Timbo Slice

Cary, more than likely.

Naw, they should absolutely Brock Lesnar SummerSlam 2002 him.

Danielson vs. Solow is not what I would have guessed for Bryan’s Dark appearance.

AEW seems a lot more harmonious, so even with Andy there, I don’t get why AEW would take a chance on someone who would cause such strife from the start.

Because there’s more to a match than the moves and the action. That’s what I meant by the base assumptions holding too much water. Dragon has had matches that are very much catnip to these fans. He’s played up the striking and showing a diverse move set because that’s the expectation of him at this point. The idea of him being unleashed from the shackles of WWE. It does him a disservice for what he DID do in the company even with both the implied and actual limitations placed on him. To lean on that as the main reason his work in AEW has been so well-received is flimsy at best, and confirmation bias at worst. Meanwhile, Punk has undoubtedly worked a smarter style than Dragon has, and what everyone has perceived as issues with him have actually been strengths and a model for match efficiency. In all four matches, he knew as soon as he had his best shot to end it, he ended it. Darby or Sydal trying to speed him up later in the match? Better figure out a way to hit the GTS. Hobbs’ strength making things worse the closer they got to that 15 minute mark with Hook looming? Have to swing for the fences at the best opening he could get. Knee taken apart by Garcia because he’s at the absolute top of his game? Pull out the piledriver and the Vice and don’t look back. Dragon has been more performative and has had points in his matches that really scream fan service (especially in the Suzuki match), whereas Punk has really leaned into coming across as a guy who is probably way over his head and is getting by on guile alone, even if he has a rep for being a GOAT candidate. I know that fans have been more conditioned to a wrestling style much more like Bryan’s than Punk’s since Punk left, but historically, the way Punk is working is in some ways a better brand of pro wrestling than just being able to do what you want when you want, even if the guy being unleashed is the best wrestler ever. It’s just incredibly fascinating to me and is why I brought it up in the first place, because I’m hearing more about the settings being more influential than the work itself, and that’s not nearly as compelling to me.

Furthermore, both guys are two of the outright smartest wrestlers ever and can play into those perceptions. Which they absolutely have done here.

I think there a ton of assumptions being made about both guys and how well they’ve performed relative to what most folks see them as in their idealized brain. That’s what I’m getting at essentially. The idea of WWE having such a “controlled” working environment as opposed to the “freedom” of AEW is carrying a ton of water here. New Japan has a lot of freedom, yes, but they also have 25-minute EVIL and Chase Owens matches. I’m trying to look at this objectively because I feel Punk has been under-appreciated while Dragon has been lauded to a degree few wrestlers ever get. Yet both guys have worked the same amount of singles matches, have had variety, and somewhat predictably, the action-focused Bryan work has been held in higher regard while Punk has been seen as “getting his legs under him.” My point is that these are pretty base-level assumptions that carry more weight than they should.

The striking thing about the initial responses is how much WWE vitriol fuels them. If you think Bryan was tampered down tremendously, then you have a baked-in sense of improvement in AEW. Meanwhile Punk has gone Back To Basics, incorporated a few of his old spots, but has wrestled in a style much like his WWE peak. I’m not trying to play “gotcha” here but the “WWE stench” card can only go so far when evaluating folks.

I think it’s interesting to reflect on what each guy’s run so far has looked like after their first four singles matches, which have varied greatly and shown a lot more I think than even most were expecting, even with high expectations. Who have you enjoyed more so far in his singles run? Punk or Danielson?

That was the “Yes, I know.” part, I believe. I guess I’m just trying to figure out how he fits in on the main roster, if at all.

So is WALTER hurt? Him being off TV for this long has been interesting to say the least. He’s in an interesting spot given how he was presented and has a ton of leverage if his contract were to run out. I’d laugh if he went to AEW though, considering how he did his home brand dirty.

The Punk discourse is also a product of fandom becoming so myopic. Not everyone can be a top guy, but everyone can be relevant and useful. AEW’s biggest issue from the start was fans desires for everyone on top, but that’s literally not possible. Punk deciding to go after the belt should be a BIG deal, and it will be when it does eventually happen. But I find it funny that folks are harping on this when they yadda yadda Bryan just checking off his much better Cody dream match list instead of going after the belt. Even after Bryan himself said it in a promo.

I’ll need to give this another watch because live, this felt contrived. I understand Bryan putting his own twist on things but I thought they could have done a lot more than they did. That being said, when they did get away from the strike exchange stuff, it was really fun. I think seeing that just made me want to see more, and then they just went back to it. The stiffness and toughness is one thing, but the output here seemed like folks wanted to give it credit for being a dream match and forget things a bit. The finish also was a bit too cute by half. Hopefully a second watch betters things.

Of all the matches Bryan and Suzuki could have had, that was certainly one of them. Strike exchanges really don’t mean much in pro wrestling anymore; become as overwrought as anything going in the last decade, and yes, there were some wrinkles thrown in, but it really feels they left a lot on the table. It was a bit of a letdown.

Do we know if the YouTube show will be live at 6 PM PST or still be run at 9 PM? My guess is 6 PM?

Tony Khan just booked Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki on a YouTube stream. In the year 2021. My word.

Punk better be careful with Bryan Danielson’s son.

Biggest upset of the night: Punk getting to face Bryan Danielson’s son before Bryan does.

Geno or GTFO

Revisiting this in the wake of Bryan Danielson’s debut shows two distinct ways of getting to the same point. Bryan was put in a situation where he had to face perhaps the most maximalist wrestler on the planet and basically took his style of match and outdid him in it, putting together two decades of his work into an expression of what he wants pro wrestling to be for the remainder of his career. Punk, on the other hand, isn’t as physically gifted or technically sound, and while there was a day in his career where what he brought to the table was A Whole Bunch of Stuff (or rather, much more stuff than his WWE compatriots) the one thing he could always bring to the table was an aura and a sense of story that was practically unmatched. With Bryan, you get the sense you’re watching the most talented in-ring worker ever, but with Punk, there’s a sense that literally anything could happen, and it holds your attention perhaps in a more engaging way. So putting Punk up against someone in Darby, while making all the sense in the world from a storyline perspective given what Darby stands for now based on what Punk stood for at his best, also made sense from an in-ring standpoint, as it led to a match that had a constant state of tension. Darby had been a lightning rod, and making Punk have to think about what he could do against someone who constantly put his body at risk meant he had to figure out ways to stop that unpredictability of overwhelming the match, because at that point, what answers could Punk possibly have? They built to that idea incredibly well, with Punk slowly realizing that even him being at his best with the foundational aspects of pro wrestling were only going to do him so much, and withstanding Darby’s trademark bursts were going to challenge his ability to compete at points. Yet as the match went on and as Darby got more daring, his responses had to be more impactful (aside from the absolutely cheeky sit-up Coffin Drop counter), which led to the fantastic stretch run where, by the end of the match, Punk had to put him down and put him down quick. Inbetween those incremental steps were some amazing nuance from Punk, both from a transition standpoint and especially with his selling. He made Darby’s offense look as impactful as ever, and he made sure everything Darby did look like it was eroding his life force, questioning him even thinking that coming back after seven years was a good idea. Darby’s performance was about seizing the moment and he absolutely did that and then some. The ring post bump was sickening, and it was great to see him starting taking more and more chances when he started making his moves on Punk. His final flurry that ended with the fantastic somersault plancha really made it seem like he had Punk fighting for his life, especially given he had already survived the GTS at that point. I go back and forth now between this and the Danielson/Omega match, and in my review of that match, I said it was the best AEW match. I’m not sure that’s the case anymore, because this match did more with the actual psychology surrounding the match than the other, and the finality here meant more given Omega/Danielson seemed like a natural build to something more down the line. It was just great to see Punk work a match that way given he had been away for so long, and was immediately a memorable performance that added to his legacy.

It would have to be somebody like Owens/Zayn/Claudio. I don’t think it’s possible given folks are all about contract statuses and such, and the Luger debut was unique in that it happened so quickly from a signing standpoint. Not really possible, I’d imagine.

The King’s Road style of booking was based more on hierarchy than history, which allowed folks to pick it apart easier and have a better understanding of roles. The fan base of AJPW was also very strong and loyal, which is what allowed them to do things like Kawada’s trick knee or the orbital bone stuff with Misawa, because those were inherent traits that were learned and not explicit. But those were more decisions based on availability than making them a part of the story. One of the biggest things called out about the start of Hokuto/Kandori was whether or not it was an explicit call out to Hokuto’s previous injuries or not, and the folks who did thought it added multitudes to the match. The problem is that this isn’t known for sure, and really only became apparent due to fans looking for it and connecting the dots. There’s tons of that throughout the tape trading years that got adopted as psychology and discussions that workers are up and implemented, and wanted to pass on to observers who wanted to make the same connections there. The problem is they are more often than not shoehorned in as a reference that can take away from the match itself rather than a true callback. It’s a difference that seems like walking a tightrope, but also divides those who force the issue and those who just work the match as is instead of turning it into wrestling cum Zapruder.

Short answer? His placement and presentation amongst the other guys is perceived as “unearned.”

The point is that there’s a difference between wrestlers creating a story that induces a response as opposed to more Pavlovian responses, which is what wrestling has become. This isn’t a new phenomenon, either. It’s what led AJPW to become more highspot oriented when Kobashi got his singles push, Toyota in AJW, etc. There is a difference between the two, and why in a world where wrestling can be viewed between the lines more than ever before, getting the fans to buy into a story as opposed to getting the big pop with big moves is something that goes by the wayside more often than not with folks like the Bucks or Omega.

Vince bringing back a HOFer after the HBK feud, unbelievable.