Timbo Slice

Have to imagine Kingston returns tonight given its in Orlando, where he’s living now (if I remember right).

I was actually five minutes away from the Pyramid in Long Beach that day but left town hours before the show started. Knew a few people on the show from my time at the local indie I used to do commentary for. Alas, the stars couldn't align. Wish the house could have been a bit better. The lack of Ospreay/Okada has to be due to NJPW wanting to control their returns being of a truly worthwhile event. Okada coming back especially. Again, I do find it funny that Kenny is coming back on this show at this time, the Bucks have been off TV and are coming back at this show...just odd choices. And yes, the planning around this show seems haphazard at best and ill-conceived at least.

If anyone here is subscribed to Loss’ Wrestling Playlist Newsletter, today’s Season of Giving comp was an Amaresu set from CFØS. Wild stuff.

The reunion, either with Big E being cleared or New Day realizing the error of their ways, is gonna be an Elizabeth hugging Macho Man-level pop.

I’m very interested in how Okada is going to position himself for Wrestle Dynasty now that the rest of The Elite is confirmed (sans Perry, for now). There’s some political stuff under the surface here with how AEW is moving forward and The Elite are operating outside of it for the time being, but not much is being said even though some of it seems pretty damn overt.

Kenny said this is essentially a way for him to pay back NJPW for the AEW departure, which I get, but he also talked about how he didn’t want to get in the way of AEW’s current direction, which is odd to say the least with the Bucks on the shelf and Okada on paternity leave. Either the diverticulitis did a true number on him and he’s gotta be a part timer going forward or there’s something underneath the hood in his relationship with TK going on.

Bronson Reed is such a perfect fit in the New Bloodline. It’s also the only move that seems bigger even than Jacob joining, just because of what the last several months have been like. There’s now only two choices for Roman: Somehow bury things with Seth? Or the Final Boss. It’s gripping shit, really.

Wonder if Lin-Manuel called him up about his “The Warriors” remake. Things need to pick up a bit, methinks.

Nigel seemed like he was a bit apprehensive early, rightfully so, didn’t want to lay it in for whatever reason, but it got good towards the end. Definitely below the matches they had in their heyday, but was fun to see them play the hits. Nigel becomes very interesting going forward now.

They’re humming so they can afford to. Wild that Jey got to kick out of the spear.

My hope is that with the TV deal now in place, the placement of bigger deal shows gets better. Part of why Grand Slam deteriorated over four years was because it isn’t nearly as important as shows two weeks before and two weeks after it, so place it elsewhere so it can be big again. Just a quick reassessment, man.

This was what I had alluded to in my comment about how bad they did Jaguar; her story was one of the bigger casualties of how they constructed the story. Based on how they set it all up, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t have had episode 4 end with Asuka and Jaguar having their match to make that story seem fully realized. Especially given how big a deal it was for them to run the Budokan and Osaka-Jo big in the span of six days. However, like most projects like this? The narrative they created superseded the in-life order of events. The show runners probably felt it didn’t suit the narrative as well and left it out, which is a common theme of the show as a whole. It really does seem like they built the narrative and then filled in with facts when they could have done the opposite and probably been much more cohesive. But them leaning on the more dramatic aspects (shoot pins, backstage drama, fabricated or not) really led to the weird choices where the criticisms are aimed.

I see what they’re trying to do with Nigel but it’s just not working. A bit of a shame. He doesn’t have the juice to hold this together with no retort. In the moment it has a shot, but he’s done all this to crickets.

I will not spoiler anything until you’re finished, OJ, but I had even stronger feelings about Jaguar being done dirty by the end of the series.

I can’t see this as anything other than a success after completing the series. Given the constraints in time, and some odd choices to speed things up rapidly and tie up as many loose ends as possible by the end, this was about as good as you could have asked for. The production choices they made in the Hair match, especially with the entrances, where they copied the camera shots to the point where I got chills because they were spot on re-creations, was top notch. They made it as uncomfortable watching it here as it was watching it on tape. Again, I don’t know if there’s another wrestling subject matter where you could go to these lengths and have this type of production, but I hope someone tries because this really was amazing to watch.

Three episodes in and this is right up there with GLOW for me as one of the best wrestling TV shows or movies ever. It’s a short list, but there is an amazing amount of quality here even if the liberties they take with historical accuracy are also pretty blatant. The in-ring action is fantastic; a lot of time is spent there and the actors really know their shit. Chigusa and Co. trained them up really well, and they suck you in each time you step in the ropes. They really do a good job of showcasing all the wrestlers you’d expect to see during this time frame, albeit sometimes the drama takes away from what you expect to see from some of them. Even with those slights, awesome Easter eggs throughout, and I’m surprised how true to the setting they are even with those liberties taken. I hope it becomes a hit in Japan and does well with the hardcore fans worldwide. Selfishly I hope it leads to other attempts to tell wrestling stories in Japan, although I don’t know if any have the crossover appeal this one would have.

Given how J-Dramas and K-Dramas operate, it’s not surprising to find liberties taken with the truth. I’m just happy something like this got made in the first place. As long as it’s entertaining, that’s all that matters.

The Outrunners not being on Dynamite tonight is a crime, what you doing, TK?

The Large Canine

To have three separate short builds back-to-back-to-is insane, even more insane if they all hit. All Out was an obvious success. Let’s see what Grand Slam and WrestleDream look like.

Hammerstone didn’t really get eaten up; it just wasn’t as big a showcase as you would think. Also, hilariously, Femi looked much more polished as Hammerstone looked a bit timid. He got some good chances to shine, but Femi just looked better. He’s very good for someone so young.

This was probably top to bottom the best produced show AEW has ever done. They went for a lot of stuff tonight and basically all of it hit. They also made some amazing production choices, especially in the main event (the House Call into the cage, the wide shot on the final chair shot in an unsanctioned match) that put it over the top. For a show with basically no build, they put on a show people who missed it will be scrambling to buy after the fact. Have to imagine this was a success.

The way they cut the trailer makes it look like they got all their footage of the puff piece stuff up front, but the entire second half is voiceover with few interview cutaways. I know there’s stuff out there about the interviews, but I’d wager all the folks who were willing to talk about him in more glowing terms are front loaded. Which more than likely means a lot of Shoemaker on the backend. Which seems lose-lose to me.

The answer is that it was high profile, cost a lot of money, and Netflix wants to recoup its production costs.

The quick pivot to All Out is always interesting because you just had the big show and now you’re back on your Chicago kick, with a lot of things you can throw out there. Have to imagine some kind of combination of Dragon/Cage, Jarrett/Page, Bucks/Acclaimed (maybe?), MJF/Garcia, an Okada defense, some other things possibly. I do find it hilarious that they don’t do Ospreay/PAC in London, but they do it in Chicago literally a week after the London show. I know you had to wrap up MJF/Ospreay, but it’s still funny to me.