The Thread Killer

I have a question for those who saw the first Jericho/Omega match at Wrestle Kingdom 12, and then also saw the Main Event last night. From everything I have seen and read online, the general consensus seems to be that the WK12 Jericho/Omega match was very good/excellent. I saw a lot of people say it was the best Chris Jericho match they'd seen in years. Conversely, from everything I have seen so far people seem to be a bit disappointed with the Main Event last night, especially in comparison to their WK12 match. I'm curious as to people's opinions regarding what the difference was between the two matches, why the first match seemed to work and the second one wasn't as good?

To be fair, another major thing that would have stopped me from ordering this show is the fact that it takes place at the exact same time as the Raptors game. If the Toronto Raptors win tonight, they advance to the NBA finals for the first time in the 24 year history of the franchise. I'm not a major basketball fan, but I've been watching the playoffs and this is no small deal. And it's on free TV, so there's that. And although I guess it's technically possible, it's highly unlikely that Joey Ryan or his penis will factor into the basketball game.

That's another major concern I have regarding AEW. I get the suspicion that I am going to be a much bigger fan of the idea of AEW than I am of the actual product they end up producing. But time will tell. I will give them a chance...just not for $50.

You ain't kidding there. To be honest, I was not inclined to watch this show at first because I really don't care for Kenny Omega or the Young Bucks at all, and of course they will be featured heavily, (and rightly so.) Furthermore, I have a sneaky suspicion that although he has not been announced, Joey Ryan will make his presence felt on this show, and I would rather take a shot to the groin from a ball peen hammer than spend one dime furthering the career of Joey Ryan. On the other hand, the first Omega/Jericho match was quite good - Jericho has finally adapted his style to match his age and limitations and stopped trying to wrestle like it's 1999 , so the Main Event could be quite good. Also, I quite like the Lucha Brothers even though I don't care for that particular style of Tag Team Wrestling (I'm old school, I like my tag teams to actually tag in and out, not just do a bunch of stuff.) I think the build for Cody/Dustin has been great and I'd like to see that match. But most important of all, I do not care at all for the current WWE product and I want to support any group who is serious about providing an alternative. I am generally quite serious about that. I have shelled out a couple of times to order Impact shows since the Anthem regime has taken over. I could have waited a couple of hours and watched the show for free via less scrupulous means, but I wanted to pay fairly for a company that seems to be making an honest effort to provide a quality product as a WWE alternative in 2019. Once they announced that Double or Nothing was going to be available via traditional PPV, which meant I could watch it on my TV without having to bother hooking my laptop up to the TV and use Fite TV or some equally sketchy online streaming service which might crap out on me...I decided what the hell. I'll check out the card, and order the PPV. Then I actually saw the card - and this was before the PAC/Hangman match got scrapped. Then I saw the price for the PPV with my cable provider. FIFTY FREAKING BUCKS. I'm sorry, but that's just flat out insane. There is no way in hell this card is worth anywhere near $50. Hell, even asking for $35 for this show via Fite TV is a bit of an ask, but I probably would have paid that for the PPV on cable. You'd have to add at least 2 or 3 more major marquee matches to even get me to consider paying $50 to order a Pro Wrestling PPV in 2019. There is way too much quality content available for wrestling fans right now that is either much cheaper or in some cases, free. Why would I shell out $50 for this show, when I could watch pretty much any MLW show on YouTube for free? I'm all for supporting AEW on the basis of their trying to provide an alternative to WWE alone, but they made a MAJOR misstep with this price. I can't even imagine what the hell they were thinking.

From where I sit, two things Omega and Steamboat have in common are a natural athleticism and a problem at times with goofy, theatrical overselling. Steamboat always looked like he was playing to the cheap seats, even during TV matches when there were a lot of close-ups. Don't even get me started on Omega's outlandish facial expressions which are so campy and downright goofy that they have taken me right out of a match on more than one occasion - which seems to be the exact opposite of the assumed intention. If somebody is going to compare the two (which in itself is really a pointless exercise, I'll admit) it all comes down to body of work. Steamboat has an elite level resume (pardon the pun) while Omega isn't anywhere close to that yet. I know people like to compare the Okada/Omega Trilogy to the Flair/Steamboat Trilogy, which is fine I guess. I don't see it at all, but whatever. But bottom line, Omega doesn't have anywhere near the body of work that Steamboat does - nor should he be expected to at this point - so comparing the two seems pointless and intended to troll old school fans who don't care for the modern "PWG" style.

Wh...wh...what? Somebody actually wrote that? And they meant it?!

That's a hell of an idea. Instead of Hell in a Cell, they could hold the match in the Turkish Embassy, and the loser gets beheaded.

The only reason I even watched MITB to begin with is because I wanted to be able to flip back and forth between this and the Raptors game, and I promised my goofy roommate that I'd wait until she got home from work at midnight before watching GoT with her.

I don't know what's sadder, the fact that Ali had enough time to unfasten the case about 10 times before Lesnar lumbered to the ring, but instead he stood there like an idiot... Or the fact that Lesnar was trying to look all smug, cocky and cool as he climbed the ladder, but you could clearly tell he was worried about falling off as the ladder wobbled. Gotta be honest, at this point if they're going to be this stupid, they may as well go all in and have Lesnar show up on Smackdown, cash in and squash Kofi for the title in three seconds. If you're going to be dumb, then commit and go all the way.

Balor is going to be crippled from this match.

That Andrade/Balor sunset flip spot was FUCKED UP.

They can dress it up however they want, but it's still Kofi Kingston vs. Kevin Owens in a WWE Title match. Only so much you can do with that.

I get the Network feed as an actual TV channel through my cable provider, so my feed has been fine. I missed the entire AJ/Rollins match because I took my dogs out in the yard, so it could have crapped out then, I guess. But as a TV channel it never really does give me trouble.

Did Michael Cole just say "slaughterous?" Also, it should be noted that Cole sounds near orgasmic when he describes Sullivan. Either that or he's doing a bad Ranallo imitation.

OMG Lars Sullivan is going to beat up on three Mexican dudes! He hates them almost as much as he hates Jews and Women and Arabs and...

Yeah upon closer examination, that does not look like my Mom's dressing gown. Her gown doesn't have spiked shoulders or long fringes. At least I hope it doesn't. *shudder*

I don't understand Elias's wardrobe. It's like Luke Harper's ring gear covered by my Mom's dressing gown.

Maybe this is all leading to them bringing back Mr. T as a special trouble shooting referee for the big matches. You probably had to be a WWF fan from the 80's to get that.

I liked that - to quote JR, that was a good little piece of business.

OMG HORN HONKER HORN HONKER!

The announcers talked about how Tony believes in hard work, so he must be the good guy, whereas Daivari wears a gold necklace, brags on Twitter about tanning, and drives a car and honks his horn. Can't be a bigger heel than that. C.S. I hope you've never honked your horn, because that would make you a bad person and I would have to lose all respect for you.

Oh no! They took Sami to a local medical facility!

It's bad enough that they put the title on Nese for reasons I can't even possibly fathom, but with all the talent on that roster and they can't come up with a better challenger? Talk about booking the division to fail.

Holy crap this match is fucking awful.

LOL Daivari literally stumbled and fell on his ass trying to apply that submission.