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I think the TV channels wanted an extra hour now and again. It gives the people who like to watch wrestling a few more matches to watch and gives everyone else something else to bitch about apparently.

Lol, it is now a tradition when I see @John E. Dynamite talk CMLL, my son and I spend some time watching lucha libre. Saw Satanico on the thumbnail, so I’m excited. edit: the legend match is pretty fun!

Floor seats tend to be the worst in the building if you aren’t in the first two rows. I’d rather have 3rd row lower level than 3rd row floor. Then you can see all the action. And it’s cheaper, amazingly.

The overwhelming majority of your posts, including those that are in topics solely about WWE, involve your constantly boiled-over, obsessive hatred of Tony Khan. Your crypto-dingus back-patting and performative self-aggrandizing has devolved into something lower than shtick. You are the closest thing this board has to a full-blown tribalist Twitter troll and you only emerge from your cave of misery when you have a rating or momentary critical consensus to use to dog on AEW. When the news cycle doesn't benefit your narrative you hide from this board for months on end. You contribute nothing positive. Nobody likes you. On a positive note, because wrestling is good and I enjoy talking about good wrestling, my common-law has taken a liking to Sawyer Wreck. I think she's just into tall chicks but that's a fair enough reason. Now that NJPW is hot I'll probably swap my IWTV sub out for a NJPW World renewal, so if anybody has a Sawyer match, deathmatches included, I'm taking recommendations until the end of the month.

Literally everyone on the board wants Lethal Lottery/Battle Bowl. The strength of the AEW Roster is in the weird potential matchups and interactions. The weakness is that we can never have enough. The occasional Deadly Draw is the solution.

Tv specials need more rhyming names instead of alliterations. More Quake by the Lake and less Battle of the Belts. Get your shit together Tony!!!

NJPW Sakura Genesis 2023 spoiler but relevant to here:

I think she’s learning things, but her processing and incorporating of those things is slow because she doesn’t get to practice in real contexts. When she doesn’t have a squash, you can see her looking like a junior high school kid in a play, reciting lines instead of being a character speaking them. Stopping and looking for where their next mark is. I’m not sure if she had done any wrestling training prior to being signed and on TV, but one benefit about coming up through indies is that you learn to bump and sell and work with your opponent before you learn to do big moves. She did show some improvement, if I recall correctly she had a surprisingly decent match with Anna Jay. But since then she’s hit another wall and reverted to mostly squashes where she makes her opponents look like shit. She had a glorified squash with Athena, which was a fantastic learning opportunity. Her matches with Willow are competitive in the sense that Willow gets to hit one big move and get a flash near-fall before the kip-up, pump kick, Jaded.

The initial idea seemed like a way to fill out the yearly schedule of Special Events (PPV, PLE) between three month PPV intervals. Ultimately tho it was an hour show on an off night to appease a network 'want' which was always gonna be a tough thing to book as far as: Do you want to air your built up matches on a 1 hour Saturday Night show with a much smaller portion of the audience? Some will argue that they've never really booked them well enough to draw, but I think they just properly forecasted the viewership. At this point the show is established enough that anybody expecting a version of the Clash or the Main angles to play out is the one at fault. I do like the idea of experimenting with ideas on a show like this. Bring on the Battle Bowl! I'd also suggest something less complex as taking the opportunity to do an All Women's show.

There’s really no need for Battle of the Belts/Clash of the Champions/SNME anymore. Those shows are from a bygone era where most WWF/Crockett TV was all squashes and name guy vs name guy was a treat to see on free tv. Now Dynamite gives you a Clash quality show every week. It’s redundant. Unless you’re using your specials to do something different format-wise, like a Battlebowl, round robin, etc., there’s no use for it.

I feel like JR has no idea how to call non Divas womens wrestling

I went for it, and I don't regret it. I only watched until the women's match so far, and I liked that a lot. Mercedes can definitely hang pretty well, and it just makes me want to subscribe to Stardom World now, lol! I'll watch the rest tomorrow and Monday. Thanks guys.

Got a bonus from work a while back and decided to splurge on the AEW crate, especially given the names they said would be included in the first box. Just got it today and I’m pleased with it. It’s definitely a great value, the two shirts alone would cost more than the cost of the quarterly crate. Couple of things I don’t want or need that I can trade or give away.

If not Taya at this point, then who? I really like Jade, but she is in desperate need of something new and the belt is becoming a bit of an albatross around her neck. Unless Stat is coming back right away, as in like the next few weeks, there's no reason to hold off any longer. I love Stat but she's had shit luck with injuries and if having her beat Jade is what is keeping everything in a holding pattern then I'm sorry, but I think you need to move on. Stat can get over on her own and if she's healthy I have no doubt she will win one of the belts at some point, she doesn't necessarily need to be the one to beat Jade.

I'm sure you've sat at the floor level prior to know, but I wanted to mention after seeing your message, the Dynamite I saw here in Toronto made clear to me that I would never choose to buy floor seats over pretty much anywhere - moderately sized nosebleeds included. The sightlines on the floor are terrible, and I wasn't that far back. Ppl stand, you might get a Sign Guy Doofus, even seated sometimes you'll get some big dude that's really hard to see passed. We got two nights here with a separate Rampage, and on the second night I switched from a floor seat to lower level and was completely relieved of all my troubles. All that said, I'd still rather go than not, and regardless of the sightlines, the atmosphere here in Toronto was unreal and worth the troubles.

I thought Anna/Julia was awesome. Felt like we got a little bit of the old babyface Anna back briefly by default. Thought Julia looked the best I've seen her look overall. Loved her whole presentation in the post-match, singing along to her epic theme. And then her expression and entire mood changes when she's cut off by Orange's music was just *perfect*. Brian Cage killing Darby was nuts. Also dug Hook/Ethan a lot, hadn't realized it would be FTW RULES until it was time to start. Another great Orange defense. Really liked Jade/Billie. Glad it wasn't a total squash, thought Billie got to look great. Honestly more in to that than the Jade/Taya feud at the moment. Main event finish was awesome, beautiful counter to the Dirt Sheet Driver looked absolutely killer.

Very short match below from AJPW years ago, Triple Crown Champion Jun Akiyama vs Masa Funaki from 8-26-12, the match is a hybrid of 90's shoot Pancrase style and the Royal Road....

The "jezebel" comments really pissed me off - it's so lazy to just equate all heel women to that because you don't know the storylines

Tickets confirmed! I'm going to Dynamite in Pittsburgh on the 19th

This is why so many people get away with malicious actions. There is a book called Racism Without Racists that breaks down how we pretty much all recognize racism, but calling someone a racist is frowned upon, so we never actually hold anybody accountable for their racism. We sit around wondering if this person who did something blatantly racist is a racist in their heart instead of actually addressing their actions. And then start all over again when someone inevitably does the exact same thing. They put photos of fucking Auschwitz into a fucking wrestling vignette, it doesn't matter if it was malicious or stupid. It is a completely inappropriate thing to do, and we probably shouldn't give the fucking WWE of all people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to malfeasance.

It wouldn't be an All in if Meltzer wasn't betting low on attendance figures

She's five-foot-ten. She's hardly stunted.

I swear the Ravens offseason has been them reading this board and saying, "Wait until @supremebve and @LF2 see this shit, they'll never stop arguing."

All Out in Chicago. Build it between now and then.

They could've easily done more to build up these shows and make them a bigger deal. They simply did nothing to do that.

OH BOY The Arena Coliseo Torneo Cibernatico. THIS ONE! This one, this one, this one. This whole show was so good. For those who don't know, Arena Coliseo is the 5,000 seat Korakuen of Mexico City and it deserved a celebration like this. https://youtu.be/LTVs3yCMujo?t=2715 I don't necessarily prefer a big multi-man mess of desperate rookies on a big show. But when it works, when *anything* works this well, I get taken back to the good old days when I was making my first VHS purchases, Japanese indie tournaments with dudes I didn't even realize were legends and CHIKARA ciberneticos that featured future WWE and AEW champions going toe-to-toe with effervescent flashes in their funny little pans. Just a full-force blasting of spectacular shit and engaging performers that I barely know a thing about. A lu-charcuterie plate, if you wheel. It's fresh. It's fun. It makes you wonder where these guys are gonna end up. Neon is the standout babyface for my money. Crixus is BIG and has a high ceiling. Vaquero Jr. is the no-mask charisma dude for sure. The major promotions' rosters are so well-eatablished these days, so this one really hit. This is sort of a sequel to the Mexico City School vs. Guadalajara School Cibernetico from some weeks ago that's also up on CMLL's YouTube channel. That got some votes, and this is better. PIMP SHILL PIMP SHILL

Thanks for the heads up! I'm actually going with my bro in law and nephews and it's their first show....hopefully TK gives us a banger! I think I'm in section 125? Or 124?

The current one is the original one, the one that was Sin Cara in WWE and used to be Caristico. The other one, the brother of Rush and Dragon Lee, is now Dralistico.

There is not a single move that makes me worry about injury more than his double foot stomp. I just don't see how you can keep doing that move so perfectly that you never crack your opponents ribs, or sprain an ankle, blow out a knee, or any number of other things.

It's interesting that you make a call for bigger matches and then request Kip-OC. I think you ought to be fairly compensated for your reasonable request. You answer your own call on the FTR-Gunns, but the answer is more definitelively no, you don't want to do it in that timeslot. Rampage's numbers range where they range, and a 2 hour version with hour 2 being named something else doesn't make a huge difference. All that said, building up matches and properly promoting them on the Wednesday shows would certainly better benefit the Friday Night show. Properly promoting in the sense of not having a MicroMachines Ad(d) and especially not one annoyingly distract over your Dynamite Main Event. Dynamite could really benefit from a half hour or hour pre and post show. It could give them an opportunity to sell the matches properly. And Warner seems to want to hold the AEW audience. Proper announcement of matches, promos and video packages are things this company has always overlooked. They do a nice job with the Road TOs, but so few ppl see those. I like to think whatever the Saturday show is will use that time to sell some of the Wednesday, maybe even Friday, sizzle, but I'm not counting on it being just more crammed TV. Lastly, AEW could really benefit from having more mid to lower card rematches from Youtube on Rampage. And on all their shows. They tried this with Matt Sydal and Dante Martin, which felt like it moderately worked. Match 1 on Youtube with an attempt to create some word of mouth. Match 2 on Rampage. With limited TV time available, it seems to make a lot of sense to try something with the mid and lower card guys on youtube. It might not be a huge boost for just one specific match, I mean Dante-Sydal is not a 'Main Event in any arena in the world', but maybe a few ppl would start to see the pattern and spread some word of mouth on some of the more intriguing match-ups. More effort to create synergy with the lesser watched programming seems like a potential benefit that's at least worth a try.

Where are your seats? Me and my buddy haven't bought our tickets yet because they keep coming down in price but we're thinking of doing floor since it's about the same as lower bowl. Last year I waited until the day before and got 5th row for less than face haha. If you're planning on grabbing typical wrestling fan food beforehand I definitely recommend fuel & fuddle or stack'd. Stack'd has better burgers and is a bit cheaper (think 5 guys but way more options and less grease) but Fuel has a better beer list. Getting a table can be a gamble so I usually order takeout and eat at the Barco building benches across the street if the weather permits. I've spent a lot of time in the area so if you need help finding a place to park or something like that just Holla.

Trash Pandas manager Tungsten Arm O'Doyle III had no comment.

So yeah, Izzy is a huge star after tonight. Even bigger than he was.

What I loved about the ladies was they did a legit 3 way with no powdering until the very last near falls. Zack v Shota was a masterful 14 minutes. Perfect dance partners and convincing near falls. Absolutely adored this match. Tag titles was heated, stiff and built to a crescendo. Perfect time for a switch and a very deserving team who were clearly overcome with how far they have come. Just a tremendous main event. Nothing overdone, perfectly sold, rabid crowd and blinding home stretch. NJPW needed to pull the trigger on a new top guy and it couldn’t have been done better.

Kevin Owens is billed at 6 feet tall, so by that scale, I think you could bill Owen Owens at 6'5" or 6'6" right now.

I think I'm with you on the whole both sides thing because my answer is: actually, yes - on a properly and heavily hyped, Clash or SNME-level or above card. This should have been a loaded show with ads running throughout the NCAA tournament on all the Turner networks. I almost wonder if they have audience data data to show that there's no way they can do above X number no matter who they put on the card - or maybe some of the bigger stars are avoiding being on the show to the best of their power/ability knowing it won't draw over X, like a reverse version of how Hogan would go away during the playoffs - you get a little plausible deniability to say 'Of course the show did a bad # without Moxley, Omega, Cole, Wardlow, MJF, Jericho, Sting, Christian....' Or perhaps I'm overthinking it, and they're just crappy cards.

I guess we're now in the spoiler "gray area" but, oh well...

AEW has completely and utterly given up on Battle of the Belts. These are throwaway cards.

Thoughts on Gangsta's Paradise Tony Stetson dressed up in a Philadelphia Flyers outfit as the Broad Street Bully, but the fans thought he was pandering to them and booed him. The WWF must have loved the idea, as they dressed up Wild Bill Irwin as The Goon one year later. The Dudley Boyz shuffled their lineup, with Dudley Dudley and Dances with Dudley in the ring and Chubby Dudley and the injured Big Dick Dudley on the floor. JT Smith lost his balance, fell off the top rope and put himself through a table, causing him to get counted out against Hack Meyers. Smith also thought he was Italian. The Steiners lost a six-man to the Eliminators when their partner, Taz, had a neck injury and got pinned by Jason. Raven & Richards defended the tag team belts in a dog collar match against the Pitbulls, who would have to break up if they lost. This match was more about tables, as they led to Raven's win in the first fall and the Pitbulls' in the second. Pitbull 2 left with an injury, Tommy Dreamer took his place and pinned Raven to win the belts. Then professional wet blanket Bill Alfonzo came out and said it didn't count. This match was destined for a super-happy ending, though, as 911 finally chokeslammed Fonzie, and Pitbull 2 returned from his injury, and the Pitbulls won the belts. Rey Misterio Jr. fits into whatever promotion or decade in which he wrestles. Psicosis dove through the ropes and Rey Jr. blasted him with a chair. Fans: "ECW! ECW!" Mikey Whipwreck is the MVP. He dressed up as Public Enemy and proved himself before the match by swiping ring announcer Bob Artese's wallet and watch. He capped off the night by pinning The Sandman to win the six-man cage match. Mikey had progressed from overmatched joke to top contender to the ECW title.

Given that I'm not aware of this, I'm guessing it's not a dwarf GUNTHER. "Arriba, peasants!"

Playing catch up. Hook vs Page really worked. This has been a great series of matches for Hook between the house show where he took a lot of offense, a TV match with some BS, and now a TV brawl around the arena. Just getting his reps in against a game opponent with size and experience. This moved briskly, the shots all looked good, they built to a few big spots and reversals. Good showing for the kid. 8 man was brisk and fun. Just guys getting spots in. 2.0 gave them every chance to be sports entertainers but they weren't going to play the fool for them either. I do hope we get a ten man tag with Keith Lee/Adam Cole/Gunn/Acclaimed vs Jericho/Menard/Parker/Garcia/Hager before all of this is done though. I have to rewatch Darby vs Moriarty but I really liked what I saw, just a complete match starting with matwork and ending with bombs and finishing stretch counters with Big Bill doing his part in the middle. Loved the Reinera by Moriarty and the back focus in general. Darby having a bruised back made the Cage bump look all the more gnarly. Can you imagine a Swerve/Tully pairing? Feels weird to put him up against Darby right now when the story of the month are the 3 pillars getting wins against lower tiered guys. It's a little frustrating to see people surprised by the Julia character when we've been seeing her for months. I didn't love that she did the front handspring (which she hasn't done in her squshes). I though the Queenslayer/Heartless stuff towards the end was solid. Nothing was egregious certainly (Julia should have given her another second to square up before the moonsault press). It was better than Anna's match against Britt, but a heel vs heel match is a bit of a tough sell overall. I'd like to see Hayter vs Julia. Really liked Cassidy vs Dralistico. I know someone like @Greggulatorprobably isn't familiar with Dralistico but the deal was that he was given the Mistico gimmick after Mistico went to WWE. That meant following the most naturally charismatic tecnico of the 21st century in Mexico, basically, and while he could never live up to that, it meant working with a full face mask and trying to figure out how to match that physical charisma, while also generating a deep chip on his shoulder for the crowd never really getting behind him. You saw all of that in this match. The full mask means that he has to move differently than most wrestlers in order to emote and that was really perfect against Cassidy's antics. I love that Cassidy will go through so much work to just get the hands in the pocket deal. It's working so hard to not work hard at all and that's what finally blows the mind of his opponent and breaks him. I thought it lost a little focus after the dive onto the people outside but it came back together for a pretty exciting finish. Back to Gregg again, but the submission Dralistico put on Cassidy was La Mistica, which was basically instant death in Mexico, second only to Atlantis' drop-to-his-knees Atlantida, so Cassidy selling it like it was the worst thing in the world when he's usually so nonchalant was completely appropriate and just a sign that he really gets who he was in with and how to respect and highlight him. And that's as far as I got. Will hit the last two matches later. But in general, this is the sort of AEW I love. Fun match ups that you wouldn't have predicted, that you didn't know you wanted, some fresh talent trying to figure things out in the ring, some international talent up against guys extremely confident in their acts. A lot of wrestling for wrestling's sake but nothing that feels like killing time; instead it feels like celebrating the joy and variety and diversity of what matches can look like.

AEW’s biggest money match is MJF vs. OC. MJF trying to deal with OC’s aloofness would be magic.

Is it frustrating or just a clear understanding that so few, even here, watch the Youtube shows? Yeah, she should never do the awful handspring bullshit. Who's responsible for influencing all the ppl trying their own take? Or better question, is there anybody that actually does it well? Somebody in Stardom perhaps?

I love how Brandon Cutler was all YOU HAVE TO STAND UP AGAINST BULLIES~! and terrified Michael Nakazawa was just staring into the void as the void stared into him.

Rhea and Charlotte was really good but I'd have it as the 4th best match on the card. I don't really do star ratings, to me what takes it down a bit is the few opening sequences where there wasn't much going on and it wasn't a slow burn, there just wasn't much that played into the later sequences. Gunther vs. Sheamus vs. McIntyre is easily the best worked match and I typically don't like triple threats but they found a way to keep everyone involved. From a storytelling perspective, the two main events were off the charts awesome. I know a lot of people have a problem with the finish to Roman and Cody but man what a fucking awesome match from beginning to end. Anyone who says "just another Roman match" probably didn't watch the full 36 minutes of greatness these two put on. So many memorable moments and the crowd is on it's FEET the entire time.

That was a very enjoyable two hours. My mark out moment of the night was Julia Hart's black mist. What can I say? I've always had a thing for spooky, goth chicks.

And when I slam him, brother, and the earth opens up, from Hamburg to Leipzig, brother, thank God Count Von Stauffenberg's a Hulkamaniac, he's gonna latch his family on to die Grosserarmen in die Welt und in Sicherheit schwimmen, Brüder, an dem Bauch auf Das Hülkster.

It’s nice to see a pro athlete that wants to walk away at that age (he’ll be 31). It’s much better to retire with millions and live a healthy and fulfilling life than to play forever, and have permanent injuries. Good on Tyreek, and I hope your Dolphins get him a second ring.

Aww man that Gunns entrance with Many Man was too damn good to last one match