NotJayTabb

I remember the guy who wrote this was working on it nearly 20 years ago, and was sharing it chapter by chapter on The Smart Marks forums. He'd been sharing it for a few weeks by the time I moved out of my parents house and didn't have the internet for several month, so I never finished it, but I don't think we'd even got to the first XPW show by that point. Yeah, it was 100% a passion piece, the guy was a huge XPW fan and would post excitedly about getting a new interview with a random XPW guy that most people hadn't heard of. As I recall, he later became a CHIKARA ref and I think sadly passed a year or two ago.

After thoroughly enjoying the watch party on Saturday, I'm shocked at how there was almost no discussion of him first time around. Was there just a sudden footage burst in the last few years? He's so instantly interesting to watch, a big guy with a great look who makes everything feel important, and sells superbly. He's like a Superstar Billy Graham who can work. What really impressed me is how his selling felt like big stoogy selling as a heel, but with very little change felt like great sympathetic selling as a face. Not saying he's a lock for my list, I'll need to see more than just 2 hours to make the cut, but if the rest of his stuff is on par with the WP, then he'll be in.

The little bits of Veer I've seen have been decent enough that I'm looking forward to him finally arriving. He's got a cool look, he's a big guy who moves well and he looks pretty solid.

Is that Alex Zayne (the former Ari Sterling in NXT)? I saw something on Twitter about him having glass in his eye after a GCW show, but they had to work on sewing his arm back together first before they could turn to that.

I just read that long post on his candidacy and thought "Austin Idol sounds great, I need to check him out", and then you go and drop the Watch Party news. Absolutely perfect

My only query with Revolution is about the main event. The AEW title match doesn't feel like a main event match up to me, to the point where I don't think it will close the show. Not the fault of Hangman, nor even Adam Cole, terrible as he is. It just doesn't feel like there's any danger of Cole winning the title, and the decision to have him lose to Orange Cassidy last month feels really odd, even with the cutesy "unsanctioned" fudging of his win record. MJF/Punk feels like the real main event here to me.

When you think of the early growing pains of AEW, that terrible faction with Brandi, death match legend Luther and Mel (the girl who shaved her head and was never seen again) feels like the worst. People laugh at the Librarians, but at least they mainly stayed on Dark, this got actual TV time.

He's also not had much ring time in the past 12 months, you'd expect him to be a little rusty and out of ring shape. Hopefully they don't rush him, let him get more and more ring time before giving him a push

I feel very comfortable in saying Page is better than any member of the Elite, he's proving to be a very good champion. The idea of him facing Adam Cole next isn't too thrilling, because of how dreadful Cole is, but I've more faith in Page getting something out of him than most.

Really great thread, have enjoyed reading through these. Brock is someone I've come back around on in recent years, didn't consider him for GWE16, but feels like he'll be a lock in 2026. Only match I think I disagree on in the SS13 match with Punk, which I guess I need to rewatch. My memory of it is that I didn't buy Punk having the offence to hurt Brock, and it paled in comparison to ADR/Christian and Bryan/Cena on the same card.

I wonder if they'll have him mainly working with the Knockouts division. Chelsea Green and the debuting Gisele Shaw are both Storm trainees, so there's already a connection there.

Batista keeps talking about wanting to direct too, and how he's trying to absorb knowledge from everyone he works with. Which given he's worked with the likes of Denis Villeneuve, Sam Mendes and (upcoming) Rian Johnson gives him a pretty good group to learn from

Well that's good to hear. I think he's a good enough wrestler with a fun enough gimmick to succeed on those terms, he doesn't need to add anything egregious to his matches. He seems like a nice guy too, came across really well as a guest on Conan O'Brien's podcast, so I hope he has a good run, can see him getting over as a midcard act.

Of all the "meme wrestlers" on the indies, Danhausen is probably one of the better workers and there's definitely a creative mind at work there. It just depends how much of his indie schtick he brings across. That spot where "Tequila" plays over the tannoy whilst his opponent staggers confused on the floor, for example, is dreadful and I hope TK wont allow it.

Feels like Veer might get a big ironic pop when he finally debuts

Gutted that I fell asleep during the Bolshoi watch party on Saturday (I'd been up and about since 6am, so by the time we got to 10pm for the WP, I was shattered), but I'm going to take an active interest in this thread because Bolshoi seems great. Also Jetta rules, big fan of Coventry's Loudest.

I imagine when the eventual split comes, MJF will fire him, only for TK to come out and sign Wardlow to a contract and a match with his former employer.

I think Theory has the benefit of being young - he's only 24 - yet already pretty talented, so Vince probably feels he can mould him early into the kind of wrestler he likes. I can definitely see Vince looking at a young guy in good shape, solid in ring and the mic, and thinking he is someone that he can work with. It's just novel to see Vince do that with a wrestler under the age of 30 these days. Agree with all the points on WALTER. In isolation, WALTER isn't a great ring name either*, and if a new wrestler emerged called Gunther Stark (U-boat connection aside) I don't think anyone would say it was a bad name. But when you've let the guy wrestle on one of the big 5 PPVs as WALTER, plus him wrestling on TV throughout the year, a name change makes zero sense. * This might be a cultural thing, arguably the best known Walter in the UK is a cartoon character called Walter the Softy, who is a typical bullied nerd character.

What the selection of matches does do well is show the length of time that Mickie has had good matches over. She's definitely had a few down-periods as well (just before she got her first WWE release it felt like she wasn't as motivated as when she'd debuted, not helped by trash like the Piggie James angle), but having a career that long and being able to get her motivation back and still have good matches at this stage of her career is a positive. She's one of a very few wrestlers who went to TNA after a WWE release and rebuilt her reputation. Having good matches spread over a near 20 year career shows a level of consistency, even with the lows. As for my top 100? I like Mickie a lot, but my initial shortlists of Definites/Probables/Need To Watch Mores/Personal Favourites is already 250+, I would be surprised if she makes it

Getting anything out of the non-selling Fiend in a strap match was remarkable. It felt like they were putting the biggest possible obstacles in the way of him having a good match there

Also, I know this is technically last week's TV, but 205 Live is proving to be a very easy, fun watch at the moment. Last week had 3 matches in it's 30 minutes, all of which were enjoyable with even the greenest talent seeming to have some promise. I really enjoyed Jiro/Ru Feng, and the opener between Draco Anthony and Malik Blade was good in a "two green guys at an indy show who'll be really good in 2 years time" way. Weakest match was Nikkita Lyons vs Erica Yan. Yan is clearly very inexperienced, and repeated a flubbed spot awkwardly, but she's very likeable and sold well. Lyons has a great look and did a few bits that looked great, like a slingshot rolled through to a single-leg crab, feels like she'll be a star with some more polish. For a 30 minute rookie show, I thought it was good value.

Pleased to see Doudrop win that match. Bianca's big retribution should be at Mania, and Doudrop is both a fresh match-up and a better wrestler than Liv. Not sure how it'll work as a heel/heel match though. I suspect Becky will be the defacto face with the crowd, but you don't want to turn her before she faces Bianca again.

So I watched the Shelley/Ruby Soho match from Beyond last night, and it really made me want to do a dive into Shelley's back catalogue. It was a good match with a great Shelley performance where he seems fully aware of the size difference between the two and how to incorporate it into the match. He even uses a bearhug, which is not a move I'd associate with Alex Shelley, but totally works in this context. I don't know how long this IWTV title reign will last, but he feels perfect for the role. An elder statesman of the indy scene, going from territory to territory defending the belt against all comers certainly fits him better than it did Warhorse. Given that he's been good for 18 years now, I think he's a good contender for my 100, looking forward to revisiting his older stuff.

Would Hardy still be under a no-compete?

I think part of the issue is that Tony Khan needs to remember how much power his words hold, especially as he's a hugely popular figure with a lot of online fans. Publicly highlighting Swole's comments and saying "She wasn't any good anyway" is basically inviting his fans (who otherwise may not have read the comments) to go and swarm her with abuse, not that I think that was his attention.