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The deal is definitely done, but I would urge caution in that billion number. I’ve been the most bullish voice here on AEW’s new TV contract for a while now (been saying an increase to about $150mil/year is a given), but a billie sounds wild, even to me. I could see how you could justify that, and how AEW might want that number, with the addition of all the costs of running another weekly TV taping, giving up whatever YT meant to their bottom line, and especially if AEW really is giving up their PPV revenue to do MAX specials (which I’m still not sold on), but a billion still sounds like the kind of number someone would float so that whatever the real number is will feel like a disappointment (even though it will still be huge and a dagger in the heart of naysayers). If that number turns out to be real, we should unban @A_K on the condition that he comes back and eats the biggest plate of shit imaginable. And then immediately ban him again.

Being a child of the 90s, I had an elaborate Beanie Baby wrestling promotion. My younger brother copied me, and of course we eventually had to some super shows. He learned an early lesson about being careful which promoters you worked with as his beanies never went over in a meaningful match.

Eventually we will not be but today is not that day

I'll be at the show tonight! Cassidy vs Garcia is going to rule, the six man will be fun and I like that Tony K knows that Detroit likes cage matches and blood. AEW RULES THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD~!!!!!!

Cheers, nine-brains! I can tell that comes from the bottom of one of your three hearts. This is indeed the first time I have felt properly stoked for AEW since the ROH PPV. So many intriguing, unanswered questions! - Cage Match Omega vs Moxley: Will Mox bleed? Will Kenny gesture? Can Kenny hit a gesture so extreme that it busts Mox open? -Double Jeopardy Rey Fenix vs Claudio: Will Rey fly? Will Claudio throw a mean European uppercut? Will Claudio nail an uppercut while Fenix is flying? -International Title Orange Cassidy vs Daniel Garcia Will Orange do sunglasses and pockets stuff? Will noted sports entertainer Daniel Garcia be forced to wrestle, and if so how will the crowd respond? - NHB Anna JAS vs Julia Hart: How will Anna counter Julia's vaunted Big Hat Game? Will either lady out-bleed Mox? -World Trios Title Open House Match House of Black vs Best Friends/Bandido: Will this be fully awesome or just kind of awesome? I am hoping for "fully." I really want Bandido to pull off an insane strength spot in this one, like doing a massively delayed vertical on one of the big spooky dudes. I kind of expect Mox to lose a pint of blood, Garcia to lose his cool, and me to lose my shit.

The bit with “I’m so tired, Renee” “Me too, bud” was so simple and perfect.

This ruled. We’re back on track fellas. Christian Cage absolute nuclear heat. What a legend.

I just love the idea that if you thrust a man into Dax Harwood's crotch, he'll piledrive him by instinct. It's a natural reflex!

That was a hell of a show. By the way, it's soda, not pop.

It feels like AEW is about to get exciting again, which is a wave they rode for almost three years before the recent lull. Fingers crossed that they can keep it hot between now and All Out.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned here is Dean was unique in the online fan world in that he really only cared about the in-ring. "You gotta watch the matches, daddy" was something he would always say. He seemed a bit perplexed (and this was 20 years ago even) that fans spent so much time & energy caring, reading about, discussing, and analyzing backstage news or even business trends/#'s. He cared about the matches themselves, did you entertain him in the ring. He could have cared less about meeting a wrestler, getting an autograph, whether anything popped a rating, whatever. There was something so refreshing pure about his approach.

That was a full effort show, they held nothing back on that one. Almost feels like a soft reboot - new show about to be announced, Miro back, Thunder Rosa back-ish probably, Punk coming back. BCC acting as a real faction and running amuck. Great show, very little downtime, just straight wrasslin. Their best Dynamite in recent memory, this is what they are good at, keeping doing that.

Now THAT was a peak AEW show right there. Love the swerve at the end, love the violence throughout the night. Just a spectacular show top to bottom. ALSO, MIRO IS BACK!

Hear me out.......The DEAN Memorial Greatest Three Way Matches Of All Time Thread.

Rumblings that the AEW new TV deal has already been signed and it's $1b over 5 years.

I hope TK has a good match booked for him, really getting into making plans for Nigel.

Yeah, I think we're done here. Wrong time to pull this shit. Wrong fucking time.

Nothing kills the mood quicker than someone posting Jim fucking Cornette shtick.

See, Joe, the numbers don’t lie, and they spell disaster for you at Sacrifice.

FYI, I believe the mods have asked people to no longer use that term, as it is generally considered a slur.

If the collective sphincters of Pete, Phil and all the rest wouldn't pucker at the thought: The DeanVDVR 500.

We start right away with a hot matchup and a HOT crowd! Claudio is the strongest guy in the company, an excellent pro wrestler, oh and also the best base in the company! Rey Fenix feels the heat of the presence of Bandido, Komander, and HjVikingo and pulls out some extra crazy lucha flying! Couple of minor botches but covered very smoothly. The Claudio press catch spot in the video above was one of the most impressive feats of strength I’ve seen in a wrestling match. Fantastic match and looking forward to BCC/LB. Whoa, it’s Miro! The FTR-Triple J-Briscoe segment was so delightfully 80s southern, I loved it. I hate that I don’t hate Jarrett. Jericho with the legal documents is old school. Roderick Strong! It’s a twist, he ALSO has legal documents! Renee is delighted! I’m psyched for Strong-Jericho falls count anywhere live in Austin! Renee putting in the work, and HEY IT’S THUNDER BAE! What is happening? Are we headed for a Collision? Tony Khan announces that he’s going to have a huge announcement in Austin! I agree Taz, I wonder what it could be? Orange Cassidy, currently the best wrestler in the world, against Das Wunderbro Daniel Garcia. They start with a Freaky Friday and a grappling sequence! The announcers do an amazing job in this match putting over the cumulative damage that OC has suffered during this run, and noting how Garcia is targeting all of it. OC takes a hellacious beating, I’m totally bought in that he’s finally just had too much and then FLASH PIN! OC survives, but at what cost? Who will it be? I don’t think it’ll be Kyle Fletcher, but who knows? Christian gets Nova (the exploding star, not the wrestler who invented everything) level heat. I really wanted Brock Anderson to run out and get merc’d by Luchasaurus. Julia has new gear, likely to prevent another wardrobe malfunction/near miss although the g-string back with the black tights was a weird look. Anna jumps her in the aisle! It’s a brawl with a couple of nasty moves and generally decently stiff, but nothing really special. They’re working on it and they’ll get better. Julia with a clean win and no mist was a surprise. Some comedy backstage with OC and the Best Amigos. Not sure whether the “no witches” was ad-lib. Bandido gets to do some great stuff, especially with Malakai. More stiffness. Brody King is a fucking beast and I love watching him wrestle. The darker arena is interesting and different, I think I like it but maybe not the constant flashing cinders. Chuck is your designated pin taker. Solid, but that’s about it. Main started a little rough because again I just can’t buy the Bucks and their super kick run-ins as brawlers. Once Mox and Omega get in the ring we move almost immediately to glorious wrestling violence. Some really nasty stuff with the barbed wire chair, both guys get sliced up bad on their backs. The turnbuckle hook in the mouth got me chanting “you sick fuck” at home. And then glass made me wince, even though it was sugar glass that didn’t do much of anything. As I said above, I was disappointed about the lack of cage and then they broke through and I legit bought for about 30 seconds that was an accident and that Omega was badly injured. As for the shocking turn, I’m waiting to see where it leads. Just a great show top to bottom, definitely felt like a reboot. AEW RULES THE FUCKING WORLD~!

Guys, I'm having a hard time deciding if Orange Cassidy or John Moxley rules the motherfucking world more.

I know I am a ridiculous person because Mark Briscoe/JD Drake is the thing that's making me consider subscribing to ROH.

No no no, people will think AEW has acquired WBD. In a gesture of corporate synergy, Tony will refer to this as a “reverse viking.”

Kenny does the finger-gun and Mox suffers stigmata

admonishingly spraying water bottle No! Just Max!

Since (HBO)Max is probably my most-used streaming service already, I'm going to be so happy if I can watch AEW PPVs (or whatever they're called now) for "free" on there. Is that a thing that might happen with this new deal?

IF they wanted to run back Danielson vs Nigel at All Out (as opposed to Danielson vs ZSJ for instance), then I'd hope that instead of making it celebratory, they played this out almost the exact same way, with Danielson wrestling carefully so as not to hurt Nigel and then Nigel turning on a dime and being a complete bastard by taking advantage of it in the most blatant, shameless way imaginable.

With you! I was actually just thinking, maybe 3-4 more matches with some notably missing faces and this is easily a $50 card.

Well, shit. Now if the match doesn't open with Kenny doing his dramatic point and Mox's forehead spontaneously spurting blood, I'll be disappointed. Am I the only one way more excited for this card than the PPV?

This breaks my heart! May he rest in peace. I loved his reviews, his passion was so endearing. The majority of my contributions to this site is just uploading matches for the internet match threads and it was mostly because I wanted to see his thoughts on them.

It also seems like the number being floated because that was WWE's Peacock deal. Which I mean... not a bad one to mirror considering recent inflation, and if you need to give up PPV shares, but I dunno about the legitimacy. We'll see. That said, said ex-poster is probably due a crow sandwich either way.

Don’t know if anyone here is a fan of the show but Behind the Bastards (premised on discussing the lives of the worst people of all time) is beginning a series about Vince McMahon next week. I’m sure it’ll be a lot of stuff we’ve heard before and Robert is likely to make a few errors on account of not being a wrestling fan AFAIK, but it should be something to listen to outsiders hearing this all for the first time. I think the longest series to date is Kissinger at six episodes. Not sure Vince has the juice to get there, but the wording of the tweet makes me suspect 3+ episodes is possible.

they will go the Jaws route and release Meg 3-D

Just saw this. All I can say is dammit.

Despite everything, this was still the spot of the night. Now delivered DIRECTLY TO YOUR FACE

I'm not doing this every day. Probably more like once/twice a week. But today I was excited about what the Ultra Randomizer 6000 put in front of me. THE WORKHORSEMEN Today we're looking at The Workhorsemen, who I believe I’ve seen exactly one time, when they got beat up by Danielson and Moxley. Let’s see how they do when they wrestle some non-superstars. Match 1 vs. Varsity Blonds, Dark Ep. 141 There’s something kind of hilarious about a guy having “Henry” painted on the ass of his pants. Like it’s not my first choice for bad ass punk name. JD Drake gets Pillman Jr. in the corner to work him over and literally yells “I hate you.” Between punches and chops. Again, fucking hilarious. I like talking shit, but “I hate you!” feels like something a child would say to his parents when they get him a nice parka instead of the Sega Genesis he put at the top of his fucking Christmas List. Just this one time, come through for me mom and dad. Mortal Kombat 2 is coming out! Drake is vocal in a tactical way, yelling for Anthony Henry to throw a cheeky cheap shot during an Irish whip. I’m big on seeing tactics. I want to see that there’s a plan, not just you do a move and the I do a move. They work over Pillman some more, with Henry taunting Griff Garrison to make a tag, while stepping on Pillman’s hand. Fun stuff, but, I gotta say Pillman isn’t coming through on the “face in peril” act. There’s just no energy in the bumps or selling. When he gets dropped he just kinda lays there like he’s tired more than he’s in pain. Drake fucking says “IT’S VADER TIME!” before missing the Vader Splash, and I realize this guy is if your uncle became a wrestler. I remember in the late 90’s my uncle was obsessed with picking people up for the Lex Luger Torture Rack. And he’d just sneak up behind you and yell “LUGER!” and pick you up. That’s JD Drake. He’s the youngest sibling of your aunts and uncles and he wants to prove he’s tough. I have no idea why he’s with Anthony Henry. Like maybe they were best friends in grade school, went down two different paths, and then ran into each other decades later at the pool hall. Realized life didn’t turn out the way they hoped and formed a tag team. I should also say, it’s kinda clear that they’re running this match in a big way too. There’s one point where JD Drake cuts off Pillman in a “Hey, we’re setting up the finish gtfo,” kinda way, not in a “cutting you off to get heat” kinda way. They, of course, put over the blondes, who are… not my favorite. Match 2 vs. Oliver Sawyer & Manny Lo, Dark Ep 159 Fuck yeah MATCHING GEAR. So much better. They start working over Manny Lo first, and I think I love Anthony Henry smugly taunting partners. It’s really sleazy. They squash these kids getting over their spots and offense, which is fun. All their shit looks solid. Drake does a cannonball into the corner and he gets a lot of height on it so he bounces off the middle and top rope. It just looks different than what, say Kevin Owens does. Post match they do a little promo to try and get over their blue collar work ethic. There is a comical spot where they go to do their catch phrase “WE’RE GONNA PUNCH IN… AND KNOCK OUT… THE WORKHORSEMEN.” and they’re not totally in sync with it. Like you can see Anthony Henry looking at Drake like “We’re gonna do that phrase we talked about earlier right?” And Drake kind of begrudgingly goes along with it. It’s actually kind of endearing. Match 3 vs. The Hughes Brothers, Dark Ep. 176 Booo 17 episodes later and Anthony Henry is back in his anarchist “Henry” tights and Drake has switched to black long tights. I liked the blue undies. Also Drake’s boots are terrible. HOLD UP WAIT A MINUTE. Excalibur just said the Hughes Brothers are 2nd generation wrestlers. Are we saying they’re the sons of Mr. Hughes?!?! Could be awesome or awful, let's find out! Drake lets the brothers get some shine in, bumping around for their armdrags and shit. Nothing special. At one point one of the brothers gets a little lost, and grabs a headlock so Drake can tell him what to do next. I just realized that JD Drake’s wrestling singlet is a different shade of black(it’s more purple) than the pants he’s wearing, and both are different than they vinyl boots he’s working. I can’t even with this guy. They go for the double tag spot and Anthony has to tell which ever brother he’s in the ring with to go make a tag so the spot works. Honestly you get the impression the whole match that this is a chore with them and they’re kinda going through the motions. Even Anthony Henry’s soccer kick to the back is half-hearted. They do a couple signature moves and clock out of this one. Match 4 vs. Orange Cassidy & Danhausen, Dark Ep. 185 …… NEW GEAR AGAIN! So shiny so clean. The opening bit is Henry and OC doing a bunch of quick counters. Pretty much your standard Orange Cassidy armdrag opening gambit. Danhausen gets tagged in and calls for JD Drake. They do some tests of strength as Danhausen is delisional about his physical prowess, and we get another “I hate you” from Drake. Never stop. Cassidy and ‘hausen do a cutesy little turnbuckle clothesline spot that ends with the ever popular OC Hands in the Pocket. Drake doesn’t let the people celebrate long, and cuts it off, following it up with a Hands in the Singlet taunt. This the main event of the show so the Workhorsemen get to be in control for an extended period of time, and they just work really well together. Drake is really nimble for a guy his size too, he definitely stands out switching between lumbering big man stuff and doing more dexterous fare like a slingshot senton. I think my favorite move he did was a tossing Orange Cassidy into the ropes while they were outside, and then just clubbing the shit out of him as he came down. There’s a good synergy to the team, as Drake has his own style, updating Bam Bam Bigelow with some modern athleticism, and Henry is kinda your prototypical indie guy from 2007-20?? that can do the fast pace pseudo lucha exchanges. Makes the team pretty versatile as they can work with probably anyone. Fun match. Match 5 vs. The Acclaimed, Dark Secial 03/04/2023 Whew they’re keeping the new gear. I’m glad. It looks like they invested in it…. but what’s this? Their jumbotron video has them in their old stuff? Gotta update those headshots guys. When the Acclaimed wrestle it feels like a party that is “this” close to getting out of control. There are a couple of miscues in this one, sadly, both involved typical Workhorsemen spots that the Acclaimed seemingly didn’t get the memo on. The first was the Russian Leg Sweep/Big Boot combo, that Max Caster needed to counter a little differently for the result to make sense. The other was the spot Drake did to Orange Cassidy in the last match the I loved, but instead of bouncing off the ropes – Anthony Bowen flew into the ring, and then had to crawl over to get punched in the face. Both teams probably have a much better match than this one in them. FINAL THOUGHTS I like these guys enough. If they had a match I wouldn’t skip it, and if they wrestled a team I liked I’d probably seek it out. Is there an FTR match? However, there are some moments where you can see their energy drop if shit goes side ways, and it lingers for a while. Something that a live performer really has to work out. Good recommendation.

A billion does seem like a metric ton, BUT with the writers strike going on I can absolutely see the appeal of a wrestling show that doesn't have any writers. You don't have to worry about your content at all or it falling off. Couple that with Max involvement. Maybe 500 million seems a little more reasonable, but I can absolutely see why they would get such an influx of money.

Good look, appreciate the check - meant nothing by it! Meaningless highspots, no psychology. Blackie, now there's a bear who could work

Adam Priest is really, really good. But you can really tell who his favourite wrestler is very easily. He might as well nickname himself “The Alabama Crippler”. Wheeler Yuta and Tracy Williams were a regular tag team for a while. Their team name was Hot Wheels. Yuta and Lee Moriarty, meanwhile, were collectively known as Rush Hour.

So, in terms of an AEW graphic, would a TV deal be a “Tony Khan has a super, mega, grandiose, monstrous announcement this week on Dynamite!”?

You combine Dynamite and Thursday's ROH and you get pretty much the perfect AEW A show - C show experience, actually.

While the source is clearly questionable, I don't have any doubt a new deal has been agreed to. We all know about the new Saturday show and AEW wouldn't pull their shows off Youtube unless there was a new deal that said all their content had to be on Warner properties. Plus the rumors related to AEW events being on Max. Way too much smoke for there not to be fire, I assume we'll find out next Wednesday.

The usual dirtsheet vanguard posting moneybags and saying dedicated anti-AEW weirdos will be writhing in pain all week. WBD upfronts are on the 17th, I think. This is cynical but I bet the writer's strike helped.

Goddammit I wish Glenn Shadix was still alive

If anyone hasn’t seen this match or even hasn’t seen it in years, this Nigel vs Danielson match is a great use of half an hour:

More importantly, will Catherine O Hara be in it?

I preferred playing with the AWA Remco figures as a kid because they were the same height scale as the He-Man/Masters of the Universe line so I could run He-Man/Fabulous Ones vs Skeletor/Road Warriors and Man At Arms (w/Teela) vs Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) among other matches