Zakk_Sabbath

I'm sure he had it because he just really, really likes her music.

Weird thought, but I wonder if the Wembley contract Christian has is meant to replace the DoN casino chip (which I think they teased a similar MITB-like 'cash in' concept with when MJF had it). Multiple tournaments per year is one thing (plus the CC points system separates it conceptually a bit from the Owen) but I'm not sure there ought to be two "deus ex machinas" floating around within months of each other. (For the record: yes, that's what I named my custom briefcase in the 2K game). As for the show, I enjoyed the hell out of this one other than the few things already mentioned (I love Ricochet, but man, the people are ready for Brody).

You're also correct - that's what happens for ongoing care once you've properly informed your employer (which varies by state, but is usually just a form you have to execute within a set period). The funny thing too, is your employer's doctor is usually called an "Independent" Medical Provider, which.. LOL.. now you understand the automatic denials. What I was describing in my post is what happens in an emergency room-type scenario prior to your claim having been accepted and established by whatever state's WC commission (which then requires your health insurer to send a request for reimbursement to your employer's WC insurer through a process called subrogation - which is sort of what Fenix was ostensibly supposed to do here). I should've been clearer but really didn't think anyone would want me to bore them to death with the details of an old desk job lol

I could understand that, but honestly, it just sounds like the way the vast majority of Workers' Compensation cases work for most of the non-wrestling-employed public - especially independent contractors (whose 'clients' often aren't willing to foot the bill, as AEW is here). I think that's why a lot of the guys make themselves into LLCs (that, and to take advantage of Florida's income tax laws). Edit: @ExcellenceofAirPollutionuyou posted while I was typing but this applies to yours too

Weird that this immediately jumped to mind, I'm sure there are better examples but: Juice as CJ Parker accidentally busting KO's face open during the latter's NXT debut, and somehow splitting his hand open pretty gnarly in the process

Apologies in advance if this technically breaks any rules (I'm not trying to make any statement or anything so I figure it's Kosher) but let me tell you, as a registered Independent, the last ~6 months have been a friggin' nightmare with this phone. I must've been the hottest (on paper) free agent since Okada, sometimes 10-20 calls a day

@tbarrie well said, and fully agree as far as Holo's likely-planned post-CC position. Without the injury, I think maybe we'd have seen a 3-2 showing, with at least one loss being fairly competitive to signal he can hang

Adding to your post, I don't think that's the worst thing in the world, either - I could see fans of Holo taking that comparison as semi-unflattering, but AW in those days could be called on for a two-segment cruiser banger, comedy-leaning stuff with Mean Gene promos or the Disco team, and still be taken seriously as an upper-mid guy versus your Andersons, Flairs, etc. or as TV or CW champ. I'd sign up for that tomorrow

As another big fan of his, I agree. You know what I think would be a good way to spice him up? I think you fold this newfound quasi-leadership quality of his we've seen on display during the backstage promos/angles re: Death Riders, and call back to his earlier stuff by having him somehow usurp Jericho, and get Keith/Bill to turn on him and break off into their own tag team (or even temporarily team with Danny as a trio, in a Conglomeration-type situation after turning on him). I know you/others reading may be thinking, "The Jericho Vortex for him again, really?" but here's the key to it/general overall purpose in my eyes: that fucking dance is gonna have to be his "Yes-chant" to sustain himself as a babyface, unless he can come up with something better to neutralize the blanditude. So while I wouldn't ordinarily want to revisit the Jericho well having already kinda been there (and wouldn't blame Garcia himself if it wasn't his first choice - I recall reading Sammy turned down something semi-similar to what I'm describing here) I honestly think it's worth it to revisit solely for the purpose of giving Danny a bit of a "hook" character-wise. I saw him wrestle Danielson in a Dynamite main event once live and no exaggeration, I was getting legitimately mad at other people for sitting on their hands a bit. ETA: Once Cool Hand Ang is off paternity leave, maybe putting him/Daddy Magic back with Danny as a trio is the move. Those guys have loads of personality

Major bummer (not just for whatever may or may not have happened to him, if at least objectively accurate - like 'inhumane' is a super strong word if it ends up being like, 'They made me drop the IN title back to Mox!' or something, but obviously I'd entertain any legitimate gripe) - but because in all seriousness, I am a fan of his to the point that I've been harboring a weird, child of divorce-like hope that he/he and Penta would somehow end up sticking around. I own very few current wrestlers' shirts these days, but I got Fenix's as soon as I saw one. You know how there's that thing where WWE has been looking for the "next" Rey Mysterio so long that modern medicine progressed to where he's somehow just healthy and great again himself? I really thought at one time that Fenix had a shot at being that for AEW.

I'm a slight conspiracy theory guy (the fun old-timey ones, not the new actual-danger ones): TNA's in bed with WWE, I could plausibly see an A to B to C. Here's another good one I thought of this week: TNA "randomly" booked UBS Arena on Long Island for an upcoming PPV, and everyone's like "Oh whoa, huge building, I wonder what they have up their sleeve?" - meanwhile, I got to thinking about the "no other wrestling 90 days before or after" clause that WWE puts in their building agreements now - the conspiracy theory is WWE's using TNA as a proxy to keep AEW out of the building while both maintaining plausible deniability, and not disrupting their already-routed loop - meanwhile in parallel, TNA doesn't give a shit if they only put 800 people in there because they already got a check for whatever their normal/average house would've been (or maybe a little extra to sweeten the deal) from their daddies in Stamford.

Oh yeah, definitely concur - my bad, I should have emphasized that more and opened with like "You are entirely correct and also:" lol ETA: It's obviously not suited for this thread, but I'd actually double down on your argument and say it's something that you could apply to a multitude of folks on the roster across all four shows (I say four because I've seen more talk among the general pop about Nu-ROH this week with Jericho's appearance than I have since probably the Briscoes/FTR chain match). I think that's kind of a great example of exactly what you're talking about, actually

I had this thought earlier on, but after seeing Okada wrestle on Rampage or Collision at the last three tapings I've been to, I've come to the conclusion that they're sort of doing this, but on a much smaller scale: he's the dangling fish to keep everyone from going home right after Dynamite

I'll agree with all of this - I think it's also kinda great timing for Kommander to be able to make these appearances while Hologram is out hurt, maybe leading to a more "regular" spot in the rotation during such (not that there's only room for one luchador or anything, but in terms of being able to get heavily behind em in that way)

Despite a few small flaws (this used to be the promotion of clean finishes, dammit!) I thought this was a friggin' fantastic installment - this crowd seemed more into the proceedings than last week's too, which is always a big plus in terms of atmosphere. And really, even my finish complaint is like... I get why they were done, I can't really argue with the logic behind em. I thought the ending was fantastic, too. I might be in the minority on this, but I think you can pivot back to a babyface Hangman without undermining him/his great heel run, as long as you don't change much about him or his motivations. Lazy example, but uber-babyface Steve Austin of '98-'99 really didn't change much from when he was doing the same thing as a heel in late '96, he just started getting cheered for it, and that was that. I think you could engineer similar here (and maybe even in a more compelling way, given the possible outcomes with involving the other Elite guys once they return, involving Swerve later, maybe involving Dark Order as a sub-angle, or a returning Trent Barretta... A million ways to go). Thumbs highly up.

Settle me gently

My favorite New Day moment ever didn't even happen on WWE TV, but I saw it reposted here years and years ago: they were doing promotion on a local TV morning newscast somewhere, kinda giving the ol' "circus is in town" pitch, when one of the anchors asks "So wait, all three of you are the Tag Team champions??" - before the fellas even had a chance to formulate an answer, his co-anchor, a very straight-laced, professional-looking woman, without skipping a beat blurts out "Uh, yeah, Dan - its called the Freebird rule." Just impeccably timed by her. Also, E's Players Tribune piece got me right in the feelings - highly recommend. If it's the end of the road for those guys, it was certainly a great run (especially considering the, let's say 'limitations,' there at times). ETA: Also, I hope everyone who celebrates had a nice Thanksgiving last week - things got a little hectic IRL so we've still got half of Dynamite plus Saturday's shows to catch up on, and I've been hanging back to avoid spoilage

Right?? There's legit a non-zero chance this was the last thing I heard before news of Princess Diana passing broke into my 2 AM Worldwide airing

Highly, highly off topic: 79 other people have Brad Armstrong's sick ass WCW ring music on their 'liked' playlist. All of you are here, correct?

Nah fuck that I'm a blue sky guy now Adam Cole is the best and #(7 because I'm also reasonable)

Actually yeah, true. Idk why I was thinking he was closer to 30-33, I'll retract that *particular point

I like MJF but I'm hard-pressed to disagree here, you make some excellent points. My totally speculative assumption is that they did the best they could w those promos having to work around whatever his Happy Gilmore II shooting schedule is, so I'll offer a little grace on that one. Overall, though, I agree that we're quickly reaching the stage with MJF where bad habits/instincts are likely semi-permanently ingrained - love it or not, like, this is probably the final package.

We're not on the same page with Darby (which is cool, just taste) but I'd be good with all this. I was a little worried about Hanger maintaining that post-Swerve momentum going into the Switchblade matches, but I can think of fewer ways to re-legitimize him than pivoting to him here vs. Mox. I don't know that any one of those three is necessarily going to emerge as THE Sting-like figure - it makes sense IF we're still building to Darby dethroning Mox as the endgame, for him to be that, for painfully obvious reasons - but I think there's plenty of room for those sort of, I don't wanna say "secondary" allies, but again using the (tired) NWO comparison, your Giants, Lugers, DDPs, Pipers, Flairs, Steiners etc.

I'm late to the party but Mone/Stat and Ospreay/Fletcher were the MOTNs for me, so while I completely see what a bunch of you are saying in terms of the agenting/layout/samey-ness, both tickled my fancy so much that I truly can't complain with a straight face. Yes, of course less is more - who am I to argue with conventional wisdom? - but talking strictly personal taste wise? fuck it: sometimes more is more too lol.

Great call. That Hogan/Luger example is my go-to whenever the idea of having to pivot slightly during a long-term story comes up (most recently, I think was during the build to Hangman/Kenny, when Christian beat Kenny for the TNA title on the first Rampage - I don't think it killed the Hangman match at all and was a nice way to spice things up).