Brandon Bones

That ratings chart/reaction combo are my posts of the year. Fucking BRA-VO! Thank you.

I am in awe of that Jericho match. Perfect pro wrestling. Masterful. He might have changed my Mox vote for WOTY. OCHOOOO! Good meaty story telling across the boards on this episode. AEW has shed its Punk skin. I heard somewhere somebody saying something along the lines of sprucing up the Dynamite set for a bigger show. Nah. Save that for the PPV. Let just Dynamite also be big. The weekly shows need to be important. All the time. More. Title matches on tv fucking rules.

Damn. The Grouch is spittin’. Damn.

Should I blade to make this post? Why not? All the kids are doing it these days. That is an absolutely perfect trilogy of tag matches. Applause, kudos, credits, and cartwheels in celebration FTR vs. The Briscoes. Worth every penny spent in both PPV and a pair of tickets to Lowell. I’m as guilty as anybody being entirely biased against Taven. He was the turd in the punch bowl at that MSG show and I’ve never gotten over it. He was pretty good here. Him following the code of honor at the end of the match also somehow managed to endear him to me. This must be a good strain. Nothing wrong with the content of Joe/Juice. Sucks it had to follow the above. Meanwhile, Juice is going to have some problems creating buzz if his hope is to get somewhere in transferring back to the States. 7 years in New Japan is a long time. Jericho was looking awfully Moongoose with that Ozzy tassels jacket. Kind of an original spot with Jericho chasing the ringside crew around. It’s all in the details. Say what you will about Hogan/Warrior matches. But that double clothesline spot was so well worked it’s emulated to this day and it’s great. The Swing reversal into the Walls was super. To think Jericho has been pulling that many tricks to catch that move for this long is something else. Then he quits to the fucking move? Never saw that coming. I’m certain there will be some debate over if it is appropriate for MJF dissing the NWA or CHAP shitting on the current status of ROH. But I’m going temporarily allow it as circumstances for either brand aren’t going to be worsened just because of these mentions. Later on I might change my mind.

Yikes. How’d you like to be Jungle Boy this morning? I’m so sick with the bronchitis at the moment and I doubt I feel worse than he does. That apron bump freaked me out. I was super concerned with Starks getting eaten alive by MJF. But thankfully he made a very good accounting of himself. The match itself will eventually be the real test to see if Starks gets elevated here. So tread lightly. Starks’ promo was good. But not the star making performance it could have all on its own. But if the match makes him look like he COULD HAVE won the belt. It’ll be fine. That shit on MJFs neck has some shit on its neck. Loved Joe/Darby. Joe is a mean mean MEAN man. Darby loves to die for for amusement. A lot of the rest of the was a blur thanks to all the meds I’m on. But I did come back around for the tag title match. Even though I was excited for the match. I kept forgetting it was on this show. Then Ex would remind me again and again with the graphics insert and I would be surprised each time. It was a helluva match too. Glad they gave the win to Caster really needed some points on the board. The wrestlers got out wrestled in a rare case of youth overcoming experience. The Acclaimed are on a streak and there is no reason to have them lose at this point. Bad timing for AEW yet again being cut off from the temptation of a belt collecting gimmick. But ultimately it doesn’t really matter if FTR does get them all. They have a really high credit limit with me. Great show. Scissor me AEW!

The amount of “pretty” on screen during the Nay/Saraya interview was stunning. I’m throwing my cards in on a solid Saraya comeback. I’d really like to see her turn the bullshit in her life into something positive. But I think on an artistic level it might’ve been more prudent to put Britt over at the PPV. The character stuff Saraya could do digging her self out of the grave like The Bride in Kill Bill would be compelling stuff. Maybe they’ll still get around to it. Sanjay was on fucking fire. The cutaway to him dancing to Private Party’s theme popped me big, brother. Confession time. I’m enjoying hating Jeff Jarrett. I’m also other people hating JJ. I want nothing more from him than boatloads of stomp punch stomp punch Memphis tomfoolery. And an occasional Codysault off the top of the cage. When you have a chance to be a Terry Funk crazy old man gig. You do that shit. If we’ve learned nothing else about this totally unique phenomenon that is Orange Cassidy. It’s that you can plug that dude into any position on the card and it’ll work. This should play a lot cornier than it does. Yet they manage to make it cool. Holy shit. Nate Webb was out there. I haven’t seen that dude since that ROH Cage of Death vs. CZW.

If I had been the guy that fist bumped Dax. I’d have told him “Bryan Danielson is my favorite wrestler… and I want you to kick his fucking ass”. Biggie umph on that last German Suplex from Dax. Some good ole rasslin’ baby. DID ENJOY! Is this singles Dax run going somewhere? MJFs promo was full of raw plot meat. He understands the notion that villains commit violations of the sacred. Like when SUWA pissed off Joe Higuchi for tearing up the scroll. You do not tear up the scroll.(motherfucker). Giving credit where it’s due. Anna Jay made Willow look really good. Good to see Ruby. QT Marshall reminds me of my boss. Death Triangle has always baffled me. Outside of all 3 guys being massively athletic. Why do they hang out? Maybe it’s weed. Weed makes lots of strange friends that don’t make sense. I too am sorry that Derek was stuck at work.

In the interest of being encouraging. I’m always down for an on site at the show post.

Just to clarify. Would that be YOU dog? Or Larry dog?

ABCs Love in the Afternoon Presents: Daniel Bryan Lucci fights to keep the two men he loves the most from coming to blows. Mox clearly spit on the ground during his entrance and that red shirted security guard didn’t say shit. He just stood there and watched. I’m pretty sure I’d get thrown out the arena for that. Meanwhile Keith Lee aches over his break-up with Swerve. They decide to to NOT have that kinda drama in front of the public in a very classy move. They’re gonna be fine. Hager wearing the hat during the match is exactly what I needed. Building the entire match around what was clearly an idea Jericho came up with while he was drunk is pure sports entertaingment. All Eggo Ethan just bugs me. I don’t think he is a bad guy or anything. All I think of when I see him is Tom Brandi. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with that. But it is wrong. I like Starks and I think he will make a great first defense for MJF. But Page as the springboard? Nah. Big pop for Kansas… and nothing else. Lolz I must have overlooked this show was in Chicago. Otherwise I’d have been anticipating The Elite vs. the entire city. Fucking arm bite? Ok. Here comes the meta. To the crowds credit they admit the match is awesome. Not a plot thread was forgotten. And then at end they cut to the guy wearing the “Just Enjoy Wrestling” shirt. Mmm hmm. I hear you AEW. I miss my Thunder Bae for sure. But yeah. Let’s move on. Hayter is awesome. The 3 Way turned out pretty great. A bit more table setting that suggests the Baker/Hayter stuff is going to be going on for awhile longer. The Acclaimed make me happy. Weirdly… so is this Team TNA. I like none of its parts (as a rule) but am enjoying what they are doing as a group. Singh has really played his Giant role perfectly and I think absent that the entire act falls apart. But if JJ wants me to really buy it? Go put over Effy. Ishii is the reason I started watching NJPW again after years of avoiding Inokism. So I’m stoked to see him. I hope Shota is watching. What a visual was Jericho bleeding from a chop battle. Nuts. This match was so awesome. Is Jericho going to zip past Mox at the last second for WOTY? I was all like “GIVE ME WHAT I WANT!!!” and AEW was like “Here’s 2 hours of it”. Ishii “Fuck you for making me tap out”

Yep. That’s what I expected. A start to finish quality show that went a long way towards shedding its skin off all the hullabaloo. The Acclaimed make me happy. Got some paying off of some storylines in the Lee/Swerve crash and the finale of this feud. Glad to see Bowens tough it out with the injury (if it isn’t a work). Bring on FTR. Jericho sure is a treasure. Every young roster should have a guy working in the locker room like him. His level of experience is invaluable and the fact that he is tearing it up week in and out is something incredible. Great match. Loved the finish. Probably a tie for my favorite of the show… … as I really loved the Trios title match. How were people going to respond to their return? “Fuck, CM Punk!” Yep. Agreed. Really liked it being Fenix that got the fall on Omega. Dude deserves a win that’ll elevate him. Death Triangle should take it to the 4th and have The Elite have to scrape, painted into a corner for every win all the way to the 7th. No point in doing a “best of” unless you’re going all the way. Hayter getting the win was very rewarding as a fan. Really invested in this wrestler after that awesome first match with Rosa. Very good match to keep the momentum going. Stiiiiiiiing! Darby did the Stinger Hulk Up. That double team on Singh blew the roof off my face. Eddie whoopin up on Akiyama satisfies my sweet tooth for imports and guest stars. Great time! The cage match rocked. Perhaps Jungle Man Perry can be next up or soon for a title shot. Loved the reaction to the Knux pass off. Congratulations MJF. Now the hard part begins. I love you, AEW.

Wow. Look at all his gig marks. Dusty would be proud.

Taz, one word, one name. Hook, one word, one name. So the family has a gimmick. What would the wife of Taz’ name be? Just Wife? Her? Good baby face work from Starks though I question the Devils jersey. I don’t watch hockey. But if Starks is a two town hometown boy in Houston and NOLA it comes across as a bit inauthentic. I’ve really come around on Archer. He makes using the word “Hoss” not a pejorative. Aubrey getting decked like it was last call at the bar was nutty great. I haven’t read the thread yet. But I’d imagine some folks might think that the previously untouched popular Aubrey getting physical should be saved for a bigger show. But come on. The regular shows need meat on the bone too. Rampage is many things. But WWE syndicated show it is not. I was surprised at the slow build to start the DDT vs Eddie/Ortiz. Really liked where it went teasing off the Akiyama confrontation for as long as possible. Feels like a set up for a one on one match to me. I’m more of a Kobashi or Kawada guy myself. But this was a good intro for Jun if they’ve got more in the plans for him. I love you AEW (rampage).

I’m a wrestling fan and I don’t want to watch WWE anymore. Not a high water episode this week. But considering AEW has put some of the best weekly episodes of tv wrestling I’ve seen in 39 years of watching. I’m invested. Jericho continues to impress me this year. That dude has to be sick of taking that fucking swing. Good tag match as Sammy was high on crazy pills doing that nutty dive to the outside. The Acclaimed cheer me up. But during the Bowens match commercial the announcers went full knucklehead just ribbing Jericho and going off topic. That shit is going to suck being archived on an eventual streaming service. I love Mox calling Max a child. The contrast is volume 10. Britts promo was good. She staked her claim. I’m enjoying Swerve a lot more than I used to. Much of that is informed by a longer history on tv informing his character. Wardlow doing a big guy wacky dive into a dude pile is a novelty. Just don’t do it all the time. Joe is going to casually side step that shit if he tries it, and it’s going to be glorious. MJF doing the Rock in September of 98 face run to set up some dastardly heel plot twist is taking too long. Rocky had a short window to make it count. But the booking has been reeling since the bullshit with Punk. This’ll take a bit. But it’ll get back on track. Full Gear should be a good to great show. But I’m looking forward to Rampage more than anything. Akiyama baby!

Yep. That was me. It’s all true.

Eddie Kingston and Ortiz vs. Jun Akiyama and Kenosuke Takeshita. Next week on Rampage. Fuuuuuuuuuck yes.

Blink and you’ll miss it. At the start of the match. OC tells Bryce with a hands pushing forward gesture to “Get him back”. Shotty was in his corner all the way across the ring. Good match too. Putting OC in the last match in a long night of tv is a smart choice. Character is over and the matches lately have delivered. I’d hang around after Dynamite to see it. A much better presentation for Cage here against Dante. But as great as this was. This is what Cage should be doing if he were just debuting. Not when he has years of mileage in the company behind him. Darius is back! Great news. That comeback in the battle royal he did after the last injury go-around really convinced me on him. The sheer cash print catsuit should be Jades default outfit on the video game. (Fucking hurry up with that shit already). Bandido kinda rules.

Great episode this week. Andy Serkis is awesome.

Nothing took me for a ride quite like Shibata/OC. A good time.

Best thing about Brian Cage? His Scott Steiner impression. I’d say it was a “pretty good match” with Joe. But we all know how I hate damning with faint praise. Nice to see Danielson still in his Darby costume from Halloween. Hobbes. All the way. He has IT. I watched this in bits and pieces throughout the week. So I guess it wasn’t as challenging for me to watch. But I’ll say there wasn’t much that was special about this episode overall but I’ve survived worse from periods of time than this phase of AEW. WWF in 95. Summer of 91 WCW. Barf emoji. I dropped 2000 WCW like the last season of Weeds. Fuck that shit. But I get it. It’s nothing new to say that “When your backstage drama exceeds interest in your drama in front of the camera”… there’s some shit to get together. Full Gear should still be an awesome show.

Bigelow had my attention after Survivor Series 87. Stuck in a 3 on 1 against Bundy, OMG, and fucking ANDRE!!! Yet he STILL managed to rally by putting down Bundy and Gang consecutively. As Andre enters the ring you just know Bam Bam is in for a world of shit. But he DID put two guys he probably shouldn’t have beat with that many guys across the ring. He hangs with the Giant just long enough to get some extra cred (as he’d already kind of overachieved) but get still got beat. Then POOF it was gone. I’ve also seen some of those house show tag matches with Hogan. They had something for sure.

Blue milk and cereal inspired diabetes. Apparently, he has nothing else to eat.

Set up the poll immediately so I can vote for FTR vs. SIOG for best match of the week. I’m with a lot of you that might have had mixed feelings about Swerve. But he was excellent here. Everyone was. Lee made FTR look like a couple of underrated strongmen. Really, what a show. I’ll drink the poison Kool-Aid alright. Then watch me no-sell it. LOVED seeing Jericho eat the pin after they absolutely hammered him at the end. Moves have consequences and even top guys get put down by them. The BCC is my crew. Claudio rules. Yuta is really gonna be something. Hayter/Riho wasn’t exactly the rag doll car crash I was expecting. But a damn good match. That gut stomp was rugged. AmDrag and Sammy kept the consistency of quality up on high. Crackpot Theory Time: Stokley is a red herring for something. Not sure exactly what yet. But what could be seen as underwhelming in his current performance might be subterfuge to spring the plot twist. MJF went for doing more crowd work than pure promo this time around. I’m here for it if it means he bounces off Renee (who was excellent all night). But like I said. I’m still expecting a plot twist. I liked Mox/Penta but if they had actually done the Destroyer off the steps I might have ranked it higher. I also might have saved the Lariat for the finish. The Acclaimed arriving every week continues to cheer me up. The chair scissors got a big laugh outta me. And NOW for my very over catch phrase…. I love you, AEW.

The one of Daemon going “Don’t make me get my divorce rock” had me howling.

I have birth trauma at 48 years old now. Christ! One thing is for sure. I still haven’t adjusted my tv settings since the GOT finale. Lil Bro just got fucking CHOMPED. Vhagar was something else this episode. The way she looked like Godzilla over the height of the castle wall. With Dani’s trio of dragons you could conceivably get them to turn over so you can rub they’re bellies like the goodest boy Dragos that ever purred. Not fucking Vhagar. Vhagar ran right through Lil Bro like when my old roommate would bring home some feeder goldfish for his fish tank that contained an arowana, 3 piranha, and a tiny crab at the bottom. It was a massacre and a WW2 dogfight movie all in one. Love the cloud silhouettes. BTW: When I did a Google search for the correct spelling of “arowana”. I saw another suggested topic asking “Can fish get high?” Which I mention for no reason.