MoS

I wanted to give props to brother @Matt D for this wonderful line - "Bumping is a truth framed by lies. Selling is a lie framed by truths" Link to the article - https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2024/07/aew-five-fingers-of-death-624-630.html?m=1

Ospreay is massively over, and I thought that Swerve would kind of fizzle out once winning the title. I was wrong. He has been tremendous as world champ. Ospreay won't be hurt at all by waiting a bit before becoming champ. Roof blew off for Britt lol, no one can deny she is a star

Also, I have always preferred Bret-Bam Bam from KotR 1993 to Bret-Perfect

The two Danielson-Hangman matches are definitely my favourites but they do need some context - Danielson running through all of Hangman's buddies, even Danielson-Omega

Also, it's not really a "match" match, but Austin-Owens from WM 38 was something I enjoyed tremendously, more than the Rock return main event tag against Cody/Rollins, and the two Roman-Cody matches, to say nothing of Roman-Brock. I am probably in the minority regarding that, but Austin's presence, charisma, his understanding of how to milk the most basic spot for maximum effectiveness, all played a part in turning this match into something far better than it was supposed to be.

Been really interesting to follow your thoughts on these matches. I love Punk-Kingston, it's one of my favourite matches of this century tbh. Punk was doing a lot of Bret Hart tribute spots during his AEW run. It would get ridiculous sometimes. I am sure tech-savvy people have made compilation clips of this. He fucked up doing the figure four on the turnbuckle once against MJF. FTR v. Young Bucks from AEW Dynamite in April 2022, Darby Allin v. Miro from a May 2021 Dynamite, and some Sting/Darby tags, including the Sting retirement match from AEW Revolution 2024.

Great thread. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on CM Punk v. Eddie Kingston from AEW Revolution 2021, Punk-Mox v. FTR from an AEW Dynamite episode, Bryan Danielson v. Ricky Starks, AEW All Out 2023.

Happy birthday!! Dynamite had a lot of great things but felt like a Raw episode far more than has been the case this year. Doing both the EVP angle and whatever shit Jericho is doing at the same time is overkill imo. Thank God for BCC. Toni Storm's gimmick never jumped the shark for me and now I am honestly enjoying it more than ever. Also, I am really liking Swerve's title run too, even if he is not the clear undisputed top guy.

His Twitter likes are enough to show his alt-right views. Can't really talk about people being terminally online when it comes to Kevin Kelly, given how he is always online. Love how even in his version of events, he comes across like a complete douchebag. Invoking Hana Kimura's name, and talking about how he went off on Riccaboni for wearing a cowboy hat, like somehow people are going to listen to that and be like "Oh you were totally right!" Fuck that guy indeed

30-year anniversary of El Classico today!

I really liked Swerve-Christian, even with all the bullshit interferences. It had the struggle in the basic exchanges I really value, made the big spots stand out much more. I love Dragon, but I am kind of getting tired of him eating a pin pretty much every time he is in the ring. This has been brought up before, but at what point does it stop being selfless and becomes, well, selfish? Tonight wasn't one of the worse instances, and the match definitely was crazy - owing to Darby, the man is insane, one of the best wrestlers of the modern era without any hesitation - it is more the pattern that annoys me.

Happy (belated?) birthday, bubba!

lol that was a Kane-like top rope move by Copeland. He was completely vertical, didn't get even an iota of the table

MJF is back! https://x.com/josephweirdness/status/1794891011547897904

However, it has to be said that the analysis is incomplete until we see how other segments in the same time slot (and preferably against the same competition with the same number of ad breaks) have done over a significant period of time, in order to draw comparisons. They are certainly no Cody-like draws, definitely

I suspect if if we continue the analysis to today, the declines and losses will be even steeper

He is the Don Bradman of professional wrestling, Aussie brother For me, the thing that separates his matches from Shawn's is the lack of overt, overwrought emotional outpourings in the middle of the match. I know you said "his own twist on things" so you probably considered that. It's a fair criticism, much as I love Danielson - incidentally, El-P, if I remember correctly, now eschews the term he coined

Speaking of, Meltz rated Jericho-HOOK 3.25 stars LMAO

I know you despise him, but Meltzer analysed the numbers and actually said the opposite: that the lack of MJF is hurting the company's business on all fronts

He most definitely won't have the time, but Shahid Khan def has the aura and the presence to be the badasss babyface owner/promoter who shows up once in a while to make sure things don't get out of hand too much, like Bil Watts in Mid-South or even Gorilla Monsoon in the 90s in WWF. He would serve the role far better than any on-screen version of Tony. I cannot imagine Shahid Khan ever in his life stating that he feared for his life because of another person. This is most definitely projection, but as I said, watching him reminded me of the many badass desi uncles I know, who look like him and also have that aura. Hey, in fact, his schedule might mean he only shows up like 5 times a year at most, which really is the most number you want to see an authority figure on screen.

Shahid Khan has an aura. I know many many desi uncles who look like him who are not to be messed with. Just looks like someone you don't fuck with. In a way, unfortunate for Jungle Boy, cuz one look at Shahid Khan and I refuse to believe that JB can pull that shit on TK in Shahid Khan's presence and not get murdered within 10 minutes

That's fair, I was going to argue that winning the world title by winning a battle royal cheapens the title - it is easy at least conceptually to get around this by just booking a mini-Rumble instead of a battle royal - so it would be better if an established name like Becky Lynch won that way, but then that ship sailed a long time ago. I remember Khali winning the world title on Smackdown in a battle royal

Not many, but the ones she has are extremely vocal. I would think Becky won the title so Morgan can beat her for it and hold it till Rhea comes back - it makes more sense for her to beat Becky to win the title than a Battle Royal. From what I have seen, she is a heel now and doesn't like Becky or Rhea, so then she can take credit for both injuring Rhea and beating Becky

I see the terminally online Liv Morgan fans are having a meltdown over someone objectively far more popular and far better in every single way winning the world title over her

Some missteps aside, the promotion definitely feels like it is gaining momentum and have a lot of hot acts and people getting over