urbanecowboy

I’ve watched maybe 90 min of AEW since All Out: -PreShow is going to be very good. -Swerve and Lee are splitting up. -Joe is gonna lose the title for Wardlow or win it from Hobbs. -Jericho is gonna retain & go against Adam Cole at Final Battle. -Regal helps Max win the title w/ brass knucks.

This is a story of two different perspectives. These two men had two different matches with each other at the same time. They told a more nuanced story in 11 minutes or so than the Elite could tell in an hour. This match made me feel stuff. I like when matches do that. CM Punk is fighting to win. Eddie Kingston just wants to fight. Punk is out of touch with Kingston’s perspective but he thinks Kingston is out of touch with his reality because wins don’t matter to him. Punk sees that as a failure to him. He feels the need to hold Kingston to higher standard than the rest because he sees potential in him. Kingston believes he’s been singled-out and judged unfairly for years. The build to this was on-point and the match nailed every beat. There’s some great post-match footage as well that color it even deeper. I know it’s a work but Eddie Kingston made me wanna see CM Punk get his teeth kicked in. I love that this match is so heated without a true heel/face dynamic. The match is all about perspective. There’s many layers in particular but I like to focus on how neither man is wrong but the viewer's perspective changes what you see. Just like both guys have different perspectives. Kingston does not care about winning. He just wants to beat up Punk. Punk thinks that everyone can have their differences and if they settle it in the ring like men then everything is all good. It works because there’s an undeniable connection Eddie has with the fans. Punk has a similar connection but Punk has a selfishness about him that is both a part of his charm and his biggest flaw. The match is here. Punk is sporting shorts for the first time in AEW but what stands out to me is that they are white shorts. White is a blank canvas for color. I love that Kingston goes for a cheap shot on Punk before the bell and honestly, I wouldn’t have complained if we got a no-contest and it never even started. But alas, These two proceed to have a clunky, awkward brawl. It’s so refreshing to see something like that. Most brawls nowadays are furniture rearrangement and just building to contrived spots. This match felt real in a way few can. Punk really leaned into being an asshole here. I’d also like to point out something here that NOBODY seems to be getting. For those not aware this show is taking place 16 years to the day of Eddie Guerrero’s death in the same city in which he passed away. There were many tributes throughout the night but in this particular match the crowd was chanting “Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!” for Kingston but as we’ve learned CM Punk is a self aggrandizing asshole who takes it upon himself to do an awkward tribute. This only causes Kingston to become more pissed off. Punk’s John Cena spot was the one hit at self-awareness that Punk might’ve shown and I really wish Jim Ross read the room and didn’t talk through it. The most over guy in the company, who many people were just happy he was back, was getting GENUINE boos by the end of the match, not in an ironic way but as a response to the person he decided to be in this fight. That is a testament to CM Punk to walk that line but also to Eddie Kingston to become that person that can have that raw emotional connection with a crowd. Truly masterful stuff. As modern wrestling fans we often look for great matches and look for great booking but Eddie Kingston made us want him to win. Eddie Kingston was able to make wrestling the way it should be for 11 minutes and the result was one of the absolute greatest wrestling matches I have ever seen. Punk goes for a handshake after the match because the guy is so oblivious and in his own head that he misses the entire point.

Punk wants to get a rematch against MJF, but the deal is that he has to go against FTR w/ a tag partner. The issue is that Punk doesn’t have any friends in AEW, so there’s not a clear go-to. It ended up being Moxley, who is currently dodging Bryan Danielson’s request to team up. This is getting juicy. I like it. Unsurprisingly we got a great match with a hot crowd. Mox and Punk worked well together and we have some built in fodder for when the two eventually go against each other because Punk is kind of a dick and Mox doesn’t trust anybody. Let’s skip ahead in the match, Mox struggled to get in the ring, Punk had kinda left him to dry after a table spot. Now Punk is back in his corner and FTR are double-teaming Mox who is now bleeding “of course he is”. The ring is cut off but Mox is working through it and goes for the tag and Punk is not there. He left his post to go-after Dax. CM Punk is a terrible tag team partner. But the hot tag eventually comes. Punk ends up getting anaconda vice on Cash, who visibly taps but Aubrey is distracted with Mox and Dax. Tully starts whipping Punk with his jacket which allows Cash enough distraction to get a quick roll up attempt. Doesn’t work and Punk and Mox make it through. There’s mutual respect here, they did well for it being their first time teaming and against a veteran team as clever as FTR but there’s some stuff beneath the surface that could allow a great program in the future.

The Coffin Match This was the follow up to the great match these two had a couple weeks prior. Darby is just so good when he’s able to work with a big dude, he’s also at his best when he’s able to work with a guy who isn’t afraid to take a beating as well. Brody is one of his opponents that just seems to make sense. I hope to go back and check out their pre-AEW stuff because these two just HIT for me. I love that Big Bang Theory fans, if they weren’t careful, saw Brody King bleeding buckets 3 minutes after the credits rolled. This one had the violence, urgency and gutsy creativity of the first match, but added in some not entirely consequential overbooking with House of Black that seems to definitely set up a story for the PPV. I love the crowd chanting for Sting and he was hiding in the coffin the whole time. Much like the Dynamite street fight a couple years back when Orange Cassidy was hiding in the trunk of the car the entire match, it doesn’t make any sense if you think about it but I hope you’re not trying to think about it at all. Great, creative finish that didn’t look forced. Darby is now 3-0 in Coffin Matches here in AEW. This match just hit. Dudes Rock.

It’s so crazy that after every time Orange Cassidy has a great match on ppv or Dynamite there’s a discussion about whether or not he should Be taken seriously. He should. He’s one of the most compelling wrestlers of the last few years. Way more clever than comedic. And I haven’t seen a match of his that wasn’t psychological sound. I’m sure I will be the high vote on him.

Piper is a guy whose wrestling has aged better than his promos. When the guy was in the ring the crowd was always going nuts. when he was on the mic he was saying something racially insensitive or homophobic. Piper is a Top 20 lock for me. Possibly higher.

Holy hell, this sucked to watch. Every second of this match I just wanted it to be over. These ladies really hate each other, professional wrestling is real and Aja Kong needs to go to jail for assault. I don’t think these two even knew there was a wrestling match going on until the last 5 minutes. A truly brutal spectacle. Aja was a sick, vile, malicious heel and Hotta was the fiery babyface that kept making these miraculous, but brief comebacks. There was a WWE Network exclusive match that happened in 2020 that claimed to “redefine violence”; a match that looks like kids stuff compared to this thing. The stiff kicks to the face, ugly head-butts, biting, blood-smeared all over the place, and horrendous high-angle drops on the neck. This was a horror film that I just wanted to be over and I hope I never see this again. Good goddamn.

I like when I watch a pro wrestling show and it feels like this.

I have found it curious that you were so high on that last match because It was on my lower end when I watched it. Still great, because I love watching those two work together. I look forward to revisiting the SD match at the end of the year.

Hogan’s AWA run and the fact that he’s Hulk Hogan make him a lock for my list. I really would like to watch more of his 84-86 period because that’s stuff I haven’t revisited since the tapes when I was a kid.

I would like to include Bryan being one of the most unaffected by the pandemic wrestlers WWE had. He had a pretty fantastic 2020. - Bryan v. Sami Zayn (Wrestlemania 36) Aside from the odd outside stuff and the fact This was booked like a Smackdown match this was pretty fantastic. Bryan welting Sami with chops and kicks. I’m unsure if it’s Bryan’s intensity or Sami’s channeling of Terry Funk that sells me so heavily on this match. He continued to have excellent empty arena matches with Cesaro, Sheamus, Gulak and AJ by not needing to feed off the crowd and having the ability to adapt. I think the weirdest thing WWE was making their talent do was playing to an empty arena as if there was a crowd there. Bryan still had to do his “yes” chants which was a little cringeworthy but you expect some cringe with WWE. After Bryan took the summer off he came back during the “Thunderdome” era which is still an empty arena but a tremendous visual and aural atrocity and distraction that just doesn’t work for me except for -Bryan v. Roman Reigns (Fastlane 3/21/2021) This was the best match of the last year and change for the company because Bryan was really able to use his natural charisma and the great chemistry he has with Roman to completely suck me in. I was somehow able to lose myself in the match even if it was in an environment I find nauseating. Bryan’s strength is his ability to adapt. Every situation he is in he makes the best of it and it comes across on television. Most of his peers couldn’t adapt the same way and that’s what shined an even bigger light on Bryan for me this last year and a half.

I am a strong Lesnar advocate and this is something I have definitely thought about, and I have pretty much decided to forgive it. Do I think that logically Brock should be expecting a low-blow and do more to prevent it? Yes. I think in most instances it has worked pretty well and Brock was reasonably distracted. Ideally, it won’t happen again but I don’t know how much it detracts for me. I need to go back and watch the Ambrose and Joe matches because I haven’t seen those since they were live but I think I feel the others are justified.

He’s a guy I’d like to see more of, I’d tentatively put him in the bottom ten and just kinda hope he stays there because I really have a sentimental fondness for the man.

Brock’s highest highs (when he “gives a shit” as everyone likes to claim) are higher than any of his peers. Even his lesser matches feel important. A Brock Lesnar match is an event in itself and it took most of his peers many more years to reach that status and even then, I don’t think there’s anybody who’s matches Lesnar on that level. Add in the fact that he’s one of the few that truly understand how to sell at such a high level. I understand certain things about Brock rub folks the wrong way but this guy, is just such a special gift to pro-wrestling

If I only had his Pre-2012 return career to go off of I would not even really consider him for the list. I’m failing to understand your assertion that because Brock is booked strong (believably so) that he somehow only a sideshow act as opposed to a legitimate pro-wrestler.