For Great Justice

It is interesting that not counting trios teams there are, at minimum, six heel stables running at once: BCC, Hurt Syndicate, Callis Family, Patriarchy, Elite, Learning Tree There are….two? Babyface stables? Conglomeration, I guess Dark Order, and I guess even if you stretch that to trios you can add PP+Garcia and Bang Bang Gang? It’s extremely lopsided, and literally every single one of those six heel stables has the upper hand in their current feuds. There are 8 segments per show. Something has to give at some point. I’ve called for the Syndicate babyface turn but they aren’t even fully formed yet and that’s like a half year away from now.

Man I wish AEW did house shows because I’d love to see the before and after Hook wrestles a loop with Christian. Exactly what he needs at this stage.

I skip Cole segments, so could someone walk me through this whole thing? - When we last left off, MJF was the face and Cole + UK are the heels - While Cole is away, MJF turns back heel - Cole returns as a face. UK says they are going their own way - UK comes back the next week and joins Cole…as faces. That right? So presumably we are picking right back up where we left off, with the roles reversed, but no narrative reason as to why the roles have reversed?

Someone mentioned in the Missed Opportunities thread about AEW needing to acknowledge/promo wrestlers that are cycled off the show in a given week, and it felt like they did a better job of that tonight. Tons of talent had bumpers into / out of commercials. Did they mention Darby, though? That was an odd one given the show closing angle. I was watching on mute so the announcers might have mentioned his whereabouts.

The Fletcher promo was several minutes too long, but wow he’s come a long way. The way he controlled the crowd and remained within his character was unrecognizable from even a year ago. Definitely feels like an upgrade from a “moves” guy to a potential 2025 pick to break through. Elsewhere you couldn’t have asked for a better first two weeks for Shelton Benjamin. He looks like a BIG DEAL.

I was today years old when it dawned on me that title belts are wrestling’s MacGuffin Ive never used that term in a wrestling discussion but, wow, it’s the best possible example in the arts isn’t it.

The Danhausen thing is strange, and I agree speaks to “something” happening that we don’t know about. Like, Halloween is in 9 days - why isn’t this dude Svengoolie’ing an “AEW’s Spookiest Matches” bit on YouTube or something? It’s a layup.

The best idea on the internet last week that I can’t take credit for is that the BCC should, literally, end Rampage. Like the last segment is Mox telling the fans to get out then burning down the ring in an empty arena

Hope either got Shreveport or Little Rock TV, so I have to think it was Tri-State. Not sure how far west Memphis TV went, though.

Apparently we are getting QT vs the Costco Guys at Full Gear Oh my god Mox is going to put the Rizzler through a table isn’t he (yes I’m ashamed I know all this)

The key to booking the Outrunners on top (which I agree he should do) is to book them in throwback late 80’s / early 90’s angles. - FTR breaks one of their legs and we get a fan mail in campaign - Jake Roberts ties one up in the ropes and cobras their ass - Due to continuous interference by Don Callis, we get a scaffold match against Cage and Archer It would keep them over. Yeah in sort of a meta way, but still, as people love to see what would happen next.

Tack on Yuta coming home with a big ol hug and it’d be waterworks in the For Great Justice household

I mean, the current biggest drawing babyface in the world was a co-founder and EVP. This has to start there, right? A few from my personal perspective: - breaking up Best Friends. There’s a direct correlation between this and the whole vibe of the company changing (along with, arguably, the ratings). This was dumb. This is where a lot of joy, heart and character left the building. - Wardlow. Not sure what the ceiling was, but whatever it was, this resulted in about 5% of maximum return. - Battle of the Belts. What’s even the point.

I imagine it’s just the start. You don’t fight Piston Honda before you fight Glass Joe. I like that both of these BCC and HS storylines are big, macro deals involving multiple segments and dozens of wrestlers per show. Hangman/Swerve and other recent stuff was amazing but it was isolated and personal. It’s good to tell some larger scale stories for a change.

Ok hear me out: The Hurt Syndicate is formed proper in Nov/Dec and is built up over several months as a dominant heel faction, in parallel to the BCC. They are intentionally kept far, far away from Mox and co. Then, to close a big Dynamite in Q1 2025, the two factions face off to close a show, in Wyatts / Shield fashion. Anarchy in the Arena, Blood and Guts, etc. follow and then, at the end, at Double or Nothing babyface Swerve (who joins prior to this to cap off the Syndicate’s face turn) defeats Mox to win his title and eradicate the threat Swerve-Mox, Lashley-Claudio (!), Shelton-Pac has a nice duality to it all the way around. Just need a young lion on the HS side to take on Yuta, which is a good spot to elevate someone.

My god that superkick Shelton put on Lio immediately goes on the Mt Rushmore of superkicks. Fatality! Like in a 1,000 match Monte Carlo simulation of this match that’s the best executed one of the bunch. Benjamin looked great. He’s also a great example of “WWE small”. I know he was in there with Lio, but that dude is huge!

It was very herky-jerky getting here due to a variety of reasons (most likely a change in Danielson’s health prognosis the main one), but regardless, we are here now. This feels like the start of a new season. All heel champions, dominant heel stable, clear battle lines drawn in the sand and a storyline that should, in macro, tie everything together. Here’s to hoping for the best.

Got to wondering how many times a booker has gone with “despair” to end a big show. Not that bad guys don’t win big matches, but straight up end of Empire Strikes Back, end of The Mist, all is lost, good guys lose. Hogan turn is one with Heenan’s “what do we do now?”. Struggling to think of a bunch of others until last night. Like Reigns won 1,000 main events as a heel but it was more “this guy is bad, but he’s just the best dude, so he won”, not “the word has ended”. Gotta be more I’m blanking on.

Young Bucks make for a good Gestahl in my FFVI analogy. They think they have the BCC under wraps until they, too, get dusted out. It will be interesting to see how they pull off a large scale storyline like this when so many other major names in AEW lore are hanging around. MJF, Jericho, Hangman, Omega don’t have opinions on all this?

I change my mind, it isn’t Empire Strikes back. You know what it reminded me of? That crazy bastard Kefka/Mox did it. He actually did it. He aligned the 3 statues on the Floating Continent and the World of Balance is fucking toast. Done. Now it’s up to Darby, OC, Garcia, Locke, Celes, Shadow and the boys to get a crew together and save the world, even after so much is already lost.

Takeshita is my favorite wrestler in the world. He’s incredible. The ending was AEW’s Empire Strikes Back.

That’s a good shout. The new BCC doesn’t come across as the existential threat to AEW that Moxley proclaims it as without some some united babyface segments and the little production things that WCW was so good at spring/summer 1996. Mox says it isn’t the same AEW, but the scope is bound to the feud with Bryan. Maybe they’ll expand that later.

Aww man I like DG as a character. When used right, he’s the jock asshole schoolyard bully heel that, it turns out, comes from a horrible lower class family situation. He’s just a dick at school to unleash that rage and, before the end of the movie, the protagonist finds this all out and they slowly become best friends. He’s really good at being that guy. They abandoned that for the dancing stuff over the past year and he’s suffered for it.

Subcontractors. The Mean Street Posse weren’t directly managed by the Higher Power, boss

Everything luchador on this show was WCW as hell, in the best possible way. Hologram/Mortos is big Blitzkreig/Juvy at Spring Stampede vibes. Gotta make that the opener.