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Grand Slam - 9/22/2021


The Natural

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10 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Are they keeping the LED ramp?  Because that shit was amazing.

Remember when people worried about AEW's production values?  Weren't they stupid?

I thought that AEW had hit the apex when CM Punk debuted, but the entire crowd at Arthur Ashe went bugshit even before Omega and Danielson tied up.  It was surreal.  The ring bell starting the match got the biggest pop of the night.

Edited by J.T.
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One small detail I loved was no titantron screen atop the ramp. It almost gave it a boxing style "big fight feel" presentation.

The opening 5 minutes of Danielson/Omega is one of the hottest crowds in the past 30 years at least. Man were they going banana. No win for Danielson means he doesn't move up the rankings for a title shot. C'mon Hangman!

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28 minutes ago, J.T. said:

I could picture Brie Bella calling her husband after the match to chew him out.  WTF ARE YOU DOING TAKING BUCKLE BOMBS, BRYAN~?  YOU HAVE NO FUCKING VERTEBRAE IN YOUR NECK~!!  AND DON'T FORGET TO GO BY THE STORE FOR MILK ON YOUR WAY HOME, GODDAMMIT~!

I see her more as a "it's fine" kind of person.

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Cody is a curious case.  He clearly is branching out (the Miz model?) while part of the backstage process. I give him all the credit for helping make Brodie Lee by getting buried; the same with Black. the match versus Dustin at the first PPV remains an AEW hallmark and helped put the AEW on the map.  A top card guy moving down the card is not unique but given Cody's position in the company it feels different. 

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I was fortunate enough to start watching Dynamite about 45 minutes late and sans-baby for nearly 3/4 of the entire show. I was marking the fuck out for that opener. The two best wrestlers in the world putting on a clinic in wrestling and brutality. Those 30 minutes flew by. I found only one flaw with the match, and it wasn't even with Kenny and Bryan. I'm not sure how it came through in the stadium, but on TV, you could tell Justin Roberts would give a reminder of how much time was remaining, but only the last "-remaining" would come through and none of the announcers even sold how much time was left. It felt like a failure on multiple fronts and I think selling the amount of time remaining to the TV and live audience would have heightened the amount of drama at the end. As it is, it was still fucking fantastic and had so much shit in it that makes me love pro wrestling. Kenny being a smug piece of shit, Bryan FINALLY busting out the "I HAVE FIVE!", all of the selling from both parties, and how at the end they just resorted to headbutting and punching the shit out of each other like it was Rocky vs Apollo 1. All it was missing was Kenny saying "there ain't gonna be no rematch, ain't gonna be no rematch."

From here on out, we need Kenny selling how he doesn't want any bit of AmDrag and AmDrag mowing through the top 5 to earn a shot at the championship at Full Gear. Kenny probably wins there, but we get the return of the Hangman at the end to begin the build to Hangman claiming the throne at Revolution, which is their WM.

Punk beautifully wove in more intensity in his promo while maintaining his gimmick of being happy to be back. Really, really looking forward to Punk vs Hobbs.

Loved Black getting cheered and Cody getting booed. NYC is probably the second worst crowd to do some kind of pandering, Homelander gimmick in front of, with Philly probably being the absolute worst. Again, I would love to know what is going through Cody's mind when he thinks fucking Homelander of all characters is something cool to emulate. Most of the match was good, except there was a bit too much shine on Cody to my liking. I felt it would have been better to have Black decisively win this one instead of all of the overbooking that made Arn look very sad by slipping and falling off the apron, Brandi trying to look tough, etc. BUT, we got black mist, the deadliest mist, so I'll call it a wash in the end.

And as much as I loved the opener for how great it was and the guys involved, I liked Sting and Darby vs FTR just as much. Holy shit, Sting at 60+ can still go and look like a stud. I'm watching this guy, one of my all time favorites, and I'm thinking of how much of a borderline crime it is that he's not in his 40s with this same enthusiasm and drive. I mean, he's also in there with 3 of the best workers in AEW, but still, he has to play his part and he is playing the hell out of it. I fucking haaaaaaaaaaate Darby's apron coffin drop. It's been a long time since he's done it, probably over a year, and the last time he did he went splat on the apron. This time he at least had Cash to land on, but man, holy shit, never do that again. And if you liked Darby killing himself for your entertainment, this match was probably your jam because not only did it have that apron coffin drop, but it had FTR just fucking ragdoll throwing Darby into the edge of the apron.

Main event was the shit. I went in thinking that there was no way Britt would lose and about halfway through the match they convinced me she could lose and that Ruby might win. I saw some of you talking about Ruby gassing, but I didn't really notice it. This women's division is outstanding. Now just give them the time. Britt, Ruby, Kris, Rosa, Tay, Anna, Ford, Shida, and even Allie have made for an impressive roster. Not to mention you also have the other Japanese women being rotated in and out throughout the year, Layla still being built up, and Jade being built up as the next big thing. It would be fun to look back a year or two and find posts from me, EVA, and others criticizing TK's moneyball approach to the women's division. Hell, some of us thought things looked so weak that TK should actually bring in Tessa. Jokes on us because it paid off. But again, you have to give them the time and one women's match per Dynamite isn't enough when you have the roster they have.

BRING ON RAMPAGE!

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7 minutes ago, Craig H said:

All it was missing was Kenny saying "there ain't gonna be no rematch, ain't gonna be no rematch."

 

31 minutes ago, LoneWolf&Subs said:

They actually used that ramp back in 2020 for Revolution, and 2021 Revolution. 

They really change things up depending on the arena a lot.

Ah, cool.  Thanks.  I forgot to mention MJF's Burberry entrance ramp was tremendous.

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Good call on the Rocky ending. Omega did tweet "there ain't gonna be a rematch" so you nailed that and I missed that reference as I haven't watched Rocky in over a decade. 

I don't recall the LED ramp at all. I like the shorter ramp tbh and wouldn't mind them keeping it around full time. 

Edit: beaten to it by seconds. 

Edited by Jiji
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12 minutes ago, chriskbrown50 said:

Cody is a curious case.  He clearly is branching out (the Miz model?) while part of the backstage process. I give him all the credit for helping make Brodie Lee by getting buried; the same with Black. the match versus Dustin at the first PPV remains an AEW hallmark and helped put the AEW on the map.  A top card guy moving down the card is not unique but given Cody's position in the company it feels different. 

Cody’s a much more story driven wrestler anyway, with no title really needed. He just mostly needs a heated angle to get by. 

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49 minutes ago, J.T. said:

I could picture Brie Bella calling her husband after the match to chew him out.  WTF ARE YOU DOING TAKING BUCKLE BOMBS, BRYAN~?  YOU HAVE NO FUCKING VERTEBRAE IN YOUR NECK~!!  AND DON'T FORGET TO GO BY THE STORE FOR MILK ON YOUR WAY HOME, GODDAMMIT~!

Milk ain’t vegan bruh!  Doesn’t your imaginary Brie Bella care about the planet?

?

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I just wish Cody would make up his mind and figure out if he's going to be management or a worker because being both isn't working out.  He's getting John Cena meta heat because he's the boss and he's promoting himself a bit shamelessly, but he shouldn't be drawing that much heat since he's also used his status to get workers over and continues to do so. 

People seem to have forgotten that dudes like Ricky Starks would not have the prominence they now have if Cody had not brought them in.

I think Cody needs to go back to basics and stop trying so hard to get people to like him.  That way when Malakai Black does despicable things to draw heat, it will have the desired effect.

Edited by J.T.
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Just now, Brandon Bones said:

Milk ain’t vegan bruh!  Doesn’t your imaginary Brie Bella care about the planet?

?

BD is soy intolerant so I knew he wouldn't bring soy milk home.  I guess they must do almond milk or something.

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When's the last time a crowd was THAT hot before the bell?  i remember the first Wyatts vs. Shield match having a "this is awesome!" chant before the bell...  but last night was MOLTEN.   Probably Hogan vs. The Rock in Toronto.  

AEW NEEDS to do Arthur Ashe Stadium once a year now..   it needs to be part of their rotation.  it's such an amazing location,  tremendous visually and loud as fuck. 

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11 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I fucking love all of the Rocky and Creed movies so much. I am marking the fuck out right now.

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3 minutes ago, peterien said:

I won’t lie, for some reason the room got a little dusty when the bell rang for Omega/Dragon, crowd goes insane before anything happens and Danielson had the biggest smile on his face. Pro f’n wrestling ladies and gents. 

Same here!  I admit I was a few beers in, though.

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1 hour ago, J.T. said:

I could picture Brie Bella calling her husband after the match to chew him out.  WTF ARE YOU DOING TAKING BUCKLE BOMBS, BRYAN~?  YOU HAVE NO FUCKING VERTEBRAE IN YOUR NECK~!!  AND DON'T FORGET TO GO BY THE STORE FOR MILK ON YOUR WAY HOME, GODDAMMIT~!

 

11 minutes ago, Brandon Bones said:

Milk ain’t vegan bruh!  Doesn’t your imaginary Brie Bella care about the planet?

?

 

8 minutes ago, J.T. said:

BD is soy intolerant so I knew he wouldn't bring soy milk home.  I guess they must do almond milk or something.

R.1339c90398aaa7c7087ba4b062c7b096?rik=%

One for @Brian Fowler.

Edited by The Natural
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2 minutes ago, Jiji said:

Eric Stevens is right there with you. I was gonna take an edible for the first time in months to really soak in the experience but I decided against it and kinda regretting it now. 

If not for the baby, I would have taken an edible as well, but I'm swearing them off until we're well past the risk of SIDS and getting up 3 times in the middle of the night. However, I did have a beer, which was probably only my 4th beer since my daughter was born a month ago. Tasted really good too and got me right in the mood for that show opener.

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Yeah, I wish Cody was just...not whatever this is. Half there/half not. Weirdly disconnected from the continuity of the rest of the show. I think the thing with Arn has kind of run its course so hopefully they are doing something with that. The Nightmare Family is great for emerging prospects to have a faction but that roster is so loaded right now that most of those guys can and need to be long term projects and it's not like they have an identify. 

Pretty much since the MJF feud Cody has just been floating around and if anything he's UNDERPUSHED. It's like he's being annoying by being the "I'm the tippy top guy who establishes new people" act. The fake retirement hints are cheesy cause he ain't going anywhere either. 

I think he actually squandered a lot of goodwill from the audience by his character just being weird and ill-defined. FWIW - the Bucks were in a similar spot for the first year of the promotion where they didn't seem to really be doing anything interesting. Cody just needs to stop mucking as a gate keeper and get into something interesting again. 

 

Expanded thoughts - Cody should basically be doing the same thing as Christian is doing. 

Edited by Hagan
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3 minutes ago, Jiji said:

Eric Stevens is right there with you. I was gonna take an edible for the first time in months to really soak in the experience but I decided against it and kinda regretting it now. 

This brings me back to the time I got really high during the Cole/Gargano 2 out of 3 falls match at Takeover: New York. Man, the final five minutes of that felt like I had entered into another dimension. The crowd was going absolutely bonkers, that match was absolutely killing to the town. One of the only times I felt complete nirvana during a wrestling match. Until the opening five minutes of last nights match. God damn, that shit had me feeling like Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory.

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