in wrestling cliches isn’t a guarantee to draw the same result. They’re AEW. It’s just not the same. Back to your point. Homicides build up to the ROH Title in 06 was pretty great. Then he lost it almost immediately to Nigel IIRC. So there is some focus there. Goddamn. Why not have Hangman get mauled ON a regular episode of Dynamite too? Just to make sure everyone sees it.

Wow. All these years. Never saw him actually pin somebody.

So… Is there any acceptable and satisfactory booking that has Omega going over and keeping the title? Hangman going over, being the hero, and winning the belt after the build up it has… is perfect. However, Omega IS the better opponent on the other side if Bryan wins the tournament. Moxley, on the other hand. Him winning the tournament is very interesting. Especially given he is basically The Amazon from NES Pro Wrestling now. He hasn’t officially turned heel yet. But it seems in the works and it would suggest on paper he’d eat Page alive. Moxley’s promos giving his perspective on Hangman’s last year and a half I can see hitting the red line. I’m just uncertain if Page need be booked like an underdog as champion right out of the gate after he “gains his confidence” back. Meanwhile, Omega vs. Bryan for the title is over there looking like the biggest possible match in the business. We ARE anticipating a rematch at some point.

If someone mentioned it before I missed it. If you look closely at the MJF segment. When he does the STING fake out. It looks as if Wardlow wasn’t clued in on the prank. So when MJF is parading around telling everyone how stupid they are for falling for it. The big man looked like he took ANOTHER grudge to hold.

I thought the Cody promo was pretty great. My instincts are telling me this IS going somewhere interesting. However, I’m willing to recant should it not. The rest of the show continued to reinforce my excitement for this promotion and the overall direction it is going in. I really don’t need WWE anymore. I love you, AEW.

I guess I don’t have the same problem with Cody that so many of you do. But I do see that there are some problems. I just can’t place them specifically. Because if this really is a 4D chess thing and Cody is setting his character up for a big moment? A lot of these criticisms may end up pointless in hindsight. That being said. I enjoyed the shit out of this show as I often do. Bryan kicked some ass. Jungle Boy showed some big Dick energy. The Bucks and Cole showed lots of small Dick energy. Brandon Cutler is great in his role. I love you AEW. You’re my only hope.