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Oba Femi doing a promo with Cody to open Smackdown? Hook it into my veins. They may have fumbled Cena's last run, but having the show with his last match be a spotlight for Oba/Je'Von/Leon/Sol is really sticking the landing.

Apparently Theory is a guy Heyman sees something in, and he was supposed to be in the War Games match until Jacob got hurt and they reshuffled everyone. I suppose Paul (either one) has a plan here, but it will be an uphill climb if they want Theory to be taken seriously.

Not to defend TNA, but most of their top guys (that didn't already come from WWE) end up going there eventually anyway.

Usos back as a team? It's probably their best move (especially for Big Jim) but can't help but feel like a demotion for Jey.

This whole Masked Guy bit is interesting. They want you to think its Seth, but if it's going to end up Austin Theory I don't see how that won't be a disappointment.

Funny how WWE tried to book Jade like how they would book a babyface and it was terrible, then they started booking her like AEW did and its a million times better. Also its wild seeing Claudio as the CMLL world heavyweight champion, he's so perfect as the big strong guy luchadores can flip and fly off of.

He's been trying to get back into WWE for years, that's been the motivation for his whole Indy God run. Especially with his wife working there now. Honestly it's the place he fits in best and he should be back there, if nothing else as a "veteran player/coach in NXT" type guy. Speaking of NXT, Deadline was peak NXT booking. They finally seem to be doing something with Je'von, yet they have Tatum getting over with the fans but they have to beat her for HEAT.

This whole tournament for Cena's last match has been such a nothingburger, it's been perversely impressive how much of a wet fart his farewell run has been. The only part that has been even mildly entertaining has been the Dom stuff and that was almost entirely Dom doing the heavy lifting.

TK keeps saying he got TV offers for ROH but he didn't feel they were sufficient, and unless it was from some absolute Z level channel/streaming outlet that makes no sense. If nothing else it would be on brand for ROH to be on a shitty TV station, and anything would be better than the near zero revenue it must be bringing them currently. It seems like a wasted opportunity since the PPVs are usually solid from top to bottom and what I've seen the TV can be fun at times as well.

I mean history has shown that no matter who owns it, who books it, or what TV station it's on, TNA is gonna TNA. They've been remarkably consistent in that regard.

It is looking like WWE, or at least NXT partnering with TNA, helped them get their TV deal. AMC appears to have been sold on TNA because NXT folks will occasionally appear on their shows. This might be the first time working with WWE has ever helped another promotion. If he's talking in a business sense he may be right. I'm sure landing a TV deal with a decent (by TNA TV history) channel is probably the biggest money deal they've had in years.

God damn, Bron just cut the promo of his life out there. It's time to strap the rocket.

Really loving the AJ Styles/Dragon Lee pairing. AJ gets a title run to kick off his retirement run, Dragon Lee gets the rub from being paired with a top level guy, and they get to do cool stuff like the double stomp-to-Styles Clash combo they pulled off tonight.

Funny thing about Survivor Series, is that after two Blood and Guts matches WWE War Games looked even lamer than usual. I don't know why they insist on having these so called brutal matches when it ends up looking like something you'd see on Raw or Smackdown with a cage wrapped around it.

He was hired as a writer there, I shit you not. He also said Violent J is the best wrestling mind he's met since VKM. Again, no shittery afoot. To be fair, Violent J has been in DA BIZ for a while and is obviously doing something right since his promotion has been around forever, but come the fuck on.

I just think they had PAC go over Darby for two reasons: one it was playing off the build of him saying Darby couldn't hang with him in a straight up m match with no gimmicks, but got outplayed and had to resort to using a bat to get the win. Secondly, I think this is going to play into the Death Riders imploding when PAC starts pointing out he was able to get the job done but Mox wasn't. I don't think for a second TK is suddenly going to try to make PAC a top guy over this, it was just a progression point in the story. It's not even the first time they've booked Darby losing to advance an angle. I don't think @C.S. has any reason to fear any megapush for the guy.

I think part of it was they were going so hard to establish Hangman as The Guy, it came off like the Joe feud was just something for him to do. Joe has such aura that even in that kind of situation he can win and it still works.

Well that was another marathon AEW PPV, but it delivered top to bottom IMO. Joe as champ is fine by me, and the pop for Prince Nana made me smile.

Every match so far has delivered, Mark Briscoe finally getting the big win was a tremendous moment and they made Kyle look like a superstar beating Mox.

Full Gear has been pretty great so far. Sky Team brought some Friday Night Arena Mexico action to Newark, and PAC doing bastard things to Darby was excellent. The women's 4 way tag was fun and I can't wait to see what wacky bullshit Toni and Mina come up with for the stipulation.

I get why Shelton did it, the way Bailey sold it made that kick look better than the finish would. As the veteran he'd have realized that and apparently Bailey agreed since he didn't kick out. The ref fucked up here, by holding your count you just make everyone look stupid. Refs should be trained to never hold up your counts because that's the worst thing that can happen in a match. Kills any momentum the match had, shatters the illusion that it's a legit contest, and flattens whatever the planned finish was supposed to be.

Also one thing AEW should take from WWE is the whole "ref calls it like a shoot" because stuff like Speedball apparently forgetting to kick out only to go right to the finish after looked pretty bad.

Watching Dyna-Collision now, and if being married for almost 20 years has taught me anything Harley was probably legit regretting that chest bump she did with WIllow

Man, if Oba Femi doesn't make millions on the main roster it's gonna be really hard for Triple H to beat the allegations.

Hyan and Maya getting so much time/offense sure did seem like AEW was giving them a thank you for bailing them out of a jam last week.