Coffey

I don't like the subplot of The Undisputed Era potentially winning all of the gold. I would like the NA Title match more if Strong wasn't in it, for example. I think Mia Yim might win the title just because I think they're going to strap Io and another Shayna/Io match doesn't make sense, especially if they're both heel now. It feels generic that the first fall of the 2/3 falls main event is "normal match." Matches should still all be decent. I think Candice is gonna die a thousand deaths tonight.

• 2 out of 3 Falls Match for the NXT Championship (first fall is a classic match, second fall is a street fight, third fall stipulation will be decided by William Regal if necessary): Adam Cole (c) vs. Johnny Gargano •NXT Women’s Championship Match: Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Mia Yim •NXT Tag Team Championship Match: Street Profits (c) vs. Undisputed Era •Candice LeRae vs. Io Shirai •Triple Threat Match for the NXT North American Championship: Velveteen Dream (c) vs. Pete Dunne vs. Roderick Strong

Wasn't she one of the people that spoke up about the Bill DeMott shit with the abuse of trainees? Also something about sexual inappropriate stuff in regards to a different trainer or something? I remember a Mia Yim "no thanks" Twitter comment when someone suggested Ivelisse being in NXT with her. I think she might just rub a lot of people the wrong way due to having a bitchy attitude or something.

I'm excited for War Games. Sorry, War Chamber. But I'm not sure if the mystery partner stuff is a draw for me at all. I kind of like knowing who is participating before hand because, as a fan, it's fun to theory craft how the match will be laid out. I think if WWE or AEW get Jacob Fatu, MLW as a promotion is going to be in trouble. Their roster is not super strong. Of course, I also feel that way about ROH, NWA & even iMPACT (although iMPACT! has a lot of talent). This fall is going to be interesting just to see where everyone lands & how the contract shit manages to work itself out with all the companies under AEW in the pecking order. And just reading about the NXT TakeOver Toronto secondary market dying, with tickets being $7, feels like the shine has worn off of NXT as well.

Going back to Simon Gotch, that dude has just became so... boring. I don't think he was ever brought up when talking about good workers or anything but he at least used to stand out a little bit with the Vaudevillain stuff. Once he shaved off the mustache, he had nothing left. And that's coming from someone that LOVES Cradle Piledrivers. He's not a great promo or worker & feels like the least interesting member of CONTRA. So putting all those things together, I'm sure Dave has not had a lot of great things to say about him in the past, so he probably holds a grudge over something that we have all long since forgotten.

I love the duo of Bryan & Rowan so much. It reminds me of Master Blaster from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Bryan being the brains & Rowan being the muscle.

Just wanna say, I'd be down with a Seth Rollins Is Terrible thread.

I think Jumbo is one of the greatest wrestlers that ever lived. He's in my top 10. But PWO voted Daniel Bryan, I think, top 5 in the GWE, so I don't think many people have a shot at beating Bryan around here.

It's a weird dichotomy too. You have wrestling fans that on one hand will talk about AEW negatively due to some of the things they say about WWE but then turn a blind eye when WWE says negative things about AEW. Vince calling them "blood & guts" or Triple H calling them a "piss ant company" gets overlooked if it doesn't fit the narrative. Granted those throwaway comments aren't as big of a scene as Cody on PPV literally using a sledgehammer to smash the throne but, it is what it is. I also think them addressing it & embracing it was a good move. You also have the fans that will lambaste everything WWE does & complain about no competition. Then as soon as potential competition pops up, they channel all of their energy into badmouthing the new company (in this case AEW) as being bush league or whatever. The talking point was "they're just a T-shirt company" for a long time. That seems to have died down now. Now I see that it's shifting into the roster being too small or them not having anyone that looks like a star or whatever. I was guilty of it myself, when I had basically dismissed Shawn Spears. AEW thus far have done a good job of making me eat my words. The pairing with Tully & the vignettes have been exceptionally well done. To the point that it is one of the matches that I am most looking forward to at All Out. Cody Rhodes himself has turned into quite the entertainer. His ring work & promo skills have both vastly improved & on top of that, he also carries himself extremely well.

Dustin Rhodes also mentioned it. One of the greatest of all-time. In my personal top three favorites of all-time. The more of his work that I watch, the more I admire him. I'm really saddened by this. I knew his health wasn't great but I was literally just talking about him last night with a buddy & saying how I really wanted to meet him, shake his hand & get his autograph. Literally last night.

Short & to the point. They've done a great job of making Shawn Spears looks like a star. The addition of Tully was genius.

Not me because I 100% put the blame on Seth himself, not try to pass the blame to Vince or WWE as a whole. There's a reason he sucked as Tyler Black pre-WWE too.

The crowd alone will make it worth being there. If you can go & don't, you're crazy.

Mae Young giving birth to a hand was also a joke. People still talk about it & insult it years later. Wrestlecrap is Wrestlecrap, straight up. Regardless of the letters of the name of the promotion. Shit is shit. The librarians are shit. Doesn't matter if it's supposed to be a joke. Still shit. Just shit that's supposed to be a joke.

I really liked Cobb in LU as well. I've pretty much just liked him less & less with the more I see of him outside of LU. So now I'm thinking maybe I just liked Matanza. Also, honestly, he just looks super generic without the gimmick, too. I think the mask helped him.

The only time I ever liked Dolph Ziggler is when he was packaged with A.J. Lee & Big E. Langston... and then I just realized that I was a fan of A.J. Lee & Big E. Langston. Pre New Day. I actually think WWE lost a lot when they lost A.J. Lee. People still talk about CM Punk but no one seems to mention her anymore. And not just talking about her wrestling pretty fake looking matches. Her as a valet was great. Big E. in the Mr. Hughes role I liked a lot too. It was like an entourage that looked & felt legit.

If AEW really wanted to try something different, how about a 90 minute show?

Man, that is a rough SummerSlam card. 100% skipping the show this year. Good God.

OK, so we know it starts Wednesday October 2nd & that it's live. Do we not know how long a show it is yet? Also, what happens on the NBA nights?

G1 Climax 29 Night 8 - B Block: Juice/Yano - This was a total nothing match. Juice hits his finish to win after a few of the usual Yano antics. Taichi/Goto - Taichi beats up one of the Young Lion L.A. Dojo jobbers. Makes Goto mad so he beats on Taichi before he even gets his shirt off. Beginning of the match is pretty sloppy. I'm just skipping this shit. Both these guys fucking suck. Shingo/Moxley - Looking forward to this one. Back-and-forth corner strike exchanges to start. Mox goes for a Suicide Dive, Shingo "catches" him & hits him with a Death Valley Driver on the floor. Which should probably be a death move but in 2019 ultimately doesn't mean anything. Mox is back on offense not long after, tells the camera "I give zero fucks" & then sets up a table. Table doesn't get used yet. Mox starts working the leg of Shingo. Gets a figure-four. One of my apartment complex neighbors got a new german shepherd puppy & I keep getting distracted as she and the puppy are outside playing with her other border collie dog & it's adorable. 4-stars for the puppy. Lil' inexperienced & needs to learn to work more. Moxley still working over the leg. Posts the knee a couple times then hits the Bret Hart style figure-four around the ring post. This match has been almost all Jon Moxley so far & he's the one that took the DVD on the outside! I actually like the leg work that Moxley has been doing. Shingo gets some BIG Clotheslines in. Shingo goes for Last of the Dragon but his knee gives out. Mox hits the Death Rider for a 2-count. Mox goes for the Implant Death Rider & Shingo fights it off & both men roll outside. Mox drops Shingo's knee on the table, then puts a chair around his leg, Pillman style. Then slaps the chair with a second chair. Not a DQ but a cool spot. Shingo manages to roll in at the 19 count & immediately takes a running Regal Knee, with the knee pad pulled down, from Moxley. Moxley goes for the Death Rider again, Shingo reverses into Made in Japan for a 2-count. Shingo goes for Last of the Dragon again & Moxley slides out, kicks him in the back of the injured knee & hits a running Regal Knee to the back of the head. Then another to the face. 2-count. Now a Texas Cloverleaf from Mox. Submission finish & it looked great. First Shingo submission loss in New Japan. Glad the leg work played into the finish. Shingo didn't get as much offense as expected in this match but I still really liked this match & the finish. Jon Moxley is still undefeated in the G1 Climax. I would seek this match out. United States Champion Jon Moxley now sitting with 8 points on top of the B Block. White/Cobb - Jay White has to win this, yeah? Cobb has no shot in this tournament & White is sitting at zero points. Cobb hit a big dropkick early which really surprised & impressed me. They're sort of telling the story early that Cobb's strength is too much for White, so White powders outside a few times. White gets onto offense after Gedo plays distraction. Red Shoes refuses to count a couple of times because of White taking shortcuts. Cobb hits a big overhead release belly-to-belly. Then a big Gutwrench. I like White as a heel. He does stuff that not a lot of heels do anymore... like cheat! White gets a running DDT & then two Flatliners then gets a Back Drop & a big Uranage. Pretty good sequence of moves from Switchblade. Cobb hits a deadlift superplex that was super great. Red Shoes gets bumped. Gedo tries to hit Cobb with brass knuckles but Cobb catches him for a slam but White gets a low blow. White gets the Bladerunner to win the match & finally get on the scoreboard. This wasn't a bad match. Naito/Ishii - I feel like Ishii has been the MVP of the G1 so far, so I hope that continues with another good match. Naito has unimpressed so far. Early on, they go through a lot of their normal stuff, including Naito getting his spots in & Ishii getting some big corner strikes. It picks up after the first five minutes. Ishii takes a huge tornado DDT. The crowd is behind & cheering for Naito right before the ten minute mark. I lost my shit at the corner jumping headbutt into the very tippy top rope jumping Superplex by Ishii. GREAT shit. I love a good Superplex. Ishii then hit a big running clothesline that dropped Naito on his neck for a 2-count. Naito hits a short Destino outta nowhere for a near fall. The finishing stretch of this match is sick. Naito hits the full on Destino for the win. Good match. The last three matches are all worth checking out, probably. White/Cobb being the worst of the three. I don't know if I think Moxley/Shingo or Naito/Ishii was MOTN, I wouldn't argue with anyone that said one or the other. I would watch them both though if you're selectively choosing matches from the tournament to watch. Ishii with another good G1 Climax match.

Did they cut that part out of the Hulu version? I just went to try to get a better screencap of it & it felt like it went to dark early & cut to DiBiase.

Can't wait for the current roster to look like geeks next to stars from 20+ years ago. Charisma will do that though.

Nope. Angelo Dawkins is also the drizzling shits. They would be better off using Montez Ford as a singles.

G1 Climax Day 7 - A Block ZSJ/Fale - This match from the jump is nothing but Sabre climbing Fale like a jungle gym, slapping on various submissions that Fale has no answer for. Even with all of his power, he repeatedly has to go for the ropes because he can't get out. That continues until outside interference from Jedo & Chase Owens, which allows Fale to take control, finally. I'm over the Fale, Owens, Jedo trio. Finish was pretty cool though. ZSJ slaps on an armbar in the crowd until the count of 16 & then sprints back to the ring to beat the 20 count. Fale doesn't make it back in time because he's slow. Archer/Tanahashi - Tanahashi starts quickly going for Archer's leg. Archer fights back with power. Hits a big Chokeslam onto the ring apron. Hits a big Black Hole Slam. Tells Tanahashi "I'm the Ace now!" & tries to put Tanahashi in his own Texas Cloverleaf but Tanahashi fights out of the turn. Repeated corner Avalanches by Archer. Last one countered into a Sling Blade. Tanahashi goes for his own Cloverleaf but Archer gets out of that. Tanahashi was going for Archer's rope walk, but Archer countered it with a big Arm Drag off the top. It's a story of one-upsmanship but neither man is really getting the upper hand. Archer does his rope walk around a corner & a half then goes for the clubber at the end but Tanahashi reverses it into a Dragon Screw Neck Whip/Twist & Shout. Tanahashi goes for the Flying CrossBody but gets countered into a Chokeslam. Archer fights for & gets the E.B.D. Claw hold but he's in the ropes. Archer goes for what I think was an Iconoclasm attempt but Tanahashi turns it into a roll-up for a 3-count. Pretty decent back-and-forth match. EVIL/KENTA - EVIL tries to look tough by no-selling a kick. KENTA wipes off EVIL's eye make-up. EVIL puts a chair over KENTA's head & then slaps the chair with a second chair. Some how that's not a disqualification. They brawl through the crowd, to the back & are fighting in a hallway. Then back into the crowd, up the stairs & onto a stage platform. EVIL folds & stacks up a pile of about a dozen chairs & goes to Suplex KENTA onto them but KENTA reverses & gets the Suplex on EVIL instead. Now the referee starts counting... The crowd is booing KENTA & behind EVIL. KENTA goes through his finishing sequence, running corner big boot, running corner basement dropkick & top rope doublestomp & gets a 2-count. KENTA counters an EVIL headbutt with a BIG knee to his face. Then a Penalty Kick. Then a Go to Sleep to the gut for the win. Another pretty decent match. Sanada/Ibushi - Fast, action-packed, athletic match. Both wrestlers bicker about who has a better fan response. Both try to outdo one another with athleticism. Breaks down into a strike exchange fest. I feel like these two would make better tag team partners than opponents. Ibushi eventually wins with a knee to the face but this match didn't really grab me like I thought that it would. I'm not even entirely sure where the disconnect was. Just not enough drama to pull me in, I guess. It was another decent match but that feels like what the whole show is. Nothing is trying to get to that next level. The matches have been fine but nothing great. Nothing where it would feel like you missed out if you didn't see it. No MOTY contenders or anything. But maybe that's on purpose to subdue the undercard a little heading into the main event... Ospreay/Okada - G1 Climax Tournament matches all have a 30-minute time limit. However, the way they're working early, I feel like this is going to go long. My expectations for this match, at bare minimum, are Match of the Night. But that should be a foregone conclusion with how the rest of the evening played out. I'm hopeful for a Match of the Year Contender. Which right now, I think my working Match of the Year is Cody Vs. Dustin Rhodes from AEW Double or Nothing because they told such a good story. Ospreay knocks Okada to the outside & then holds the ropes for him to get back in, which Okada refuses. Then Okada knocks Ospreay to the outside with his standing big dropkick in the corner & does the same with holding the ropes open. Okada works over Ospreay's injured neck with some forearms & clubbers. Ospreay, like A.J. Styles, makes everything he does look so easy. Ospreay hits a BIG open hand, knife edge chop which is so loud it echoes through the arena & gets a very audible, positive reaction from those in attendance. Okada hits an insane Dropkick shortly after his Rainmaker Pose. It irked me that even though Ospreay has the injured neck, Okada still used the Tombstone to set up the Rainmaker instead of going for a pinfall attempt after the Tombstone. Maybe that's the American wrestling fan in me though, where I've been conditioned to buy the Tombstone Piledriver as a finish. Ospreay uses the guard rail on the outside of the ring to hit his jumping Cutter. Will Ospreay reverses The Rainmaker into a one man Spanish Fly. Then hits a top rope Shooting Star Press for a nearfall. Ospreay goes for The Stormbreaker. Okada reverses it into a Tombstone Piledriver. Ospreay reverses that into his own Tombstone Piledriver. Okada then reverses a Stormbreaker into The Rainmaker & maintains wrist control while both are down. Okada then picks him up & hits another Rainmaker. Then is going for a THIRD Rainmaker, that Ospreay counters into a Stormbreaker attempt, which Okada rolls out of & hits a rolling Rainmaker. THEN STILL DOESN'T GO FOR THE PIN & is setting up ANOTHER freakin' Rainmaker. Way overkill here. Okada hits that Rainmaker & wins with that but the ending sequence was too much for me. They went over twenty minutes but the match wasn't where I expected it to be. Definitely not a MOTYC. Night 7 was fine, nothing special. You could probably skip the entire night.

G1 Climax Night 6: Taichi/Shingo - Everything about Taichi is bad. Maybe the Phantom of the Opera style gimmick could work with someone else. The best part of the act is Miho Abe and I think she would be better off with Shingo. The match is perfectly serviceable. They get the crowd into it & it gets more fun at the end with the near falls, finisher attempts & big clotheslines. That's the thing about New Japan that I think I enjoy the most: you can't write anyone or any match off because you never know when they'll show out. Even matches that feature people you normally don't like at all, like me with Taichi. This was still a decent match but nothing special, ultimately. Cobb/Juice - Cobb has gotta cut some weight. He's still as strong & agile as he ever was but he looks terrible in that singlet & seems to be gassing out early. It's funny that I felt like he showed more charisma when he was in the Matanza mask in Lucha Underground. I like Jeff Cobb but lately he has reminded me of a combination of ECW Taz & WWF Rhyno... and I'm not sure if either of those are compliments. He just seems so much slower & like his pacing is off. I still think he would be a good pick-up for AEW but so far in the G1, he's under performed for me. I expected more out of him. Juice is on the offense & controlling the match for the majority of it. Crowd seems more behind Juice, for sure. I don't think we'll get better than what Cobb did with Ishii in this tournament. That might have been his ceiling. Cobb reversing Pulp Friction into Rolling German Suplexes was a cool spot. Cobb finally gets on the scoreboard when he hits his finish. Match never grabbed me. White/Yano - Fuckin' Yano. LMAO. This was a clusterfuck of cheating/comedy & only went like four minutes or something but Yano with the upset win was cool. Switchblade Jay White is now 0-3 in the G1. Didn't see that coming! Goto/Naito - Naito did a spot in this match that I had never seen before that I LOVED: The match is all about the leg after that. Naito going after it & Goto selling it & trying to work through it. Selective is how I would describe Goto's continual selling. Also it should be said again, because it can't be said enough, Kevin Kelly is fucking awful at commentary. And I'm a moron for continuing to watch with English commentary over Japanese. That will be rectified with the rest of the G1. I can't do it anymore. This match was OK. Not great. Moxley/Ishii - Moxley comes out through the crowd, throwing chairs. Like he's Brody or Hansen. Ishii comes out & gets right into his face, as they go head-to-head in the middle of the ring. Hard-hitting, smashmouth donnybrook. Strike exchanges to start. They brawl into the crowd. Like up the stairs into the theater seats part of the crowd. Ishii is so good at the Hulk-up/fighting spirit/whatever you wanna call it. You really believe that he's a tough bastard that can just shrug shit off. This was pretty easily MOTN. Which... Ishii seems to keep doing. He's now had a good match with White, Moxley & Cobb.