WRESTLEDREAM II - 10/12/2024

[Just Adam Bay Bay]

4 minutes ago, Casey said:

I haven’t seen Romper Stomper (but I’ve heard that too) - but in those Dynamite opening promos I always get the impression Mox is channeling Derek in American History X. Y’know, pre-prison sentence Derek.

That’s what I thought the answer was gonna be too. He looks like bad talks the way Derek did pre-prison. 

[Octopus]

Neo Nazi’s ruined cool Norse stuff too. You have to be really nerdy to pull it off now and that’s tough for me being so fucking cool. 

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

15 minutes ago, Casey said:

I haven’t seen Romper Stomper (but I’ve heard that too) - but in those Dynamite opening promos I always get the impression Mox is channeling Derek in American History X. Y’know, pre-prison sentence Derek.

His "this is not your company anymore" was almost a direct lift of a line from Romper Stomper, except in Romper Stomper it's "this is not your country".

https://youtu.be/lDlfj0GU1JY?si=H95Zag1Inhxf82Nv

[Greggulator]

I didn’t see the show. But the end sounds incredible. Wheeler the conflicted protege doing the “et tu, Brute?” backstab? The BCC just tried to end not the career but the life of their founder, who is a beloved icon. They’re the evil force and now you need a hero (Darby, OC, etc.) to overcome the odds and put Mox away. I hope they just Keep It Simple Stupid and not get involved with any high power hijinks or anything silly. Mox is a big enough personality on his own to make it work.

[Ziggy]

I'm kinda surprised how many people are let down my Mox being Champion again. The ending to that time match was mid '10s WWE main event booking of getting heat by Massacring the babyface. It came across nicely in my opinion. 

I was shocked to see that Hangman lost. I was excited when Jay White signed to AEW then he got lost in the shuffle and he's got injured a few times even though he has was involved in a few banger matches in between. 

I think Shelton Benjamin is not a bad talker at all. Just because he didn't get to show any personality in WWE and Vince McMahon chose to Present him way and presented him certain ways to get laughs doesn't mean he isn't good on the mic. I'm excited to see him vs Swerve. Strickland himself has been a great talker for awhile and we all know MVP is great in this Paul Heyman role.

It was funny seeing JDfromNY hype his reaction to the show with Shane McMahon coming in and he never showed up. It's certainly a possibility of him showing up and in sure TK would love to have that moment even though it won't mean much after a few weeks.

I think AEW for the most part has been booking in ways to make me want to see what's going on for the next few months. The ratings and attendance are low but I think the booking is good for the most part

[The Idiot King]

A brief, live PPV review from my girlfriend who had never seen wrestling at all, nevermind in person until last night: 

* Important questions I had not thought to clarify before the show: "Is there a scoring system? What happens when someone wins? Does he get something?"

* Re: Isiah Kassidy -- "The guy in the mesh shirt looks like he might have been a dancer earlier in his life. I think his flips were better than the other team's flips, so I'm actually kind of sad that he lost."

* Re: Mark Briscoe -- "Who is that? He has an amazing face. I've never seen a face like that before. He's my new favorite."

* And re: The Main Event. I liked it a lot, personally, including the ending. Couldn't help think about various suggestions on here that we are in the midst of a Stop The Moxsunaga arc.  We were going to have to leave early, so I kept telling her we should start heading out before the match was over, but she was so engrossed in it, she insisted we stay until the end. "I love the bad guy in this. He's a beast. He's my new favorite. I love the beast. I love how the beast suffers. I love how anticlimactic the ending was. I didn't know you could do that in wrestling. Sometimes that's how life is."

[Cliff Hanger]

It amused me that the triple threat and lucha matches had multiple really brutal poisonranas and the group I watched with were all "I don't like that move somebody's gonna die" and then Bucks/Party had the first one any of us had ever seen that actually looked totally safe and we all marked out. 

[For Great Justice]

Got to wondering how many times a booker has gone with “despair” to end a big show. Not that bad guys don’t win big matches, but straight up end of Empire Strikes Back, end of The Mist, all is lost, good guys lose.

Hogan turn is one with Heenan’s “what do we do now?”. Struggling to think of a bunch of others until last night. Like Reigns won 1,000 main events as a heel but it was more “this guy is bad, but he’s just the best dude, so he won”, not “the word has ended”. 

Gotta be more I’m blanking on.

[Just Adam Bay Bay]

27 minutes ago, For Great Justice said:

Got to wondering how many times a booker has gone with “despair” to end a big show. Not that bad guys don’t win big matches, but straight up end of Empire Strikes Back, end of The Mist, all is lost, good guys lose.

Hogan turn is one with Heenan’s “what do we do now?”. Struggling to think of a bunch of others until last night. Like Reigns won 1,000 main events as a heel but it was more “this guy is bad, but he’s just the best dude, so he won”, not “the word has ended”. 

Gotta be more I’m blanking on.

The one that immediately comes to mind for me is Summerslam 2014 with Brock destroying Cena. Not that it didn’t need to happen (because it had been necessary for years), but they just made Brock look so unstoppable that night.

[Infinit]

I also thought Bucks/PP was alot better than I expected. Zay especially showed me alot. And that final TK Driver was NASTY AF. Maybe it was the camera angle but it looked killer.

[Greggulator]

I can’t remember if it ended the show but Jerry Lawler and co beating up a bunch of ECW dudes and hitting Tommy Dreamer in his testicles with a Singapore Cane comes to mind.

[Leonidas]

Someone mentioned Christian, is this how we get face Christian as our father protecting AEW from Stepfather Mox? He can ring up Uncle Cope for backup. I'm only half-joking .

[Curt McGirt]

WRESTLEDREAM II 

Spoiler

- Skipped White/Hangman but it seemed to pass in the blink of an eye trying to set up the feed last night (which I just gave up on). It froze on a shot of an incredulous, bulging-eyed Hangman walking up the aisle which was a hoot. 

- Mariah/Willow was of course great. The hard-hitting stuff you need. "There's a tear in my eye" from Nigel with Tony responding "WHAT?!" was another good laugh. Mariah's head getting bounced off her own knee in the deathlock variation was neato. 

- As much as I'd like to see Jack Perry get beat up I'm gonna pass. I know how this'll go. Aaaaand oh boy there's Max. And there's Adam Cole. *sigh* 

- I'd watch the three-way too, if it was the main of a Dynamite or a Collision, but nah. Takeshita deserves a belt though! Plus hey guess what he actually has a win over OSPREAY, shenanigans, three-way or not. That's something right there. Bonus points to Fletcher finally not looking like a goof and giving Ospreay the legit TDII (besides not dropping to his knees) and Ospreay doing the Terry Funk "MY NECK, MY NECK". 

- The throw back to Hangman or whoever saying he saw Nana selling weed to kids in the parking lot was great (who was that?). Lashley incoming.

- Man I just don't care about the 2/3 falls match either. This card is really shaping up to be a long Dynamite. I did see Darby/Brody thanks to AxB's choppy stream on the Discord, which was good as always, and I'm glad Darby finally won. They'll be a hell of a tag team at some point I'm sure. But anyway, no way I'm watching the tag match or Jericho, so on to the main. 

- "The Final Countdown" keeps playing like it was "Natural Born Killaz" because Tony said "damned if I'm gonna pay $5000 every time this song hits to not get my money's worth" haha. Well, it is supposed to be the last match anyway so there. FINALLY, someone just backs off from the fucking corner flip. I've been waiting for that for decades probably. I also like how the tape is descending from Danielson's neck like rays from the sun. Or arrows: "HIT ME HERE". It is clear now that Marina is... Chyna. The guy in the Ricky Martin shirt arguing with Mox  "That's your fucking brother!" I mentioned in the chat that Darby needs to use a Spider German, he really needs to do it now as a tribute to Bryan. At one point Ex appears to say "Jack Danielson" which was amusing. Anyway, they have a long and frankly, pretty dull match, Moxley wins with the choke and the crowd goes DEAD. SILENT. They do the bag and the turn and when Double-J runs in JR mockingly says "Not Jeff Jarrett!" This reminds me of the Forever Hardcore doc, where with the crucifixion angle Raven says "we had that kind of quiet, Japanese heat" then they cut to Kid Kash saying "I was there. Yeah, that didn't get over. *laughs* AT ALL." I'm not sure though. It's more like the crowd believes there was a serious injury. Ex cries, Jarrett's cheek is busted, Orange and Darby are outside looking utterly defeated. It's not what anybody wanted, but it seemed to work. The reaction on Wednesday will be the barometer. 

Yeah, this could have been better, but who am I to say considering I only watched less than a quarter of it. 

[Curt McGirt]

4 hours ago, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

Russell Crowe's character from Romper Stomper.

So Claudio is Davey? Yuta is the little kid that gets shot by the cops? 

Romper Stomper is a really good movie, yeah it's disturbing but it is deeply laced with black humor right down to the ending. The TV series that followed is darker. 

"You went into the Navy, I thought you wanted to fire guns?" 

*mutters drunkenly* "Go down in a submarine... fire torpedoes..."

EDIT: Oooo, PAC is definitely Magoo. Aside from Hando the really psychotic one (Magoo is the only character that continues into the series and apparently plays a major role). 

Edited October 13, 2024 by Curt McGirt

[Overly Critical Man]

Also, not that I think he’s good or anything, but what a stupid character arc for Yuta. He could’ve been in the front lines as the guy avenging Bryan, but now he’s back to being the fifth most important person in the BCC. Back to being the job guy in the Neo Nazi stable for you, dork.

[The Natural]

41 minutes ago, Overly Critical Man said:

Also, not that I think he’s good or anything, but what a stupid character arc for Yuta. He could’ve been in the front lines as the guy avenging Bryan, but now he’s back to being the fifth most important person in the BCC. Back to being the job guy in the Neo Nazi stable for you, dork.

 

13 hours ago, The Natural said:

Don't like Wheeler Yuta siding with the BCC after all either.

Agreed.

[Craig H]

This whole PPV fucking ruled. I love every Darby vs Brody match. The main event didn’t leave me feeling sad because Danielson is going to return, but the way they went about the booking at the end was awesome. The last time I can think of something that wild was the first time the Nexus tore apart everything.

And I got a huge laugh at JR’s Jeff Jarrett line.

[Curt McGirt]

It was so multi-layered. It was like he did know if Jeff were there to help or not... or if he knew one way or another but wanted to make fun of the fact that it was Jarrett anyway... or thought the entire concept of Jeff Jarrett making a run-in was hilarious in and of itself...

[AxB]

1 hour ago, Overly Critical Man said:

Also, not that I think he’s good or anything, but what a stupid character arc for Yuta. He could’ve been in the front lines as the guy avenging Bryan, but now he’s back to being the fifth most important person in the BCC. Back to being the job guy in the Neo Nazi stable for you, dork.

Let it play out, man.

[Overly Critical Man]

14 minutes ago, AxB said:

Let it play out, man.

And if he turns yet again, what’s the point? Turning him into The Big Show isn’t good. 
 

edit: I guess you mean he might be in for a bigger role… but yeah. 

Edited October 13, 2024 by Overly Critical Man

[stuntmanc]

I'm honestly shocked at how many people are shitting on the ending and this PPV as a whole.  I thought the ending was fantastic and it gives a long overarching story that has genuine "I have no idea where this is going"   

Takeshita winning is fn awesome, Hangman/White was spectacular(I think Hangman is another one on Mox's level because he, to my knowledge, is the only person to make Mox legitimately tap out in AEW history), Mortos/Hologram was wonderful and Mariah May is just glorious to watch.

Despite missing opportunities, i still think Darby has a chance to be AEW's "Foley wins the title" sort of heartwarming moment.

[Matt D]

Here's my take on Danielson vs Mox.

 

[Lawful Metal]

That was a spectacular PPV and no matches were less than good and most were great.  Hangman v. Switchblade was 5* for me.  I loved the triple threat even with the shenanigans.  Fletcher going full heel is interesting because Fletcher and Takeshita despite actually being heels are like straight up babyfaces.  I don't know why you try to double down and fight it.  Very Vince-like. 

Mariah May is fantastic.  Willow's great too. 

Private Party should've won, but the Bucks upped their game when they had to, and you could see PP didn't have that extra gear.  I get it.  But it would've been nice. 

Yuta looks like he's being blackmailed into doing the BCC's bidding.  which is an interesting way to do it. 

Wild that they killed off Brian.  Let's see who can get revenge. 

[zendragon]

I wonder is Brian "retires" only to come back against the BCC

[just drew]

3 hours ago, Overly Critical Man said:

Also, not that I think he’s good or anything, but what a stupid character arc for Yuta. He could’ve been in the front lines as the guy avenging Bryan, but now he’s back to being the fifth most important person in the BCC. Back to being the job guy in the Neo Nazi stable for you, dork.

First of all, damn, man, what do you like? And this is coming from ME.

Second, Yuta didn’t look happy to be doing what he did. I’d love for him to come out Wednesday and say something like “Delores Yuta didn’t raise any fools. Mox & the rest of these guys are here today. Bryan isn’t. This was self preservation.” Something like that.