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Belt conflicts something old NJPW would do pre Bushiroad, so I am fine with these angles. Probably expect Will's belt to go away first because it's too similar to Shingo's. In regards to attendances, Bushiroad reportedly limited crowd covid control mandate is more strict than all the other promotions.

It was a bit of an AEW Dark: Impressive unsigned Samoans edition.

They referred to him multiple times as Keith, so....

Yes.

El Hijo del Fuego del Sol.

Look, I don't want to make a scene but this is a really shitty thing to say. If you don't like somebody just put him on ignore and be done with it. As for Elevation I loved Liona and wouldn't be mad seeing him again. And Sakurai/Tehaka was a great mean girl match even if the crowd wasn't into it. I tend to skip Reka's matches sometimes to save time on a long episode. But with this being a short one I'm glad I watched. I'll have to keep an eye on her.

I kinda feel sorry for Charlotte because she's basically the Brock Lesnar of the Women's division, Protected from Day one. She's going to get heat from peers and fans alike. Even I didn't really get around to enjoying her work till about 3 years into her main roster run. Based on what I've heard, Charlotte insisted on dropping the title to Bel-Air is great. That switching titles rule devalues the belt. It's a dumb rule for any of the divisions and the women are the only people to have enough pride to be vocal about that rule. I know titles in WWE don't mean much but that isn't to that fault of the wrestlers. So what if they come across as marks. Woods winning King of the Ring is a much bigger deal than it would be with anyone else only because it was something he actually literally wanted to Win. King of the Ring hasn't had any real meaning since 2002 outside of King Booker in 06 of course. I have no problem with Charlotte or anyone standing up to protect their character, especially if it doesn't hurt the rest of the division. It's unfortunate that the people in charge don't value the credibility of rest of the division put side of the two singles Champs and the top challengers

Keith "Bearcat" Lee is just Bearcat Lee now. Soon just Bearcat...

That’s fair. In Charlotte’s cases, it ls hard for me not to make assumptions about the kind of person she is after seeing her continue to stiff a clearly concussed Kairi Sane, but I shouldn’t assume.

The Miz

I guess angel Hernandez was busy. . .

From a few pages ago: I do think this a great time to be a pro wrestling fan because of the easy access to live shows from almost anywhere in the US (others nations seem equally abundant) and the truly miraculous ability to see federations from anywhere else on TV & the interWeb, as well as so much historical, classic, vintage and childhood product just there for the watching. However, in this Rev's opinion, the percentage of great matches, standout cards, memorable feuds and great gimmicks is very very low. The moves, spots, production, aerial and mat work are so sophisticated and amazing but most folks know very little about psychology and story-telling (and most promoters know how to make dream matches but not compelling long term booking) and part of the reason for that is the fan origin of the workers*. Yes, ringwork needs to evolve, but this post-modern self referential undercurrent keeps rassling from hitting the memory making artistry that was there in the past. And now, back to surmising what happened backstage in the WWE... *Other reasons - lack of territories, death of kay fabe, no replacement for heel/face structure (all of which were inevitable), WWE's overexposure and shitty booking, spoiled fans, and more. Don't get me started.

Episode 3: Marking Territory, Part 3 overall thoughts: most of these videos have less than 200 views on YouTube. the Chris Hyde video has 51. that is amazingly pathetic. more misses than hits in this episode. relying on the same 5 or so jobbers has overstayed its welcome after only 3 episodes. the crowd continues to be the worst part of these shows. where did the crowd come from? are they wrestling fans? extras? paid performers? they're overly invested in each match, which again is detrimental with all the shitty chanting and taunting. nobody in the ring has earned any of these reactions. Episode 4: Marking Territory, Part 4 overall thoughts: practically this entire show was heel squash matches. if it wasn't for the lone upset, it would've been largely monotonous. the "Bully Pulpit" segments continue to be pointless. this was the last of "Act 1", so fingers crossed for some angles/character progression/hierarchy happening soon. and why have only a couple matches had commentary so far? What we heard was no great shakes, but at least it gave you something to focus on besides the annoying crowd.

Another Dark Spoiler:

You asked what she could possibly have to complain about, and my response is "being written to completely wipe out all potential opponents, leaving nobody to work with, thus nobody to make money with, would be a valid complaint". You can take that any way you wish, but I do think it would help to not automatically assume the worst of people you only know based off what you see of them on TV.

Or she gets pregnant and takes enough time off for whomever is running the company at that point to cool off on her future.

Because they've literally invested millions of dollars to make Charlotte Flair the character she is today? Banks is the cross-over star, but Charlotte is the wrestler you use to continue to sell shows. She gets a lot of criticism and crap for who she is and what her attitude is reported to be. Rightfully so, too. But unless something massively egregious happens, Charlotte will fulfill the entirety of her contract before she will ever step foot in another company's ring.

Whatever happened to Cody Hall?

Yeah, wrestlers complain about looking strong all the time. idk. Maybe. I’m working hard at trying not to be dismissive of the opinion of others. If that’s the case, good for her.

Thought I'd hit this in the morning but I've got an early work call so... Dark Elevation 10/25/21 Hirsch/Mizunami vs Diamante/Kay: Fun match that sort of fell apart towards the end. Diamante is so good at leaning into her character with everything she does. It's all the more impressive since she's really a JTTS but she's just 100% committed and always on. She should have a job for as long as they're running shows. Hirsh and Mizunami is just a great Al Snow and Steve Blackman sort of pairing, if Al Snow was a powerhouse beast in the ring too. Mizunami just exudes fun. I don't know if I like Hirsch getting off her feet so much. I think I'd rather her dig out from underneath and take out limbs and just wreck people that way. The German was amazing, for instance. But at least the tandem offense was creative. Like I said, after that crazy double team flip, everything kind of fell apart but at least we got a Kevin Sullivan shout out from it. .65 Worldwide point. FTR vs Liona/Reed: This might be the most natural I've seen Tully with them. He just really felt like he was a manager and not just a guy collecting a paycheck for nostalgia's sake coming out. Maybe it's the theme? Anyway, after Wheeler looked just great on the mat, what a great showcase for Liona this turned out to be. If the roster wasn't so stacked up and down, I'd say they had money there. As it is, they might not even need him. Fans were going up for everything he was doing, and in chipping away at him, FTR looked all the better for it. I loved how they kept tagging in. At one point, Dax tagged in, got his positioning and realized that it made sense to tag Cash right back in before he did anything so they could do it (it being the double catapult which was great) together. The finish was pretty funny as Reed shows ass as the worst hot tag in history. Just a clear case of FTR realizing what they had in there with Toa and made themselves by helping to make him. Great stuff. Emi Sakura vs Reka Tehaka: Man, you could hear crickets during Emi's control stuff. The crowd just didn't want to come along for that ride. I'm not sure the hairpulling and strength counter really worked. They didn't care about the forearms either but did like wooing for the chops. The best stuff here was Reka's headbutts. Just big sweeping smashes. I like how Emi just kept shifting her tactics as one thing didn't work but it just didn't garner her any heat. The Lulu mugging after the corner splash is amazing and it's going to catch on. They need to start using still shots of that. For a brief moment, Lulu got a tiny chant. It will happen. Her bump off the robe toss at the start was maybe the fourth best part of the match. I do like that Emi has 3-4 different ways she can end things. QT vs 10: QT's bigger than I thought. At least he's managing big guys. Got to heat up 10 en route to Mox and it was a really gutsy performance from QT after his eye exploded. He's experienced enough to switch things up too. The announcers didn't pick up on it but he went right after 10's eye for revenge. It's so weird 10 does the "Ten Ten Ten" gimmick when Spears is there. Have they ever done anything with that? This basically made me want to see 10 vs Comoroto. Too many people in AEW do that double running shot into the corner, where they hit it from one angle and then the other. Maybe QT got a little too much of this but really, all anyone was looking at was the eye. Paul Wight vs Bravo/Singh/Carter: It's just fun. Him coming from the announcers' booth was a good visual. I like how they swarmed him at the start. The spear/tackle thing was a great visual. Good on Bravo for taking that. One thing about Wight vs 3 guys is that he can hit a big match-ending spot on each of them. Carter's sell for the KO punch was Punch Out-esque.

Think it possible that maybe she sees that this is a bad thing.

People need to pick a lane. Does the talent have unlimited power to bury their opponents with ease, or does Vince rule every segment with an iron fist?

What?