Go2Sleep

I've hated the booking of Skye jobbing to the Outcasts every week for months on end, but no doubt the reps with Toni and Ruby have helped her a lot. I'm not sure if it's a coincidence of the light bulb clicking due to all the time she's getting, but it oddly seems like her shorts becoming a meme gave her a lot of confidence.

If they have MJF turn on Cole after this, it will be one of the biggest misses in AEW history. He's had a great run as a heel, but it's time to send him to the next level as the face of the company. He had the crowd chanting whatever he wanted and he got the freaking bodyslam spot over like crazy. I could see some subtle hints at a Cole turn with Roddy telling him he's changed and some couples bickering on the phone with Britt, but I really hope they don't turn him either. The biggest swerve of all would be MJF finally finding real friends and having a nice supportive circle with Cole, Roddy, and Britt. I think someone said last week that Cole and MJF should hit their first double clothesline on Schiavone, and with a few more weeks of him going all Frank Grimes on their team, I think that would be pop of the year. The rest of the show was a good "calm before the storm" kind of show. Couldn't have asked for a better guy than Swerve to help Nick Wayne through his first big match. Swerve is pro's pro, and Nick looked great for 18. I feel like that was Skye's best match too with Ruby leading the way with some nice leg work. It's quite the luxury to have someone the caliber of Pac to use as a late fill-in for the biggest TV match of the year, and he makes sense as a mercenary. Still hoping we get back him vs. Vikingo for taking the last Death Triangle spot.

Griff seems like he'd benefit from going to the performance center, honestly. He showed some flashes and definitely carried the Varsity Blondes team, but he's one of those victims of AEW's roster being so stacked that there isn't much room for a decent prospect who's still a couple years away. His in-ring style would play well in WWE, and he would likely benefit from NXT throwing random gimmicks at him to develop the right presentation. All the AEW mens "prospects" are guys with serious connections (Gunns, Nick Wayne, Brock Anderson unfortunately). The women's side is a lot more open thanks to WWE having a 5 year head start, and AEW regularly features wrestlers you could being on top of the division in the not distant future like Skye, Willow, and Billie soon enough. It's brutal trying to break in to AEW as a man with no significant reputation, though. When someone like Fenix can be off the main shows for months and hardly anyone notices, it's tough to make a case for Griff to get more reps.

I like both pairings of the lethal lottery. I really hope we get hot tag MJF this week. Have they announced anything for BotB besides Luchasaurus/Spears?

She had some kind of injury (I wanna say broken nose or orbital bone but I can't remember for sure). The Blade, her real life husband, had a social media post about it that hit my FB feed a week or so ago.

Starks/Hobbs was the worst match I've seen featured on AEW TV in some time. The timing was off on everything and it felt like they couldn't get on the same page with each other, let alone the spots where QT had to get involved. Both guys are obviously better than that and everyone's gonna have an off night once in a while, but it was pretty jarring from a company where the in-ring action is pretty much always smooth start to finish with lots of high degree of difficulty spots. I do like the slightly different presentation to the show. I don't mind the "split" aspect in the sense that certain feuds happen on Dynamite and others happen on Collision. It does make it easier to watch both shows when you see entirely different wrestlers. I hope they'll get some rotation where some weeks Punk/Joe can have a segment on Dynamite and Elite/BCC can do something Collision, or whatever their next feuds are.

Yeah, kinda. Singles Kenny is like a final boss for heels in AEW. What you described was the finish to the AITA match, which was still huge for Wheeler since he can always claim he pinned* Kenny in a ppv main event. In a singles Dynamite main, though, you protect Kenny not Wheeler. Wins like the one Ospreay got at Forbidden Door mean a lot less when a midcarder like Wheeler can beat Kenny with some light cheating or lingering injuries.

The MJF/Cole team is hilarious. MJF's reaction to Adam Cole doing the old school abdominal stretch cheating spot was the comedy spot of the year. I know MJF loves playing the jaded loner heel, and I think he enjoys the challenge of how far he has to go to crowds to boo him, but he should really be AEW's top face. Crowds are dying to cheer him, he's a got the look, the personality, and is actually a zoomer which makes him stand out in a good way among top acts in wrestling today. Every time he teases going full face no matter how disingenuous, the crowds eat it up. The gym segment was also great and more evidence that AEW books to DVDVR with the body-shaming dialogue. The creative editing of Adam Cole doing like 12 reps at 315 on bench was brilliant. I also like the way they're handling the JAS breakup (which is overdue), so far. The reversal roll-up with all of the Outcasts hanging on for dear life was their best cheating finish yet. Kenny and Wheeler had a nice match, and I like how they protected the seatbelt pin by not having it all the way in.

Get the same guy who made the Braden Walker DVD set on it.

Hasn't All In already been advertised as a ppv?

There are two problems with the "Pain Maker." 1. The name itself sucks. "Rain Maker" sounds cool, but is overused across media, and there's a pretty established guy that's been using it for a while. Pain Maker sounds like something a 10 year old would come up with for backyard trampoline wrestling. This would make it a good name if the gimmick was supposed to be ironic, but when it's supposed to be serious escalation, it falls flat. 2. The presentation isn't different enough from his regular appearance. Finn Balor spends hours getting elaborate paint jobs to be the demon. Jericho smears a couple streaks on his face. Music is basically the same, no special entrance. Doesn't have a long history of winning or extreme stunts to give the fans a reason to expect something different than any other Jericho match.

Ospreay vs. OC was the best match on the card at last year's Forbidden Door.

Agreed, the whole fun of these things is to get matches like Keith Lee and Johnny TV vs. Swerve and Komander. That said, I won't be upset if we get MJF/Cole vs. OC/Darby at some point.

Most of Mick Foley's career is insanely stupid from a personal health standpoint. Luckily for him, pro wrestling and insanely stupid go well together, and this match was an all-time spectacle. Also features JR's best commentary ever.

Mentioning the Jackyl made me realize what a missed opportunity there was when his "private security" wasn't Recon, Sniper, and Kurrigan.

Could they actually tell that to Kojima and Okada, though? Not sure what the inter-promotional etiquette is, but I don't think it involves telling a former and current ace not to do a move that one of your midcard tag team guys does. Punk does the top rope elbow as well. Yeah, Danielson is made of glass at this point, but that's a fluke injury. I wouldn't overreact to it.

I'd say the Shield would be the kings of such a category.

Anyway, the Omega/Ospreay match deserves its own post, but the rest of the show was fine. Tanahashi is Jeff-Hardy level washed, but MJF is capable of working a slower match and playing the crowd, so it wasn't too bad. Punk/Kojima was a sleeper second place MOTN. Punk was in top form and worked his tweener status just right. Kinda shows why TK puts up with Punk's bullshit, because the man gets pro wrestling, love him or hate him. Sanada/JB was kind of underwhelming, but made sense to hold them back as a catalyst for Perry's turn. The 4-way and 10-man both seemed fun at the time, though I can't remember much about them specifically. The women's match and the 6-man were the worst matches. The women's match lacked interest because literally everyone knew how it would go start to finish. The 6-man seemed to lack chemistry between several combinations of guys, Sting's limitations were front and center, and the mind-boggling videogame sell (act like death after it happens, start hitting your regular moves again 30 seconds later) of the 630 through the table was bizarre. The idea that he was supposed to move makes a lot of sense. Minoru losing to a shoulder block and a bad roll up was not befitting. Danielson/Okada was going along fine, but obviously hampered by Bryan's injury down the stretch. The "I beat Okada with a broken freakin arm" lines will make for great guest heel commentary lines for the next 6-8 weeks, but it was sad to see in real time. Credit to him for doing as much as he did and Okada for being a pro and adapting with it. They still managed a credible finish despite everything. The seizure thing struck me as more silly than offensive, reminded me of D-Von Dudley. Didn't really fit the match either way. Hopefully Okada will get a Forbidden Door match that isn't ruined by injury one year. Hearing the Final Countdown was wonderful, though, and I kind of like how for Bryan's big matches they just drop all the BCC shit and let him be "Big Match Bryan" and the crowd eats it up. Hopefully he'll be good for All In.

Ospreay/Omega was fucking awesome, just the absolute shit. This was such a late 90s AJ/early 00s NOAH match, but with Crockett hate, blood, and heel manager shenanigans. Magnum/Tully meets Misawa/Kobashi. Were they fishing for stars? Yes, and I will give them all the stars for this masterpiece. Overkill is bad when it's happening every week, but these are the matches where a dozen finishers and new super finishers are not simply justified, but essential. Ospreay and Omega were obviously at their top of their games, but the Don Callis expertly played an important role during the final third that held it all together. Yes, Will and Kenny each want to prove they're the best, but Callis needs Will to win this match. He's the one that abandoned his long-time moneymaker. He's the one that stabbed his "son" with a screwdriver. If Kenny wins this match, Don is done as a credible kingmaker in wrestling. He looks like an absolute moron. Kenny and Will and can win or lose and still be top guys, but Don is nothing if he isn't attached to a top guy. He has the most at stake in this match, and his presence is what motivates Kenny to find a new level, which seems unthinkable. The announcers even made a point early in the match that Don was always trying to stay in Kenny's line of sight. So Don desperately needs Will establish himself as someone who can out-Kenny Kenny, and Kenny has extra personal motivation to not let Don be proven right. All that leads to an escalation beyond what was thought possible. Don passes Will the trusty screwdriver, followed by his regular 1-2 finisher sequence. Kenny has just enough to get a foot on the rope, perhaps not even consciously. Crowd goes apeshit. Will follows with more bombs and ok, here's a coup de grace, I'll beat him with his own unescapable move. Except Kenny kicks out at one because he is NOT losing to Don and Will like that an is extremely offended at the idea they'd try. Crowd goes even more apeshit. Kenny fights back to near equal footing, but in reality, he's not close to winning. The damage is adding up, and he's running on pure spite. He can't secure the OWA any more, and Will is ready to go deeper. Ripcord Hidden Blade, TD 91 (holy fuck), then the "no elbow pad" hidden blade, and one more unnecessary stormbreaker just to punctuate that it's his time and he's doing it his way. True MOTDC, and a rare match that captured the magic of 90s AJ since the 90s despite many trying. This is what pro wrestling is all about.

Any word on how long Jamie Hayter is gonna be out? I'd hate for her to miss the Wembley show.

I'm sure they could get away with "chicken shit" once per show. Regal could've totally pulled off "lily liver recreant," but that's about it. Someone with enough clout to stay on TV like Punk should try to sneak in "dickless" some time. Tribute to Ghostbusters.

Pretty sure that's the WM 22 triple threat with Orton.

I liked them going through the trouble of explaining the logic of Eddie Kingston's allegiances. Eddie's "no bullshit" promo style was great for that. The name "blind eliminator tag team tournament" sucks, but I'll forgive it since it's actually the Lethal Lottery, one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

He was the first member of the NWO, but also the one that jobbed the most of the originals. I love Scott Hall, but he was a Nitro title shot filler guy not a ppv title shot filler guy. If WCW any balls, Rey would've been a hell of winner for a Sting filler defense. I don't know if was feasible because Rey needed one of his many knee surgeries a couple months later (I remember the injury angle that cemented the Jericho heel turn), but match where Rey "earns Sting's respect" in a competitive loss and being free to move out of the CW role would've been sick.

Scott Hall winning the 97 WW3 was a little surprising. Not sure who else of note was in there, but it always seemed like an odd choice for a world title shot at that time, even as a filler defense. Hall was in a spot where no one above him would look any better for beating him and he himself wasn't elevated by being in a title match. Off the top of my head, DDP or Raven would've been more compelling winners. It's tough to get surprise winners in high profile battle royals because there's usually something at stake beyond the match itself, but I liked AEW giving Top Flight and AR Fox the win in their random Christmas $300k battle royal. Didn't have to overpush them, but it gave them a nice highlight to set up a few good TV matches over the next couple of months.