Timbo Slice

The smile at the end got me. Not gonna lie. Business seems to be picking up.

What did Kyle O’Reilly know wearing that shirt

Really is a heck of an in-ring product top to bottom, this show. I did skip the scramble and the women’s match because both the setting of the scramble and the roles in the women’s match didn’t really scream out must watch right away. Short and tidy of it all: -Christian is the most efficient and effective wrestler on the roster and it’s not really close. He’s an absolute master of every facet of pro wrestling. A true joy to watch. Garcia is already over but Christian is truly gonna make him a top guy. -Bryan/Kingston was great, but wasn’t on the level of Kingston winning the Continental Crown. Bryan continues to be the best of all time at conveying in-ring narrative shifts. Wish Kingston’s Hansen homage landed better but very few complaints here. -Strong/Cassidy was good, and Roddy got to really show off his strength at times. Love the gutwrench turnbuckle spot, true insanity. Cassidy goes out as probably the best champion AEW has ever had with any belt with his two runs. Insane stretch for him. -FTR/BCC took a bit of time but once it got into the stretch run it hit another level. Couple bad spots of timing but otherwise, what you’d expect from these four. Full of neat little homages. -Ospreay/Takeshita hit the level folks of the style wanted, but both guys went a bit further than was necessary for me. Fast food, wrestling-wise, but it was good. Did think Ospreay’s kidney exploded on the botch, guessing he’ll be feeling that for a while. Takeshita as a heel still doesn’t really do it for me, and I think the whole Callis thing needs to go away soon. -I have one quibble with the three-way, which I did think was good. Page should have been facing Swerve when he tapped. Think it lost something a bit in translation when Swerve put on his face about Page screwing him, and I don’t think you need to play the “what-if” game. Page could have tried to get out, knew he was done, seen Swerve crawling, and tapped when he made his move. Joe KILLED Swerve with that final suplex, though, goddamn. -The main event was perfect from a send off standpoint. Sting becoming a top-tier death match worker is not something I had on my bingo card, but the dude is just something else. Darby is insane, the usual Bucks bullshit didn’t hamper it, Ric’s involvement didn’t hamper it, it was just a great emotional match. Choked up a couple times in it. An emotional capper like few others.

Nevermind the fact that WWE would sue them for an exorbitant amount with inflated accounting just to stick it to Tony.

He’s no longer lead guy and Ian didn’t libel him. It’s sour grapes and bad form for a guy who got his opportunity and didn’t really do that well when given that chance. Mirrors aren’t expensive.

That was a fucking cracker of a promo, Rock is running circles around everyone. Just dropped out of the sky and does this. Nitpicking certain thing is fine but holy crap, the whole thing is just another level.

Nick Wayne is only good in people’s minds because he’s 18 and he has the “potential” to be good. Meiko was 15 and miles ahead of Wayne, various luchadors at 18 and younger were already very good, Wayne does nothing that guys in Private Party couldn’t do. The only thing that stands out is his age. Has a long way to go to. He’s Hook with a better understanding of in-ring work and way less charisma. The Flair stuff was sad, on top of just being tone deaf about him being on TV in the first place. Sting is gonna go all out and that will be fun to see. Loved the rafters bit. Heel Hangman is such a breath of fresh air. Seems like he’s revitalized after all the stuff post title reign. AEW has intrigue given what will happen in the coming weeks, but Danielson’s shot calling continues to be the best thing going. Assuming he finishes things off at All Out with his full time work, I have a feeling he has has some great things still to come, especially if they pull the trigger with Nigel (given health can be accounted for) and an Ospreay match. Can only imagine what he has cooking up.

Or lack thereof.

How do you fuck up visas other than not wanting to pay for it?

Hangman broke his foot, it looked like.

You beat me to posting the ASUKA video. As wholesome as can be. She’s the best. That was someone who worked there, as she called the owner asking where they were since ASUKA was there. Really awesome stuff.

Tickets for Dontaku NJPW shows: https://www.njpw1972.com/schedule?pageNum=2

I went in 2017 and am not sure how much changed, but there are ticket purchasing kiosks in Tokyo where you can get tickets to events at places like Korakuen. That should actually be during the Champions Carnival, so aim for that if possible. I’d imagine that there are better ways now via apps or the like, but am not sure what those are now.

Literally read a friend’s dissertation that she wrote six years ago about sexual abuse being reported in the military (or lack thereof) so yeah, this is easy to sweep under the rug.

Yeah, that Rock promo was good and exactly what I want out of him.

My counterpoint to this: AEW doesn’t have the developmental that WWE or even NJPW has, and so they are happier to grab talent this way (akin to a baseball team not having a good minor league system and only going after Major League free agents). But they should invest in an actual non-ROH developmental pipeline so they can bring folks along, but I feel Tony likes the idea of bringing in fringe talent (Keith, Mack, etc.) and giving them spots as enhancement talent to see if they’re worth more TV time. NJPW’s problems are more based on them not trusting younger talent and CMLL’s has always been monetary, so I’d be more focused on them figuring those issues out before calling AEW predatory in their hirings. We’d be singing different tunes if the last WK truly showcased the new Three Musketeers in a way that made them truly look like the future of the promotion, and I’d argue the CMLL exposure with the BCC has been way more helpful than not, especially once they go to Mexico for the other end of the agreement.

He failed the Tribal Chief.

Rev Pro would hardly be a neutral site but he also wants to fight Panther in Mexico. Not sure.

Gimme a 25-match Big Bill/Darby series, please. Their interactions in the main event were fucking fantastic.

Again, this is only one case. If there are multiple criminal investigations that lead from multiple civil lawsuits that come forth due to Vince’s NDA blunders, Ace might be able to do it for one, but not others if charges are brought against him directly.

That’s not gonna matter once all the other things are uncovered. For the initial civil lawsuit, Johnny can do whatever he can to turn witness to escape what he thinks will be a harshly induced punishment. And this isn’t gonna be one civil case or one criminal case. It’s going to be multiple cases with multiple people charged for multiple infractions. And unless it becomes a RICO case (which could happen but is unlikely), there’s going to be enough uncovered that the proceedings will take years. The senior execs are stuck with negligence at the very worst, and if things lead to an actual paper trail for the other issues to come? Burning it down is gonna be the start of it.

Yeah, I’m talking popularity politically. Rock jumping to the front of the line won’t work anymore given Donnie’s work. Reagan knew how to play that particular game.

Except Reagan was fucking popular as hell and Dwayne ain’t.

Really should have named this “#IDidItForTheRock”

The talks about the Rock joining was that he insisted he won the title at WM, which my guess is that TKO said no to, but it damn sure sounds like Gerwitz is in line to be head writer once Paul(s) is(are) predictably gone. Also, by the sounds of who else was backstage last Friday night, the idea that it’s a full scale replacement of creative and production is gaining steam, so deduction seems to lean towards Rock getting his seat and having his guy(s) in place at the very least. I wouldn’t put it past Rock to still jockey to win the title, and then talk about a full reset for TV the week after WM, a “fresh start” and the end of an era and what not. It does seem like an overstep when the true answer is to clean house but at least maintain the creative, but you wonder if TKO will be convinced to go completely brand new with creative to remove any and all Vince-related choices.