HarryArchieGus

That’s a stretch, but I suppose you see something I don’t. I like the glasses. Reminds me of Tully and those of yesteryear that would occasionally wear them during promos. Reads (in very shallow terms) as the thinking man’s wrestler.

These Collision shows from E-Sports Stadium are such a perfect fit for this show and ROH (as DreamBroken mentioned in the ROH thread). The crowds seem a little more engaged this time around, and i love that they stopped sending the hard cam up the empty aisleway. Aramis/Clon v Komander and Briscoe v Hechicero were excellent. Really liked the D Riders-Flight trios, and the follow up angle with Bayne gave the show an unpredictable and exciting feel to begin. Brody King's squash made the most of his minutes. A simple thing, but I loved the camera following him around ring high fiving post match. Not that it always needs to happen, but it made Brody look like a big deal to the audience. I also just like segments that help the show to breathe. The Mens and Womens Trios bouts were fun. Stat continues to feature some of the tackiest outfits in Wrestling, but damn did she ever look good in the match. Maybe it's because I'm a fan, but Lady Frost seems to outshine so many of the ladies she lays down for. Oh, and shout out to the nice little tag bout on ROH - Swirl vs Billington/Priest. Skimming thru the ROH listings lately, very pleased with this roster of (mostly) young talent. They've quietly put something nice together. Not that i expect this will lead to anymore focus on the shows then now. Still, some nice action to be had.

I believe, correct me if I'm wrong here, Omega and Cole and O'Reilly all got injured. I may be off on the timeline, but at least one of those three went down right away with the other two following. Bobby Fish's Punk match story seems to be his claim to fame, and I don't at all believe his 'I thought he called an audible' story.

Zayda Steel's charisma, even as a secondary corner person, outshined everybody in that very good Trios match and post segment. This lady's got some serious potential. Not sure I like saddling her with the lower card flight attendants, but then again, maybe she can help raise the interest level in them.

I love Roderick Strong's most basic fundamentals eg. his incredible footwork. I love his offense - the backbreakers all look punishingly fantastic to me. He's such a crisp quietly beautiful wrestler, and I'm not sure there's anybody really 'better'. I don't need all big personalities and superstars to satisfy my weekly wrestling habit - I need workhorses like Roddy. I'm tickled that TK seems to feel the same. To me, both Roddy and Kyle are quintessential tag wrestlers. They don't stand out as singles, but pair them with the right partner, and their 'in the pocket'. I still love thinking about that Roddy/Jack Evans team from yesteryear. As much as I'd love KOR and Roddy to get a tag title run, I'd equally welcome a Roddy and Insert high flyer. It's interesting how set in the past ppl become about their opinions of certain wrestlers. Why typecast? I don't get that line of thinking. I'm always ready for a refresh - it's why I love seeing misused talents get a second shot post WWE (Toni, Swerve, Shelton Benjamin, Ricochet, etc.). The Undisputed Era feels like a relic of the past to me. I don't think it was all terrible tho. The initial run before injuries was solid. The booking choices upon returning were problematic, but more than anything they ran into injury problems.

I won't say I ever expected Toni to become the talker she's become, but Dean's enthusiasm for Toni Storm was enough to make me watch close. I was always impressed - as you said, always an excellent wrestler. I would say for me she's currently the best all around wrestler going. I love her simple in ring style - hard hitting where needed. She's easily my favorite talker over the past two years. Everything she does is so impressive.

Isn't the KOR backlash from one repetitious poster? I've mostly only seen KOR in AEW, but have always been impressed. This past year in particular was very strong - even prior to the Mox stuff. His matches, early in the year tho seemingly forgotten, alongside Roddy against FTR were both excellent. That Roddy/Kyle team is as good as any in the company, and I'd love to see them strapped at some point. Further, Kyle put forth some solid effort with his promo work this year. Certainly they weren't all hits, but his quriky humour during Conglomeration promos helped provide some missing character elements from his game. But again, in ring, especially if you were watching Collision, KOR was consistently great all year long.

Totally disagree on the NBK version to watch. The theatrical cut is far superior. I dig those outtakes, and especially the scene you mentioned, but their inclusion in the longer Directors Cut kills the incredible momentum in the original release. Especially the prison break scene. Those cuts are better utilized as part of the special features. During the DVD/'Blu Ray' era, and up until recently, (I believe) the only way to properly watch said theatrical cut was on VHS or Laserdisc. Further, for some shitty licensing issue, Nine Inch Nails 'Burn' was removed from a crucial point in the movie - the breakdown before Leonard Cohen's the Future takes us into the credits. I don't think I've ever encountered this issue with a film before, or not that I'm aware - obviously there are lots of TV show examples. Burn was restored with the recent UHD release. I've always been curious what QT's NBK would look like, but I certainly wouldn't trade it for what we got. NBK in that theatrical cut is to me perfection, and an (often) underappreciated masterpiece. Stone to me is extremely hit and miss (Wall Street, the Doors etc.), but NBK and JFK are amongst my favorite films of that era. Honorable mention to the overlooked U Turn and Any Given Sunday. Totally with you on the Soundtrack. The fearless mixing of Leonard Cohen with Dr. Dre and Enya and Patti and the Cowboy Junkies etc etc is absolutely incredible. And Burn is amongst the best NIN tracks of the era. A huge influence on my mixtape and radio show production ever since. That soundtrack is a standalone movie in itself. I'm with you on these two. I just saw the latter this week and very much dug it. Agree, it's nice to see an 'adult' movie slide in amongst the cartoons, comic books and horror ruble. I'd also love to see more movies about... Which wouldn't be my takeaway if they'd not been so tasteful here. No cringe sentimentality. From my perspective, this makes Bradley Cooper 3 for 3. Star is Born was terrific commercial fare and the Maestro was criminally underrated. I don't sense Netflix home viewing delivered the full capablities of that beautiful soundtrack.

It’s not uncommon for a heel or face to drop some falls before a turn. I thought the KOR feud was excellent - tho, unfortunate for KOR to disappear with that momentum. The turn just lacked video and promotional support. The Death Riders story was flawed to be sure. Was it as bad as all the complaining suggested? Not to me, but the World TItle programs are pretty consistentally not my favorite thing in any given PPV cycle. The problem for me wasn’t the repetition, but rather the choice of challengers. Nobody bought Orange winning and too few wanted Cope in the ppv main event mix. Darby was a fun choice, but the timing was completely off. Regardless, that story built up to the Hanger title switch, and for that was arguably worth what came before. Nonetheless, there was a lot of needless confusion caused by unclear storytelling. Aew stories in general that have any depth often do fail to connect because they don’t properly sell the story - see (non-ADD) video packages and dedicated update segments. TKAEW got in their minds early that their viewers wanted action action action, and not video packages, but they really didn’t consider the conduit these segments provide for larger storytelling. The fact that ppl weren’t clear about Mox and the DRs story on a sicko message board like this is a pretty good example of why they’re needed. Excalibur explaining details on commentary is the way aew stories are told, and it almost entirely fails to do the necessary lifting. Aew’s inability to follow up their angles, matches and ppvs is perhaps their greatest weakness. That is incredibly shallow, but maybe true of at least one constant KOR complainer’s thinking.

I'm not a fan of AEW's creative choice to not show a supposed attack or the person in the aftermath. It's happened a few times, and it always comes off slightly awkward. Just show the beatdown. Some rough phone or security footage is perfectly fine. Further, Renee should always be on the scene. That said, the lack of Jetspeed ass beating footage, and sudden debut of Jake Doyle backstage felt like an amusing 1980s territory homage.

Jake… Doyle! God bless TK for seeing the potential in this guy (I suspect Don had something to do with this too) while also recognizing what a debilitating and terrible name ‘Jake Something’ was. Doyle! Yep! Mark Davis is criminally underrated, and one of my favourite wrestlers on this roster. Stoked to see him find his way back into a nice looking tag team.

Old world worn views and salty demeanor aside, it's the sloppy untucked shirts that really get me. Be professional, Jim!

I think there were, but you aren’t alone in missing any said elements. The turn and story required info segments (not simply Excalibur telling the story on commentary) to be truly understood. In general, stories being misunderstood or lost are the consequence of filling your show airtight with wrestling content and avoiding following up important angles/stories with needed videos/segments. Since the beginning aew has relied on Excalibur’s switchtasking storytelling during match commentary and ppl engaging with their social media, and that’s a very poor strategy as evidenced by confusion even amongst us sickos. No better example than the Death Riders story then and now.

Marty Fucking Supreme! Saw'r it Friday and it exceeded my lofty expectations. Chalamet at the peak of his powers and an outstanding cast throughout - Mr. Wonderful proves to be a great choice. I love the inclusion of Abel Ferrera, whom seems to be playing a role that pays homage to his tremendous legacy. Masterful authorship from J. Safdie. Great score and song selection. Absolutely magnificent. Bi Gan's Resurrection came in a little lower than expectations. A plus sound and vision, but the less than satisfying 'story' content made it a bit of a slog. I loved his previous two, but this missed the mark for me. That said, I expect it'll sit with me for awhile, so I'll refrain from registering my 3 1/4 rating just yet. Also, really excellent score from M83 (who returns to my radar 10 plus years later).

Really fun Collision to kick off the year. The E-Sports Stadium looks exponentially better with this set-up - most importantly having the hardcam on a crowd shot rather than the aisle way. This felt a bit like a cozy Manhattan Center Raw.