DMJ

They're waiting on Cena to headline SaudiAMania next year. That event is going to need lots and lots of good PR and Cena is the most marketable, highest "Q Score" star they have on the roster. I'd argue that his likeability/goodwill even surpasses that of The Rock, even if The Rock is the bigger star.

I'm fine with Takeshita and Mox buddying up. I'm way less fine with any attempt to turn Shafir, Yuta, PAC, Daniel Garcia, or Gabe Kidd into babyfaces. Wheeler and Shafir have been killing it in their current roles and still have plenty of mileage left there if they start building up Shafir as a TBS Champion contender with Yuta at her side. Garcia has been flip-flopped a couple times now already, Gabe Kidd is in the right role as a heel mercenary, and as for PAC...well...I hate to be unkind but because between the bad new haircut, bad new ring attire, and whatever he did with his body, the whole presentation is just terrible.

I thought it was a good show overall, but, like you said, nothing was truly "great." I thought the main event was very good and easily the MOTN and Brody King was excellent in it with his selling of the knee damage. It was a fairly straight-forward match that didn't over-rely on "finisher spamming" or a million nearfalls or any run-in nonsense and I thought it was effective. Mox/Takeshita lacked urgency until the final 5 minutes. I also read that Mox may have called an audible during the post-match by having Takeshita hit him with his finish. While this popped the crowd, I still think it was the wrong call from a storytelling perspective. Both guys have been sorta leaning towards being babyfaces over the past few weeks/months so Takeshita doing something so outright heelish when, if I'm not mistaken, he's in the process of an extended storyline where he's likely to be splitting from Don Callis and feuding with Okada seems like needlessly muddying the waters. I really liked the Mixed Tag. Fletcher/Briscoe was a little weird to me. There were some crazy spots - as expected - but it ended with a bit of a whimper rather than a bang. When you see a superplex off the top of a ladder and a piledriver through a ladder and both guys bleeding profusely, I don't think you should end the match with one guy just casually shoving the other guy's ladder over. I think a "bigger" finish would've really helped things. I also was expecting some sort of interference from Ciampa to theoretically build towards a 3-way, but I'm also 100% fine with Fletcher moving on from Briscoe entirely and getting a brand new challenger.

I'd call BS on this story if we didn't have significant evidence that Trump is the thinnest-skinned President ever and consumes every bit of press he gets. To this man, even the most benign criticism from the lowest D-list celebrity warrants a Twitter rant (or scattershot lawsuit) so I wouldn't be surprised if WBD is genuinely concerned that having a wrestler coming out wearing a tee-shirt opposing one of his policies could be deemed "inflammatory" and cost them the merger. I haven't finished Dynamite yet but, if this is true, it certainly helps explain why Kenny Omega would drop the line about Brody King being "the most dangerous man in AEW" in the middle of a heated promo with Swerve. When I heard it, I figured it was just an awkwardly-placed bit of praise to get Brody's name out there as he's got the big title shot coming up and Kenny is sometimes known to drop lines in a awkward/slightly "off" way (like the dialogue in the video games he loves so much). But, hearing this bit of gossip, that line makes more sense even if did still come out of nowhere and caught Swerve off guard. I don't think Ciampa/Fletcher was an all-timer or anything but I will say this -

When you're the lesser half of a tag team with Matt Morgan, you're not a top 100 wrestler.

I took a relatively lengthy break from watching any WWE content in 2025, not bothering to download the ESPN app despite having access to it via my Hulu account. Even knowing that the WWE's PLEs were just a click or two and an authentication away, I've just been so turned off by the company. But the pull of the Rumble is hard to resist and the WWE (or ESPN or Disney or whoever) very, very wisely had it featured prominently on the launch page of Hulu (or at least it was on mine). This was something new compared to other recent PLEs, which I believe required subscribers to access the ESPN app. With this show, you could just click play so I started it this morning. My sample size is small, but based on my buddy in NY texting me to ask if I was watching it, I'm going to guess that there were likely many casual fans who tuned in simply because access to the show was much easier than the past few ESPN events. Anyway...I've only watched the Women's Rumble so far, but here's some thoughts: - Flair and Alexa's shtick in the beginning was fun as they teased eliminating each other but mostly worked as partners until Flair inadvertently eliminated Alexa later on (a recurring theme that probably would've been more effective had it happened just once in the match but it also happened with the Kabuki Warriors and The Judgment Day so I assume it won't be the cause of any future conflict. - I thought most of this was pretty good aside from the usual moments when everyone else in the match plays dead so that the focus can go on just one or two women, like it did when Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair found themselves face-to-face. - Sol Luca and Lash Legend got to shine. The women's roster really is incredibly stacked at this point that it is nearly impossible to "stand out" and I wonder if some of these women wouldn't actually benefit from runs in AEW where maybe they'd be forced to either develop fresh, new characters for themselves or collaborate within a system where there is more risk-taking. I mean, I just don't see how someone like Ivy Nile or Jacy Jayne are going to ever get to the front of the line despite clear talent and potential without finding a gimmick or character that really connects with fans (and I don't think WWE Creative really has them on their radar to give that extra creative energy). - The Saudi crowd chanting for John Cena during Nikki Bella's showcase was especially hard to stomach coming from a crowd of mostly men who live in a country where women having something resembling equal rights is only a recent phenomenon. Brie Bella got a huge ovation for her return and I liked Michael Cole's verbal gymnastics has he tried to express the homage she paid with her Yes/It Kicks without mentioning her husband. - The final three was a fun stretch but I really feel like Triple H missed the boat with Liv Morgan's return and even this Rumble victory was only half-successful because of it. Morgan may not be the best in-ring performer, but her career has followed something of a classic modern WWE pattern that has gotten her over huge with the audience. She started out green in forgettable stables and teams, had her fair share of hot garbage storylines (Wikipedia reminded me she once professed her love for Lana), was booked as something of a joke during her first run with the Women's Championship after cashing in her briefcase against Ronda Rousey, and had some ups-and-downs due to injury in 2023 but had already begun to show chemistry with Raquel Rodriguez and, more importantly, Rhea Ripley. In 2024, that chemistry with Ripley led to probably the best love triangle storylines the WWE has produced this century with Dom Mysterio and, from there, Morgan and Dom were basically the top heels on RAW week-to-week. And, of course, as has been a pattern since at least the rise of Steve Austin 30 years ago, if someone gets hot enough as a heel but consistently is among the most entertaining acts on a show, part of the audience is going to embrace them and that part tends to grow until they're essentially a babyface. With Morgan, the time to make that turn official was when she returned and the WWE squandered it by having her immediately re-align with Dom and the Judgment Day. Had she come into this Rumble as a babyface, the stories they could've told with her and Raquel, Roxanne Perez, Rhea, and even Bayley, Becky, and Charlotte (as the locker room veterans one generation "ahead" of Liv) would've given this match much more cohesion. Instead, Liv got the win, but it didn't feel like the next step of a character trajectory as much as just a way to put her in the title mix after time away. She's still the same Liv Morgan she was when she got injured in June 2025 and that's a real shame because she deserved a more meaningful return story than what we got and it was so incredibly easy to do (she was literally replaced in Judgment Day by Perez and they could've also played up Dom Mysterio not being by her side as she rehabbed). Overall, not a terrible Rumble, but it could've been better in front of a crowd that was more engaged beginning-to-end and a throughline that gave us someone to root for.

He'll make my list, for sure. In fact, he's someone who I'll actually have to purposefully under-value because he kinda blows up my criteria system. The first thing I often go to for ranking is looking at my database and calculating "average match score." In order to make my list, I have to have seen and reviewed 20 matches of that wrestler. Darby meets that threshold with just AEW PPV matches, which have all been above average aside from some of the battle royales he was thrown in early, in which he was still often the most captivating guy in the match. So, points-wise, because his matches have been essentially "cherry-picked," his score is probably going to be higher than a John Cena, Sting, Dustin Rhodes, Randy Orton, or Ric Flair (all of whom I've reviewed 3 or 4 or 5 times more matches of across many more years and against a wider array of talent). So, I don't just go with "average match score" and also look at categories - influence/impact, tag work, carrying ability, reliability (can they be relied on to have good matches consistently), heel/face versatility, peak (were they ever an undeniable best or biggest star in their promotion/world), charisma (mic skills but also aura/presence), longevity, offense, bumping/selling, and the final question when comparing 2 wrestlers, Who Would You Rather Watch?. Darby would "lose" points on influence/impact, longevity, heel/face versatility, and "peak" because he's still relatively new and we haven't seen him work as a heel or in the main event all that much. He's not great on the mic, but I think he's got a ton of charisma. Bumping/selling is off the charts, I enjoy him in tags, I think he can basically be relied upon to give you a good PPV or TV match every time, and I think his offense is believable. Compared to so many wrestlers, he'd probably win the "Who Would You Rather Watch?" contest too. So, does that make him better than Rick Rude? Barry Windham? Hogan? Dustin Rhodes? Again, by my own criteria, he's right up there with them or better, but I'm not sure I'm ready to say Darby Allin is a top 50 or top 75 wrestler of all time yet.

I have similar thoughts - My 2016 list was primarily WWE and 80s NWA/WCW with a smattering of ECW and TNA guys because, at the time, that was basically all the wrestling I had seen. 10 years later, I've watched most every AEW PPV and a good bit of the TV, I've watched all of the ECW PPVs I'd never seen before, have watched much, much more of the TNA PPVs that are on YouTube, and, a few years ago, created a playlist of recommended matches and then turned it into a "catch all" to help me in the GWE process. At this point, I'm looking at almost an entirely new list with at least 20 workers who were not on my 2016 one. My biggest rule is that I'm not putting anyone on the list who I haven't watched and reviewed 20 matches from. I don't want to vote for anyone based on "rep." This basically means I'll have very few lucha guys and almost no modern Japanese workers. In the case of the former, lucha is such a huge blind spot and I haven't been "bitten by the bug" yet so there's just no way I'll watch enough of it in the next 4 months to really rank anyone other than the guys that I know and love already (La Parka, Psicosis, obviously Rey, maybe Pentagon Jr.). In the case of the latter, my international focus for the past few years has been 80s and 90s Japanese wrestling and I have fallen in love with so many workers from those eras that I'm just not going to make it to more modern stuff - which is also much, much harder to find on YouTube. I'll admit this does lead to almost shameful results on my list as someone like Konosuke Takeshita will probably make my Top 100 based on the strength of his AEW case and a handful of non-AEW YouTube matches I've watched, while Tanahashi and Okada will probably be absent just because I simply haven't seen enough of their stuff and, based on cursory searches, most of their most-hyped matches are not on YouTube (I'm guessing they're on NJPW World? Is that still a thing?).

In the short term, I'd be curious who else they set up on the "babyface side" of things against what would then be quite a pairing of top bad guys with Warrior and Flair (with Mr. Perfect at his side) going up against Savage. They were also already warming up Razor Ramon by October 92'. Bret makes the most sense for teaming with Savage but a tag team match at the Survivor Series - ostensibly Bret & Savage vs. Flair & Warrior (who would still be champion) - seems so weird to me. Plus, by this point, Perfect was back in action, so I'm guessing it may end up being Bret & Savage vs. Flair & Perfect with Warrior defending the championship against Taker (in a match that would likely end in a non-finish to keep the title on Warrior). Long-term from there and envisioning a scenario where Warrior doesn't flake and Flair sticks around for as long as he does...well, you've gotta think about the Rumble and what a seismic shift the 93' one was. They set up Taker/Gonzalez. They set up Yokozuna as top heel. Royal Rumble 93' is also the unofficial end of Savage's main event/World Champion-level run in the WWE (he was generally used to put over/work with the next batch of major heels like Yoko, Gonzalez, Shawn, and Crush on TV and the house show loops). Warrior being that top heel just feels so wacky in that context. So, putting my booking hat on, I guess I'd say that, at the Rumble, we get one more Warrior/Savage match and Warrior retains after Savage had maybe suffered internal injuries caused during a match with Yoko a week or two earlier (this would accomplish Vince's goal of transitioning to Savage/Yoko and effectively ending Savage's main event run). Bret wins the Rumble. Bret beats Warrior for the title at WM9? But...I dunno...this is basically talking about a Warrior that (a) agreed to turn heel in the first place, (b) agreed to remain heel for 6 months, (c) somehow didn't flame out due to drugs or unprofessionalism, and (d) was willing to drop the title to Bret and I don't think there's even a 1% chance of b, c, and d happening. Maybe Vince could've convinced him to turn heel in August, but by October, he'd have either demanded a face turn or walked. What happens if Warrior gets fired while still champion at the end of 92'...I'd assume they'd bury him on TV with Jack Tunney announcing some sort of tournament and we'd get Flair/Bret in the finals, if the timing worked out, at the Rumble or a SNME. I doubt they'd put the title on the line again in the Rumble, though it would be kinda cool and a great way to have Bret win it by lastly eliminating Flair, who would theoretically be the favorite (having done it once before). Or maybe that's where the Flair/Perfect split happens. I don't think Yokozuna needs to win the Rumble that year to be presented as the top contender by April. You could also still run the Giant Gonzalez/Taker angle at the Rumble to explain why Taker doesn't win. When you throw in Hogan returning in the build-up to WM9 things get even wackier because I assume Hogan would've politicked to be the one to beat Warrior at WrestleMania (rather than Bret) and it would've been kinda cool symmetry for Hogan to dethrone Warrior after losing to him at WM6 (6 and 9 being visually "flipped").

The first big spot comers early with Kingston suplexing Hero onto a table that doesn't really break, making it even nastier. Kingston then sends Hero into a bunch of empty chairs and the gymnasium wall before throwing a chair into his face and trying to strangle him to death. They make their way towards the ring and trade strikes with Kingston going after Hero's eyes. Hero comes back with a running big boot but Kingston won't stay down for the 10 count. In the ring, Hero hits another big boot in the corner but gets thrown off by Kingston - so he hits him with another (cool spot). Hero stomps on Kingston's face and then delivers a senton before going out into the crowd and throwing a chair from the crowd into the ring at Eddie. He throws a few more and uses them, stomping one into Eddie's face and then using another to perfrom a front-flip splash onto Eddie. Hero applies a Boston Crab and uses the chair for extra damage, sitting back on it into the back of Kingston's neck! Holy shit. That was nasty. Kingston's nose is completely busted up, but he won't stay down for 10. Kingston comes back with a double-leg takedown and applies a guillotine choke but Hero fights out. Hero nails a ridiculous back suplex that puts Kingston down on his neck. The camera captures his face and it is a bloody mess. Powerbomb by Hero! Kingston's selling is brilliant and I'm not sure it's not 100% real. Hero stomps on Kingston's hand, trying to limit Eddie's striking ability. Hero continues to control the match for the next few minutes but Kingston fires back with some chops and an overhead release suplex. A strike exchange follows with both guys trading stiff slaps and chops and headbutts (the latter being particularly hard to watch as they went on). Kingston managed to land a German Suplex but Hero bounced right back and hit a suplex of his own (with Kingston landing on his feet this time). Dragon suplex by Kingston and then a ridiculous lariat! Hero barely manages to break the count, getting to his feet at 9. Kingston looks to end it with another Saito Suplex but Hero counters it and throws some chairs at Kingston's head before performing a "Cravate-O-Clasm" off the top rope with a chair wrapped around Kingston's neck. It doesn't look particularly great - the kind of move that was maybe too dangerous to even perform and, because it had to be done safely, didn't look as good as something simpler might've. Kingston manages to get to his feet, pulling himself up using the ropes. Hero, meanwhile, went back out into the crowd and grabbed a piece of the guardrail to bring into the ring. He drives it into Kingston's stomach and pins him into the corner. Kingston musters the strength to push back into Hero, driving him into the corner. Hero comes back with a big boot, though, stomping the rail into Eddie's face. Hero with a double stomp on the guardrail while it is laid on top of Kingston! Hero sets up the guardrial on the ropes and goes after Eddie, who comes back with some strikes. Hero goes for a powerbomb on the rail but Kingston manages to resist and hits him with a huge back hand. Kingston with a series of big back drops that put Hero on his neck! Kingston with a back drop driver into the guardrail! A "Holy Shit" chant starts up and it is well-deserved because that was nasty and an excellent finish to the match. Great performances from both men, some truly incredible hardcore spots, surprisingly good camera work for an indie match - this was excellent and deserving of its praise.

TheBean commented in the Non-Thread Worthy thread that he wouldn't be surprised if Flair fell out of the top 10. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but I don't think he'll be number one. Fair (to Flair) or not, I do think there is a threshold for how great one can be professionally at their peak and how much out-of-ring antics/post-peak performance can tarnish a legacy. Flair has both things working against him. Since 2016, any remaining "That's just Ric being Ric" goodwill has been thoroughly eroded away from the discourse about him and, to the second point, we also now have a wrestling landscape where guys 45+ are still putting on great matches. Flair's resume of good matches from roughly 96' to his retirement is pretty thin. Yes, there's better training now, wrestlers work considerably less, sports medicine has improved a ton in the past 20 years...but I think it can also be fairly said that Ric Flair was not a guy that was particularly great at adapting as he aged (and certainly not as well, say, AJ Styles or Rey Mysterio, who are both as old as Flair was in the latter half of the 90s, have plenty of bumps on their bump card, and routinely put on very good TV matches when called upon). Chris Jericho is 55 and for all the hate he gets, it's much easier to pull fun, quality matches from his past 5 years than it is to pull them from Ric's last 10. CM Punk is 47. Claudio is 45. I'm certainly not arguing that any of these wrestlers are better than Ric at their peak (though I think Styles and Mysterio will land in my top 12), but I do think these factors might play into how he ranks this year. Simply put, Flair being great for 10-15 years used to be much more impressive than it is now because we have guys like AJ, Rey, Punk, Jericho, La Parka, and probably a whole slew of Japanese and lucha wrestlers I don't even know about that have great matches spanning twice as long.

Steve Austin Terry Funk Bryan Danielson Bret Hart Ric Flair Rey Mysterio Jr. AJ Styles Eddie Guerrero Shawn Michaels Ricky Steamboat However...these are not "locked in" as I have a number of wrestlers I haven't ranked yet, including Misawa, Kawada, Akira Hokuto, Manami Toyota, Bull Nakano, Liger, and Aja Kong. I don't think every one of those names will land in the Top 10, but I could see 1 or 2 getting there. I also could see the ten already in there switching places. I think I wrote it somewhere else but I have really only started watching Japanese wrestling (Mexico is still a huge blind spot) in the past 12-18 months. I have a GWE Playlist I'm working through on YouTube and documenting all that I'm watching on my blog (Kwang The Blog) on top of continuing to play catch-up with the AEW PPVs and also the full TNA PPVs available on YouTube (I've basically dropped watching any WWE content at this point, though I'll probably feel the itch and watch the Rumble) and I mention this because I've sworn myself to only vote for wrestlers who I've reviewed 20 or more matches of. Now, at this point, I've seen 20+ Misawa, Hashimoto, Nakano, and probably Kawada matches...but I'm still going to hold out another few months before ranking them just so I can have as complete a picture as I can (ideally, anyone in my top 10 is someone who I've seen at least 40 matches of, good and bad). Ditto for La Parka and Tully Blanchard and some of the newer guys that I think are actively building a case or strengthening a case - Hangman, Swerve, Ospreay, Darby, Mercedes Mone, Takeshita, Zach Sabre Jr. - to be on my list.

Just watched this for the first time and all I can say is - this is a 5/5, A+ match. I also watched the tag match from later in the same show, which some people here said was in the Greatest Match of All Time conversation, and I actually preferred this match. I think what I liked about this match more was that, while the tag match was great, it got a bit repetitive and, with a runtime of 40+ minutes, it's a bit of an undertaking to enjoy. It also has falls prey to some of the (justified) criticisms of the style that I've read here and elsewhere - most blatantly the lack of extended long-term selling and the "bad" refereeing (teams disregarding the rules at every turn). This match might be less "epic," but it's also got - in my opinion (who else's would it be?) - just as many great spots with some truly incredible "visuals" and great selling from both women and, because it isn't 40 minutes, its conciseness makes it more digestible.

Reviewed this for my blog - I am reviewing the full Bound for Glory 2011 show available on YouTube - and was somewhat surprised not to see this match here... Anderson eschewed his usual intro to run to the ring and take the fight right to Bully. Lots of energy to start things with Anderson landing a big shot to the groin but then eating a big boot soon after to slow things down. Bully hit some stiff open-hand chops in the corner but Anderson landed a jumping kick and got a 2-count. Anderson went to the floor and grabbed a hold of a sign that was - you guessed it - actually a steel Dead End street sign. Not the most original spot, but this crowd was craving ECW callbacks and it was wise to give those to Anderson. Ray rolled out of the ring and Anderson followed him, dousing him with a cup of beer. An overzealous fan splashed one onto Anderson (and he looked legit surprised and pissed). Bully mounted a comeback and grabbed a table. Anderson and Bully fought their way up the ramp before it could be used, though, with Anderson attempting a suplex on the stage only to take one himself. Bully mocked Anderson's intro and brought the microphone down, which Anderson then used to clobber him in the head. Ray was bleeding a bit as they fought into the backstage area. Ray hit a not-so-pretty piledriver on the concrete but Anderson got a shoulder up. There was a time when that would've been sold like death. Ray grabbed a chair and tried to choke Anderson out with it before leading him back into the arena. Anderson fought back and hit a short-arm clothesline and then a stomp to the groin. Back to the ringside area they went, trading fists. Anderson took apart the guardrail, bringing a piece into the ring. As he tried to get it inside, Bully caught him with a clothesline and grabbed another table, sliding it into the ring as well. Bully set it up but got back body dropped onto the guard rail, bending it. Anderson then went for a senton but landed on the rail when Bully rolled out of the way! Bubba Bomb through the table! 1...2...kickout! Bubba set up Anderson on the rail and went for a senton himself - not a move usually in his repertoire, but whatever - but Anderson evaded it and hit a Mic Check onto the rail for 2. Ray rolled out of the ring as the camera showed that Anderson had a busted lip. Anderson grabbed a trash can and bashed it over Bully's face, causing him to lay down on the table at ringside. Anderson climbed to the top rope, blood dripping down from his nose/lip, and hit a senton but the table didn't break (bummer). Bully rolled to the floor and the two clearly had to work out a new finish with Anderson hitting the Mic Check through the table to get the W. I'm not a huge fan of either guy, but this was a career match for both as they gave each other hell, told a very straight-forward and physical story, and smartly built it around Anderson getting to have multiple "ECW" moments to keep the babyface/heel dynamic consistent. I gave it a 4-out-of-5 on my scale (which goes 0-5 with half-points but not quarter points). A "4" usually means it is in the "should watch/must watch" territory and could potentially be in the Top 10 matches of any given year.

Is there a way we can put this post in some sort of PWO Hall of Fame? Thank you for this glorious summary. It really is incredible how badly they handled Cena's last year. It was so bad that there's actually enough blame to spread around beyond just one or two people. HHH booked this terribly, WWE/TKO stupidly believed that Cena's final run needed additional window dressing in the form of an untrained 125-lb. hip-hop star, and Cena overthought things during the heel phase, wrestling a style that seemed to be a misguided attempt to be a "meta" heel by purposefully leaning into his worst in-ring tendencies to draw heat. He didn't need to do that. Switching back to babyface mode helped, but by that point, the long-term storyline potential of his run had been shot. There was zero emotional gravity to the SummerSlam match with Cody once Cena turned back face the night before so they opted instead to just do everything. Ditto for the "movez"-fest match with Logan Paul. I guess it was cool to see that Cena could still do all that stuff but it also felt hollow. I'll at least give him credit for spotlighting Dom, Liv, Perez, and Raquel and, last night, Gunther.