HarryArchieGus

If we're trying to build Thekla as Wardlow/Cargill than the play would be destroy all, but obviously they went another direction. The first Thekla-Aminata bout got ppl talking. And interested. Going back to that match again, and letting Thekla work for her first feud win is the new play. The alternative, considering AEW's monster pushes historically, could easily be aimless squashing (see too much of Hobbs' run) - which would be no fun. The fact that ppl are coming alive for Queen-Thekla mid-match battles in trios and guantlets suggests to me it's working. I think its a positive example of AEW's creative going with something working that fell into their lap. Or maybe it was designed this way from the beginning.

Anything! Any kind of follow-up on these prize wins would be appreciated. It boggles the mind how there has yet to be anybody showing off their new wares? Maybe AR Fox could show up this eve sporting the proceeds of his ROH PPV money prize win. This Dynamite is shaping up nicely. This is a totally fair point. It's an unorthodox move to have them both wrestling, but I'm gonna wait til Hanger has a chance to discuss 'why' in his opening promo. 6 years in it's safe to say TK makes some wonky calls that sometimes go against logical traditional promoting/booking, but some of these calls have a way of working themselves out just fine. Especially when they're experiencing this kind of posi-vibe-wave.

Great to see all the Seger love. 'Still the Same' in the right setting fucking murders me. 'Ramblin' Man' was an excellent addition to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. That early Seger System is fantastic, but so is much of his catalog. And let's not forget 'Her Strut' and the 'Woman' who used it oh so well. RIP 'the Greatest' Nancy Sullivan.

I suspect the hesitancy with Aminata is her perhaps too snug at times offence. It’s hard to see any other glaring flaws. She looks and carries herself like a proper star. Reactions are good - especially considering her win/loss record. Having a mouthpiece could help.I think she’s far more ready to be elevated than many of her greenhorn contemporaries-Julia, Sky, Anna, Jade etc. I like the caution with mega-pushing another stardom signee. Not to say Thekla ends up in WWE at the end of this, but who knows. Whatever the case, I hope they never allow a wrestler in the last year of their contract to directly shit on an entire division in their promos while defeating everybody in said division ala Mariah. I wish they would have let Willow handily defeat her on the way out.

The crowds are already getting up for them to do battle, so I'd say the feud is working. It's already one of the better undercard Women's Division feuds we've ever had. I do get that the perception of Aminata as (credible) enhancement talent, but she's also young and clearly somebody they have stock in. Despite some hiccups here and there, she's looked consistently strong for a long time now. I'd love to see her get a serious push - I think she's due. Thekla has unique physical charisma and I wouldn't be opposed to seeing her jettisoned into a top program very quickly. Winning a hard fought feud with the Queen sounds like a good way to get her there.

Perhaps a few ppl would benefit from changing their habits then. Sounds like a kneejerk reaction without a modicum of consideration. (This is not a comment on the disupte or any comments concerning it.)

There does seem to be some truth to this. I like to fantasize about a time when these PPVs are paid for, er became PLEs, and they can do away with the 'hours=value' concept limiting these shows to a reasonable 3 hours. Saturday wasn't a case of it, but so many PPVs have featured tired audiences in those later hours. I saw it first hand. An arena full of ppl hyped for the first Danielson-Okada match, but too sleepy to react to much of any of it in the 5th hour of the show. I mentioned it before, it also feels like so much great work goes right into the ether to be completely forgotten (sans proper follow-up). To be honest tho, I'm not a binge-watcher. That seems to still be a popular viewing technique, so maybe it's what a modern audience wants? The tired groans after most of these magnficent shows makes me question that idea.

Takeshita-Bandido was absolutely magical. Two of the best in their prime. I'm ready for a Takeshita 'AEW' World Title run.

I'm a fan of Adam Cole on commentary. He's been very good on his guest spots. I was thinking the same thing about his joining so regularly being potentially prep. I hope that is the case. And I dearly hope he nor anybody else ever takes an Authority Figure role on AEWTV. It's an incredibly tired trope, and one that AEW has historically worked in very poorly - see the random heel Bucks' calls and especially the truly terrible Chris Daniels run. I prefer keeping it to Schiavone gets word from TK in the back and grabs a mic.

They were experiencing a ridiculous miscommunication as two mansplainers are prone to do. I thought Dave's emotions clouded his explanation. I knew what he was talking about immediately, but his explanation wasn't exactly clear. Alvarez needing an explanation and his inability to compute this pretty obvious situation was a bit mindboggling. I was without a ffwd option in that moment, and found the whole thing excruciating to listen to. I like the choice to cut into SNME, and loved the show, but running over-long shows will always feel like a mistake. As good as this show was so much of it will be forgotten very quickly. Especially with AEW's longstanding inability to create a proper set of videos (not 30 seconds and a million cuts) to follow-up on ANYTHING. I look forward to the day when they discover the power of a proper follow-up. Nonetheless, love this company - flaws included.

So many incredible nuggets throughout this show - Hobbs’ power slam on Yuta off Claudio’s shoulders. I said Goddamn Goddamn!

Spectacular show! FTR-Outrunners 2 was fun on the zero. Dug the Opps-Death Riders and strong finish. Earlier in the thread somebody mentioned the negative of Casino Guantlets being a lot of ppl lying around for a long time - spot on. Production had the hardcam far wider than necessary throughout the night, and in no place was it more evident than the 'geeks' lying around ringside during the Casinos. Still, I didn't not have fun watching that Men's match, and very much liked the MJF win. Juice Robinson returning as the most generic enhancement talent possible wasn't on my bingo card. Bad move on the beard removal and the dull new presentation. I only caught the end of the TNT title match. I like a brief Dustin run before Fletcher murders him. The Cole stuff feels very ominous. His heartfelt promo added nicely to the posi vibes of this show. Swerve/Ospreay-Bucks was so goddamn fun. I love the Bucks moving on from the 'EVP' tags. The Womens Casino was more hit than miss, but not without some ugh moments. I like the Athena win. Hurts-Pats-Jetspeeds was a bit wonky at points. Speedball stood out again. The Nick Wayne turn was nice. Cope making a quick save felt a little contrived, but suckered me in on the 'Go find yourself' line. Mone-Toni was the classic it needed to be. Goddamn did I ever feel that pop on the 3! The Omega entrance made for some good satirical comedy. Not a fan of Omega's alternate theme. My expectations were in check and I thoroughly loved Omega-Okada. I question the wonky call on the Continental rules being altered for the most important match. Not sure Kenny needed the extra protection in the booking. The Page-Moxley main event was so fanfuckintastic! The Danielson pop filled me with pure joy! Mox's sell on the finish was a total highlight. Darby, fuck yes! Loved the Swerve-Hanger stuff. Man, Page pulling the strap outta the case! So many great little moments on this show. Awe-inspiring effort throughout. L-U-V-A-E-DUB!

That ‘mistake’ spiked all their money metrics. Not that I disagree nor was I a fan of the incredibly overrated and consistently corny bloodline. Lengthy Reigns and USO promos/skits/entrances (and most any of their matches) are my wrestling kryptonite. My kryptonite was the universe’s want tho. And somehow in that snoozefest Sami Zayn rose above to provide nothing but gold nuggets. The Death riders in comparison never bored me with lengthy entrances and promos. Mox’s promos never dipped below his regular standard of excellence. Further, his matches despite spirited criticism have also been consistently good. All I remember of the ‘Bad’ was the initial Job squad angle and the questionable choices for opponents - namely Cope and Orange. Both were like this storyline, not bad, just not great. You could say it ‘got good’ in this last portion, but it’s largely thanks to the heat Mox and co built.

To the Prime users, can the ppv be streamed from the beginning after it starts? How are the playback functions for ppv on prime?

I hope that 8 man with the teams leads to FTR being added to the All In Tag Title match. Shibata-Kidd sounds like a helluva bout. Mistico-Beast and the Ladies All star 8 man could be fun. I'm game for more Paragon-Callis Family reps. KOR/Roddy and the RPG Vice are awesome teams. Fletcher doesn't seem to have anything less than spectacular matches. I love back to back nights.

Death Rider Moxley deserves more credit than he's given. All the hurt feelings were well worth the build for the hot babyface Cowboy to emerge. The hot babyfaces I should say - Swerve and Ospreay and the returning Darby Allin feel like a big part of all this. It took a lot of gumption to stick with this story while so many loud voices dramatically cried foul. I'm very, very pleased they did.

AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Adam Page. AEW Women's World Championship: Timeless Toni Storm vs. Mercedes Mone. AEW Unified Championship: Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada. AEW TNT Championship: Adam Cole vs. Kyle Fletcher. AEW World Tag Team Championship: The Hurt Syndicate vs. Jet Speed vs. The Patriarchy. The Young Bucks vs. Will Ospreay/Swerve Strickland. Men's Casino Gauntlet match: Ricochet Women's Gauntlet match: Statlander or maybe Bayne

Certainly there are some reasons to question it, but I love the Casino Gauntlet. The 'lying around while somebody gets their stuff in' shit hasn't been as bad as any of the multi-man ladder matches. The fact that it isn't a ladder match nor a battle royal is just a huge sigh of relief. I also feel relieved that the match doesn't feature 4 new entrants representing a card suit at the buzzer. Lastly, as a way to get ppl on the card, it sure beats a forgettable 8 plus man tag or (the absolute worst) a fucking 'scramble'.

Excellent Dynamite. The Mercedes-Toni opener was good. Mercedes sounded pretty wooden opposite Storm - so many cliches. Toni outclasses her in every way on the microphone. Stoked for the match tho. And nice finish to the segment. The Bucks arrival was needlessly awkward. Production sometimes seems lost as to how these things work. Bandido/Brody-Takeshita/Fletcher was so goddamn wonderful. Stoked for Bandido-Takeshita on Friday. Fair Outrunners promo, but great Collision callback. Glad to see this. FTR oughtta be added to that Tag Title match. Stokely was strong on the mic opposite the Patriarchy. Ricochet-Blake Christian was a good solid TV bout. GOA show up in their casuals - AEW has long needed a tasteful fashion coordinator. Dug the goofy Hurt Syndicate promo with Renee coming in and out. Very nice Okada-Omega video package. The MJF-Briscoe talky was alright. Certainly it could've been tighter, but nice to see Mark get this kind of TV time. I liked seeing JetSpeed get one over on the Hurts, but the quiet sound of that crowd suggested it might be a little too late. I like Christian/Wayne joining in to soften the Champions for Saturday. Nice to see MVP take a beating too. Bayne-Aminata-Tekla-Tay was strong. Bayne-Ford are a lameduck pairing. I like them both, but they have no chemistry together whatsoever. Bayne needs a proper mouthpiece/manager. Also, can somebody help Tay with that presentation? Layered thongs is not working. Still, great to see her again. Tekla and Aminata looked good, and I liked seeing them get into it post break. Renee reporting over screaming chaos is fun. Joe-Yuta was another solid TV bout. Yuta needs to add a touch of aggression to his offense. Happy to see Gabe Kidd back. Mox/Claudio/Bucks-Ospreay/Shibata/Hobbs/Hanger was a nice preview of things to come. Ugh, (bro) I did not at all dig the corny limo destruction (bro). Totally lame with awkward cutbacks to the ring. *Fart sound. So much great stuff on this show. Stoked for Thursday Collision. Can we all band together and WILL TNT to move Collision to Thursdays permanently. I love back to back nights.

Darby Allin appearing on Maron. I believe it airs Friday. Great press on the heels of All in.

FTR-Outrunners was goddamn pro wrestling magic! It feels like every week Dax/Cash are topping themselves. What a fantastic run they're on! When the Outrunners hit that Shatter Machine, I had tears of joy. God bless Wrestling's great storytellers. That was one of the darkhorse matches of the year. Here's hoping Turb/Truth can take some momentum from this. And let's get the Tag straps back on a team who can make their opponents look great.

Yeah, this is silly. MVP's out doing press seemingly alluding to Helmsley being racist any chance he gets, so not sure how that makes any sense. For him at least. And when was the last time Benjamin was in a position of this importance? When was he even able to wrestle substantial matches? Obviously, there's more to being a content or happy employee, but I sense he's enjoying himself. Lashley is a question mark, but not sure I buy his wanting to go back. Alvarez has a ridiculous tendency to overlook the booker in these scenarios. Bailey/Knight and the teams who came and went before them looking like 'geeks' is all on the man with the pencil. Tony isn't the only one of us who was clamouring for a dominant 2025 Roadies style team. It's been discussed on these boards since the beginning. I don't blame the try, I appreciate it even, but it's a good time to change it up. Whatever the case booking your Tag Champions to defend once a month or so is the bigger problem.

I'm much happier knowing I won't be hearing Anthony Bowens yell 'Everyone loves the Acclaimed' any week soon. Bowens promos were amongst the worst in the business while aligned with Caster. His promos continue to need work. He's a young guy with nice upside, but it's gonna be a long road of 50/50 for him. And that's how it should be. If he gets over we can talk 'Push'. Until then, yeah, he needs to keep plugging away and find new ways to connect to the audience. To start he should definitely go with one nickname, I think we all agree the lame 5 tool bit has to go. They should also trim the dramatic opening portion of his theme music and come in with the guitars. I wanna say Max Caster should keep doing his thing, but wish we could move along from the pre-match long-winded chant along.

Totally agree. They sacrificed some ppl's affection over the course of this past year with this Death Riders run, but seems to me it's paying off. And will continue to pay off. Uncertainty is a beautiful thing in the world of Professional Wrestling.

The live audience reaction felt light - that's how I was feeling. I didn't think the beating was particularly strong, but I could see that. I just thought Bailey/Knight looked weak not getting any quick turnaround offense. Especially considering they started this. I liked what Knight was trying for, but that line felt like a tired cliche to me. All that said, I'm happy to hear some ppl dug it. Yeah, the Briscoe exit/no return made zero sense. Nor did coming out on the mic to set-up another mic segment. That part they somehow pulled off tho.