MoS

There was a pic going around of Sabu using his AEW paycheck to snort some coke, which honestly was great, but apparently it has been deleted and that makes me sad

The burying opponents thing only became a thing during the Thunder Rosa feud, and that was obviously caused due to them hating each other in real life. She was not burying Shida or Nyla or Statlander when she was feuding with them. She managed to make a Big Swole feud slightly entertaining. Will forever be a fan just cuz of that. Hayter didn't feel the focus cuz of Saraya, not Britt. Tbh the best choice would be Athena, she is having a career year and deserves a chance to run with the ball

And this is why, despite all the drama and bullshit and big baby behaviour, TK was adamant that Punk be brought back

As they should, given she is the division's biggest draw and she rules. Plus, we can finally get to the much-awaited Britt v. Jamie.

I don't know how you all felt, but the show-closing brawl with Hangman coming back, making BCC retreat and challenging them to Anarchy in the Arena might just be the greatest angle/brawl AEW has ever done. It felt like a hot 1986 JCP angle. It literally might just be the greatest 15 minutes of television AEW has ever produced. That was incredible to watch I got goosebumps (yeah yeah, call me a mark).

Given Punk's disdain for Chikara in general and that gimmick in particular, that's a surefire way to send him over the edge again

Tony Khan's HUGE~! announcement might actually be huge tonight!

MJF is fighting with randos on Twitter. As someone who has drunkposted here aon a couple of occasions, someone take this man's phone away. Why would you publicly admit that an event you headlined didn't draw well? (and it's not even true, Revolution did quite well, just not as well as the shows when AEW was really hot).

Call me a delusional mark, but this episode really felt like the beginning of AEW regaining momentum and becoming hot again. Jungle Boy and Sammy Guevara still should NOT be in the main event of DoN though, and the promos only reinforced that. It should be MJF v. Darby in a singles match.

Claudio v. Fenix ruled so hard. Claudio is really the best base in wrestling history.

..and obviously teased to make further appearances and get involved in an angle down the line? Like Renee was right outside Tony Khan's office looking for answers that she couldn't get. Clearly building to something, probably connected to the new Saturday show.

Punk not letting the clout vampire steal his heat?

Poor Punk's poor diet soda. Cena should have tread carefully!!

Disagree about Starks not having the "top-guy look". Also, and this will probably become more useful to him as his career progresses, Darby is a very underrated mat worker. He was a quite good amateur wrestler at high school level (much like Cody), so that helps him with his matwork.

There genuinely would not be an AEW without DEAN~! RoH probably wouldn't have become the entity they did either. He casts a giant shadow on the world of pro wrestling

RIP DEAN~! Thank you for the many many hilarious reviews over the years, which I both enjoyed as well as used as a crutch and a means of support when I was fighting with depression. You will be forever missed.

I get where you are coming from, and apologies for initially calling that logic shitty. I had not understood it properly - my bad. I take it back

Sorry for being a bit snarky before, but have any of them been treated and/or booked like actual top stars? Cuz by this logic, I can also say that Coke 2.0 were focal points on AEW TV for many weeks and that the Battle Royale was "a good showcase for all parties involved", and that Starks-White, "at worst, is the 3rd most important in terms of card placement and built". Does that negate the complaints we rightfully have about AEW's booking? Or, going in another direction, do such criticisms only apply to AEW, for some reason? And do the defences to such booking only apply to WWE? This will obviously not convince anyone that 2.CokeZero and Starks are being treated as massive stars. Which is fine. But when we start comparing pushes of midcarders as against pushes of main eventers in both companies, we find that WWE has no locus standi to boast of.

3 years can be a lot in pro-wrestling terms, man, as we saw during the beginning of the Attitude Era. And during Ruthless Aggression. And during the Cena era. If you are in that position, you need some contacts to truly succeed, and we do not know if Ricky really has those contacts in WWE (how influential is Cody right now?)

Being signed is one thing, but are any of them treated like actual top guys though? WWF/E has always had smaller wrestlers to put over their actual stars in the main event or right on rop of the midcard, without actually becoming stars themselves. Don't think Balor or Ricochet or Escobar are anywhere different in that regard. Balor for instance has mostly been used to put over Edge and then to enable Rhea Ripley (an actual star) to reach the next level. I haven't watched WWE TV consistently for years now, so I might of course be wrong.

Not saying you aren't right, of course he might be wanting to get signed to the Fed and might get pushed, but again, his size does work against him. Cody himself is bigger and stronger, and also wrestled reasonably successfully in high school so he has more "cred" to go against WWE's huge guys. You are totally right about the age thing though, I was thinking of a much older WWF, one that no longer exists. I take that point back, it's not a valid point.

He doesn't have the size (a HUGE factor, no pun intended, same goes for MJF), the age, or the absence of injuries that he would need to get prominently pushed in Vince McMahon's WWE. His choice at the end of the day of course, if he is offered a shitload of money, arguably none of the above-mentioned things matter.

The only things I can think of is age and general health - Ricky has a lot of injuries that can put him on the shelf at any time. In my book though, that's even more reason for Starks to be immediately be in main events consistently, because there is less time and they need to capitalize on his gifts and elevate him to the main event immediately. He certainly should not be a stepping stone for fucking Jay White, I totally agree with that.

Being better than the Bucks at promos isn't much to be impressed about imo (and I am sure you don't disagree). The only memorable promo I remember Kenny cutting in his 3.5 years on American TV is the one he cut the last time he and Hangman got face to face before their PPV match. Maybe a couple more during that build. That's a very low strike rate for one of AEW's main event mainstays, especially given how many excellent, great promos have been cut on AEW TV in these 3.5 years.

I re-watched, and despite the extraneous factors, the crowd would get excited and loud whenever MJF and Darby would wrestle one on one in the ring, and didn't really care about anyone and anything else, including the stipulation for the match. It is obvious to me that AEW made a mistake by not booking MJF v. Darby singles match for the world title as the main event for Double or Nothing, that's the only matchup that excites the fans. The other two are not at that level and the fans correctly see them as not being on that level (and probably just being in the match to eat a pin). Jungle Boy might get there one day, not sure if Sammy is capable of doing so.