Timbo Slice

It really does feel like an overcorrection is coming on talent availability on the indies. Ilja seems like he’d be great for AEW, but also, if he took a year to work the indies before joining? I could see that working out just as well. If he chose not to come back because he wasn’t a fan of creative post-Summerslam, I don’t know how that’s gonna work on a similarly bloated AEW TV schedule.

They’re on pace for 45 or so, so slightly lower than the 2024 model. But my hope is that going forward, they don’t come back for like five years. They can run other stadium shows, I feel.

I’ve only seen the highlights, but the finishing stretch where the battles were between wristlocks and headlocks (I wish there was some slightly better selling with Oiwa given the arm work) seemed like spiritually correct pro wrestling. The kids are alright.

They literally had an AI Antonio Inoki video where he referred to himself as “the original AI”. K.

Oh look, another “Someone is pissed off at Phil leaving and coming back” angle.

I love that there’s now a built in storyline that MJF is vulnerable to lose the title on TV given his last two reigns have ended that way. Really good match, Max was tremendous. Kenny getting to headline a stadium show finally, too.

Seems like the New Day issue where they wanted to slash his money significantly. I don’t know if he would even want to go to AEW but there are worse folks to try and get young talent over with.

So New Japan…posts an eight year old match to YouTube…that’s over an hour long…is heralded as one of the greatest matches ever…AND DOESN’T SHOW THE FINISH. HOW? You literally post all but the last few minutes of an hour-plus long match????

Baker is basically at home waiting out her contract, no chance she returns. An interesting thing to watch the next few weeks is going to be who Tony decides to go with at All In to face Will: I actually think they’re going to lean towards Kenny in that spot because they did Will/MJF already at Wembley AND he won decisively. Have to imagine Kenny is gonna wind down as a full time guy soon enough and him getting a chance to lead a show would be a fitting way to end that time. Hardly a bad choice, though. Tony has booked this beautifully. He has really done a great job of leaving multiple paths out there across the board. Some of his finest work this year.

For all the out of ring stuff that has a lot of folks kinda “eh” on WWEAAA, if you watched the main event last night, it was heated and delivered on what it was supposed to be. In a vacuum, it was really good pro wrestling, but really only in a vacuum. The next day? You literally retcon what was undoubtedly the biggest moment at WM to put over a dude under active investigation for sex trafficking to “get his win back.” I would laugh if it wasn’t such a commentary on how brazenly greedy a move it is; squeezing every last dollar out of a fading draw and terrible human being.

Everything I’m reading from folks is putting this in the top tier of AEW PPVs, if not the best. Had to miss this live because of a family event but this seems like an automatic watch.

The reason it works is because the reign fits the character better than maybe any other reign, including Omega’s. Darby having a burnout reign when match by match you think he’s going to burn out plays into each defense so well. And to think folks didn’t think he should have a title reign. Hilarious.

The calls for ex-WWE guys coming in are because AEW guys want to work with them, but time has gone on New Day/Bucks being a draw. Woods and Kofi have banked a ton of money, so they’ll be fine. Jeff worked with the indie I did commentary for a bunch before he went global and he’s a great dude, and was happy he got a chance to make money on the main roster, but they fumbled him bad, not really knowing what to do with him. Say what you will about his ability, but they weren’t sure how to position him and kinda stuck him with a middling group. That’s gonna affect effort, desire, etc. Could see him going back to New Japan for a bit longer, but he’s on the older side and I imagine would be trying to wind down.

Fuck that disease. That’s absolutely devastating.

I’m really stoked that they’re telling that story with Ospreay. It plays into all the narratives about him being reckless, it shows self-awareness on his part coming back from injury like that to actually show some type of evolution, it’s compelling! It’s something I’ve wanted from him for a long time! But I also like that there’s a tinge of him learning a bit of the Dark Arts to find that control to reach his full potential. This has my full attention.