For Great Justice

The state of the men’s Royal Rumble over the past 5-10 years reminds me of the current discourse around late 90’s / early 2000’s user interfaces We’ve lost the technology and there’s no one left who understands how it works. We simply can’t do it.

I wonder if the finish hits different if 1) Gunther hadn’t tapped out to Jey Uso and 2) we still had jumbo sized Gunther. Love the dude, he’s crazy talented and the impact on his long term health is way more important than this, but the Vader/Hansen/Gordy/Doc gimmick just doesn’t hit the same at 2 bills vs at 3 bills. Like he isn’t presented as a Brock Lesnar-esk force of nature - he’s been yucking it ip in the generic-ass Raw main event scene for a couple of years now. I dunno, kind of a disconnect between his 2025 booking and how this match was booked.

The decision to tap Gunther out to Jey Uso is well on track to being a historical all timer of a dud. Dude has the “if this were a real sport, he’s the best wrestler for real” gimmick, has Goldberg equity and now Cena equity, and you fed him to the tag dude that got Fandango hot

“Tonight, professional wrestling destroyed sports entertainment” was quite the call by Cole at the end, that felt like something with corporate intent behind it. I wonder if they start move away from the SE phrasing now.

Man, Speedball is one of those dudes that I always don’t think I like, and then he has these matches that are straight up bangers, and in the moment I realize he’s good as shit. Then like 2 weeks later I forget and I’m back to not digging it. Dude is awesome.

Ok Funk/Bock was better But this was legit incredible. There is a time and a place for playing the hits, and I get that, but this was 100% that time and that place.

Cena vs Styles is probably the best match with two 45+ year olds ever

There is a 100% chance that death match aficionado Jon Moxley is going to recreate the Pogo/Onita flame shield spot

Man I hope so. They’ve been tepid to fully pull the trigger on Hobbs for 5 years now. In its hierarchy Claudio is AEW’s Meng, so I’ll believe it more if/when he goes over clean there.

This show felt like a love letter to the origins of AEW. Such a feel-good show; a complete 180 from last year’s All Out Man if you didn’t do the arm wave with a stupid-ass grin on your face when Tarzan Boy hit, this just might not be for you.

All In proves itself once again the best double album with All Out All Out 2024 was a pay per view of death and despair. All In 2025 is one of light, hope and life Excited for a new season of AEW this Wednesday!

Man, AEW is clicking on all cylinders right now. They’ve really come out of the lull they were in since last Summer over the past month or two. With the new stip, something big interference-wise is going to happen in that main event. I don’t know what, but they’ve got something cooking

Sort of along these lines, I got to thinking about All In ending with Hangman and Kenny owning the titles, and the AEW stars being aligned as they should be. Right back where we began. The main characters.

Music has become such a huge part of AITA that next year they need a “winner picks the music” stip match between two representatives the Dynamite before and it would get over huge Amazing, exhausting show

This was mentioned up thread, but I was thinking about it yesterday and can I submit Sabu in 1995 WCW as the most out of place a particular wrestler has ever been at a particular place at a particular time? It was like this alien being had arrived through a wormhole from some alternate reality. Like one minute there’s a “Sullivan, my son” skit and the next Sabu and Sheik are throwing a fucking fireball at some hamandegger and putting him through a table. It feels almost impossibly juxtaposed. A couple of others that come to mind are the Earthquake WWE dark match in 2001 and ECW showing up on RAW. But nothing tops Sabu in WCW I don’t think. Some serious David Lynch shit.