Jmare007

He was out from Forbidden Door (end of June) when he lost the IWGP belt to Naito and then returned for Grand Slam to face Darby (end of September). He was out for like 10-12 weeks.

People need to stop repeating this. Mox took like a 3-4 month vacation last year. The Death Rider stuff was actually the result him taking a long time off and coming up with that shit. I'm all for him taking another long vacation tbh, but we gotta stop with this dumb ass meme that he's hasn't taking a holiday for 3 years

Oh, and Jojo coming out singing Ain't Nobody got a huge pop from me. If Swerve would've come out dancing I would've lost it the match/moment wasn't right but I'd love to watch him do that entrance once again. How much does Chaka Khan is charging for that song, goddamn.

Watched this late and could skip/fast forward stuff so didn't feel as long as it really was. Tremendous stuff by pretty much everyone throughout the show. Mercedes outfit had me weak, not gonna lie, my gawd. I hope they run that Toni match back soon, really liked the match and felt they have another one (or even two) in their pocket. I hope they get the main event spot though. Mox vs Hangman was incredible. Cannot state how fucking happy I was at Hangmayne stabbing Mox not 4 minutes in with that fork. That shit set the tone for the rest of match and it was QUICK, just a perfect spot. Mox was great as well, y'all know I can't fucking stand him 99% of the time but tonight was that 1% were he was dope as fuck. All the run ins and interference were done perfectly as well, the fact we all knew each of those were gonna happen and still worked so well just shows you the level of execution. Also, E&C vs FTR for All Out in Canada might be something special.

Nope, Mercedes is one of the best big match workers right now and Toni wont have an issue stepping up. My biggest question regarding this match is its placement because if it is 60-90 minutes removed from Mox vs Hangman, I wouldn't be shocked Toni bleeds and they have a crazy ass match.

Not gonna be able to watch live but I love the early start to the show, more of this please. Mox's reign made me tune off for 95% of AEW's product the past 9 months or so I certainly hope TK goes with the obvious feel good ending and gives Hangman the strap. I think the only way one could see Mox retaining would be Swerve turning heel and fucking Page over as payback for everything (and a callback to last year's All In) but that would be such a dumb decision that I wont believe it will happen. I have no info on this but from the one interview I saw from Danielson this year, I woudn't be shocked he never got surgery on his neck and he basically rehabbed with no intention to return to a ring anytime soon. He's gonna be backstage as he is in most AEW shows (and he's been announced for Starcast) but I don't see him doing anything at All In besides maybe be the first run in to face the Death Riders (and then Darby joins him).

Got this one of Friday. Dope fucking read Phil, I had to keep some matches in the backburner to not read it all in one sit. The interviews you got from Danielson, Mox, MJF, Barreta and TK made it pretty special, as you never heard them talk about these matches anywhere in this kind of level.

Yeah, closing the 300th episode of Dynamite with Ibushi vs Okada is the most AEW thing they could've done, it really encapsulates what the promotion is all about in the best way possible. So happy to see Kota back as functioning wrestler. He should get rid of most of his aerial arsenal and just focus on being a grumpy veteran beating the shit out of people, I'm all in for a run like that.

We disagree on the power of the perception swing. Vince leaving meant the stuff that was working (Bloodline and Cody) didn't derail into some really stupid shit with the fans resenting the company once again. That's been key this whole run. WWE fans have been incredibly happy with their product and are as defensive as they've ever been about it. Under Vince you had at least a third of the fanbase shitting on everything and eventually stop watching or jumping ship to focus on another company. I do not believe the "feel good" that fans felt about WWE happens without Vince leaving. No matter how things really stayed the same in almost every way in the company, the shift in how fans feel about the company was pretty much a 180° once he left (both times).

Tbh I think the OP summed the biggest reasons as to why they saw a big rise in attendance and popularity in the past 3 years. Sure, legitimacy is also a factor but without stuff like the Peacock deal and having mainstream people willing to take time off their own schedules to put a legit effort into WWE programming (and even matches), leading to a lot more eyes on the product, you don't get more eyes on the product. And Vince leaving was HUGE. You had a couple of generations of wrestling fans that had either dropped the product or were barely watching because of Vince's horrible booking in the 2010's. The company stopped pushing the idea that real heel was WWE and fans getting mad at them was "good heat" plus most of the really stupid stuff Vince was doing weekly was reined in. "Because Vince left" or "Because the brand finally overcame everything" would be the current explanation, imo.

Of all the shows Goto could've lost the belt, "Tanahashi JAM" was not in my bingo card

It would be even funnier because just as the 2011 promo, even though there were shoot-y elements on it to get a reaction, Cena's promo was mainly about being the GOAT and Punk being a fake "best in the world". Just as Punk's promo a decade ago was more about him winning the belt and leaving the company with it. If anything Punk should cut a fiery promo about why he's still the best and shrug off the rest.

I'm at the point where I'm kinda relived that Punk doesn't take shit so seriously and personally anymore, lol. Cena's promo on Smackdown was a fun callback to the Pipebomb -much more tongue in cheek and "fun", of course- and I'm sure that Punk was more than ok with the segment in itself. But him being laid out there for 7 minutes looking old and having to sell for so long while Cena kept going on, calling him Mr. TKO, a millionaire and a capitalist and basically making Punk -the babyface- look like complete shit, legit surprised me. That's the kind of thing Punk would've probably tried to change not that long ago and would've made a big fuss about not getting his way, causing backstage problems. Now he seems ok with just going with it even though this angle clearly seems like WWE/HHH making him look pretty bad.

Yeah, I wanted to watch something special and got exactly that.

Crowd has been great all show and they really got the assignment for this main event, dios mío.