RingoPlaysDrums

Bloated show and some of the matches should definitely have taken place on TV. A number of real highs though. I absolutely loved Anarchy in the Arena which was fucking wild. Big fan of the HoB/Death Triangle trios match and I think that was in part because all six of them just looked the business. I want to watch the tag & world title matches again because I was exhausted by the time they came on and Punk's win didn't feel quite as big a deal as I was expecting. Both Owen tournaments have felt really off for me since the start but the Martha speech & presentation was a nice moment. Some good PPV entrances and debuts too. Athena should be a good in-ring addition to the roster but I think she needs to do more outside of it. Hathaway is a great get and upgrade for Cargill. Rush reuniting with old pal Andrade is very cool. Hopefully Andrade will start getting rid of some of the fodder in his stable now. Seen some people call this the worst PPV AEW have done and others call it one of the best. It's currently rated third from bottom on cagematch if you ignore Fyter Fest and Fight for the Fallen. That sounds about right based on what I can recall.

I think there is massive interest but the prices are completely absurd. I know loads of people who were planning to go but have opted out due to ticket, travel and accommodation costs.

Per Sean Ross Sapp/Fightful: Grain of salt and all that but you'd think keeping MJF would be one of Khan's number one priorities.

Has there been recent talk that they are interested in Fatu and Hammerstone like they were Rok-C? You'd have thought both of them would've signed ages ago. Fatu because he's an Anoa'i family member. Hammerstone because... well, look at him. The fact that they haven't already signed is strange to me.

Nice video on Dustin/Punk from Joseph Montecillo!

I love Dan Lambert so much. His face when Scorpio and Page were on the microphone was brilliant. Really enjoyed that whole segment actually - laughed out loud a handful of times. Sammy & Tay should be a great heel duo.

Dustin/Punk was terrific. Expect the early going may have been a bit slow for some but I liked the way it gradually built to the finish. Dustin's starting to creek but he's still a master. Punk seemed to be absolutely made up that he got to wrestle Dustin. Post-match was great, what a treat. Nice stare down with Hangman. BCC stuff continues to deliver. Loving Yuta's new gear, it was needed. Moriarty's the obvious choice for the next BCC inductee so it was neat to see him in there (but I like the idea that they're keeping you guessing, as both Dante Martin and Brock Anderson could be candidates) but I'd like to see a more gradual build with him as he eventually proves himself worthy. Adam Cole interrupting the announcement was weird. Man ruins everything. Should really have just slotted that in as a taped promo later in the show. All Ishii on Friday. Jay White needs to be more a creepy loner than just one of the Bullet Club/Elite lads. Still, what they've announced is cool. Trying to fantasy book this PPV in my head but it's tricky. Do you do Okada/Danielson here? Punk/KENTA? Ibushi and Omega will be back healthy by then. Do you do something with those two together? So many possibilities! Dax vs. Cash. Ho. Ly. Shit.

So disappointing. I watched all of their previous matches in anticipation of this and found myself liking most of them more than I'd remembered (and Wrestlemania 31 remains a classic). I'd convinced myself that for this huge match they would at least try and do something different. Maybe something playing off their previous encounters, maybe Brock would do a couple of different moves to get across the magnitude of this match and emphasise his desperation attempt to remain as top dog... maybe some blood, which featured in both of their previous Wrestlemania matches. But we got none of that. The work is okay and the crowd was actually pretty into it... and yet it still felt so bland. I was surprised they didn't do go for more grandiose entrances as well. Between 2012 and like 2015, Brock matches were absolutely must watch. After that, he became a lot more predictable but would still have some absolute bangers. Those days seem to be long past us, unfortunately.

Fun 6-man, this one. Another step in the Jumbo/Tenryu feud and the brief exchanges between the two are exciting. For me though, this stood out for two reasons: the performance of Isao Takagi and Great Kabuki repeatedly nailing Tenryu every change he gets. Takagi is in there quite a bit and at one point there's a commotion on the outside which results in Kabuki & Jumbo holding back the ref. When things settle down we see Takagi emerging, covered in blood. He continues to hang in there though, even when he's up against Tenryu, who may have been hurt by Kabuki attacking him and laying in stiff shots to his face over and over again. Kabuki's really fired up here. It's one of his more memorable performances. He seems to have a genuine grievance with Tenryu because he absolutely wallops him whenever he can. Tenryu eventually puts the bloody Takagi away but you definitely come out of this match thinking that Tenryu is vulnerable.

I remember watching this at the time and really liking it whilst some were disappointed, particularly with the finish. Now that the yellow & black era of NXT is over I'm going through the Takeovers from the beginning. This one definitely held up. I remember somebody criticising it in a review for being two one sided and that's stuck with me, so I was struck by the extent of Zayn's comeback. He gets quite a bit in! The finish is so well done. GREAT idea to go this route. Got KO over huge as champion and keeps Zayn hot in his underdog babyface role. Great match.

I'd had enough of Conrad's shows a couple of years ago and have barely touched one since but I've listened to a couple of these and found them enjoyable. The Dusty episode was good and the one about Jake's start in the business as well, even if I've heard much of the story before. Certainly found them more engaging than the shows with Prichard, Bischoff, JR, etc.

Why holy shit? Hasn't this been coming? I haven't been following it too closely.

Raw after Mania hasn't been much for a few years though, has it? This looks like a more eventful show than usual to me. Elias/Ezekiel, Veer debut, MVP turn, Cody promo, Edge and Priest's explanation, Bron winning the NXT title back. Very glad to hear Reigns hasn't had to relinquish his title. Not so glad that Elias has had to shave his beard.

He said it was in Rochester, NY I believe. Cagematch lists two matches against jobbers on TV in his early WWE career in Rochester. One vs. Mario Mancini on Superstars on November 19th 1990 and another vs. Bill Pierce on August 19th 1991. I'd imagine it's one of those two!

Had a blast again watching night two, although it wasn't quite on the level of night one. Very unlikely I'll carry on watching but for a modern Wrestlemania, they nailed it imo. Bloody good America the Beautiful performance. Hunter welcoming everyone to the show and leaving his boots in the ring was a really nice touch. Opener was just what you want. Really fun match to open the show with big spots for most of the participants. I was hoping Gable would get into it with Gable during the match so I was happy to see them interact after. Clearly in line for a huge push and with his accomplishments it's obvious why. Lashley worked hard and got something more than watchable out of Omos. Guessing that suplex is the most someone has been able to lift him so far. Don't think you physically can do a huge amount more with him. What can you say about Zayn/Knoxville? Completely bonkers. Bags of fun. Lots of silliness but pretty much everything worked. Happy for Sami. Big match/moment for him. Popped big for Sasha & Naomi winning the tag titles. Pretty fun match. Mixed feelings on AJ/Edge. There was some stuff I didn't like. A few occasions where it felt like they were trying to force a wrestling epic and not really succeeding. But then there were bits where it felt like I was watching some really great wrestling. Of all the matches on this weekend they probably had the highest expectations so for the most part I think they still delivered. Pretty incredible that a match like this is considered boring by some nowadays. This felt like it had a faster pace and more big spots than plenty of big beloved WWE matches from years gone by. But I guess times have changed. Glad to see Edge change his character up. I can't stand old babyface Rated R-Superstar Edge. Good new entrance and I was happy to see Priest joining the new stable. They look a good fit together. New Day/Sheamus & Ridge was the worst thing here but I liked the Big E tribute gear and they really do have a hell of a story there when Big E eventually does make his return. McAfee has to be the biggest babyface in the company. After Stone Cold anyway. The crowd was so behind him. Entrance was brilliant, match was great fun. Although I think I'd have had Austin come out a bit earlier. Vince mistook Theory's music for Austin's and kind of gave the game away but we knew it was coming at that point. Austin & Vince in the ring again. Great moment. Stunners all round, Vince may have just beaten his wife's record for worst stunner sell of all time. Austin & McAfee toasting and the shot of Pat on the floor drinking. Delightful. I decided to watch the previous Reigns/Lesnar matches before this. Ended up quite excited for it but it was pretty disappointing. Crowd was super into much of it but there wasn't really anything fresh or interesting about it. I was hoping they'd mix it up just a little bit with the huge billing and the fact that Brock's a babyface now. Very abrupt ending. Seems like there was an injury. Glad Reigns won.

Caught up with Supercard of Honor. Damn good show that's definitely got me interested in ROH again. Highlight obviously being Briscoes/FTR. Just a fantastic tag team match that had it all. Blood, violence, smart tag team wrestling, jaw dropping spots, molten crowd. Match of the weekend for sure and definitely a MOTYC. Up there with the top tier AEW matches from the last few months. Jay Lethal's done almost nothing for me since signing with AEW but he had a great showing here. Good match with Moriarty and subsequent heel turn. I liked the Sonjay Dutt involvement with him calming down Lethal and then inevitably siding with him later on. JOE's return was just great. I want to see Punk/Joe again in ROH. Suzuki & Yuta winning their respective titles works for me. I'm not especially excited by Josh Woods & Rhett Titus. The matches didn't do much for me though. Mercedes/Willow wasn't very good. Mercedes Martinez is really cool but she's disappointed me a few times in recent matches. The match with Deonna Purrazzo should be better. Liking Tully's big boy stable. Glad to see Toa Liona getting a shot after impressing on Dark. He looks like he's lost quite a bit of weight but he's still massive. Ninja Mack is a lot of fun. I enjoyed him on Bloodsport too. Cage heading to ROH is a good call as he's been in limbo on AEW. Zayne/Swerve was a pretty enjoyable opener. The reverse hurricanrana was nuts. Ridiculous that it's just thrown out there halfway through a show opener. Crazy spot though. Here's my top 10 from this weekend so far: 1. The Briscoes vs. FTR, Supercard of Honor XV 2. Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair, Wrestlemania Saturday 3. Jon Moxley vs. Biff Busick, Bloodsport 4. Seth Rollins vs. Cody Rhodes, Wrestlemania Saturday 5. Bandido vs. Mike Bailey, Mark Hitchcock Memorial Show 6. Kevin Owens vs. Steve Austin, Wrestlemania Saturday 7. Jonathan Gresham vs. Bandido, Supercard of Honor XV 8. Rey & Dominik Mysterio vs. The Miz & Logan Paul, Wrestlemania Saturday 9. Minoru Suzuki vs. Biff Busick, Mark Hitchcock Memorial Show 10. Lee Moriarty vs. Jay Lethal, Supercard of Honor XV

The show was a blast. They knocked it out the park, pretty much. The two night format is working well again. The crowd's response is so important to the success of these big shows and when they're asked to sit through 7 hours of wrestling it's just not going to work. This was four hours and there was noise pretty much everything. Country Rockers doing America the Beautiful, delightful. Mark Wahlberg's introduction, bit shit. Nakamura & Boogs' entrance is a great way to start off the show. Match wasn't much. Boogs getting legitimately injured being a big part of the reason why. But yeah, fine. Corbin & McIntyre worked hard and delivered a better than expected match. Last couple of minutes were really enjoyable. Drew trying to murder Moss post-match is silly but it's a moment. Logan Paul looked right at home in the ring and the match was loads of fun. Proper Wrestlemania match. Miz/Paul set up. We’ll definitely be seeing Paul again next year, if not before. Lynch/Belair. Wow. Incredible effort from both. They started off hot, teasing the quick finish as a call back to their Summerslam bout and from there the pace barely let up for 20 minutes. Yes, there was some sloppy execution but it was a match packed with great moments. Another big win for Belair. She’s knocked off Banks & Lynch in back to back Wrestlemanias now. I wonder if it’ll be Belair/Flair in LA next year. Cody’s entrance was a big moment with a big reaction. Even though Seth’s angle was dumb this whole thing ended up working out well. The deal with Cody was obviously done at the right time. The fact that we didn’t see Cody at all until the show made the whole thing feel fresher and more special. Where Cody goes from here in WWE I’m not sure but this was great. Match ended up being really good as well, although I think I preferred the match before. Flair/Rousey started off slow and I thought this was destined to be the “big Wrestlemania match that completely loses the crowd” of this year but to their credit they seemed to get most invested again. Delivered a good if unspectacular match. Abrupt and strange ending. Feels like Rousey has lost some of the mystique that defined her first run. This was not as good as their first match at Survivor Series but I didn’t dislike it. Saw most of these video packages for the first time on Smackdown but I didn’t mind seeing a lot of them again. Mostly very good. Gable Steveson given the big Stephanie introduction. Looking forward to seeing him in there. You start planting the seeds for Steveson/Lesnar imo. I watched the Hall of Fame and it was a fantastic watch. The last two or three, without the roster watching on, have lacked the charm of the previous HOF ceremonies. So having them back out there on the stage was very welcome. Scotty Steiner’s story about Savage and the cows was just what the doctor ordered. Booker’s introduction and Sharmell’s speech were actually very touching. Shad Gaspard’s induction even more so. I’m a huge Vader fan so was good to see him go in but one wishes they’d done it whilst he was still alive. He really wanted it by all accounts. Taker’s speech was just phenomenal. The standing ovation must have gone on for over 5 minutes. And the speech over half an hour. Very few could talk for so long and not lose the audience at some point. Being able to address the likes of Godfather, Kane, HBK & HHH directly was cool. Nods to BSK and Crush. Foley probably the most notable exclusion. Back to Wrestlemania! Another big moment when he made his entrance to a loud reaction. Entire final segment was just perfect. I figured they just might turn it into an official match when it was announced as going on last. And then Austin came out in wrestling gear (well, his street fight type gear rather than the long jeans and trainers that he’ll often come out in). Good talking bit. Great fighting bit. Post-match celebration. Just a joy.

The Regal episode of Talk Is Jericho is absolutely shocking and hard to listen to at times. He's been through so much... he sounds traumatised and understandably so. Burst into tears on a number of occasions. On previous podcasts he's very measured and calm but he's kind of all over the place here. Amazing he's still alive and well.

Disagree on The Acclaimed. They've been one of the real AEW success stories of the last year or so for me. I had absolutely no time for them when they first started. Looked like two fundamentally solid but boring workers in another tiresome rap gimmick. I think they've really hit their stride now and they come off like stars. I like the way they book them. Caster's all talk, Bowens is all action and it just works. Nese has added nothing to the roster. He'd definitely be one of the first I'd cut if they needed to trim it down. Jay Lethal too at this point.

Incredible match. Otsuka is the clear underdog here and he takes a beating early on. Ikeda just looks in complete control. Otsuka is barely hanging in there and tries a few things in desperation. Some slaps and so on. It's a joy to watch. Eventually Otsuka has some sustained success. Love the airplane spin which very much feels like Otsuka just taking what he can get. Great moment when Ikeda falls to the outside and Otsuka is left alone in the ring, barely able to stand. He looks hesitant, even changing his mind a couple of times before suddenly just going hell for leather and flipping over the ropes to take Ikeda out. The selling of his leg is just great throughout. Terrific final few minutes as Otsuka just hits big suplex after big suplex and eventually it's enough to put Ikeda away. Best match I've seen for the first time in a good while.

Another great AEW PPV... but it did burn me out. Fair play, they want to give fans their money's worth. And there is only four shows of this length per year. Problem is that there's really very little down time - and I did kind of tune out for the two women's championship matches. 193 minutes of wrestling if you include the pre-show.... that's a lot. - Hirsch and Stadtlander really went for it. Some awkward moments but probably the best women's match on the show as it turned out. That apron hurricanrana was nasty. Hirsch had to win this after Stadtlander's awful comments. - Hook's longest match to date but once again he killed it. I wonder if they're in a bit of a difficult position now. Fans want to see Hook continue to bulldoze through his opponents but he'll need to work longer matches in order to improve. QT played his part well. - House Of Black vs. Death Triangle & Redbeard. Really good. This Penta/Black feud has been going on a while but with the addition of Buddy and Redbeard it felt pretty fresh. Redbeard put in a great performance and I loved his exchanges with Brody King. Possibly a bit excessive for a pre-show match. Solid win for the House of Black. - Nice Omega tease. Good heat directed at Callis and a reminder that Omega will be due back soon. Possibly as a babyface this time. - Loved everything about Jericho/Kingston. The entrances, the match itself and the aftermath. Clear All Japan influence. Jericho's best in-ring performance in years which isn't surprising given the shape he's gotten into. Hitting that top rope frankensteiner was something else. Big win for Eddie who is over HUGE right now... but he's still yet to win Jericho's respect, so looks like this will continue. - Triple threat tag was nuts and thankfully Jungle Boy was the star of the show. I feared that the champions might be forced to take a back seat to the Bucks/RD drama but that really wasn't the case. Great win for Jurassic Express who are having a successful title reign. - Fun ladder match with a bunch of memorable spots. Some a bit contrived, some really inventive. Everyone had their moments but I was particularly impressed with Hobbs. Big moment for Wardlow. Very intrigued by his upcoming push. Will he dethrone Sammy? Will he beat MJF? Feels like the sky is the limit for him right now. - Hot debut for Swerve. He was presented like a star and the crowd gave him a star's welcome. - TBS title match was a chance to breathe. Cool special entrance for Cargill. They kept showing Page vanZant alongside Lambert and the MOTY so I wonder if they're planning Cargill/vanZant. This match was actually alright. - What can you say about Punk's entrance? Incredible moment. The match is itself was sufficiently brutal. Good use of the chain, thumb tacks, lots of blood and a hot finish. Maybe not quite at the level I was hoping but my expectations were extremely high. Loved the finish with Wardlow playing his role well and getting the big pop when he left the ring on the canvas. It's 1-1 now and I would imagine they'll do a rubber match at some point but perhaps further down the road. - Found it hard to pay attention to Baker/Rosa I must admit. Glad Thunder Rosa didn't get the win here. It wouldn't have felt right for Baker's reign to end at this time. You'd think they'll have another gimmick match now. - Danielson/Mox was very good and they had to work to get the crowd involved again. As promised, they gave us violence. Post-match with Regal making his debut was fantastic. What a well built handshake. - Tornado trios match was bonkers. Reminiscent of the Jurassic Express/Superkiq 6-man from Full Gear. Everyone's understandably talking about Sting doing balcony dives at 62 but how crazy was Guevara's spanish fly on Kassidy? Just insane. With the way the match played out I became even more convinced that Jeff Hardy would make his debut here but maybe that's coming this week. - I was knackered by the main event. Ended up being a pretty good match but I just wasn't all that invested. Must be said that the crowd seemed to enjoy it though. 9/10 probably. Hard to pick a MOTN. I'd probably go with Kingston/Jericho or Danielson/Moxley. But it could also be Punk/MJF for the whole presentation. Another note: JR was really annoying throughout. Generally I think he's been better recently but not on this show. At times his comments hurt the effectiveness of a moment. The pre-show was just Excalibur and Tony, it's significantly smoother when it's just the two of them.

Good match that I recall being a breakout performance for Sasha. She really goes for it. She pulls off some notable spots (like the double knees in the corner and the back cracker into a painful looking submission) that got people to sit up and take notice. She takes a big bump on a tope to the outside as well. Ultimately Charlotte gets the better of her and the finisher is memorable too - a top rope Natural Selection. There's a couple of awkward moments that don't quite come off but I think it's a good first singles match in their rivalry - they would have better on NXT television and the main roster.

Oops. Complete brainfart here. Wondered why I didn't see a thread.

Good match that I recall being a breakout performance for Sasha. She really goes for it. She pulls off some notable spots (like the double knees in the corner and the back cracker into a painful looking submission) that got people to sit up and take notice. She takes a big bump on a tope to the outside as well. Ultimately Charlotte gets the better of her and the finisher is memorable too - a top rope Natural Selection. There's a couple of awkward moments that don't quite come off but I think it's a good first singles match in their rivalry - they would have better on NXT television and the main roster.