Flyin' Brian

Why do the Elite make me think of David Pumpkins?

Good for Ricky Starks. Congratulations. I’m glad he’s going to get a title shot. Good matchup.

You have to admit tonight, the first show of the MJF era, has fallen pretty flat though. Regal could have explained his part without MJF. They basically pressed pause, and they aren’t in a position where they can afford to do that.

I hope Ricky Starks wins this, but with all the Firm stuff with MJF they’ve set it up for Ethan Page instead. Ricky Starks said good things about CM Punk too. It seems like the people that have (Hobbs, FTR, Darby, etc.) don’t get treated that well in the booking.

The more I think about it this booking of MJF makes no sense. The guy has a big title win and isn’t on the next episode of tv? It’s like AEW doesn’t want to heat things up and get any kind of momentum. Not even a pre taped promo?

Orange Cassidy is an MVP of AEW. Great character, he can go in the ring, he’s consistent. One of my favorite wrestlers in AEW.

That was pretty disappointing and underwhelming. I expected more from Regal.

I’m here for CM Punk Appreciation Night. Chicago, don’t let me down.

Did anyone catch Penta on the Monday Night Football game this week? I'm been a 49ers fan since I started watching football in the 80's, and I'm a Penta fan, so this was great. Pentagon Jr. gifts George Kittle lucha libre mask | Watch ESPN

I'd think they would have to add gimmicks. Timekeeper's hammer on a pole match?

The Bar was awesome. I definitely need to go back and rewatch those.

That's one of my problems too, I think 7 is too much. 3 is great, 5 can be if it's done right. I remember those Marquis of Queensbury matches and they were fun. Rude and Dustin matches were great too, but I can't remember how many they had.

What kind of shape was Martel in by that point? He would have been 42, and the last thing I remember him doing before that was the feud with Shawn Michaels in WWF.

Here's what Dax had to say to Dave Meltzer when Meltzer said The Young Bucks didn't have anything to do with FTR vs The Bucks 3 not happening. “Dave, with all due respect, f**k off. Like, in the most respectful and loving way, I mean that. When you decide to get two sides of a story, then speak on it. Thanks dude.”

It never really felt that way with tag team wrestling, maybe I'm wrong. Like the Rock N Roll Express and Midnight Express seemed to work so well together and got along, never seemed to be an ego issue there. Same with Edge and Christian and the Hardys until the Lita stuff. I don't know, maybe those were the exception to the rule.

Why did The Bucks drop the titles to Swerve In Our Glory when there was a third match with FTR right there and FTR was super hot?

Kind of laughable for the Bucks to call anyone a tribute act with as much as they owe to The Rockers, Rock N Roll Express, The Hardys, etc. It kind of sucks how things have changed. Instead of great teams doing business and both getting over it's too much about keeping spots, making sure they are seen as the best, and that their style is seen as the 'right' one.

Are they a good idea? A quick search reveals it hasn't been done much in modern wrestling history. 1. NWA - Magnum TA vs Nikita Koloff - Cornette talks about this a little on his podcast. He said that most of the matches were not televised, only 1 or 2 at the most. Of course, this was back when it was more important to sell tickets than get tv ratings. 2. WCW - Booker T vs Chris Benoit - For me this is the one that comes to mind when someone mentions a best of 7 series. I don't really remember how good the matches were though, but I enjoyed it at the time. 3. WWE - Booker T vs Chris Benoit 2.0 - WWE went back to the well, this time for the U.S. title. Booker T was injured and replaced by Randy Orton, who went on to win the series. Don't know if you can really call it a best of 7 if the last three matches were wrestled by a different guy. 4. WWE - Cesaro vs Sheamus - I don't remember much about this other than it happened. Two guys that can definitely go and are fun to watch in the ring. Probably worth a rewatch. There was also a best of 5 series between the Hardys and Edge and Christian in the WWF that was supposed to be a best of 7 originally before they cut it short. Might be fun to go back through these and look at the matches. Were they able to make each one different and stand on their own while also having callbacks and a flow to the action and storylines? Are there any best of 7's I may be missing? I'm not as familiar with Mexico or Japan, maybe they have had some there I don't know about.

FTR has four televised matches since All Out, two of them ROH title matches, the number one contenders match with Swerve In Our Glory, and the 8 man match last week. Colt Cabana has more Ring of Honor title matches in the last month than FTR.

Gunn Club, welcome to being buried. Population: anyone who said anything nice about CM Punk.

How about we give MJF a chance as the top guy first and see what the actual results are before passing judgement? To my knowledge he’s never lost 140,000 viewers in a segment before, so he’s got that in the win column. AEW’s ratings have been falling like a rock, only 818,000 this past week. It’s worth seeing if MJF as champ can provide a spark. I’m definitely interested in this week’s Dynamite for several reasons. It’s make or break time for me as a fan, how this Wednesday goes will determine whether I want to keep following this promotion or not. Hopefully we get a hot angle out of Regal turning and helping MJF, even if it was a little rushed and predictable. I’m sure Regal will cut a great promo explaining everything and then they’re off and running.

I was enjoying the Jericho ROH stuff but now it seems we’ve reached the point where they are out of good ideas and don’t want to bring in any other former ROH champions that people want to see. We are back to Claudio and Danielson now as challengers. I also get the feeling there was some ‘owning the libs’ stuff going on with Jericho and as Elon Musk is proving that’s not a successful business plan.

I think it’s the former, but either way it was a mistake. My question is, does AEW learn from it or do they double down? What’s more important to them?

Q5: Chris Jericho vs. Colt Cabana/Death Triangle promo – 880,000 viewers (down 140,000), 361,000 in 18-49 (down 75,000) They lost 140,000 viewers thanks to their trolling bullshit. Fuck Chris Jericho. Maybe they are smart enough to learn a lesson from that. https://411mania.com/wrestling/ratings-breakdown-for-this-weeks-aew-dynamite-41/

I honestly can’t find anything online about a meeting between those 3. I see a meeting between TK and Punk before he cut his promo on Page and an all hands on deck meeting with the entire roster. Can you help me out and point me in the right direction of that?