MoS

Austin, Dusty and Bruno are the American wrestlers absolutely best at incorporating their gimmick/character into their matches, and their matches being a thousand times better due to it. You watch their matches and you immediately know what they are supposed to be - and Stunning Steve Austin is diametrically opposite to Stone Cold Steve Austin, and his matches are worked that way. This is a trait severely lacking in modern wrestling and modern wrestlers.

Should have sold it strongly for two hours like "We have been told Mercedes might appear! She has a massive interest in this match!" As it is, there were hints, but @Loss has pointed on Twitter multiple times that presenting wrestling and promoting wrestling are two separate things. That's a lesson TK needs to learn. In any case, as brother NintendoLogic pointed out, they were still number 3 for the night, so while the number is definitely disappointing, it's not disastrous or bad. Eric Bischoff panicking about a few disappointing ratings was how the downfall of WCW really started after all

Yeah, booking the United Center and not announcing Punk's debut and just being cute about it works when you are hot. It doesn't work when you are cold and in your rebuilding phase. They should have had ads about her debut running on every TV space they could find

What an outstanding episode of wrestling television

What did Mercedes say?

Kurt did a number on pretty much all of them. As brother @PeteF3 pointed out, it bit him in the ass and nearly caused major embarrassment to Angle when he tried to do it to Puder, cuz when Angle took him down, Puder put him in a tightly locked kimura. If Kurt didn't tap, the kimura would have broken his arm. A ref saved Kurt when he counted to three when Puder was applying the kimura and called it a pinfall, even though Puder's shoulders were clearly up. I am not sure if that Smackdown episode aired live, if it was taped they would have definitely edited out that segment if Kurt had actually tapped out or ended up with a broken arm. Word would have got out though. I remember Meltzer strongly calling for booking a feud between the two based on this incident.

Tony Khan, I know you read this board. Please throw the fucking bank at Sting's boys to convince them to take up pro wrestling. Just look at them!

He didn't even go to hospital! He is having a singles match in 10 days! He is not human

In hindsight, the Bucks were the perfect opponents for Sting's last match. I love FTR far far more than I love the Bucks, and the previous FTR-Sting/Darby match might have been "better" as far as a wrestling match simpliciter goes, but as a spectacle, this was far beyond anything I can imagine wcould have happened with the FTR, especially in light of the fact that, vocal Twitter minority aside, fans boo the Bucks far more than they do FTR

It's between this, All Out 2021, and All In 2023

That was absolutely incredible

WTF HOLY SHIT

Sting's sons

WTF IS HAPPENING

Excellent finishing stretch. Joe is still the man, Hangman hates Swerve and will lose if it means Swerve cannot become champ

Crowd is loving this spotfest

Cuz Dax can be an idiot on Twitter sometimes and he likes CM Punk. That's enough for a bunch of people

Hey, FTR with yet another tremendous match, much to the dismay of a bunch of dorks who hate them for some reason

Orange Cassidy with yet another great match. Shocker

Incredible match between Dragon and Kingston

Is this the best build to a PPV AEW has ever done? I think the closest is Revolution 2020. Main event is very intriguing. Swerve is so fucking over, but Joe is just doing such a good job as champ. It seems like I have often been the lone Hangman defender on this board, but his new heel shtick seems to be liked by pretty much everyone, almost in an unexpected way.

A "major" WCW star buried the shit out of Ole in Meltz's obit of him. I was going to guess who it might be, but tbh the list of people Ole pissed off is so long, it would be easier to speculate who wouldn't trash talk him even anonymously

Hangman "The Liar and Hater" Page

I wouldn't know as much as you about her strengths as a babyface worker, but this has been part of why her short run in AEW so far has not connected with me. It isn't bad or anything, but everything from her mannerisms and taunts to her facial expressions looks and feels heelish. Of course there have been great faces with heelish mannerisms, but they had a run as heels first in the promotion in which they became babyfaces.

Paging @Matt D Unlike you, I am extremely invested in the Bryan/Kingston angle, so I enjoyed the match a lot more than you did. I didn't mind Danielson getting the better of the mat exchanges, since Jun's age was pointed out, and Danielson has consistently been sold as the best technical wrestler of this generation, and maybe of all-time, and he wrestles like that. I have generally enjoyed pretty much everything about 2024 AEW, except for the Jericho and Callis bullshit - the YB gimmick I find cringe but they don't take up too much TV time. Plus, Dragon getting to tick off every item on his wishlist in his final year is something I am really loving.