Migs

Rok-C seems like a good babyface but pretty green. Guessing she was the best of the tournament group that ROH was actually able to sign full time.

I like that they went with Woods but I don't think that match hit the level it felt like it could have. The whole thing worked well in the sense that they did a great job of building Gresham up and then in building Woods to be a guy to beat him, but it still felt pretty cold in the moment.

Watching the ROH PPV in the background tonight while I do some work. - Looks like a decent crowd, although this is the upside of the 2300 - you can do about a 1000 or so and it will look full. - I've given up on ROH TV as long as they keep insisting on doing empty arena stuff, but on the other hand, if they do one show a month in front of fans, that's about the right amount of ROH for me at the moment. - I like Alex Zayne coming in and he was a good choice to win the rumble, but it feels like it tips the hand that Bandido is retaining, as they keep harping on him having beaten Bandido and that's the obvious match up. - Not sure what they're going for, but Flip Gordon going back to looking like he did two years ago is kinda interesting. - Always glad to see Dalton Castle, but him puttering around their midcard after where he was three years ago never fails to bum me out. - Atlas and Rust looked like they went home early on an injury, but both looked solid and I think ROH would be lucky to have either of them long-term. - The Vlnce Unlmtd six man was pretty enjoyable, although not sure why, with all the faction wars, they're wrestling a random assortment of dudes. Super awkward to hear the ROH announcers acknowledge Moriarty signing with AEW.

If Cage wants to be a top guy, he'd be much better off going to back to Impact or doing MLW (they are trying to do an LU type deal...).

On the bad days above: September 24 - I recall liking the last Sanada vs Taichi match at least a bit September 29 - I got nothing. October 14 - gotta think something will be worth watching from a story perspective at this stage of the tournament, unless the wins that need to lineup the final night are clear

Cole is a pretty good talker for himself. I don't see him being a manager type talker to hype his guy, nor did the world need the millionth version of them trying to recreate Shawn/Diesel. But really, they had the guy doing 40 minute main event matches... what was the point if the goal was to make him a manager? Baffling.

I'm kinda expecting Suzuki in NY - two nights later he's working the GCW show in Queens. (Against Homicide. I will be in the front row crying tears of joy.)

I'm trying to think of the G1 as a content delivery system. 10 Okada singles matches, 10 ZSJ, 10 Ishii... sure, some of the opponents leave something to be desired, but there's going to be a lot of great stuff despite themselves. And no one's forcing anyone to watch GOD singles matches.

I was there last night, almost exactly three years since I was at All In, and last night felt almost as exciting, in the sense of feeling like so much was on the way. All In was the sign that this little cult thing we loved might have a bigger stage, and last night felt like the moment it became real that we might be going to see these shows in a stadium at some point. As many have pointed out, the crowd energy was wild. I was honestly feeling a little tired at the beginning (I'd consumed about 12+ hours of wrestling already between the three GCW shows and Rampage) but holy shit was everyone else up (and I was there with them once I got a cheeseburger in my belly). Singing Ruby Soho's theme made her debut feel like 20% bigger than it otherwise would have. I was next to a couple of people that weren't really familiar with Suzuki much and left ready to go home and watch the match they had in Japan together. Just relentless energy, popping for everything all the way through (and, as noted, shutting down the "We want Tessa!" chant real quick. Just an all-timer of an evening. By now you've all gotten to see Danielson's promo. In that moment, it felt like WWE had a years-long hole to crawl out of in terms of perception. A WWE legend said "this place looks like way more fun." It just felt like it said everything about why I love AEW. A bunch of us were lingering at the exit at the end... just so enthused to talk wrestling and ready for what was next (including Mox vs Gage, what a deal that's going to be). It's a really wonderful thing to have wrestling that's this fun to discuss. Really excited for what's next.

Yeah, I think the Forbidden Door is a big one here, especially once travel to Japan opens. They can send 3-4 guys to do the G1, getting them huge exposure outside of AEW TV. Send guys to Impact. Heck, do a week of shows in Mexico for AAA. Try to let the resets be organic as much as possible, which is the opposite of a brand split.

Dynamite is meant to be 1A, Rampage 1B. It may settle to being a more clear B show at some point, in the same way Smackdown has sort of swung between 1B and a true B show at times. I think right now Elevation > regular Dark.

Yeah, I'm going to All Out and I am quite disappointed in the title matches. Hoping Punk-Darby and Mox-NJPW guy (Ishii?) make up for it.

Agreed. I do think so much of it comes from how little Sinclair cares about ROH - they've been able to do this as safely as possible because they really do not care if there are fans present for their filler program. But still a Sinclair company declaring Florida too dangerous is pretty ironic.

Good for ROH for moving a show out of Florida.

Wasn't she working with Mance and Matthew Justice? Mance gets his tongue stapled to doors on the regular, and Justice literally brags about taking chairshots to the head, to the point where he was getting called Mr. CTE. Wouldn't surprise me if whoever took the move suggested it, especially given @NotJayTabb's note above.

I would bring those guys up and just use them in whatever role you want (I presume mostly tag team guys, but those main roster divisions are pretty barren).

I would gladly make that argument. My deepest consistent joy as a wrestling fan has been Midnight Express matches. Put one on, any one, and I'm good. Classic wars, athletic spotfests, heck, they even had the best squashes. And the best guy on the team was always Bobby. I got to meet him very briefly at Wrestlecon a couple of years ago, just to say thank you. Didn't need a long conversation - it's Bobby Eaton, loquacious he was not - but I'm glad I got to let the man know in person.

I think them vs Sting/Luger is really the perfect Steiners match. It just captures everything that was so great and enjoyable about the, an offensive showcase with enough flow and movement to make you forget it's a giant bomb-fest.

Flair doing promos for Andrade with both of them in nice suits seems like a direction that might work for all involved.

Will they? That would have absolutely been true a year ago, but it seems at this point WWE is being much more picky about this stuff. If they're not going to use him in a top role, they may well be willing to let him go. The point above are the obvious ones - he just seems too small to play the character he does on the main roster, and him propping up NXT might not matter much to Vince at this point.

Yeah, this is the only reasonable explanation. Christian just does not feel like an acceptable guy in that slot. Although I'm really not sure who does after teasing the Hangman thing. Darby? Fenix or Penta for a big spotfest?

ROH is on such an odd spot - because of stuff like this, they actually get decent ratings (Meltz had reported something like 500K per ep), but also no excitement around the product (Meltz also reported that ROH has a very low ratio of DVR viewers, probably because it's mostly people just stumbling into episodes on their Sinclair affiliate). They're in no danger of going away, because they're good at being what Sinclair needs, but also feel incredibly far from relevance.

Um, Nick Jackson is by all accounts an excellent basketball player. It's heat.

I don't see when anytime soon Mox/Okada can happen - Okada is on the stadium show the weekend of All Out, and the G1 starts before the Citi Field show. Mox/Gage on an AEW show would be very cool.

"But she said she felt far safer about wrestling events than she did about the Olympic Games. Athletes weren’t converging from around the world, and she trusted wrestling’s promoters far more than the International Olympic Committee to prioritize safety and to be transparent with fans, Hasnain said." https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-07-25/olympic-seats-empty-tokyo-pro-wrestling-seats-full?fbclid=IwAR3I_7ZuLcj9GsY9wHqBJW9LZrY4NpcpWcZeqgCJKR7jsIo57VZYTjMIu5k Man, what does that say about the IOC when it's below wrestling promoters in prioritizing safety and being transparent?