TheDuke

Man I had forgotten how long Bray Wyatt has been around. You would think he would have gotten better in that time. I wish they would have just made him into Harper and Rowan's manager who would only sometimes wrestle in 6 man tags.

It was interesting on Dark that they really didnt mention the big finale explosion dud during the ppv recap. Maybe that's a hint that they are just not going to acknowledge it being a disappointment and just focus on the match itself.

When Sciavone does his rundown of the card for AEW Dynamite it reminds me so much of 80s Crockett when he would run through the upcoming house shows.

I like the work around the elbow. I found it interesting trying to understand Balor's motivation in this match. Like, it feels like Roddy wasn't prepared in kayfabe for this match and was distracted in his mind by his issues with Cole. To me, it feels like Balor purposely goaded Roddy into this match, as if Balor had been planning to fight an unprepared Roddy this night. As in, he knew what to say to get under Roddy's skin and knew an unprepared emotional Roddy wouldn't be thinking straight and would be an easier win for Balor. So maybe it was to send a message to Cole, maybe Balor doesn't really trust the UE to be really broken up, and as well he may have seen Roddy as a possible contender down the line and it was better to get a win against him now in a "best defense is a good offense" kind of way. I really thought the way Roddy was selling in the first half of the match, it looked almost as if he had been caught. As if he was thinking "oh shit I wasnt ready for this I was too worried about Cole I didnt think about Balor!" These kind of things serve to make a match like this more enjoyable to me than a typical WWE TV main event.

The spear was my favorite part. They need to have a no dq match between him and Drew where they duel with their weapons. Has their ever been an escape the cage match between 2 chicken shit heels where there is no contact between them because when the bell rings it just becomes a race to see who can climb the cage the fastest?

Was this Apollo's gimmick on the indies?

I'm in Canada, so in order to watch the PPV hype special after Dynamite I had to download the TSN app since they werent showing it on tv here. It was kind of funny, because they ran the US commercial breaks even though TSN is a Canadian app. I guess TSN couldn't sell advertisers on putting ads on this special that was only going to be available online. Anyway, I only watched like half of it because I was annoyed with the music running underneath the interviews and that they kept jumping between people. I thought it was ok for a few minutes, like if it was a short ppv hype segment on Dynamite. However, that format seems really difficult to watch for an entire hour. I would have preferred longer interview segments one person or team at a time hyping the specific matches. I did like the tag section though. They seemed to be framing the story Jericho is this legend, like one of the greatest wrestlers who has turned bad, but MJF is not that. He is more like an opportunistic wrestler who is using Jericho and using the Inner Circle to benefit his career. I enjoyed that interpretation of the booking because it adds another layer to the tag match where you wonder if MJF has some ulterior motive or plan and if something else may happen between him and the Inner Circle or if he will turn on Jericho. And when you have the Good Brothers on the other side who act like heels, and we don't know where Sammy Guevera is.... To me, it just gives it more of that feeling that I used to having during the Monday Night Wars, that feeling of "Anything Could Happen."

I am a big Wandavision fan, so whenever I see Randall Park in this, the only thing I'm thinking is "wow it's the FBI guy from Wandavision!" And I'm happy. Also, is Greg Yao a real person? I liked seeing Vince McMahon. Are the action figures they are talking about supposed to be the LJN figures? Because I thought those were the first wrestling toys.

This felt almost more like night 1 of a 2 night pay per view, or maybe like a Clash of the Champions 2 weeks before a big pay per view, like it was a big show all on it's own. I see John Cena is hosting Wipeout on sister station TBS. Any idea when his contract ends?

I liked Jade in that match. Is she going to wrestle full time or is this a one off for her as well? I liked Shaq's power bomb on Cody too. Red Velvet looked bad nearly missing that move to the outside on Jade and having so much trouble setting up the table.

How is that Being The Elite show doing on YouTube with younger people? I don't like it, but maybe that's the primary future of wrestling? Maybe Miro should be doing some AEW/wrestling show on Twitch? Maybe WWE needs to make a deal with Bad Bunny to have wrestling on his social media? I know Quibli died last year, but maybe theres a better way to provide wrestling matches that people can watch on their phones? Maybe people who wouldnt watch an entire episode of Raw or Dynamite might be more likely to watch one or two individual matches on their phones on a regular basis. I already just PVR the shows and fast forward the matches and segments I'm not interested in. One step further is just to let people pick the individual matches they want to watch.

I agree. Britt seems like she is really becoming better and is a highlight of the show for me. I think she really doesnt need the women's belt and it's better used to get over some of the other women. I like El Ps idea of having at least 2 women's feuds going on in the card at once, one over the title and one around Britt. Plus theres the NWA champ as well right now.

What do you think of Lord Alfred Hayes? I like listening to him.

I should have googled it. I always thought it was a reference to the classic 60s TV show The Prisoner. I only saw a couple episodes of that back in the 90s, but Village Green Preservation Society sounded like the sort of creepy name those people on that island would have used.

Right now in Canada I noticed I have a free preview of a channel called Game + which shows OVW Wrestling on Sunday mornings. I find that funny that an Indie Developmental promotion is being shown on basic cable in Canada right now as part of this free preview. The only wrestler I recognized when I watched it was Jessie Godderz. I wonder if OVW is available in the US on a random cable channel. It would be funny if it could only be seen in the Louisville area in the US but was available nationwide in Canada.

So far it's better than The Big Show Show on Netflix. Although to be clear I have only seen one episode of that show as well. But, the real question is, is Young Rock better than The Go Big Show? (The answer is yes, yes it is).

I kind of think now that maybe the reason for Deeb having the big brace on the knee and being checked by the doctor during the break and selling it so much was because somebody thought as the NWA women's champion she needed an excuse for why she was being eliminated in the first round of the tournament. Putting together tournament brackets for wrestling can be kind of difficult and I have heard that you book the final match first and then work backwards from there. We dont know what the semifinals and finals will be yet, but perhaps to get to the matches they wanted, they realized that if they wanted Deeb as part of tournament, she would need to be eliminated in the first round. It makes sense from the perspective of the promoter who is using NWA talent that they dont want to make the NWA champ look like a total jobber losing in the first round. In that sense, having Riho be the one to eliminate her is logical since Riho is a former champ herself. When added to the pre-existing knee injury, it makes Deeb look less weak in losing. It does seem like strange bracketing from a kayfabe perspective that there is a match in the first round that seems like it would make a just as good tournament final. One good thing about having so many face vs face and heel vs heel matches and so many tweener characters that it makes it harder to guess how tournaments like this are going to go.

I don't understand the Deeb Riho match. Why was Deeb selling her knee so much? And was checked by a doctor during the break? I didnt see Riho focusing on the knee during her moves. I admit I dont really understand AEW ring psychology myself, but I do enjoy reading other people's explanations of it in their match reviews.

From my own anecdotal recollection, the biggest reason by far for me that there was interest in the Kane Undertaker Mania 14 match was because Kane was undefeated before then and has basically no sold everything. The question was, can Undertaker even beat him? This was during a time when I was more interested in the storyline then the matches.

What religion is Kip and Penelope if James Mitchell is the official at their wedding? Maybe the REAL forbidden door that was opened was the marriage between Ford and Sabian.

If Cody cant wrestle the match, since they are already working with other promotions, it would be funny if they also made a deal with ROH to bring in Mark Briscoe. Because, then they could bill the match as the ultimate test of which is the better fighting style, Shaq Fu or Redneck Kung Fu.

Did you see what caused Cesaro to start bleeding? They didnt focus on it so it was apparent it wasnt part of the match.

I liked the Cesaro/Bryan match. Wish it had gone longer though, and that Bryan had a chance to work that cut on Cesaro's right ear. I liked the Intercontinental Triple Threat too and wished that had been on payperview as it seemed as if it was just about to kick into a higher gear when it ended. I liked that it wasn't just guys taking turns and seemed like it was about an escalation of violence coming our of the frustration from both Crewes and Zayn not being able to end the match. I would have liked to see that continue, maybe with Crewes going full heel during the match out of frustration. I do like how it seems Big E was able to win the match because he remained focused on winning the match while the other 2 lost focus.

I was thinking about Jim's constant criticism of Tony Khan, and I have to think Jim's not being realistic about what it would take for a wrestling program on TNT today to not lose money and not get cancelled. It's not the wrestling or the wrestlers that Jim likes, but The Young Bucks and Kenny OMEGA are the biggest American stars that Khan would be able to get. So I understand how catering to them, giving them control, and hiring their friends etc is just how the game is played if Khan wants to draw their fans and create some buzz in the community to draw new fans to his show. I think Jim's got to realize the Omega and the Bucks were the best bet to making some money in today's environment even if it's not the wrestling he likes.

Wow I never even heard of this magazine before. That sounds awesome.