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I don't think there is any character work or anything going on with Cody's gear at all. It's just a follow up reference to the American Dream thing again from the Ogogo feud, but you might remember he dressed up like a fucking Revolutionary soldier when he faced Aldis for the NWA Championship for the same reasons. I think the dude is just one of those homers for the flag types.

His best in ring work in my experience is prior to 1980, of which there isn't a ton of easily and readily available stuff. Basically a couple of msg wwwf shows on the network, a couple of NJPW matches on World, and a couple of AJPW matches in the archive of you can track them down

I thought it was probably the best night of a weekly tv show all year and prob in the past 2-3 years. Bryan/Omega was great and I don't think that was even them going all out. The fight forever chant is what it is, but that easily could have gone on another 25-30 minutes and been completely engaging. Maybe not fair, but compare Bryan's first match in the company to Punk's first match in the company. Lol. MJF/Pillman was whatever. I don't think either guy is particularly good, nor am I interested in this being based on DSOTR episodes. Black/Cody was lol as well. Cody looking paunchy as hell. Needs to bring back the weight belt to hide some of the love handles and gut jiggle. Also lol at how the crowds have fully turned on him no matter what he does. Also lol at how this mf is doing those weird Jarrett in TNA style fuckery finishes for every match now. At least the right guy won even if the manner of victory wasn't impressive or really even very fitting for Black. Sting/Darby vs FTR was great. Sting is like the complete negative of Taker/Goldberg/Flair/Hogan and it's really wonderful to see him not only looking so impressive in all of his matches in AEW, but actually doing more and more each match and still looking better each time. I had never considered the coffin scorpion death drop as a team finish for them, but now that they teased it I hope to see it some day because that's actually fucking rad. I think this is actually the best match FTR has had in AEW and I hope it isn't followed up with weird twitter drama and then them doing nothing for 3 months. Sting is actually OLDER than Taker, older than Hogan was in his last matches, 8 years older than Goldberg, and the same age Flair was in his TNA run. Yet he's looked better in his AEW matches than he did the last couple of years of his TNA run, which was 8 years ago now. Granted, he's been handled and protected in a much, much better way than any of the above guys were at the end of their careers. It probably would be a bummer if he was put in a 15 minute singles match but he's not and so what he's doing has been great to see. Ruby vs Baker was a mess but most Britt Baker matches are. I feel like every match of hers has at least one portion that completely falls apart because she gets stiffed and or a spot goes wrong and she gets a mix of lost and pissed and then things usually get real stiff and taken up a notch right after. The crowd was tremendous and really can't be overstated how important a crowd is to a pro wrestling show. That's not to say there weren't some really great wrestling matches in the pandemic area all across the world, some directly enhanced by the lack of crowd (like Dragonov/WALTER last year). But god damn a huge crowd actually excited and happy to be there enhances everything so much.

Hope sometime they actually do the coffin scorpion death drop, because that's a great team finish I hadn't even considered. It's amazing how great Sting has looked in comparison to Flair/Hogan/Taker/Golberg at younger ages. Granted he's handled a million times better and put into positions to look as good as possible and has more than held up his end of the bargain every time he's been in the ring for AEW.

Honestly a draw is the only thing that makes sense with the two involved and their respective characters in their first meeting.

Not a lot of times where a draw is still satisfying, but that was pretty awesome and no doubt has to be the TV match of the year.

Surely elbowing people in the traps while the announcers claim they're hitting the head is safer than doing the diving headbutt every match

Yeah I like Eddie, he's great at being Eddie Kingston, and pro wrestling always needs guys like him but I've never come away from an Eddie Kingston match thinking, "man what a great match" or "this man is a great pro wrestler".

Bryan didn't even come up with it, he stole it from Diego Sanchez, who was doing it to psych himself up during fight walk ins because he's mental and a weird

Can't wait for Don Callis to say something about apple cum on TNT

I just caught the main event of NXT and everything about 2.0 seems so much better and exciting than the past, idk 2 1/2 years of NXT. Junior Steiner is awesome already, popped for the catching powerslam that he did more like Buzz Sawyer than his dad, and the Steiner Recliner. If this fella can combine the best parts of Rick and Scott into one meat headed monster, you might have the next Brock on your hands. Someone get him to start throwing Steiner Breakker Lines instead of shoulder blocks, though.

What

Her outfits prior to NXT on TV is probably more than edgy enough

"Someone told me" 20% of the audience left on live TV during one segment but somehow no one noticed it as it was happening. This man getting rolled hard lmao.

Homicide is a lot like Eddie Kingston to me where they clearly weren't as good as their contemporaries but had a grit that others didn't have and so people talked them up more than what they really warranted. That's still happening in the case of Kingston, probably still would be of Homicide was active in a visible promotion as well.

I'm somewhat surprised Chris Hero hasn't found his way to AEW either as talent or agent/coach, considering how much of the company is full of and influenced by the first and second generation of the 2000s indie boom.

I dunno I wasn't here then. But I don't know how you can't expect the absolute worst follow up and ending to whatever great thing that happens in WWE land.

I can't get invested in a Big E run because I have to assume they're going to do something shitty like have Xavier turn on him within a month

Just about anything would be better than the way they've handled putting big time matches on TV so far

That clip of Beefcake making the rounds again almost unable to contain his joy and giddiness laughing his way through talking about how the Rockers would drug women, have their way with them while they were passed out, and then leave them out in the halls naked and unconscious is some real sociopath shit.

Just give Karl Anderson a couple of brewskis

I can not see any circumstance where Vince pulls Brock short of being charged with a sex crime or arrested.

Still holding out hope they fix the commercial situation for these giant shows because AEW's commercial breaks are worse than WWE's and picture in picture doesn't help shit. These fucks cut to PIP commercial about 4 minutes into a fucking War Games match. Maybe shorten match times if need be or front load the show so Bryan/Omega can go full 6 stars without being broken up by Dominos and State Farm ads every 4 minutes.

Every HHH match before probably his 2000 run is too fucking long. Dude is just unbelievably boring his first 4-5 years with WWE, it's truly astounding the career he ended up having.

The first couple of Starrcades have so many weird booking choices considering they basically had access to damn near anyone under the NWA banner, which is most of the best in the world at the time and yet the undercards are so dire. It's also kind of like WM 1 where there seem to be a lot of monthly big house shows that seem as big or bigger (and certainly better quality) around the same time in JCP, Georgia, and Florida. However the build on Mid Atlantic TV to Starrcade 1983 is excellent and really makes the event feel like a once in a live time can't miss super event. There's a Flair/Harley match that happens during the build to Starrcade that is so, so much better than the actual Starrcade match. I think it aired in full on TV but in the pre-Peacock days it was up in the Hidden Gems section on the Network so I'm sure it's very easy to find online.