Embrodak

Trios match sucked. I can imagine that it might be fun to watch live, but on TV it comes across as combining the worst of pro wrestling psychology with the worst of stage combat psychology, like Wild West stunt show meets Cirque du Soleil. More power to you if it’s your thing, but it’s decidedly not mine. Acclaimed music video absolutely slapped. Women’s match was awkward and amateurish, not a good way to capitalize on the momentum from last week’s main event. Joe vs Wardlow was aight, prob Wardlow’s best singles match, but Wardlow has been incredibly poorly served by the booking. This wasn’t remotely hot enough of an angle to justify cutting the man bun off, and the man bun was a genuinely distinctive aspect of Wardlow’s look.

Colt Cabana being the guy that doomed AEW by creating a vortex of drama that caused the internal culture of the company to collapse in on itself would be pretty funny, it has to be said.

Training in a world without territories and with the internet and smartphones is honestly very difficult, I don’t envy modern wrestling companies who have to figure it out. Guys forty years ago could just suck in Memphis for a few years and then migrate to Texas as someone who had their shit together.

Didn’t they “add 80,000 viewers” in the 1-minute overrun that the show doesn’t usually have?

It’s pretty much his feud with HBK where he was an extremely bitter and salty heel, for me. I think the big difference now is you just can’t count on a decent wrestling match to counterbalance the schtick. Sometimes he has a good one, like that first match with Kingston, but it’s almost by accident at this point.

Giving Black buddies (and having one be named Buddy) was a terrible idea. A creepy guy with a cool entrance who does incomprehensible videos every few weeks is fine, but making it a group instantly turns it stupid. The only person who could sell “fake cult member” and not look like an idiot was Jon Huber. (I’m not counting Straight Edge Society, which was a different kind of cult and more grounded.)

Tony Khan was agreeable to putting Colt Cabana on television as a winking “fuck you” to their biggest star (which parts of the roster *seemed to understand as such* and posted about on Twitter) while legal/contract negotiations with said star re: his release are still ongoing. Regardless of what you think about Punk, the obvious irresponsibility of that suggests that Tony is at a minimum suggestible, if not outright manipulable. That being the case, I think blaming Tony for everything misses the point somewhat.

As a martial artist, I’ll say breaking a cinder block is easier than it seems. also I’d be remiss not to mention a recent Corny podcast where a viewer email mentioned that Mongolian Stomper ordered raw steaks at some local diner he frequented to keep kayfabe.

Jesse do you like or have unmitigated passion about anything? Literally everywhere I have ever seen you post, whether about politics or wrestling or whatever, it’s nothing but meta-commentary about how certain people or factions annoy you or are making fools of themselves because they are making an argument without accounting for a prior that you consider important to the conversation. I’ve never seen you just say something in wrestling rocks or sucks, a movie was good or bad, something some politician said moved you or pissed you off, anything like that, just “Young Bucks fans and CM Punk fans are both delusional about how popular their guys are” and “Will Stancil is being too much of a Bernie bro to see the big picture” type of posts.

Ricky Starks doing verbal barbs with Jericho is fine, but see my OP for my reaction to the concept of him having an extended feud with Jericho. Don’t care about the trios match whatsoever. Swerve/Lee was absolutely bizarre. FTR/Gunns was good. If you’re not gonna use FTR, then they need to have them wrestle every young team and teach them how tag team wrestling really works. Danielson segment was good. Missed him. Hayter/Shida was good, but a bit too long and AEW-y.

What the fuck was that Lee/Swerve segment

He gets booed to shit in just the way he wants, idk what you smoking breh. FTR versus Gunns was good.

Starks looked amazing opening the show, he does not need to team up with goddamn Action Andretti to take on Jericho. Awesome MJF pre-tape, y’all that don’t like him are struggling.

Fuuuuuuuuck this shit.

Supposedly, Jericho was abducted by aliens on a country road, too. I’ll believe it when I see it.

What rocks about him? The few matches I’ve seen of his were nothing special, and the backstage segments with him are the same sterile, unfunny WWE writer’s room nonsense that completely undercuts whatever sense of reality and investment you might affix to the work in the ring. And his gimmick is terrible, early 90s WWF stuff.

We have zero evidence thus far that Andretti is going to come out ahead on that. If he’s wrestling on Dark in three or six months, it will have been Jericho tactically “doing the job” for someone at absolutely no risk of overshadowing him or taking away one iota of his TV time. If he excels, good on him, but color me skeptical, dude did not scream “star” to me.

There are a few good performers, but nothing about that shitshow I watched last night is remotely poised to be even as good as late black and gold NXT, let alone classic NXT. Some of the most blatantly stagey segments I’ve ever seen, abysmal dialogue, terrible and unflattering gear for many of the female performers (is it still basically mandatory that the women have to dress like pinup models? they need to change that injunction if so), and gimmicks that are simultaneously over the top and bland. Andre Chase, the grumpy teacher? Tony D’Angelo, the Mad TV Sopranos spoof? Grayson Waller the Australian guy who reads WWE writer dialogue?

NXT is truly abysmal.

I don’t think there is any way of working with Jericho and coming out ahead at this point.

Rhea Ripley could be a goddamn action movie star, just an insane look she has.

Circle ring, bay bay!

Most things in wrestling are kinda one note. MJF is at least partially responsible for basically all of my favorite AEW content of the last year, that’s all I can really judge on.

To me, he is one of the only people in wrestling that feels like an old school wrestler. He has his flaws, but I’m willing to give him a wider latitude than the Adam Pages of the world.

I think the dog collar match is pretty violent for something that wasn’t a blood feud, but they did it very well.