John E. Dynamite

Jack was fun when he was the go-to upper midcard underdog/hero of the children, but when he was asked to do more - mainly, be a competent and believeable promo - he couldn't. He couldn't sell a program, he couldn't garner main event heat, he couldn't tell a story unless a vet like Christian was telling it for him. And he's one of several day-one AEW guys who hit that wall. Good in-ring, solid character and/or mic work, physical credibility. You need two out of three, and he has one. Granted the heel turn seemed like a plan to help him develop the second point.

They should have that conversation in NJPW.

This is a Twitter take. Darby was telling him to go home for like three or four minutes.

Please, please, please. Let Darby turn on Sting.

You know you've banked a legit KO of the Year contender when the booth is audibly depressed over it.

Alright. The game is done. Close enough to 100% to be happy with. Think I got all the bosses knocked out, save for maybe one or two I left in an unfinished catacomb. The game is too big. I really think they could have cut an entire continent's worth of content and they would have been better for it. There were separate moments in Liurnia, Altus and especially the snow areas where it felt like I was stuck in a loop. Just no need for all that copy & pasting. And the obtuseness of the sidequests and certain mechanics are still dumb but that's a problem Fromsoft doesn't want to ever fix so at this point it is what it is. The open world was a blessing and a curse. Being able to put a marker on the map and return to an area when you were ready is the difficulty solution the series has always been looking for, especially given how subjective any given area's difficulty can be depending on your build. But stumbling across a really cool area you missed only to find you're melting everything it in because you're 40 levels too high always stunk. Still a beyond brilliant game, but a notch below Bloodborne in my book. The endgame bosses were what I hoped they would be. Malenia was really fun, probably took me about two dozen tries. It was the only point in the game where I immediately realized I needed to re-spec (lord knows they give you enough Larval Tears). So I played the menu game and slowly started to figure out a buncha neat stuff, like how STR is a way better stat than DEX or how really really good the Brass Shield is, or how I'd been sleeping on the Comet and Gravity Well spells for the whole game (not that they helped with Malenia) or how abusable the infinite FP physik is. After having gone 80 hours basing my game around the Death's Poker ashes and sorcery I would up dropping proper weapons completely and beat the endgame bosses right-handing my Lusat's Scepter like a goof while hiding behind a Brass Shield with the very good Barricade Shield ashes. The run where I beat her was a trainwreck. Popped a crab but completely forgot to Rune Arc or anything else. Tische got wiped out Phase 1 and I completely botched my big Comet Azur Phase 2 opening purely out of unfamiliarity with its icon. But the stuff that worked continued to work, which was staying at medium range to keep her offensive AI indecisive, shielding through one part of Waterfowl before dodging towards her, and a nonstop barrage of fully-charged Spiral Shard with Godfrey's Icon buffing them. I probably only saw her second phase less than 10 times and I wish I could get back in there and fight her again and again. Elden Beast was all about loading way up on Holy Damage negation through buffs, equip and the Erdtree Shield. I hadn't crafted a liver the entire game but those Holyproof Livers were crucial. Once again I didn't even bother with a proper weapon. Comet for Radagon, Spiral and Loretta's Mastery for the big stardog. Spacing, spacing, spacing. Learning when to shield. Rolling into the big sword projectiles. Fully charged everything. Eating crab, hon.

Not if you plop your hog on St. Peter's desk. A sincere RIP

I really wish I was fluent in Spanish because I love me some background teevee when I'm playing old games on handheld. I can kinda perk my head up for the competitive stuff and the meaty bits when I have territorial stuff on, or all the old TNA PPVs they have up for free. If I could 100% parse the undercard commentary while my eyes were preoccupied until the tercera I'd be in heaven. I guess baseball is the platonic application of this concept.

AJ McKee looked like a Top 10 P4P fighter hiding in plain sight. That wasn't the dude who should have lost to Roberto de Souza, that's the guy who beat Pitbull.

Talking soft and saying nothing. I'll get cynical here and say he sounds like an accomplice. But his is one of dozens of public takes I'd say the same about

Makachev taught Volk how to lose + Topuria's right would have KO'ed an elephant if he'd caught it EXACTLY on the point of the chin like that. It was a dream punch and he earned it. His striking work when his opponent is against the fence is top level.

Danny Barlow just got my attention. Fought like a true prospect and showed some gnarly accuracy. He's got some tall man defensive issues but I liked what I saw. And that mumble rap Memphis promo was actually kinda money.

There was an Ironman Match in DDT years and years ago where anything remotely illegal would count as a fall against you. Like, setting up a chokeslam was an instant DQ fall and such. If ANYBODY has a link to that one, I'm dying to watch it again.

"Tell them the Snorks remember"

Sean Strickland was briefly UFC Middleweight Champion earlier in the year. He admitted to being a white supremacist in his youth, habitually makes violently bigoted comments, talked about how women shouldn't be allowed to work (anywhere) or vote, claimed an interviewer who asked about his prior homophobia (and all people who support gay people) are a cultural "infection" who need to be dealt with, frequently threatens other fighters with murder and talks about his desire to kill someone in the cage, assaulted the man who would eventually take his championship from him in the stands during a UFC show, recently took a sparring sessions with a (shithead) streamer way too far, etc. etc. etc. The UFC is a mask-off supporter of global fascism and hatred these days so he's exactly what they asked for.

I don't mean this as a critique - I want this to be a study in adolescent dick measuring. I want to see two weird chatty introverted fortysomething dorks-cum-family-guys with compulsive obsessions about throwback wrestling to indulge in every hyperfocus their bodies and minds can muster. I don't even want the match to prioritize being good. I just want it to be the most extreme example of whateverthefuck this modern 'I-WATCH-TERRITORIES-ON YOUTUBE' PROWRES is so that we can all understand the niche better and see where we can cap the ceiling at.

She said she was suffering from seizures. She had three of them and didn't know why and it took a while for her to be clear again. And she made the terrible mistake of attempting to keep her health a private matter, leading to the sort of idiotic speculation we always get.

Wow a twitter link. Leading to a passive-aggressive anti-AEW comment. Posted by you. And it's Bix! I for one embrace the day when DVDVR turns into a low effort clickbait news aggregator.

Ah, but that's when I dig out the deep cuts. Games that got remade but are still best on Wii, like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Sakura Wars and Mercury Meltdown and de Blob and House of the Dead: Overkill and Little King's Story and Bit Trip Complete. Games that got weirdly superior Wii remakes like Bully and the first Trauma Center. Really good arcade rail shooters like Dead Space: Extraction and the two Resident Evil joints. Weird originals that never got ported like Endless Ocean: Blue World and Zack & Wiki and Lost in Shadow and Rhythm Heaven. Compilations like that Kirby one with everything on it and the Data East collection the heinously slept on Namco Megamix. It's a deep bench.

The Wii Classic Controller Pro is a pretty cute lil piece of hardware that is consistently ignored by people who immediately dismissed the console because their fragile adolescent masculinity prevented them from playing anything that didn't involve guns or football. Or at least that's how I remember it. The Wii probably has the most underrated collection of games out of any console in history, and at least half of the good ones don't require any motion controls. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wii_games_with_traditional_control_schemes This is when I'd drop some big list of great Wii games that prove the point (and a TON of great compilations, you wouldn't believe it). But it's easier to mention that Sin & Punishment: Star Successor exists and it's the best fucking thing you'll play in your life.

MICRO GEMELO DIABLO I IS THE MAIN MINI MOTHERFUCKER

Are they gonna EVER do a Volcano/Kraneo apuestas? Is it still on the table?? Did it already happen???

Yeah, per cagematch (har har har) this was the highest rated episode of Dynamite since the Brodie tribute and the third-highest rated episode ever. It'll probably even out somewhere around the top five all time. Somewhere around the episode with the Moxley/Kenny cage match or the Danielson/Takeshita + Hangman/Mox + Elite/Death Triangle 7th match. I don't bring that particular metric up like it proves some objective point, but it is one of the best gauges we have in assessing how much the hardcore fanbase enjoys something. This was clearly the kind of episode that the core fans WANT. A combination of a vibe shift, a return to a more sports-style approach, a much better women's division and the promise of a fresh new champion clicked really hard on Wednesday. The featured outside acts are working out. A lot of fat has been trimmed. The Bucks even seem to be onto something. In my opinion, the most important thing was I didn't know who was going to win a majority of the matches and I can't overstate how important that is at keeping my eyeballs on the screen. The most telling quote I've heard about AEW in the last few months was QT Marshall complaining about how AEW wanted to "be like New Japan". And you know what? That's what people kinda always wanted it to be. I don't know if the 2023 sports entertainment experiments were a direct reaction to the WWE product being so hot, or if it was a matter of a backstage creative shakeup or what. But I think the C2 really woke up AEW as to what it's core intent should be, and I think the MJF reign is eventually going to be looked at as AEW's Her Satanic Majesty's Request, or something. The high points were really high and most bands/promotions would consider it a solid enough entry but they were chasing the other guys' vibe and getting way too cute with it when they should have kept the grit and been themselves.

I still think Swerve pins Joe but I don't mind the uncertainty.

Just something that came to mind after seeing all those CMLL guys... AEW talent who have participated in a Torneo Cibernetico- Claudio, Kingston, The Young Bucks, Rush, Mark Briscoe, Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero, Juice Robinson, Matt Taven, Matt Menard, Scott Parker, Evil Uno, Stu Greyson, John Silver, Alex Reynolds, Ruby Soho, Lady Frost... Booook it. Book an entire Rampage around it.