Flyin' Brian

Cornette keeps talking about Punk always being in the opening segment to try and keep the lead in audience from Big Bang Theory. Not sure how much truth there is to that but he’s been out first for several weeks in a row now.

Did Page get Covid, or did he get Punked? Seriously though, wishing both Hangman and @sek69 speedy recoveries. *Lance Archer vs. Wardlow Should be a fun match with Wardlow winning and continuing on towards MJF. * Hikaru Shida vs. Serena Deeb in a Philly Street Fight Digging this feud and I think this may be the 2nd best match of the night. * The Young Bucks, Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish vs. The Varsity Blondes, Dante Martin, Brock Anderson and Lee Johnson The Elites are winning, but we will see any more signs of issues between them or anything to move forward their story? * AAA & ROH World Tag Team Champions FTR face off against each other in a qualifier for The Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament, with CM Punk on commentary Glad to see some of the Owen Hart qualifying matches be more than just glorified squashes/Dark type matches. Match of the night and while it may not mean much in the long run it will be great. * AEW TNT Champion Sammy Guevara defends against Scorpio Sky in a Ladder Match This feud is still going? They are going to turn Dan Lambert face. lol

It will be interesting to see if Punk beats Hangman since Danielson didn’t.

It’s 4/20 so you know what that means. RVD in the house?

Just curious, did Bischoff say anything when Vince McMahon booked himself in a match against God and won?

Seemed like he was just throwing out open challenges to whomever without rhyme or reason. His tweet said everyone but Eddie Kingston when he was looking for matches. They are picking good matchups (Penta, Dustin Rhodes) but if he said specifically it was for the championship I must have missed that.

I think in that case I would have liked to have seen Joe and Suzuki have some interaction at Supercard of Honor to help set it up. Make a little bigger deal out of it than it being a thrown together match and almost an afterthought to the Joe/Lethal feud. Hopefully at least Suzuki sticks around and we get a tag match between him and Joe vs Lethal and Singh

July 16th Saturday, July 16: Hokkai Kita Yell in Hokkaido * Sunday, July 17: Hokkai Kita Yell in Hokkaido * Wednesday, July 17: Xeio Arena Sendai in Miyagi * Saturday, July 23: Ota City Prefectural Gymnasium in Tokyo * Sunday, July 24: Ota City Prefectural Gymnasium in Tokyo * Tuesday, July 26: Korakuen Hall in Tokyo * Wednesday, July 27: Korakuen Hall in Tokyo * Saturday, July 30: Dolphins Arena in Aichi * Sunday, July 31: Dolphins Arena in Aichi * Tuesday, August 2: Hamatsu Arena in Shizuoka * Friday, August 5: Item Ehime in Aichi * Saturday, August 6: Edion Arena Osaka * Sunday, August 7: Edion Arena Osaka * Tuesday, August 9: Hiroshima Sun Plaza * Wednesday, August 10: Hiroshima Sun Plaza * Saturday, August 13: Machida Municipal Gymnasium in Tokyo * Sunday, August 14: White Ring in Nagano * Tuesday, August 16: Sumo Hall in Tokyo * Wednesday, August 17: Sumo Hall in Tokyo * Thursday, August 18: Sumo Hall in Tokyo

Something just seemed off about this episode. I thought maybe it’s just me so I went back and watched it again. I’m not seeing the point of some of the current booking. Hopefully part of the big announcement is ROH having their own show again with current storylines and angles. I think Punk should be doing more than just having ‘dream matches’. Some kind of storyline where he is beating everyone in the top 5 rankings to earn a title shot maybe? A lot of the show just feels like everyone is spinning their wheels waiting for the next PPV, plus ROH stuff sprinkled throughout. Punk is without a feud or real purpose, there’s no clear contender for Jurassic Express except FTR and they are both faces now, most of the title feuds feel like they are just there as filler (Page/Cole, Jade/Shafir,) or something like Sammy/Scorpio where they are both basically heels. Thunder Rosa/Nyla Rose got off to a rough start but is really the only title program I’m interested in and looking forward to the match Saturday. Gresham/Castle will hopefully be good. I really got into Dalton Castle during his ROH title run but since then it feels like something is missing. I watched the pre show match before Supercard of Honor and he just didn’t feel like a big deal anymore. Suzuki winning the ROH tv title then dropping it straight to Joe felt odd too. The match was fun, I like Joe and Lethal, but without knowing the plan for ROH it’s harder for me to get invested. Having flashbacks to the WCW invasion of WWF I guess. I guess the big guy is big in India, but it feels like the old David Hassellhoff is big in Germany jokes when I say that. I also don’t know where the Hook and Danhausen stuff is going. It was funny the first time but every week of Hook no selling the curses and being too cool to play along just gets old fast. Wouldn’t mind a Hook vs Orange Cassidy match when OC is healthy though. I don’t mean to come off as negative, I’m enjoying the BCC and Lee/Swerve vs Team Taz. Kingston and Proud and Powerful vs JAS too, but Kingston needs a couple more guys soon. The show was still ok, think I just got my hopes up for more. It’s a lot of waiting right now. House of Black vs Penta feud is waiting on Fenix. Elite vs Undisputed Elite is waiting on Omega. Qualifying matches for the Owen Hart tournaments next month. Even though, a show where most of the stuff didn’t hit for me is still a show worth watching so that’s an accomplishment in and of itself.

Liked that double team move by Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, variation on a Demolition Decapitation. They should pull that out more often.

I hope not either. Punk and Penta was pretty good. Unfortunately Penta is treading water until Fenix comes back. But there’s no shame in losing to Punk.

Looking forward to Punk vs Penta and Hobbs/Starks vs Swerve/Lee too.

Cole/Christian was great, as was FTR/Young Bucks. Eddie Kingston is the man. Jade has grown a lot in her time as TBS champ. Glad to see some movement on the Julia Hart angle, as odd as it is. Samoa Joe looked pretty good. The Team Taz vs Keith Lee and Swerve tag match is something I’m looking forward to. Great show especially considering there was no Punk and no Blackpool Combat Club.

The Hardys/Butcher and Blade match was a train wreck but mostly in a good way. Sometimes the rules in AEW tag matches go out the window. I’m in the same boat with the Hardys not needing to kill themselves like this for a tv match in a mid card feud.

The rich and powerful tend to own the authorities. When there is no justice, sometimes you have to break the rules. That’s the way it goes in comics, movies, wrestling, and sometimes real life.

I agree up to a point, but people can and do change. If they have shown through words and actions that they have, then they deserve a second chance. I don’t think they deserve to be punished for the rest of their careers for something they said 9 years ago. What he said was awful and he doesn’t deserve a pass either, but if it’s been acknowledged by him that it was wrong and there’s been no repeat then I think at some point he’s paid enough for it.

Hearing that idea (most recently on Cornette's podcast) the way it was presented I agreed with it as far as recently but looking at the matches overall since FTR came into the company you're right. FTR has only lost 6 tag matches since their debut in AEW 18 months ago today. They lost to the Bucks, Ortiz and Santana, Darby and Sting, Lucha Bros twice, and Punk and Moxley. 31-6 is a pretty good record. The argument I can buy is they haven't had many matches this year on TV, only 4 on Dynamite (loss to Punk and Mox, the two tag team battle royals that they didn't win, beating the Gunns last week. one win on Rampage and one on Dark Elevation.

I would be up for that.

Skinny Walter A.K.A. Gunther is weird. It's one of those transformations that can make you wonder in a kayfabe sense if it is the same guy.

Angles get reran all the time. WWE redid Summer of Punk, got over just as much if not more so the 2nd time around.

Tonight looks like a good show on paper. Hoping FTR gets the win over the Bucks. Hardys vs Butcher and Blade should be fun. Cole and Cage is an interesting matchup, I think Christian will get a good match out of Cole. Shawn Spears vs Shawn Dean will hopefully have a Wardlow appearance. I’m looking forward to seeing what Samoa Joe has left in the tank, this should be an extended squash match. They have to do something with Julia Hart still wearing that eye patch eventually, right? Heel turn, pirate gimmick, female Nick Fury? Shida wins but that storyline needs to go somewhere or they need to drop it.

Just curious though, isn't this true of any era? At any one time has there ever been more than a handful of guys that felt deserving of main event status or that you could see being champion? It would be nice to see more variety in having a one month challenger for a B show PPV but honestly there are only a few guys that are believable in that role.

It's not that they are incapable, it's that they won't. Unless they can get someone that is a company man and they know will be a WWE lifer and not go work for another company, they are not going to build up anyone that could possibly become a big star in wrestling outside of WWE.

The only match like this that I’d still like to see is Austin vs Cena if they decided to do one more.

It was kind of sad in the beginning, but got better as it went on. No way they could have had Austin lose there. I just wonder why do this now other than Wrestlemania being in Texas? Austin could have been doing this periodically over the years, having this kind of match with Cena or Punk or even older stars like Michaels, Sting, Hogan, or Undertaker at Wrestlemania.