DR Ackermann

Agree. Between this and the rampage match with Nese and Woods, Lee and Strickland are starting to look like they might be the best tag champs in a year.

I love it. Tony nods along while he shits on the Bucks and Page.

If you don't normally watch these, definitely check out the beginning of this one.

Punk is going in on Cabana at the presser.

Who is the main guy in it? Real question. Besides Jericho?

I completely tuned out during that match. Will have to watch again later. This show is long. But I guess all their PPVs are

That was a Paul Wight promise, technically!

As wrestling fans we tend to over speculate about everything, but couldn't it just boil down to the fact that their was (allegedly) an issue that they turned into a storyline and decided to give MJF some time off so the return would be a bigger deal? TKs booking patterns favor extended absences and give wrestlers lots of breaks. TK said that after this PPV AEW's roster would be the strongest it's ever been and hinted at a surprise. He's known to deliver on stuff like that.

He's channeling his hero

MJF

I think Jumbo was content to phone it in most of the time and do what the job required. No more, no less. It's not that he was in actuality "merely competent" but that he probably chose to be, most of the time.

For a guy with so many showcase matches I find the majority of them to be pretty dull. The Misawa singles are dull. Same with Hansen. He has moments in his matches that are good but I don't see the brilliance in his performances that I expect from someone whose a GOAT candidate. He is a great hot tag, which I think encapsulates his strengths and weaknesses as a performer because it's not a sustained quality in a match. Good for bursts and good at filling a set role. I don't think it's a coincidence that the most critically acclaimed period of his career is filled with tags and trios. Nobody is calling Mighty Inoue a top 10 worker but I think he is a much more entertaining worker and he never had the opportunities that Jumbo had. Jumbo is the definition of solid to me.

Perfect example of the idea that you could be merely competent for nearly 20 years while receiving a huge push and consistently teaming and competing against the greatest talent in the world and by virtue of having practically your whole career on tape people will see enough good matches that they think you're a great wrestler.

Varsity Blondes fell off hard. And rightfully so.

It's not just his punches. The elbows to the neck he got from Danielson is super soft looking too.

Mox has been having a very good year but his strikes are getting softer and softer looking. That pull apart was half assed as hell on his part.

In matches involving Jericho and Eddie, Jericho is 4-2. Also in the build to this match they made it sound like it was Eddie's last chance/final confrontation and that's where the feeling comes from that Jericho won the feud. And the Blood and Guts was portrayed as a failure on Eddie's part to beat Jericho/get him to tap. Which is also a silly focus because Eddie already did that in the first match.

Great place to start. I've seen very little of Eagles but this really impressed me. She's in complete command here, working an awesome technical/maestro style match. It's hard to pull off and we don't get to see enough stuff like this on the indies.

It really has been awhile. It might have actually been the Chris Hero match from that same year

Maybe their "MMA" backgrounds had something to do with it. Some kind of perceived competition or insecurity.

I think in the match you mentioned it's mostly stylistic differences between Rosa and Yamashita but Rosa can be very spotty. When she's motivated she is good and when she's not she's not and she seems more motivated when she's going over or doing something that's designed to make her look good. I think Rosa is kind of a mark for herself and she was definitely sandbagging Shafir for whatever reason.

A long time since I've seen it but his final match with Claudio in NXT is really great.

You could add Waltman to the list as someone who never really had THAT MATCH despite their abilities. Other than this what would be the best match he ever had? One of his early Jerry Lynn matches? I remember in Jericho's first book after he had screwed up in the ring so many times Vince told him he had to go over all of his matches with Waltman ahead of time.

I don't see much in Syuri. I'm kind of baffled by the response to the Utami match. Pretty basic stuff. Syuri has some clear limitations in the ring and it's surprising she's not better with her experience level. There are a way better workers in Stardom with less experience.