AxB

https://vxtwitter.com/WrestlePrestige/status/1782114985046655339 Blackheart Lio Rush vs JAIDEN

Speaking of which, https://twitter.com/VancityReynolds/status/1782121079731016040 Deadpool & Wolverine trailer TOMORROW!!

Now a couple of weeks ago, Top Flight were in a face vs face match, and it made FTR the de facto heels on that night, because the brothers Martin were the more beloved duo. Whereas last night, they were in another face vs face match, and they suddenly found themselves obliged to work heel because they were facing the beloved Eddie Kingston (and his friends). Eddie finally wearing Tenryu boots, black trimmed with yellow, feels like the look he should have been sporting all along. If they changed the alliances up in the match slightly, we could have a stable of Adam Copeland, Andretti & Briscoe. ACAB. Don Callis joined commentary for Hobbs vs Esparza, and might as well not have bothered because the match was over before he really got to say anything. Mox's IWGP title being on the line vs Hobbs is a pretty big deal, because it's not a belt that is defended frequently under normal circumstances. Like a year long reign is still single figure defences. So if Mox is defending it less than two weeks after winning it, that implies the plan is for him to not have it very long and he doesn't want to be Mr Zero Defences. Max Caster didn't screw up his rap (that angle, if it was an angle, seems to have been dropped), but he almost did, because he wrote so many lyrics he had to double time half of it. Something about legalising incest in there. I expected The Acclaimed to win the TV tag match, and then lose the trios titles match on the PPV, but then them losing this one doesn't imply they're winning tonight, because this isn't WWE parity booking. Nigel's apology to the Clamdigging community, when it didn't turn into a heel promo non-apology immediately, it got me thinking some actual clamdiggers had actually complained. Takeshita's Bunkhouse outfit looking like something from a Yakuza game was cool. Danielson's MMA braids seem to come loose immediately and he was looking unlike his usual AEW appearance. Some good blood in the Bunkhouse, too. When Mox's music kept playing after he'd finished entering and was brawling around with Hobbs, I thought they were going to New Jack it (redeem themselves after that singer in blackface that one time), but then it just stopped. Leyla Hirsch has had the worst luck since returning to TV. First Julia Hart hurt her shoulder and the match only went 3 minutes as they rushed to the finish to avoid exacerbating the injury, and then last night she slips going up for her climbing Moonsault - although considering they went right to Skye getting the win here, perhaps the planned finish was her missing the Moonsault, and slipping was an acceptable substitute for that. The couple of fans who tried to start a CM Punk chant during the Bucks' match got shouted down pretty quick. Watching FTR on the same show as Claudio, it really hammers home how, despite Sting spending years in AEW and retiring as a hero in AEW, everyone in AEW who does a Scorpion Deathlock calls it a Sharpshooter because they're doing it as a Bret tribute. I don't like AEW changing from cloth ring aprons to LED boards, but I can't deny that the change has made changing the show branding a lot faster and simpler. That one time Fite forgot to cut the feed and we almost got Rampage two days early, it took ten-fifteen minutes to change everything. This time it was like one second. RVD being well over 50 years of age, and going almost 20 minutes, hitting all of his spots perfectly (except he did ZERO of his chair spots), that's impressive. He might not have that Copeland/Cage super jacked and lean 50-year old thing, but he's arguably dealing with the ageing better than either of them. Certainly much better than either Hardy. Emi Sakura improvising to fill time while Yuka walks off her hurt leg, that really underlined what a great all-round performer Emi is. Book her on All In this year, she deserves that spotlight! The match was really good, too. Presumably they had to change up the match plans quite a bit, with Yuka being hurt and gutting her way through, but it didn't ruin things. Just changed them. Big congrats to Angelo and Ruby. It does make me wonder, is Angelo actually really good at acting, or did Ruby tell the office and the segment producers in advance, but surprise her actual partner on Wednesday? The main of Rampage, it was NXT Black n Gold as hell. Even though only half of the people in it ever worked there. It suffered from being in the "Are you still watching?" spot on a three hour show, where the last match was not the most important one with the biggest stars. But it was OK. All in all, three great hours of Professional Wrestling television.

I love it when they get Referee Kim to do the ICW NHB shows, because she looks so horrified at basically everything that happens in the matches. Like most of the refs are pretty "seen it before" after a while, but she's constantly cringing from it. Really sells the devastating effect of the moves. And with Ref Shiny Shoes now apparently giving up on the refereeing and concentrating on his career as an actual wrestler, hopefully Kim will start travelling more (instead of being a Tennessee exclusive). Obviously in an ideal world, SPO would still be reffing most of the matches, but that's tragically impossible, may he Rest in Peace.

The only reason they had to go from a company that makes and distributes movies, to a company that deletes movies for the tax write off, is the Fantastic Beasts franchise died on it's arse. JK Rowling's lack of talent killed the company. She's the Vince Russo of Warner Bros.

The classic play is for the face to say "We don't have to wait, we can do this right here, right now in Cheap Pop City!", and then the heel (or heel manager) says "We're not doing this match in Cheap Pop City, we're doing it down the line. Cheap Pop City doesn't deserve it, because Cheap Pop City sucks!".

re: The Coefficient. If you're a regular big 4 team in the EPL, the last thing you want is another Champion's League spot for the league. It would threaten the monopoly. The Champion's League Big 4 are basically in a 4 horse race to win the league, the last thing any of them want is a fifth contender to worry about.

They've announced Nyla as host for Zero Hour.

Cavill is busy putting together the Warhammer show for Amazon. Other Hemsworth is Geralt.

Logan Knight (an Oklahoma-based LGTBQ+ wrestler) is taking action against the Athletic Commision: https://twitter.com/LoganKnightPro/status/1781062546914423102 Specifically, he's campaigning to get Native American land in the state exemption from Commission oversight. And he wants people who agree with him on this issue to let the OKC know about it by emailing [email protected]

Forbes article on the most valuable combat sports promotions in the world: https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinteitelbaum/2024/04/18/the-most-valuable-combat-sports-promotions-2024/ Anyone who thinks AEW is dying should probably read this.

The Fugitive?

The Akira vs Suzuki match was really good too. Somehow, after all of those matches where Suzuki, regardless of who his opponent is, gives us "The Minoru Suzuki match", Akira managed to shake him out of that and change it up a bit. When they were doing the finger manipulation early, and Akira bent Suzuki's finger so he was giving himself the bird, Suzuki sold that in a way that said "Ha ha this is awesome why didn't I think of it sooner?".

If they really wanted to troll the commission, they would book Nyla to win a squash, and have her squash opponent be Kidd Bandit, or Saraya Saber, or Sigrid Daughter of Tyr, or Jamie Senegal, or Edith Surreal... or book Nyla vs Veny, or Dark Sheik in a more competitive dream match.

Who would have thought that, of everyone doing a "My demonic alter ego" gimmick, LIO RUSH would be the guy to pull it off convincingly?

Ric "LOL I'll pretend you said 18 (or 21 depending on State laws)" Flair?

https://www.si.com/fannation/wrestling/young-bucks-ftr-jack-perry Young Bucks interview from Sports Illustrated.

In my previous job, where I didn't start on Mondays until 3pm, I didn't mind. In my current job, I start at 10am, but that means waking up at 8. So I'm now in complete agreement re: Sunday PPVs.

From last week's thread: The winner of the 2nd Owen Hart Cup was Ricky Starks, Jushin Liger was to present the trophy but Ricky just brushed him off.

So apparently, there's some Transphobic laws that the Oklahoma Athletic Commision enforces, and they're considering hitting AEW for having Nyla wrestle on a pre-Dynamite ROH taping in December: https://www.realrasslin.net/post/aew-potentially-punished-by-archaic-oklahoma-athletic-commission

So, I finally got around to watching the secret Collision (the one that aired at midnight, after Mania Night One ended). Top Flight vs FTR was more or less exactly what you would expect a Top Flight vs FTR match to be. Probably quite different to what the planned match-up (FTR vs Starks/Bill), because FTR were the de facto heels in this one. It was a good solid match. By which I mean, the brothers Martin have a bunch of spectacular flying moves that they do in every match, so they start to seem rote because they are hit perfectly almost every time. Pac vs Encore was a good squash. Encore is really good, but he didn't get to do anything. Although Pac's main issue in AEW is visibility, he's there for a couple of shows, and then gone for a couple of shows, when he's healthy (and there's no travel ban). And working a squash on this show in particular isn't going to help him be more visible. Also, Ospreay took his "British high flier" spot... although given that Will is a face and Pac is a heel, perhaps they should fight over it. Watching the Jericho & Hook vs Moriarty & Taylor match, having already seen both the six-man tag it led to, and the singles matches that that led to, it really makes it feel inconsequential. Hook hitting a T-Bone on Shane Taylor was impressive. Ogogo having a "former boxer with a KO punch" gimmick, while in a stable with another guy who is a former boxer with a KO punch, that's a bit untidy. Unless they give Moriarty a Knockout Striker gimmick as well, and make Stone Temple Promotions into the bruiser stable. The Dustin Rhodes promo where he asks for the title shot, read about in spoilers it looks like a bit of Wrestlemania bandwagon jumping. But the actual promo itself was really good, and really makes you want to see that Dustin vs Joe match (which I've already seen). AEW should have done more to get eyes and ears on this. Tough break for Bryan Keith, getting signed and then immediately being made the weak link on a six-man team with Sydal and Daniels. Against the House of Black, even. Trish Adora dressed all in yellow, it makes her look physically bigger than her usual red/gold/green gear. Or possibly it's because she's facing tiny Yuka Sakazaki. Similar issue to Pac, Yuka's been signed to AEW for almost five years, but she's barely been on TV, and then returns on a show that hardly anyone watched. Good match though. Claudio Castagnoli vs The Butcher has me speculating, Butcher showed up in AEW with a very unique look, especially by AEW standards. But over time he got lean instead of chunky, he skinheaded off the skullet, he trimmed the handlebar down into just a bushy tache. He used to look like nobody else, now he looks like Hall of Mirrors Dax Harwood. It's a shame. The main event was Penta vs Komander. I haven't watched it yet, but I bet it was really good.

So WARHORSE changed his gimmick, and is now a lot less 80s metal bombastic, and he is now despondent, serious and faithless. And so his merch has changed, to fit in with that.

At Mania Night one, for the main event, the time lapse between the start of Cody's Entrance (after all of the video packages) and the bell ringing to start the match was literally 20 minutes. 20 minutes which consisted solely of 4 people walking to the ring, one after another.