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AEW - DEC 2021


The Natural

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I have seen elsewhere that Jack has a reputation as sloppy and out of shape.  That is a bit surprising to me since TH2 and Jack particularly always did his bendy acrobatic stuff I have enjoyed since 2003.TH2 always has consistent performances - mostly on Dark 1 and Dark 2…sommmmetimes Dynamite and Rampage and the occasional PPV.  Hopefully TH2 get re-signed.  They should just take the best offer wherever they end up. Evans’ loud mouth during matches wasn’t exploited for heat like we would see in a BOLA.  

I watched part of NXT tonight to see TK’s next additions to his action figure collection.  Damn, wasn’t it always the rich kids who had the most G.I. Joes, He-Man, Star Wars or LJN WWF figures.  Well, I know that I had the most LJNs or G.I. Joes and I was what you might call…too poor for a computer or hip clothes.  I was like the only wrestling fan in my class after a certain point in mid 80s elementary school.  That all ended one day when I fell down the stairs and put my knee through the LJN ring.  I was definitely too poor to get another LJN ring.  It is funny now but crushed my 11 year old dreams.

ANYWAY…something else I noticed was how different the women looked compared to AEW’s side.  They have so much more experience than AEW’s women.  They also seemed taller and slimmer while also wearing much smaller gear.  There also appeared to be less variety in what they looked like overall (size, body types, race, gimmicks) AEW women are different sizes, shapes, ethnicities, nationalities compared to the uniformity in NXT’s female roster.

it was seriously like every female in NXT could be put in The Beautiful People and not look out of place.  Everyone in NXT is “TV pretty”.  AEW has more variety in gimmicks and the superficial gimmick stuff like makeup, hair, gear isn’t all uniform and on brand in the way NXT is with women.

I tried to watch the whole show but I had to skip around in real-time.  While AEW is known as an easy watch I found NXT lasted FOREVER.  After thirty-eight minutes I figured they must have maybe two or three segments to go.  I was very very wrong.  Gargano’s exit was pretty great.  

Lastly, is Quack happy, proud or jealous that so many of his students and alumni from Chikara are having fairly rewarding  fultime paying careers right now?

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Allow me to jump on the Jack Evans bandwagon. Back when I met him around 2005 (Literally day after the birth and death of Blitzkrieg II), all he was doing when talking to people was gushing about Roddy Strong facing Kurt Angle on Smackdown the day before.

 

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I watched the last couple of episodes of Dark yesterday evening and figured I'd post quick thoughts on the most recent (couldn't find the other mentions of the recent Dark matches).

12/7/21

1. Lee Moriarty v. Misterioso. I like Lee Moriarty, had a great match against Punk, where I was surprised how much Punk gave/sold for Lee. He paid that back here, with a really competitive but also kind of sloppy match. There were points where it looked almost like Misterioso wasn't cooperating, but I think they just weren't communicating/meshing well. They should give Lee a couple bigger name wins, and also better fitting gear.

2. Lio Rush v. Rayo. Someone posted here that Lio looks like a lot like Mascarita Sagrada with his ring outfit and I can't unsee it. Nice match, I like most of Lio's movez although a couple take some pretty contrived setups. Taz spent too much time putting Team Taz over, it's my one problem with having him as an active PBP guy who also is involved in angles as a manager of sorts.

3. Brandi Rhodes v. Angelica Risk. Risk's gimmick seems to be someone who left their shift as an exotic dancer whose routine is based on being a firefighter and went straight to the wrestling ring. She shakes her butt a lot while wearing some weird chap-like things, and has a top that keeps coming down (while also having cover underneath, this isn't WWE). Eh match.

4. Emi Sakura v. Ryo Mizunami. After a lot of tag and trio matches, we get a singles match that was heavy on shoulder blocks and chops and a little bit of a letdown. One moment where Ryo shows she's been learning from her many matches with Emi. Ending is building to an angle with Riho.

5. Anthony Ogogo v. Baron Black. Good match, full Worldwide Point, albeit with a badly botched Dragon Screw Leg Whip (I don't think Ogogo knew what was coming).

6. Wardlow and Spears v. local jobbers. Kinda bored of the Wardlow powerbomb symphony thing, but King sold like an absolute champ while taking three of them.

7. Fuego del Sol v. Luke Sampson. Sampson looks like the Fake Diesel from WWE but with blond hair. This match kind of played out like the Rey Mysterio vs. Nash matches, pretty basic little gut beats big guy match. I do like Fuego's double stomp thing.

8. Team Taz, with new member Dante Martin v. JT Dunn, Kekoa, and Omkar. Is Ricky Starks gimmick that he's a smaller version of The Rock, because that's how he comes off. Hobbs is a decent power guy. Dante does a few of his flying moves. Pretty basic squash, followed by an in-ring interview with Tony S. interrupted by Lio.

9. Thunder Rosa v Sofia Castillo. I like Thunder Rosa a lot, like many here. Fun little match, weird convoluted submission finisher and why is it called a Peruvian Necktie? Followed by an interview interrupted by Smart Mark and a sneak attack by Jade.

10. Johnny Hungee v. Aaron Solo. Another full Worldwide point. Silver has -1 with him. Silver does his muscle pose a lot. I like Silver as a JTTS, he would be a classic WCW Saturday Night main event guy. I think they're building up to a good match with Danielson that might even have a couple of hope spots in it.

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Here's mine! I'm not too far off from you. We should probably just have a thread for Dark/Elevation really. It's breaking up Jack Evans getting squeezed by Mexican police talk.

Dark 12/7/21

Moriarty vs Misterioso: This didn't click for me. Moriarty needs the right dance partner and Misterioso wasn't the guy. There's a world where some of the stilted, awkward entrances into moves could have made things seem chippier or more competitive but it wasn't this world unfortunately. It felt more like two guys getting their stuff in maybe? That said, Misterioso had a few little flourishes that I liked, whether it was the face palm to get out of a pin or the kick out of the leg (though we actually saw Risk do that later to Brandi).

Rush vs Rayo: This on the other hand, was a lot tighter and smoother and slicker. Even just the differences in clotheslines from the previous match was huge. Not to mention the speed of everything. Where Misterioso was meandering around the ring, Rayo seemed to want to cut the distance and get right to the attack at every point. Rush has impressed so far. The other day I heard Taz talk about how he didn't love his Aces and Eights run at TNA since he was a full heel announcer and had to cut guys down instead of build them up. That he was doing that to Rush here makes me think he might be winning the battle royal, or at least overcoming Team Taz in there and ending up with MJF as the final two. We'll see. They may want to keep stories clean and separate.

Brandi vs Risk: So I don't watch these to tear anyone down. I want every match to get the full worldwide point and to see fun squashes and enhancement matches and even undercard match-ups. Let me therefore say three nice things about Brandi: First, I do appreciate she comes out of the babyface side and not the center; she'd be warranted to do so if she wanted, but it protects Cody that she doesn't. Second, she wasn't afraid to take all of Risk's offense; they even did the AEW house style takes-two-tries on the hip attack which was giving of her. Third, it was fortitutious timing that after getting out of the belabored submission quickly, the fans reached their crescendo of their clapping when she got a big shot in? Ok, that last one was tough. Let's give her a few matches to shake off the ring rust.

Ryo vs Emi: It's funny. As it was happening, I was thinking that there was a definitive lack of purpose on this, that it was a good match for the sake of a good match just to keep both of them looking good to help shine up other people later. You get the sense that when Sakura works other people on the roster it's to help them get better but not necessarily with Ryo who meets her head on. But then we got the post match to set up Mei's in ring debut. Loved Ryo catching Emi in the corner and then because it's the house style, Emi got to hit the body press to knock her off the apron, which really catalyzed Mei's involvement. Ryo walks around the ring with such swagger and confidence and comfort. She's in the moment at all times. Anyway, this was a nice slugfest and I'm looking forward to the tag. Nitpick is that I would have played Riho's music after the save instead of Ryo's. Also Excalibur keeps calling La Casita wrong.

Ogogo vs Black: Speaking of Excalibur, as impressive as it is that the company, over multiple tapings, can set up a match like this by having Black show some defiance on Elevation in a multi-man, it really doesn't matter if Excalibur isn't going to reference it to pay it off. If anyone's going to know, it's him. When appropriate, reference Dark on Dynamite and reference Elevation on Dark. Get the value out of what you're doing. Honestly, if I was Khan (or even Marshall or whoever) and I was taking the extra effort to book these little flourishes and my announcers weren't even referencing them, I'd be furious. I'm going to lean into this even more. Excalibur does a good job in general but sometimes he misses the forest for the trees and equally the trees for the forest. By not referencing Elevation as a set up to this match and that there was an issue between these two, people had to be left wondering why Black was getting so much offense in and Ogogo looked worse accordingly. For specifics, while Excalibur mentioned Ogogo using more pro wrestling, he should have been aware that Ogogo used the Olympic Slam on Elevation and he and Taz should have made more of a deal out of the fact that Black countered it to set up his final flurry before getting cut off with the QT distraction/eyerake. Ogogo losing the offense by going to a finisher too early, or beacuse it drove Black into desperation in countering it, not only helps Black but it protects Ogogo in some ways too. In short, I'd rather Excalibur and Taz show deep knowledge about the wrestlers and scenarios they're discussing than wide knowledge about the entirety of wrestling. It feels especially important in protecting a guy who's just returning like Ogogo.

Wardlow (w/Spears) vs Victims: I liked that the second guy didn't just go for a headlock too. Very real moment of "oooh" when Wardlow jammed the flying headscissors. Spears talking Wardlow up before getting the pin was funny.

Fuego vs Luke Johnson: Johnson's look is amazing. Balding up top, long hair flowing down. A guy that you'd expect Sting to run through in 1989. Crusher Blackwell reference is appreciated, no matter what I said about announcing during the Ogogo match. This was a good one. Johnson used his size well, clubbering, cutting the distance, hitting one power move with that half nelson slam. When Fuego turned it on he was moving fast and hitting things clean. I really liked how he kicked away the arm to create distance to get out of a waistlock. The house style two attempts at the tornado DDT worked. They should bring Johnson back.

Team Taz vs JT Dunn and friends: No honeymoon period here as Starks tagged himself in on Dante immediately. He portrays competence well in that he can goof around and still mostly control things (until he can't). Dunn looked quite good making him pay for his arrogance and then Dante looked great taking on everyone. Post-match was interesting in alluding to the fact Starks may not be 100% healthy at least. I know it's an angle but Dante really does round out Team Taz. That's not a lie.

Rosa vs Castillo: Nice debut for Castillo here. Obviously she was going to get eaten up by Rosa but she took everything and had oomph behind her shots. Rosa's basically the only person in the company who can do a completely unnecessary roll and still make it work as a way to make her offense look even more impactful.

Silver vs Solo: I thought -1 worked the apron on the outside well.  He cares so it's easy for him to get others to care. Silver's early moving around the ring looked good. Solo gets credit for at least trying to work the crowd and he did have a nice transition in the ropes. I hate Silver's powerbomb counter to an inexplicable 'rana. Finish was ok but sort of anticlimactic.

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1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

I can't recall...was Brandi ever much in the ring?  I appreciate @Matt Dbeing as charitable as he can be when discussing Brandi's obvious reality TV show angle match and we should be thankful they're at least keeping this bullshit to YouTube.

She's fine enough in a tag match but always has been a bit rough in singles.  I appreciate her desire to make a go of it but even if she gets back into form the division has gotten so much better while she was out that it's going to be much harder for her.  Dark's as good a place as any to get that sorted out though you could tell she knows there's a lot more to do.

I would also like to mention some of the people on Dark.  For one if it's the same guy it's interesting that they didn't mention Misterioso being somebody that's done lucha for quite a while.  I heard that name over the years and it was a surprise seeing him on here.  Then there's Rayo and Kekoa who were/are dudes from MCW.  I've seen Rayo a couple times but remember Kekoa more as he usually comes out in an incredible headdress.  I was tickled pink seeing Lio (past) and Rayo (present) representing MCW in their match and I probably should consider going back to one of their shows.

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2 hours ago, Matt D said:

Ryo vs Emi: It's funny. As it was happening, I was thinking that there was a definitive lack of purpose on this, that it was a good match for the sake of a good match just to keep both of them looking good to help shine up other people later. You get the sense that when Sakura works other people on the roster it's to help them get better but not necessarily with Ryo who meets her head on. But then we got the post match to set up Mei's in ring debut. Loved Ryo catching Emi in the corner and then because it's the house style, Emi got to hit the body press to knock her off the apron, which really catalyzed Mei's involvement. Ryo walks around the ring with such swagger and confidence and comfort. She's in the moment at all times. Anyway, this was a nice slugfest and I'm looking forward to the tag. Nitpick is that I would have played Riho's music after the save instead of Ryo's. Also Excalibur keeps calling La Casita wrong.

I loved this match.  I like that Ryo Mizunami allows Emi to lay it in and show a nastier side to her offense.  I also like that Mei Seruga is her evil minion- as I remember during the Women's tournament in Japan watching  Mei and somebody else doing Emi's bidding to stomp down Shida and thinking that Emi should have an army of adorable diabolical ass stompers.  But yeah, Ryo Mizumani is fucking awesome.  I hope she takes on the indies and she wrestles Masha Slamovich in a VFA in Delaware.

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3 hours ago, JLowe said:

Thunder Rosa v Sofia Castillo. I like Thunder Rosa a lot, like many here. Fun little match, weird convoluted submission finisher and why is it called a Peruvian Necktie? Followed by an interview interrupted by Smart Mark and a sneak attack by Jade.

 

Quote

As the name would indicate, the Peruvian Necktie is named in honor of a Peruvian who invented the move. Tony DeSouza is credited with developing the move while doing his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt training under John Lewis and Andre Pederneiras.

https://mmasucka.com/2018/09/05/submissions-suckas-peruvian-necktie/

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