gordi

G1! Meh.

Couldn't agree more about Cobb vs Okada. Those guys have great ring chemistry, it's great to see Okada moving around well, and Cobb juts might be my favourite guy in pro wrestling right now... but they really could have shaved a few minutes off and the match would have been even better for it. From what I've been told, the wrestlers really feel pressure to put on longer matches to make up for there being fewer people on the show. I wish that wasn't the case. I remember feeling really bad for (and more then a little worried about) Naito during last year's G1, going well over 20 minutes time and time again.

It was just a kind of dumb/kind of drunk guy trying (and failing) to be friendly. It's not like there was any malicious intent. I'm glad it happened, because I got a couple of really good laughs out of it. Puns facial expressions in that clip are perfect.

Yeah, sadly. Last year was the fist time ever that I watched every match of a G1 tournament, and I had an absolute blast. The chance of me watching every match this year is pretty much zero. EDIT: Just so I'm not being totally negative: Any tournament with Ishii and Shingo in it (and hopefully MiSu and Cobb) is gonna have some stuff well worth watching. And maybe next year there will be full-on AEW involvement, which could be amazing (Just imagining Kingston or Brian Danielson, for example, in the G1 gives me hope).

I was saying to a friend just the other day: I would honestly be angry if I had tickets for the 5th and ended up stuck with an EVIL main event match. Maybe Shingo can drag a good title defence out of it...??? I hope Tana and Ibshi don't kill themselves/each other. I am stoked for Cobb v Okada. Just hope Okada doesn't win with the Money Clip.

They've really been on a roll with Rampage. Three good matches and a hot angle seems to make for a damned fine hour of pro wrestling goodness.

Yep. You absolutely nailed it with this take. Chicago is definitely over CM Punk. Didn't react at all to Cult of Personality. Could have heard a pin drop when he sauntered down to make the save on Rampage. Bloom is well and truly off the rose already. Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted. Maybe they'll be able to book Chicago again in a couple of years.

Darby vs Garcia, with some guy from Chicago named Phil on commentary, Hayter and Rebel vs The Nice Alien Lady Nose-booper, Tommy Black vs Big Shotty Lee And best of all: the Redeemer speaketh! Feels like Rampage is gonna stay on that roll.

Hope it's OK for a lapsed former regular poster to stat a thread. Thinking about All Out: A fair number of the matches seem to be foregone conclusions. AEW might throw a curveball at us, though. I'm still excited to watch the matches that seem to have obvious outcomes, with maybe one exception. They added a pre-show 10-man Best Friends and JE vs HFO tag match, I guess in place of the Pac vs Andrade match. Women's Casino Battle Royale has been moved to the main card. I'd expect Thunder Rosa to win, and Ruby Soho to be the surprise entrant, but none of that is carved in stone. Mox vs Kojima: Mox is gonna win, but I'm excited to watch, for the crowd reactions. I'm expecting Bread Club signs and a surprisingly loud ICCHAUZO BAKAYARO! The Big Paul vs Cutie Marshall: Well... hopefully it will be over with quickly. Jericho vs MJF: Not, in my opinion, a foregone conclusion any more. That Jericho/JR segment was emotional enough to put some doubt in my mind. Miro vs Kingston: I'm expecting greatness here, a Miro win, and a set-up for Miro vs Mox in Cincinnati... and/or a Miro vs King re-match in New York. Young Bucks vs Lucha Brothers: Also not a foregone conclusion. Dynamite seems to have set up a Lucha Brothers win, but holding off for a Santana & Ortiz win in New York would also make sense. Dentist vs Alien, that old classic pro wrestling storyline: No way Baker loses here. Should be a good match. Punk vs punk: This is the one match where I am really curious to see how they book it. One one hand, you'd think there's no way Punk loses his debut... on the other hand, it would be really cool if he put Darby over here. Omega vs Christian: I'll actually be bummed out if Cage wins. I think Hangman has to be the guy who takes the AEW belt off of Kenny.

F'n hell this is a great listen! Both of you are so enthusiastic and joyful discussing the match, reminiscing about tape trading, talking about booking, just bouncing off each other and making each other laugh. I am not a podcast guy. I prefer reading about stuff to listening to people talk about stuff. But I am really glad I made an exception here, l laughed out loud more than once, enjoyed the hell out of the nostalgic stuff, and feel like I got some genuine insight into a great match and into the personality and wrestling mind of Tony Khan.

Jungle Boy vs Kenny? Yes, please. Hangman vs Powerhouse? Yes, please. Miro vs Pillman? Yes, please! FTR vs P&P?!?! Oh. Hell. Yeah.

I "singled that out" because I felt that adding my two bits worth in the same post would make for an overlong post. I think this is a good topic. Enough so that I actually want to participate in it. Certainly AEW has matches go through commercial break, and they have a lot of finisher kick-outs. The idea that "every single match" goes over 15 minutes, though, is obviously nonsense.

How do you feel about the commentary in AEW? Jim Ross & Excalibur specifically. JR is definitely taking more away from the table than what he brings to the table, these days. He's probably my least favourite thing about Dynamite. I agree with everyone here and elsewhere who wishes AEW would give him a backstage interviewer role or something similar. I have really enjoyed Excalibur, Skee-a-vone, Taz(z), The Big Paul, and the endless stream of guests that visit the booth. I also prefer a simple two-person booth, but that doesn't seem to be AEW's style so I'm not going to waste energy complaining about it. What I like most about AEW is that generally everyone seems to be having fun there and (other than miserable prick JR), all of the commentators seem to be having a blast at work. How do you feel about the ring style or the look of the show/arena? I'd personally prefer a modernized UWF-i style or a 1992-93 AJPW big man clubbering festival or, like a Gaea level of violence. However, I can go watch old videos if that's what I really want. No sense being all "Old Man Yells at Cloud" about too many movez and kick-outs and so on. That's what pro wrestling is, these days. Also, AEW gives us a wide variety of wrestling on almost every show. As I showed in the previous post, the common trope about every match being too long is simply false. So are the tropes about AEW ignoring selling and stories and always and only being about flashy moves. You get kaiju battles and straight up squashes and old school clubbering and all kinds of stuff. It's a buffet. I like buffets. I don't find the arena set up to be distracting. That's all I really ask for. Set design is not my bag. What are your thoughts about the talent that AEW has been bringing in like Jake Hager, Shawn Spears or more recently, Mark Henry & Paul Wight? They don't need any of them, but it's not like any of them have been booked like mid-2000s Triple H or anything. Miro is really shining now. Christian has been pretty great so far. I'm worried about them possibly bringing in Braun. I don't see him as a good fit. Almost all of my AEW favourites are guys who went over to Japan to make a name for themselves or wrestlers who have made a name for themselves on Dark and Dynamite. They've done an amazing job getting me to care about wrestlers like Tay, Britt, Sammy, Darby, Silver, Bear Country, JD Drake, Jungle Boy... Do you think that AEW relies too heavily on comedy? I am an Osaka Pro fan. I'll take all the pro wrestling comedy I can get. What about their abundance of factions/stables? Doesn't bug me. I don't feel like every faction, every team, and every wrestler needs to be involved in a white-hot angle at every moment. AEW seems to be pretty good (and getting better) at heating up an act when it's needed. Managers/Valets? I'm all for it in theory. In practice it's been hit or miss. I pretty much agree 100 percent with Blehschmidt's take. How do you feel about the decisions Tony Khan has taken, or how Dave Meltzer seems to give AEW the constant benefit of the doubt where as Jim Cornette will barely acknowledge when something is good? Sincerely do not care about what Meltzer or Corny think about anything these days, though I respect their past accomplishments. Are AEW presenting the women well? How about the tag team division? The women's division is on the right track now. I wish there was even more focus on the tag division. Is AEW relying too much on gimmick/stipulation matches? I wish they didn't try to go quite so big quite so often. It's like, they make a superb ice cream but then they want to put too many topping on it. I don't feel like we need exploding rings or people falling off of cages. I'm all for the violence, though. I just wish they'd keep it simple and stay away from big flashy stunts. Most importantly, what do you think the greatest positive about current AEW is & what do you think is their biggest hindrance at this point in time? Biggest positive: They seem to respect their audience and their wresters and everyone seems to be having fun. That's huge for me. Biggest hindrance for me personally might be Tony Khan's love for Attitude Era stunts and shenanigans. (e.g. The Bubbly Truck or the Blood and Guts finish). Just not for me.

The last four episodes of Dynamite: AEW Dynamite #86 13.05.2021 Singles Match Christian Cage defeats Matt Sydal (9:15) Tag Team Match Eddie Kingston & Jon Moxley defeat The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster) (10:27) AEW Women's World Title Eliminator Match Hikaru Shida defeats Rebel (w/Dr. Britt Baker DMD) (2:03) NWA World Women's Title Match Serena Deeb (c) defeats Red Velvet (9:33) Singles Match Anthony Ogogo (w/Aaron Solow, Nick Comoroto & QT Marshall) defeats Austin Gunn (w/Arn Anderson & Cody Rhodes) by referee's decision (2:13) AEW World Tag Team Title Match The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (w/Brandon Cutler & Don Callis) (c) defeat The Varsity Blonds (Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison) (w/Julia Hart) (11:34) AEW Dynamite #87 - Friday Night Dynamite 28.05.2021 Singles Match Darby Allin (w/Sting) defeats Cezar Bononi (w/JD Drake, Peter Avalon & Ryan Nemeth) (4:15) Singles Match Adam Page defeats Joey Janela (w/Sonny Kiss) (9:41) Singles Match Jade Cargill (w/Mark Sterling) defeats KiLynn King (5:32) AEW TNT Title Match Miro (c) defeats Dante Martin (3:16) Tag Team Match Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky defeat The Dark Order (Evil Uno & Stu Grayson) (8:45) AEW Dynamite #88 - Friday Night Dynamite 04.06.2021 Non Title Tag Team Match The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (w/Brandon Cutler) defeat The Death Triangle (PAC & Penta El Zero Miedo) (9:27) Tag Team Match The Factory (Anthony Ogogo & QT Marshall) defeat The Nightmare Family (Cody Rhodes & Lee Johnson) (w/Arn Anderson) (9:24) Tag Team Match Christian Cage & Jungle Boy defeat Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) (w/Matt Hardy) (11:27) Singles Match Red Velvet (w/Big Swole & KiLynn King) defeats The Bunny (w/The Blade) (7:00) Bullrope Match Dustin Rhodes defeats Nick Comoroto (w/Aaron Solow) (10:05) AEW Dynamite #89 05.06.2021 Singles Match Christian Cage defeats Angelico (w/Jack Evans & Matt Hardy) (9:24) Six Man Tag Team Match Death Triangle (PAC & Penta El Zero Miedo) & Eddie Kingston defeat The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) & Brandon Cutler (13:06) AEW TNT Title Match Miro (c) defeats Evil Uno (9:36) Singles Match Lance Archer (w/Jake Roberts) defeats Chandler Hopkins (0:52) Singles Match Nyla Rose (w/Vickie Guerrero) defeats Leyla Hirsch (8:45) Tag Team Match Adam Page & Ten defeat Team Taz (Brian Cage & Powerhouse Hobbs) (w/Hook & Ricky Starks) (10:18) Now, my math might be off here, but I'm pretty sure that's total of zero matches that went over 15 minutes on the four most recent episodes of Dynamite. And, I'm pretty sure that "zero matches" is significantly less than "every single match."

Just wanted to add my voice to the well-deserved chorus of praise. Just got my copy today and I am really enjoying it.

I feel like we might be heading toward a "Lockdown" type of PPV with a whole mess of Wargames Blood & Guts matches. - MJFTR vs Jericho & Pals - Mox, King, Christian & ? vs Kenny, Good Bros & ? - Hardy Party Butcher & Blade vs Hangman/DO/Bear Country add a women's B&G and one more and... On the one hand I thought running a death match, ladder, match, and street fight on one PPV was overkill. On the other hand, I'd kind of like so see an All Wargames All the Time PPV and see how everyone tries to top one another.

I couldn't agree more. I will have to catch Dynamite after the fact today, and I'm a little on tenterhooks to see how this whole thing is handled. There's a whole continuum ranging from "treating the audience with respect" to "treating the audience with contempt" amf AEW had always been way over o the former side, as compared to "the competition." Here' hoping they don't chose this show, and the unfortunate damp fart of a match ending, as the point here they start insulting our intelligence with a "we meant to do that" approach. I almost always trust AEW to do the right thing, but I am a little worried this time. I guess we'll all know soon enough.

1) Bryan 2) Terry 3) Liger 4) Foley 5) Bret I mean, just, all of those guys consistently worked to make the other guy look as good as possible. Who would be the top lady in this discussion? Chiggy?

Not being contrarian, not being ironic: I loved that bit. I thought I was burned out on wrestling after the G1, but I enjoyed every minute of Dynamite this week. So much variety from match to match, and so much entertaining BS on top of everything that happened in the ring.

It's almost a relief that the G1 is over. I enjoyed the hell out of that but I think one more week might have burned me out. Not sure what I'll do with my extra free time next week. Been a pleasure watching and discussing with all y'all. Personally, I think I'll mostly stick to AEW between now and WK, but who knows - maybe the combined BOSJ and Tag Tournament will drag me back in.

Full card for the finals has been released: https://www.njpw1972.com/83035 Stoked for the Handsome Battle

Tonight, I believe that EVIL vs SANADA is going on last. If Naito wins the semi-main then SANADA can only play spoiler. If KENTA beats Naito, then the winner of the main goes to the finals. Naito needs a win and a SANADA victory. For me, Naito would be the most satisfying winner, and EVIL the least satisfying. So, I will genuinely be pulling for Naito, then regardless of how that goes I'll be pulling for SANADA. It's likely I'll be genuinely marking out for two long matches tonight. Looking forward to that! I'll be totally deflated if EVIL wins... But then I'll be marking out for tomorrow evening anyway.

Without spoiling anything, Ospreay vs Okada had a twist I DEFINITELY did not see coming, and Ibushii vs Taichi Without Miho Abe was a genuinely unique pro wrestling match. This was another night of very good and entertaining stuff from A Block. Can't wait to read everyone's reactions to Ibushii vs Taichi, Okada vs Ospreay, and the Main Event. I've been popping like Orville Redenbacher all night here.

Man... I got home from work exactly in time to catch Ishii's entrance. Like it was fate or something. That match gave me a rare gift. Marking out, not for the quality of the work or the stiffness or the spots or whatever. Marking out because I really, really wanted this particular "good guy" to beat this particular "bad guy" on this particular night. Absolute f'n roller coaster ride. Even the Gedo stuff totally worked on me tonight. I was 100% losing it: SCREW YOU GEDO! LET'S GO ISHII!!!!! Oh boy was that fun. Cannot adequately express how much I enjoyed that.

I just want to see Naito vs Hiromu. And I believe it is understood that if the current champion wins the tournament he gets to pick his challenger in lieu of the winner getting a title shot.. The current champ has won the G1 twice before (Mutoh in '95, Kensuke in 2000), but I don't think they had the "G1 winner gets a title match at WK" stipulation until, maybe 2012?