Greggulator

Billy Gunn versus Darby Allin is not a MOTYC, but like Matt D, I really loved that match. I have never liked Billy Gunn in any form, but him as a jacked up fading steroid bully with two jock daddy’s boys idiot sons is a great role for him. They are very reminiscent of the final year I played Little League baseball, where the alcoholic head coach had his two Jersey Shore-style moron sons on the team who loved cackling at their teammates who sucked (me) while Dad looked on with glee. My favorite moment in Little League sports ever was that season, when our first basemen Richie whiffed on a ball thrown his way. The coach and his idiot sons started screaming at him. Richie’s response was a very nonchalant “I quit” and he left in the middle of the inning. Anyways, Billy Gunn tossing around Darby as his goon sons was a blast. The commentary was also really good as selling this as a clash between different eras, which helped make it believable for Darby to win, on top of Taz doing some good Heenan-style work by talking about what good kids Billy’s sons were. Darby doing a coffin drop to the floor was aces. The end was also really unique. There are so many times when a finisher gets kicked out of and the person who hit the finisher has no idea what to do next. Or if they go back to their finisher it gets countered. But Darby just hit the Coffin Drop a second time and that did the trick. Really good bully heel versus undersized baby face match.

“Great kids.” I loved Taz saying that when the Gunn kids were taunting Darby like the two biggest jerk-off daddy’s boys possible. I also love how Thunder Rosa still wears her half face paint when she’ a dressed like she’s headed to a marketing networking event as soon as her promo is over.

And I mention nearly every week how particularly dumb it is they just do not care about tag rules in tag matches. A referee in a tag match is so incredibly important to the psychology of a match. Most importantly, a heel tag team outsmarting a ref us essentially the primary storytelling tool. Then that leads to hopefully later on in the match the faces outsmarting the heels but while also following the rules. The Revival in NXT were incredible at using the refs in their formula of matches. They had some of the all-time best heel nonsense - crawling under the length of the entire ring to pull the face off the apron before a tag could be made and the like. But without that psychology in AEW matches, it does not work. I know the ending got botched because someone got their bell rung against the Lucha Brothers, but the ref not caring about the rules previously makes something like “heels try and play a hidden mask con” takes away from the hidden masks. And the whole psychology also takes away from the impact of high spots. I would rather see one crazy Young Bucks spot than 200000 in a match. Because it makes the one look incredibly special. Refereeing that makes sense makes that happen.

That was my first time watching Shida and Nyla Rose with any degree of concentration. I really liked that match a lot. It was really well laid out — that crazy chair bump, Shida getting some revenge on Vicki (still with the best wicked stepsister cackle in wrestling), and Nyla’s awesome gloating to the camera. But I thought the match hit a high gear after Serena’s knee clip. I assumed that was what was going to end the match, but it then went into a really fun ending “can the baby face overcome these odds?” run, with Nyla missing that big splash. Then it had a very hurry submission ending playing off the knee damage. Really good story. One thing AEW really does well is place some stakes that just add to the story. Beyond the tournament, they mentioned how Nyla was one behind Shida for most wins in promotion history (and Shida’s 50 wins was an angle), which sold it to me that they were longtime rivals. Also, JR sucks.

I would absolutely love a Lio promo talking about how he and Dante meet sustainability benchmarking tools and develop a finisher called The Greenwashing.

I have to think that going into the match they could have predicted that there would at least be a chance that the crowd would be pro Eddie. He won a lot of the crowd over in their awesome argument. And then he had the incredible Bleacher Report article that gave him so much sympathy as we learned more about his path. Everyone in the arena probably read it, as did most of us watching at home. The only reason why I got the PPV was because of that match. There were a few other people I know who did the same. I have very little knowledge of Kingston besides of what I was exposed to in Chikara, which is not a lot. But he comes off as the most genuine persona in wrestling in years. And maybe ever? Like what was said on Segunda Caida — I just watch him and want him to win. It’s like how I felt during Bayley’s run to the title in NXT or Kofi-Mania. But it’s even a little more than that. I think it’s because Kingston more than any other wrestler in memory is one of us — the dude who ran around to get obscure wrestling tapes, who went out of his way to find early ECW on whatever ridiculous UHF channel it was broadcast on at 3 AM, etc. Only that he’s also a street kid whereas most of us are nerds. Either way, I cannot stop thinking about that match. That might have been my favorite wrestling match since Bayley/Sasha or Shield/Wyatts.

Where on Etsy did Adam Cole finD three matching thumbtack knee pads?

Punk/Kingston might be my favorite match in years. That was incredible. Just a proper fight between two dudes who hate each other for a lot of different reasons. Give Eddie the title.

I am getting this solely for Eddie/Punk. I really hope Eddie wins. There is a groundswell of pro-Eddie support for this with my wrestling fan friends after that segment, the awesome Bleacher Report segment, his whole journey and just in general being incredible. Would love if he upset Punk and then got another crack at Danielson or even Page.

I am in the camp that it is very much manufactured. Maybe that segment had some heat behind it. But my thinking is that they are leaning hard into the general feeling that Charlotte gets too much given to her. Becky works best if she has someone to defy. She blew up because of her situation with Charlotte. This feels like a big talk with a lot of people on “How do we make this happen again?” and a worked shoot angle is their best approach.

Woods/Reigns was fantastic. That was very much a perfect 15 minutes of professional wrestling — the undersized baby face on the roll of a lifetime getting some just deserts for his best friend by giving the overconfident dominant big man heel all he can handle. Plus, they had some fun stakes with the whole “Bend the Knee” stuff. The only way that match was going to end was with some bullshit, and The USOs crowning Roman was such a great asshole touch. That was very enjoyable professional wrestling.

New Day versus Bloodline is pretty fucking great. King Xavier and Kofi are really fun doing the royalty shtick. But they were even better eating the beat down after the match, especially Kofi screaming in pain. Great segments from two all-time stables.

Oh no I think that is maybe my match of the year.

I know my tastes differ, but the FTR vs. Waves and Curls match on AEW Dark has one of the best endings to a match in memory.

The end of that FTR match is number one and the best. So so so so good.