MoS

Ouch. Well, Ricky did injure him first. Really liked the match. Darby is an obvious star. I don't know about putting him in a world title match. He should obviously not be beating Moxley right now, but he should not be taking pins either. Still hoping the long term plan for him is to beat Cage and then beat Cody for the title. Good show overall. The first hour was a bit weak compared to their last few shows, but things really picked up in the 2nd hour. There are a bunch of moving storylines right now that are interesting to follow. Just a feeling of constant motion that makes AEW worth watching and following.

No one in pro wrestling moves like Darby Allin. His is a violent dance.

That was an incredible promo. Him continuing to shout on the mic over his music was probably a miscue but it added to the experience for me. I hope AEW does not start copying those terrible Rosie O'Donnell skits during the presidential seasons. This debate can be both the greatest thing ever or the worst thing ever.

MJF kissing a clearly fake baby has me howling

This is pretty on point, yeah The women's match was good and I actually liked it more than the Cody match. Shida is becoming one of my favourite wrestlers in the world.

That tag title match was excellent. The Dark Order gimmick sucks but the Smash Bros are really good wrestlers. The Omega slow heel turn has me intrigued. Matt Cordana is meh. Whatever.

Warhorse seemed fine. The underlying story with Cody's matches is making them better than they really are, which is a sign of strong booking.

Someone please get Luchasaurus a good quality mask

Hager is a bad pro wrestler.

I really love Jericho embracing the demo God moniker. Truly the last of the old-school workers.

Will they finally deliver on the Horsemen angle they have been teasing forever

Yeah, I think the decline creatively and spiritually can be traced back to the 2nd Gargano-Ciampa match. The first was a huge success, with the face going over clean. Then they decided to continue with it except make it even more epic, and it became overwrought and a turnoff. This relates to DMJ's point about trying to make everything epic and playing a dangerous game of top-this with your own self that is inherently sustainable and will lead to you eating your own tail. That feud was also where you can argue that the main roster problem of booking babyfaces like idiots seeped into NXT. For a healthy, hot brand, you always need smart over faces. I still think NXT's peak and its most enduring success is the 2015 Sasha-Bayley feud.

Hopefully he is good. Does he do some kind of modern Ultimate Warrior gimmick? I am really hoping the Mox-Cage-Darby-Starks booking culminates in Darby beating Cage. They need to give one of their homegrown stars a huge win to get them to the next level.

Who is this Warhorse guy against whom Cody is defending this week?

The Asuka-Sasha thing straddled the end of hour 2 and beginning of hour 3. The quarters when they come out will make things clearer, but I would absolutely not be surprised if that bullshit ending pissed off a lot of viewers who just tuned out and didn't return. It's a pity because Asuka and Sasha have been having excellent matches which inevitably get terrible finishes due to shitty booking.

The Big E non-singles push is even weirder to me because he has the size, look, charisma and promo ability. All too often, WWE has been reluctant to pull the trigger on someone because they are lacking in one trait - ignoring the golden booking rule about accentuating strengths and hiding weaknesses - but Big E literally checks all the boxes. He has also always been more over than his push, which to me is the biggest indicator of someone's potential. New Day is undoubtedly one of the best WWE tag teams of all time, but for most of their prime run, they were pushed just a shade behind the Usos. Despite that, however, I would argue that they were -and remain- more over than the Usos and were a bigger draw by whatever limited metrics we have. But hey, pushing Dolph Ziggler for the umpteenth time led to a record low 3rd hour which was not that far off from Dynamite's debut episode in terms of viewership, something completely unfathomable just 3 years ago, so everything is just fine, I guess.

Have they addressed what they are going to do with the NEVER 6-man titles? With the 6-man and IC titles basically being in limbo, they should really be focusing on sorting out that shit before introducing new gold.

Bruce Mitchell referring to rovert as 'Irish' and then, after being called out on it, defending himself with "I have Irish friends!!" was embarrassing. I get the point about focusing on the message and not the messenger, but this is the same guy who can never admit his hero Flair did anything wrong ever.

The fact that the EVIL title run was apparently going to happen regardless of the pandemic reinforces this imo.

This new tournament/title idea seems really contrived and unnecessary.

Oh for fuck's sake

He spent his birthday weekend fielding shareholder calls about declining ratings and the effect of AEW on their business. I hope he gets at least an episode of Raw dedicated to him for having to be Vince's shield on these calls

Wait, what. As someone who always considered myself a good punster I am beginning to feel my life has been a lie...

Lol I was today years old when I realised this.

Definitely. I am hoping that when he bulks up for his inevitable move to hw, he stops taking ridiculous bumps. His neck seems to have miraculously healed and I would rather he not tempt fate.