MoS

That Naomi spot table spot was so contrived and went forever. I was not a fan at all. Why didn't anyone making their entrance just go to her and trip her. Her feet would touch the ground.

Charlotte winning is pretty much the most boring outcome. She keeps getting pushes and titles but at the same time, it feels as if they are on auto pilot with her, with basically no engaging storylines. It means she basically always feels boring and stale, but because she has been pushed at the top as one of the GOATs with all her Wooohs and shoehorned Flair references, she never feels as if she is due for a run at the top either. She is always on top, except she is just there and is uninteresting. At least they are recognising that she is a natural heel and her face run had zero momentum.

Becky-Asuka is pretty much the only feud I have checked out. It's really good stuff. For the love of God I hope Reigns-Corbin ends here, but it won't. Ronda winning the Rumble to rematch Becky seems the expected direction, right?

I agree with your general point. For Dream though, I specifically want him away from Vince. I don't think Vince gets his gimmick at all. It would be Bayley's first few years on the main roster all over again. And yes, Bayley has been rehabilitated a bit with the heel turn, but she could have been a Mysterio-like babyface and that will now never happen.

He'll certainly get a huge pop in the Rumble if he appears, but I hope it remains a one-off experience. I really don't want Vince to get his hands on Dream and his gimmick anytime soon.

I echo everything @DMJ and @SomethingSavage said. It's why I basically try not to get excited about any prospect, no matter how talented they are. NXT right now has a bunch of absolute mega-talents, and it's a safe bet that none of them will amount to even half of what they could be. Speaking of exciting prospects, when is Velveteen Dream coming back from his injury? Do we have any update?

I forgot to mention - the crowd singing Jericho's theme throughout his entrance and then singing it for several seconds after it stopped playing and actually finishing the song is probably the coolest thing I have seen in wrestling in several years.

It's only fair that the inventor of feminism gets to main event Wrestlemania and have her Wrestlemania Moment.

Chris Jericho is having the best heel world champ run since Ric Flair in the 80s. I thought the cruise looked cool. There was some noise lost but it was clear the crowd was enjoying the show. Baker is not a good promo, but at the very least, heel Baker > face Baker. No more extended interviews with her please though - she legit looked nervous to me. MJF is really good and I am loving the build to Cody-MJF. I am guessing Young Bucks beat Omega and Page for the tag titles and Page turns on them. They teased a match beyond some time ago so perhaps all these angles are eventually building to it. It's amazing how much better and more refreshing the show feels without the Nightmare Collective angle. This was a fun episode. AEW is beginning to get really good at weekly progression of storylines. The booking seems more focused since the new year and that's a good sign.

Is this restricted to the American scene? Cuz I think Jericho has significantly spiked the Tokyo Dome attendance for the WK shows, especially with his feud with Omega.

For Riho, a match I would point out is the match with Nyla Rose to crown the inaugural AEW women's champion on the debut episode of Dynamite. It's not a classic or anything, but Riho takes an extremely green rookie and takes her through a match that gets consistently hotter and more over with the fans, and by the end, even though the match did not start out hot, the fans are totally into the finish. I recommend this because I share a lot of theories and opinions with @SomethingSavage on what makes wrestling good, and while a Riho match will generally never have 10 top-rope dives like a general Seth Rollins match, I find Riho to be very good in getting over the story of the match and getting fans invested in the story and in the result.

I would definitely put Riho in the conversation, for having matches that consistently get more over as it proceeds. AEW women's division is not great, but she has had some strong matches with multiple opponents.

Yeah fair play to him, he reacted with maturity and did not try to portray himself as the victim, which has long been part of the WWE playbook.

I have loved whatever Rocky Johnson footage K have watched. A star wherever he went. His son is renowned for his charisma, but Johnson was an extremely charismatic performer who succeeded in a business that was far more racist than it is now. RIP Soulman.

Dynamite airs early Thursday mornings here; I could watch live last year but I've had some work this year so I catch up on it later. - The Elite are treated on TV as bigger stars than they are, but they absolutely are over huge to the live crowds and that makes their matches hot. I liked the atoryline progression with Page and the Elite as well. That's a slow build that's being done well. - I honestly did not like Cody making inside references about old-school heels and being appreciated by a minute section of old-school wrestlers and others. I understand that 2020 is a very different time from the Monday Night Wars and the AEW core fanbase is familiar with these terms, but I am never a fan of doing this shit on TV. It's Russo-esque worked shoot bullcrap. Apart from that bit, though, Cody cut another excellent promo. I like how he is not portraying himself as just plucky, but also as smart and intelligent. Modern wrestling has too many faces that are plain stupid. He does not need to be another Sting. - This week has to be make or break for the Nightmare Collective, doesn't it? Tony Khan says every week that they are listening to the fans. Well, as TTK pointed out, this entire match died in front of what was otherwise a very hot crowd. NXT airs much later here and I haven't seen it yet so I don't know what the cross-programming was, but I would have absolutely switched over if I had the option. If viewers tune out in droves, I hope they kill this stupid angle. Just make Brandi Cody's babyface manager against MJF. And I find it amusing that the Nightmate Collective and Dark Order segments are almost always booked back-to-back. Like there are trying to get rid of all the unpopular parts of the show in one go. - MJF is great. DDP looked good. Can't wait for MJF to respond to Cody. - Mox-Guevera was good, but the spotlight was obviously on the post-match, which was absolutely brilliant. Because I am also a fan of bad puns, I loved Jericho's subsequent backstage promo as well. Jericho is doing a brilliant job of maintaining his heat and cred as the world champ while often showing ass and making others look great. Given the fact that in the last couple of years, he has got multiple angles and matches over in multiple promotions, can an argument be made for him to be one of the GOATs? It's something that would have never entered my mind 3 years ago, but as I have said multiple times, he is having the run of his life. - PAC-Allin was excellent. Mox is best when used in short bursts, so I liked the fact that he did not get another interview today, but got a brief moment where he kicked open the ambulance with an eye-patch on and told PAC to shut it. It helped end the episode on a great note, which means the damage done by the Nightmare Collective was contained at least. - I would also like to point out one of the little things AEW does that helped them this episode. They have always made a point of having faces rush to save fellow faces from heel beatdowns, something WWE doesn't really care about. When no one came out to Mox's aid, the commentators pointed that out and talked about how one of the disadvantages of being a lone wolf like Mox is you won't have any allies in situations like this. It made the angle feel bigger and more important. They have also used it to get over the Elite's story with Page. Again, a little thing, but little things do add up.

They are also getting another show apparently. From the WON website:

WWE would have been such a better place the last two decades if Triple H was actually as funny and good as he clearly thinks he is.

Wrestlekingdom was intensely memorable, but not just because the wrestling was amazing. It was also because all the wrestlers and their characters, motivations and stories had been built and the fans cared about them. When Okada made his entrance on the first night, the roof blew off. I don't think I have ever heard a reaction like that in a dome/stadium - where noise dissipates more - in the last 15 years. At that point, he could have had a 10 minute sprint and the fans would have still gone apeshit. Meanwhile, NXT last week had a couple of excellent matches and I don't think they will be even focused on tomorrow because every show on TV has multiple excellent matches.

Leo's best acting performance was in The Aviator.

Having never seen Brian Cage, how is he? I read he has signed a multi-year contract, so they must be really wanting him.

What really killed Roman was not beating Brock in the WM rematch, then receiving another shot because he...cut some promos about being held down, and once again not beating Brock at the Saudi event. Like sure, they said he was screwed in the match, but after a point, why would anyone care? Roman had been in main events for years by that point and he had still not been coronated. It just made no sense and then they booked him like an afterthought after he came back from cancer.

My hope is that she crossbodied Luther instead of directly attacking Statlander in the match and then rushed to her defence after the pin - showing babyfaces coming out to help each other is one of the little things AEW is nailing - so there is no residual resentment by viewers. Watching it, I felt bad for Riho, cuz after the first bit of interference, she had the crowd chanting her name and then she and Kris put on a really good couple of minutes of wrestling and got the crowd back in the match. Then Kong interfered yet again and the finish got ruined.

This really shows what being in a bubble can do, because I genuinely thought it was mostly a meme now.

The only time I think people genuinely became disgusted enough to not watch any wrestling for a good while was after the Benoit murders, but that of course is in another universe of awfulness.

I completely understand your overall point about wrestling being a scummy business populated with shitty people - one of the best wrestlers of his time was a Klansman after all - and that it sucks when we find out more about our favourites' bad side. I also completely understand not caring and watching anyway. Any of us who have been wrestling fans for an extended period of time have done that about multiple wrestlers, simply because as I said, this is a business filled with scummy people. In this case, however - and it's why I quoted only specific parts of your post - Tessa spitting on a black wrestler and using the n-word at least was vouched for by several people. It was also made clear that the woman in question did not come forward at that time cuz she was afraid of getting blackballed, something I don't think anybody would seriously dispute. In this particular case, I don't think we need more than hearsay to draw our own conclusions. Of course our conclusions don't "matter" but when someone literally asks for judgment by posting a bulkshit tweet about women supporting women, I also think it's fair to listen and make conclusions about these allegations/incidents and not just think about them as hearsay and dismiss them. Not saying that this should determine your decision to watch or enjoy her, but she brought this upon herself and if skeletons are tumbling out cuz she left her closet open, I say let them tumble out. I don't think knowing stuff like this about wrestlers is a bad thing; we should at least have an idea about how scummy they are.