tbarrie

Great, thanks! So that being said - MJF and Athena have each earned title shots. But they've carefully avoided saying when they get those title shots. Both Hangman vs MJF and Toni vs Athena are PPV-worthy bouts in my opinion, so it would make sense to assume they'll happen at the next PPV. Except I believe the next PPV is Forbidden Door, where traditionally those titles would be defended against from outside AEW. So do MJF and Athena wait until All Out in September? Or do they get their shots at a named Dynamite before then? That would be a pretty loaded Dynamite, but it would seem odd to award the shots a full two months after they were earned.

So is All In far enough in the past now that we can mention results outside the All In thread without spoiler tags? Because I'd like to discuss the future of the men's and women's singles world titles.

Small question about yesterday's show: after Samoa Joe got brutalized, did they show Shibata and Hobbs accompanying him to a hospital? Or mention it on commentary? I thought it was odd that those two didn't help out during the main event.

That's a pretty fine distinction. To one-up you, I'm going to have to break out the ancient Egyptian nine parts of the soul and identify which wrestler corresponds to which. ...this may take me a while.

Fair. And there were definitely narrative possibilities if Ospreay's stipulation cost Swerve the chance to challenge Hangman, which is why I wouldn't have been shocked had the Bucks won. But I also figured the "Bucks as evil authority figures" story had run its course.

Presumably. To me, the big question is: do FTR win the tag titles before facing Cope & Cage at All Out here in Toronto? I suspect they do.

Not to be overly smug, but I figured the Bucks were probably losing. Though I wouldn't have been shocked had they won. My only quibble with the main event was that, with ten thousand run-ins already planned, they could have found room for the Dark Order to come to Hangman's aid. And personally I had a stronger emotional reaction to Toni winning than Hangman, because as you say, Toni seemed likely to lose. There was never much of a chance Hangman would lose.

I was just thinking, as somebody who lives in Eastern Time, I'm really fucking happy they started this one at 15:00 and not 20:00. Not the only reason I'm really fucking happy, though. Great show. Near perfectly booked.

I hope that's just a storyline, but given they didn't even say what the issue is, that's pretty unlikely.

I was talking about the standard spot where two guys try to do a tandem vertical suplex on a big dude, and the big dude blocks it and suplexes both guys at once. Now, maybe I've been misunderstanding the vertical suplex for years, but I'm pretty sure the arm over the victim's neck is mostly there for guidance/stability. You do the actual lifting with the arm at the victim's waist. But in the one-on-two reversal spot, the big guy just has one arm over each opponent's neck. How exactly do you get their centres of mass over your head from that position, unless you're telekinetic? The spot always looks ridiculous. That being said, there's a big difference between just "ridiculous" and "too ridiculous for pro wrestling". So if it doesn't bother you or other people, I'm not going to disrespect you for it. Heck, if some promotion explained the spot by saying some wrestlers are so massive their gravity well distorts spacetime and breaks the laws of physics, I'd admire their chutzpah.:)

Yeah, that was silly. Nobody's going to bite on any near falls before Mistico enters as result. As I recall, this is the first time they've even announced more than one or two participants in a casino gauntlet match ahead of time. I'm not convinced it was a good idea to start.

Good news everybody! My Employment Insurance claim was approved. I am now officially suckling on the nanny state's teat!

That seems like a healthy reaction. I mean, actually reversing a double vertical suplex would be pretty amazing. And also provide conclusive evidence that you possess telekinesis.

I mean, I hadn't noticed it before, but looking at a picture of the real Starks and a drawing of Butthead...

I respectfully disagree. Ending Danielson's full time career was almost certain to lead to massive heel heat. That's not a rub that Darby Allin needs.

Ah, I see. Shame. I was kind of hoping there'd be some crazy story explaining why DC actually owns the rights to Spider-Man in Japan.

Wrong thread.:) Or maybe that's the joke?

Man, some of y'all are really pessimistic. I'd put the odds at 60/40 in favour of Mercedes, personally. Even more strange to me is Dolfan implying in the first post that the Bucks are a lock to win their match. The Bucks-as-EVP thing has kind of run its course in my opinion, so why wouldn't Swerve and Ospreay win? Granted, there are narrative possibilities if Ospreay's rash suggestion leads to Swerve losing his ability to challenge for the men's world title, so I wouldn't say the faces are a lock either. I'd call this one about 60/40 too, this time in the faces' favour.

But they can't drop the 5 Tool Player gimmick until they at least tell us what five tools he has! I want to know if one is a lathe!

Certainly putting the nostalgia match on last sounds crazy to me. And yeah, big as Mone vs Storm is, I very much doubt this is the time they give the women's division its first PPV main event.

More interesting than Adam Cole? Talk about damning with faint praise.

It's weird, yeah. I mean, last night had the commentators confident that Hangman could win, but then pivoting to concern when the Texas Death stipulation was mentioned on the basis that said stipulation would favour Mox. So mentioning that Page has beaten Mox in a Texas Death Match before would contradict the story they were trying to tell. But AEW to date has generally been quite good about acknowledging and spelling out competitors' history. So it's still weird that they're ignoring this.

It's not what I would have done, but personally I don't think it belongs on a "worst booking ever" list. Yeah, I've thought similarly. The complaints about the Death Riders angle have always reminded me of the online complaints at the time about the NWO angle, but I suspect the latter would be fondly remembered if WCW hadn't completely botched the ending.

Thanks! I think it was season two, as I'm pretty sure I haven't seen season three or four but distinctly remember the aforementioned character being in Lucha Underground.

Who's "Cross"?