SturmCRF

I miss those innocent days when we could safely assume this was just a metaphor.

As long as Oiwa beats Fale to qualify, I'm still provisionally quite excited for G1 season. Other qualifiers are Ishii vs Moloney, Taichi vs Newman, Chase vs Yoshi Hashi. Chase winning would also be bad, but not quite as tear up your NJPW t shirt maddening as a 400 immobile fraudster beating the potential future of the company. I always want to see lots of fun outsiders, but not so keen on having people in the tournament who definitely won't win because they're not New Japan guys. Claudio would be great, but you know he'd go 5-4 and be as protected but unpushed as he is in AEW.

Mariah Martinelli. God, a Mikel Arteta gimmick could be insufferable if done accurately, though it'd kind of just be a better version of Learning Tree Jericho.

I don't know, but then I manage to suspend my disbelief enough to almost never spot wrestlers slapping their legs on superkicks. All of my contempt for silly and illogical wrestling moves goes to the Panama Sunrise and that alone.

I find almost everything associated with WWE intolerable in a world where AEW exists, but let's not go saying things we can't take back about Sol Ruca and her spectacular finisher.

Anyone else reckon maybe they have Briscoe beat Ricochet to heat him up for a Moxley filler feud before All In? It'll be impossible to sell people on Moxley possibly dropping the title in June, may be a good way to kill time with a nice mini blood feud for a few weeks.

https://youtu.be/Ip5gWThSTHQ?si=AGh4451taIXiPpoQ Awesome, current best active band in the world The Armed did a concert film thing there a couple of years ago, looks like a great venue.

I'd love to see more stuff happen on a typical Dynamite, and more women's matches, and more of the roster featured. But the thought of that eight minute Eddie vs Finlay match enrages me. Who doesn't want to see those two have a match twice that long? AEW is about as good as American TV wrestling has ever been at maximizing actual wrestling and minimizing bullshit finishes and in ring talking segments, and it still has too many of those things. I'm not sure what the answer is, but more multi person matches are a great start. Make in ring talky segments, contract signings and such a very scarce occurence, what sport just allocates precious sport time to competitors talking at each other? Do a New Japan, emphasise short post match interviews, don't just tell your paying customers they have to spend 20 minutes watching MJF try to bribe people with sex workers when they could be watching a trios spotfest. Be wrestling for the sickos where only the best wrestle, leave the other guys to waste time and a month of Walter's career on jingoistic podcast bro fuckheads.

Hobbs was TNT Champion! Don't blame you for forgetting as QT Marshall ruined it by attaching himself to him to make sure he didn't get over.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm loving current New Japan. It's like a cup competition where all the favourites go out early and everything's there for the taking. The overall match quality is taking a hit without Okada, Ospreay and Naito when he could still go, but the intrigue is high. Callum Newman is about to challenge for the IWGP Title. Could he win it? Of course not, that would be fucking insane, but I kind of love that it's even a possibility. Gabe Kidd vs Yota Tsuji was one of the best matches I've seen in a long time, and it can't have hurt that they knew there are several gaping voids at the top of the card.

As a fellow Gunther enjoyer, I'm fine with him losing the fake World title and moving on to better things.

I did wonder about that, and I'm an English man who got into American football for a few years about 15 years ago to justify my Sky Sports subscription, but soon stopped following it because it didn't have promotion and relegation.

Thing about Malakai as a character is it does sort of massively undermine him to lose very often, certainly against anyone below the absolute top tier. But of course, he's the guy who came up with the character of 'tatted up, non-theistic diabolical mastermind who anticipates your every move and is an expert kickboxer.' Which is mainly based on who he actually is, to be fair, but still reads a bit too much like a 15 year old's efed creation.

I loved that Steiners theme, I think because it reminds me of sneaking downstairs as a kid to watch Royal Rumble 93, which started with their match vs The Beverly Brothers and was the first time I saw them. I was blown away by the Frankensteiner, and went to school humming their entrance music. It doesn't quite hold up, but I've never forgotten it in over 30 years.

I really like Mike Bailey. I guess he's samey, but he's still really good at wrestling, all told, and I like watching good wrestlers. He was the highlight of Wrestlemania weekend a couple of years ago, I'm glad he's getting signed by a major company and look forward to seeing him against almost everyone on the roster. If he can smuggle Veda Scott into the commentary rotation, even better.

For some reason, when I was eight years old, I decided that giving my New Foundation Jim Neidhart action figure 'Run To You' as his entrance music was the key to launching his big singles babyface push.

I would have been all for Harley winning at Grand Slam until I remembered that Mercedes needs to keep the Rev Pro title so I can see her defend it in London.

Fuck, Brandyn Monark is exactly what they'd call him.

Shit, I set myself up for that one. The 'as good' is doing a lot of work in my sentence, admittedly. Better-Giulia, Stephanie Vacquer, Roxi, Gigi Dolin, Wren Sinclair. As good-Sol Ruca, Fallon Henley, Jaida Parker, Tatum Paxley, Kelani Jordan, Lash Legend, Lola Vice, Jakara Jackson, Jacey Jayne, Cora Jade. Ok, it's 15. Don't want to start plumbing the depths with your Jazmyns Nix and Theas Hail just to make a point. Still, point being, AEW has a small handful of unpolished but promising women on their roster to go along with the veterans, and WWE is stockpiling them, with some even having wrestled for AEW on Dark. I have no idea if they would have accepted an AEW contract if offered, but it does feel like Tony doesn't see the value in having an expanded female roster because he doesn't intend to offer them enough TV time for it to be worthwhile. Athena and Billie Starkz are right there, locked away on the ROH website until they get to wrestle in front of a viewing audience in the five figures four times a year!

Authors Of Pain had that great match with TMDK (TM61?) in NXT, and I think also with DIY and FTR? And they just look like terrible neckless meat bastards in the way that you want from your pro wrestlers. So I'd like to see them add some variety to the AEW tag division, with the proviso that they're not borderline insane conmen, which that Nia Jax featuring arena show they tried to run during their last release has me unsure about. The best women in AEW might be as good or better than WWE's, but in terms of depth of talent it isn't even close. I like Penelope Ford and Anna Jay a lot (settle down, etc, but also they're decent wrestlers on their day!), but there are at least 20 women on the NXT roster alone who are as good or better in the ring.

I feel like there was definitely a point where Cedric was having matches with a higher ceiling than the best I've seen from Moriarty (not Mortos, Mortos is amazing). And he maybe projects bigger (or might just outright be bigger by quite a lot?) But at this point his main advantage is what he'd add to the Hurt Syndicate continuity. If he's motivated and doesn't mind that Tony Khan was rude to his wife, they should give him a shot.

Addendum - they should probably sign literally every woman WWE releases. And add at least another hour of TV so they can feature them. They don't have enough women.

I dunno, I'm of the unpopular opinion that AEW should at least consider signing almost everyone WWE releases. Stick em on a Collision with an Ospreay or a Kenny, see what they can do. If they run through their tired WWE act and wrestle a bang average match against your best guys, say thanks and send them on their way, they'll still have contributed to an overall feeling that anything can happen and anyone can show up on any given show. If they look like they're still at a Shelton level of having something to prove, and their character seems freshened up away from the evil empire, chuck them a contract, better that than fritter money away on another Fulham squad player.

I'm almost as far from Gordi as you can get in terms of my overall AEW enthusiasm (still love it, watching it is my girlfriend and I's main shared hobby, it still shits on WWE), but he's so right about how disappointing the shift away from clean finishes is. It has to be somewhat of a superstar ego/politics thing, but it's a big part of what has made Dynamite a lesser show the last couple of years. If bullshit finishes are rare, they have meaning and can put heat on the wrestlers, when they're happening three times a week it just makes Tony Khan look like a coward. Okada should be beating anyone and everyone clean as a sheet until he loses that title. Ditto Mox. Villains can be villains because they're terrible people, but still be good at fighting. Look at most of the UFC roster. Maybe a bad example because if AEW was that much of a c**t hive I'd have stopped watching it just like I did MMA. But I still think wrestling could make a lot of hay with 'I hate this guy, why is he so damned talented?!' rather than 'I hate this guy, when will the booking arbitrarily decide it's time for enough good guys to run in to counteract all the bad guys he has in his stable so the good guy that they telegraphed would win the title months ago can finally do so'? Sure, you can argue that too many clean finishes and badass, honestly dominant heels leads to those heels getting over as faces, but so what? That's basically Swerve and his booking is probably the best thing AEW have done since 2022.