DMJ

I don't want to get back into the same debate every week, but some of the Private Party talk reminds me of that joke about the bad soup. I'm going to butcher it but it goes something like this: A husband and wife go out to dinner. The husband orders a soup. After the meal, the wife asks him, "How was your soup?" and he says, "It tasted lousy and the portion was too small." It's like, people recognize that Private Party aren't remotely over, are nothing special in the ring, have a lame gimmick (wearing a mesh tanktop in 2025 is...yikes) but then still complain that they should've beat the Hurt Syndicate. They need a full repackage before they should even be on TV again. I know Hurt Syndicate aren't popular around these parts and I'm certainly not advocating for them to hold the titles forever...but given the options, the AEW tag team division is in total disarray and at least the Syndicate are "names" with a solid manager and, IMO, the ability to be good, strong heels that give the titles some stability while TK finds a suitable babyface team to beat them (its going to the Bucks, isn't it? Ugggh...). Again, personally, I'd have put the titles on "Claudio & Anybody" but I don't make the calls.

Add me to the list of Jey Uso critics. He's a good-never-great singles wrestler with a catchphrase who had the benefit of being on-screen probably more than anyone else involved in the years-long Bloodline story. (Partially because he only one DUI on his record and his brother has 2?) He's like McDonald's. Nobody is saying its great food, but its there. Its always there. Dependable. Enjoyable even, at times. I respect his consistency, but I don't think he's special really. He's shit the bed a couple times on big shows - the Mania match against Jimmy, the forgettable SummerSlam match against Roman - and, on the Netflix debut, I felt like you could hear the audience lose interest midway through his match with Drew (which was also underwhelming). Again, to go back to the McDonald's metaphor, the few times where he's needed to deliver an unforgettable experience, its still just McDonald's. People talk about great wrestlers "maximizing their minutes." Jey Uso has had the maximum number of minutes on TV possible over the past 3 years and I've never once felt like he had "main eventer" energy.

I was curious, if the WWE were to actually move their headquarters to Saudi Arabia, at least "on paper," how would that affect their bottom line? Less taxes? More taxes? I'm just curious because it seems like that's the direction they're headed in and the Saudi government would probably love to be "the World Headquarters of the WWE," even if they basically just kept everything the way it is. Like, I wouldn't expect Triple H and Stephanie to move to Riyadh, but what would be the legal, financial ramifications of some sort of nominal agreement whereby the company "moved" to Saudi Arabia? Or is that just straight illegal?

I hope this Corey Graves stuff is legit because while this absolutely sucks for him and he seems like an okay guy and I think he's a decent enough commentator, I absolutely hate "announcer storylines." The fact that this one is also "worked shoot" territory playing out on X is just...not my thing. I have no interest in Pat McAfee vs. Corey Graves at WrestleMania just like I had no interest in Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler or in the various times JR was pulled into storylines or turned heel (once for the Fake Deisel and Fake Razor storyline and I believe a second time when he was briefly managing "Dr. Death"?).

Different strokes, I guess. The redneck kung-fu stuff is goofy to me. His promos also feel at least half-comedic even when he's in a blood feud (like the one with Jericho, for example). I also totally agree with most of the points brought up in the above posts...except about Lashley being "too old" or having no value. And pointing to ratings or attendance doesn't really mean much to me because, well, it's AEW. Is there anyone that is really drawing for them right now? And when we do look at things like YouTube views, lo and behold, the Copeland/Moxley segment from the last PPV got loads and loads of views despite it being wildly unpopular among many of us.

I actually like Lashley and think the feud with Swerve would've been fine...if it had led to a rematch. To me, the booking with Lashley has been silly because I'm not sure why he's not immediately inserting himself into the World Title picture. I think his presence there would actually add to the Death Riders story quite well as, when this whole Death Riders angle started, it seemed to be all about Moxley not being happy that the "AEW Originals" weren't stepping up. Well, now Mox would not only have to deal with the "originals," but he's also getting challenged by a guy who has even less loyalty to the company than he does. I also think Lashley going over Mark Briscoe was the perfect booking of him. I know people love Mark Briscoe and all, but he's totally fine being used as almost the modern day equivalent of "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. He absolutely deserves to be on TV and he's dependable for multi-mans and tournaments and whatnot, but he's not a main event guy. He's exactly the kind of credible fan favorite that you want your heels to beat on their way up the ladder, whether its Lashley or MJF or Takeshita or Fletcher. As for Shelton, I think where they went wrong with him is that his role became redundant once Lashley came in. Lashley is the big Hurt Syndicate "boss" and Shelton is basically his subordinate/henchman, which works in WWE because Shelton was treated like a midcarder for decades so that made perfect sense. In AEW, its awkward because they basically cut his legs out from under him within the first month of his arrival while still trying to promote him as a major signing/serious threat. And it isn't the first time they've done this. Look at Claudio Castagnoli. He suffered the same fate where he came in as a guy that was being "held back" and was finally going to get his opportunity to be a main eventer, but then, like, within a few weeks, it was clear he was going to be at the exact same position in AEW as he was in WWE (if not, arguably, worse). Midcard there, midcard here.

I'm thinking Sami Zayn climbs high and may even be the "highest climber" since 2016. I've begun doing my statistical analysis - nothing special, just using scores from my database to find the average match score for various wrestlers - and while it is a very limited sample that does not capture the breadth of a career like Sami's (its probably over 90% just his NXT and WWE career), he has a pretty staggering average score of 3.29-out-of-5 with 43 matches reviewed. And that includes none of his TV matches, just his Takeover/PLE/PPV output. As a TV wrestler, I think he's consistently good-to-great too. I've heard people mention "random match theory" and I'm guessing he'd rate highly there too. I don't think I've ever seen him half-ass it. He's either going balls-to-the-wall or he's at least doing great character shtick to engage the audience. That score is higher than Shawn Michaels (3.2 in 66 matches reviewed), John Cena (3.13 in 94 matches reviewed), Randy Savage (2.8 in 59 matches reviewed), and Ric Flair (2.86 in 111 matches reviewed). Now, that doesn't mean he automatically is going to rank higher on my list than those four because average match score is not my sole judging criteria (it doesn't speak at all to promos or historical importance or innovation or character work)...but, yeah, I think in 2016, if you had said that Sami Zayn is a better wrestler than Arn Anderson or Curt Hennig around these parts, you'd get laughed at or accused of being an "indie nerd" with recency bias. But, since 2016, its not like we've seen a treasure trove of new footage to show us sides of The Enforcer or Mr. Perfect that we'd never seen before. Long retired or dead, some guys are kinda stuck, unable to climb any higher. Their legacies are the same as they were in 2016. Sami Zayn, meanwhile, has only added to his resume and has basically become this generation's Mick Foley in that you can insert him practically anywhere on the card, heel or face or somewhere in between, mixing him up with your midcard or your main eventers, and he's scoring runs for you. Look at the list of matches and feuds he's had and find a stinker - the Braun Strowman stuff, the Artist Collective and feud with Daniel Bryan, the random feuds/matches with vets like Jeff Hardy and AJ and Bobby Lashley that were solid, the countless multi-mans he's been thrown in that he shined in (I'm talking ladder matches and Chambers and War Games), obviously the Bloodline stuff and the never-ending merry-go-round of stuff with Kevin Owens, the Johnny Knoxville feud, the GUNTHER story and then the Bron Breakker work. So if Sami was already in your top 100, I don't see how he doesn't leapfrog a few dozen spots this time around. If he wasn't in your top 100 and you're at all a fan of modern WWE, I don't see how he doesn't make your list now.

Surprised to see the love for this week's episode, though I only watched the first hour. Starting the show off with a heel/heel match was...a choice. The crowd was hot, but that match probably would've died if it had happened in one of the larger, mostly empty venues they were booking up until a few weeks ago. The smaller venue plan is a good one, but I just don't know why TK would think that kicking off the show with Shelton Benjamin and Kyle Fletcher was a good idea. Especially when you have White/PAC and Swerve/Caster on the same show. If your wrestling show starts with 30 minutes and the crowd has nobody to cheer for, there's something wrong with your card. It also doesn't help either guy to become "the de facto babyface" even for one night if the long-term plan is to have them as viable heels. The battle royale was bad in every way and almost felt like TK trolling the audience. Cole is the only guy to get an entrance? I mean, we all knew he'd be one of the winners but why not at least pretend? Speaking of pretend, the finish was just insulting and I felt bad for Archer and The Butcher (I think?) for having to pretend like two dudes the size of Cole and O'Reilly could eliminate them. Again, feels almost like trolling with how they're pushing Cole. HOOK's promo would've sounded amateurish at your local armory promotion being put on by trainees. Woeful stuff there. Swerve/Caster should've been even more one-sided. I also didn't actually like the post-match attack - not because Caster didn't deserve it or it made Swerve look too heelish, but because the double-stomp takes participation from the guy on the receiving end so you had Caster, who was lifeless as Swerve was climbing on the rope, have to sit up to "take" the move. Would've preferred him ending the match with the Stomp and then just House Call'ing him during the post-match or, hell, just House Call'ing him repeatedly until a bunch of officials have to stop him. Silly little things, but right now, I feel like AEW's "coldness" is real "death by a million cuts."

Not alone there. To me, it was a tale of two matches. First half was not very good at all. Nia, who I'm often higher on than most and have been for years, just looked awful out there. Not sure if it was just the environment, the pressure, or what, but there were multiple sequences that looked like they were happening in slow-mo or were painfully telegraphed. At a certain point, I think they just needed to take the camera off whatever she was doing. But then the match steadily got better and better until it was a total blast. These matches have become formulaic and built around overly choreographed spots, but the sequence where all the women hit a signature move in rapid succession was really well done. Plus, as others have noted, the match was all about Rhea and Liv and both were spotlighted well. To be honest, I know it was probably either a hollow bat or a plastic one, but the baseball bat shots from Liv looked great to my eyes. I also liked the Tiffany cash-in tease as I'm not sure we've seen that before in the middle of a War Games or even a standard Survivors match. The Men's match started slow and then just kinda stayed at that pace. Once again, Jacob Fatu was the New Bloodline's MVP but that was to be expected when it is so painfully clear that nobody else in the stable has a fraction of his charisma or athleticism. The Tonga guys are mediocre at best and Solo is good-not-great from what I've seen. Meanwhile, I'll continue to say that Jimmy and Jey have an unfortunate habit of shrinking in the spotlight a bit as singles too and the Men's Match didn't pick up till Sami came in. As for Ludwig Kaiser, I guess I'm in the minority here too. I think he's great. Loved everything he did in that match and didn't find his presence to be superfluous at all. If anything, I thought he was - from a character perspective - holding the whole thing together for its first 2/3rds. Bron is somewhat of a "tweener" in that his mannerisms and attitude all say heel, but then the fans are cheering for the guy anyway. Sheamus is a beloved babyface at this point. Kaiser was the guy they could both beat up, but who also could play the spoiler as needed (and I thought he did an awesome job in that role). I also loved the psychology behind his immediate attempt to use a chair - I mean, it is 100% legal so why wouldn't he against two monsters? - and how it became the "Chekhov's Gun" element of the match. I thought, beginning to end, that was the clear match of the night and maybe even a sneaky Top 10 Match of the Year for WWE. More than any other match, it was the one where I said, "Now I want to see Kaiser vs. Bron and Kaiser vs. Sheamus and Sheamus vs. Bron."

I have Ospreay on my list currently and I don't see him leaving, though he's not necessarily ranked all that high. He's hovering in the 80s right now. I'm a very US-centric, WWE/WCW 80s-to-today viewer, though. That's what I've seen. That's what I know. Those are the storylines I'm familiar with. It makes my ballot look goofy at times because while I've been watching more and more AJPW from the 90s and lucha stuff and other things, I'm watching "random" matches void of any context. So, yeah, I just watched Misawa vs. Taue and I dug it, but I had to do some post-viewing research to even understand why Taue going after Misawa's eye was brilliant rather than just your standard great heel work. There are layers to these matches I'm completely missing. But that's also why I think Ospreay is that good. You can go into his matches cold and he's still doing something "cutting edge" in almost every match. Sure, if you scour the indies and are super knowledgeable of that realm, Ospreay's innovative sequences might not seem all that innovative. But, to me, he's stupendous. I wouldn't quite put him up there with Rey or AJ Styles (who, in TNA, was also basically doing at least one sequence or counter or high spot that would blow your mind in nearly every single high-profile match), but damn, Ospreay's ability to blow people's minds in 2024 is almost more impressive because the envelope has been pushed so very far. If you hate this style, you're not going to see an Ospreay match that will change your outlook. It is undeniably a "performance." It is undeniably "showy." To be honest, it is not my preferred genre of wrestling. But, within its genre, he is at the pinnacle. I'd much rather watch an Ospreay match, willfully going into it expecting to be blown away by a bunch of convoluted spots designed for the sole purpose of "popping" the crowd, than, say, watch a Seth Rollins match where he'll try to do the same thing but get nowhere close because (a) his offense isn't nearly as exciting and (b) if you're going to just not sell, its almost better to just not sell the whole match. Ospreay is a maximalist and, if you're going to be that, if you're just going to do superhero wrestling where almost nothing matters because everything is going to get a 2.9 count, well, you have to really, really blow the audience away with your stuff. If its going to be a fireworks show, you can't have any misfires. Ospreay does it better than anyone else I've seen in the past decade.

One question will be just how much juice this story has and if the intention is it for it to absolutely be the "A" story for the next 3 months, 6 months, 12 months. I'd argue that the nWo storyline was good-to-excellent - if we start with the Hogan turn - an unbelievable 18 months from Bash 96' to Starrcade 97' and I could see the argument, especially in terms of ratings, profitability, etc., it was still working after Sting's big victory. (I wasn't into the Wolfpack and Hollywood split, but it does have its fans and its fans bought a bunch of merch and PPVs in 98'). If the intention is to make this angle be "The Show" for the next year, I think the challenge will be how to book enough swerves and twists to make it engaging - something TK and the Bucks ultimately failed to do with the EVP storyline. I mean, I'm not saying its any real barometer of relevancy, but on the Bucks' wiki page, the last entry related to the EVP is from July 24th. That's a 3-month gap since they've done anything resembling a major or important angle (aside, of course, walking away from Mox and Co.).

Woah now. I get disliking Shawn, but that first Hell in a Cell is an all-timer. And I'd argue that the Mankind/Taker one is equally awesome, even if what it spawned could be considered a net negative. That match was more than just stunts and is an incredibly engrossing and legitimately shocking and tremendous presentation. Punk/Drew was a very good match, one that I'd recommend and would consider a potential MOTY for WWE, and probably among the top 5 Hell in a Cell matches ever. But Shawn/Taker and Foley/Taker are probably in the top 25-50 matches in company history. I don't think Punk/Drew got there.

Listening to Eric Young's podcast on the Chris Van Vliet show, I was curious about a recurring talking point that EY has brought up. Maybe someone here as more insight. So the timeline goes that Young came to NXT and did the Sanity thing, then had a bad experience on the main roster, left for TNA, got rehired by Triple H some time after but never actually appeared on TV (possibly to be in an earlier version of the Wyatt Sicks), Vince came back into power and Young immediately asked for his release...and had to sign an NDA. I guess I'm just curious about why he had to sign the NDA. That implies that he was privy to some sort of event or incident that would be damaging to Vince. Was he included on a text chain detailing one of Vince's sexual conquests? Did he have first-hand knowledge and evidence of something nefarious? Did he confront Vince about an allegation? If Eric Young, a guy who basically had a cup of coffee in the company, was so disgusted with the toxic culture under Vince (a culture he experienced for like a year or two?), I'm really curious how much other bigger stars with much longer tenure were aware of involving Vince. Does everyone who leaves the company have to sign an NDA? I mean, are you telling me that Dolph Ziggler, for all the time he spent there, doesn't have any crazy Vince stories? Just seems weird to me that Eric Young learned about/witnessed something so absolutely stomach-turning about Vince McMahon that he was like "Nope, I'm out if he's here" while everyone else has been able to compartmentalize the various "lives" of Vince McMahon. When Vince briefly came back into power, I don't remember the roster going on strike. Is it just EY virtue signaling? Or is there something more to the story that sets what he experienced apart from, say, what someone like Kevin Owens or Seth Rollins or Bobby Lashley or whoever experienced?

I'm cautiously optimistic about MAX being the home of future PPVs/PLEs. Right now, the price of AEW PPVs keeps me from purchasing them and I've rarely heard great things about the services that were carrying them. So, I found alternate means to watch the shows the next day. But having now done that for 4-5 shows, I definitely see the value of the PPVs and would gladly pay $10-$20 to see them live/on delay and not feel like I'm downloading every piece of malware ever while I do so. Above that price point, though, I'd probably stick with what I'm currently doing.

Watched the first episode despite my earlier claim that I wasn't interested in yet another wrestling documentary going through Vince taking over the company, expanding into the territories, cherry-picking talent, and creating WrestleMania. But, hey, like many things in life, it's not always about finding a new angle or unearthing new footage or solving a mystery. You can give me and a world class chef the same knife, the same vegetables, and the same oil and vinegar and one of us is going to make a remarkable salad and the other will make that one that is less so. I know they got more access to footage, more interviews, etc., but really, this is content we've all heard before - at least Episode 1 is - but this is that content being presented by real top-shelf producers and editors. It's not the story, its the storytellers here that pulled me in and have me recommending it to even the most "I've seen it all before" wrestling fans. Yes, you've seen it all before. Episode 1 is not groundbreaking (I can't speak for any others). But you've probably had pizza from dozens of places in your life too. If you're like me, though, that doesn't mean you don't try a new place when one opens in your town. You never know, they might actually make a great pie. I thought Episode 1 was a great pie.

Watched this in full recently for my blog and...it's not good. - The brawling is decent, but nothing special and actually exposes just how important Vince's foils were over the years to carry him to things resembling good matches. With Austin in the cage, they threw in a ton of high spots that were fresh for their time and lots of booking obstacles for the Rattlesnake to overcome. With Hogan and Shawn, you had guys who really knew how to play to the live crowds and were also willing and able to have bloodbaths with Vince that played to the super popular babyface/super hated heel dynamic well. Here, it just doesn't work. Vince wasn't/isn't a sympathetic babyface then, now, forever, so you're not really rooting for him. Triple H dominating the match is fine, but like any other Triple H match where he dominates, it's not exactly riveting stuff. Nor is it inventive or creative or innovative at any time. - I get that the overall storyline and angle was a big one and that you can't get too nitpicky with Stephanie's heel turn...but there was a better way to do it. What the story should've been was that Triple H, by going the lengths he would go to in order to be the Champion and keep Stephanie as his bride, had proven to her that he loved her. Instead, we get Stephanie pretending (?) to be crying and worrying about her father during a 30-minute streetfight only to screw him at the last possible moment after also seeing her husband - whose side she was on all along - also go through all sorts of punishment (which she was visibly and repeatedly cheering for). It just made no sense the way it played out and, when you're invested in a 30-minute match, it's much worse than watching a 2-minute clip of it and thinking about it hindsight. - Finally, as noted earlier, this was a lot of mid brawling and some really lame backstage stuff involving cars to give a "cinematic" feel because that was just what the WWE was doing at the time. I'm not a fan of it now and wasn't then either. Its borderline "If you can run over a guy with a car, why not just bring a gun to the ring?" territory for me where the very limited confines of what pro-wrestling is have been stretched so beyond recognition that it's no longer grounded in even the thinnest accepted reality. Also, again, had Triple H killed Vince, would that have also been part of Stephanie's plan all along? This match was seemingly scripted by Vince saying, "We'll do some garbage to start, then we'll do more garbage in the stands, then you'll try to run me over a car, then we'll somehow get back in the arena and I'll take a big fall into some crash pads, and then we'll get back in the ring and Steph will turn," and the problem is, none of the moments felt organic or suspenseful or fresh. Even with all these bells and whistles, this match was just super boring.

Its only puzzling if you willfully ignore that the WWE has consistently and successfully pushed one masked lucha star in the past 30 years. That's not to say other US companies have done much better, but there's an asterisk next to nearly every successful Mexican star the company has featured since Tito Santana. Eddie and Rey are at the top of the heap, but they were also somewhat proven commodities when they arrived in WWE. Alberto Del Rio was pushed very strong, but I don't recall a single stretch of time at any point when fans actually wanted him in the main event or that he was regarded by critics to be particular great or even over as a top, top guy. Sin Cara flopped. Andrade, Escobar, Garza...does anyone see any of them being top guys in the next 5 years? Dragon Lee could be the best wrestler on the planet, with the most marketable gimmick, and I would still bet against him getting much figure up the card than Kalisto did based on the company's history.

Glad that its broken up into episodes with the last one being about the lawsuit. Will make it very easy to skip every other episode unless I hear otherwise. I lived through, read enough, and watched enough about Vince's rise to power, the steroid case, the war with WCW/Attitude Era, and the globalization of WWE over the past 20 years to think there'll be much of anything new or revelatory for me to see/hear. I don't know if there's any figure in pro-wrestling I might actually know more about already than Vince McMahon. But the final episode? Yeah, I'm curious.

Times running out if he wants those two matches at Mania, but I'm not so sure he couldn't be swayed to do one of those matches at SummerSlam or one of the Saudi shows, especially considering that he is also part of the TKO Board. Maybe someone who understands the legality and finances of this can make it make more sense to me, but would he not be able to negotiate his own payday with Saudi Arabia and Nick Khan for it to be 4-5 times more than whatever he makes comparatively for a single appearance?* Maybe he also figures that if you're going to train for 1 match, might as well do 2 in a span of 4 months? Certainly makes things easier to schedule around if you know you're devoting that time to WWE rather than spreading it out over 2 years. * Wasn't that how Vince was able to convince HBK et. al. to come out of retirement or make the trip for the first few? By basically making sure they were paid such a big number that it would be insane not to take it?

Insane match that I watched in my effort to try to get a more complete view of La Parka for the GWE (just based on WCW output alone, he's a top 100 guy for me but I'm trying to set a rule for myself that I can only have guys on my list who I've seen at least 10 matches of*), but as someone completely unfamiliar with the context, what was with the bizarre finish? Can someone maybe explain the ending? * As a very WWE/WCW-centric viewer whose also only really watched some-but-not-all ECW, TNA, and AEW outside of that, I'm 100% ignorant to international wrestling, but I'm going to try to at least try to watch more matches from the Japanese and Mexican wrestlers who made the 2016 list. I have a list of 105 matches to watch between now and when ballots are due and foresee that I'll add even more over the next 3-4 months.

Yea, for whatever reason, they just really never got behind the guy even when, to my ears, he was getting consistently strong reactions and had an "aura." I've seen the term "microwavable" used to describe certain guys that you can reheat anytime and they'll still deliver - Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Bobby Lashley, Sheamus, even Braun Strowman pre-injuries - but of all these guys, I still think Lashley had the most marketable, most dependable ability to be a top, top guy in terms of credibility. Legit athletic background and MMA experience. Undeniable main event "look." Is older than John Cena but looks at least 4-5 years younger. Dependable in-ring work. As far as I know, drama free and well-liked backstage. I'm not against him popping back up in TNA or going to AEW, but wherever he lands, he needs to be treated like an immediate big deal and plugged right into the top spot. To not use this guy in that fashion is just silly when the top guys in these companies are generally like 5'8 and 225 pounds. Lashley is a beast.

I like Peacock and do think its worth it if you're at all a fan of current WWE. I don't watch the weekly TV often, but I still watch the PLEs and $6 a pop will always be a bargain to me because I grew when PPVs were $30 to $50. Also, as the poster above said, the library is deep relative to what probably 99% of fans could ever want to watch. Every WCW, WWE, and ECW PPV. Every RAW, Nitro, SmackDown, and Thunder, I think. Lots of ECW TV. A ton of Coliseum Home Videos. A ton of WWE documentaries and behind-the-scenes shows. A whole bunch of territory stuff, though, sadly, it doesn't seem like they're adding much older content often. If you haven't had access to the Network before, you're not going to run out of things to watch on it. I'm also a Dick Wolf Universe fan - Law & Order, SVU, and Criminal Intent, specifically - so there's that too and the various Chicago franchises. Also, for comedy, I think Killing It, Bust Down, Paul T. Goldman, and AP Bio are worth watching and are/were exclusive to Peacock, if I'm not mistaken. To answer your specific question, if it was a Trish or Mickie James match that was televised on SmackDown, RAW, or on PPV, it is on there.

I know this isn't the thread for this, but the narrative that Vaquer got so over that it "forced a Sasha heel turn" is inaccurate. The Mercedes Mone character has been a "tweener"-leaning-towards-heel for months. Her biggest feud has been with 100% babyface Willow Nightingale, who got a visual pin over Mone before getting screwed by Kris Statlander out of the TBS Title. Whether it's because her personality is that overbearing and egotistical in real life or not, every one of her appearances has involved some amount of her speaking condescendingly about the rest of the roster or delivering very "fake" sounding cliches about her love of the fans. She's calling herself the CEO (evocative of another major heel faction's moniker), which is basically the same thing she was doing as her original heel character, "The Boss of NXT." There will always be a portion of the audience who will cheer her because, like Jericho or MJF, part of the "smart" wrestling audience loves being contrarian/ironic even when the wrestlers are trying to get heal heat. She's also, without question, the biggest star in the division and, despite lots of folks saying she's "just another wrestler," does actually have an aura to her that no other woman does in AEW. They've definitely pushed Mone further towards the heel side of things since Forbidden Door (and, yes, Vaquer's amazing work in that match helped), but they also now have Britt Baker back and Baker is very over as an "AEW Original" with the AEW audience. I can see why TK didn't want to necessarily push Mone as an outright heel until Baker came back or they had someone that could really measure up as Mone's foil.

I'd have to look back at my list as I'm not sure he made it last time... And I think he would this time around. I've been watching some 2008 WWE PPVs for my blog and I've been pleasantly surprised at just how good Batista is. Like, he's legitimately fantastic. The stretcher match against Shawn Michaels at One Night Stand 2008 is a match that I don't recall seeing on anyone's shortlist of great WWE matches from the 2000s, but it is damn good and arguably one of Shawn's best matches post-comeback, even if you're wishy-washy on Shawn's histrionics. Here, its earned because Batista just mauls him. More recently, I watched his match against Edge from Night of Champions 2008 and, again, I'm left feeling like this was almost a Batista carry job. Batista takes a terrific table bump early in the match from a baseball slide-dropkick, all of his power moves look great and impactful, and his energy and connection to the crowd means this one never really slows down or gets boring (even when Edge's offense starts getting repetitive). There are moments to nitpick, including the overbooked finish, but Batista's actual performance is really good. IIRC, this was a point in time when Batista was very unpopular in the IWC and he was even considered "lazy." Ironically, from what I've watched recently, its actually Cena who was having the uninteresting, cookie-cutter matches and Orton and Triple H's feud wasn't great either. Of the three, at least for this brief stretch, Batista was having much better, more interesting, more dynamic matches. And his character work was cooler too. I think its one of those things where he was unappreciated at the time, but on re-watch, the lightbulb goes off and you go "Oh, yeah, now I get why the live audiences always went batshit for this guy: he was an awesome powerhouse."

Just watched this for the first time based on someone referring to it as one of (maybe even "the") best WWE women's match ever in the Melina GWE thread. I wouldn't necessarily go that far (I really liked Sasha/Bayley in Brooklyn and Rhea/Charlotte from WM39 and also Bayley/IYO from this year's Mania) but being in the conversation considering WWE didn't treat women's wrestling seriously until about 5 years after this match and that, as we've learned in various interviews, the women were often told specifically not to overshadow the men, is no small feat. As the poster above wrote, Phoenix is outstanding here as the powerhouse. Melina is incredible too and puts on an excellent babyface performance (which, to me, is even more impressive considering that I often go into Melina matches not necessarily wanting to cheer for her because of how much I associate her with being an on-screen heel and also, according to industry gossip that should probably be taken with a grain of salt, being a "diva" backstage). The only extra note I'd have is that the powerbomb Phoenix gives towards the end of the match is devastating and had me audibly "pop" watching by myself as I did leg raises in my basement. Usually, I'm pretty silent watching a match by myself, so, when that happens, you know it looks nasty. An easy 4-out-of-5 on my scale, which puts it into somewhat rarefied air (the rating scale I use on my blog - cheap plug, Kwang The Blog only goes to 5 and I only do .5-point increments [no quarters]) as a 4-out-of-5 is in the territory of "Should Watch/Must Watch" if you're at all into US wrestling from the past 40 years.