MoS

Hahaha they gave Natalya a submission win over Asuka - someone who has been getting progressively more over and might be feuding with Becky soon - presumably for sticking to the company line on the Saudi Arabia situation. I don't think matches and results of matches have mattered as little in WWE history as they do today, and that includes the worst excessive overbooked bullshit of the attitude era.

Heyman with the Jewish joke early on

I mean, he left immediately in his private jet, ensuring he would not be there to face any repercussions, instead letting his wrestlers and talent take the heat. I am sure he is a really brave guy, but in this case he basically said fuck you and left before the other party could even register what he said.

Cornette can talk all the shit he wants about cancel culture, but I think the real reason he doesn't like it is because instead of dumb fans hoping Corny would die and spending money on matches where he might get hurt, they are hitting him where it might actually hurt, if they succeed. The fact that he cannot work the dumb marks into paying him pisses him off. And please, if Joey Ryan, Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks or any of the various wrestlers he hates get cancelled by AEW or the fans, then he will have absolutely zero issues and will even praise it. People often complaining about political correctness and "wokeness" do not have a shred of self-awareness, because they get just as offended and react in the same way, just to absolutely different thing. And I actually agree with a lot of Corny's political views, but him acting like he does not give a shit and everyone hating him is just a dumb mark is particularly hilarious, because not only does he get offended and pissed, he does that so much it's become part of his appeal. He also went off on Dave Meltzer on his podcast for a pretty mild, anodyne discussion about AEW's business on Twitter. That said though - and I am someone who suffers from severe depression and mental health issues and who has tried the suicide option multiple times, so I do get how bad depression and mental health can be - I don't think he should not be fired for those tweets. It's clear there was no *malice* in his tweets. However, again, he would have absolutely lost his shit and ranted about it for 15 minutes had someone said something like this about a wrestler he hates. It's why his "HAHA I don't care you idiots lol" shtick seems so transparently false to me.

Listening to Meltzer on this, it seems he knows more than what he is publlicly saying and seems visibly pissed and frustrated,, but cannot corroborate anything because he does not want to throw his sources under the bus.

If something like what is rumoured really happened, I am stunned that Steph would still come out and plug the history-making women's match. I mean, yeah, sure you want to pat yourself on the back, but if your wrestlers were delayed simply because the Saudis got pissed and you are lying about it, then why would you even mention the Saudi show on air or draw attention to it in any way?

"Trying to get video from talent" does not sound good at all.

The shows are and will always be propaganda for an evil empire, and having a token women's match won't change that.

Vince is reportedly home. Maybe some left with him.

If it's fuel issues, there's a joke to be made about having fuel issues in Saudi Arabia, but I can't word it.

When you make a deal with the devil, you should expect to get fucked. Hopefully, it's something minor and is quickly resolved, but makes WWE realise with whom who they are dealing.

I haven't watched the show but I saw this on Twitter: Hopefully everyone is safe and fine and this is some traffic/flight problem!!

Given how ratings from Friday onwards have been downward across the board, it will be interesting to see how ratings are for the next cycle. Meltzer has spoken about wrestling fatigue due to the sheer volume of wrestling affecting all companies and creating pretty much the opposite of a boom. Hopefully that is not the case and things revert to good for both shows next week.

I liked this episode more than the debut episode and even last week's. This week had more promos and segments, and not every match went too long with multiple false finishers. I liked the balance and the pacing of this episode a lot. It was so easy to sit through. The only time I really groaned was when the Librarian came to the ring, and that quickly turned into awesomeness when Mox beat him up and cut a brilliant promo.

I'm with you. I am glad they have depushed him from the world title scene at least. I am guessing he is beaten by Jake Hager in the latter's first AEW match.

I do like how they are trying to get non-finisher endings over, first with Cody-Guevera, and now this. Hopefully they start scaling back on overuse of finishers. On that note, did anyone catch J.R saying "If you cannot win after so many superkicks, then maybe you need to rethink your strategy" during the Elite match.

This was the type of promo Triple H has wished he could cut and been trying to cut for 2 decades now.

I hope that is the symbolic killing of that gimmick. Finally Mox has a live mic!

Santana and Ortiz are arguably the MVPs of tonight.

I also loved how Tony said on commentary afterwards that they should have known something was up when Jericho started talking about respect and being pros - which were also shots at WWE. "That's not who Jericho is. But he is good at playing mind games, isn't he?"

Cody is so over. This genuinely feels big-time.

I am glad it was a short match. Every match going very long has been an issue people have pointed at AEW so if nothing else it's a good sign from that perspective.

Oh Cornette is going to blow up isn't he

This Rick and Morty crossover is a good idea for the demographic advertisers love. Hopefully this match is short though. They are already having the tag team title final tonight.

Ricky Morton at nearly 65 just did probably the best sell job of the year. That got Santana and Ortiz more over than anything they have done so far in AEW imo.