Niners Fan in CT

Really good show tonight. Hot crowd in Atlanta too. AEW is at it's best when all the key players are on the show. I know that sounds obvious but it's not always booked that way. Every segment felt important and made the show a bigger deal. Ricochet vs. Swerve definitely lived up to what I had hoped it would be. A creative finish, protected both men and this feud is fire. It will continue.

If that does indeed happen then I have to assume

I obviously don't have any insider info I just felt that if they are going with Sami vs. Owens again for WM that a Career Match/Loser Leaves Town would make a ton of sense to raise the stakes of their rivalry. Both men have been putting in some serious work, too. Love these guys. Some of y'all might be right that Charlotte was always going to be a heel but I thought she was trying to come off as "happy to be here, happy to be back" and they turned on that shit immediately.

I'd love to see some type of career stip added to this Sami and Owens deal for Mania. Really spice it up. Felt great for Jey Uso. He's worked his ass off these last two years and to me the response from that crowd was very organic. Charlotte. What can you say. I don't want to pile on but man. I think she was aiming to come back as a face this time or at least a tweener role to start and that crowd said one big collective "no thanks". It's not entirely her fault but this is going to be another situation where Hunter tries to force something that ain't gonna vibe

It started the night of WrestleMania 32

Shouldn't this be called the "Charlotte Flair" category? Yet here we are Lol...

I can see Jey closing night 1 with a victory over Gunther but they'd probably need another big match on the night 1 card for that to work. It could end up being something like Cody/Punk for night 2 and whatever Cena and Roman are doing on night 1.

Where to begin on this show. It was definitely a mixed bag but I'd say more good than bad. Women's Rumble had some nice surprises. I felt happy for Alexa Bliss to receive that ovation. 2 years is a long time and she didn't look bad in there for being gone so long. I loved Lash Legend, Stephanie Vaquer, Roxanne and Giulia all getting some shine. They really are the future IF the future ever comes. I'm guessing Charlotte will put over Tiffany but good God what the fuck is she winning the Rumble for... Terribly predictable and by the end most people didn't care. Bianca was treated like an afterthought tonight which is insane. Also, where's Jade? Where's Becky? Cody-K.O. was fun, they took a ton of risks out there, some wild spots. Men's Rumble also had some cool surprises. I'll go straight to the end. This was a stacked Rumble. When Logan Paul eliminated Punk I was like ok FUCCKK THIS not even because I like Punk, it's just that with all that talent out there, why the fuck do we need to see Logan fucking Paul. Keep him in his own little universe with the other streamers and away from the main event. But THEN.. the Rumble got incredibly cool. The threeway brawl on the outside between Punk, Roman and Rollins was unhinged and felt like a big moment. Then Cena dumped Logan on his ass. Great. Then Jey Uso surprisingly bests Cena for the win! I told one of my buddies after SNME that I didn't think Gunther/Jey was over and it looks like we are now getting that rematch. Jey Uso isn't great in the ring, sure.. but he's massively over and he deserves this for all the work he's done to keep the Bloodline Saga rolling.

I'd never be invited back to one of their PLE press conferences. I have many questions. I don't wanna turn this into a WWE thread though, I just think it's interesting how people forget all the good things Tony Khan has accomplished in 5 years.

To be honest, outside of a better produced entrance, Tony Khan even did more with Jade Cargill. At least she was having singles matches then and kicking some ass. I remember Triple H saying she wasn't "trained the right way", a clear shot at AEW and that Jade would grow under their development. What the fuck happened to all of that?

People love to get online and talk about how AEW dropped the ball with Cody or how Punk is flourishing in WWE and has been a "model citizen" or whatever but there's not enough talk about how many former WWE performers have flourished in AEW. Swerve and Toni Storm are levels beyond what they were doing in WWE and now Ricochet has done more interesting character work in AEW than he did in his entire WWE tenure.

Ron Garvin vs. Ric Flair was one of the best in-ring feuds of the late 80s. I get that Ronnie Garvin wasn't a "draw" and a lot of people love to shit on him being crowned the World Heavyweight Champion but I don't care about that. I care about what they did in the ring. I think even our guy Meltzer shit on this series of matches and he was dead wrong just like whoever else in that era. These two had tremendous chemistry. The chop wars themselves would have made Gunther blush. These were very hard hitting and exciting back and forth brawls with tons of haymakers, lots of blood spilled and creative spots mixed in. The selling from both men was also top tier. Their first match title match can be tracked down on Youtube in it's entirety, it took place in Detroit. The rematch was at Starrcade '87

I thought the show was just kind of there. Nothing really stood out to me. They have all of the pieces they need and there's some decent stories going on but it just felt like a filler episode. I'm really loving the Ricochet heel turn and his feud with Swerve, very much looking forward to their match next week. I forget who mentioned it but that Mercedes American Gladiators/Apollo Creed Gear, I'm pretty sure it was on a NJPW show that she debuted it. I think it was the Momo match which was a very good match and worth checking out.

I really enjoyed Naomi & Bianca vs. The Meta Girls this week. That's the type of action they should be giving us on SD! weekly.

Is there any way to watch all the Hidden Gems content? I don't even think their YouTube Vault channel has it.

I feel like the Lex Express was off to a good start. He got a huge reaction slamming Yoko and then those reactions carried on for a minute. I just think they cut his legs out and ruined him.

I can't envision Danhausen coming out to Kendrick Lamar but I'd give it a chance.

Lex Luger is one of the most underrated performers of all time. We can talk about his in-ring work which I feel was mostly good, you give him a decent opponent and he more than held his own as a legit power guy and I don't recall him ever stumbling around, fucking up etc.. As a promo guy, not great but not "bad" either, I'd say he was about average. But what matters most, he was consistently over from 1987 through 1997. A decade long run of being really over. Go watch his WCW babyface runs whether as a U.S. title guy or later a true main eventer and he was insanely over with the live crowds. In WWF? Very over as a top guy until they cut his legs out. Then back to WCW and his title win over Hulk Hogan is one of the loudest pops I remember of that era. Lex Luger fucking ruled.

I just saw something eerie as fuck. I'm watching a YouTube video on the entire Mr. Wonderful and Hulk Hogan story leading up to their famous cage match at SNME. I think it was on TNT, Hogan is cutting a promo and says something like "if you get in a car with a drunk driver and kill 8 people, are you going to say you're not to blame because you weren't driving?" So weird..... this was like 1986

My biggest issue is just that people disappear for months and then get a title match. It's just strange to me. The Harley thing might be Mercedes "A" story right now and that'd be cool if it continues but with Yuka having a title match as a "B" story I'd have liked to see her on TV more leading up to it.

Maybe, I remember a lot of people saying the match with Dr. Britt was "mid" and some wrongly tried to blame Mercedes. Since then she's had nothing but great matches in AEW and NJPW, there will always be people trying to nitpick every little thing

I think you're partially right but not fully because I just saw Mercedes write a blog about Harley and how much she loves training with her, how much she's improved and now it looks like Harley is going to get a match sooner or later. I'm sure Mercedes will like working with Yuka but she's not booking her feuds, she's been adamant that she speaks to Tony but Tony is still 100% the booker.

When was the last time Yuka was on TV? Now she's in a TBS title match all of sudden. Tony does some strange things with the book. Most of the criticisms of him are valid.

Great opening with the arena brawl and a lot of heavy hitters out there. Looking forward to that tag match. Glad to see The Hurt Syndicate win in dominant fashion as well. Also, Harley Cameron is the best, I hope she does get the title match because she's been killing it on her character work and Mercedes will carry her to something good in the ring. With that said.... Yeah, man the Death Riders stuff is still the drizzling shits. Terrible.

It was the best RAW on Netflix to date. Penta/Butch, Bayley/Nia and Rollins/Drew all delivered in the ring and they advanced some stories headed into SNME