Steventon

The Kingston-Miro pull apart from OK, but not super hot. Really could have done with Eddie actually working the stick. Zero interest in Bucks vs Lucha Bros for the millionth time. Lucha Bros are mindless spot machines, I am sure there will be one or two highlight reel moments but the match will be as forgettable as all their others. Would have preferred Lucha Express for Jungle Boy getting a big win.

New Wolves In The Throne Room is probably my favourite album of the year so far (until new ETID). Makes me want to go live in the woods and join a craven.

Starks is a bit stuck here. They already have a arrogant heel they are pushing as a main eventer in MJF, and Starks is roughly as good as him on the stick and in the ring. They've thrown their lot fully behind MJF while Starks barely gets on TV, and when he does it's like a 2 minute segment. Pairing him against a guy who can't promo back hasn't helped, but Starks is getting massively overlooked I think. He's only had 4 matches on TV this year!

Bit of a dead show. Closing out with Lee Johnson running off Black was a choice. Not sure I've ever seen Hayter before but she looked good. Match was a bit dead as they had the death spot and Velvet's green-ness was coming out, but Hayter hits hard and is pretty physical. Taking those dives with a flat-back bump made them look better than usual. How have we not had any Kingston promos on Miro yet???

Also, Ted DiBiase looks like Jim Ross. Grimes and Gonzales are both awesome. Good riddance to Cole and Kross.

AEW might have CM Punk, but they haven't got the Best In The World. WALTER vs Ilja was fucking awesome.

I can get some of this. I fell out of love with wrestling hard in the mid-2010s. I was a big indy & puro nerd, but the whole Bullet Club/Elite stuff showing up everywhere was a plague and made those places insufferable. I got back into things a couple years ago and made an effort to catch up on stuff I had missed, but found all the highly praised stuff like Okada vs Omega to be pretty tedious. I like AEW now, but when they first announced the promotion starting up, I had no interest as I didn't like Bucks, Page, thought Omega was alright, but the rest of all those indy guys largely sucked. I enjoy what they have going on now, though a lot of that is down to the booking, presentation and characters more than the actual wrestling content. I was a big Punk fan, following him back to IWA:MS, but I am keeping my expectations low here. I know that makes me look like a totally out of touch old man, but I guess the point is to say you're not entirely alone in those feelings, even if I am enjoying what AEW is doing.

this show gave me a lobotomy ok some more detailed ramblings - I did not watch everything in full length, because fuck that, but from what I saw the opener was my favourite match, and even that was criminally short for the amount of time they have spent building to it. Had to get that Rick Boogs guitar session and Miz watergun stuff in I guess, because that's what people want to see? AJ is massively wasted here but I can't complain too much as he is in his veteran years and is helping develop a new talent in Omos. Omos has the presence and personality, and he seems to be getting incrementally better every match, but he is a real ground zero project. I wouldn't be surprised if he is on the chopping block next year before he even gets 'good'. For me, the real waste here though is Matt Riddle - Sheamus is still a quality gatekeeper, but Priest is mediocre and didn't deliver in his big match. Next! - There is an alternative universe where Usos vs Mysterios delivers a barn-burner, but we aren't living in it. Another match cut criminally short - Becky returning to cut off Bianca's legs. Real stinky stuff. Reminded me how absurdly overrated Becky is because she has the fake Stone Cold gimmick. She is still massively over, but good grief that was dreadful. Her and Charlotte suffocating the women's division in this company is truly awful. - Pleasantly surprised Goldberg didn't gas in 90 seconds like he usually does, but the screwy finish to set up a Saudi match is more trash - Cena is still Cena, for better or worse. Goofball acting, but still 'gets it' and worked really hard to sell for Reigns and make him look great. Match was not good though, these two clearly don't have chemistry and just worked through the textbook WWE Epic playbook. Reigns is best when he is against guys who stylistically contrast with him. - Cool to see Brock back, and as a babyface. Less cool that he is going to be paired against a guy who he's already faced 10 million times already. He looked massive, but the hair and dad jeans look was about as un-intimidating as Brock could possibly be

Aren't Team Filthy contracted with MLW? I have no idea how that all works

Enjoyed the opener. I have no problem with how Ever-rise were used in WWE, but it's a point worth re-iterating how much better they've been treated by AEW, even as cannon fodder. Surprised they didn't have Darby cut a promo or do anything further to tease Punk though, especially as the Rampage trailer later in the show focused on the 'Darby is close to calling himself the best in the world' tagline. Missed opportunity there to add some more juice to it. Sammy vs Spears was enjoyable though definitely went overboard for the 2nd match on a run of the mill TV episode. Would rather see them save some of that stuff for high profile matches, but that would mean Sammy has to have more high profile matches. Dan Lambert was tremendous. This guy is made for pro wrestling in 2021. What an outstanding promo that was so good at targeting the stereotype of the AEW fanbase. The idea of Arlovski and JDS having a match is very exciting. Teasing them getting involved then switching to freaking Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky is a master troll job. I am interested if this actually leads to any of these MMA guys doing something in AEW, because if not then what is the point? Bucks vs JE was whatever. JB had some good moments but typical Bucks/Elite noise, but I did enjoy the beatdown afterwards. They're doing everything they can to make Omega vs Christian a hot match. I'm a big Big Show fan but am mixed about him having a match at ALL OUT. Cool to see him step in the ring, but him vs QT doesn't seem to lead to anything. Is Wright gonna have more big matches or is this a one-off? I'd be much more interested in a 6-man with The Factory vs Wright and 2 others. The Cage-Starks feud getting a completely rushed segment is becoming a running meme at this point. Have they even been given 10 minutes in total on Dynamite since Starks won the belt? I know Cage can't talk but Starks can, so it's a shame this program is treated as such an afterthought. Lucha Bros vs Bucks for the 87th time does zero for me, and the build for Andrade vs PAC has also been a wet fart so far. I'm willing to give Andrade time because all of AEW's acquisitions seem to have lukewarm feuds on arrival before hitting their mark. Speaking of - Miro vs Eddie Kingston!! Please can this be an actual rivalry with promos rather than just a one-off match? I can hope. Main event was whatever. Thought the finish was a bit dumb, the referee is distracted long enough for Jericho to use the bat, but he hesitates to use the Judas Effect why? Made him look a bit of an idiot. The Labours of Jericho has been a pretty hot angle over the last few weeks but the resulting match was entirely forgettable. MJF goes over clean, now what? Is he getting heated up for Punk or Bryan? Is Jericho just going to walk away now? Questions I am interested in seeing the answers to, but still feels like an anti-climax.

is there a reason why they are doing this on the Saturday and TakeOver on Sunday?

4 man booth is two men too much. Really enjoyed Christian vs Omega, probably the best Omega match since against Fenix. He is really, really obvious when he's just killing time for ad breaks, but he's also a tremendous bumper and made all of Christian's stuff look great. Really good use of the protected moves for big nearfalls and I thought Christian winning was a great move. The belt collector stuff has been forced from the start, this certainly adds more juice to the ALL OUT match and it's cool for Impact to have Christian come back with the belt. I like Britt, she has put in a lot of work to improve, but that match with Velvet was pretty fugly. The early chain wrestling stuff and finisher teasing looked so amateur hour after Christian and Omega did the same stuff. Cool finish at least. Post-match was a typical laughably bad AEW debut complete with no one knowing who Jamie Hayter was.

I like this idea. Then they would have a big post-match beat-down from the Elite on Cage and Jurassic Express, leading to Bryan (or Punk) making the save for his debut. The pop would be incredible.

Could be setting up Jungle Boy for Miro at one of the big shows coming up?

Oh shit, Black came out to the new AmenRa!! That alone made me pop bigger than anything he's done before in his career. Awesome. Cool that they put him over so strong in his debut but his entrance continues to be the best thing about him. Cody teasing a retirement we know wasn't coming was an odd choice, did anyone buy that a second? Jericho vs Juvy was alright when they were just wailing on each other, but all the flying and lucha stuff was fugly. Not sure if Juvy is a full-time active wrestler these days but they looked like they weren't on the same page with a lot of stuff. Finish looked good at least and Jericho does look like an old, tired, beat up guy right now, which is fitting for the story. Trios was fun. I really hope they learn from other promotions that trios titles are utterly pointless, but I'd absolutely be down for a one-off tourney at least. Darby, Moxley & Kingston is a dream team. Frankie Kazarian being your Babyface Making The Big Save in 2021 is..... a choice Decent show

AEW giving Ric one more title win after WWE get Chalotte to 16 would be the most tremendous piece of trolling in wrestling history

Very different characters though. Caster as far as I can tell is a shithead mid-card geek you want to see get his lunch fed to him, Miro is an unstoppable monster. I didn't really hear the Julia Hart line, but the line about Biles was just topical internet troll stuff. I'm not saying nothing should be taboo, but he was hardly ripping on mental health. He was basically doing the pro wrestling equal of -

How do we know he's a dick in real life? He's a heel saying outrageous stuff to rile people up, it's a character and it looks like it's worked.

Would AEW want Alexa Bliss? Would she even want to continue being a wrestler? She's pretty bad in the ring and has a history of getting hurt easily. She has name value and is good at playing a character, but how much value does that bring to AEW women's division? Feels like she'd be better going into some other form of entertainment.

Are AEW going to so So Cal any time soon? That would be ideal for a Super Dragon one shot

If you thought the over-pushing of Charlotte was bad before.....

WWE has spent the last 5 or so years building up a pipeline of talent, only to have nowhere for that talent to go. Still relying part-timers for your big matches. Now all that talent has somewhere better to go, but the pipeline is just so big. There's almost enough for ANOTHER major player to swoop in and pick up some big names. No idea what ROH's coffers are like these days but they should be angling for some of these guys.

Cole will obviously end up in AEW as he's boys with the Elite, but seriously - he sucks. We have seen everything he has to offer the wrestling world. And do they need ANOTHER big name if they are already getting Punk and Bryan, on top of under-utilized guys like Black, Andrade and Miro. How long until the start focusing too much on these new acquisitions and guys like Page, Darby, MJF, Jungle Boy end up getting short-changed? I would 100% rather see what AEW could do with Bray Wyatt than Adam Cole.

Angle as a manager is such a perfect use of him, it's mind-boggling WWE didn't do it last time round. Then again it is WWE, so you know, Baron Corbin. Trials of Jericho definitely feels like him ticking some stuff off his bucket list before he hangs it up, but I get the vibe Jericho will only 'retire' like most wrestlers 'retire'. He'll be back, even if he hangs it up as a full-time gig. If that is the case, strange that the first one was so innocuously against Spears.

Another fun show. I think one of the things I appreciate about AEW is how they make so many of the weekly TV shows feel must-see and important. Sort of like peak-ROH, every show was worth watching. I am a known low-voter on Adam Page and think he's a pet project, but credit to AEW they have really made him feel like a star and big deal since crowds have come back. Entrances were great, though they were also probably the best thing about the opener. I appreciate that it was the douchey money-hungry EVPs who were cashing in on the Space Jam sponsership. Not that it wasn't good, but it wasn't a barn-burner either. Johnny Hungee clearly the best guy in it, they should have let him eliminate one of the Bucks ti give him a moment. Cool swerve with the finish, very unpredictable booking move. Wonder if they pivot away from Page and return to him for ALL OUT or find a way out of that call. The FTW segement was super short, hopefully the second show will give the mid-card guys more time to play with. Starks is great and one of the best talkers they have, the only problem with his promo was that everything he said about Cage was true. And mentioning him not seeing Starks when he broke his neck just made him look like a dick too. Hopefully Starks goes over Cage and can move on to more exciting programs because Cage is super limited. Santana/Ortiz vs FTR was a perfectly fine is unspectacular TV match. I like both teams and they are good, but I think the talk of them being 'best in the world' level needs to end. They aren't and matches like this showed it. Horrible injury to Wheeler, hopefully he is OK but it looked pretty bad when blood is coming out of the arm, surely that was a bad break. Would be awful for them to have another big injury and be stalled for months. Archer vs Hikuleo was a dead match, fitting like something you'd see in a New Japan mid-card. Tanahashi coming to AEW is interesting, though I can't see him vs Archer excites me. The Moxley promo at the end makes Mox vs Tanahashi a FAR more exciting match. Loud CM Punk chants and Darby drops the 'best in the world' line. You can't tease that if you don't have Punk or Bryan under contract. Either vs Darby sounds awesome to me. Main event was something. I'm not sure I'd call it good, but I thought it was fun. That it was Chris Jericho getting sliced open and smashed with tubes was a big part of the novelty. Two GCW backyarders having the same match would be trash, but seeing a guy like Jericho in that environment was a spectacle. He can tick that off his bucket list now. I dig how AEW brings in these outsiders for one-shots, I don't want to see a Gage or Jeff Cobb on a regular basis, but one-off matches here and there are cool and keep things fresh. Gage kicking out at 3.2 made me laugh too. Juvy next week should be fun. I mean, I have no idea how good he is these days and those Jericho matches in the day were pretty whatever, but I am here for the more AEW bizarro matches.