Coffey

PAC/Page was fine but Jim Ross has been acting really weird all night. I like that the finish played into their previous match finish.

If you're a big fan of long-term babyface selling, that was probably the best you can hope for from AEW. Despite him shrugging it all off to do six consecutive spinning midsection kicks & all his running spots, at least the Buck was limping during the post match celebration, I guess.

It really irked me that as soon as they mention the rankings on air, which is a thing AEW said they wanted to do & try to get over, their lead announcer immediately buried them. "Well that's someone's opinion but I still think they're the best in the country." Uhh... so you don't agree with the ranking system in your own promotion? That's odd... But I do think this was the right match to start the main show with & they've really gotten the crowd into it. It started out weird with PnP playing the faces & some stuff with the referee but it's really picked up since then.

Well that match was fucking terrible.

Well, if one of those motherfuckers gets their goddamn head chopped off for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time over there, I hope them "plying their craft" was worth it.

I would argue that going to Saudi Arabia is not a wise business decision. At least not for the individual. If money is the only thing that matters -- since why else would you not opt out -- then you could hope for a Luke Harper situation where you get paid to NOT work. Isn't that the dream? Get paid to stay at home. Take zero bumps. Still pay your bills. Heal up. Like Kevin Nash or Lanny Poffo did for WCW.

It makes the most sense, logically in this scenario, which is why it's a weird dynamic to me. I mean, I don't want to believe it's a foregone conclusion because then you get into the whole endless loop of overthinking the situation so that PAC wins because no one sees it coming or whatever. On the other hand, Page already had a title shot & lost, so what would they be building him back up for? Another title shot? So if it's as straight forward as I'm thinking, where a win doesn't help PAC and a loss definitely hurts Page, then Hangman should be winning but then I can't help but question why the match is even happening? It doesn't feel like it has real stakes. And when you also have Lucha Bros, Private Party, The Young Bucks & Omega on the card, I don't think it's fulfilling any sort of high flying quota by having PAC on there. But I've questioned some things in AEW before & they surprised me with the angle/story & build after, so I'm going to see where it goes. Right now, I'm ice cold on both Page & PAC, so I hope they do something to heat either of them up. They made me care about Shawn Spears heading into his match with Cody (in large part thanks to the inclusion of Tully) so who knows?

Regarding a small part of the Smackdown tapings:

All I'm saying is that if I were in that situation, I would have gotten fired. Of course, I don't exactly have a stellar track record of biting my tongue or considering consequences in the moment with previous employment. I've had the Cris Carter escorted out by security moment on more than one occasion. So it's pretty telling to me when a room full of wrestlers, that now actually have a lot of options in their industry, are completely silent when getting basically browbeat. I could never do that & it has been a hindrance in my past. So I don't know if I should condemn them for being pushovers or commend them for their restraint. Either way it doesn't paint a pretty picture. One thing is for sure though, this event is going to go down as a big wrestling question mark for a long time to come.

It is pretty insane that Joey Janella Vs. Shawn Spears is on the card but Darby Allin isn't, now that you mention it. But at least that gets Tully on TV. The Britt Baker Vs. Bea Priestley match is going to be a trainwreck. Britt isn't very good & every time I've ever seen Bea she's almost killed someone. Recipe for disaster. So I guess it's a positive that they moved it to the pre-show? But if that's supposed to be a match to get last minute impulse buys, I don't see it. Otherwise, this card looks super stellar. Cody/Jericho has had tremendous build. Moxley/Omega is intriguing in that I don't know which way it's going to go. Bucks/PnP will be a fun, fast-paced spot fest. Same with Lucha Bros/Private Party. I don't know how to feel about Page/PAC as I'm not a big fan of PAC & feel like Page never caught on like AEW were probably hoping. A loss would really hurt Page here but I don't think a win for PAC would do anything for him. It's a weird dynamic.

Eh, it's bad no matter how you slice it. Regardless of what promotion it is too. It's not a good sign when the numbers are going down. Both the rating & the attendance. Dynamite was awesome on Thursday & did a great job for hyping up Full Gear but that's still worrisome.

Here's the awesome Jericho video if anyone missed it!

There's NO FUCKING TOPPING this Jericho segment. Holy fucking shit. Segment of the year!

It’s crazy how good Cody has become. He used to be bland as bland can be. Now he exudes confidence & star power.

I am. Started hot w/ The OC getting challenged by Ciampi/Riddle/Lee. Admittedly don’t care too much about this Priest/Dunne match though.

20 minute jobber match. Amazing. Cause Trent fucking Barretta is cash lmao...

Cold as Ice, Foreigner style. I have a two monitor set-up for video watching. One monitor, the main monitor, is bigger than the other. On Wednesday nights, I usually have NXT on the smaller monitor & muted (mostly because I can't stand Mauro). Tonight though, I'll have NXT on the big screen, unmuted with AEW playing second fiddle. Mostly because AEW has felt like it's coasted since the first week & NXT feels like they're trying to get people interested. Dynamite has been on for a month now & although I did love the debut episode, outside crowning tag champs. (which I don't really care about) & the Cody/Jericho segment, it hasn't felt like must-see TV. The biggest thing AEW has done so far is Moxley showing up & that was at a PPV before they were on TNT. Jake Hager ain't it. They need big moments to get people talking again. I feel like the interest is waning & it's too early for that already...

David Starr Vs. Jordan Devlin from OTT 5th Anny show was fine but it wasn't a MOTYC for me. Still a good match & good story but not exactly what I'm looking for. I do like David Starr though.

Dare I say, pushes aside, I think Jinder is a better worker than Seth. There's my super hot take. Someone call Skip Bayless! Had Jinder been giving the opportunities that Seth has, he could potentially be a pretty big deal. At least he knew how to work heel & was pretty entertaining in the lower card comedy role of 3 Man Band. Once they gave him the new theme, new entrance, the two lackeys, etc. he came off like a star. Really just needed a new finish. I certainly don't think Jinder is great but would I take him over Seth Rollins on top? Yeah, I would. The only person I can think of that I would prefer to see less than Seth is Dolph Ziggler. Seth was good in The Shield. Wasn't bad in the midcard as Intercontinental champion. I just feel like he's best when it's like a multiperson match. He would be a lot better as a tag worker. He really struggles telling a story & in matches that go 12 or more minutes. Just feels like he's running through everything he has in the same order every match before making his pain face & grabbing his knee. Even his promos are the same every single time. In pro-wrestling, I'm a firm believer in two things: 1. less is more 2. tradition Seth wrestles like you would play a video game. He's not alone in that regard, there's a lot of wrestlers like that nowadays: Young Bucks, Ricochet, Private Party, Gargano, Cole, etc. To me, you're not a good worker just because you do more top rope/springboard spots & kick out of a lot of finishers on two. Sadly, that's the direction wrestlers seem to be going.

Why won't this match end? Are we being punished because of the Saudi stuff? We get twenty minute Nattie matches as punishment? This is what Purgatory looks like.

So, the guy that has failed on top as both a babyface & a heel. The guy known for being thin-skinned & embarrassing himself on Twitter. The guy that left early from Saudi Arabia to go spend time with his fiancee... is the guy trying to be the locker room leader, to tell the other people to not talk about grievances on social media. What a geek.

He did formerly date a literal Nazi sympathizer, right? I don't think he's known for his good decision making skills. This is what I thought too but apparently the twice a year part wasn't official. They did two a year anyway, but it wasn't official. Now it's officially apart of the ten-year deal.

I watched it. It was dope. Felt like an old ECW card as they kind of had everything up & down the card. They had the Lucha spotfest. They had the lightweight wrestling title match. The hardcore stuff. The strong style stuff. Etc. Aries/Hart was pretty good. Probably the best Teddy Hart match I've ever watched. At least that I can remember. I didn't like him for a long time & it feels like he's really toned down the high spot stuff. I even bought into one of the false finishes. Timothy Thatcher Vs. Filthy Tom Lawlor surprised me a lot. I've really come around on Lawlor lately & feel like he would be a big pick-up for any promotion. It kind of felt like a mix between an old school NWA match & like a stiff strong style NJPW match. Kind of gave me early Buzz Sawyer feels. And I've spoken before about my love of Jacob Fatu. That dude is a superstar in the making. The next Umaga. Just a freak. I also think Josef Samauel as a manager/mouthpiece is probably the best play for him. I don't like Gringo Loco or Jimmy Havoc & even the matches they were in didn't bother me. Even the Von Erich tag was fine. It was a good show that I would recommend. Oh, also, I know that Salina during LA Park's entrance is gonna get El-P FIRED UP! Gonna be a Bluechew ad.

To put this into perspective, in Indiana the minimum wage is $7.25. Working 40/hours a week 52/weeks a year here is $15k/year. Like Blehschmidt said, and I've seen it first hand. There's a reason a lot of people in my city turns to drugs/alcohol. Because their lives fucking suck. They do nothing but work so that they can still be poor. And that's if they have ZERO kids...

I’m firmly in the Wrestle Kingdom should only be one day camp. Same for Wrestlemania.