Loss

I feel bad for not really liking Dynamite much last night, but I didn't. I'm less excited by AEW than I was a few months ago.

If history continues, WWE will do something awesome for the hardcore fans at WM 40, just like they did at 10, 20, and 30.

Hard to think of a good match "ruined" by the finish. Maybe there are some. There are a lot of them hurt by the finish, of course.

Glad OJ mentioned Takehiro Murahama. That's what I came here to post. He may not be the answer, but he had his debut on 1/4/00 in a four-star singles match and had a hell of a run all year.

The real issue is not thigh slapping. The issue is that too many people have mid-range offense that is too similar to other people on the roster.

I think that's uniquely important to AEW. Their greatest strength, more than their talent roster or booking or match quality, is that they are seen as the more fan-friendly and honest alternative to WWE. They have rejected the carny spin attempts that have been common in wrestling in the past, and I think they have to commit to that. Now's not the time to embrace it. The lesson of last night is that expectation is the creator of disappointment. I think they need to get back to their bread and butter of cultivating their own homegrown stars and delivering exciting television shows instead of looking for easy solutions in the forms of WWE signings and gimmick matches that can't deliver based on the hype. It's going to take them a long time to grow and I think they have to just accept that this is a long road and buckle in. Figure out where they want to be in 1-2 years and just stick to it instead of the desperation approach we've seen lately. Even the best wrestling periods have included promoters making tons of mistakes, but the best ones quickly learn from them and shift. AEW will be fine if they continue down that road.

Also, if AEW is going to be signing people from the 90s, Debbie Malenko has some incredible training videos on Twitter and wants to do a full-time comeback. She trained under Karl Gotch and Boris Malenko and was part of the 90s AJW peak. Sign her!

Christian is a strong signing for them. He's a great worker who I hope helps season people who need it. I can also seem him occasionally headlining when it makes sense. I think the lesson here is that AEW is going to have to put in the long, slow work of creating their own stars since the people they can pluck, even if they throw all the money in the world at them, are (for the most part) not going to help them take any major shortcuts to growth. They are planting roses with Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara, MJF, Hangman Page, Jungle Boy, Wardlow, Will Hobbs and Ricky Starks as a great group to keep cultivating and building for the future, and those will be the people that ultimately determine if AEW sinks or swims in the long term. Getting that group over as major superstars is the most important thing for AEW's future.

The hype announcement is why people are disappointed. People desperately want a signing at the level that would completely change the playing field in terms of being competitive with WWE. That signing sadly doesn't exist, but it's why these types of surprise announcements take on a life of their own. The only people I think capable of doing that are John Cena and The Rock (and these days, possibly Dave Bautista) but that era is over.

It's a great signing for AEW and he'll be valuable to the company. I don't think it's a disappointment, but a lot of people do, to the point that I think these announcements are playing with fire unless you're signing someone at the John Cena level.

I don't mind it happening one time as a novelty. Next time Omega wants to show that he can master every style, which was apparently why he wanted to do this, he can have a shoot-style match against someone.

Jericho/MJF vs Bucks I'm not really excited about the match, but I am intrigued by the finish. Enough time has passed that Guevara can probably return now if they are ready to bring him back. It's just a matter of when. I'm also curious what the end result of all of this is. Is it a Jericho babyface run against an Inner Circle led by MJF and Guevara, who swerved everyone? Is it Guevara getting a big babyface run with programs against Jericho and MJF? Is it Jericho and MJF finally exploding and going into their feud? I have no idea.

Should have said *stuck* in the middle, not *caught* in the middle.

Later in the vignette, they ended up shaving half of her head and she began to morph into the Luna Vachon that closer resembles her more famous look, but I actually think this look would have been creepier within the context of the overall group had they stuck with it.

Click through the thread for the whole thing. I had to post it in three parts. This was to hype the big Memphis card that had Flair-Koko, Horsemen vs Lawler-Dusty-Magnum, and Rock N Rolls vs Russians.

Got some answers here, but would still be interested in exploring this more. And I get Brody not doing jobs because Baba didn't want him to, but what was his excuse for not putting over Inoki or anyone else in NJPW in 1985?

A thread on WCCW:

Yes, this was part of the build to that Omni match.