Migs

Havoc is fine as a character guy, but he consistently disappoints in the ring - at least in what I've seen, which is mostly for MLW - which is probably a good comparison to the constraints he'll have with AEW as a TV product. When he can't take the violence up, he can sort of do a bit of chain wrestling, but he's not very interesting at that. Even his violent spots tend to be an escalated version of '90s hardcore silliness (the paper cuts).

I would be interested in this once you get past the first couple of discs (which I've already reviewed).

I get it being there (they're pushing Kotto and they've put a lot of time into that story), but it should have been 5 minutes.

I think Vince also over-learned the lessons from the Rockers breakup. Not just a team splitting up, but that the angle needs to be a hard turn of one on the other, the sense of a team as a "Shawn" and a "Marty" as opposed to two guys who are equally over... it feels like it's all been repeating since then.

I have a hard time believing Lawlor-Ki was supposed to be that short. Was there any reason for Brazil-Martinez to be as long as it was for that finish, especially when it had barely any heat?

Totally agreed. Just felt really slow, and wasted in the sense that we all knew Naito was coming back, and we were all pretty sure he was winning that match. Thought the top of this show as a whole was a step down from the first night in Sapporo - neither of the tag title matches did much for me either.

Hmm, perhaps I was hasty in judging the format. That sounds pretty good.

Quite liked the top 3 matches from the first main New Beginning show today - NJ Mega Powers vs. Bullet Club was better than I expected, as removing the obvious jobbers for White really improved the drama, and the two singles matches (Suzuki-Sanada, ZSJ-EVIL) both delivered.

I found having a baby to be great for wrestling watching. You're up at all hours and need something to watch that's not as explicitly narrative driven as other TV shows. If you need to turn the sound down because it's late at night and you're feeding your baby, you can get by. If you need to get up to change her, you can skip a couple of minutes and it's not a big deal. Getting up early pushed me to watch much of the G1 Climax live. Worked out well!

Totally agree on this one, it's a terrific match. Really interesting to see Styles play leg working heel - it's not his best incarnation, but it's a real tribute to his versatility. I think Flair is pretty good in his manager role here, too, especially with the interference to do some of the initial damage to Joe's knee. The BS with Bischoff isn't my favorite thing, but I don't think it overwhelms the match like in other TNA main events. Loved the moment where AJ screams something to the effect of "Die Samoan!" and charges and gets caught flying by a Joe uranage - cool sequence. Feels like this 2010-12 stretch is really underrated for Styles, Joe, and Daniels - yes they're going to the well against each other again, but they're really showing how much they've grown, playing with different dynamics than the more famous 2005 matches and just really killing it consistently.

To be clear - Meltz has been fairly clear that Ronda + Becky were for sure in the main event, and the conversation has been about Charlotte - apparently the internal logic is it gives both Charlotte and Becky the claim of being the first woman to main even Wrestlemania and some inside believe the match would be better in the ring with Charlotte involved. I absolutely get the first point - if you're using Ronda to make other people, and you think you can make two people instead of one, that's double the benefit! The balancing question becomes whether adding Charlotte to the match diminishes the extent to which Becky is "made" by it (which comes down to booking, and I don't really trust them to balance stuff at this point). The second point is subjective. Charlotte and Becky are generally pretty good in 3 ways; but Ronda hasn't been in one, and I think a focused match with Becky is likely the better bet in the ring (particularly given the quality of the match with Sasha from the Rumble). Either way, I don't think it would be an all-time stupid move, as long as the end result is still Becky making Ronda tap and celebrating to end the show.

I'm picking and choosing on these shows. I do like Andy Boy Simmons as Kevin Kelly's partner, so that's helping my enjoyment. On the first Road To show, I watched Okada/Yoshi-Hashi vs. Bullet Club - totally fine but nothing to go out of your way for. I also checked out the main event elimination tag, which was pretty fun, but you've seen Suzuki-Gun/LIJ already, and they worked this with an over the top rope elimination rule that seemed to drain some of the drama.

"Cats have seven lives." - Teddy Hart

Someone writing for the ROH website made up a story, and it's still incredibly lame. https://www.rohwrestling.com/news/ecks-files-inside-story-how-lifeblood-was-born

Yeah, they really just couldn't follow the moment with Becky. Nothing was going to. It also hurt that they've had so many good matches against each other recently - the pairing just didn't have the juice it did in November. And to build things up just to do that finish... eh. But if you watch that match out of context in a year, it's probably ***1/2.

Do they really need another stable? Especially after they put all the new guys in a group by Juice walking out and screaming "we're a stable!" Lethal is clearly champ as a stop gap until they figure out who to lead with. From a charisma perspective, Scurll is the obvious choice, but I'd also be surprised if they're able to keep him long term. I almost feel like they should just bite the bullet and give it a try with Taven, but he also just doesn't seem up to the task.

I'm sort of surprised to see him say that about Impact, just given what we know about his relationship with Callis.

The accidental blood was absolutely perfect here - I think they intended to take the match up a notch there regardless, but the accidental blood made it play like Styles was now desperate and felt like he had to finish things right then and there. Styles did a really nice job selling here - loved the Styles Clash coming out of the rollup sequence, but also that AJ couldn't roll him over and that cost him the pin. The reversal of the Styles Clash from the top rope, and then Daniels using it was perfect too (their matches featured a good amount of finisher trading, although I don't recall it going over the top). Another great match in a series (although I'd probably have it below the Last Man Standing).

The more I watch of Styles in TNA, the more it feels like his TNA run would be a really fun deep dive. Maybe the booking would be too much of a bummer to really enjoy it, but almost everything I've seen past 2005 has been excellent. Really interesting to see how Styles and Daniels built up the violence in their feud, as opposed to watching the Angle-Jarrett matches, which had the more naturally intense story behind it, but couldn't really pay off the angle in the matches. Wild, wild finish, an epic spot that again feels way more powerful because of what came before it than if they'd ended a 2002 spottiest with it. Tremendous, must see stuff, best of their series that I've seen so far.

This was going along pretty well until Daniels decided to become a cartoon movie villain. Very strange transition, hard to come back from. Interesting that Joe ended up using some of the same shtick about Styles' family just last year. I did think Styles' comeback and then Daniels quitting when he realizes he's pushed Styles too far was a clever way to end it (and not something I've seen before). It allowed them to push the intensity without showing the extreme violence - an interesting move. Not essential, but interesting viewing.

It's so stark to watch these guys wrestle each other 10 years apart, where they haven't changed in a lot of outward ways, but have adapted their styles and become so much smarter over the years. The moves are still cool, the offense still impressive, but they really work hard here to pace this out and build things slowly. Never a dull moment, but they also don't peak this too soon, and the build to the big moments gives them some more gravitas. The crowd is actually chanting for Spiral Tap by the end. Really great stuff, must see if you enjoy either guy's work.

Yeah, this felt like it was going to go somewhere - the intensity was definitely there at the start - but it never really takes off. It's not the big intense brawl; they don't go over the top with interference; they don't have a big finish. Just Angle getting beat, on a reversal, not because of over-confidence or an attempt to get revenge. I watched the cage match at Lockdown that followed this, and it seemed to have the same problem - for all the talk of this being the most heated rivalry ever, the hatred just doesn't totally translate to the ring. Disappointing.

More an angle than a match, but a really strong bit of business. Made me want to see the eventual match.

I'm pretty excited for the live show 2/2 - Ki-Lawlor and Lucha Bros-Hart Foundation should both be pretty interesting and maybe very good.