sek69

Yeah after seeing Mox in several post WWE interviews, I'd wager what we're seeing in AEW is pretty much his actual personality amped up a little.

Being used as the cudgel in which WWE tries to beat down AEW with has been the worst thing to ever happen to NXT. They've totally adopted the Eric Bischoff-running-WCW method of hot shotting week to week to beat the competition instead of trying to build a better show of their own.

LOL @ the booking of this...... as if there isn't already an established method for breaking ties in WWF/E Iron Man matches.

If it wasn't against his religious beliefs, I'd say HBK was jerking off so much during this match.

I hope the spoilers that made the rounds weren't correct....

I'm digging that Fantasma's crew came to this match dressed like a JCP bunkhouse brawl.

COVID (and all the #SpeakingOut accusations) gave them all the cover they would need to walk away yet somehow NXT UK is still WWE's version of Impact that just keeps surviving no matter what.

Bryan Alvarez was tweeting there was a reason they had a "losing team breaks up" match out of nowhere, so that's something to look forward to I guess.

Honestly the makeup team in WWE doesn't do any of the women any favors.

Tony rediscovering his love of wrestling is probably my favorite feelgood story of the last few years.

JR calling the Cody-Dustin match was legitimately fantastic and was probably his best non WWF moment IMO. I think the biggest issue is too much of what AEW does is so out of his wheelhouse and he struggles to keep up/adapt. It almost seems mean to expect 2020 JR to be able to call a PWG style match with people flying everywhere, but that's the position he's put in. Ironically having Tony around seems to expose him more, having a guy from the same era (more or less) who's clearly overjoyed to be calling what he's seeing and having the time of his life doing it just makes it that more apparent JR is out of place. Right now he's probably the 5th best guy they have after Tony, Excalibur, Taz, and Jericho when it comes to calling matches but right now moving him off commentary would make the company look like big meanies in the eyes of a lot of folks who still have an idealized version of him in their minds.

It's weird, most of us are on the same page about JR: he's lost his fastball, other combinations of announcers would be better, etc. Yet I see a lot of casual and/or lapsed fans loving the fact that JR is back calling wrestling again and apparently having him was a big get for the TNT execs as well. Plus I would imagine it's still a bucket list item for wrestlers to have him call one of their matches. I know top level guys were still trying to lobby for JR late in his WWE career when he was barely allowed near a mic anymore. It's like an Emperor's New Clothes deal where it seems like we're the only ones who see it for what it is and everyone else is still pretending it's 1997.

The contract runs to the end of October, and WWE has the right to extend it if they want afterwards. As stated before the primary tenants are the Magic and they won't be using it anytime soon, and I don't see any other shows running until 2021 at the soonest so I would expect them sticking around for the near future.

It wasn't a great first impression, what happened on Payback doesn't change that. In fact, they should have had him come out on Raw and do this exact same thing against someone else and it would have been a much better debut. But yes, this was a much better second step.

By the time Sasha and Bayley had their famous matches, they would have worked together enough times they already had their match down pat. Most of the time spent in the PC (other than the infamous football camp drills) was them working over the same spots until they were drilled into their brain. The Observer after nearly NXT back then would have notes on how all the top matches were worked out and practiced before hand (women and men both to be fair) which is why all the early Takeovers were so top notch. Part of what they wanted to do was change the expectation of women's matches from the 3 minute quickies they were doing on the main roster at the time. They wanted to make sure all the women at that time could put on high quality matches, and to do that everything was practiced beforehand.

So I don't know if anyone saw it, but they did a piece on Strowman for the Network where he talked about his mental issues and how it got to the point he was feeling suicidal until he talked to Vince. It was supposed to be a heartwarming tale of him getting his mental health under control, but it came off as a company run like a cult where everyone lives and dies on the approval of Daddy Vince. It honestly reminded me of when they show people in North Korea giving praise/praying to images of the Kim family as if they were Gods. People like to do what-ifs in terms of who will run WWE when Vince isn't around, I'm wondering what will happen to the cult when the leader isn't around.

The women's tag match was well worked by all parties. Shanya as the one person wrecking machine to the point even Nia was like "wtf just happened?" was the perfect way to end the match. Shayna came off as the badass to end all by choking out a motherfucker with another motherfucker, and Nia got to show some likability during their celebration. Plus it sowed seeds for the eventual Bayley/Sasha breakup so well done all around.

Why is the ref still in the ring when the guys are fighting on the stage?

They remembered Alexa exists this week.

Will they change up Roman's entrance/look for his heel turn?

Nice to see Dom honoring both his dads with the 619/Frog Splash combo.

I've said it before, but Randy Orton is the wrestling equivalent of the guy in real sports who racks up a lot of stats because he was around for a long time and people use that to argue they're a Hall of Famer.

Keith Lee with the Wakanda gear tonight.

Nia marking out for winning the belts was precious.

I love that it looks like they tried to give Shayna the Ronda Batwings around her eyes but just smeared it until she looked like a raccoon.