Coffey

Billy Gunn, in my eyes, is an all-timer when it comes to tag team wrestling. Dude got over three different times in three different teams with three different partners in three different eras. The Smoking Gunns, The New Age Outlaws & Billy & Chuck. That's... that's just impressive. He just wasn't a great singles competitor because he was never a great talker & is kind of boring. His strength was always his impressive athleticism, especially for his deceptively huge size. No one ever really talks about Billy Gunn when talking about tag team wrestling. There's been a ton of great teams over the years, from different eras, but even when you look at teams like the Rock N' Roll Express or whatever, dudes like Robert Gibson weren't doing anything like what Billy could do. You could argue The Smoking Gunns were only over because they were pushed in an era before kayfabe was dead. That the NAO were over due to their ties with D-X and the Road Dogg sing along introduction & that Billy & Chuck were over, at least partially, due to the unspoken gay aspect of the team. But they were all over & all featured Billy Gunn.

I can't wait for Ric Flair's next last match ever! In my mind, it was all just to make Carny Conrad money & give Flair one last reason to have an aftershow party because he's an alcoholic.

A stable will attack WWE & destroy property. Then it will be revealed that HHH & Steph are in charge of the stable. Authority 2.0.

This would be ideal for me. His push never made much sense to me. There's a lot better options, imo. I can't take Judgment seriously. Too many spooky things in wrestling nowadays. Just comes off as cornball to me. Like they're Cenobites or something. I feel the same way about the House of Black. Think that stable gimmick hurts Brody more than helps him. EDIT: Hey, who is that ref? She's new to me!

Logan Paul's athleticism isn't surprising to me but him taking to wrestling as quickly as he has sure is.

Io Shirai looks amazing. Hell, they all look amazing. That was a cool surprise.

Bianca Vs. Becky to start. It's been OK but a bit sloppy... but the Kevin Dunn camera cuts are as bad as ever. The sooner someone fires that worthless fuck, the better.

This SummerSlam card might legitimately be the worst card on paper I've ever seen in WWE. I will say though, two things: 1. when the card looks weak on paper, the show usually over performs & 2. there might be a couple of cool surprises tonight. Hoping for Bayley to return & we find out whomever that secret person is. Which all indications are it's just Edge again but at least we'll get confirmation. The card: Logan Paul vs. The Miz Liv Morgan (c) vs. Ronda Rousey Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Theory Pat McAfee vs. Happy Corbin The Mysterios (Dominik Mysterio and Rey Mysterio) vs. The Judgment Day (Damian Priest and Finn Bálor) (with Rhea Ripley) The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (c) vs. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) (Jeff Jarrett special guest referee) Bianca Belair (c) vs. Becky Lynch Roman Reigns (c) (with Paul Heyman) vs. Brock Lesnar - Last Man Standing match

The Ricky Starks promo & Powerhouse Hobbs heel turns was amazing television. Goodness. I miss stuff like that! That clothesline was stiff as fuck too. That was a big positive. AEW doesn't need more fucking titles though, that's for sure. How many Trios teams do they even have? Four? Maybe? Maybe they can just make the Trios tags a Rampage exclusive.

He comes off fake as fuck. Like when WARRIOR was trying to sound smarter by using bigger words. It's ridiculous. He sounds like a moron.

It's the whole NFL logic, right? Like sure the CFL exists & you can make a living there, but it's not the NFL & you can't play in the Super Bowl. In professional wrestling, WWE is the NFL & Wrestlemania is The Super Bowl. I reckon to some people that's all that matters. Both people in the business & fans, if you go by social media.

They should get rid of Kevin Dunn, Michael Hayes & Bruce Prichard immediately. If they want new creative, they should bring in fresh faces. Not another shot for Heyman or Bischoff. We also don't need Stephanie & Triple H all over TV again. Lest we forget the whole Authority bullshit that killed TV for what, two years?

I think it's time for AEW to move on from Chris Jericho.

They shouldn't bring in Mauro & should get rid of jobber-ass Excalibur too. Also Mark Henry and The Big Show and Jim Ross.

I knew a Darby/Brody feud would slap. Brody could be a top monster for AEW.

It has to be some sort of bait-and-switch. OC Vs. Wardog makes zero sense. It'll probably lead to a beatdown of like Mark Sterling's people? I don't know - last week we had that backstage interaction with Danhausen being the lawyer & I didn't watch Rampage but it was supposed to lead to Tony Nese Vs. Cassidy.

I never get to see Rampage or else I probably would talk about it. I work every Friday night, but I guess I could download it or find a way to watch it. The high praise has me intrigued. Allan doesn't come out of the woodwork too often anymore!

Looks like I'm going to get my wish & AEW is going to do a Brody King Vs. Darby Allin feud. That match should slap. The way King just dead dropped Allin off the apron in the battle royal was sick. Now they're having King beat the slop out of Allin at a autograph signing. I'm here for it. I know I made the comparison that Brody King could be the AEW Bam Bam Bigelow but this feud could be like the Bam Bam Vs. Spike Dudley feud if they do it right. I don't think we'll get some legendary moment like when the crowd surfed Spike after Bigelow chucked his tiny ass into the crowd but we all know Darby is willing to do crazy shit!

I really don't think y'all are focusing on the part of the story you should be focusing. It doesn't really matter which women it was.

Toni Storm is pretty good & Britt Baker is pretty over. Jade Cargill will probably get there but she's still really green. AEW as a whole needs some help in the women's wrestling department though. It'll be interesting to me to see if they bring in either Saraya or Mercedes Varnado - since we can't call them Paige & Sasha Banks anymore. If Mercedes is available obviously they would be insane to not get her. Tay Conti was getting a lot better but now she's apparently just arm candy & made a heel turn which didn't do her any favors. Anna Jay has a ton of potential but is stuck in the go-nowhere Dark Order. Abadon is a fun gimmick & she's doing a great job getting into a lot better shape but she's already kind of been used as a jobber so often that it'll take a bit to rebuild her back up if they want to use her. The Bunny was pretty damn good in Impact, as El-P would attest to, but again, in AEW she's pretty much just arm candy for whatever reason. Shida is alright. Riho is alright but never really around. Hayter is pretty good. Paige Van Zant has a ton of potential but it's still way too early. Penelope Ford was getting a lot better but I haven't seen her in forever. I don't know if she's even still in AEW at this point. Serena Deeb is probably the best women's wrestler in AEW at this point. If they're serious about their women's division, they need to either give it more attention or at least use their TV time better because right now when the women come out on Dynamite it feels like the old WWF Attitude Era bathroom break time only they're wrestling instead of doing strip teases. It feels like we're so far away from the Britt Baker Vs. Thunder Rosa hardcore match that made people stand up & pay attention.

Awesome show. I live-tweeted during most of it, so I won't just repost all of my thoughts here but man, a lot of this show felt like it was just for me. Good stuff. I will say, Ruby Riot & Thunder Rosa do nothing for me & although I think Eddie Kingston is great on the mic, he's the shits in the ring. So I'm never excited for his matches. I wish he were a manager. If I were starting my own promotion & could take talent from anywhere in the world, my first two picks would be Miro & Brody King, so that's pretty cool to see them both in AEW & both getting TV time. So glad Miro is back. Brody looked great in the main event & they protected him pretty well. This shot was awesome:

When Kenny Omega does come back & when C.M. Punk is healthy again, I think there's big money in a heel Punk vs face Omega feud.

Bill Russell Wilt Chamberlain Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Michael Jordan LeBron James Kobe Bryant Magic Johnson Larry Bird Tim Duncan Hakeem Olajuwon Shaquille O'Neal That's 11 that I would definitely have above Steph Curry. As more time passes I can see more people falling out of favor with Larry Bird due to not having the longevity that a lot of greats have but I'm an Indiana boy, so he'll always be in my top ten. And I didn't even list guys like Malone, Barkley or Dr. J. ANYWAY... Orange Cassidy is a one note joke, admittedly, but people still find it amusing, much like Danhausen, so it doesn't bother me in that sense. It is perplexing when they try to treat him as a serious competitor instead of the comedy character he is though. But even that sometimes can work. Remember the Royal Rumble when Santino wasn't actually eliminated & they made it look like he might win the whole thing when he came back into the ring? That being said, I actually think that the Yano/Orange match suggested would have more room to be entertaining. I think it's a slippery slope to judge a characters use/push on what merch they move though.

Of all the things to complain about... Christ.

I'm glad this news came out today because I needed some sort of wrestling story to rejuvenate interest for me. Got my popcorn!