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Is the roster much bigger than at the start of the pandemic period? I think they could create an illusion of unpredictability using lower card talents without necessarily having to constantly bring guys in. If Sammy had an open challenge next Wednesday and Moriarty challenged him, it'd still feel unexpected.

Also, did you not notice just how frequently the WWE has felt the need to let everyone know they won the Monday Night War? For the last 20 years?

Ricky Starks is actually @Matt D

That's so much more rewarding than the comments from people thanking me for posting hot hot headscissors or whatever.

Ricky Starks, man of culture, enjoying some French Catch cc @Matt D

According to his book: Bryan first saw the move performed by Muta at an NWA tournament called Future Shock '89 (Starrcade '89, in Atlanta. Presumably he watched it on video year later? He would have been 9 at the time). Muta wasn't using it as a finisher, but Bryan thought it might be cool to use it as one. He called it the "bridging chicken wing thing." He started using it in Memphis (in 2000), but only a few times as a finisher. He first heard the name "Cattle Mutilation" from Reckless Youth at the Super 8 (presumably 2001) which is where he started using it as his regular finisher. At first, he didn't know what Youth was referring to, and after it was explained to him he assumed he'd never hear the term again. Subsequently, Christopher Daniels also called the hold the "Cattle Mutilation" but Bryan didn't like the imagery and in his own mind kept calling it the "bridging chicken wing thing." He says that he continued to call it that until late 2002, when he finally accepted that everyone else in ROH called it the Cattle Mutilation and there was nothing he could do to change that.

so this seems on brand for us.

I went back and watched the first Kingston appearance the other day and found the thread and people went nuts; it might be the only time in a decade when the mods let a live show thread happen. They would do well having Sammy do open challenges.

Saying "shit" is just a slippery slope to calling dudes "fruit booties."

For me, the Gage appearance (and Juvi, too) make me sit up and take notice that, "Oh shit! They really might bring in anyone!" It's been a while since pro wrestling had any intrigue in the week to week happenings. Now, I tune in to AEW with the thought that someone cool showing up is definitely not outside the realm of possibilities.

"Vanilla ICE ICE BABY....."

Lol

Oh believe me, Coach Tony ABSOLUTELY cares if YOU watch...

Did they show you a bunch of pictures and make you select the ones that had busses?

Lemme start this before a bot does. FOR THE AEW CHAMPIONSHIP - Kenny Omega (c) vs. Hangman Adam Page FOR THE AEW WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP - Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. (c) vs. Tay Conti FOR THE AEW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - The Lucha Brothers (c) vs. FTR MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP ELIMINATOR FINALS - Bryan Danielson vs. Miro 10 MAN TAG MILWUAKEE STREET FIGHT - The Inner Circle vs. Men of the Year / American Top Team FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE SIX MAN TAG MATCH - Superkliq (Cole / Jackson / Jackson) vs. Christian Cage / Jurassic Express (Luchasaurus / Jungle Boy) MJF vs. Darby Allin Cody Rhodes / Pac vs. Malakai Black / Andrade El Idolo Nyla Rose / Jamie Hayter vs. Hikaru Shida / Thunder Rosa CM Punk vs. Eddie Kingston -- More as they announce.

I see you lurking here, Ricky.

This reminds me of one time back in the day when I was working retail. I was laughing and joking with a coworker near the returns desk and a customer walks up and instead of calling him an asshole, I called him a butthole. He looked at me and said, "Hey, don't call me a butthole. Call me an asshole. You call me an asshole, you're calling me a jerk, and I can deal with that. You call me a butthole, and I get a picture in my mind." The lady, who I was trying not to offend looked over and said, "Yeah, he has a point."

I'd be happier if the entire site died, not just changed its name.

Or this one:

Dust Storm, surely.

Blewitt is such a hilarious name for a kicker ?

Face champions doing open challenges and heels demolishing babyfaces until someone rises up to stop them seems like a great way to keep booking the title.

An editor is one thing, WWE creative is another. Seems to me WWE creative lets a lot of shit hit the small screen. Further, if you were witness to Chris Jericho's glorious WCW heel run prior to his WWF debut, or his AEW run nearly to the babyface turn and feud with MJF, you would well know he's clearly better left to his own devices on promos. I see no reason to give any credit to WWE creative. A badly scripted, badly acted wrestling show was never my bag. Your dismissal of the Gage angle/match/segment is a bit shortsighted to say the least. The whole thing made for a lot of excitement and presented a unique experience that provided most of us a shit tonne of fun. Some were saying 'it's not usually my thing, but this worked'. Of course, there was inevitably the 'I don't like Nick Gage' posts from ppl that think others care if they like or don't like somebody, but those were as trivial and forgotten as the other weekly 'I don't like (insert elite wrestler name)' posts following Dynamite. If you're talking about the Painmaker, yeah he certainly could use some editorial advice. But certainly not from WWE creative as overseen by an out of touch senior citizen and his stooges. Yeah, no credit deserved there.

But how are they in the key demo?

I think he was pretty pissed off at how petty they've been and then the no commercial stuff too, because he knows that's a pissing contest where both companies lose financially. He went so over the top in his dunking that he won me over. It's hilarious. You gotta read his tweets in his Giannis Antetokounmpo intro voice.

Glad they finally announced this, now maybe he can get a win on TV?

Apologies in advance to AEW for losing one viewer in that vital demographic once I hit 50 in a couple of weeks.

So I had Sandra Violet pick out the pair of Spidey jammies she wanted me to order for her. She picked the design herself. She loves them! James

This is America. The Pope has no say in Catholicism, and Jesus was a capitalist.

Heel Rockers in Memphis. Poor Lance.

"Graham Ga-no good" is a lofty standard to beat.

Other options for them could include, I don't know, Quantum, Specter, Kaos, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc.

The Kiebler pic was taken in Baltimore and it blows me away because, coincidentally, one of the guys in the photo used to be a really good friend of mine until his slightly right wing politics blossomed into, uhhh, I guess what you'd call their final form and I could not deal with that shit.

To the surprise of no one - Nick Rolovich is suing Washington State for wrongful termination The twist is - the crux of of his argument is he was a victim of "discriminatory and vindictive behavior" from the AD. He is claiming that the AD decided to fire him in April which was 4 months before the state put in place the vaccine requirement for all state employees. Also his lawyer admitted that Rolovich's religious exemption claim was that because Rolovich was a "devout Catholic" he couldn't get the vaccine. That sure as fuck is news to this devout Catholic.

Hey, @Craig H I did a drunk Cameo request and forgot to go into detail about what Dave said. But I think he covered it pretty well.

Agree big time with you @Matt Dand @Log. That "anyone can show up" feel is really the one thing from the MNWs that really could not be replicated in any effective way until now. Kingston's debut was for sure a turning point in that (along with probably the first KENTA appearance, and the Callis/Impact reveal when Kenny took the title).

B Block finals was a really good show but I'm not very hyped for the finals of the G1 this year. There is just such a lack of excitement to the booking during the pandemic era of NJPW. The start of the tournament felt exciting and fresh with ZSJ and Cobb being booked so strong but then ZSJ fell off and Cobb while he was a made star in the tournament doesn't reach the finals. EVILs matches being all the same formula didn't work most of the time because his act needs crowds booing like hell, I think if he was doing the same shit to huge heat his matches would come off way better but his cheating heel act dies without reactions to it. Taichi feels like a guy ready to breakthrough now too, I love how the crowd has gotten behind him in the tournament. I hope they do more with him and ZSJ than just run Tekkers/GoD a bunch of times but that is certainly looking likely for WK though I think O-Khan/Cobb could make some noise in the Tag League but now the tag titles feel like they are too low for ZSJ, Taichi, Cobb and even O-Khan almost, after the tournament they all had. And are they going to have any follow-up with Tama pinning Okada, that should be a big deal for him but idk what they can do with it, outside of Okada possibly having to defend the title shot against him which would be such a forgone conclusion match that it would be pointless. I don't know what they are going to do to stretch WK out to three nights and make them all seem important because there booking has been dire and they need to cycle the upper card around a bit. Ibushi is feeling tired to me now and Naito, whom I love so much, seems to be breaking down physically. One thing I forgot to point out earlier when it happened is that after Hiromu/Ishii I am so ready for heavyweight Hiromu, I just want him to beat Eagles pass the torch to Despy and mix it up with the big boys.

I cannot go on this ride with you, @Goodear. I don't think 2.0 and Garcia can control their bookings. Khan wanted a eight man Dark Order tag and 2.0 and Garcia, being such dicks to everyone, have no friends. Serpentico just wanted YouTube time and is used to being abused left and right by Luther so he was just happy to be there. He also does certain things right. He caused the initial distraction that let 2.0 take over, for instance. He just doesn't do a lot well. Maybe I'll feel differently about the act after seeing it for a year but he's such a small part of the show that I'm always glad to see him. If he was on Raw, he get that terrible comedy spot every show and you'd be sick of him within a month, but he shows up once every three Darks now. Dark 10/19/21 Hayter vs Nieves: This wasn't quite there. I liked how Hayter was moving Nieves around the ring wherever she wanted her. That was effective but nothing looked super impactful. I wonder if she can do a hanging vertical? The clothesline was too abrupt. She should have found some way to telegraph it more and get the crowd primed for it maybe? Gunn Club vs Sheik/Alexander/Chamberlain: Is Colton's finisher the same as Dustin's new finisher? I'm not going to look for it but it seems iffy. It looked good here at least. Best bit of this was probably Austin pulling the legs from the outside early. It's very clear what Austin is but I don't really get what heel Colton is supposed to be, especially with Billy standing right there sort of being a better version of whatever it might be. Billy's punch on Sheik was great but I wanted to see that guy do more. Diamante/Nyla/Sakura vs Statlander/Rosa/Velvet: Things to like here but they were more specific moments than the overall match. I get a sense that people trained more recently are taught to look at dropdowns as a way to trip an opponent as opposed to just something you do as part of a routine. I see that in watching Velvet at least. There was almost a sense of hierarchy here as she lost the offense quickly against Emi but who knows since the match was so much noise by that point. My favorite thing about Statlander is how she works the boop in and she worked it in by trying it to Nyla and getting crushed with a suplex. Nyla sure isn't protected anymore, that's for sure. She tagged herself in and got clowned pretty quickly. Diamante fed well for everyone. That's her lot. I did like her little taste of tandem stuff with Nyla. Rosa understands what she has with the crowd and is able to milk it at times, so good on her. If these sentences are all random, disconnected thoughts, that's ok; so was the match. Also, unlike the match on Elevation, they didn't use this to hype the TBS tournament nearly as well. Jade promo: The "Very Funny" thing probably didn't work, but it was a good effort. The promo itself worked fine. I like managers. Jade obviously needs one. There's even benefit in her having her own since it makes her stand out more. The company just has a lot. Jade is not the person to put the TBS belt on this year. Archer vs Fernandez: Jake just seemed glad to be there. I would have liked to see his reaction to Archer dragging the guy out. Yeah, Archer is really fun to watch in squashes. He has that Sid/Steiners/Road Warriors vibe. This pretty quickly became the Taz/Kingston show, which was pretty distracting, let me tell you. Kingston's mini promo about how he could hurt Archer was good. Fernandez got to show some fire and he ate that forearm well off the top. This was a blur, but that's ok. I do like how Dark is constantly pushing towards the main shows. Solo vs Kazarian: I got kind of restless midway through this one and got looking up Solo and realized he was in a team with Starks right before Taz told us that. IT was funny because when he was out on the floor, I kind of had Starks vibes out of him, so I can see that. I think there's honestly room for just about everyone on the roster, but I can't tell you what Solo's doing there. He's competent, and you want guys like Kazarian and Sydal to put over talent on the bigger shows, but I don't think Kazarian is any stronger for beating Solo than he would have been beating some talented indy guy. So this was fine, sound, but there wasn't a lot of reason to care. 2.0/Garcia/Serpentico vs Dark Order: The entrance was pretty funny, especially because they set up the moment on the ramp and then paid it off in the ring with the streamers. How can you not enjoy watching Serpentico? The bit where he kept trying to give Parker a thumbs up was so good. The long beatdown on Angels didn't work. I don't know if the crowd was just exhausted and this was late in the taping cycle or he didn't get a hope spot or the Dark Order (including Colt) just weren't working the apron or what. The only one that was really getting reactions was Garcia with his off the charts intensity. 10 is one of the best hot tags in the company with his size and spots. Does Grayson always do that flip over senton to the guy leaning on the apron? That seems like a challenging spot to work into multiple matches but it worked here. The finishing stretch started awkward and then used that awkwardness for humor so good on them. Still, overall this could have worked better.

I want to shatter the illusion of the Orange Cassidy character since it was shattered for me just now. Matt Riddle's tag team partner in another life.

Chris Hero. But the very first idea for that whole storyline was actually all the members of the Pinnacle, instead of Spears/Gage/Juvi/Wardlow/MJF. Whoever had the original idea got half of their wish, just left out FTR from that whole dreadful thing. But yeah, agreed. It might not have been for everyone, but the "deathmatch"/no rules match was awesome. Wasn't a technical masterpiece or anything, but it was great, violent fun. Also - I mean, c'mon guys, they're only saying "shit", it's not like they're out here saying fuck every other sentence. It's hardly cursing or "naughty words". Let's grow up a little.

Finally watched this! Buy In I finally finished last night but really to just watch Suzuki/Dragon again. DEAN was right, it's even better the second time. As much as the strike exchanges get old it works with these two grim fucks going at it. Lee Moriarty is weird but cool, Fish is great, Tay is solid. Anyway, Rampage: Punk/Sydal was really fun for Punk basically solidifying a classic wrestling moveset over his last couple matches: piledriver, neckbreaker, clothesline, bodyslam. He's decided to get these over (again) and it's wonderful. A bit of his wink-wink is coming out (literally) again but it's Punk, he's gonna do that. Sydal looked fluid and crisp as hell. Ruby still has incredible selling and her and Bunny both worked hard, but they were kinda in the death spot after all this, still worked a fine match. The main was just fun as hell. They should have had Dan say JDS is only gonna use open palm strikes like UWF because he would injure someone too bad with his fists. It was really a crowd pleaser even despite the heel win but it worked just fine to get everyone ever. Great show.

When you're fighting a company that's so insecure and petty that they just took great pains to knock a D level wrestling company off a C level streaming service, you take all the hollow victories you can get and laugh all the way.

This is like checking out the App Store and you see Grab That Auto: Crime City.

All I see when Jericho does the Painmaker gimmick is Glen Osbourne. I want to see him work Silvermane on the midcard of a PCW show.