Firebreaker Chip

still can't get over that three count that's the length of a nine count

I guess it crossed everyone's mind as a possibility at the time, but that was the moment where it became a cast-iron certainty in my head

I think people are mainly intending these points about the men's division because that's where the issue is, and there was an understanding that the women's division was more of a work in progress and they didn't have access to as many polished women wrestlers to start it out or grow it during the pandemic. Jade however is kind of a special-case nailed-on phenomenon that reminds me of the Ta-Nehisi Coates line on Obama becoming president where it just sort of raises the question "so it took someone that perfect for there to even be a chance, huh?" It's true that the off-the-peg-over main event male talent they were able to sign was mostly white, but if you don't have access to sign a ready-made main event black male talent maybe you should be making more effort to grow one? Like is there a reason Hobbs can't be on main TV a few times a month just to squash a guy, let him get some reps and see if he connects with the crowd? Also not really directly related to any of this but the second I saw that Khan tweet insulting Swole I thought "oh shit yeah he definitely signed off on the offensive Caster rap then threw him under the bus when it backfired didn't he"

Saw this come up on Eurogamer and thought some gameplay details might have leaked but no, imaginary digital pre-order tat for suckers "When It's Your Yard It Hits Different" is some absolute brain worms shit

I definitely believe that they Fedexed Jericho a box containing nothing though

Yeah totally, have long felt like the kind of "three star ten minute match that does the exact job it was meant to on the card" is way more of a lost art than the actual five star epic. I'd rather watch a relatively average-for-them Austin vs Steamboat match from a minor show in 1992 than one of those very good but forgettable 20 minute six man matches they were having every week on Raw a few years ago that got 4+ stars from Meltz. Peak NXT was good for this too on the undercard matches, I remember liking Dijak and Lee wrestling each other to a double countout that showed they could be spectacular together in future without giving too much away on the day

Oh yeah my kitten's already on the bandwagon but tbh a lot of the time it's like "settle down Richienetico" ?

In terms of mainstream crossover potential this might mean something and it might not, but we got a puppy at the start of the week and after an evening of bombing around the living room and fidgeting wildly in my wife's lap, he momentarily stopped and paid rapt attention to the entirety of Wardlow's powerbomb symphony ?

I feel like the logical next step for Cody is to solemnly announce he feels he has to renege on his promise and challenge for the world title as a result of overwhelming fan demand Agonising over the decision for a 20 minute Dynamite segment every week as he provides updates on this unprecedented groundswell of grassroots support; his voice cracking as he reads out a (very real) letter from little terminally ill Timmy in Boise begging the Codester for just one favour: to win the big one, for him, before the lights go out on his tragically short life Not a dry eye in the house I'd bet

I think I've actually lost count of how many good Sting matches there have been in 2021 What a weird timeline we ended up on

Haha Punk's stinger woo on the ramp ended up closer to a Wilhelm scream!

That title match was fantastic. I could feel my heart in my chest in the last couple of minutes, there were so many ways they could have gone with it. Mad how after years of spammed superkicks and overwrought community theatre drama it took a guy nominally trained by Shawn Michaels to come in and restore Bretism to its rightful, permanent place at the top of the wrestling industry (I'm being flippant; Serena of course deserves her proper respect for this too) I love how half of Dante's spectacular shit is just clever acrobatic dodges that aren't even going to kill him young. When he eventually debuts that second facial expression it's going to be like the second coming of Hook Although none of them are individually 10/10 megastars all round, all of the former Undisputed Era guys have something to recommend them (godspeed Roddy) - KO'R was always my favourite of the group and I'd like to see him show up. He integrates his MMA stuff in a way that doesn't make him seem tediously ashamed of pro-wrestling, stooges like a champ and has a well calibrated sense of humour Good show!

AEW needs some message discipline about everyone saying "shit" with slightly too much gusto every five minutes. Either that or lean into it, throw caution to the wind and give me Orange Cassidy dropping relentless c-bombs throughout every single promo

Yeah I was counting the Dax one as probably being improvised due to the injury I think PAC's Avalanche brainbuster, if he ever does it again, should be not so much a finish as a "you aren't seeing this guy on TV for a while" move Generico's is different and if they were saving it as a finish then other people shouldn't be getting two counts off it every week!! it looks awesome though so I'll still watch that shit In non-brainbuster news, the constantly-interrupted interviews feel like one of this company's few concessions to WWE-style hating your audience

They seemingly have like a dozen people on the roster who can hit picture-perfect brainbusters on the regular, can at least one of them just use it as a dang finish already

That Gory Bomb Wheeler hit on Fenix was brutal, looked like he was trying to make a hole in the the ring with him If Hook is half saiyan I'll be interested to see how the oompa loompa half of his genes manifest over time

I completely lost my shit at this visual, thank you brother

One thing about AEW having such an OTT "house style" in so far as there is one, is that guys like Christian and Dustin who can (and in fact kind of have to) work a slower, more methodical style than that really stand out in terms of their timing, pacing, selling etc when they're given some time to work with Christian hitting a frog splash is never going to be the most spectacular thing you see on any given AEW show, but in that debut match against Kazarian he gave such a strong impression that he'd basically had to bust a gut to make FK stay down long enough to hit it, and that the move itself had taken so much out of him, that it made for a better near-fall than a whole bunch of more spectacular spots regularly do

That was so fucking swank. the powerbomb seems like a bit of a lost art in modern wrestling with all these enzuigiris, cutters and superkicks popping off ten times a match. Not that people don't do them at all but it's like a whole genre of moves!

Ah yeah would love the Briscoes, feel like Jay Briscoe immediately violently murdering Tony Khan for announcing some LGBT solidarity promotion is exactly the controversial shot in the arm the industry needs to get us back to the glory days of the attitude era

Tony K is now dangerously addicted to the illicit thrill of causing several Vincels to suffer fatal heart attacks every time he is quoted by a wrestling website saying basically anything at all

http://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1435320735170449414?s=20 I laughed Paul London's always been outrageously handsome hasn't he? Sort of like a Mexican Christian Bale

I don't normally get time to watch it but the ambient dumb/wtf/funny commentary from Tazz and co on Dark really adds to the show, Tazz trying to spin Cutler selling a self-inflicted freeze-spray to his own face while wearing a full mask as "he sprayed it through the [non-existent] nose holes and that caused his nosebleed" and Starks randomly claiming Statlander's eye had turned green because she has cataracts were standouts

I know it's her catchphrase, but bearing in mind new viewers tuning in, I'm not sure Excalibur should be enthusiastically saying "Jade Cargill - THAT BITCH - will go one on one with Kiera Hogan"