Boss Rock

Dark Order holding Page on their shoulders is how I booked it nearly a year ago, ha.

I didn't watch it, but they had two(!) sub-ten minute matches.

I mean if this leads to Chaos then cool, but there are better options than HFO.

When all is said and done, I'll probably have like 20-30 people who will miss the cut that could have taken the final spot.

Okada-Tonga was better than their G1 match but I thought Shingo-Zack fell short of theirs, though it was still good. Yano-O-Khan was pretty fun.

Seems to be the Fed's new MO: say someone was "difficult" to work with a la what they said about Bray.

My gut says Misawa due to having some unreal peaks and having probably the greatest performances of any wrestler ever, but that could change as Bryan has more depth and versatility.

Both have very similar strengths in having unreal charisma and presence, making everything they did seem important and epic. But I think Tenryu was a bit more versatile in working different styles and has a deeper resume (honestly, it's one of the deepest).

I've gone to bat plenty for Shawn's work in the Rockers and the Rockers as a whole, but I think Kenny's body of work at this point trumps Shawn's by a decent margin. I would put Shawn's best match slightly over Kenny's, but Kenny has more total great matches. Kenny has him beat in offense. Bumping and selling is interesting as Kenny's leg selling has been iffy just as Shawn's back selling has been iffy, and both are really good bumpers. Shawn's comeback run also doesn't hold up particularly well (although I do want to revisit) while Kenny has a ton of gems before his big NJPW run.

Literally the night they announced record profits. I'm not surprised, but I also am kinda stunned at that kind of callousness.

Bryan's have definitely been better and I don't think it's particularly close. But Punk has still been a lot of fun to watch. Some of that is obviously the novelty of not having seen this guy wrestle in over 7 years, but they've still been a lot of fun to watch.

My prediction is that Okada-Shingo is on one of the nights and then Okada-Ospreay on the final night with Okada standing tall.

Okada is my favorite wrestler and yet there was even a time circa 2018-2019 where I was ready for a change in the main event. But desperate times call for desperate measures. We need the ace back on top.

Terrible way to end the tournament. I didn't think Ibushi's run since returning from pneumonia was bad at all and he and Okada were having a damn good match up to that point. Hopefully he recovers and comes back better than ever. Okada apparently asked for the last IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt. He's clearly a conduit for the viewers' frustrations with the product. And hell yeah Shibata!!! Even if he can't be cleared to compete on a regular basis, just let him do stuff like that every once in a while. There are a ton of folks he could do exhibitions with.

I also have to wonder how many folks who left WWE for AEW have had horror stories to share on why they left with the rest of the locker room. Like Bryan and Cole were very civil and even grateful for their experiences, but then you have Mox, Punk, and Cody saying firsthand how suffocating that environment was.

Cobb should win the New Japan Cup and take the title next year.

Basically my thoughts. It was a mess, but a fun mess. Ishii-Yano was a blast. They have such great chemistry and I would like to see more "serious Yano" in these longer matches. His comedy works better when it's in shorter matches. Loa-Sabre was also really good, the best Loa has ever looked. Their match not being the main event obviously spoiled that Sabre was losing, but I was still kinda shocked. The overall direction of the company definitely does feel like an attempt to "return to normalcy" by putting the title back on Okada and at this point it's probably what they need.

I know it will probably happen at some point, but I also struggle to think who would jump over. Even if there could be more money, all the "cost cutting" WWE is doing should be enough to give anyone pause. And while AEW absolutely needs to do more with the women's division, WWE's is in rough shape.

Red Shoes counts to 19.5 before 20.

Today's card was interesting to say the least.

Rampage tied Smackdown in the ratings.

Yep. There's no way you can hold out on this any longer.

I do agree it's a bit tougher to spin kayfabe-wise especially when Miro is in the top 5 rankings.

Yep.

Even if some of the names aren't the biggest stars/most pushed, it makes more sense to avoid having guys like Miro, Cole, and Punk all take losses when they really don't need to.