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For all the talk about invasions and brand wars (and honestly it would be a disappointment to most if there wasn’t some degree of that), it wouldn’t surprise me if this ultimately boils down to a story about an evil promoter who got in a star’s head, manipulated him and turned him against his friends, for his own personal gain. That’s a tale as old as time in sports and entertainment. Would it really be a surprise to anybody if it was revealed that Callis was the guy in Kenny’s ear all along, telling him he’s the best wrestler in the world and he shouldn’t be wasting his time in a team with Hangman?

NY Times culture critic and Pulitzer Prize winner Wesley Morris has declared MJF’s Le Dinner Debonair performance one of the best of 2020:

The Natural is clearly this board's top babyface, I think it's time we pulled the trigger and put the strap on him.

(and the follow up)

The Darby clip is actually on TLC's YouTube channel.

@Six String Orchestra provided me with this All Japan tag from 2017: I wasn't familiar with any of the participants going in, though did recognize the names Zeus and Jake Lee. Ended up watching it three times before writing about it, and weirdly enough I feel like I'm in three minds about it (if that's even a thing): I think there is a bunch of back story that might inform the match, it felt very much like a car with square wheels, and I ended up liking it more than maybe it deserved given its warts. Given some of the interactions, especially a couple of "I'm taking this opportunity to blast the non-legal opponent on the ring apron" spots, I wonder if everyone was building on either previous singles action or failed title challenges. There might have been more story culminating here than I have to work with. I didn't do any research, though I might later. Let's get those warts (at least as I perceive them) out of the way... I did not care at all for the first two strike exchanges, and blame them for the feeling of disjunction that stuck with me for a lot of the match. They just didn't come across as a replacement for something like an old-fashioned test of strength at the start or some submission reversals mid-match. I kind of wish that workers would come up with something new for that 'tension-building-contest' building block for matches because unless its done by folks like Suzuki, grumpy Nagata, or Ishii with the right opponent its just not grabbing me these days. Some of the timing seemed to be off, though some of that might have been the lingering effect of watching guys stand there waiting to receive chops early on - I think it made me hyper-sensitive to what may have been otherwise ignorable pauses. The match just didn't flow all that well for me, hence the square-wheeled car analogy. Lastly I got a really strong Bill Kazmaier vibes off The Bodyguard. I'm afraid my initial perception of him was heavily colored by the shortcomings of someone that I observed decades before he even got in the ring, and I feel a little bad about that. All of that being said I'm glad that I got to watch this, as even though there are nits (of varying sizes) to pick I ended up enjoying it. They got the crowd into it the match a good number of times which I first noticed when Nomura takes liberties during a very early rope break. For all that I didn't like the first two strike exchanges there was a third one that lead to the finishing stretch that I thought was really good - mostly because it was better timed and didn't have that 'stand there waiting' quality that afflicted the others. Lastly, and I was really surprised by how much I liked this spot in my final viewing, Jake Lee did what I thought was a great bit of delayed, dramatic selling in the closing stretch: Early in the match Lee gets one of his legs savaged - which is sold to varying degrees throughout the match, from 'over-' to 'no-.' With Nomura and The Bodyguard the legal men Lee enters the ring to remove Zeus from the equation. Lee almost reflexively uses a couple of beautiful knee lifts at the end of the sequence to put Zeus down... then makes it immediately obvious that this was a mistake and that while he was successful he's aggravated the damage to his own leg, and while Zeus has been neutralized Lee has done so at the cost of his own further effectiveness. It was a little thing that made me wish there were more things like it throughout the match, but rather than making me sour on the match for the lost opportunity it fit blinders to my head about other shortcomings. So that was neat. Thumbs up from me. Not everything is going to be an all-timer, and this was (im)perfectly acceptable pro wrestling. I will definitely be checking out more modern All Japan. Thanks! (here endeth my very first wrestling review on DVDVR, I feel like a giddy schoolgirl)

So when Kenny and Hangman lost the belts to FTR, and Kenny stormed out (trying to get the Bucks to come with him) before getting in a black car and speeding off? It was the same car he got in on Wednesday. Someone checked the numberplate and everything.

Imagine that! I get a strong sense that a lot of the posts in this thread are the result of years of being traumatized by WWE “storytelling.”

The Natural is a great guy, always takes me down memory lane with his posts in comic book movies forum, touching on anniversaries of series and movies, highlights the various costumes designs, even the sneak peak at upcoming projects I've been using the movie anniversaries posts to revisit some of those movies with my family, zoom viewing parties and reminiscing on our first impressions of some movies and TV shows, the theories we remembered about casting choices or easter egg cameos With the pandemic forcing us to stay in, revisiting the mcu and dcu with my family has been a blast over the last couple months (plus a good way to try and stay mentally sane) and legit if it weren't for Naturals movie anniversaries posts we probably wouldn't have remembered half of them and missed out on some fun viewing parties. I have strong opinions about former grandslam Champion Terry Bollea, not to be confused with terry crews or terri runnels, who i legit idolized as kid, which is ironic like a tonic, and you should PM me about my upcoming newsletter Hulkster and Me: How the childhood hero became a zero. But I wanted to express them here too (sweet!) because I can't help myself when it comes crashing down and it hurts inside, i'd love for the Sheik to break his back and make him humble

1. We finished S1 and the 8 year old was so matter-of-fact about the Darksaber. LIke a "Duh dad, of course it's the Darksaber. What else would it be?" reaction, which again shows how different her Star Wars experience is to anyone born in the 80s. 2. Let me try to make another analogy, because I was thinking about the Thrawn reveal and how it completely took me by surprise even though it absolutely shouldn't have. It was the only answer that made any logical sense knowing what you did about Ahsoka, but it felt like a complete surprise. I'd liken it to Daniel Bryan winning at WMXXX (or probably even to a greater degree, Benoit winning at XX, because Bryan was just so, so over). On some level, because of the nature of the fandom, it's not just about the babyface triumphing over the heel, but to some degree, the fans triumphing over the conservative and mainstream bent of the company. I think in wrestling that "Fans vs company" mentality has more or less destroyed how basic things operate. The only heel that anyone cares to see triumphed over anymore is Vince and Kevin Dunn, basically. That the smart fans are right and that they're wrong. But the first time a guy like Benoit or Eddy, someone who is supposed to be too small or too "pro wrestling", breaks through somehow and even as you're watching and you know it's logical for them to go over, you still doubt because it's not the way it's supposed to work. It's not supposed to be possible. It's against the usual rules. That's stuff like Ahsoka and Thrawn in live action, mainstream, front and center Star Wars.

From the latest Observer: And re: Sting:

Does Cornette know about this? Im sure he’s gonna scream about it being in the art section and not the sport section. “Wrestling isn’t a performance it’s goddamn real mother fuckerrrr”

It's not every page and it's not every book, but it can pop up at any moment. Case in point, this week's X-Factor. Nominally, X-Factor is about a team (Polaris, Northstar, Eye-Boy, Rachel Summers, Daken, and Prodigy, if I'm not forgetting anyone) and their adventures around the resurrection protocols. Because of that, we see a decent amount of the Five that bring mutants back (Elixir, Proteus, Hope, Goldballs/Egg, Tempus), but in the issue, there was a page that was randomly just Emma and Dani Moonstar talking about the kids that they taught and that they keep losing and why Emma gets hurt again and again. You almost couldn't write that page at any other point of Emma's development in her 40 years of being a character. That Dani's the one who's talking to her feels poignant for about three different reasons (She's a valkyrie, she was antagonized by Emma as a kid and knew the original Hellions well, she taught the kids during the New Mutants v2/Academy X days), but again, I don't know if it would be possible at almost any other point. It's not at all the sort of thing Morrison would have written as he just picked and chose what he wanted to focus on, and that it was possible in the middle of this comic which isn't really about these characters, but it also felt perfectly natural, but most people reading probably wouldn't have been able to understand exactly why Dani was the one to talk to her like that as opposed to Kitty or Storm or Scott... etc. That's just where we are now with this run. Every era. Everything counts. It tries to synthesize it all, often in the smallest ways.

The idea that everything after the match was improvised by evil mastermind Callis to take advantage of a disoriented Kenny and score a coup for Impact has definitely crossed my mind.

Aw yissss.... Obi Wan grabs two Dunks and hops on the T to watch the Sox!

Someone had to:

I particularly enjoy the good guy's entrance music in the AJPW one and the commentators having difficulty keeping up at points in the other three (and apparently totally lost throughout the AWA one).

This is already better than the WWE/WCW Invasion for several reasons. 1. AEW and iMPACT are actually separate promotions. Nobody cares about WWE Owned WCW/ECW. 2. Kenny Omega is actually real life friends going back decades with Callis and his family (and potentially Gallows/Anderson if they want it). It's not Steve Austin turning on WWE for "reasons" Omega actually has a lot of legit reasons why he may have did this. 3. No McMahon family drama. That's always a plus in any story. 4. iMPACT doesn't have many stars in the men's division but if they do want to use them they can. WWE could never use Sting, Goldberg, Flair, Steiner, etc.

@Zimbra I want you to seriously think about this for a second. Do you want a bag... that hangs around your crotch.... that says: CREAM CITY ?

I'm obviously biased, but...

My best friend has sons that he’s made into real wrestling fans, they are 8 & 6. They mostly love NXT & AEW. He put on an old school Jericho in WCW match and they could not believe it was the same dude. My wife, who’s been with me since 2002, came in when I was watching AEW & could not believe that was Jericho as she hadn’t seen him since his short hair VH1 talking head phase. He just looks all kinds of horrible now. It’s obvious he still works out but also obvious from how he talks about it on his podcast, the sound of his voice and his face, how much he fucking drinks. I get he wanted to finally be a heavyweight but instead he’s just rocking the Jeri-Gut. It’s really sad as I’ve been a fan since his WCW debut. I’m not saying at 50 he should be in cruiserweight shape but maybe clean up the diet and put the vodka down once and awhile? Do some cardio? Because his work is definitely starting to suffer now.

My Series X survived the reboot after the update and I have downloaded my profile to the new console. The new era has begun.

Hey, @OctopusHere's the match review. I have seen very little of Soberano, Jr when I had CMLL on Comcast. I liked some of his moves but never really paid much attention to what he could actually. As for Titan I did see him when he was in ROH and once or twice in CMLL. But it's been quite a while. So I consider myself in the "Not too familiar" camp with either. But I am curious to see what this match brings. First thing that sticks out is unless you're actually looking for people in the crowd the horns/crowd noise through the speakers aren't that far off from what I remember. It's at least much better than WWE's canned noise. The only dead giveaway there's a pandemic is the ref with the mask on. So as far as presentation during these times it could be a whole lot worse. And I can tell that this will go a bit as while I'm used to them flying around a lot they started off nice and slow before gradually ramping up. All I can tell so far is it's for a title and it seems Titan is the rudo in this. Which works as he's very skilled but just can't help but be a dick. And Soberano is good at trying to overcome Titan's nefarious methods which complements the deliberate yet engaging style they're doing. Overall I liked the match. I can't say it made me want to get back into lucha but when it's something meaningful done well it's nice to check out once in awhile. Thanks for this.

Terribly excited for the upcoming weeks of Don Callis/Kenny Omega promos.

I like Britt. You can see the improvement of her gimmick and her ring skills as time has gone by. She has gone from charisma vacuum to one of the best heat machines in AEW and she's slowly putting the spots and psychology together. The Lockjaw finisher is a good finisher for her because it keeps thing simple. There's really no set-up for a mandible claw, so she doesn't have to devote a lot of moves to the psychology of softening up an opponent for the kill. She can just beat someone up to the point of exasperation and then use the Lockjaw as a mercy kill finish. Conversely, Britt is not the biggest or strongest woman in the division, so she can't always depend on brawling and striking spots to wear down an opponent so that she can employ the Lockjaw. Eventually she's going to have to take on a stronger worker like Abadon or Diamante or a superior striker like Hikaru Shida or Thunder Rosa so there needs to be some evil mat psychology in her arsenal to allow her to counter her opponent's power or striking advantage. Britt is obviously putting in a lot of hard work, so I am sure she will have it figured out. She doesn't need the women's title to be over, but I hope they eventually put the title around her waist.

I wasn't so sure about Baker especially during her face run. But I think it was that one promo where she mentioned Whataburger that I immediately turned the corner. Her wrestling has gotten much better but her heel work is some really incredible stuff. I know she frequently mentions bouncing ideas off of Jericho and say what you will about him but a lot of what she does works quite well. I'm at this time not a big fan of her talk show-type segment on Dark but I'm hoping it won't be long before I come around to it. But overall I like her. EDIT: Didn't see your Jericho post until now. The Inner Circle potential breakup with MJF and Wardlow being the Yoko Ono in this situation is way too soon. I could have seen maybe another solid year without those two in the group if done right. And as much as I want to say "But wait..." I can't help but agree with Jericho slipping more than others being on his level. Part of me think he knows his time's done soon and he's just having various people work with him for the sake of experience.

Cash Wheeler, AKA the one with hair Cash (aka Dash Wilder) has stepped up his game since coming to AEW. Dax was the one who popped off the page for me in WWE/NXT but now they feel more equal in AEW. He's no longer working with WWE guys so he feels much bigger and more like an ass kicker than an opportunist spark plug. His powerslam is super good and is something he should work in with greater frequency. He should actually work in more stuff individually that is his alone so he isn't so set in needing Dax to be there. I think FTR dips too much into the nostalgia spots on occasion and can get too deep in hitting Power Plexes and Decapitations rather than doing good tag team work. I fell in love with FTR because of their cut off spots and heat segments and the return to tag team fundamentals rather than spots from the 80's. I'm sure working with the AEW roster makes this even harder as the other teams have a very go-go-go style of getting their shit in as opposed to even Enzo and Cass who knew that Enzo getting his ass kicked to set up the hot tag was the only thing they could actually do. So they built matches around that rather than trying to wrangle Private Party into a non spot match. FTR is trying to fit in more when I feel they should be making other people work their style of match. This is to fit into my personal preference because I am self centered. Booking wise is a mixed bag of muddied waters. The angle with Kenny and Page was just an absolute mess of mixed motivations and sloppy storytelling. The whole Buck-FTR build was fucked and the pay off of the Bucks winning came too fast. There was money in the chase despite that being a cliché that gets over used. But as of now, the babyfaces beat the heels and the feud is kind of dead as The Bucks wrestle teams that have no booking chance of going over them and FTR are on the sidelines when they should be being reheated. I liked the addition to FTR being pick up truck driving beer drinkers but it clashes with the neo-Horseman bit they have with Tully. They should clarify which is what they are trying to present and stick to that.

Revoke his Pulitzer.

AEW trying to pivot from Kylie Rae quitting by making Baker the top babyface/standardbearer of the division was a gross misstep, and their decision to reverse course showed how different this company is -- they're not afraid to stop something that's not working. I think those kind of things really have built goodwill. This is a company that genuinely wants to put out an entertaining product instead of worrying about egos and how this guy or that guy might feel about ideas being squashed. * Baker also has to really be commended for solid work during the pandemic and for coming back from her injury much better as a worker. *For the most part, anyway. You can't convince me that every single thing Cody does isn't solely to feed his ego. ?

Dr. Britt Baker, She's a Dentist Baker actually is a pretty good example of a wresting gimmick that works in that 1) most people don't care for Dentists and 2) she wrestles like you would imagine a dentist would. The work she's done to focus a lot of her offense on the jaw has been effective and her wrestling in general has improved as she's learned to be more aggressive. The slingblade still sucks and really, there aren't a lot of people who should be using that move at all. But the fisherman's neckbreaker has ton of torque to it and the lockjaw is an effective take on the mandible claw. I think the Seth Rollins stomp is an effective addition to her move set as well. She's got a good act going personally. I think Reba/Rebel is a bit of an odd addition really. Are we supposed to feel bad for her because she's being abused by Baker or are is she supposed to be getting heat as a flunky? It's a bit murky and could be a little more clear for the audience. Britt herself has her gimmick more locked in as a pompous blowhard and looks like she's got a lot more upward mobility than she did a year ago. She's made lots of positive choices. I'm glad the Big Swole feud is over as I don't think Swole is any good. The whole match in a dentist's office wasn't a very good idea even if we are in Covids time and the period of cinematic matches. The Thunder Rosa feud should be better and Baker is going to have to step up again to keep up. I could see Baker stepping up in the championship picture in the coming year and stepping into the championship role. As it stands, she's one of the women who are actually watchable and draws heat.

FYI

I believe that's the "Disco Star Wars" song by Meco that was a hit song in the late 70s.

As a fan of the Knockouts, I can only imagine how beneficial this would be to the women's division. Very optimistic

Like many others, I have no use for Sami Callihan. The only times Sami really "entertained" me was when the CZW fans would air horn his promos. He had a surprisingly good match vs Davey Richards in AAW many moons ago. And I was invested in any matches against Penta because Penta is one of my favorites. The last thing Tony Khan needs is for either Dark or Dynamite to turn into the Sami and Friends Show. Jessica Havoc has regressed in the last 5 years. I have even less use for OINK/OIFK.

There is potential with tag and women's crossover with Impact. I'm not sold on the men's division. The Mooses, Eddie Edwardes and Sami Callihans of the world don't really inspire any interest from me.

You are saying that like I have not already thought extensively about it. Anyway: Yes.

Anyone who has a problem with the Natural needs to take a long hard look in the mirror. Such a genuine sweetheart of a man, quality individual. Also the only person I legit became friends with off a message board and added on Facebook.

I'll never understand watching and analyzing stuff you don't enjoy. I really disliked Sons Of Anarchy despite the idea of a biker gang crime drama sounding neat and actors I was otherwise a fan of. I didn't break down why I disliked it so much, especially to people who for whatever reason dug it. I simply stopped watching it. Is that weird, or something?

The driver was wearing an AEW mask to sell the ruse? Based on Kenny's demeanor and body language, disoriented or not, I feel he was aware and totally complicit in this outcome. I think having the NWA/UWN women on the show, like Thunder Rosa, has already been beneficial for AEW, so I think potential crossover with some of the women of the Knockouts division can only make things better. But if some of those women ever get offered AEW/TNT contracts, I hope there are no hurt feelings.

DAY 100 WrestleMania XXXII (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Hate Roman Reigns) It's 2016, a WWE Hall of Famer is running for President, the company had just had one of its worst years product-wise in a long time (due to both injuries and really weird booking), and Vince was convinced he could sell out a 100,000 seat stadium for the first time ever. It wasn't all bad though... the main roster got a very needed infusion of talent from the now white hot NXT (which on its own would probably have been the best promotion in North America, if not the world)... and the Roman Reigns experiment began in earnest... then sputtered... then began again... and then the Royal Rumb... You know what, let's just begin. Little did I know that when John Cena won the US Championship at last year's WrestleMania, that it would lead to the debut and feud with my current favorite wrestler, Kevin Owens. Owens had come into NXT and won the Championship almost immediately, betraying his best friend and taking the strap from him. That's our murder bear! Well, during his first year on the main roster, he won the US Title and later on, the Intercontinental Championship, which is on the line in a ladder match. KO's opponents are Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, Stardust, (the first) Sin Cara, Zack Ryder, and the other NXT Champion Sami Zayn. As good as Sami is today as a heel, it's still so wonderful hearing the crowd sing to his music and screaming "LET'S GO!" The crowd seems generally happy with everyone, except for a muted reaction to Ryder? Odd. But yeah, it's almost like "what are you doing here." Now, I'd been getting down about ladder matches at Mania. They tend to just be annoying spotfests where people are setting up for the next stunt rather than telling a story (or stories) in the match. Now, there's plenty of that going on here, but this one is different. There's no lumbering big man to slow down everything and maul people. Well, there's Kevin, but he's shockingly light on his feet and is maybe the best overall wrestler in this match. And I think that's the difference. While the other ladder matches (for titles or the MitB briefcase), there's a flow here, there are stories here. I thought to myself, this is what it would be like if 6 Kofi Kingstons (Kofis Kingston?) were in the ring together. Or, maybe, since there were so many superkicks, Shawn Michaels? I guess you can take that for whatever it's worth. Dolph Ziggler and Zack Ryder are friends, but nothing's going to stop Dolph from getting ahead. Ziggler and Miz hate each other. Stardust is a fucking awesome weirdo. Oh, and Owens and Zayn, really, REALLY hate each other. Also, Sin Cara is there! I'll say, this is really the Zayn and Owens show. They both have fantastic spots: KO stays in the ring while everyone runs to get a ladder and just beats people up as they come in. Sami does a god damned suicide dive THROUGH a ladder! Stardust brings in a polka-dotted ladder (RIP Dusty), and Owens is so disgusted by it, he throws it out of the ring and breaks it. KO looks like he's about to retain, but he and Sami fight at the top, including one of the nastiest eye gouges I've seen, and in return Zayn kills Owens dead with a suplex off the main ladder onto and through a ladder on the floor. End comes after that, as Zayn is inches centimetres away from winning the belt, but gets pushed over by The Miz. Miz, being the little shitbird he is, takes a moment to not only climb, but pose for the crowd at the top of the ladder. What he doesn't see is Zack Ryder climbing the other side... Zack knocks him off, and claims his first and only Intercontinental Championship. The crowd is cheering, but clearly stunned. Of course, being Zack Ryder, he'd lose the title the next night on Raw, but he at least got his moment. Also, I'll note, his dad came into the ring to hug him, and in an odd moment, his dad tries to put his cowboy hat on Zack, which he angrily throws off. I'm not sure what the heck was happening there, but... well, I guess I could say the same thing about the ending. That being said, this was very good on the revisit. Sufficiently violent, sufficient drama, a shocking ending, and great flow to the whole thing. Good, good start.

The Kento Ikemen etc unit is done. So Evolution, Purple Haze, Enfants, Jin, Yoshitatsu Kingdom. Down to 5 factions.

Bonus match 3/27/88: Tenryu vs Hansen: Ok, now this is an interesting one. It has what a lot of people would consider to be a crappy finish which is why it only ranked 24th on the 80s set, but it's really unique for a Hansen match. Tenryu basically starts the match bleeding from the side of his face from the cowbell shot a few weeks before and it's awesome because 1) it's right at the start of the match. He starts the match bloody. 2) it's not the forehead that's bleeding so it's a unique visual and leads to other unique visuals like the blood rubbing off the side of his arm through the match. 3) it seems to keep a fire lit underneath him. He rushes right at Hansen (to no avail), he comes back fairly quickly though. He just stays on him, meeting him much closer to halfway than most people can. There are moments where Hansen takes back over because Tenryu misses a bomb, like a huge ducked corner clothesline, which is not the way Hansen usually takes back offense. 4) and of course midway through the match, Hansen starts on the side of the head, first to escape a hold and then just because he's a mean ornery bastard. Even then, Tenryu is literally fighting for his life and stays in it, but even a wounded wolf with his back against a wall isn't going to beat a T-rex. The finish is Hansen pulling him back up, almost paying for it, and then just refusing to stop his bombardment of Tenryu in the corner and getting DQed. It's almost the finish the match needed to justify Tenryu staying in it as much as he did and it was a sort of performance Tenryu, even with two belts, probably needed considering how much grumpy Jumbo was dominating him during this period. Bonus match: Tenryu vs Yoshinari Ogawa 2005 NOAH. MD: I really like Ogawa. Let me put it this way: when Orange Cassidy's early match act is at its very best, it's the spirit of Ogawa that he's channeling. Here, he did ok, until he didn't, and then he almost did a couple of times, but old man Tenryu just clotheslines you to death.

I have a soft spot for Acts of Vengeance, since we got you see atypical face v heel matchups.

FUCKING FINALLY! Scored a PS5 disc version off of Sony. Now watch our covid symptoms get worse where we wind up in the hospital.

Not particularly interested in Impact crossover stuff overall, but it is nice to hear the casual references to them, Okada and Suzuki, like AEW is comfortable and even proud to be part of a larger, thriving industry, as opposed to WWE constantly screaming WE ARE THE ONLY SHOW IN TOWN, DO NOT UNSUBSCRIBE FROM OUR NETWORK as they melt into irrelevance I liked Hirsch/Baker, it was a little tentative in places but I was into Hirsch being so committed to the armbar gameplan, and Britt's leg lace omoplata setup for her finish is stylish. I like that it has a built-in visual cue that once she gets her hand in there and starts yankin' molars it's the point of no return, like Kurt grapevining the legs Darby is superficially Sting but at the same time, in a much more profound sense, Hangman is Sting - like one of the big moments they have to nail in the next year is Hangman finally being sick of everyone's bullshit and being ready to whip all their asses, a la Sting finally battering the nwo and pointing the bat at Hogan at Uncensored I'm fairly OK with an on-screen GM as long as it's Regal-style "two minute cameo to irritably dispense booking justice after the lunatics take over the asylum" and not like, 20 minute promos where you humiliate the people who can actually wrestle

Dynamite was fun per usual. Not a fan of Battle Royals, but they worked hard to continue a number of storylines and keep a good flow. I love John Silver as much as the next guy, but can we hold off on a babyface turn? Jericho-Kazarian was one of Jericho's better showings as of late. Kazarian has quietly been on a tear. The Mjef towel tease was fun. The Inner Circle interference/interaction with Aubrey was complete nonsense. Why the fuck were they all not kicked out mid-way when they interfered right in front of her? Why are they even out there or allowed out there? One wonders why everybody doesn't bring their friends to the ring to run interference? Further where is Sky and Daniels for Kazarian? Getting tired of these lazy oversights peppered throughout the weekly Dynamite 'scripts'. I hope Meltzer is incorrect concerning Sammy turning babyface. He's such a good heel. I have no desire to see arsehole Sammy playing to the crowd. Mostly ffwd the Baker-Hirsch bout, but looked pretty solid down the finish. Baker seems to be sharpening her skillset. Hirsch, not unlike Serena Deeb, seems to be getting some attention for her competence (obviously due to the lack in the division), but there's too little character to care at all. Maybe in time? Darb/Code-Hobbs/Starks was certainly not bad, but I couldn't muster any personal interest. I'm happy for the people who are excited about Sting's arrival. I'd certainly be fine with a last match scenario, but Sting being signed to be a weekly character frightens me more than Abadon to Shida. I really, really, really hope this doesn't lead to an authority figure character. They've been fine without one, and even not having watched WWE in over a decade I have no interest in a 'GM' or any such GM storylines. Please no GM! Please! Moxley-Omega was what had me excited about the show, and it pretty well delivered. I gotta ask tho, what was the point of Moxley hitting his goddamned finisher on the belt and then leaving the ring to find a couple chairs to set-up? If he was a dumb heel that would have been fine, as a babyface he looked like a complete fool. I liked what it led to, but that was really stoooopid. Don Callis on the otherhand was superb on the commentary. He's so clearly head and shoulders above this regular Dynamite team. I liked the finish or Omega getting the title. I have no interest in Impact Wrestling, but I assume this could be a fun inter-promotional angle. Seems to have sparked interest. More than any inter-promotional 'dream' bouts, I'm just really excited by this Omega-Callis team. A few complaints, but enjoyable show. Please AEW don't add an onscreen GM.

Man, if Michigan having a Covid outbreak costs Ohio State the chance to play for the conference title, I'm just going to count that as a win.

The second one, I think. When he had longer hair.