gordi

Ishii vs Hiromu was witheringly stiff but it wasn't to the point where it was hard to watch (as I'd feared it might be). Then Zach and KENTA hit each other like they were having a "who can take the most punishment and keep going" contest with Ishii and Hiromu. Then my daughters wanted to play, and by the time I got back to the G1 it looked like Ibushi had maybe legit broken O'Khan's nose. So it feels to me like guys were really laying it in tonight. Not sure how the Yano match went, though.

I am a little freaked out for Hiromu vs Ishii tonight.

Loved seeing the Anaconda Vice as the finisher, and a piledriver to set it up! Laughed out loud when the announcers started out the show with a "What a great time to be a wrestling fan/The best time!" exchange. I concur! I.have to agree: Rush's new gimmick is not distinct enough from Big Money Matt. G1 less than 5 hours away! I love days like these.

I have only two questions. 1) What night is it? 2) What does that mean?

No. Not everyone hates positivity.

Page? Jay White? Steen? Hero? Generico? Cottonbelly? I feel like Bryan and Kenny are the Jumbo and Tenryu of the 8-man tag, so I expect Kenny will avoid him for a while so the crowd can pop huge when they finally lock up. But it's AEW, not AJPW, so who knows how they'll play it? October 6th in America = October 7th here, so this Dynamite birthday celebration feels like it's for my birthday as well. Going for lunch with my wife as soon as the show is over. Not a bad way to start my 56th year!

Dark May 26th 2020, I believe. 1st match up, about 2 minutes in. Indeed, a tidy little tag team.bout.

While I'm at it, allow me to add these recommendations from earlier this year: JD Drake vs Eddie Kingston (Dark, Feb 17), Darby Allin (Dynamite, April 4), Rocky Romero (Dark Elevation, May 13), and Jungle Boy (Dark Elevation, May 28) Bear Country vs TH2 (Dark, March 25) and vs Chaos Project (Dark, Feb 4) Bear Bronson vs Brian Cage (Dark, April 22), Lance Archer (Dark Elevation, May 12), and Jungle Boy (Dark, May 29) Tay Conti vs Hikaru Shida (Dynamite April 21)

Yep. me, too. Very enjoyable to read your thoughts, @Matt D. If/when I get sufficient time and energy I might do a longish post comparing/contrastimg our thoughts about some particular future YouTube AEW show. Or perhaps more just rambling on what thoughts get sparked in my head by reading your thoughts. I always have thoughts, generally positive, when reading those posts. I've just been too busy to chime in, recently.

...or that he'd pop the crowd by doing one of comedy spots with Sting? (On, I believe, the same show as a.Nick Gage match... with both Orange and Gage making sense as part of the same wrestling show).

I can't stop fantasy booking next year's G1 (and also a hypothetical E1 tournament). Bryan and Kingston are the two main guys I hope come over in 2022... But also everyone from Miro to JD Drake, and guys who have been here before like Kenny, Mox, Archer...

Page. Or maybe Steen or Generico. Or Jervis Cottonbelly. To revive this legendary feud: Or Hero, because he and Kingston reviving their sick, violent feud in AEW is probably something that Tony Khan really wants to see.

One thing I believe we have all learned already during this tournament: Hopefully we can all agree on that. Perhaps more controversial, though: Speaking of which, unsurprisingly, Ishii, ZSJ, Ibushi, and Shingo all maxed the MAX today, in my opinion. It's a good time to be a pro wrestling fan.

I loved the contrast between Bryan's no-nonsense style and Nick's all-nonsense style. Great stuff. Nice to see Orangey Boy showing some real fire on the mic! It got a bit dusty in here during the very last scene of the show. Immediately went and hugged my girls after seeing that. Show made me mark out, laugh out loud, and happy cry just a little bit. Can't ask for much more. Maybe a better finish to the three-way match... but nobody likes a nit-picker. Danielson in AEW has been everything I hoped for, already. Pro wrestling heaven.

ZSJ v O'Khan was really very good.

Shingo v KENTA, ZSJ vs Great OK, Ishii vs Loa, Ibushi vs Yano. Definitely interesting. No guaranteed great matches, but any one of those four could potentially steal the show. Tokyo Pimp vs Bushi? Well... i mean, we'll get to see Pieter.

Die No Might seems pretty darned interesting this week: Miro v Sammy G, which... anything less than full-on greatness would be kind of surprising. Bungle Joy v A damn coal. Which... I think a boy vs a baybay is an unfair match-up but this should also be great. Penelope Ford and The Bunny vs Tay Conti and Anna Jay. Which... two natural heels vs two very likable ladies. Matt Sydal and Dante Martin vs Lee Johnson and Cody Rhodes. Which... Cody gonna start an actual heel turn here? How much ring experience does Matt Sydal have? What did CM Punk say when Adam Copeland asked him about his sexual orientation?

What bugs me is, how can anyone call guys like Terry Funk, Tenryu, Bockwinkel, MS-1, or Bull Nakano "great" with a straight face? None of them can properly execute the most basic and simple of all pro wrestling maneuvers: The Canadian Destroyer.

You can't spell AEW without "awwwwwww"

I'd be a dollar store version of Gentleman Jervis Cottonbelly.

Omega and the Bucks are Tenacious D. They are absolutely taking the piss out of pro wrestling, but they are doing it from a place of deep love and drawing from a deep well of knowledge. You can love heavy metal and also love Tenacious D. Probably, you can't really love Tenacious D if you don't also love heavy metal. (I kinda like some metal and love tiny isolated chunks of it... which is close to how I feel about Jack Black...) I don't think it's possible to fully enjoy, say, The Pick of Destiny if you appreciate heavy metal in a more serious way, though. I don't mean any sort of criticism by that, at all. It's obviously fine to take some things seriously. And I don't mean the big picture of not liking it when people take the piss out of something you love, more that there are inevitably going to be some details in what they do that just rub you the wrong way. Also, it would not be possible for Tenacious D (or for that matter Spinal.Tap) to do what they do the way that they do it if they weren't massively talented. Good enough to "play it straight" when that's what they want to do. Hopefully it's pretty clear how all of that applies to Kenny and the Bucks, etc. To me, it's like my beloved Osaka Pro, but on a much larger scale, and playing to a bigger crowd. It is AMAZING to me that there is this much of an audience for it, but of course it's not for everybody. I also love @ohtani's jacket's take on it. Most of us posting here, if we'd been gifted with enough athleticism, power, and toughness, would likely be our own little versions of Ishii, Cobb, Walter... Makabe... but we all know guys who'd be doing exactly what The Elite are doing now, if they were able.

Two more very good matches tonight. Unsurprisingly: Ishii and Ibushi beat the snot out of each other, and ZSJ v Shingo was exactly the mix of technique speed power and counter-wrestling you'd expect. Pretty good day of wrestling (Dynamite Grand Slam was Thursday morning for me). Pretty damned good week, really. G1 is exceeding expectations thus far.

It must have been amazing to be part of that crowd. 20,000 hardcore fans of pro wrestling, marking out as one. I was having the time of my life just watching it on my computer.

Thank you! It's one of my prize possessions. None other than Tiger Hattori and Jumbo's son Yuji Tsuruta helped me to order one in my size, back in 2013.