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now that's a tease to call 1-900-909-9900 if ever I heard one

Nana dancing is a highlight of every single AEW show.

Max got the crowd to boo the idea of him having to wrestle and defend his title. He’s at the height of his powers.

Chin up Tits out And watch for the shooooooe!

This is soooooo cute. Love Christian breaking character for her at the end.

Prince Nana being on a nationally-televised promotion in 2023 makes me very happy. I always think how funny it would be to talk to an ROH fan from like 2006 and tell them what's going on in wrestling right now. "Roderick Strong is being heavily featured in a major program right now, and it's because of his character work!"

Roddy’s whole persona works for me because Bennett and Taven are so committed to the bit. They may never be anything higher than challengers for the ROH tag or trios titles, but their characters definitely have a place on Dynamite or Collision. The shirts, overacting on showing concern, rushing to put the neck brace on Roddy, etc. were killing me. It’s so good. Swerve continues to be at the top of the lower A tier heels. Christian is probably the top of the A tier, so that’s good company for him to be in. And challenging Hangman is a cool direction to go in. I don’t think Swerve is going to win that feud, but I also don’t think he needs to. Hangman having a new fill in Swerve works for me.

You gotta one-up him. "Pfft, you believe Punk got fired?"

Luke Harper and Mike Shaw have to be up there for guys who could pass as Southerners (looks-wise) who were practically Canadians (Harper from Rochester and Mike Shaw from the Upper Peninsula) Ronnie Garvin would be the king of "Guys who could pass as Southerners but were actually Canadians" list

Since Mox is on kind of his own chaotic neutral plane, Samoa Joe, Christian, Swerve and Ricky Starks are the top heels in the company. That’s like 4 of my top 5 dudes. It’s awesome.

Winning Time vibes. Synergy!

AEW rules the motherfucking world?

"Chin up, tits out, and watch for the shoe." I can't believe Toni Storm has been hiding her weirdo light under a bushel for so long

THE CUTEST PUPPY IN THE HISTORY OF DOGS!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://thehardtimes.net/culture/straight-edge-friend-total-scumbag-in-every-other-way-possible/

Nice try, I'm not getting fired for cause

I still have the main event to watch, but the best part of the show was absolutely Nana dancing down to the ring.

Swerve Strickland for AEW Champion please.

Even though I've met a few okay sXe HC dudes, I completely agree that a lot of 'em can be self-righteous douche canoes.

Chad Gable is, improbably, a 20 year veteran and has NEVER held a singles title. Anywhere. After this Gunther series, that must be changed. Immediately.

It is for me, and it's weird why it is. I love that you can totally see the strings. He's playing a heel, playacting as a face. What I like about it is that it isn't the usual pro wrestling face turn where suddenly they're a good person. He's still that baseline "scumbag", but you can see that he's getting off on the crowd cheering his stuff, so he plays into it even more. I don't buy that he's actually turned over a new leaf. It plays like he's doing it to feed his own ego, but maybe in a more positive manner than running down the crowd every week.

Swerve/Hangman feud is so out of left field, but in a good way. That'll be a nice Wrestledream match, and even better if they're heating up Swerve to challenge to MJF at Full Gear. I think Hanger can eat the fall here and there's some potential with him and Kenny helping each other get back on track. Mox giving OC a nod in a subtle torch-passing moment was a nice touch. I have no idea what Toni Storm is doing, but I love it. I also have to say that I'm impressed with them writing two separate mini-feuds with MJF to actually create some intrigue about the tourney.

Man. I hope we get Swerve vs. MJF sooner than later. Swerve is an absolute superstar. Great promo. I love him first claiming he had been trapped in a coffin for a few weeks before healing in a charity for Chicago schools. A+ commitment to wrestling nonsense, no notes, just give him the title.

I've decided. Yes, AEW rules the motherfucking world.

They should fire CM Punk more often, this was a solid episode. When you build up an ecosystem of developed characters, storylines can weave in and out of each other. They also did a sneaky good job of saving time by cutting entrances. Oh and Emi is the best and if she isn't on Wembley Two I'm coming after Trevor Lawrence with a Gillette Baldy. Props to the crowd being very loud and very Midwestern. Y'know, drunk.

Clearly died on the way back to his home planet.

His matches have multiple false finishing runs and he gets lots of 2.9s on pinfall attempts leading up to finally putting his opponent down.

Did Collinsworth just accurately name the Detroit wrestling territory or am I hearing things?

I've been thinking this a lot since Hangman lost the belt. Also him, Omega and the Bucks almost never cut promos and literally almost never cut live promos. For being the guys the company was originally built around and for being part of so many long term, complicated storylines, we almost never get any insight into their psyches or motivations, especially since their return from the Brawl Out suspension. I find Elite feuds are largely told via their heel opponents' promos. None of them are great talkers anyway (although Hangman on his best days clearly strikes a chord with the core fanbase), but it would be nice to see them interact with their opponents more leading up to matches beyond just staredowns and pull-aparts Also re: Swerve eating losses and his mystique surviving; he's mastered a really good disappointed "you little fucker did you just pin me" face that I think is pretty effective as his WM6 Hogan face where it sells the loss as really being more about how intense and tenacious Swerve is.

I did, and it is.

Ace Steel has been released.

I’m enjoying this, too. Whatever TK is paying Christian, he’s worth it.

People will probably assume im saying this based purely on hindsight with both men having now passed, but I'd say this if they were alive and well: that Wyatt/Orton WM match really should have been a triple threat with Luke Harper/Brodie Lee. During his brief comeback in that period before leaving for AEW, I really felt like he was starting to get some of those grassroots, Danielson 'Yes'-type reactions.

He was probably too busy cry over having to select pronouns in Starfield

Babyface MJF is the greatest thing and I will fight anyone who feels otherwise

Kinda hoping Joe gets the title, puts MJF on the shelf, Adam Cole beats Joe, and then we get to see if Adam will defend against his returning friend. If you would've told me even just three months ago, that I'd be excited about a very long term Adam Cole/MJF storyline, I would've died laughing. But I love this story. Liked the Swerve promo, but it's been so long since I've been interested in Adam Page's act, it almost felt sad. I'm hoping they've got something fun for both guys to do. Page is talented and I want to root for him, but he needs a good story to stay hot.

Swerve can lose every feud and no one will remember or care because he is so charismatic. He is such a good evil mastermind heel. All he has ever needed were good flunkies to have behind him. Hit Row were decent. But he got saddled with dreck with his Moguls. Now he finally has something with Nana as his manager (and his dope dancing) and Brian Cage as his muscle and whoever else they have with him. He looks like the coolest dude in the room in every room, and he knows it, and he will kick you in the face to remind you. I hope he wins the title this winter and we have a Happy Black History Month — one of my favorite smug heel getaway lines from when he and the dopes he was with at the time messed up Golddust in some abandoned lot. I also don’t mind Swerve getting beat now if he is the one who upends MJF. This way you have dudes like Darby and Keith Lee and maybe even Dustin (!!!) in line to take him on, along with the aces already lined up. It is a race between Swerve and Ricky Starks to be the lead heel in the company next year. Ricky is in the lead right now since he has had feuds and matches with the top top top and held his own (even though I did not see the strap match) and also might be MJF’s best dance partner in terms of a heated feud since MJF got the title. Yes, I know he defended against Danielson, but I thought the quick few weeks with Ricky Starks was way hotter.

So, idk if this technically belongs here in the business thread, but AEW seems to be taking drastic measures to save their toy line. Sounds like they’ve instituted a product buyback to get those lingering Bucks, Nyla Roses and Jake Hagers off the pegs in favor of some new product. They’re also gonna be betting on some ringside exclusive offerings to help fund production in the short term. I think AEW made several mistakes early on: they overestimated demand based on a great initial launch, there were too many repeats early in the line, and distribution has been spotty at best. Their plan appears to be working, as I was able to cop Private Party, Ruby, Jamie Hayter & Owen Hart at retail this week.

Great show. Almost the right amount of adam Cole. Swerve/Page is a great matchup but neither of those guys can eat a loss right now. Samoa Joe is my shit, as is MJF: benevolent douchenozzle. Just tremendous.

It was short and sweet but I dug everything about Sakura vs Stat. Emi never fails to elevate any match that she's in.

So, I run an online film festival (Octopus Marquee Independent Film Festival) and one of the filmmakers (Tim Disbrow) that was a part of the previous season did a wrestling documentary in the past, Card Subject to Change. Terry Funk was a part of that and I hear really friendly and supportive of it. Tim was kind enough to post an interview from that doc:

Edge-ing Settle down, Naturaletico.

This is one of those cultural differences where 'safely' means something different in the UK, right?

"This has an asterisk with no Jones and no Kelce" fuck off Tirico, every team has injuries, it doesn't mean a win has an asterisk.

His NXT feud with Roode was good but that was more Roddy reacting to Bobby's shots towards his wife and family than anything else. HIs leader of Diamond Mine run after losing the Cruiserweight title was good as jealous potentially washed up gym leader but the angle ended when they did the injury and he just waited out his contract.

I have no dog in this fight, but I do have a keyboard so I'm compelled to spew my opinion. I've never trusted straight-edger's, back in my punk rock/heavy metal days I would hang with all sorts of people, but the straight-edger's always felt off to me. Not sure if it was their holier-than-thou attitude that most (not all) seemed to exude. With drunks and stoners I knew where I stood. (And it was usually next to them right on the edge of the pit.) Hope Punk finds peace somewhere, I get the feeling the only peace he'll have in pro-wrestling is starting his own promotion.

Ain't no way Danzig is putting over Billy. NO WAY!!!

I thought Bray was becoming a very serviceable worker before all the bells and whistles with the Fiend gimmick and stuff. I remember before the end of Rybacks run they had a really good match on a PPV. Also the angle he had with Orton as the odd couple tag team that lead to that horrible WM match between them. Every that lead to it was some of the best things since they brought back the split in 2016. He wasn't going to be anywhere close to as good as Harper Braun or Rowan who was becoming really good as well but in my opinion I thought Bray was coming along as decent enough to not need the extra stuff in alot of his matches. Maybe he wasn't confident enough in his own work which is another reason why it was ridiculous of WWE not to have the Wyatt family members together again. Especially considering how close these guy were outside the ring. I'm sure Bray pushed hard to have these guys on his side at the hights of his push.

They just solved a lot of problems with that Swerve promo. New top.heel, fresh matchup, a Hangman program that isn't him trying to establish himself against someone already more established, two underutilized guys in a program that could theoretically be a major storyline, a feud with no title involved that (unlike Omega vs Takeshita or a lot of Jericho's feuds) doesn't feel too insulated from everything else going on in the company. I don't care for Hangman's work much outside of his first match with Danielson but based on the intensity in this segment I could see these two having some chemistry. I was wondering what the hell they'd do with Hangman to get him out of just being a random component of Elite feuds, and I've been waiting for Swerve to break out of the mid-card ever since he turned heel and started the Mogul Affiliates gimmick, so this direction couldn't have been more of a pleasant surprise. Now if they could just start giving Bowens some singles feuds (without breaking up the Acclaimed) and gently push him up the card as a top babyface we'd be in great shape for another couple years...

Let’s jump in and watch the Funker: Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler (MLW Underground #21) Lawler cuts a pretty solid promo on Funk before this match, but Funk cuts a promo response in which he Lawler a “pervert” with a “Bob Barker hair transplant and […] facelift" and generally just SHITS on this dude. Hahahahaha! I mean, Funk went IN on Lawler, but I guess when you beat the shit out of each other in a classic Empty Arena match, that’s what’s going to happen. Perfectly enough, in his promo, Lawler did some shilling for WrestleMania and then in the follow-up promo, Funk was like YOU’LL DO AND SHILL ANYTHING FOR A DOLLAR, YOU MONEY-GRUBBING ASSHOLE. I caught a bit of Sonjay Dutt cutting a promo before jumping forward, and boy, the comparison of his promo quality to what came before him is quite the juxtaposition even beyond what anyone with common sense would expect. These are two of the best “old guy well past their physical peak” workers ever, so this should be at least pretty good. Lawler heels it up on the house mic before the match starts. Funk responds. Well, the crowd is hot for it! We don’t get to see the extent of Lawler’s stalling; we cut to Funk throwing some nice right hands. Funk immediately hits a piledriver on the floor, assuming that we haven’t had much action clipped out before this, so yeah, that’s an immediate escalation. Funk hits a second after Lawler tries to struggle out of it. Simon Diamond randomly (from my perspective, I didn’t see the weekly angle) comes out and gives Lawler a barbed wire coil while the ref moves Funk away; Lawler punches Funk with it and Funk bleeds. Lawler digs into Funk’s head with the wire; we’re clipped again and Terry Funk is up and hitting Lawler with Stone Cold Stunners and neckbreakers, but only gets two. This whole thing seems like nonsense of the highest order, and I can’t tell how much of that is because it’s clipped and how much of that is because it’s just dumb. Lawler trips Funk, puts his feet on the ropes for leverage, and gets three. Simon Diamond and C.W. Anderson run down and put the boots to Funk. I’m not sure what I watched there, but I didn't get a good enough picture of this match because of its clipped nature. Diamond and Anderson are mad that Lawler tried to win the match and didn’t beat the shit out of Funk some more, so they don’t pay Lawler the promised bounty for his work. There’s like a whole angle going on here with Steve Corino and pals trying to put Funk out of wrestling that I’m not interested enough in to go back and watch some of the other MLW stuff that explains it. Anyway, Lawler beats up the MLW Tag Champs Anderson and Diamond until Steve Corino runs down in a mask and helps turn the tide. The clipped version of this match was a dud, but the pre-match promos ruled! Terry Funk vs. Cactus Jack (ECW Hostile City Showdown, 15 April 1995) I used to think that ECW was the premier massive negative influence on modern wrestling. I was wrong. PWG is actually the worst thing to ever happen to pro wrestling stateside by a fair distance. I digress; the point of this opening remark is that I’ve re-watched bits and bobs of ECW over the past couple years, and when you get past the general tawdriness of the company, enough of the fast-paced or excessively violent stuff is done by workers who I think are top level that the work itself ages surprisingly well (unlike pretty much any of PWG). Cactus is disinterested in starting the match in the ring. He wants to fight in the stands. Funk’s shirt declares that he wants someone to stick a cactus into the surface of his ass or even maybe lodge one within his anal cavity. Commas matter, people. So yeah, these two have a garbage brawl in the stands, but it ages pretty well because these two are great at garbage brawls. The first garbage brawl I ever saw as a kid was Funk/Flair from WrestleWar ’89 on VHS (I’d seen other brawls, of course, but nothing that had that modern-feeling “wandering around using plundah” approach), and it left a great impression on me. I still think it’s one of the four or five best garbage brawls ever and that Flair’s best use is in a plundah-filled punch-fest over any other type of match. I digress again. Cactus whiffs on dives and both guys hit each other with random items given to them from the members of the crowd. That visual never gets old, by the way, of wrestlers just grabbing whatever someone’s holding out to them and swinging it wildly. This match is something you’ve all seen a hundred times before, but it’s elevated because these guys know how to sell damage and exhaustion at a level that few wrestlers ever get to. Funk suplexes a table onto Cactus while Cactus is stranded on the top rope, which is a cool spot. These ECW crowds were full of assholes (and I assume some very fine people), but at least they deeply care about every match they’re watching. Look, one wrestler breaking a beer bottle over another wrestler’s head will always be gnarly as fuck. Mikey Whipwreck runs in and ends up taking a great-looking bump over the rail. Hack Meyers takes a less great-looking bump over the rail, too. All this blood and plundah, and Terry Funk tries to get a win with a spinning toehold. That is NONSENSE, but I kinda love it. Cactus hits a small package out of that for two, then hits two DDTs. The first one only gets two because Sandman runs in with a cane, but the second one does get three after Cactus dispatches of Sandman. This match was pretty stupid! I don’t say that as a pejorative, either. Sandman jumps back in and canes Cactus and pours lighter fluid on him; then Funk recovers enough to go get a flaming branding iron and singe Cactus with it. I mean, this visual is bananas. This was entertainingly absurd, and the crowd chants E-C-DUBYA appropriately. This is the third Secret Santo match in a row that I’ve had to listen to Joey Styles on commentary. What’s next? Watching Seth Rollins, Young Bucks, or Kenny Omega matches? Writing about AEW content? May the good LORD in heaven protect me from such evil. Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr. vs. Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy (All Japan Pro Wrestling, 31 August 1983) I have talked before about my bafflement with AJPW’s house style, especially the tag matches. They always seem to have at least one of Stan Hansen or Bruiser Brody in them, and I always feel like those matches have a bunch of dudes just ignoring wrestling moves or the concept of selling even a tiny bit. I may have grown up on too steady a diet of southern tags to adjust to the All Japan tag style. I also wonder how I’ll feel about this because some of the only AJPW I’ve ever enjoyed has been either of the Funks. It’s the Funks, Horst Hoffman, Gordy, Dr. Death, Misawa, and Kobashi, and after that, I’m usually out. I’m probably forgetting some juniors whom I like, but yeah. I am ashamed to say this, but I don’t even enjoy Stan Hansen. I know, I know. I liked the Andre match, but something about Hansen in both his AJPW and his WCW work has just not ever clicked with me. But yeah, this match has three of the four people whose work in AJPW I have enjoyed immensely, so we’ll see. I do like that Gordy and Hansen do the typical “jump the faces while streamers are everywhere” spot. That spot rules. When the match gets into the ring, Terry does whatever he can to persevere immediately. He tries desperately to dodge Hansen, then to out-strike Hansen, and then finally to endure Hansen. He does the latter, makes his way to Dory, and with Dory’s help, is able to get control of the match for a bit as a reward. I have a bit of a hard time believing that Dory’s going to stalemate a shoulderblock with a giant like Terry Gordy, but yeah, okay. Funk is very active on the outside while Dory plays FIP. Speaking of, I can identify a structure in the match (not to say there isn’t one in these AJPW tags usually, just that I can’t identify a clear one from my perspective), and so this is pretty good. The crowd is hot for it, which helps immensely. Dory gets the hot tag and here, Hansen and Terry do a cool thing – Hansen’s on Terry and punches the hell out of him, but the “hot” part of this hot tag is that Terry just endures it and punches right back to even things up rather than to dominate control. It’s not a typical hot tag where the heels both feed the face and pinball around, but it’s a cool variation considering Hansen’s level of toughness. Funk starts bleeding for the second out of three matches (I think Cactus was the one bleeding in the ECW match) as Hansen works Terry’s knee. I’m somewhat surprised by this sudden approach, but Gordy cheats on the outside to do more damage to it, so it works within the match alright. The heels now isolate Terry and do a pretty fun job with this part of the match. Gordy tries to show Terry up with a spinning toehold, but Terry’s not having any of that shit. He fights out of it and eventually gets a hot tag to Dory. Dory, who looks creakier than Terry in ECW did (and about as creaky as Terry in MLW), hits some dropkicks before getting his house afire put out. The heels just liberally cheat throughout this thing in clear view of the ref, who does not give a fuck. The match breaks down and the ref is just like, I’MMA YELL AT Y’ALL FOR NOT FOLLOWING THE RULES, BUT I REFUSE TO DO ANY MORE THAN THAT. Gordy whiffs on a splash attempt and Terry goes up top and quickly hits Gordy with a diving sunset flip that gets three. Of course, Hansen has dispatched Dory outside and has to run back in and destroy Terry and a few young boys before about twelve of them finally hold him back. The Terrys were great in this, Dory was fine, and Hansen was pretty good in spots. How everyone feels about Hansen, I feel about Terry Gordy. That guy Gordy fucking RULES at pro wrestling. This is the famous Terry Funk spot where he’s yelling ICHIBAN and then FOREVER about five hundred times, and yeah, it’s iconic. Thanks for these matches, Curt! I had fun watching each of them, though I wish the Funk/Lawler one wasn’t clipped. I don’t think I’d need to know anything about the angle if the full match were up because I trust those two old dudes to work a good match throughout that doesn’t need anything more than the opening promos and the match itself to be worth watching.