Custos

Between the Punk return and this show, I can’t think of a 1-2 punch over the space of a couple of weeks that warms the cockles of a hardcore fan like this any time in recent memory. Just buzzing right now, scanning the social media and taking in the amazing reception across the board, the scrum and everything. Equal parts euphoria over an all-time great show and tingling in anticipation of what’s to come.

52 and rich as fuck, the VKM work and sleep patterns are not doing him any favours, why not kick back, retire and enjoy this show with the rest of us marks?

Between her Judo and BJJ credentials, the makings of a mixed shooter team. Let's go with AEW's mixed match challenge.

The Discord channel was worried for your well-being if/when DBry came out. Good to see you didn't have an aneurysm.

Visual representation of tonight's show (NSFW):

Eh, between Kingston, Miro, Moxley they have the BAMF brawler column pretty well covered.

Moment of relief of the night - Fenix 'only' doing a crossbody off the top of the cage onto a nice big target. Don't need anyone getting crippled, especially after Matt's gnarly Canadian Destroyer bump.

That was a LOT of good shit, but never too much. Everyone fucking brought it. Women's title match in particular way overdelivered, the Lucha Bros got the W, and that wasn't even the start of it. TK isn't fucking around.

I was just about to say what @Jrag said better about Black. You don't want to take your eyes off him end-to-end, and the violence like that brutal looking roundhouse after mugging Johnson in the corner is special when the prevalent house style is pretty sprints. Show flew of course, Jericho was pretty much tolerable but Mizark is pretty much dead weight. Was it him saying 'this creeps me out' during the Black entrance, throwing off the vibes? In terms of on-screen, just let him do the interviews, if they must, and leave it at that. Good to see them mix up the format with Miro and Kingston in-person after the awesome pre-taped stuff from Dynamite. That one is close to knocking off my other most anticipated matches (tag title and Punk/Darby) for Sunday.

Pants-free Punk returns to prime time!

Amen. The obnoxious gum-chewing and that vignette where he does the the throat slit gesture in the foreground with Starks and Taz laughing maniacally in the background like super villains (can't find it right now) are both better than anything the others have done. Back to the usual wild ride pace and flow to the show, with the traditional high tempo tag match to kick off, which was great with a hot crowd. Conti/Ford was quality grappling too. A match and TWO talking segments? The women are really getting spoiled this episode. Did the Stadlander/Baker title match have any build, beyond saving Red Velvt from a beatdown? I must have missed it if so. As someone who never saw 2.0 before Darby Allin hit that one with the tope like a cannon, I am fully on the bandwagon, even watched a couple of their youtube shows. The Lucha Bros being so over (more so than Jurassic Express from the sound of it) warms my heart and bodes well for the PPV. Would be great to see them get the gold as I've been begging for a top-level run separately or together for ages. As heart-warming is the continued Welcome Back Tour of Happy Punk, and it was good to see some physicality this time. Yes, he'll be at his best in the more dramatic storytelling feuds with stakes, but I am here for ah-shucks Phil Brooks genuinely excited to be around the young guys and girls for now. The tag and Punk/Allin are jointly my most anticipated matches for the weekend. Will be a ripper of a show, albeit Bastard-less much to my disappointment.

To be fair, they’ve only had 3 episodes so there’s not much of a normal level yet i.e. plenty of time to go south and settle in the 500-600k territory like the Friday Dynamites. This show flew by and it’s nice to be able to get used to a second helping of prime time AEW in the week. They were really hyped about that basketball guy though.

I watch almost exclusively AEW nowadays but caught MITB last month and really enjoyed it, especially Charlotte/Rhea and the men’s MITB match. I get that ‘love loving what you love’ may well be taken as an empty platitude but that’s where I land. I also welcome having my views being challenged in a good-faith and non-combative way, which for the most part happens in the AEW threads. But with the increasingly divergent interpretations at a mainstream level of this Great Sport/Performance Art it may become all the more rare for fans to earnestly follow, enjoy and discuss both. The show length, Belair/Becky stuff, Lilly, Eva Marie, Goldberg, Jinder and Gang, was enough for me to pass on the PPV this time.

Didn’t have the opportunity to watch live today but got caught up with the multi-million viewed Twitter and YouTube clips. You really couldn’t have hoped for a better reaction/timing and content/delivery from the man himself. Like I posted previously, Punk is the guy who kept my wrestling fandom through the mid 2000’s, until I discovered this wonderful place (and lurked for 13 years). To see all the pieces fall as they have in the last 2+ years, and presumably winning Punk over with every turn from his self-proclaimed paranoia to ‘hey, I could do something with these guys, I could be something for these guys’…it really is the goldilocks scenario. A year later and COVID kills the infant in its crib. A year earlier and the free agents aren’t there for a Movement. Fair play to Punk, and it was the classy tight lips over Brodie’s condition by all accounts that won him over in the end. Anywho, the anticipation/speculation + grown men crying in the moment = why I love this sport. Edit to add: I may or may not be responsible for at least 10 of those views of each of the vids screenshotted by @The Natural

Corbin embracing the sad sack character and doing some of the better recent WWE comedy has been a pleasant 2021 surprise. Maffew or one of his contributors could have a field day with the incoherent raging at the end.

Inspired by @L_W_P’s *ahem* somewhat eccentric conspiracy theories and Batista’s tweet about Punk’s potential ceiling as a Hollywood star…what if The First Dance is literally the first full song-and-dance wrestling musical, as a vehicle for Phil Brooks to prove his musical chops in front of a captive die-hard crowd, supported by Dancing With The Stars alumni and world renowned professional singer Chris Irvine, building on the sensation of the wrestling world Le Dinner Debonair. Think Buffy’s ‘Once More With Feeling’. Drag Matt Rehwoldt through the Forbidden Door, fuck it. The one-two punch with Heels, it’ll be a surefire springboard to showbiz super stardom for Mr Brooks.

So Omega mostly caught himself with the crook of his elbow on the back of the chair? Masterfully done in the moment, and the misdirection where you’re so focused on the gnarly angle of his head and neck that you don’t notice (this is me as a non-wrestler just guessing and maybe talking out my arse)

‘I think everyone knows what to expect’. Coach TK’s words verbatim on the Busted Open show. I think that’s the strongest evidence so far. The man does not play with fire like that if he is not going to meet expectations. Yes he can be prone to hyperbole but the promotion tends to err towards ‘giving the people what they want’ rather than not. Like on Friday, signing a scrub with 1-40 record, thereby immediately going back on the stipulation to put smiles on everyone’s face.

Enjoyed the show all the way through. I haven’t watched Strong or much NJPW at all for ages so even the multi man prelim tags were a breath of fresh air and great action. When did Young Lion Clark Connors transform into off-brand Hangman Page with his flowing golden locks? Jay and Ospreay brought it on the mike, Ishii and Moose brought it in the ring. Main event was good and though it’s a shame to see Archer as quite such a short transitional champ, am excited to see the future twists and turns with the Ace.

Too true. I'm pretty sure I used Punk's words verbatim on here before, but obviously not a unique point of view. I'm an unashamed CM Punk fan. Basically it was CM Punk, Samoa Joe, and the No Mercy Zone Invision message board/modding scene (and modding said wrestlers and moves into the emulated N64 game) that kept my wrestling fandom alive through '04-'06. I have to admit to going down a Youtube rabbit hole last weekend watching MOTB 2011 entrance -> debut of cult of personality entrance music -> live performances of Living Color (*they've still got it clap-clap-clap-clap-clap*) and giddy at the thought of the Chicago crowd going BANANA. Just look at Britt's ovation this week for god's sake. And him looking so happy and healthy now, it just feels like the time is just ripe for a return.

Whatever griding means...anyway, get in line Jonah mate, the Redeemer has plenty of other men to crush. Although Fuego's 0-14 in 2021 singles, so he probably has more a claim than the current challenger.

Shit WWE are not fucking around with their releases this year. Bronson Reed is a total head scratcher (as of there haven’t been plenty of them already).

The thing with Knox that I can’t get over is, over here you have Aubrey, dressed to the nines in her fitted gear and not a hair out of place, and then Knox over there looks like a hobo, with shirt and trousers three sizes too big. Being rake thin only exacerbates it. The ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’ maxim applies here. Any referee who doesn’t take his own appearance on the national stage seriously clearly doesn’t take his officiating duties seriously. He just rolls in off the street to get his pay check, and probably his brown envelope from the Bucks in his back pocket to do their bidding. It’s sickening really. /s

Great choice of gif as usual. Could also have gone with ‘I am the one who knocks!’ with Malakai Black’s face over White’s, given the godawful WWE angle.

I visited Sävsjö down south for work one time so got out into the sticks a bit. Alas, no orgies or cults in sight.