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It's not hard to understand, but the majority of OG War Games are uneventful brawling and blading. Cage matches in general to me in all eras are hard to buy into as some ultimate brutality getting thrown into a fence. At least the old school bars WWF cage was like yeah you'd get fuck up if you got slammed into those no give bars.

JCP/WCW did a million of them, even before they were a yearly PPV thing no matter what, they just ran that shit on tour. Story and work wise, they were almost always just aimless brawling and blading you'd get in any cage match. There wasn't some big "finally the heels get what is coming to them" type story. Even before War Games made it to specific PPV event, it was just what cage matches had become in the 90s, or HIAC had become post 2005 or so. Everyone loves the concept and the visual, but there's a reason people only talk about one or two War Games as being memorable (usually 1991 and 1992, I might argue 1996/1997 as well). There's rarely any kind of story in the match beyond general heels advantage.

I think we're all mature enough and long enough viewers or at least historians enough to acknowledge both WWE and AEW War Games are better than JCP/WCW War Games ever were.

Bruv/MJF could have gone another 20 minutes imo. Excellent chemistry. It's going to be real hard to match or top that at All In.

A Hangman/Jarrett Texas death match blood bath at All In would probably rule. Actually, run Bryan vs Double J while we're at it.

Shitting on Boston because one of the members of the match was from Boston. Otherwise they would not have been shitting on Boston. Vaquer made a very positive impression with pretty much everyone in the crowd and who watched the show, and obviously enough for WWE to immediately swoop her up. Vaquer came off way more impressive than Mercedes in that match, and had she not, the crowd wouldn't have started shitting on Boston mid match.

The crowd completely turned on Mercedes halfway through the match. She was working face before that point in the match.

Late to it, but Hanger/Switchblade absolutely ruled, which is lol because I remember NJ running Page vs White at the first big US show of their current US attempt (Golden Lovers vs Bucks main event) and thinking both guys were so bland and unmemorable.

She just had a a match with Mercedes Mone Banks at Forbidden Door and immediately won over the crowd to the point of forcing a Sasha heel turn. Very aggressive of WWE to swoop her up so fast.

It's great WWE is so hot and crowds are so wild, but man anytime I actually watch WWE shows these past year or two is the sloppiest, weakest looking shit since the 80s.

This show ruled. I fell out of keeping up with the weeklies, not because of quality, but just life, so this is the first Dynamite I've watched in a couple of months probably. Bryan/PAC ruled. Might be the best singles match PAC has had in AEW imo. Willow/Stat ruled. For sure best match either have had in AEW. Heel Stat with Stoke is such an improvement. Really enjoy Willow and her catching on the way she has. Hanger vs Double J ruled. Tbh my favorite Jarrett run in his career was as the old timer Southern babyface in TNA, which was what like....15 years ago? Lol. The double fakeout Buckshot into sharpshooter :lawd Violent mean ass Hangman is going to rule, and the crowd chanting Swerve's House at him is perfect for running that back (maybe at All In?). Ospreay/Garcia ruled. The dick thrust Kawada kicks lmao. I really like the Joe/Shibata/Hook trio, and it really is making Hook look a lot better than he is, although that dude has the weirdest bumping style. The match was good, but the Learning Tree "gimmick" is basically the same meta satire gimmick the Bucks were doing 2 years ago (and still, kind of), and Jericho himself has done basically the same gimmick at least twice in his career. I'm sure he thinks it is real smart and reading the room to "reinvent" himself yet again, but this is actually worse than what he was doing before that got the please retire chants in the first place. Baker/Banks immediately feels big time and heated. Sasha is always best as a heel. Bucks/Okada in a War Games with Mark Briscoe/The Acclaimed is random as hell but interesting to see where that goes. Billy Gunn vs Okada in War Games lmao. Would be extra lol if Tana ends up in the match and doing War Games spots with Okada in 2024 in America. The end angle is where MJF shines, not as a top babyface, not as a top heel, but that upper card heel absolute piece of shit that can get some real heat. Garcia getting such a big main event match and angle and presumably big match for All In is good to see. Really feels like story wise, everything is hitting and interesting and fresh except for Jericho shit. His entire AEW run is forming a stable and feuding with a younger guy to "make them" and it doesn't do shit for anyone and usually actually takes the other guy ages to recover whatever momentum they had before Jericho got involved, and his stable dudes usually don't do shit for ages after either.

God I don't know what match I saw, Vaquer did look great and very impressed with her upon first viewing, but the match was full of so many miscommunications and awkward resetting to get back into some kind of groove. Sasha looked like she either got rocked or hurt very early on and was struggling to get out of it the whole match to me.

Great show, but boy did Sasha/Vaquer and Mox/Naito shit the bed. I'm willing to believe Sasha got injured very early on and had to keep going because of the Britt Baker return after the match. As for Naito...dude is cooked. He's in the same spot Tana was 5-6 years ago where he's clearly old and broken down and a shell of himself, but can pull out a few miracles per year. That match definitely wasn't one of them. Speaking of Tana, that match was the best usage of him I've seen in ages. Miracle the crowd was still so molten for Swerve/Bruv after the back to back duds, but god damn did that match rule. So did Shingo/Bryan and ZSJ/OC.

Downtown Indy is basically built around huge gatherings and conventions, an international airport with direct flights from all over the world, huge stadium with a retractable roof so weather isn't an issue.

Broken Hardy stuff def had a ton of online views, not sure it did anything for TV or attendance, but that stuff was the most viewed and talked about TNA stuff in probably 5-6 years, and nothing since has had that kind of buzz for them, either.

Lol what. Dbryne taking falls because it can't hurt him and can only help whoever pins him being selfish because he doesn't want to be the top guy in the victory lap of his full run career is some peak smark nonsense talk.

Shocking that Edge lasted that long without an injury considering he's been very injury prone since 2003ish and has been working a weekly schedule of real twerkrate style

Lmao at Shibata throwing dice like Kiryu doing a heat action

Learn deez nutz, bruv

lol at Cole namedropping EVIL when talking about the Bullet Club and not Balor/AJ/Cody

After months of debate, it was decided more people thought the wrestling shit was bullshit and didn't want to see it ever again than those who liked the "coverage", which was just talks in the op-ed section and a two part special on lucha horror movies. There was a brief turnabout in the letters to the editor section after Lawler/Kaufman slap on Letterman, but ultimately the haters won out on that front. But you know, there were a lot of letters to the editor that had people thinking The Shining/Halloween III/Poltergeist sucked around the same period.

Been working overnights and loading up Fangoria from the start, and in Spring of 1982, there is a big back and forth between editors and readers over talking about pro wrestling stemming pretty much entirely from Ox Baker in Escape from New York. It was followed up with a feature on lucha horror movies, which in 1982 had to be pretty much unknown and inaccessible for US audiences unless they lived around the border and got Mexican programming on TV. Very interesting to see similar debates you'd see today in an unrelated magazine letters section before national expansion era.

That can't be accurate. All the metrics were trending down during MJF's title run. I don't think it was him, specifically, but a mix of Punk/WWE being so hot/the angle with Cole being derailed from Cole's injury/AEW moving past the new hot alternative into established secondary company all hitting at the same time. I'm sure the raw numbers will show MJF run > things now, but it was already on a downward trajectory when MJF's reign started. Similar to Seth Rollins' "record low" ratings for TV during Rollins' first main event run ignoring said ratings were on a literal 13 year straight decline, and a decade later actual ratings are even lower despite WWE's actual business being literally hotter than ever.

Late to the show but it ruled. Even the pre show matches were rad. Idk if Bryan/Ospreay was "greatest American match of all time", but it was an absolute delight and could have gone another 2 hours. Danny Bryan's AEW has been so fucking great. Dude already had a GOAT tier in ring career even up to the first retirement, had absolutely no reason to go to AEW other than love of the game and wanting to have great matches with people he hadn't worked with (or at least hadn't in a long time). Roddy/KOR had some really great familiarity spots and fake outs and double/triple fake out counters.