Belgian_Waffle

I'm concerned about this myself as for obvious reasons neither then or FTR should 1) be heels or 2) lose anytime soon. I think put the belts on FTR, turn them heel in 6 months and have the Acclaimed win the belts back is probably the most generous scenario for both teams. Still runs the risk of the Acclaimed going cold though. Maybe the answer is...a secondary tag team title Long-term I still think Bowens as a singles main eventer is a thing they need to explore but I would never break up the team, just have them work singles while still teaming regularly.

Ironically the same tuff guys who take this stance also never shut up about "omg this one time this old hick who was a heel died and they announced it in the arena and the fans cheered the fans are so mean they don't respect that we're human beings"

In a perfect world gone mad when the orange light came back on and HoB were already leaving the ring it would have been because Punk was standing over Omega ready to throw down.

I think they need to do some damage control on the Wardlow character if it's not too late already. Watching the recap video last night where he's on his balcony dressed for GQ contemplating the California skyline speaking in his reading lines off the teleprompter methodical way of doing promos was a useful snapshot of everything off-putting about his babyface persona. A buddy of mine has been calling him "Job Interview Wardlow" which I think is pretty funny. I like the idea of him being a complicated, sensitive monster but when he's doing run-ins wearing a velvet blazer I kind of wonder what exactly they're going for with him.

Final observation before bed: Stokely had a LOT of tv time the past few months and is really doing wonders with that new iteration of his character. Shame they didn't at least have him come out with the Gunns and join the fun in the tag match (especially when absolute loads like Mark Sterling and Alex Abrahantes were given time in the preshow).

This discussion re: Punk is making me feel less naive about my being open to the possibility at the time that the show was wrapping up early not so that the iron man match could go into OT but so that Punk could come out.

Minor quibble but I wish the Dumb Gunns didn't mention FTR by name before their music hit, it kind of killed the surprise. The Big Rig suddenly being called the Shatter Machine again though definitely felt like a jab about their being here to stay.

I feel like a swine for griping so much about the build up to what ended up being a fantastic ppv. I was sold from the moment Starks won clean. What a great night for him and HOB, getting strong, clean wins when it was absolutely needed. Every match was either good, great, fun, intriguing, or all four, except Wardlow/Joe which was like "I know what they were going for but not only did it not work someone should have told them ahead of time it wasn't going to work". Interesting to see if Hobbs ends up damaged by all this (I think he'll move on from Wardlow and be fine). Damn were the Trios match, the Texas Death, and the main event great. And damn was Brody King tremendous as always. Once MJF's reign is over they should really consider giving King the ball for a year as heel champ. This roster is full of Misawas and Stings in need of a Hansen or Vader to chase. I was even into the Jungle Boy match I had been dreading all week. Ruby shouldn't be a heel but at least now the heel team will have someone whose promos I can actually understand and who has a better head for character development in general. Overall just I really really really enjoyed the hell out of this ppv. Match for match there have been better AEW ppvs but in terms of me going in with low expectations and loving almost everything this may end up in a weird way being the most memorable for me since All Out 2021. Hoping this show marks the beginning of more focused booking going forward.

If he was a manager or something it would be fine but as an interviewer it's like having an amateur comedian show up and try to loudly do his set overtop of the pro set you actually paid to see.

You mean someone who isn't shrill and obnoxious and distracting from the interview subject?

RJ is totally insufferable. The bane of an otherwise fun pre show.

I think the Christian vs Jungle Boy fight is going to be a Piper vs Goldust deal where they brawl throughout the show and we end up with the second time in history a 60 min iron man match isn't the longest match on the ppv.

I think the issue is that he's already a full-blown star AND he already best Jericho clean in a really solid TV match. The fact the match is happening at all is kind of eyebrow raising, especially since they could have just done Starks vs Garcia on the ppv instead of Rampage and used the spot to elevate Garcia to the level where he's the final boss of the JAS and not Jericho, which would lead pretty naturally to a jealous Jericho ousting Garcia and leading to their singles feud. Again, broken record but: the top three matches on the next PPV should not have anybody over 40 in them. Even if there's an initial ratings dip dye to the lack of familiar faces, you need to establish sooner than later that your stars are MJF, Starks, Darby, the Acclaimed, Hayter, Baker, Wardlow, Hobbs, Garcia, Yuta, Jungle Boy, Takeshita, Bandido, Top Flight, etc, etc and start positioning Hangman and Orange Cassidy in the Moxley/Danielson role of the more experienced top guy working with the young talent. Move Moxley and Danielson into the long run as tag champs they should have had when they first started teaming a year ago but keep all the top singles spots reserved for new people, preferably people who have never been on WWE television.

Remember twenty years ago when Brock Lesnar clearly saw his opponent lying 2/3rds of the way towards the opposite corner, and with the whole world watching and every fan knowing he couldn't make that jump no matter how much of a genetic freak he is, and instead of doing the thing Mutoh has done countless times which is either pick up his opponent and move them closer to the chosen corner or, just as good, excitedly run to the opposite corner and signal to the crowd that the move will be more effective this way -- instead of doing anything like that, Brock Lesnar couldn't get his shit together and tried to do a shooting star press to the other side of the ring, ruining the main event, his mystique, and almost breaking his neck in the process? In a case as clear cut as that where still no audible was called to take 3 seconds to reassess things, I have little faith that good judgment and safe practice will prevail in junky six way ladder matches anytime soon.

Now that the votes are in abd it seems to be unanimous: if there ANYBODY who is looking forward to Starks vs Jericho? And if not, can we largely blame this lack of interest on the sneaking suspicion that one way or another Jericho is winning (so help us god)?

Fwiw I loved his dreads-era work in the G1 where he pinned Omega and got creamed by Suzuki. Everything since he cut his hair (the US title stuff, the tag title stuff with Finlay) put me to sleep. The biker character whatever it is made him totally insufferable.

I wrote a gargantuan block of text both praising but mostly nitpicking tonight's show that apparently got lost in the ether before it could be posted. I won't bother trying to rewrite it but some bullet points: - I liked Jungle Boy. The more he becomes Jack Perry, especially Badass Jack Perry, he's just another boring dude who can't talk. The last thing a company that already employs Juice Robinson needs is just another boring dude who can't talk. - If Andretti turns and joins the JAS I hope they are least going to try to come up with an explanation for why him and Sammy beat the shit out of each other tonight if he was turning the whole time - Did Eddie disappear during the ladder match and if so is he okay - Wardlow probably shouldn't lose to Joe again. But Hobbs shouldn't lose to anybody right now. Another corner successfully painted into. - the HOB beatdown at the beginning of the show needed more time and a promo. The way it was done felt rushed and tacked on. The HOB promo at the end helped but they should have at least tried to come up with an explanation for why the Elite were coming out for no reason. - especially given that the show ended with Orange Cassidy getting booked in sunday's tag title match they probably should have just put the All Atlantic belt on Big Bill - women's match was real good especially since Riho won. Toni Storm is solid and has that awesome hip attack but she needs a charismatic tag partner or something. As a top singles she's just too devoid of personality, even before this questionable heel turn. I remain excited for the ppv although I hope we get more focused booking coming out of it. Edit: forgot my main point. Why are Claudio and Yuta heeling it up vs the Dark Order while also ostensibly being the babyface singles champs for ROH?

Stokely's new character is the best, I hope it's not temporary. Omega should eventually become to the All Atlantic title what Lyger was to the IWGP Jr. title -- the legendary guy who holds the belt like a million times, can beat anybody at any time, but also loses to the young stars along the way when the stakes are high.

I wouldn't put Starks anywhere near the either secondary title iin any case lest he get stuck in midcard hell. Straight to the top for the Absolute One!

I was thinking the same thing, kind of like when they put the IC title on Nash in '94 while Razor was still really hot. It's not so much deflating the fans by beating their guy as being like look at what this huge scary man just did to your hero.

I honestly wondered if that MJF car crash promo was something that he and Tony were still discussing/fine tuning but pulled the trigger on slightly early (as in, maybe even just earlier in the same show than was planned) when the Bunny got hurt and they needed to fill 5 minutes ASAP. I'm in the minority on this one but I kind of think Saraya should win the belt for a little bit? I normally would never subscribe to this logic but the fans already turned her heel so having her heel AND losing is just going to reduce interest in her further. At least if you put the belt on her it's kind of like the Gunns where the fans are suddenly invested in seeing the babyface regain the belt. I think given the fanfare of her debut and her going over Baker at the last ppv, the company is kind of painted into a corner where you don't really want to look like you invested hopes & resources into someone who immediately flopped. The fans are behind Hayter and Baker enough (and to a lesser extent Ruby and Willow) that AEW could "protect their investment" as it were and put the belt on Saraya so as to retain her credibility but still have the goodwill of the fans for awhile in that they'd be pretty assured either Hayter or Baker are getting the belt back sooner than later (which is to say, I only stand by everything I just wrote in this paragraph on the condition that they would go into it with the assumption that Saraya's run would be a relatively short legacy run kind of deal).

Thank you. My partner kept asking which one of the Ass Boys was James Gunn and why the guy with the sign hated one but not the other. I figured it was a reference to something stupid but now I know it was even stupider than I thought.

Yeah I had only seen one ROH non-TK match in my entire life (Joe vs Kobashi) until a month ago when I signed up for Honor Club but I've been hooked on exploring the vast archive. The curated playlists have been handy too in helping me avoid some of the unpleasant surprises from the early complete shows (ie, Mikey Whipwreck guest refereeing in the inaugural event).

Yes and hopefully someone in the back has already told him to never make a joke about a woman grabbing his balls again no matter how many times Grandpa Jericho insists it's good for a pop.

I find it weird booking too since they're already presumably building to an eventual Garcia face turn one day...kind of feels like it would just be two young guys teaming with Jericho so they can eventually turn on him and go babyface. The whole involvement of Action just muddies Starks' ascension anyway, I wish they hadn't prolonged both feuds simultaneously, especially since Starks *****really***** should be getting two straight clean wins over Y2J and refocusing on MJF.